Denise Dowdell-Stent

Denise Dowdell-Stent is a YA Fantasy Fiction author but also writes scripts, poetry (published in various anthologies such as 'A Passage in Time' and 'Speaking of Love' by Forward Poetry), song lyrics, and maintains a blog at http://www.eternaluk.com. Denise has been writing stories from the time she could form coherent sentences at six years old – she has always had a wild, untamed imagination and writing provided a means to structure it and share it with the world. She grew up and continues to live, in the picturesque riverside village of Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire. However, she spent three years in Farnham, Surrey while studying for her BA HONS Animation degree. Before Denise realised her true calling was in writing, she wanted to be an animator and produced a number of animated films, mostly 3D Model Animation. Throughout her degree, she continued writing and later realised that as long as she drew breath, this is what she wanted to do. Denise has always been a big fan of the Fantasy and Paranormal genre; though her books clearly reflect this, they have a strong emphasis on the importance of family and friends, sizzling romance, and adventure. Denise has an amazing teenage son, Andrew, and like his mum, possesses a wild imagination! An avid reader and a great storyteller himself, he plans to co-author a YA Fantasy Horror book with his mother in the near future. Other than being the inspiration for many of the ideas in her writing, it was whilst playing a game of Rory’s Story Cubes with Andrew, that the idea for Eternal was born. Rory’s Story Cubes is a game in which nine dice are thrown with a selection of unique pictures on each side of the die. Eternal began as just a four page short story but soon took on a life of its own as did the characters that had a story begging to be told. Denise has always had an interest in Arthurian legend (she loved the TV series, ‘Merlin’!) and the mysterious world of the fae, so she knew from the start that this would be an integral part of Eternal. Whilst not lost in the realm of Candalia, Denise loves reading other YA Fantasy Fiction, including Francis Hardinge, Alex Bell, Stephenie Meyer, Libba Bray, Lesley Livingston, Alyson Noel, Aprilynne Pike and Katie. M. John. In her (very rare) free time, she enjoys cuddling her guinea piglets, exploring new places and lands - and familiar ones too!, cooking up culinary delights, listening to an eclectic range of music (Tim Janis – the awesome composer of ‘Water’s Edge’: the soundtrack for the first Eternal trailer, Mattia Cupelli - composer of 'Viverti', the soundtrack for the third trailer', Phildel, Hayley Westenra, Josh Groban, Blake, Enya, Delta Goodrem, 80’s pop and a host of other artists), feeding her Netflix addiction and chilling out with her family and friends. She is also guilty of indulging in chocolate, caffeine and cheese. It has been frequently observed that Denise is a manic hair twirler – something she does when happy, tired, bored, stressed (i.e. pretty much all the time) – you get the picture!