About Dave Preston:
Dave Preston is a writer and musician, born in North Yorkshire where he lived on a farm and was raised by a mother who worries too much. After studying agriculture, engineering, and computer science he leapt across the ocean to live and work in Canada.
Dave spent many years as a food columnist, entertainment reviewer, and travel writer. He is the author of four books (and contributor to several others) and four plays, as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and columns. He’s an award-winning brewer and winemaker, and also admits to writing at least two volumes of poetry.
Weekends often find him playing guitar and singing in a rock and roll band (though his mother worries that he’s getting too old for all this, and his knees tend to agree).
He lives on Vancouver Island, BC, with far too much garden, and almost too many dogs.
What inspires you to write?
Life is short, but rich with things to write about and savour. So many things happen to us as individuals, and we often witness and interpret events alone, and it’s only natural we should want to share this experience. So I try to.
Tell us about your writing process.
Although family and friends have given me many beautiful notebooks and journals over the years, I never take notes. I sit down at the computer, with tea, coffee, or wine, and write. I create works using a patchwork quilt approach – I write in snippets from 100 to 1000 words in length, then try and find a place for them in a larger pattern.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
My characters are sometimes an alamlgam of people I know, or have overheard in conversation in public. And sometimes they are truly fictitious creations. And yes, they have minds quirks, and desires of their own, and they speak to me, not always explaining their actions (but I trust them).
What advice would you give other writers?
Read a lot, and write a lot. And never be too lazy to edit, or too quick to think you’ve done your best.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I have used and worked traditional publishers and have often been disappointed with their commitment and quality of work. I’m also impatient and impulsive so if I have a work to share I like to get it out there, as soon as possible, to make room for something else in my head and on my screen.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
There will always be people who prefer printed books but the technology that helps us publish digital works is fast and cheap, so that is a boon to independent publishers. I wish every local library had print of demand facilities to be used by authors and readers, and used bookstores, together with the free book exchanges we see in neighbourhoods, are essential for getting readers to see new works.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts, songs.
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
Link To Dave Preston Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
LinkedIn
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
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