Dan Armstrong

I have published sixteen novels and one collection of short stories through my website Mud City Press. The titles in order of publishing are Taming the Dragon, Prairie Fire, Puddle of Love, Chain of Souls, “The Eyes of Archimedes Trilogy” (The Siege of Syracuse, The Death of Marcellus, Zama), The Open Secret and Twelve Other Tales of the Unknown, Cornelia, Blake College, The Jewel Case, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Quicksand, Princeton Charlie’s Got the Blues, Stella, Creatures of the Interzone, and What Price Glory.

I have also published articles in the Eugene Register Guard, the Oregonian, the Eugene Magazine, the North Coast Times Eagle, the Eugene Weekly, Locally Grown, Oregon Tilth Magazine, the Landwatch Newsletter, Acres USA, Limberlost Literary Review, and numerous websites.

I would recommend my novels and short stories to readers because of what I hear from those who read them. According to their feedback, I know how to tell a good story, my characters come across as real and engaging, and I use those stories and characters to present

provocative ideas, including investigations of other life in the universe, the afterlife, the extent of consciousness, the meaning of knowledge, and the follies of humanity. I would also add that while there are many great and well-known authors whose books are celebrated in the mainstream media, self-publishing has enabled many lesser-known writers to get their books to the public with fresh and often fringe ideas that large publishing houses are not willing to take a flyer on. Just know that there are plenty of fantastic books out there, often hiding in the least likely of places—like here!

With all the science fiction and fantasy

that is being written today, for anyone to claim that their idea or ideas are original can be a stretch, but, on my part, I am always trying to push the envelope one way or another. With that said, one of my favorite themes is alien contact, but not other life visiting Earth in interstellar space vehicles or even humans traveling to planets light years away. I am more interested in exploring alien contact through psychic and/or interdimensional channels. If other life is out there, and I’m sure that it is, we will find their psychic/astral remnants dwelling in what I call the interzone—an always available, infinite, eternal, and omnipresent psychological/metaphysical space. Because of this, I call don’t call my work “sci-fi;” I call it “psy-fy.”

I have written all my life and like all writers I want an audience. When I couldn’t get the attention of an agent or a large publisher and I had several novels I believed in, friends, readers, and other writers suggested self-publishing. I declined at first, then, with little to lose, decided to give it a try—and am very glad I did. Through my website (mudcitypress.com) and my books, I have been able to build an audience and a following. Perhaps, even more importantly, the simple fact of knowing I have readers is empowering and has made me a better writer.

Since Ursula Le Guin is no longer living and radiant Dolly Parton has recently passed, I’ll have to settle with Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic. I might not want to spend the whole day with the man, but I certainly have a few questions I would like to ask him.

In the past, when an idea occurred to me in a dream or at night while in bed, I used to struggle out of sleep and write myself a note, but that invariably left me too awake to fall back to sleep. Now, if I have a great idea, I don’t write it down, because I have discovered that if the idea is truly great, I will remember it in the morning, or it will return during the day.

In very rare instances, I will model a character after someone I know; however, I prefer to take bits and pieces of the various people I know and see and meld them into characters of my own.

I do my best to use all my senses when I write, but primarily I use vision. I want the reader to see the world I create—then I add smell, touch, sound, and psychic insight.

I always struggle with this question. I write in several genres from historical fiction to suspense to mystery to horror to fantasy and psy-fy, so the book I would suggest would depend on who asked the question. For the reader of history, I suggest The Siege of Syracuse; for the reader of suspense, I suggest Prairie Fire, and for you, Jeff, I suggest Stella: The Mushroom Girl from Outer Space.

The adoption and raising of my son had more impact on me than anything else I have ever done. He taught me how to love. That said, writing, as a lifelong endeavor and process, has also been a big part of making me who I am today.

My areas of expertise are the Roman Republic, Sigmund Freud, metaphysics of all variety, sustainable agriculture, and the history of science.

I write every day with few exceptions, but I also do a lot of editing for other writers. I believe that doing both is, in itself, a method of balance. Assisting others to write clearly and accurately gets me into other writer’s heads and gives me perspective on my own work and, without doubt, makes me a better writer.

Just do it. Believe in yourself and trust your gut. And, if you can, write every day, if only for half an hour, if only a single paragraph, if only a single sentence. Get into your story as a regular daily practice—and when your read, read the classics.

Go to my website http://www.mudcitypress.com and check out the descriptions of my books. All of them can be purchased from Amazon.com as either paperbacks or kindles.