Author Interview of
Daniel Peyton
Mr. Peyton, thank you for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you. Please introduce yourself.
Hello, my name is Daniel Peyton. I grew up in Stillwater Oklahoma and now live in East Tennessee. I love to stitch, write, volunteer, teach, draw and write...did I mention write?
When & why did you start writing?
Okay, I first started writing in the fourth grade. My teacher gave the class a bit of each day to just write whatever. I wrote tongue twisters and poems for a while. Then I decided to write my own story. I fell in love with that. From there I wrote and wrote and wrote. I never focused my thoughts on becoming a published author I just loved to write.
In which genre do you write and why? Also, please tell us a little about your book.
I write mostly in fantasy and some science fiction. I have always had an affinity to those areas and so I was inspired at an early age to write it. Of course I grew up an avid Star Trek fan and some of my first books were Star Trek related so that encouraged me in the sci-fi area. And, jumping into fantasy isn't such a large leap from sci-fi. My current series I am promoting is The Crystal Needle. This is a light hearted fantasy set in a fictional town in Massachusetts. The story deals with some history, romance, magic, humor, and adventure.
Do you feel connected to your characters in any way, did they 'come to life' to you?
I always pour a lot of myself into the characters. What I have always said is that the characters tell the story, I am merely the fingers they are using to type it. (No I am not crazy, I don't hear voices.) I put myself into the heart of each character and see the story world through their emotions in each scene. By the time I am done I really do feel quite connected to them in a large way.
Do you plan on writing any more books?
At this time I have four books on the market, two of which are free. I have two Crystal Needle books out and the first two in a series of superhero books I wrote. I plan on releasing a special Christmas story in the superhero series this coming November, and the last of the series next year. I am also currently editing and finishing up another distinct fantasy novel I wrote earlier this year. I don't have any current expectations of when it will be published but I hope to see it out on the market.
Did you find you had all the moral support you needed when you chose to pursue your writing venture?
Yes and no. I have an endless supply of moral support from my family. Though not everyone understands why I write, they still encourage me to keep doing it. When I began that was all I had. Where I live intellectual pursuits aren't all that highly prized. I can honestly say that very very few people around me have actually read any of my work. The local paper has yet to mention anything, the local magazine keeps forgetting that they said they would do an article for me, and there isn't a bookstore or any other kind of story in this half of the state that will even consider carrying my work. On the other hand, since I got hooked up with a few good author pages on Amazon I have met a lot of people who are like me and want to encourage me. They have read my work and given me a lot of feedback. I have had a lot of help and always know I will get moral support.
Who (if any) were your greatest supporters? Please feel free to send them a 'shout out'.
Mom, Wendy & Charles Siefken, Kim Mutch Emerson, Donna Standish, Katherine Pegg Eccleston, Melissa and Louise Berry. This is just off the top of my head and I really would feel bad if I missed anyone, but I know that when I need help that any of these people are there for me and have been an amazing encouragement to keep going. If I missed someone, I am sorry.
Do you have any favorite Authors? Who are they & why?
Mark Twain. Not so much for his writing but his attitude. He was a wise and clever man who often told the truth even when it wasn't socially proper at the moment. Stephen King. Again, I do not read horror and have not even opened one of his books. But, I love his comments about writing and the fact that he is bold and brash with his mind. He doesn't encourage writers by a soft and pleasing word, he tells them get off of their @%$ and WRITE. I have put his comments in my mind and pushed forward even when I didn't feel the story was there and suddenly I found it was. John M. Ford. He was a start trek novel writer, among other things he wrote. His book How Much for Just the Planet was a book I read nearly every year for a while there. It was the first “grown up” book I read as a kid and loved it. It inspired me to write my own books.
Where did you get your inspiration?
Music is probably the most inspiration writing tool I use. I get little inspirations for characters, scenarios, objects, jokes, lines, from life in general. But, when it comes to entire scenes, stories, books, I have to say that music sets it all up for me.
Please tell us something most people do not know about you.
I hate celebrating my birthday and so I don't tell anyone when it is. Okay, so I will give a hint, It is somewhere between January 1st 1569 and December 31st 2000.
Would you like to add any last words? If so, please do.
Jishinkaminarikajioyaji , Humunukuapua, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Would you like to add any last words? If so, please do.
Jishinkaminarikajioyaji , Humunukuapua, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
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