Meet McKenna Dean, and learn why I love to blog

Blogging can be fun, but it is also very demanding when there are so many things to be done elsewhere. Then I get a chance to feature an author like McKenna Dean and it becomes fun again for a variety of reasons. For one, it provides an opportunity to give readers something removed from myself. I think that this is very healthy for bloggers as we often need to step back from what we do.

More importantly, it is also about the opportunity to support fellow authors, and this is one of those opportunities. I came across one of this author’s books by accident, that is on social media, so maybe not so accidental. I liked the cover visually and I liked the feel it gave – warmth. I read all genres and I am partial to paranormal and this is a lovely series as I soon found out.

I also found out that she is also a fellow indie author. Yes, a member of the crazy class of people who self-publish and do it because they want to, in fact they choose the option. I love that courage to take your work, your product in your own hands. It pushes you to improve what you offer. I still have a way to go but I am slowly finding my feet.

Sometimes reading is about the taking a break from life when it all gets too much and living a few hours with romance, excitement and improbability. Sometimes we do need a different experience, a non-fiction one, or perhaps a serious in-depth drama, or listening to the news. Circumstances dictate our needs and when I needed a break I found characters brought to life by someone like McKenna fit the need very nicely.

I thoroughly recommend her books. They are fun, have likeable characters and a good story. None of this surprised me when I read this extract about  how she came to write. Storytelling and storytellers – writing in a nutshell, is and has been her life. Please meet her and check out her books. She is shy so she is represented by her very cute animal friend. Well, she does write paranormal, so why not?

McKenna Dean has been an actress, a vet tech, a singer, a teacher, a biologist, and a dog trainer. She’s worked in a genetics lab, at the stockyard, behind the scenes as a props manager, and at a pizza parlour slinging dough. Finally she realised all these jobs were just a preparation for what she really wanted to be: a writer. She lives on a small farm in North Carolina with her family, as well as the assorted dogs, cats, and various livestock. She likes putting her characters in hot water to see how strong they are. Like tea bags, only sexier.

Hi, I’m Mckenna,

People frequently ask me if I’ve always been a writer and I say yes… and no.

See, I’ve always been a storyteller. When I was quite small, I sometimes found myself turning off the television because the episode I was watching was too intense—and then I made up my own ending to the show. When I was eight, I had a grubby spiral notebook I carried with me everywhere, in which I wrote a running serial about a group of horse-crazy girls who solved mysteries. It was so popular that I had a waiting list of fellow third-grade readers. I wrote fanfiction without knowing what was—terrible self-insert stories in which I was the worst Mary Sue of them all—always coming to the rescue.

And then, all the sudden, I quit.

There weren’t any writers in my family. We were doctors, nurses, teachers, and preachers. When I graduated from high school, I decided it was time to grow up and put aside the ‘childish’ writing. If my life had less joy in it, well, wasn’t that what it meant to be a grown-up? I shut the door on my creative side and focused on my career. From time to time I wrote a short story or poetry, but it was like taking a sip of water when crossing a bleak desert.

It wasn’t until many years later, when I discovered online fanfiction archives for a favourite show, that I really began writing again. It was a bit like finding the door to an abandoned, secret garden. There was life inside but running wild and choked out with weeds. I was so enamoured with fanfiction, however, that I didn’t care. The words poured out of me, and gradually the garden began to take shape. The original design became apparent again.

The TV show got cancelled, and fandom moved on. I enjoyed other television shows but there were none I really wanted to write about. So many people kept telling me I should write original stories that I finally submitted one to a publisher. To my utter surprise, it was accepted.

These days I tend to mostly self-publish. I don’t write as fast as I wish, and being an indie publisher works better with my schedule for the most part. I’m not quite at the point where I can quit the day job and write full time, but that’s the dream.

And yes, I’ve always been a writer.

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Email: mckennadeanromance@gmail.com

Check out her books.

Barb

I love her logo, don’t you? Its romantic and sexy in the nicest way. Hint: So are her books.

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