Welcome to
Writers4Higher
This issue, Writers4Higher features
Doug Dandridge
Hi, Doug. Welcome to the
Writers4Higher family!
Tell me about yourself. Your book(s),
your life, your inspiration.
I was always in love with fantasy and science
fiction. I started reading Robert E
Howard when I was eight, and Heinlein soon after. Asimov, Moorcock, Van Vogt, the golden age of
science fiction. I read Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea and War of the Worlds at an early age as well, and
devoured Frankenstein and Dracula at nine.
You could say I had a love affair with the fantastic in all its forms at
an early age. I used to stay up late at
night, well past my bedtime, to watch Shock Theater on TV Friday nights, and
would try to watch every science fiction and horror movie that came on. This was followed by Lost in Space, and then
the classic Star Trek. And many of the
movies and shows were really bad at that time, with hokey special effects and
second rate actors. There wasn’t a lot
of fantasy back then, at least not that I can remember. The real treasure in science fiction was the
literature, as written by the old masters and the talented newcomers. Now when the rare occurred and one was
translated to the screen, big or small, they were almost always horrible. Comics were another big part of my life, and
of course the movies and TV shows made of them were even worse than the scifi. Today that has changed. The big name actors line up for the big
budget, special effects laden extravaganzas that are modern fantasy, scifi and
superhero movies. And sometimes the
scripts are actually good as well, though more often than not they are not as
good as the books they are based on.
I was also the little scientist growing up,
reading books on astronomy, playing with my chemistry set, watching the moon
launches. I really wanted to be some
kind of scientist when I grew up, but two things interfered. I really didn’t know what kind of science I
wanted to study, and I never really grew up.
I was just as interested in magic.
I didn’t believe that magic actually existed, but I liked the idea of
it.
I spent my years in the Army, then a succession
of majors at FSU, followed by Graduate School in Clinical Psychology at
Alabama. School didn’t work out, and
that’s a story in and of itself. So
while looking for a job after losing one I wrote an anger fueled non-fiction
book about graduate school and the field of psychology. One hundred thousand words in two weeks. That never went anywhere, but it allowed me
to write other books, once having proved that I could accomplish that
task. Wrote two more books that first
year, both awful, and then wrote the first one that actually was worth
anything. I fell for an agent scam that
cost me three hundred dollars, probably cheap for the lesson learned, and
avoided agents for many years, only submitting to the few publishing houses
that accepted unsolicited manuscripts.
After fifteen years of trying and failing to get published, mostly with
rejection letters that acknowledged my talent but stated a belief that there
was not a market for the kind of story I wanted to all, I tried self
publishing, which has turned out to be a success story.
What really inspires me to write what I do is
the poorly thought out work I see on TV and in the movies. There are still a lot of great books out
there, but I will go to see a movie, like Independence Day for example, that has
so many plot holes I feel like I am going to fall through the floor on the way
out of the theater. I am inspired to
turn out well thought out stories, using as much of the real world as I can put
in them. Real physics, real biology,
real human interactions, at least as far as I can understand them. I think most times I succeed. Not always, but more often than not.
My books?
I could write a book on my books.
I have sixteen on Amazon, and am always working on one or two more. I have two series of hard, far future science
fiction, one doing extremely well, the other good enough. I also have a series that is a mix of High
Fantasy and Military Technothriller that is doing well enough, though I was
warned in the past to not cross genres like that. But I have never been one to listen to advice
I didn’t want to hear. A true High
Fantasy, several stand alone Military Scifi, and the one Vampire book finish
the list. Some people have told me The
Hunger, the vampire book, is quite good, but it just isn’t selling. I may just have to let that one rest and
concentrate on scifi.
Where
do you see your writing taking you in the future?
Further than it has so far. I am doing well so far, developing a base of
loyal fans who are asking when my next book is coming out. In my best selling series, Exodus, I have
sold 25,000 ebooks of the first three, 12,000 of book 1 alone. I want to build on that momentum. I have been asked what I would do if I were
offered a conventional publishing contract, and I honestly have to say I just
don’t know. In some respects that would
be the dream come true, as I would have an editor and a cover designer, though
from what I hear I would still have to do most of my own promotion. But there would be the cost of not being able
to produce as much as I want, some limitations put on me by the publisher. But right now I’m just enjoying the ride. It
as such a relief to leave my state job and become my own boss. Those people are crazy in State Government,
and they were making me crazy too. Now I
can do what I love, travel when I want, even looking forward to buying a house
in the near future. I am going to
Dragoncon in Atlanta at the end of October, and will be taking a master level
writing class focusing on science fiction, with some well know authors as guest
lecturers. I would like to go to Europe
and call it research or a future series.
I’ve got my first taste of living the dream, and I want more of it. I think if I work hard and continue to keep
doing what I have, I will continue to attract fans and sell books. That means listening to those fans, maybe not
doing everything they want, but paying attention. Constantly learning and growing. And I might just petition the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writer’s of America to join without being signed with a major
publisher
How
do you use your talents/time to help others?
I am really a big animal lover. I have four cats at home, and would have dogs
if I owned my own place. I use some of
my earnings to support animal charities, big cat rescue, the Humane Society,
various organizations that support the preservation of nature. People where I
used to work would ask me why I didn’t support human charities, and I would
answer that my heart is with the animals who can’t defend themselves. On the writing front I am always willing to
lend a hand. I contact people online all
the time who ask me how I am getting sales, and I tell them what I did. I’m not sure all of what I did got me where I
am, but it’s the only way I know how to help them. I belong to many writers groups online, at Facebook, and use that medium to help. I
have tried to help some people who really didn’t want the advice, other than a
one sentence secret on how to get ahead.
Unfortunately there is no such secret.
I had to work a lot of years to get something out there that people
wanted to read. I had to take risks in
putting it out where people could criticize it.
And everyone else has to do the same.
If they want to listen I will give them my advice, for what it’s
worth. If not, then I will wait till
someone comes along who wants to learn.
I had to learn a lot of hard lessons, I would like to make it easier for
the next person to come along.
Would you like to find Doug?
Check out the links to
this talented author:
We Are Death, Come For You: We Are Death, Come For You on Amazon
Rhett
DeVane
Fiction
with a Southern Twist
