My hearts, I cannot wait for you to meet my new friend Dana Sweeney.

Dana sold her first short story at sixteen to True Love Magazine. Over the years since, she has explored many genres, media, and styles before coming back home to romance with her first novel, Lust for Tomorrow.

In her daily life, Dana is a writer in the video game industry. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

Dana and I met when we were both nominated for Indieverse Awards. Organizer of Genius Kristina Carmela paired us for a Nominees on Nominees Instagram Live. (If you watch it, please forgive the technical shenanigans at the beginning!) We had so much fun, I asked Dana to continue the conversation here.

JEN: Welcome, Dana. Thanks for letting me pick your brain in public like this! I loved our live chat on Instagram. Please, tell me a little about your writer self. I met you through Indieverse, so I assume you’re self-published.

DANA: I’m indie, and it was an easy call when I realized it was the only way to maintain control of the cover art. I was committed to my classic sci-fi pulpy vibe, and no marketing manager or algorithm adherent was going to tell me no.

JEN: Worth it. I love your cover so much. After seeing it in all the Indieverse marketing materials and then reading your book, I thought they were a perfect match. Down to the color!

Tell me about your journey as an indie author.

DANA: I've been writing forever, though I've gone through a lot of phases. Short stories, poems, songs, blogging, visual poetry... I went to college for writing, and I’m very fortunate to write in my day job in video games. Over the years, I occasionally had an idea for a book. I’d try to sit down and write an outline, but I couldn’t see past a certain point, so I decided I wasn't capable. I eventually got lucky, falling too in love with a character to care whether I could see the future clearly. That’s how I discovered pantsing (I learned the word for it ere long as well!).

JEN: Learning the lingo is half the battle, right? But also, being given permission to go rogue. I know that if I wrote now the way I did in college—like you say, outline, plot first, beginning then middle then end—I’d never write a thing!

On that thought, what advice would you give to your younger self? Or to other writers just starting out?

DANA: I’ve talked about this online a bit recently: There’s not a "right way" to be a writer. If you’re not able to plot a book before writing it, that’s no reason not to start writing. You can do it in any order, put it together in post, play with different takes until your characters deliver the performance that works. You don't have to do it in a specific amount of time or by a certain age. Don’t stress out if you’re not there yet. Keep reading, keep practicing, and apply the lessons of poetic forms to prose to stretch yourself (restrictions are fertile soil, in other words; for example, take a 1000-word story and hone until it’s 800. See how much cleaner it is).

JEN: I love each one of those. I feel like that’s a syllabus for a writing course. I tell my journalism students all the time to write the lead last. They’d love this advice too. I recently saw a super valid argument that the advice given to writers “you cannot write if you do not read” is severely ableist. I’m trying to unlearn this question… So, my rephrase is, are you a reader? What content do you consume?   

DANA: In recent years, I read mostly romance. Frequently on the darker side. I’ve basically lost my stomach for true darkness. I was a devoted Stephen King fan for the first half of my life, but I just can’t let stories take me to those places anymore. I love the HEA. I need the HEA. I need to know that no matter how dark the story gets, these people are going to be not only okay but happy by the end, and crucially, so will any cute little animals.

JEN: Oh, for real. I cannot with dog death. Movies I should love—namely “John Wick” and “I Am Legend”—are no go for me for this reason.

What do you do for fun when you're not writing novels?

DANA: Since becoming a mom, my leisure time has been so limited that I mostly do try to keep it for writing, as that’s the most important thing to me. Every so often, I still get out for a cider or wine tasting. I am a big TV watcher and even bigger rewatcher. You can learn so much about storytelling on a rewatch, seeing the tiny character moments you didn’t understand fully the first time; knowing what they add up to lets you appreciate the craft more.

JEN: Do you have a favorite author?

DANA: I’ve read nearly every book by Kitty Thomas, and I absolutely love her style. I nearly always relate to her heroines, and I can almost never resist her anti-heroes.

Last year, I joined a Romance Writers Discord server, and I’ve made so many wonderful friends there as well as on Threads. I’ll just limit myself to the first five that come to mind, so I don’t ramble all day. Nenia Campbell is a force of nature, so inspiring and generous of spirit, and her prose is lush and exciting. Kate Raven is #goals (not literally because I could absolutely not emulate her work ethic no matter how hard I tried!) and so encouraging and warm. Stefan Sparkle is one of my favorite people, and he’s a one-man hype machine; at times, I think his energy keeps a bunch of us afloat. Poppy Fitzgerald has been alpha reading my raw first draft, and she even called out scenes she’d choose for art commissions! Ariel DeWinter kicked my ass when I was nervous about trying dual POV.

JEN: I love that. Y’all are building a community! Intellectually, I know there are great conversations happening on Discord. But my elder millennial brain has such a hard time with the interface. I can see how it’s easy to navigate but I just refuse to navigate it!

Favorite music? 

DANA: I work best with silence. I wish I could have more complete silence most of the time! But when I'm not writing, I like great lyrics more than anything, so if I connect to the words, I’ll get into the songs. Hence my love of people like Taylor Swift, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Ben Folds.

JEN: I’m a die-hard Ben Folds fan. For the same reason. If lyrics are your thing, please allow me to recommend Wilco. Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics make my brain happy.

Tell me more about your writing routine. Are you a morning bird or a night owl? What snacks or drinks do you need?  

DANA: Daytime. Nights I can sometimes pull off some light revisions. I’m super lazy about food. I just want to get it out of the way so I can get back to work. A bag of chips, a slice of cheese, an ice cream bar... just toss some calories onto the pile quickly without diverting my attention too much. I drink iced tea all day.

JEN: It’s my drink of choice as well. I’ve been ordering unsweet iced tea with nearly every meal since high school. Where are you from?

DANA: I lived in Baltimore most of my young life, then spent a few years in Albuquerque before winding up in Seattle. I’ve now been here longer than anywhere else and can’t imagine myself leaving unless I magically have an opportunity to become Canadian or something. The video games industry is big here, and the writing I’ve been privileged to do has been incredibly valuable in developing my skills as well as combating my impostor syndrome. There’s something about “I get paid to do this” that makes you feel more secure!

JEN: I can relate actually. Tell me more about writing for work.

DANA: One of the most important skills I’ve developed in professional writing is brevity. Not so much in rambling interview responses, perhaps, but in anything that gets multiple drafts! Writing character backstories, for example, and then having the lead designer come back with, “This is great! Problem is we only have room in the UI for about 400 words.” Meanwhile, I wrote more than double that... so I write another draft, then another, paring it down to the essentials—not just the facts, but choosing to preserve those key turns of phrase that speak more to the character’s ethos than my own love of words.

JEN: Wait. You write for video games? I just kind of assumed you write about video games! Tell me more. Don’t break any NDRs or whatever, but tell me what this means—if I see text on the screen there’s an in-house copywriter who wrote that? Is that what you mean?

DANA: Yes, if there are words on the screen, I had something to do with it. From characters and stories to UI button labelling to the FAQs, it all goes through me.

JEN: That’s so freaking cool.

Back to your novels. What has been the biggest compliment you’ve received?

DANA: There’s a bookstagrammer, Sarahhbeth_reads, who I’ve since become good friends with, but we started chatting when she read my book and wrote this epic, dissertation-style review. Reading it, I thought, this is the greatest success I didn’t even dare to hope for, and anything that happens after this is gravy. She analyzed word choices and talked about themes, and just to know there was someone out there who looked that closely at what I wrote and really thought about it! An unbelievable gift.

JEN: Yes! Those literary analysis reviewers are out there! I’m glad she found you. That’s so cool. Let’s leave it on that high note.

Except, one more. I teach my journalism student to always ask this question: What’s a question I haven’t asked that I should have? 

DANA: What’s the silliest mistake or oversight you'll cop to? Failing to give my MMC a last name (both laugh). I’ll remedy it in Book Two.

JEN: Ah, I love it. Tell me about your work in progress, yes.

DANA: I’m working on Book Two, and it’s getting close to a complete first draft. At which point it will be revised and refined until I’m sure any further changes I make will only make it different, not better, and then it’s off to my editor, Lisa Sullivan.

JEN: This has been so fun, Dana. Thanks for letting us know more about you. I appreciate your time. I hope all my readers pick up Lust for Tomorrow. And when you’re ready, we’ll be lined up to preorder your second book.

DANA: Book Two doesn’t officially have a title yet, and the idea of putting up a preorder before it’s 100% finished gives me hives.

JEN: Oh, I get it. My friend JC Bryer keeps pushing me to put my WIP up as a preorder now. I’m still drafting!

My hearts, please check out Dana Sweeney on her website and Instagram. You can read her first novel Lust for Tomorrow. And keep your eye on the Indieverse Awards website—voting begins in November. Dana’s book is nominated for the following categories:

• Best Dystopian Novel

• Book Tagline that Reeled Me In

• Hottest Consent Scene

• Favorite Read Set in Another Time  

Are you a human author? A human who narrates audiobooks? A human who designs book covers? Or a human who does PR and promotion for other authors? I'd love to interview you, too. Let me know when you’re ready!