Author Interview – Dermot Davis

How do you deal with negative reviews?

To be honest, I think the only way to deal with negative reviews is not to read them. At all. Which I have yet to train myself to do as I have read every single review I have received (laughs). I had no idea of the power of a negative review and of how hurtful they can actually feel to the recipient until I received my first one. To the reviewer I’m sure that they’re just being truthful in the moment and sharing with the world that what they just read was a total piece of crap but to the writer of the piece, reading that, it’s like someone just stabbed them with a very sharp knife. I guess we writers are very sensitive creatures at heart and only want people to love our work and rave about our genius but that’s probably not the reality we live in, at present. And certainly not on Goodreads where some of the reviews can be downright savage

What’s your greatest character strength?

As far as writing goes, I would say that one of my main character strengths is discipline. You can be the most terrific writer the world has even seen but if you don’t have the discipline to sit in a chair and write, write, write until you finish the project, then your talents have gone to waste and have not been shared with the world.

What’s your weakest character trait?

Procrastination (smiles). As much as I know that I have to sit in that chair and face the empty page again and again, I still can come up with hundreds of reasons why I shouldn’t and many pressing chores to do rather than write, like check my twitter feed and see what others are up to on Facebook.

Why do you write?

There’s no other feeling quite like it and I’m more “me” when I write than the grumpy and unfulfilled person I become when I don’t.

Have you always enjoyed writing?

Not at all. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing to keep motivated and I have to force myself to continue. That’s usually when I’m stuck in a storyline that I don’t know how to solve or when I’m continuing down the incorrect storyline that doesn’t serve the story’s characters and I’m forcing it. When the story flows and the characters all agree on the direction I’m taking… then it’s bliss.

What motivates you to write?

I’m miserable and impossible to live with if I don’t.

All Daniel Waterstone ever wanted to do was write the great American novel and change the landscape of modern literature forever. He has two literary books in print but no one’s buying. His agent won’t even accept his latest masterpiece which he poured his soul into: apparently, it’s not commercial enough.

In a final act of desperation, under the pseudonym of Charles Spectrum, he writes a feverish satire on a Transformational, Self-help best-seller that’s currently topping the charts. Intended as a parody, “How to do Amazing Things Using Only Your Brain,” similar to the best-seller, contains crazy and hilarious exercises on how to increase one’s brain power.

Instead of being published as satire, however, it hits the shelves with all the other serious pop psychology, self-improvement books. It becomes a huge hit. People all around the world are doing unbelievably zany exercises to improve themselves. Even crazier still: they’re getting results. Readers are levitating, bending spoons and seeing into the future. Daniel becomes one of the most desired talk show guests and is soon lionized by agents and publicists. Seminars are organized and what was intended as a joke takes on a huge life of its own.

To complicate things further, Daniel falls in love with a beautiful woman who adores him as Charles Spectrum, the guru. If she was informed of his earlier incarnation as a penniless, failed author, would she still love him? Daniel knows that at some point he must choose between the celebrity author gravy train or, being true to his self and to his art, return to the pits of poverty, obscurity and perhaps, worst of all, most likely lose the woman of his dreams.

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Genre - Contemporary Fiction

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Connect with Dermot Davis on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Goodreads!

Website www.dermotdavis.com