Interview With An Author: Oliver Dahl

Hello once again, and welcome to My Miraculous Mind! This has been a great December hasn't it . . . well, I could do without the extreme cold, and the busyness, and the commercialism . . . but other than that, hey! great December people.
It has been especially great for My Miraculous Mind, ideas have been flowing in and I have not missed a week of posting, and a special shout out to the cast of "Scrooge A Christmas Carol" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse for making my earlier post The Backstage Story my most viewed post on this blog ever.
So, people have interesting friends, some may be firefighters, some may be detectives, some may even have pilots who they know. But it seems appropriate that since I am an author, I have friends who are authors. I decided to interview an author friend of mine, those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning will remember I mentioned him in my second post "It's Called . . . What?"
He is the one, the only, Oliver Dahl!
He and I met through our family actually. My mom and his mom went to high school together and about two years ago, Oliver's mother mentioned that Oliver himself had published a book and wanted to be an author, after that my mom replied that I wanted to be an author and was in the process of writing a few books. So, Mr. Dahl and I started emailing each other (mostly I would ask questions about publishing and he would answer them). We have known each other for about 2 years now and have never met each other face to face. Oliver resides in the wonderful state of Idaho and I still find it funny that we've never met because I go up to Idaho like once every 1 to 2 months to visit some family . . . go figure.
Anyway, I emailed Oliver a couple days ago and ask him some questions which he graciously answered, so here you go, my interview with the author: Oliver Dahl!

1. How many books have you written?

I have written five books. Two of them (soon to be 3!) have been published.

2. What was your favorite book to write?

Each book is fun in their own way to write. The Dreamers was a blast just because it came so entirely into my mind. Lies was great because I felt like I was writing poetry.

3. What is your favorite book or series that you've read?

I really love the "Pendragon" series by DJ Machale. Percy Jackson, the Underland Chronicles, Michael Vey, Fablehaven, and too many others to list are also great.

4. Are you working on writing any new books write (pun) now?

I'm currently working on sending "Lies" off to several editors. I'm also in the works of writing a book entitled "Beneath,"
 

5. If the answer to the question above is yes, could you give us a small synopsis or preview of your new story?
 

 "Beneath," is about a kid who wins a trip to Paris. While there, he sees something he shouldn't have and is kidnapped by a strange race of people that live under the catacombs of Paris. There, he discovers an evil plot and the wild world that resides under the city.

6. Do you belong to any writers circles or writing groups?

On Facebook, I really enjoy the "Go Teen Writers" group. Everyone there is so awesome. Besides that, I'm really not.

7. What sort of awards have you received for your books?

My first award was in October of 2011, when I was named one of Idaho's Top 50 Idaho Authors. Just this year, that was leveled up to the honorary mention of Top 10 Fiction books in Idaho.

8. How did the idea for the Dreamers Adventures come into your mind?

Funny enough--a dream! I got hurt in the dream, and when I woke up, I was based where I had been hurt in the dream. This got me thinking, "What if there were people who this happened to in their dreams?" And this kind of snowballed into what is now The Dreamers Adventures series.

9. Is there any advice or words of inspiration that you can give to aspiring authors both young and old that may be reading this post?

Keep writing! I say it every time, and there's a reason. You can't publish what you don't have written. You can't even edit what you don't have written. You can write horribly if you edit well. Get something down on paper first and then work on making it good later.

10. In a few of your blog posts, you have mentioned a series that you have been working on called "The Stone Chronicles" can you tell the readers anything about this series?

Haha, it's the series I started writing in like fourth or fifth grade! It snowballed, or maybe avalanched from a 100 page novella to over a one hundred thousand page epic novel by the time I was in seventh grade. I haven't had the heart to rewrite it for a third time. There's just SOO much that happens. And I love it SOOO much, I can't bare to let it be anything BUT perfect.

Thanks for having me!

 

Thank you Mr. Oliver Dahl for becoming the interviewee of my post and for everyone reading this, read his books, they are fun, good story line, and reasonably priced.
Christmas is a comin' and the goose is gettin' fat, and "The Dreamers Advenutres: A Story of Sam Kullen" is a great story for someone wanting to go to a futuristic city, or ice caves, or even floating islands!
Oliver has a blog titled "The Dreamers Adventures" link shown here. 
And recently he has opened a website www.oliverdahl.com. 
So, I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that you will enjoy my future ones.
Thank you for reading!
If you have any questions, comments, book recommendations, or maybe even blog post ideas that you would like to see, email me at keatswinter@gmail.com!