Dawn Ross Interview Published on: 12, Jul 2021

That's a tough one. The first half of my childhood was mostly spent in Oregon. I spent much of the second half in Texas.

My childhood dream was to become a famous artist. I never became famous but many people love my drawings and paintings. I still do art, but most of my focus right now is on writing. Being creative, no matter what form that creativity takes, is very satisfying.

I've read so many books, I can't tell you which ones have had an impact. They've all contributed to my imagination in some way or another.

I can't remember the title, but I know it was a novel by Isaac Asimov. I've read so many of his novels now that I don't remember which ones I've read and which ones I haven't.

I took a couple of writing classes in community college. I've read and taken notes on many books on the subject of writing. I've received feedback from many other writers over the years, each one teaching me something new. Other things I've done to improve my writing: writing exercises, hired development editors, participated in NaNoWriMo, read books, and read and provided feedback to other writers.

Terkeshi is my favorite. He's the anti-hero in my first two books and the main character in my third book. His role as anti-hero has been to create trouble for the protagonists, but he doesn't do this as the antagonist. He merely has a distorted view of what the world should be like and so tends to clash with everyone, protagonists and antagonists alike. Most readers have found him to be the most compelling character because he has the most growing to do. Book three will reveal just what kind of pressures he's been under and explain why he sometimes has a difficult time making the right choices.

The biggest challenge came in the form of an editor. She provided all sorts of services from developmental to content, to line, to copy editing. This was great, except her method of giving feedback wasn't nice. She'd leave snarky comments on my Word document such as, "OMG, not this again" or "Eye-roll". The worst part, though, was when she rewrote my first chapter. Not only did she completely change who my main character was by turning him into a stereotype, she had the audacity to say, "You can use this if you want." It crushed me. I was so put out by her that I stopped writing for an entire year. After marinating in self-pity, I finally decided, "Screw her. I'm not going to let her stop me from writing the story I want to write." Despite the terrible way she had given her feedback, I realized she made many good points. She taught me a lot about what a story needs to compel a reader and to keep them interested, as well as what writing techniques to avoid. I picked out the feedback that was helpful and discarded the rest. And I found another development editor who is better at presenting feedback.

One of my favorite episodes in Star Trek: The Next Generation was the one titled "Suddenly Human". In this episode, a young warrior named Jono is rescued by Star Fleet and is taken in by Captain Picard. I loved the idea so much that I created Jori and molded him with his own unique backstory, circumstances, and personality. Over the years, I've expanded his world, created other characters, and put them in various circumstances inspired by other Star Trek episodes and other sci-fi books, movies, and TV. The story in my head now is truly epic. And it's finally coming to life and being shared with you in my new sci-fi series.

One of my NaNoWriMo friends read a story of mine and suggested I try deep point of view so that I showed the story more than I told it. It took about two years of studying and writing to develop a compelling style. Compare my recent novel to the fantasy series I wrote 20 years ago, and you will see a colossal difference.

I could tell you how I set my writing goals, but my way of doing things may not fit your personality or lifestyle. I can share this, though--setting goals is important. Without goals, we tend to procrastinate and get sidetracked by life. Start with a broad goal, such as, "I will write the first draft of a novel in six months." Then decide how you will reach that goal. Will it by by time spent, word count, or by chapters completed? Then break the goal down into smaller pieces, such as by word count per week. This will help you focus on small successes rather than be overwhelmed by the big picture. Another piece of advice is to remember your goals are flexible. I can't tell you the number of times I've set a goal, then had to modify it for some reason or another. This is okay. Goals should not be discouraging. They should be realistic and they should inspire you. Whenever you need to, change the goal deadline and/or change how the goal is measured. Keep tweaking your goals until you find what works best to motivate you.

Every year, usually in October, I create an outline. The outline usually starts with a brief overview indicating the inciting incident, plot points, and the final battle. I then expand this into a more detailed chapter-by-chapter outline where each chapter establishes PoV character, setting, and events. When November comes, I participate in NaNoWriMo.org and hammer out at least 50,000 words by the end of the month. Next comes the second draft where I spend months improving the story by filling in details, rearranging events where necessary, adding subplots, and rewriting. This second draft goes to a development editor and to beta readers. After that, I do only a little rewriting and a lot of editing. Then I use programs like Grammarly and ProWritingAid to do even more editing. And finally, I send my novel to line and copy editors.

I've yet to get 'fan-mail'. I'm not good at marketing so I haven't reached many readers yet.

Craig Alanson is my favorite sci-fi indie author. I've read every single one of his books and pre-order every new one that comes out. Elysia Lumen Strife and James Poslusny are great indie authors I've read recently, and so are the ones at the forefront of my mind. There are so many other great ones, though.

I am currently working on Book Three of the Dragon Spawn Chronicles. The title is Dragon's Fall, though this may change. Terkeshi is the main character. The antagonists are his father and possibly a race of cyborgs who want to improve society by "upgrading" them. My plan is to have this novel completed by early 2022. So far, my plan is on track.

I have been pleased with the professional appearance of AllAuthor's promotional posts. AllAuthor also has a decent selection of banners (though none that fit sci-fi very well) and they promote regularly. They have other helpful features for writers and their site is easy to use.