D. Odell Benson is a writer of all styles. She was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 10th in the year of 1977 to S. Irene
Benson and S. Gary Sullivan with one brother Andre’ Benson. She later graduated
from Ashford University on September 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal
justice, specialized in forensics, and minored in psychology and on July of
2013 with a master’s degree in public administration. This is when Odell
noticed that writing was a passion and figured, why not share something that
she loves to do. Everyone looks for the meat and potatoes within a story and/or
bio so here it is… Odell writes novels, poetry, and from time to time a song or
two. In her spare time she adores spending time with family and friends but
also gained a deep love for sports, video games, and guitars (acoustic and
electric).
Books:
Ryan Matters Series: My First Kill, The Unknown, and Deception
My First Kill: currently available at https://www.createspace.com/4396561
The Unknown: release date TBA
Deception: release date TBA
A Foster Child’s Journey: release date TBA
1) What inspired you to write your first book? Writing My
First Kill came as competition. I was working on my Master’s degree when a
fellow writer was telling me how hard it’s been for him, writing his book. He
told me I would never understand, because being a writer is harder than what people
assume. So I took that as a challenge, I challenged to finish my degree and
complete my first manuscript within the same year.
2) What do you think is more important: Characters or Plot?
I think characters are more important in a good book. The plot can be amazingly
horrible but if you have great characters it’ll still make the reader feel that
it’s all real, it can really happen the way it is in the book. Books are about
perception, if you have a great plot but the characters aren’t vibrant and
strong, the plot wouldn’t matter too much. Well, that’s my personal thought.
3) What books most influenced your life? Mostly anything
Stephen King wrote or poetry. Stephen King is the one that basically gave me
the understanding as a young child that there’s not a problem having a mind
such as the one I have. Before I wrote my first novel I expressed myself and
thoughts through poetry. My favorite poets, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and
John Keats.
4) What is one 'day-job' you have held that has affected
your writing? How so? I currently work as a fraud analyst and it affects my
writing tremendously. My mind races daily, before being a fraud analyst it
would race about my ideas and different things I wanted Ryan or Matt to do.
Now, there are times my mind is bombarded with thoughts of how to find someone
or how to connect with an employee. It’s good and bad, I can picture in my head
our clients doing things that are against the Company’s policy but with that
comes my overly active imagination. I think it’s a plus more times than not.
5) Is there a subject/genre that you'd never write about?
Why? I want to write on everything I can touch. The only genre that may give me
a bit of a problem is Sci-fi. There’s so much detail and background needed to
make the story understandable and since I’m a person that enjoys giving details,
my first Sci-fi novel may end up being like Stephen King’s “It”.
6) What do you like to do when you aren't writing? I’m
currently a foster parent, not something I planned to do but it happened. I
love playing with my little one, spending time with my mate, and when I have
free alone time, play the guitar. Well, not actually play, more like practice.
*SMILES*
7) What is a talent you have that no one knows? I can juggle;
I can juggle anything I can fit my hands around. The greatest thing is that I
can juggle with different items that have different sizes, like a football,
basketball, and baseball. Well I think it's a talent. *Shrugs*
8) What is one tip you'd give to up & coming authors? Never
give up, don’t lose sight of what you want and what you want to accomplish. There
are going to be rough nights, days, weeks, months, and even years, but never
give up. Your success could be right around the corner and each day you put it
off it could delay your greatness.
9) If you could spend the day with one person, alive or
dead, who would it be and why? Maya Angelou, she’s someone I looked up to as a
child and even as an adult. I would want to pick her brain for all of the
information she could share. There’s something about having a person that knows
about what goes on in this World today, but it’s more valuable information when
they can compare a great deal of the past, with the current.
10) What's next for you? What’s next for me…. Writing, writing,
and more writing. I would enjoy nothing more than to write, all day every day.
