Interview With Author Dennis Stuempfle
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a retired technical recruiter living along the Southern Coast of NC. I’ve been an operations and marketing manager, circulation manager for a daily legal newspaper, a recruiter, a substitute teacher, a singer in a vocal group, and a school volunteer as a tutor. I previously wrote a dystopian novel “Acts of Sedition” under the pseudonym Dennis Stephan.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I wrote three individual children’s books about a family who adopts a bunny rabbit as a pet for their children. After he crawls under a bed and come out with dust all over him, they decide to name him Tchotchke (pron. Chotch Ski). Book 1 is called Tchotchke Gets Adopted. Book 2 is called Tchotchke Goes Quackers. Book 3 is called Tchotchke Saves the Day. The three books were compiled into a soft cover and hard cover compilations called Adventures of Tchotchke. The Illustrations were completed by an outstanding artist from Georgia in Eastern Europe. I was inspired to write these books so that I had something that I had created that I could give to my 4 grandchildren, who, of course, love them.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t really have any unusual writing habits. I get an idea and if I think I can do the subject matter justice I start writing. If I start to struggle, I put it aside and then revisit the book(s) later. With Acts of Sedition, I liked the idea and it just flowed fairly easily although I did get bogged down in the middle as I tried to keep the story moving forward but also keep the action going.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
This is really a difficult question because I have very diverse tastes. For example, Joseph Ellis is my favorite non-fiction author who write about the Revolutionary Period in our country’s history. I love his book “Founding Brothers”. For fiction, I like Nelson DeMille’s early works like Up Country and The General Daughter. I wouldn’t say they influenced my writing as much as they gave me confidence that I could write a novel if I had a good idea for a plot.
What are you working on now?
I’m actually compiling a book of poetry that has been written over a 50 year period. I’m also going to write book 4 in the Tchotchke Series. I have an idea already but I’m busy right now promoting the first 3 books.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Ah. That’s a biggest challenge. I don’t have one. I’m using several. Children’s book illustrations are costly to create, and the printing costs are high. Because these books have 64 full color illustrations, they aren’t candidates for e-book development. That makes marketing difficult because you can just give a .mobi file to someone or even just give them a kindle version. Giving away the compilations is expensive, even at author prices. So that’s something I’m looking at on a daily basis.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you have a great idea and the words aren’t coming right away, step away, go to the beach, do something different like volunteering at a school…anything to take your mind off of the writing. Then come back to it in a few days. That’s always worked for me.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t worry so much about making money. Make sure you’ve written a good story and even if the books don’t sell, you can be proud of what you’ve created.
What are you reading now?
I like biographies and I’m reading one by a former acquaintance of mine, Bobby Rydell. That’s an autographed paperback book so I only read that at home. I’m also reading a novel, “The Boy in the Photo”, by Nicole Trope on a kindle that I take to the beach to relax.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have an idea for another dystopian novel but I haven’t started writing that yet. I’m too focused on promoting the children’s books leading up to Christmas.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
With the old Breed by Eugene Sledge, 1984 by Orwell, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and a Collection of O’Henry.
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