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MEET DENNIS ARMSTRONG (12/2011)
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Dennis Armstrong

Growing up, I was a regular little bookworm.  So I read everything: biographies, science fiction, O’Henry, the Hardy Boys, the old Tom Swift books, every color of fairy tale, the Freddy the Pig stories, Readers’ Digest books, Sherlock Holmes, WWII escape adventures, Mark Twain, whatever was lying around.  Oddly enough, I didn’t read many of standard children’s books until I went to college (Kipling, Stevenson, E. Nesbit, Tolkien, Dr. Doolittle, the Oz books).  So I have the voices of many masters inside me who helped make up my own voice as a writer.  It’s not a bad way to learn.

Did you write stories when you were growing up?

I started writing tall tales, parodies, and bad cartoons (I can’t draw) in grade school, then took a long detour through poetry when my high school English teacher introduced us to the Romantics and had us try our hands at verse forms, from haiku to sonnets (I still love the tight power of a sonnet). I didn’t move on to “children’s literature” until after I got out of college and realized that I could certainly write a book-long piece (which I had to do to complete my degree) and that I most enjoyed the stories in that field (classic and modern.)

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

I think that the person I actually have in mind as my reader is myself younger.  I want to write stories that I would have enjoyed reading while growing up (at least some of the time).  I can’t write like all my favorite authors, but I try to write so that I will still enjoy reading my words again for the 12th time (which you must do if you want to polish your book as close to perfect as you can.)

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career?

In college, I was mostly a poet.  And that is not a career, just a love of words that wants to be shared.  Almost all practicing poets have to do other jobs.  Now, I’ve stepped off of poetry onto another stone in the literary stream.  But I still keep in my stories a taste of poetry, with its focus on the sheer sound of language and the surprising twists of thought that metaphor can give. I still try to create a “told” story that the readers can “hear” being read to them.

Where do you get your ideas?

This is a question that gets asked a lot.  The answer is, from everywhere.  Usually they sneak in when you’re not ready.  The shower is an excellent place for ideas!   Sometimes, I’m working on one story and out pops a corner of another story, just begging to be dug up.  But one big father idea is not enough; you need a family of ideas.  For example, I had the idea to write about a talking house. I just had his name.  What a silly idea!  After all, what could happen to a house?  (This is what I ask my audience.  And, just like me, pretty soon they can think of all sorts of exciting things: termites, fires, tornados, thieves!) So, in this case, I started with just “a talking house” but to make it work I had to keep on thinking, so this first little idea kept rolling on gathering moss until I had written a good dozen stories   

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I wish I did, but I don’t.  It depends on if I have a good story idea and just how hot it is.  A hot idea keeps shooting out sparks, so I chase after them as long as I can. So, if I’ve got a burning story, I work all the time on it.  But if all I’ve got is the main idea, but not all the wiggly parts, then I work on it for a while, then let it rest, while I keep thinking. So, in that case, I go back and forth between writing and waiting for the rest of the puzzle pieces to come in.
 
When you do school visits, what question do children ask you most?

When is your next book going to be in book stores?

ZOMBIE SOUP AND OTHER ENCOUNTERS WITH THE UNDEAD is scheduled to come out around Christmas (2011).  I certainly hope it does.  Meanwhile, anyone who would like to see what other stories of mine are available, or to learn more about me, can visit my website at https://sites.google.com/a/dslextreme.com/storyteller.