Author Interview of the Week
Meet Genevieve Dewey, author of The Downey Trilogy.
 |
| All Rights Reserved to Genevieve Dewey |
Genevieve Dewey is the author of The Downey Trilogy (First, I Love You & Second of All) and the short stories Bird Day Battalion & V-Day Aversion. She is a wife, mother, sister, friend and Anthropologist. She was raised mostly in Nebraska, partly in Arizona. She has a Master’s in Anthropology and worked as an Applied Anthropologist for years (even ran her own research company for a while) before deciding to be a stay at home mom. She loves passionate (rational) debates, reading, and libraries… oh, and Chicago and high-heels and chocolate and target practice and gangster flicks and anything with the FBI in it and run-on sentences. She lives in Nebraska with her three brilliantly diabolical children and one incredibly funny husband.
What made you want to be an author?
Not only have I always had a habit of daydreaming but I would always watch movies and read books and think, here’s how I would tell that story. I’m sure a lot of people do that, and I never considered turning it into a writing career until a friend pointed out that I have always loved writing (nonfiction) and that I should at least try it. I loved doing it.
Who has inspired you the most?
In the literary world? Nora Roberts and Jane Austen, I would say. I’m also a big fan of Janet Evanovich. But I also love William Faulkner and Maya Angelou. I love any author that can either make me snort in laughter or sigh from bittersweet or angsty love (and that doesn’t have to be romantic love). As for topics, I’ve always had a passion for gangsters, people-watching and investigation so I took those loves and applied it to the Downey story.
Can you tell us about some of your earlier days of writing?
I really didn’t start writing fiction before January 2011 so if by earlier days you mean my non-fiction writing days, I enjoyed entering writing contests as a child. I enjoyed making up quick nonsense stories with my friends growing up, too. And unlike most people in research fields my favorite part was not the fieldwork but the library research and writing up the report at the end. It feels like putting a puzzle together to me, which I adore.
How has your life considerably changed since you've been published?
No, not really. But, then, I’m not famous yet. Ha! I think that would be a fascinating challenge and I welcome it. I have kept in the back of my head all those amazing people who stepped up for me and have supported me from the beginning. I will definitely never forget who was encouraging and who scoffed. I hope that doesn’t sound too petty, but I believe in keeping it real.
What sparked the idea for The Downey Series?
The Downey series stems from a combination of my love for family based plots where there is some moral/legal conflict between family members, my fascination with the complex mind and heart of old school gangsters, and the respect I have for those who try and combat Organized Crime. If you’ve read Harry Potter (and really, who hasn’t?) I often think of that little monologue Snape gives about how one can never really get rid of the Dark Arts. The Mafia, or Organized Crime in its various cultural forms, is like that. So those who try and combat it must change and adapt as fast as the criminals change their schemes and power-structure. That ever-changing dance is what intrigues me.
You used to be an Anthropologist. How incredible! What made you decide to be a stay at home mom instead?
Well, I wanted to stay home with my daughter. In the beginning I took her with me to interviews and worked from home, but because the work was so sporadic where I was living with my husband I just decided to focus on raising my kids. I don’t regret it one bit. It does make it harder to get back in the game again after ten years though.
What has been the best experience so far on your journey as an author?
Having absolute strangers talk to me about my characters with the same level of passion I had in creating them. That is an amazing feeling! I can’t even describe how wonderful it is to know that your words evoked such a response from someone else. And no disrespect to my family and friends, but coming from a stranger it is even more heady because you know for sure there is no love-bias involved.
Can you give us some insight on any upcoming projects?
Right now I am working on the third Downey book, Third Time’s The Charm, which I am hoping will be out this fall (cross fingers) and a full length novel for Dominic and Katelyn from the Bird Day Battalion and V-Day Aversion short romances. Third Time’s The Charm is intended to wrap up the Downey Trilogy with an HEA but it will leave enough of an open ending for imaginations to run wild. (Or for me to revisit the Downey verse some day in the future if the muse called me). The Dom & Kate novel is going to pick up after the end of The V-Day Aversion, so it is more like a third installment, just full length instead of a short story like the other two. The good news is, Bird Day Battalion is and always will be free, and V-Day Aversion is only $.99. I’m exceedingly grateful for the amount of support and enthusiasm my fans have shown towards Dom & Kate and it is really a pleasure to write a whole novel for them. And for those wondering, I do have another novel on the back burner which has absolutely no connection to the Downey-verse like these other stories do.
What advice can you give to any upcoming authors?
Write what is in your head, not what you think people want. You will drive yourself insane trying to second guess what people want. Write because you love it, because it feels like you have to do it, not because you want to make money at it. The truth is, it is very rare for people to make a living at writing and in many cases they only do so after years of hard work. And I mean hard work. Writing, editing, publishing, and marketing are not easy. I imagine even if you had the strength of a large publisher behind you for the latter two, it is still sweat and blood and tears. But if after all that you still can’t go to the grocery store without a story idea popping into your brain, write it down. Take a chance. You never know whose life you might affect just by telling that yarn you had in your soul.
Thanks so much, Genevieve for interviewing with us! Don't forget to follow her many outlets listed below!
Genevieve Dewey Website
Amazon
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
Pinterest
Google
YouTube
Not only have I always had a habit of daydreaming but I would always watch movies and read books and think, here’s how I would tell that story. I’m sure a lot of people do that, and I never considered turning it into a writing career until a friend pointed out that I have always loved writing (nonfiction) and that I should at least try it. I loved doing it.
In the literary world? Nora Roberts and Jane Austen, I would say. I’m also a big fan of Janet Evanovich. But I also love William Faulkner and Maya Angelou. I love any author that can either make me snort in laughter or sigh from bittersweet or angsty love (and that doesn’t have to be romantic love). As for topics, I’ve always had a passion for gangsters, people-watching and investigation so I took those loves and applied it to the Downey story.
I really didn’t start writing fiction before January 2011 so if by earlier days you mean my non-fiction writing days, I enjoyed entering writing contests as a child. I enjoyed making up quick nonsense stories with my friends growing up, too. And unlike most people in research fields my favorite part was not the fieldwork but the library research and writing up the report at the end. It feels like putting a puzzle together to me, which I adore.
No, not really. But, then, I’m not famous yet. Ha! I think that would be a fascinating challenge and I welcome it. I have kept in the back of my head all those amazing people who stepped up for me and have supported me from the beginning. I will definitely never forget who was encouraging and who scoffed. I hope that doesn’t sound too petty, but I believe in keeping it real.
The Downey series stems from a combination of my love for family based plots where there is some moral/legal conflict between family members, my fascination with the complex mind and heart of old school gangsters, and the respect I have for those who try and combat Organized Crime. If you’ve read Harry Potter (and really, who hasn’t?) I often think of that little monologue Snape gives about how one can never really get rid of the Dark Arts. The Mafia, or Organized Crime in its various cultural forms, is like that. So those who try and combat it must change and adapt as fast as the criminals change their schemes and power-structure. That ever-changing dance is what intrigues me.
Having absolute strangers talk to me about my characters with the same level of passion I had in creating them. That is an amazing feeling! I can’t even describe how wonderful it is to know that your words evoked such a response from someone else. And no disrespect to my family and friends, but coming from a stranger it is even more heady because you know for sure there is no love-bias involved.
Write what is in your head, not what you think people want. You will drive yourself insane trying to second guess what people want. Write because you love it, because it feels like you have to do it, not because you want to make money at it. The truth is, it is very rare for people to make a living at writing and in many cases they only do so after years of hard work. And I mean hard work. Writing, editing, publishing, and marketing are not easy. I imagine even if you had the strength of a large publisher behind you for the latter two, it is still sweat and blood and tears. But if after all that you still can’t go to the grocery store without a story idea popping into your brain, write it down. Take a chance. You never know whose life you might affect just by telling that yarn you had in your soul.
Thanks so much, Genevieve for interviewing with us! Don't forget to follow her many outlets listed below!
Genevieve Dewey Website
Amazon
Goodreads
YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment