About D.D. Chant:
Hi everyone! My name is Dee Dee, I’m twenty eight and I live in a beautiful part of Devon, England, with my family. That introduction made me feel a little bit like I was on Blind Date!!! As our house is in the countryside we have some unusual neighbours including chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, a cat (that adopted us when we moved in!!!) and some koi. I also have a very long suffering younger sister, Jingle, who is a brilliant guitar player. She keeps me supplied with coffee and brownies, generally making sure that the Chant household doesn’t grind to a halt. I really hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoy writing them. I love reading and have a kindle, I enjoy almost every genre; if there is adventure and romance I’ll be there with coffee and a brownie! I also like to cook and wear impractical high heels! You may also have noticed that I have a horrible addiction to exclamation marks!!!
What inspires you to write?
I love reading and it just seemed a natural progression to write. My family is hugely supportive and I’m at my happiest scribbling away in a corner.
Tell us about your writing process.
I guess I’m what people would call a pantster: I have a rough idea of my story when I begin, but no idea how to link everything together. I really love not knowing how my characters are going to end up in the place I want them to be.
I like to throw my characters into a situation and then allow them to show my how they would get out of that problem.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I don’t talk to them, but I do imagine the scene in my head like a movie. I try to put myself in their shoes.
How would this person act in this situation?
It’s part of the reason that I don’t like to do too much planning: if you’ve already decided where you NEED the story to go then you can end up forcing your characters to do things they would never do, just to connect the dots.
What advice would you give other writers?
1. Try to be objective about your work. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge that something you’ve written isn’t any good. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work: move on and try again.
My first 90.000 world novel will NEVER see the light of day: it just wasn’t good enough. However, that doesn’t mean to say that it didn’t teach me a lot about writing.
2. Accept criticism gracefully or you risk coming across thin skinned.
3. NEVER reply to negative reviews. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion, if you want to be seen as a professional act like one.
4. Have fun. I write because I love writing, the fact that people read (and on occasion like!) my books is a bonus.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I have to be honest and say I only ever sent my first novel (Broken City) to one agent. I waited three months and received the prerequisite and generic rejection letter.
I hit self publish a few days later.
I love the freedom self-publishing gives you over your own work, but don’t think it’s going to be easy. If you though writing a book was hard, just wait until you have to find ways to market it!
That said, the challenges are part of the reason I love self-publishing.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think that the stigma of being ‘self-published’ is starting to disappear, it’s becoming more acceptable to the average reader.
Will the big publishing houses be driven out of business? I don’t know.
I think indies will continue to thrive, and more and more people will discover the joy of writing.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: dystopia, historical fiction, romance, mystery, contemporary, sci-fi, adventure
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
D.D. Chant Home Page Link
Link To D.D. Chant Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on Smashwords
