Meet Author D.D.Chant
Today I am super excited to introduce you all to an awesome fellow UK author. I first met Dee Dee via a goodreads group and then fell in love with her action packed and emotional dystopian series.
First off let’s get to know Dee Dee a little better and then we can take a peek at those books and my review of Broken City the first in the series.
So Dee Dee, when did you know that you wanted to be a writer? Was there a single moment of clarity or did the knowledge just creep up on you?
I’ve always been a book worm and I loved writing short stories when I was little. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I tried a full length novel, but after that I was hooked! I still have trouble thinking of myself as a writer, it seems too presumptuous. I don’t think I’ve achieved enough to call myself a writer yet.
Tell us about your writing schedule. Do you write everyday? At the weekends? Or like me – whenever you get the chance?
I try to do a 1000 words a day, it’s a comfortable number for me. I don’t write one book and edit another at the same time though; I like to concentrate on one project at a time. I can’t get as immersed in the stories if I’m working on two at once.
What inspires you?
Ummm… this is a hard one.
With my first story in was my aunt, she said she thought that I could do it and until then I had never thought of writing anything full length. After that it was an addiction, I just had to see where these stories would take me. The fact that Broken City, The Vow and Fracture are all the start of three different series means that now I simply can’t stop!!! I have to know what happens to the characters next!!!
How did the Broken Truce storyline evolve– did you already have it planned when you wrote Broken City?
No, not at all. I wrote Broken City as a stand alone book, but the response from readers asking for another story was so incredible that I decided that I would look at turning it in to a series.
I had left Broken City very open ended on purpose and I didn’t want to write another book unless I could think of an interesting way to move the story forward. I waited for about 18 months and then the perfect plot line popped into my head!
I had a lot of worries when I started Broken Truce, I had written 2 books in between set in totally different worlds. I was nervous that Deeta wouldn’t ‘sound’ the same, that I wouldn’t be able to recreate the characters for a second book and a million and one other things. The second I started writing I could hear Deeta’s narration in my head and I knew that everything would be fine.
Broken Truce did take me by surprise in a lot of ways though. The story is spread much wider and so I made the decision to have the story follow Tom and some of the secondary characters as well as Deeta. It’s also a much darker tale; you see a much rougher side of the City and the line between good and bad is even more blurred than in the first book.
I also got to introduce a lot of new characters which was fun.
If you could choose any book in the world to have written which one would it be and why?
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer.
It is my favourite book of all time. I just love Freddy, he isn’t a typical hero and I adore that about him.
If you could be any character from a book who would it be and why?
Ooo!!! Hard!
I think Adele from The Promise; she’s clever but still manages to be sweet and she’s very understanding.
What advice would you give to other writers out there who are thinking of self publishing their work?
Don’t think that this is the ‘easy’ way, it isn’t. It’s going to be very, very hard and you’ll have to take some pretty tough criticism. The most important thing is that you remain professional at all times.
Someone didn’t like your book? That sucks but it’s their prerogative. Making sarcastic comments on their reviews (or getting your friends to) is going to do A LOT more harm than it does them. Plus it’s childish.
DO NOT SPAM!!! It’s very rude and most readers will black ball you for it.
Take the time to connect with readers about something OTHER than your book.
Be polite at all times.
Remember that just because this is the first time you have posted about your book, a million and one other people have made that same introductory post before you. So be tactful.
Make sure you READ the rules before posting on a book forum, then OBEY them!!!
Despite all the doom and gloom up above, it’s completely worth it! The first reader that tells you how much they love your story makes it all worth while!!!
Who is, or are, your favourite author(s)?
Georgette Heyer
Charles Dickens
Elizabeth Gaskel
Jane Austen
Lucy Walker…
The list is endless!!!
Do you write for a specific genre or do you like to dabble in several?
Oh no!!! You have discovered my deepest secret!!! ;-P
I like to dabble.
Broken City is post apocalyptic.
The Promise is Saxon romance.
Fracture is futuristic.
The Claire short stories are contemporary humor.
Okay some quick fire questions. Don’t think to hard just answer.
Super Villain or Super Hero?
Super Hero
Ice-cream or chocolate?
Chocolate
Beach or the Alps?
Beach
Keep the One Ring or throw it in Mount Doom?
Throw that sucker in to Mount Doom!!!
Audio or Paperback?
Kindle!!! ;-P
Horror or Romance?
Romance
Thanks so much for taking time to answer all our questions! Now lets delve a little deeper and let Dee Dee tell us a little more about herself freestyle…
Hi everyone! 
My name is Dee Dee, I’m twenty six and I live in a beautiful part of Devon, England with my family. I have a younger sister, Amy who is a brilliant guitar player, some chickens, duck, geese, pheasants, a cat (that adopted us when we moved in!!!) and some Koi.
Broken City is actually my second novel. My first, as my Aunt so delicately put it, was crazy but in my defence I was only sixteen at the time. On the plus side I learnt a lot (or so I hope) and two years later ‘Broken City’ was finished. Due to the support I have received from everyone I have just finished the next book in the Broken City series!
I have another book ‘The Promise’, which is set in Saxon England it’s the beginning of a series and I have just released my third book ‘Fracture’ which is set in the distant future and is also the start of a series.
I really hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoy writing them.
I love reading and have a kindle: I read almost anything with adventure and romance in it! I also like to cook and wear impractical high heels!!! And as you might have noticed I have a horrible addiction to exclamation marks!!!
Well that’s Dee Dee, now on to her books…
A girl with no future
A man with no past
A little lost boy
And those who seek to find him….
….Welcome to Deeta’s world.
Deeta Richards has never seen the outside world. Before she was born a banking crisis brought civilization to an end and now no one leaves the safety of the compounds unless they need to, but Deeta still dreams of seeing more than the building she was born in.
Tom is in the guard, this group are the only people that the tribal elders allow to leave the compound and Tom knows only too well that Deeta could never survive the harshness that exists outside. Then tragedy strikes and Deeta and her Sister Jan find themselves captured by a hostile tribe. Why does Tom know so much about these people? And why do they know so much about him? As this mystery draws to a climax, they discover that their friend Tom is not quite what he seems…
Okay, so would you like to see my review of Broken City – the first book in Dee Dee’s dystopian world?
MY REVIEW!
Broken City is one of those novels that immediately engages the reader and doesn’t let go until the last page.
Often in dystopian novels you get pages of info dump as the author tries to fill you in on the way of the new world they have created. In those cases, I find myself struggling to assimilate all the information thrown at me and invariably switch off. Not in this case. D.D Chant bleeds colour into the world she has created so skilfully, that the reader doesn’t even realise what is happening until they find themselves standing within a masterpiece.
The character development is done in such a way that you feel as if you are slowly peeling away the layers to get to the person underneath. I found myself totally believing that a particular character would behave in a particular way, simply because their hopes, dreams, and motivations became real to me.
Broken City is a feast full of romance, action, high emotion and vivid characters. I would highly recommend this book.
FIVE BIG STARS
And here is an EXCERPT to whet your appetite…
I’m not sure how it happens, but the next thing I’m aware of is the faintly groggy feeling you get when you’ve been woken from sleep quickly. A glance at the clock tells me that forty minutes have gone by, yet the room is still silent, with no noise to rouse me from what had obviously been a deep sleep. I stand up and meet my own eyes in the mirror above the fire place. I’m staring at myself in a dazed kind of way, when I realise that mine is not the only figure reflected in its polished surface.
I suppose it must have been the second time he walked through this room and the first time he didn’t notice me curled up in the depths of the large arm chair. He seems quite as shocked as I am to find he’s not alone.
A full second elapses before I utter a strangled scream and leg it through the door and into the passage way. The first thing I come across is another camouflaged figure and my panic ratchets up a notch. I think of the children, who in about fifteen minutes time, will joyfully be free of the shackles of their lessons.
The two soldiers are behind me, so only way to go is up the stairs. The knowledge that I am leading the intruders towards the children, rings in my head. With the sound of pursuit hideously loud in the stairwell, coherent thought is proving difficult. I’m half way up the forth flight when I hear Dec’s jubilant voice proclaiming himself the winner of some unseen race.
“Dec, run!” My voice cracks and my throat, already sore, tightens.
Dec’s voice exclaiming above my head is cut short as he sees my pursuers. I hear the door onto the stairwell open and close above me and a moment later something hit the floor behind me with a dull thud. A cheer reverberates around the walls.
Dec, bless him, hadn’t run away when I told him to, instead he’d brought a large book from the school room above and hurled it at one of my attackers. As that soldier was at this very moment out cold on the steps, I guess his aim must have been pretty accurate.
The last of the men is felled by some sort of encyclopaedia, this time lobbed by Roydon. I reach the landing they are standing on, completely out of breath. Roydon and Dec seize a hand each and drag me after Ricky who is holding Tarri in his arms and has Carris’s hand tucked in his.
From the direction in which they are going, I think their destination is Ralph’s house. But we keep running into the strangers that have breached the building and our efforts bring us almost full circle. We come to a standstill in one of the rooms with a connecting door and pause breathlessly.
“Who are they?” whispers Roydon.
“I don’t know, but they have some pretty neat kit,” answers Ricky. He relinquishes Tarri into Carris’s arms and places an ear to the door. “Ssh — someone’s coming!”
Ricky steps back a little from the door and we all wait expectantly. Sure enough it begins to open, Ricky waits until it is almost half way before he kicks it shut with all his might. We turn and run though the connecting door in to the room on the other side and out on to the corridor beyond. We are tantalisingly close to Ralph’s house.
How it happens I hardly know, but as Dec passes the open door of the school room, he is dragged kicking and screaming through the door by unseen hands. I scream and pull as hard as I can on the handle, but it won’t move. I realise they must have locked it behind them. Ralph’s door is just a little further on and I grab Ricky’s arm.
“Ricky, take the children to Ralph and stay there.”
“But…”
I don’t know what he had been going to say, but he stops abruptly and nods.
As I turn and run down the hallway I hear them banging on the Clark’s door.
There is no sign of Dec when I enter the school room, but from the knocked over chairs it is obvious that there has been some struggling. I run through the next two rooms desperately and hear, in the distance, Dec’s voice raised in protest. I burst into the corridor to find him struggling madly with one of the camouflaged soldiers. Picking up a stool from the room I have just come through, I use it to hit the man around the head. He sinks to the floor moaning and I taking Dec’s hand. We run down the passage, around the corner and up the steps, slap bang into more of the soldiers.
Instinctively I push Dec behind me, below their visors I see derision in the soldiers faces and when they step forwards, they pull us apart easily. Trying to tear away from the vice like grip on my arm, I pull my knee up into the soldier’s stomach. His smirk changes quickly to a snarl of pain and my struggles become more desperate. I manage to free an arm long enough to punch him in the face. I must admit to a feeling of gratification as blood begins to trickle from his nose.
There is blinding pain as his fist connects with my face, slapping it sharply sideways and causing me to lurch backwards. I fall to the floor and it’s only Dec screaming my name that brings me groggily to my feet. I am rewarded by a merciless grip on my arm, forcing it behind me and well up my back as the soldier drives me heavily into the wall. I slip to the floor weakly, again hearing Dec’s voice calling to me. The sound grows gradually fainter, until my eyes close and I hear nothing.
But troubles between the tribes continue, and the Andak council have selected Tom as their ambassador and spokesman to the other tribes.
Deeta knows that there is still much resentment against the Andak, and that Tom is in danger every time he leaves the safety of Andak City.
Struggling with her own complicated feelings against the tribe that she is now a part of, Deeta tries to ignore the changing attitudes growing within her.
But when Tom is betrayed and they are thrown into great danger, Deeta finds that reality can’t be ignored forever…
The Free Nation
Senator Burton and his son Ben arrive in the Tula strongholds for peace talks, but find themselves mistrustful of the seeming perfection of the Tula world. The Tula
Astra is Councillor Ladron’s subsidiary, pressured into a false position to keep her loved ones safe. Her precariously balanced world begins to fracture when Ben starts to ask difficult questions about her past. The Una
Kai is Apprentice Headman to the Una people. Unaccountably called upon to sacrifice his honour in the name of peace, Kai’s hatred toward the injustice proves all consuming. If the time comes, will he be able to forgive?
I wish to tell you a tale that began with a promise destined to change the lives of many.
When only a child, Lady Adele of Berron lost her family during a dreadful battle and was betrothed to a stranger.
Lord Rafe of Valrek, only a boy himself when the battle of Calis raged, grew to be a feared warrior and trusted advisor to his King. But sadness filled his past and Adele served only to remind him of all he had lost.
However the promise that bound these two together caused great anger to some.
What, Dear Reader, happened in those days of treachery and darkness? Incline your ear that I may whisper the secrets that you so desire to hear……
If you haven’t already sampled Dee Dee worlds then what are you waiting for?
Posted on May 2, 2014, in NEWS and tagged author interview, dystopian, fiction, GUEST POST, review. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
amoscassidy 
Leave a comment
Comments 0