We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dasha Wallace a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dasha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I moved when I was a teen and made a new friend after the move. I was always a reader, but my new friend introduced me to writing as as asked for my help with ideas. After that I had my own story ideas and started writing on my own. I had to go to school very early and I spent that time writing novels. After completing a novel I knew that this was what I wanted, to get one of my own books published. I took some creative writing classes at collage and started what became my debut novel “Isabella and the Beast”. I published it 7 years later. Once it was accepted by a published I knew that I wanted to become the best author I could be and started writing my next novel which I wrote in 7 months. And I have since published that book as well along with 3 novellas.

Dasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After writing a few novels I wanted to turn it into a business. I also used to sell jewelry as a hobby, which I enjoyed. Since then I now am branching into making bookish jewelry. I now sell books and jewelry at vendor fairs an on my website. I think that being the creator of books as well as the one making the jewelry is different than most people. I am proud that I can help my readers find books to read as well as dress in a stylish with a piece of a book that they treasure.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had known about other author groups online. There is a whole community that help support authors and its would have been nice to ask questions from other authors instead of having to research everything on my own. Especially since I had no clue what process I needed to go through or the timing of everything involved with publishing a book. If I had ben able to speak to the group sooner it would have saved me a lot of headaches and worry.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I don’t think people who don’t write understand the fear we have as authors putting out our work. Its not just worry that we might fail in a business sense. Its more that when you put out work that is creative, its a little like putting out a piece of your soul or innermost thoughts and letting the public rip into it. Its because of this that many creatives never put out their work. Its not about the money per say its more the fear that people won’t like what you love to do, and will make fun of you for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dashawallace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dashawallaceauthor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DashaWallaceAuthor
• Other: tiktok tiktok.com/dashawallaceauthor/