Growing up I was an Encyclopedia Brown, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew kid — I just loved a good mystery. But the real fuel is my life. My father died two months before I was born, so I never met him, and death has been walking beside me since before I took my first step. That's why Death keeps showing up in my books — he's practically family at this point. And honestly? My wife once asked me why I keep writing books that sell little to nothing, and I couldn't answer her. Writing has always been my thing — poetry, rap, now novels. I have to be creating something to feel normal inside.

Freshman year of college, my English professor told me I was "quite a cunning linguist." I never forgot that line. When it came time to pick a pen name, it was the only one that ever made sense.

I've always loved stories and the way they can draw us into another person's world. Writing gives me the opportunity to create characters readers can care about and situations that touch the heart. I especially enjoy writing stories about love, faith, family, friendship, and the unexpected ways life can lead us in a new direction.

My latest contemporary Christian romance, Forget Me Not, was inspired by the uncertainty we sometimes face when looking toward the future. Miranda, a school secretary, meets Paul, a coach, and the two begin to develop feelings for each other. But when Miranda's mother begins showing symptoms of Huntington's disease, Miranda faces difficult questions about her own future and decides to be tested. I wanted to explore how fear and uncertainty can affect the choices we make, especially when love is at stake. The story is about finding the courage to love, trust God, and embrace the possibilities of tomorrow even when we don't have all the answers.

I used to write short stories with twist endings for my own amusement. Sometimes, I would submit them to writing contests and would receive some positive feedback.

My novel Seven Manipulated Minds is about Alfred's struggle to get respect, not only for himself, but for others on the autism spectrum. It is also about fighting bullying, even when the sources are from unexpected origins. The story begins with Alfred, a super-intelligent Asperger's sufferer, finding revenge against his six worst tormentors in high school. He uses a machine to hijack their minds and transporting them to a cyber-space room for proper adjustment. He then convinces them to join him in re-educating prejudiced movers and shakers in Society.

Inspiration doesn't always have a reason. When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a writer. I have no idea where that idea originated. It seems like I was born with it.

"Baseball, Birthday, and Ten Cent Beer" is a coming of age novel set during the infamous Ten Cent Beer riot at a Cleveland Indians baseball game in 1974.

I have worked with children for many years. I understand their psychology, needs, families, and their joys and hardships. My books guide elementary school-age children on how to step into their lives and what they need to become well-adjusted people.

I wrote, illustrated, and published eleven children's books on Amazon with The Arts Archive New York. I wrote them all between 2022 and 2025. My last book is My Friends Are Little People of America. The book is about the community of short-statured people who live in New York. We respectfully call them the Little People of America. The story is about Heidy, a short girl and one of the best students in class, who likes to say that "a small needle sows a delicate fabric." She proves that height is small compared with a person's ambitions, and she becomes a famous lawyer in the country. The story shows a long-term friendship with Mary, their deep devotion, laughs, and sorrows. The book is a great example for children on how to create a real friendship, keep it, and share thoughts and ideas. It's good not only for a class reading but for a family circle reading as well.

Reading. It has always been one of my favorite past times, and after years of reading just about everything I could get my hands on, I decided I wanted to try it myself. I started out with short stories, and eventually gravitated to novels. Long series are my favorite reads, and that is why I now work on the EthiaVerse. It's fun creating a large epic world.

Right now I am working on Hidden Empires. It's the fourth book in the Adar saga, and it's main focus is him being presented to the Empire as the Emperor's successor. It's been a lot of fun bringing Adar into the Empire. Someone who grew up on Earth, not knowing that he was heir to an Empire. We get to see the Empire from his point of view as he slowly makes this major identity change.

As a former professional actor I had to perform in new plays which were almost always rubbish. I thought "surely I can do better than that". It turned out I was right which led me to writing scripts for British television (under a different name) and eventually to writing my first novel.

Ben Braddock, a struggling actor and playwright, is celebrating his fortieth birthday. His friends hire a psychic off the internet for the party who makes two predictions. First, that Ben will win the lottery and second, that he will probably die before his next birthday. Ten minutes later, Ben wins a million on the lottery. Fearing he has less than a year to live, Ben looks for love among the luvvies and learns how to write a novel along the way, opening with the words “By the time you read this I may or may not be dead...”LUVVIE: a humorous term for an actor." (Oxford English Dictionary) One reviewer compared it favourably to JP Donleavy's modern classic, "The Ginger Man". Others (not my family, see next question) said lovely things about it on Amazon reviews which was very kind of them.

I've always loved storytelling, from since I was a child. I was fascinated by what made the stories I loved work, what made them engage and resonate with me? I was then lucky enough to work in storytelling professionally for over 25 years as a TV producer and learnt a huge amount about planning serial stories featuring long-term character arcs, development and story integrity. I took that experience from TV production to writing novels and learnt a whole new skill. I'm still learning.

The second in the Galileo thriller series is another crime mystery set on Mars fifty years from now. Set 14 months after the first book some characters have moved on, some less so. The first book was about corruption; how the rich and powerful can, with enough money and influence, seemingly get away with murder. This second thriller is about extremism - how people can take words meant for peace and unity and weaponise them for their own ends. It's also about the search for life beyond Earth - which is always a fun thing to explore. Available from 31st August 2026.

Because it's not wrong! Seeriously though, there is a long list of answers to this question and they can be found at https://dmmcgowan.blogspot.com/2026/08/why-write.html

All my stories contain some history. For example, the history included in "The Great Liqauor War" is identified at https://dmmcgowan.blogspot.com/2026/05/from-authors-note-for-great-liquor-war.html In the novel "Partners"

I love to write because it lets me express my love for writing. I love to create characters that have a meaningful impact on the story.

Eh. Not always. But I try my best to get people to love my work. I can’t force them to like anything, right?