Today, the Fantastic Blog Hop tour bus screeches to a halt along the banks of the Indian River on the east coast of Florida. It trundles up to the home of author Dellani Oakes who is here to talk about herself and tell us how she got hooked on writing.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night....
How I always loved Snoopy for
introducing me to this line. Even as a child, I knew it was a cheesy
beginning, but couldn't resist the fun of starting at least one story
with it. I remember making my high school creative writing teacher
laugh when he graded my story during class.
I've been asked how long I've
been writing and that's a tough one to answer. I've been composing
stories since I was three, but didn't start writing things down until
I got older. The first clear memory of my written word was a poem I
compose for my grandmother. I don't remember much about it except one
haunting phrase, “When
you get into the coffin, you never will grow cold, if you make sure
that the coffin's made of 14 carat gold.”
Why I thought this was
appropriate subject matter for a poem, I don't know. I also have no
idea what my grandmother thought of it. I like to hope she
appreciated the finer points like rhyme scheme and meter, even if it
was otherwise of dubious merit.
Some compositions were original,
like “The Unfinished Road in the Valley”. Admittedly, it was
pretty terrible, but I intended it to be. I disliked soppy Country
music, so I wrote the song with a very tongue in cheek intent. “The
unfinished road in the valley. I see you in far away. You remind me
of that dear little girl who stole my heart away.”
(You may now vomit).
In college, my interest turned to
plays. As a theatre major, I enrolled in a class specifically for
play writing. I loved it. I learned a lot about strong dialogue and
draw from it in my novel writing. I kept writing short stories,
scribbling them on paper napkins or scraps of paper when nothing else
came to hand.
It wasn't until I was out of
college and teaching, that I decided to try my hand at writing a
novel. It's as yet unfinished, but one day, I shall complete it. It
was rather rudimentary, but the basic idea is strong and the
characters compelling enough, I want to tell their story. Don't look
for it any time soon, though. I have too much on my plate.
I didn't take up novel writing
again until my youngest son (now 17) started kindergarten. I wasn't
working full time, so it was something I could do. The voices I'd
ignored for so long, started talking again and I had to listen. The
loudest voice was that of Gabriella, a young Spanish woman in St.
Augustine, Florida. I heard her when I accompanied my eldest son on a
field trip to the East Coast's Oldest City. She wouldn't stop talking
until I gave her voice and told her story. Thus, Indian
Summer was born.
Since then, I've written so many
stories, I've lost count. I have that many and more that are sitting
in
9 comments:
Great interview, Dellani. I hear there's a sequel to The Ninja Tattoo. What can you tell us about that?
A sequel? Yes, tell us, Dellani.
Carley
Kemberlee & Carol, I'm about 2/3 finished with "Savage Heart" where the lead character is Sailfish of the River People. I felt he got rather a short shrift in "Indian Summer". He was intended to be the male lead, but Gabriella refused to cooperate & fell desperately in love with Manuel. Poor Sailfish was left high and dry in love with a woman who would never love him for more than a dear friend.
I couldn't leave him without love - he's had so much tragedy in his life. So I brought him someone who will love & need him as much as he loves and needs her. And so Meli Chasseur was created. I hope I do them justice as I tell their tale.
Sounds great, Dellani. But don't you just hate that? You've got an outline already drawn up, you know where you want the story together, start fleshing everything out, then as soon as you give your characters a voice of their own . . . BLAM . . . they use it and tell *you* what's going to happen ;-)
Exactly, Kemberlee, which is why I no longer outline. I had it all in my mind. Gabriella would be forced to marry Manuel. He would be a gambling, drinking, womanizer who abused her and she would run into the arms of Sailfish.
Manuel reformed (he wasn't nearly as bad as I'd painted him). Gabriella refused to love another. Sailfish because the love lorn and a possible secondary love interest became the villain - quite well, as a matter of fact. :)
How do you come up with your character names? Native Americans have a history of naming their child for the first thing the mother sees after the birth of her child. I can't imagine her seeing a sailfish unless she gave birth on the coast. Very curious!
A scene from the book came to me in a dream - the shark attack scene in the last part of the book. He was named Sailfish in that dream and the name stuck. :)
Actually, she could have seen a sailfish because they made camp half the year on the island off the coast. The Indian River (Intercoastal Waterway) flows between the mainland and the ocean and they had a campsite which is now a national park.
I've used dreams too in my writing. So cool how it works. I don't think non-writers would understand ;-)
Kemberlee, I feel sure they don't. But that's what makes us fun and unique!
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