The Unread - Interview with Marci Dunn

Marci Dunn is a writer in the heart of the Bluegrass State. She's a single mom to an amazing nine year old artist. (His work is featured as her Twitter background.) She loves to travel. Her favorite city is New Orleans for its historical beauty. Her favorite moment (outside anything to do with her son) was sitting at Glacier Point, in Yosemite, looking out at Half Dome where she realized how incredibly small we really are and how beautiful the world we live in is. I met Marci on Twitter, where we tend to hang out just a little too much I dare say. I wanted to know more about her writing so I asked her to be this month's victim for the Unread.

When did you start writing and why in the world would you want to do such a thing?

I started seriously putting words on paper about four years ago and I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. It is so freeing to get the stories out of my head and stored somewhere else. You might say I have an over-active imagination.


How do you make the time to write? Don’t you have other things to do?

I write whenever I have a spare second: my son’s tutoring lessons, football practice, soccer practice, basketball practice…you get the picture. Right now I get some of my best stuff done at night after he goes to bed.

Since completing my first NaNoWriMo last November, I’ve been training myself to write at home, butt firmly planed in chair. In the past I’ve had to leave my house to write, too many distractions at home. But if NaNo taught me anything it was that I can write at home. I can block out distractions or at least learn to move through them.


What sorts of stories do you write?

I write YA Fantasy. I’ve been making up stories in my head ever since I first saw PETER PAN as a child. I love creating new worlds totally different than the normal hum drum one I live in. I guess you could say I love the escapism… it is very freeing.


Do you do much submitting?

I’ve not submitted anything yet. I hope to finish revisions on my current WIP by summer so that I can begin the submitting process. The thought of writing a query letter makes me break out in hives. Summarizing 75K words on one page is very overwhelming to me.


There’s little glory for unpublished writers. What keeps you going?

I was talking with friend about this just last night. Yes there may be little glory for most, but if I could spend the rest of my life creating my art and possibly making others happy by sharing it with them then that is all the glory I need. I make very little money now so there is big deal there.


What do you enjoy most about writing?

It is mine and mine alone. I love the fact that I create something that was not there before. I love watching my characters come to life. They seem so real to me... they are real to me. I can remember, I cried when I finished my WIP. It was as if I took the journey with them. I shared their joy, their sadness, their exhaustion. I was so happy to see them to the end of their journey.


What are your writing goals and what have you done to further them?

My first “big girl goal” was to finish my current WIP, and I have done that. I now am suffering through revisions. They are nowhere near as fun as the initial writing process, but necessary. I’ve got to get a thicker skin to handle the criticism needed to make my story better. I’m getting better… I realize it is all part of the process.


Do you have any favorite writing websites?

I would have to say Twitter is my favorite. I say this because through Twitter I am introduced to so much knowledge. I have learned so much in the last nine months about the publishing industry. There are so many helpful people.


Care to tell us a bit about what you’re working on now?

My current project is a four part YA Fantasy called the CISTINE MEDALLION. The first book is THE GREAT PROPHECY. It is a total adventure story set in my little world of Armor. Three teens run for their lives and attempt to answer the age old question of destiny vs. choice.


How far would you go to get your book published?

I’m not sure how to answer this. I know being a writer is what I’m meant to do…nothing else has ever felt this right.

(Marci! You're just supposed to say you'll eat raw fish guts or would jump off a diving board into a pool of cheese whiz or something like that. ;-)


And here’s what I really want to know, if you could live in any book which one would it be and why?




Oh I’m going to get mushy here… Pride & Prejudice. I would so be Elizabeth Bennet in a heartbeat.

You can connect with Marci on Twitter where she's MRDunn12. She also has a blog she shows little love to at marcidunn.wordpress.com But hey, writing has to come first!