Hello my Gentle Readers. I know our Meet The Author Monday has been a little thin lately, but I have a couple lined up for this week and next that I hope you will enjoy and check out what they have to offer. This week we will be talking with David L Heaney, a former pastor turned writer with his spiritual adventure, A Yorkie’s Tale: Lessons from a Life Well-Lived. Usual format applies with myself in BLUE and David in GREEN.
David, first off thanks for taking time to speak with us. Your book looks like a wonderful tale. Let’s start off with how you came to the world of literature and reading. 
I spent one year away at a Prep School in Peekskill, NY mostly because I had been doing poorly in school and was in and out of trouble. I hated that year. There was, however, one teacher who told me he thought I wrote well and would write better still, if I read more. He didn’t care what I read, just as long as I read. We had mandatory study hall after dinner so I read a lot of racy Harold Robbins books. I suppose that was when reading just became a part of each day.

A bit of a troublemaker, huh? Fascinating that you became a pastor then. After finishing with Harold Robbins, what genre did you explore? Who became your favorites?
I have always loved writers like John Updike, John Cheever, William Styron- I guess that’s literary realism. I also love biographies. More recently, I have been drawn to fantasy having recently completed a couple of Neil Gaiman books. I loved Phillip Pullman’s new book, Dust: La Belle Sauvage.

Gaiman is a favorite. So at some point you decided to not just read, but create your own stories. What inspired you to make that leap?
I was a parish minister for many years and was struck by the drama of people’s lives. I suppose this was because I was so often with people as they negotiated their way through critical developmental milestones. I also was obliged to write sermons for Sundays. I learned over time that stories were more powerful than traditional sermons. Stories also somehow help one make sense of experience. So, I learned that writing about things helped me better understand them.

From sermons to published author. Very interesting. Do you feel confined to one genre when you write or are you exploring several?
I dabble in in several genres. I surprised myself when I began A Yorkie’s Tale since I had never considered writing epic fantasy but enjoyed it quite a bit and am working on another fantasy story. I also enjoy writing personal essays.

Fantasy is my favorite genre so I’m always delighted to meet new fantasy authors. Can you tell us about your journey with “A Yorkie’s Tale”? How did it go from draft to available on Amazon?
A Yorkie’s Tale is my first book and most earnest attempt to publish in the traditional manner. It was a frustrating business to attempt to go the traditional route since I was a novice. Agents want to represent someone known. Publishers read manuscripts from agents. As the form letters stated-“We get X thousands of manuscripts every month…” so I understand it’s a very competitive business. I finally opted to self publish and am quite happy with how it all went. I found a wonderful illustrator who helped bring my characters to life and again, I’m quite pleased with how it all turned out. We’ll see about the next one.

When that next one is going to hit the shelves, would love to have you back to talk about it. When you aren’t writing, how do you like to spend your time? Is there a day job now that you have retired from being a pastor?
I have a small consulting firm with two UK-based partners. I worked internationally for a number of years in the area of public health and human services that were contracted out to private companies. My firm continues to represent companies interested in doing business with governments largely in Australia, the UK, and the US.
My wife, Lynda and I moved to Durham, NC with our 3 dogs from San Diego 4 years ago. She took a job at Duke Medicine and I work from home. Our five grown children and 3 grandchildren all still live in San Diego.

Sounds like you keep very busy. I’m glad you carved out the time to visit with me. You have a funny story about how you began your novel to share with us. Let’s hear all about it.
I lived for a year in London a couple of years ago. My flat was located on Poppins Court (yes, named for Mary Poppins). That’s where I started A Yorkie’s Tale. Our Yorkshire Terrier in San Diego started to get fat and we couldn’t figure out why. We later discovered he was eating the avocados that dropped from our neighbor’s tree. One lonely weekend afternoon at the Pub I started the story – the Yorkie in the backyard eating avocados.

And now that Yorkie is inspiring and helping people all over the world through your story. Wonderful. Thank you again David for visiting and please let us know when your next tale will be coming.

If you would like to follow David and learn more about him and his work, you can connect with him at the below links.

On Amazon

Website: http://somethingtosaydotblog.wordpress.com

Twitter: @dlheaney

Instagram: heaneydavid

And if any of you would like to be featured on Meet The Author Monday, you can contact me here.