Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

D.R. Perry will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo.

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? D.R. Perry

Where do you call home? Coventry, RI

What genre(s) do you write? Young Adult Fantasy, with a focus on magic schools.

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? 

I loved fantasy and anything spooky. Worlds that are only somewhat like our own, with people who feel and act just like us, but have fantastical, mysterious, or uncanny abilities.

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why?  

The World Book Encyclopedia. Seriously, I had about a million questions that annoyed the adult in my life and their answer was "just go read the encyclopedia." Due to taking everything literally, I did. We had a set in the house and I used to just pick a volume to read on a random afternoon. 

Books never got annoyed at me. They were endlessly patient, always held my spot, and made fascinating companions. The ones with stories became more beloved than those solid fact-masters over time. The people in them felt real, like I knew them and the reverse was also true. 

I invited L. Frank Baum's original Oz books into my childhood along with Narnia. A bit later, I re-read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising books over and over. Also, the Prydain Chronicles because of Eilonwy, the princess who was also a witch. Hobbits, Elves, Numenoreans, and Dwarves trudged across Middle Earth during my long-range Florida school bus rides.

Adolescence was rough for me. Good thing Madeline L'Engle, Terry Pratchett, Robin McKinley, and Jane Yolen reminded me that kindness, care, and love were still important, especially in the face of indifference or cruelty.

What are some of your favorite books today?

I still love fantasy, most all sorts. Paranormal, Urban, Epic, Portal, and Dark Academia (I write something like a bright version of that last one). 

The Atlas Six trilogy by Olivie Blake is a heartrending character study in a post-graduate academic setting that plays with the idea that the Library at Alexandria survived and is sustained by magic. I must include the caveat that these are for grown ups.

I'm loving how intricate the prose, lore, and progress is in R.R. Virdi's Tales of Tremaine, you will too. 

The Legendborn Saga by Tracey Deonn is just amazing high-stakes YA but also a novel yet logical twist on Arthurian legend and amazing presentation of African American folklore. 

Hideki Smith: Demon Queller by A.J. Hartley is a superb exploration of biracial adolescent identity through a thicket of contemporary southeastern US issues. 

I recommend all of these.

What inspired you to become a writer? 

I've always been writing, so I'm unsure. Considering that my wrist was a font of trouble for the last year and a half but I still wrote, it's highly likely I won't stop. Maybe it's less about what inspired me to increase the number of ink and paper friends and more about how I can't imagine a world in which I don't.

 

 

Gallows Hill Academy Series

Free bird? Don't make me laugh.  I'm Mavis Merlini and I want out. Of my shady family, this rowdy school, maybe even the world.  My brother got kicked out of Gallows Hill School for inciting mermaid violence. I'm determined to cut out all distractions and be the first of my six siblings to actually graduate.  Mom tossed me out of the nest with five dollars and the clothes on my back. Why? I visited my snitch brother in Danvers Sanitarium.  Pariah or not, I refuse to abandon my favorite sibling.  Did I forget to mention mom made me homeless on the night before my first day of high school? The principal took pity, but she stuck me in the boarding house with a nosy roommate.  I refuse to flunk out of high school like the rest of my family. Breaking the cycle is a tall order.  Three of my classmates decide to grief me because of my shady family. The others are part of an exclusive and mysterious clique. My only friend is Ed, a scrawny medium I rescued from a gang of psychic bullies.  At least he doesn’t mind my obsession with ghosts.  How will I get through the first month at this rowdy school, let alone three whole years?

Tell us a little about how the “Gallows Hill” series came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? 

Mavis's story came from that rough adolescence I mentioned above. I'd already introduced her family, primarily her older brother Crow, in the previous series. Back then, I already knew that the Merlinis were destined to get involved with the Faerie Monarchs, just not exactly how. This series was meant to detail that and tie together threads between two realms in preparation for opening up another. 

Anyway, the reason I chose this series to feature is that someone cosplayed one of my Fae Monarchs at Dragon Con this year. That's her in the picture, Squeaker of Squeaker's Nut House Cosplay. It was so amazing to see her work and to meet her! If you come by my table at Expo, you can see the book prop, which she gifted to me, up close. 

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? 

Cosmo Gitano changed so much from my notes. I introduced him along with his supposed love interest and he turned out to be asexual. I honored his wishes and that was that. That other character got a lovely romance with someone else I didn't expect, so it all worked out.

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? 

Cornelius "Crow" Merlini. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what his role was beyond Mavis's dude-in-distress brother. When I realized so much of the pain and hope he carried mirrored mine from the past, he finally clicked. Now he's a recurring character in Revealed World, working at the academy in the latest series.

 

What do you like best about being a writer? 

I needed books so much when I was younger, so it's related to that. The best part about being a writer is creating the characters I felt were missing back then, in hopes my ink and paper friends will always be there for someone else. If they help even one person, just a little bit, then my books were brilliantly successful.

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  

I'd love to work on a book or series that explores the time when magic was still secret in my world. Collaborating with an author like Jane Yolen, who remembers more of Mid-Century America than I do, would be amazing. I think I'd call it A World Unrevealed.

 

You can follow D.R. Perry here - 

Website - https://www.drperryauthor.com 

Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/drpperry 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/d.r.perry 

 

D.R. Perry is giving away a signed copy of one of her books—winner’s choice.

 

To enter, comment below →  Regardless of whether you were a social butterfly or a solitary observer during your high school years, we all faced unique challenges.  Was there a literary work that mirrored your experiences or provided a much-needed escape?

(Comments are open for 4 days)