D.S. Marquis interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Hello there, I’m D.S. Marquis, accidental debut author.  I’m honored to be featured on your Feed my Reads Blog!  I’m a coffee drinker and a dog mom. I’m a proud parent of a sax player and an attorney. I recently wrote my first short script, Holiday Hitchhiker. It’s an adaptation of a scene from my book, Of School and Women – (second edition coming soon). Writing a script was easier than I thought it would be.  I even surprised myself when I submitted the script to a competition. Anyway, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your blog.

When did your love of books begin?

I fell in love with a book called Rabbit, and Skunk and Spooks. I must have been five or six. This was the first book I read all by myself. In my grandmother’s kitchen I read that paperback over and over and over. It was a Halloween book. I was proud of the sound of my voice reading aloud. My grandmother and my mother were proud.  Learning to read is a milestone and it levels a person up.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I never considered it an achievable goal. Juggling work & family, has always taken precedence for me, but my fascination with truth in hindsight has never wavered. Jokingly saying things like, Man, I could write a book about that are words that often come from my mouth as I observe life around me.  But time – time to write -- that’s another matter.  I owe having time to write to the pandemic shut down. Like so many other people, my hours were cut at work. My kid Zoom-schooled and I wrote.  Anyone can write a story, but not everyone has the time.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

It is a real triathlon, especially for a self-published author.  Writing a book is only the foundation. The marketing, publishing, and selling are a whole lot of work. A book is intellectual property. If it isn’t talked about, written about or read, or visible by others, it means nothing by itself. The saddest of days for books are when they sit alone on a shelf without eyes on them.  They only take on meaning when someone reads them. Also, book business is very subjective and there is a lot to learn.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Persist. Don’t worry about perfection. Progress is more important. Get your story out. Finish. It could be just the story someone else needs to read to feel like they’re not so alone in this world. And like with most of life, pace yourself. Take breaks to replenish your spirit, because it is in the human spirit where stories’ magic lives.

Tell us about your book/books:

OF SCHOOL AND WOMEN is a rollicking journey of two coeds striving to get ahead and find love in 80s Florida.  It’s based on my experiences during my early twenties, when I attended Florida State University (FSU), and bartended at the Tallahassee Airport. 

My reading community loves the protagonists, Lynette and Marie, two badass undergrads -- one cautious, one impulsive, both, a mix of grit and vulnerability. Their freewheeling experiences, almost farce, grounded in reality, are the heart of my near miss narrative that not only entertains, but intimately sheds light on serious women’s issues, working student issues, as well as the trials of adulting and finding love. Lynette and Marie remind us about the importance of friendship and laughter, and especially about how anyone can be one weak moment away from falling victim to scams or a life-altering mistake. 

The writing community has mentioned many times that when they read my book they travelled back to the 1980s, a world before smartphones and computers, when information traveled via television, radio, juke boxes, and pay phones. Showing up was the only way to make friends and find jobs. The news was filled with the Iran Contra Affair and the War on Drugs. Airports had no Transportation Security Administration (TSA). And college students completed assignments on paper with typewriters.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Thank you for your time reading my book. Thank you for wanting to read it. Thank you for your labor writing and posting your review. I hope you have learned some history and some life lessons from your journey through my pages.

Where can people connect with you?

dsmarquisamericanauthor.com