Welcome to author D.G. Driver. Thanks so much for taking the time to fill out 27 Questions so readers can better get to know you and your work!1. What got you started writing to begin with? I wrote for fun in school, just as a hobby to pass the time. In the summer between high school and college, some friends and I had a fun night exploring the spooky “Old Town” in Irvine, CA, and we created a ghost story to go with the setting. Inspired, and maybe possessed, I spent my breaks from school over the next four years writing that into a novel. I never published it, but I’ve been writing ever since. 2. What was the first thing you wrote? I started with short stories and songs. An original play I wrote was performed by my former high school when I was a freshman in college, and that was my first writing that had an audience other than a teacher or my parents. The first writing I was paid for was a children’s musical called A Pirate Tale that was produced in Los Angeles. 3. What inspires you? I get my ideas from all kinds of sources: dreams, news stories, tidbits I hear on the radio. I’m inspired to write when I read good books and celebrate the success of my author friends. 4. Do you “people watch” for your writing? Not actively. I tend to pull characteristics I remember from people I’ve known from my past, from work, or from my years doing theater. 5. Who are you favorite authors? Stephen King is my favorite author overall. I loved Judy Blume best as a child. My current favorite I-will-read-any-of-her-books author is Nashville author Sharon Cameron. 6. What is your favorite book? My favorite book is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. 7. What genre do you most like to read? I mostly read Young Adult and Middle Grade, but it doesn’t matter which genre. I do favor plot-heavy stories over character-driven ones. Hit me up with some adventure, fantasy, dystopia, thriller, and I’ll be a happy girl. 8. What genre do you write? Is this reflective of what you read? I write YA Contemporary Fantasy. Some call it Urban Fantasy or Magical Realism. Basically, I like writing stories about regular kids in current times who encounter something fantastic that changes their view of the world. And yes, I read more fantasy and scifi than anything else. I’m also a nut for scifi TV shows. While everyone else is watching Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, I’m watching The Arrow or Once Upon a Time. 8. What genre do you have a difficult time with that you wish you could write? I’m not very good at writing mysteries. I wish I could write a good mystery with clues, puzzles, red herrings, and stuff like that. 10. What kind of research do you do or have you done for your story? I do quite a bit of research. For Cry of the Sea I had to do research on oil spills: how they occur, laws concerning them, how they are cleaned, how animals are rescued and rehabilitated, and so on. I had to do research into my main character’s American Indian heritage (and even more so for book two Whisper of the Woods), and I looked into the legends and mythology that might go well with the story I was creating. These are just some of the bigger things I researched. 11. Do you have any writing rituals like eating chocolate or lighting incense? No, not really. I work full time and have a family. I write when I can grab a chance. I don’t have time to have rituals. I do prefer writing on my laptop at my desk at home, but I’ve been known to scribble in a notepad while sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to come out from school. I wrote the first draft of my novella Passing Notes in a legal pad while my daughter was taking swim lessons. 12. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind? No. Music is super distracting for me, even instrumental. 13. Introduce us to your current book. My novel is Cry of the Sea. It is a YA scifi/fantasy novel about Juniper Sawfeather, a teen daughter of environmental activists who discovers mermaids washed ashore during an oil spill. She soon finds herself in the middle of a struggle between her parents, a marine biologist and his handsome intern, the media, the kids at school, and the corrupt oil company over the fate of the mermaids. Can she keep them from being exploited or killed? 14. How long did it take you to write it? I originally wrote this story over the course of three months back in 2000. However, it’s been through many, many rewrites since then. The biggest overhaul, and I mean pretty much starting over, was in 2010, and it took me about half a year. The sequel, Whisper of the Woods, comes out in November. On and off, that novel took about eight months to write. 15. Which character(s) of yours do you most relate to? I feel like I relate mostly to Juniper’s mother. I like to think I’m warmer than her, but I definitely struggle with daughters who fight against my advice or refuse to follow my example when it comes to work ethics and studying. 16. Who is your favorite character in this story? My favorite character is Carter. He’s the potential love interest for Juniper. He’s a smart, caring guy in a beach boy’s body. He’s a freshman in college and doesn’t have much patience for Juniper’s high school friends and their drama, but he is very charmed with her because she more mature than the rest. My readers have all told me they have crushes on him, which thrills me to pieces. 17. Which character is the best role model for readers? Juniper. She is incredibly smart and driven. She cares deeply about the environment and sea life. When she sets her heart on helping the mermaids (which are portrayed as real sea creatures), she will not be stopped. She struggles against her intimidating parents, but she still admires and loves them. 18. How did you decide on your cover? My book is traditionally published with Fire and Ice Young Adult Books. They provide the cover art for their books. Caroline Andrus did the art for both Cry of the Sea and Passing Notes. When I first saw the cover for Cry of the Sea, I got teary-eyed. I thought it was beautiful, and she capture Juniper’s face perfectly. I’m excited that we hired a model to be Juniper for the Whisper of the Woods cover, and I can’t wait to see how it comes out. 19. What do you hope people discover while reading your story? I hope they learn an appreciation for keeping oceans clean of pollution. I also hope they take away a desire to help animals and creatures that need it. I didn’t write Cry of the Sea to be an issue-driven book, but it does have a message in the theme. 20. Have you written anything else? Tell us about it/them. My YA romance novella Passing Notes was published in January of this year. It is a sweet story about a ghost that is teaching a teen boy to write the perfect love letter to impress the girl he adores. It’s nostalgic and heartwarming. Whisper of the Woods, my sequel to Cry of the Sea, comes out in November. It will tell another story about Juniper Sawfeather encountering a magical creature, this time during a protest to prevent Old Growth trees from being chopped down. “The Jamaican Dragon” is a short story of mine that was published in the pirate anthology A Tall Ship, A Sail, and Plunder. I also have four non-fiction books (under the name Donna Getzinger) with Morgan Reynolds Publishers. 21. Do you experience writers block, how do you deal with it? I don’t have a lot of time to write, so I am often like a pot boiling over by the time I get to actually work on my stories. However, I have stared at pages many times wondering how to get from A to Z. For me, I either have to work on something else for a bit, or I just power through and write a bunch of junk, knowing I can always fix it later. 22. What do you not like about writing? I have a hard time with first drafts. I’m excited about my story, but I get caught up with all the little sentences “he walked over to the door”, “she picked up the paper”, “he told her” that stuff. I love rewriting. Tweaking, cutting, changing. Fixing those horrible little sentences. I find that way more fun. 23. Are you working on anything now? Yes. Right at this moment I’m writing a romance story for an anthology that Satin Romance is putting out next year. I then plan to write a couple more ghost stories in the same style as Passing Notes to perhaps bundle into an anthology of my own work. When that’s all through, I plan to start writing book three of the Juniper Sawfeather stories. 24. How do you market your work? I do lots of social media stuff on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest. I LOVE doing school visits, speaking at conferences, and I try to have a space or booth at all kinds of local events. Follow me: Website: www.dgdriver.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnagdriver Twitter: www.twitter.com/DGDriverAuthor Tumblr: www.d-g-driver.tumblr.com www.pinterest.com/dgdriver www.instagram.com/d_g_driver# 25. What would you say to readers? Take a chance and discover my books. They are appropriate for kids as young as twelve, and lots of adults enjoy them too. If you do like them, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It really helps other people discover the books. 26. What would you say to writers aspiring or otherwise? Take your time. It’s not a race. Make your book the best it can be before you start submitting to agents or publishers. And if you’re going to self-publish, hire and editor. 27. Where can one purchase your book(s)? Everywhere you can buy books online. But here are some links to get you started: Cry of the Sea: http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Sea-D-G-Driver/dp/1612357865/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419096316&sr=8-1&keywords=Cry+of+the+Sea+by+D.+G.+Driver http://www.lulu.com/shop/d-g-driver/cry-of-the-sea/paperback/product-21464813.html http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cry-of-the-sea-d-g-driver/1118708060?ean=9781612357867 http://www.bookdepository.com/Cry-Sea-Driver/9781612357867 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/409843 Passing Notes http://www.amazon.com/Passing-Notes-D-G-Driver-ebook/dp/B00RMZBLJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420227403&sr=8-1&keywords=Passing+Notes+by+D.+G.+Driver https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/505480 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/passing-notes-d-g-driver/1121253580?ean=2940151542746
2 Comments
D. G. Driver
10/6/2015 03:23:15 pm
Thank you for featuring me.
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Jessica
10/6/2015 04:27:22 pm
Of course, it was fun!
Reply
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