Dragon Soul Press took the opportunity to interview D.L. Lewellyn. She’s been part of multiple DSP anthologies including Song of the Siren, Magick & Mystery, Digital Love, The Hunt, and Pirate Legends.
Hi. Thank you so much for inviting me for a chat. I love being part of the Dragon Soul Press
Community! A little about me. I’m a relatively new independent author and retired public servant
living in a beautiful high desert valley in northern Nevada with my hubby of 33 years and two
aging but playful canines. A lifelong addiction to the written word and the stunning surrounding
mountains and desert wilderness inspire my stories.
- What prompted you to begin writing?
- A passion for writing (and there is no better word) took me by surprise in 2021 following a
summer of pandemic-induced reading of nearly 200 books in the fantasy paranormal romance
genre. My niece introduced me to her craze at the time, Cassandra Clare, and that set off an
avalanche of Kindle reading and audiobook listening while crafting away on my knitting and
cross stitch projects. I started with all the big authors I’d missed, like Stephenie Meyers, Kresley
Cole, and Charlene Harris. I moved on to authors they inspired like Carrie Pulkinen, Stephanie
Hudson, Jeaniene Frost, Laura Thalassa, and Grace Draven. Then, one day after assimilating
all these stories, voices, and characters, I got the idea to write my own. I haven’t stopped writing
since.
- A passion for writing (and there is no better word) took me by surprise in 2021 following a
- Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
- My main answer is whatever current project I’m in the middle of mostly because I’m lost in that
world and having a blast. But I will say that a recent short story I submitted to Dragon Soul
Press stands out as a favorite in that the characters will always resonate with me and the plot
surprised me as much as I hope it surprises the readers.
That story is The Salty Pearl’s Reluctant Commander in DSP’s Pirate Legends. It takes place in
the Golden Age of Pirates on the Caribbean Ocean–no surprise there–but it’s the two
mysterious castaways the ship encounters who captured my imagination as much as they did
the captain of the Salty Pearl. While it turned into a spicy encounter for the three of them, the
rich emotional discovery, mythological atmosphere, and magic of the characters swept me
away, and I had a hard time leaving that world. I also had a lot of fun doing all the pirate
research and writing my first poem to set off my story.
- My main answer is whatever current project I’m in the middle of mostly because I’m lost in that
- How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
- I confess to being a multi-crafter and serial starter, and that applies to my stories. I have more
than a half-dozen novels in quite a few fantasy sub-genres (steeped in romance of course) in
the works and many are up to 50,000 words. I have this feeling they will all be finished about the same time as they creep along side by side.
As for this year, I’m in the final draft of a detective noir ghost short story I have plans for, and my publishing focus for a novel is a YA urban fantasy called Toxic Friends Can be a Good Thing.
My MFC is a girl whose parents go missing one by one and she ends up living on the streets of
Long Beach, California, hiding among the unhoused while she investigates what happened to
them. Her parents are scientists and university professors. One clue she latches onto is her
parents’ friend she suspects is more than human. Raelyn’s discovery into the supernatural world
of shifters happens along with her investigation and she teams up with some amazing people
from this world and hers for a hopeful rescue operation. One of them is the MMC who shares
the storytelling from his perspective. He and his brother are traditional ninja warriors and where
the “toxic” comes into play in the title, which isn’t an obvious clue. The story takes Raelyn and
Masaru’s team beneath the city where there are old, abandoned tunnels and even a hidden lab
the university left out of its campus blueprints.
- I confess to being a multi-crafter and serial starter, and that applies to my stories. I have more
- What is your writing process like?
- I simply sat down one day to write and churned out my three-part novel, learning as I went. I
had no knowledge of writing processes or how to formally structure a novel. But I did have 50
years of absorbing books, and I know how a good story should go and what moves me about a
character or scene. So, I’ve never latched onto any one process, and I would categorize myself
primarily as a pantser versus a plotter. My stories are literally felt through my fingers as they fly
over the keyboard, which is how I get to know the characters and what they want to say and do.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t make outline notes, do research, or find workshops, craft books,
or articles to hone my skills. There’s just no particular order for these activities while the story
develops–it’s purely an organic process.
Writing short stories for contests and anthologies has been immensely beneficial as well. I was fortunate to retire early so I could devote my days to my craft and I write every day, sometimes on multiple projects, including blogging, interviews, and my newsletter.
- I simply sat down one day to write and churned out my three-part novel, learning as I went. I
- Where do you draw inspiration from?
- Many of my current drafts are based on characters from my paranormal romance series, The
Starlight Chronicles. Masaru and his brother are spies on the council of the alpha of the Baja
Star Pack in a future setting to Toxic Friends. They never ended up in my published books but
their rich characters and scenes were fully developed and they needed to have their own story. I
have another story that might get close to a finish this year which is another YA urban fantasy
set in San Diego. The elf prince MMC who is stripped of his magic and sent to the human side
of the portal in a rite of passage is a brother to a character in Tigris Vetus, book three in The
Starlight Chronicles. His sister, Amahrra and her dwarf second in command will make an
appearance in his story.
Still, many more of my stories are entirely new worlds and so many of them pop into my head so fast that I lose track of how they got there.
- Many of my current drafts are based on characters from my paranormal romance series, The
- Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
- I have so many favorites over decades of reading and my consumer periods range from sci-fi,
fantasy, psychological thrillers, and cozy mysteries, to romance. But I will stick with a current
favorite author if I need to single one out, and that is Grace Draven. She is a master storyteller,
and her fantasy worlds are unbelievable. Getting lost in them as if I were traveling alongside the
MC and experiencing all the joy, love, and danger she’s experiencing is the easiest thing to do
and what I want most in my reading experience.
- I have so many favorites over decades of reading and my consumer periods range from sci-fi,
- What is one goal you have for your writing future?
- To publish all my current projects before I’m too old. (What too old is I couldn’t say.)
- What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
- The same thing I love in a story, to get lost in an alternate world and feel awed and satisfied
even if a little bittersweet when the journey is done.
- The same thing I love in a story, to get lost in an alternate world and feel awed and satisfied
- Where can readers learn more about you?
Dragon Soul Press 