eSpecs Books Focus #1: Danielle Ackley-McPhail
I’ve got a special treat for you this month and next month. I’m going to devote Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays to writers from eSpecs Books. They’re a great bunch of folks whom you need to get to know.
First up is Danielle Ackley-McPhail!
Tell us a bit about your latest work.
I just finished Daire’s Devils, a military science fiction novel I’ve been working on off and on for twelve years. It was shelved for a good part of that time as I worked on other projects, but it was always in the back of my mind. One of my friends/fans kept poking me to finish it and I guess the time was right. It is about an elite military team (because aren’t they all?) caught up in a power play between forces inside and outside their command structure. There is espionage and betrayal and loads of action.
The book is set against the backdrop of the Alliance Archives universe created by my husband and fellow author, Mike McPhail, for a role-playing game he’s had under development longer than we’ve been married. (I’m now poking *him* to finish.)
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
When I was about five or six years old, my mother took me to the library and got me my first library card. Once I had it in my hands she turned me toward the stacks and said “You can chose as many as you can carry.” From that point on she was doomed, and my fate was set. I read constantly until even she could tell me over and over to ‘put the book down!’ I would read long after I was supposed to be asleep and even then I would continue the stories in my head once I closed my eyes because I never wanted them to end. With so much immersion into the written word and storytelling it was only natural that English would become my ‘easy’ courses and from there I learned to put my own bend to the tale.
What inspires you to write?
Finding the twist. Taking the unanticipated path. Observing a designated theme, but turning expectations on their collective ear. I love building a world and populating it until the reader is immersed as I was as a child, and still am as an adult.
Read more:
https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2021/08/especs-books-focus-1-danielle-ackley.html
