Doug Farren Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

Anytime I can find to write!  I work a rotating schedule often putting in 12 hour days (or nights).  I write when I can find the time.  My wife likes to go to the bookstore and I haul my laptop there to get a few hours in.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I use the computer exclusively.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I’m not sure where the stories come from.  My subconscious refuses to share that information with me!

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I prefer to write full-length novels that end up around 300 printed pages of 5” x 8” book size.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am 100% self published.  I use Createspace to print the bound copies.  Smashwords and Amazon are the electronic distributers.  I did my own covers for the Galactic Alliance series and I had my artist sister create something unique for Dragonverse.  I use Microsoft Powerpoint to create the cover.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I wish I could make it a career but it does not pay the bills.  I love to write and I love to know that others are able to temporarily escape this world and enter my own futuristic worlds as a form of entertainment.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I own a Kindle 2.  Had a Kindle 1 and upgraded for the PDF capability.  Gave the old one to my daughter.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith tops the list with Asimov, Greg Bear, and many other classic science fiction writers running close behind.  Not reading any science fiction at the moment.  I’m reading several books on how to improve my writing as well as a couple books on Microsoft .NET programming.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

Oddly enough – I’m not familiar with this term.  Guess I have no plans to have any then!

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The book is about dragons that exist in a parallel universe.  The logical conjunction then is Dragonverse.  Short, catchy, and unique.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

Once I get the final storyline down in my head I will write the second book of the Dragonverse series.  It is tentatively titled Ishnef’s Revenge.  I plan on making it far more action packed than the first of the series.  I have started but not finished two other novels:

Phobia – A story about a ship captain who faces his worst fear when his ship finds itself in uncharted space and he is forced to land on an alien world.

When Ships Mutiny – What happens when sentient ships of war discover what fate their creators have planned for them after they win the war they were built to fight.