Interview with Dean Mayes

This time around I have the pleasure of interviewing Dean Mayes, an author from Down Under, who has recently written a book called “The Hambledown Dream“, which carries a theme of redemption and reincarnation.

Dean has been writing, blogging and dreaming for most of his adult life, in between practicing as an Pediatric ICU Nurse and raising his two children, Xavier & Lucy (who was born during the writing of his debut novel The Hambledown Dream). Dean lives in Adelaide, Australia with his partner Emily, his children …and his cross-breed cattle dog Simon. “The Hambledown Dream”, a lyrical and moving paranormal romance, is his first novel. Dean is currently working on his second novel, tentatively titled “Gifts Of The Peramangk”. He writes regularly for a loyal following at his blog Dean from Australia.

Now let’s hear from Dean:

Where Do You Prefer To Go When You Write?
My family has a property on an island just off the coast of Southern Australia called Kangaroo Island. The house there looks over a lagoon called pelican lagoon. It is very quiet and peaceful and I have done some of my best writing sitting up on the balcony, over looking the water with a glass of wine.

What Was The Last Book You Read?
I am currently in the middle of a fabulous novel by author Anne Riley called ‘The Clearing’. It’s a young adult novel about a young girl whose search to find the truth about her parents deaths leads her to some unexpected and confronting truths.

Who Is Your Favorite Author?
I actually dedicated my first novel “The Hambledown Dream” to a journalist named Matt Price, who sadly died in 2007 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor a mere two months earlier. He was a political journalist with “The Australian” newspaper whose “The Sketch” was a satirical and laugh out loud weekly observation of Australian political life. I bought that paper for Matt Price’s articles alone and I have to say, when he died, I did shed a tear. I regard him as a personal hero of mine.

What inspired you to become a writer?
I’d have to say that my second grade English teacher, Mrs Furnell, was a huge inspiration. I remember struggling really badly with a creative writing subject I was doing and she challenged me to dig deeper. Once, I produced a short little piece about a soldier’s experience of war. I was only eight years old but even then, I was told that I kinda hit it out of the ball park. Mrs Furnell gave me a purple dragon sticker for my effort and from then on, my love affair with words was established.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Writing?
The creative process of building a structure from the ground up. It’s like a huge jig saw puzzle for me, except I have to make the pieces myself. I like moving things around – pieces of writing – to see where they best fit and I love making discoveries in the process of writing. A lot of what I write isn’t necessarily apparent to me when I begin. I have a basic skeleton of what I want to achieve, but I tend to learn about my characters and situations as I go along. It’s a wonderfully organic way to write.

What Are You Currently Working On?
I’m about 30k in on a new project which carries the working title of “Gifts Of The Peramangk”. It’s a very Australian story about an 8 year old Aboriginal girl, who lives in abject poverty, who can play the violin – and play it very well. She has been taught to play by her grandmother who was a member of the Stolen Generations – a rather shameful part of our Australian history that I am keen to explore in flashback. It’s one of those stories of light and hope against the most crushing dark and hopelessness.

How many drafts do you have before deciding that it’s done?
On Hambledown, I think I got up to about six drafts before I submitted it. Most of that was several passes to tighten up grammar and punctuation and I’d say I did two maybe three passes where I changed certain elements of the story. I’m a Virgo so I’m not sure I believe in the notion of FINAL. I still pick up my print copy of the book and scan through it.

What Issues Or Challenges Do You Struggle With The Most?
Dialogue. Definitely dialogue. I have made the point of comparing myself to the Close Talker from Seinfeld (the irrepressible Judge Rienhold) who created hilarity by getting in nice and close to a person when speaking to them. I spent a lot of time studying conversation and how people interact and inadvertently replicated the whole Close Talker thing – although it didn’t come with the laugh track.

© 2011, Steven R. Drennon. All rights reserved.