Lesson Summary

Dennis Millet shares his writing journey, inspired by renowned authors such as Anne McCaffery and John Sanford. Highlights of the conversation include:

• 
  Personal influences from childhood memories including his mother's reading habits and a supportive school teacher
• Insights into Dennis' writing process and choices
• The significance of setting and character development
• The balance between plotting and spontaneity in writing
• The avoidance of explicit content in his works with the focus on the sci-fi adventure genre
• Dennis shares, and talks about, his book 'The Children of Quill' and discusses details of an upcoming trilogy with an overview of their plot and inspiration behind them

Dennis and Morgen's discussion then turns to:

• Challenges of finding reliable marketing support
• The significance of being supportive and kind in the literary world
• The emphasis on creating well-developed characters, especially strong females
• Dennis also reflects on writing for personal fulfilment, the thrill of unpredictability in storytelling, and the role of authentic experiences in shaping narratives
• The impact of marketing on a book's success
• The importance of passion and authenticity in the creative process.

Dennis' love of writing began as a love of reading. His mother taught his to read before he started school so he had a small advantage. 

When the first parent teacher conference rolled around he had read three times as many books as anyone else. The teacher raised the idea that he was cheating. His mom laughed and told her to test him. He was not cheating.

His mother was an insatiable reader. She read a whole set of encyclopedias because she had read every book in the house more than once. Books were his movies, his games, his internet.   

Dennis had access to one TV station so books were 'it' for this young lad. He was especially captivated by the dragons and characters in 'People of Pern' by Anne McCaffrey, And of course Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

In his junior year in high school, the class took a placement test in english. When the results came back the teacher told them she was extremely disappointed in all of them.

She started at the bottom - the low score being 38. Dennis was sure he was going to be next lowest. She went through a couple in the 40s - Dennis was still sweating it - then the 50s then 60s. When she hit 74, he relaxed thinking 'Ok I'll take a 75'. Then she hit the 80s. He was feeling good but there were only a handful of the class left.

She finished all but one then stood in front of him and said, “Dennis I'm the most disappointed in you. 98. Now why are you not my top student?" Dennis liked her so he didn't want to tell her he hated english.

Then he went out to explore the world and worked in forty-one states from San Diego, California to the edge of Maine. He saw the sun come up over Florida and the green flash at sundown from the beach in San Diego. He built buildings in construction, saved lives working in ERs, and ran a water treatment plant. In all of these he had to write reports.

Then he retired and really picked up on his reading but found they did not flow well. The characters were weak, the scenes not very well described, so thought he could do better and decided to write.

He pumped out a 200-page novel in three days! It was trash, so he threw it away.

The next one he took his time and finished in two weeks. It was much better but he was unhappy with it.

Then he came across an old 'friend', Anne McCaffrey and the world of Pern.

He not only read them, he studied them for six months.

Then he wrote 'The Children of Quill' and found as much joy writing as he used to get reading. He is now working on a three-book series called 'Mosquito'. First 'Sting', followed by 'Epidemic' and then 'Aftermath'.