Interviews With Avid Readers–Dean Fearce

Dean Fearce is a graphic designer who went back to school to study writing. He is a member of Black Hats Writers Group, and you can reach Dean on Inkshares, a platform he wants to survive and thrive. He can also be found on his Facebook author page, Author Dean Fearce, Twitter @deanfearce, and Instagram, deanfearce.

Dean is the author of Murder Happens, originally a mashup of novel and graphic novel that won the 2017 Horror Novel contest on Inkshares.com.

Murder Happens began over five years ago, and the intent was to work in tandem with an artist to make a graphic novel, but that endeavor was delayed, so he decided to rewrite it as a novel. Lucky for us, he already had many of the graphics done, which gives the novel its cool, black and white Dick Tracy vibe. Dean has published a few short story anthologies on Amazon as part of his Black Hats Writers Group, and he has another title on Inkshares called Glam that is a published short story he has expanded into a novel. He describes it as dystopian biopunk and it somehow involves endocrine disrupters—worth checking out!

In the past, he enjoyed fantasy and science fiction novels, but he became burnt out on the genres, especially due to “all the names with no vowels,” which made me laugh. Now, he’s more interested in nonfiction, in particular anthropology, genetics, and stuff related to marketing (which is something he needs for his work as well as his writing). He used to read political stuff, but not so much anymore.

His favorite genre of book, not surprisingly is the graphic novel, and the one he loved the most was My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris. He likes novels that pull him in and hold him, and he dislikes hearing the narrator’s voice in a story (which is why he’s moved away from fiction), or when there is too much telling versus showing. He enjoys anything written by Elmore Leonard (who wrote Get Shorty and Rum Punch, among many others), and found Dutch’s Ten Rules of Writing to be very helpful. Dean is also into classic movies with great writing, such as The Apartment, a romantic comedy with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Other favorites include Fight Club and Blade Runner (the original), and anything with werewolves or zombies.

Dean prefers paper books, and usually makes spontaneous purchases. He likes tiny street libraries, and he goes to the library often. He found The Punch Escrow by Tal Klein in a tiny library and traded a Wool Omnibus series book by Hugh Howey for it. Like many of us, he disliked the extensive footnotes in The Punch Escrow, but unlike me, he was unable to force himself to skip reading them. When Dean reads, it’s usually in bed, as it is hard to find other times. He’ll go to the library and pick up six or so new books and read one or two of them. If it’s a brand new book not at the library, he’ll buy an e-book or a paperback or ask for it as a gift. His writer’s group shares books and recommendations, so he finds new books to read that way, too.

For Dean, a book’s cover is an important factor in whether or not he’ll select it for reading. His daughter posted some pictures from his book on Instagram, and that generated some pre-orders and sales, so he’s recently beefed up his presence on that platform. He doesn’t always trust book reviews, and usually looks at one star reviews to get the truth about a book. If they had a good reason for not liking the book, he’ll take note.

Dean follows some Facebook groups that are focused on providing relevant information and giving advice, for instance on how to get published. He also likes dark mystery, horror, and Game of Thrones pages, and he’ll occasionally sign up for a newsfeed. If asked to review someone’s book, he will always do it, as he wants to support them and build that relationship. His philosophy is based on gaming theory—those who win are the copycats, the ones who give back in kind. For everything he reviews, Dean looks for something positive to say and sandwiches in the bad stuff if needed. He recently reviewed a book on Amazon for Inkshares’ author Jason Pomerance who wrote a slice of life drama Dean liked called, Women Like Us.

Whenever Dean finds something interesting on Facebook, he always shares it or reposts it. Note to self—become his friend on Facebook! To entice him to join a mailing list, offer him a short story, but don’t try to manipulate him by making him join to access content he can’t receive otherwise, as he says it’s a scam up to 20% of the time. If the content doesn’t really resonate, you’ll lose him as a follower. Like many of my interviewees, Dean said quick little notes were appealing or “thought you might like this” messages. The content should be new and interesting every time, obviously.

He enjoys learning about the author and likes the way I’m gathering this research. He thinks the process itself is a grand adventure and is looking forward to how it turns out. For you, Dean, I am breaking up my massive article and providing it piecemeal to make it palatable. I’ll be including some related graphics with each piece, too.