Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dennis Young. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dennis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I worked normal jobs all my life, from high school until I retired in 2015. During that tenure, working at the company I retired from, I was offered the position of International Sales, which quickly morphed into Project Management as well. I’d never traveled outside the USA, hardly even outside my home State, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to basically travel the world and work on major infrastructure and industrial projects. During that twenty-year span, I helped my company break into new markets, and worked on some of the most prestigious jobs in the world including Dubai Metro, Delhi Metro, and the ALNB Project in Brisbane, Australia. I could have played it safe, taken a position of working in the USA with domestic contractors, but I couldn’t resist the lure of taking the chance offered, and excelling at it.
How did this lead me into writing? It really didn’t. I’d written since I was in the third grade. I wrote short stories all through school. I was the kid who, when the teacher asked for five-page short stories from the class, would write thirteen pages and think it wasn’t enough. I wrote essays and reports all through school. I learned computer programming in college, adapted much of it to my jobs, wrote fan fiction all through the 70s and 80s, created games, wrote technical papers and articles for work, and always looked for more ways to slake my writer’s thirst.
Then came love. Not for the first time, but for a very important time. I became engaged to a wonderful woman. It wasn’t our first go-round in life; we both had been married, reared children, and worked for a living. We weren’t kids, we were in our middle years, and not really “looking for love”. But love doesn’t wait for you to come looking sometimes.
Making the proverbial long story short, things didn’t work out for a variety of reasons. Nothing bad, just situations and circumstances. Six weeks before the wedding, she gave the ring back, and we parted ways. Which brought me to the current stage of my life.
I took all those feelings; the sadness, the sense of loss, the emptiness now there, and turned to writing again. I hadn’t written for several years at that point, and I didn’t realize until then how much I missed it. So…
I began writing once more, in March 2014, several months after our breakup. I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote. For thirteen years, I worked on what became my Magnum Opus, The Ardwellian Chronicles, my six-novel, three-compendium Epic Fantasy series.
Then I dove into Military Science Fiction with The Mercenary Trilogy. I had so much fun writing this series because it was different, thrilling, and had no filter.
Then, between those two projects, I began writing The Earthfleet Saga, my Science Fiction Adventure series, because I read and loved SF as a kid and adult, and really wanted to write “those kinds of stories” for today’s readership.
Not content with that, I wrote Bloodlines, the first of my Vampire Urban Fantasy books, which was SUPPOSED TO BE a standalone. But seldom do the characters leave you alone, so I wrote the followup (Julie), and then, of course, the spinoff (Dark Princess). Characters of such depth and life seldom are content with a single book.
And now? I’m still writing. More vistas await, more genres call, more words are yet to be penned. But I often wonder…
Had I married that wonderful lady, would I have found the time, energy, and dedication to write the way I have these last (nearly) twenty years?
Such are the chances in our lives we are presented with sometimes. And I always recall the advice of that great baseball catcher from the New York Yankees, Yogi Bera, when he said (and I quote), “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Yes, we should all have such wisdom.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m going to use my “So You Want to be a Writer” essay for this part, rather than create the same thing in different words. If this isn’t what you’re looking for, please let me know. Thanks.

“A Journey May Not Begin Without the Courage of the First Step.” – Elven Proverb

So you want to be a writer? Good. Let me tell you a story (pun intended).

My writing for the last twenty years or so has been a serious hobby. I’ve written and published six Novels of two hundred thousand-word average length and three Compendiums in The Ardwellian Chronicles, The Mercenary Trilogy of novels, The Bloodlines Collection, and three volumes of The Earthfleet Saga, with more on the way. Yes, I’ve managed to stay busy with my writing habit.

Something most of us never really considered when we started writing: it’s hard work. It separates you from family and friends for long periods of time. It requires concentration, focus on not only the scene in process, but the work overall and how that scene integrates into it. You have voices in your head yelling for time and exposure in the story. Sometimes they stop talking to you because you’re trying to get them to do something they don’t want, or you won’t let them do something they want to do. This is the real definition of writer’s block; when your characters stop talking to you.

You go to bed at night exhausted from your daily routine; work, the kids, the family, other activities, whatever. Your head will hit the pillow, then it starts. The voices again. Why is it we can’t hear those voices during the day and write down the things they’re saying then? Why do they wait until you’re tucked beneath the covers and drifting into dreamland? My opinion is, because only then do they have your undivided attention. And they won’t let up on many an occasion. I’ve learned, if the muse decides to visit at 3:00am, you’d better (a) have a recorder in arm’s reach to dictate to, (b) a notepad you can scribble illegibly on, or (c) drag yourself out of bed to type up a few notes so you won’t forget “the best scene ever”. Just do it, as the advertisement says.

Once you’ve finished your first draft, the real work begins; editing, trimming, tightening, polishing, making a rough manuscript into a real story, something you can show to others with pride and say “See, I wrote this, and it’s pretty darn good!”.

If you’re going for traditional publishing, you will need an agent, or a publisher who will take submissions without an agent. Then you wait, and wait, and wait. In the meantime, if your creative juices are renewed, you want to start working on the next installment, or a new story, or something entirely different. But in the back of your mind is the one you just sent out, and you can’t get it out of your head.

If you’re self-publishing, you must put a cover together, do the formatting for the service you’ve chosen, write your back blurb, lay it all out, and go through the process several times when you catch errors. You become the publisher, and you suddenly realize, it’s all up to you how this book looks on the shelf and whether or not readers will even pick it up. You will need beta-readers, or ARC (Advance Release Copy) readers, and before all that, you MUST find an editor. No, not Mom, or Aunt Nancy, or a friend who says, “Yeah, I can edit”. A real, professional editor, one you’ll work with to make your story better. And yes, you’ll have to pay said editor. Real money. This is a subject for a later talk.

Patience will be tried, nerves will be frayed, heartstrings will be plucked, anger will be piqued. And there’s nothing you can do about it except carry on.

I always run the full gauntlet of emotions: Relief, amazement, exhaustion, then I move into the happiness, joy, pride, and it usually ends with “Did I forget something???”, and I immediately start soul-searching about what I might have left out.

Then I settle back into reality and set it aside for a while, feeling a deep emptiness and sense of loss. But also a feeling of freedom, that I don’t have THE MANUSCRIPT chained to my ankle anymore, and I can focus on getting away for a bit. I work in my yard, ride my bike a little more, do domestic stuff I’ve put off for months, and spend a little more time with friends and family. At last I realize I’ve completed the task and at some point, dive into the editing/rewriting/polishing phase, which can take longer than writing.

Then I start it all over again with the next book…

Any artistic endeavor is a journey, and that’s what draws us to it; the process itself, not so much the end product, but the creation of our ideas and bringing them into physical reality. Holding a book in your hand, that you have written, with characters you have created, and words you have penned, is not like any other process. You have brought people who never existed to life, born of your own mind and heart, living, breathing, real people with hopes and dreams of their own.

And it’s nearly impossible to let them go. They are children of your soul, and you have raised them from beginnings to where they are now.

And sometimes you cry. Not of sadness, but joy, like any parent seeing a child leaving home to make their way in the world. And if you’ve done your best, that’s all anyone can ask of themselves.

Relax. Take a breath. Raise a glass.

You’re an author.

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What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In my writing profession, I’ve always preferred to sell face to face. Part of that is because I enjoy working on a personal level with people. I’ve always done this, from my very first job as a soda fountain clerk in a real drug store, to meetings with clients from all over the world in my job as Internatinal Sales and Project Manager for the company I retired from. I love talking to people, creating something through our cooperative ventures, and seeing it grow from an idea to conclusion. I sell mostly through book events and conventions throughout the country. I get to talk face to face with my customers, answer their questions about my books, and help them make an informed choice. I enjoy speaking with other writers, artists, and all sorts of creative people about their ideas and passions. To me, this is just as important as making my sales, and it gives me inspiration many times to continue working on new projects and writing into new genres and markets.
I travel extensively during the convention season, usually from March through November, driving to the conventions, doing the table setup, getting “my game face on”, and working through the following three or four days shaking hands, talking about writing, and generally being “on stage”.
Art is something we all enjoy in some form, whether it’s books, movies, theater, music, museums, or anything else where people use their minds, hands, hearts, and ideas to create something new and exciting.
The old adage is true: “It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years”.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Many years ago, I worked a summer job in a gas station. This was in the mid-60s, and a real gas station, where we would put gas in your car, check your oil, the air in your tires, and clean your windshield. Yes, we wore uniforms. Yes, we had to be on time and work long hours, look sharp, and keep the bathrooms clean. The owner was a good guy, and I enjoyed that summer job as an 18-year-old, just-out-of-high school kid. But the one thing that has stuck with me throughout the years is his company motto:

Sell a good product.
Work like the dickens.
And don’t try to kid anybody.

Worked for him. And now it’s working for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.authordennisyoung.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063675545035
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFt98epMLRSp5lZG_ToUs_A
• Other: You can contact me anytime through the contact page on my website.

Image Credits
All pictures were taken by me or by my editor, (Marilyn Evans) with permission to use them in advertising, marketing, or promotion.