Denise DeVries, author

Daily writing promptWhat’s a movie or book that inspired you to travel?View all responses When I was living in Honolulu in 1963 and 1964, either Weekly Reader or Highlights Magazine contained phonetic French language lessons. My friends in 3rd grade were mostly bicultural, busy after school with dance or language classes. I was already experiencing the life of a traveler, living in a big city…

Daily writing promptWhat app eats up most of your screen time — and do you even feel bad about it?View all responses Screen time? I’m so old fashioned that I still read books and watch TV. I use my computer to check Facebook and Instagram. I prefer email over text. Still, I do spend time on my phone, reading WordPress and playing games. To be honest, I don’t feel bad about any of that. On the…

Daily writing promptIf you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?View all responses Trend? As in fashion, music or other media? Or are we talking about a tendency? Trend: a general development or change in a situation or in the way that people are behaving I wouldn’t try to erase anything in history, because I don’t want to affect the space/time continuum. What would happen if…

Daily writing promptWhich outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?View all responses “Outdated?” Does that mean no longer useful or no longer popular? Replaced by something newer or something better? What is technology? The word technology is a combination of the Greek technē, which means “art, craft,” and logos, which means “word, speech.” It first appeared in English in the 17th…

Daily writing promptWhat’s a chapter of your life you’d title “The Hard Years” — and what got you through it?View all responses In the early 1990s, I had to rebuild my life and self-image after failing at marriage. I enrolled in an MFA program and started therapy. My poetry teachers told me my writing was too direct and simple, but I didn’t want to write the way they recommended. I ended up…

Daily writing promptDo you think we’re shaped more by our experiences or by who we are?View all responses Ah, another trick question. We are the sum total of our experiences – Tom McCallum … We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself. – Carl Sagan Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1826): “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” “Nature vs. nurture”…

Daily writing promptWhat is the best excuse you have heard lately?View all responses I have been working on my punctuality and am trying not to make excuses. I have plenty, and some of them are pretty interesting. Traffic backups are rare in my rural community and are usually caused by farm machines or animals. Still, there was that time when someone crashed while trying to pass a parade float.…

Daily writing promptWhich book have you read more than any other?View all responses For many years, I made an annual pilgrimage to Narnia, an early Portal Fiction series. When I began writing for middle grade readers, the magic portal became my Key to History. Picnic in paradise

My memories are full of trees, and now I learn that our trees are full of memories. According to botanist Beronda Montgomery, when we exchange carbon dioxide with a tree, our breath is captured and remains. Her latest book, When Trees Testify, tells her personal family history in the voices of several trees. Driftwood Once a tree

Daily writing promptIf you had to be an animal for a week, which one would you be and why?View all responses Everybody wants to be a cat, right? Or, even better, a French cat! Le chat de Charles

Daily writing promptWhat’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?View all responses According to the science fiction I’ve been reading lately, we may be living in a post industrial age in twenty years and canned peaches will be used as currency. Keep your can opener handy and well-oiled.

Daily writing promptAre you a lifelong learner?View all responses Am I a lifelong learner? I like to think so. I can’t imagine a day in the future when I’d put aside my books and say, “I know enough now.” Unlearned lessons

Daily writing promptWhat’s one habit that has improved your life the most?View all responses I wasted many years trying to seem “normal” and suppress my tendency to be different. I’m still working to establish the habit of being myself or myselves. I’m sure of one thing. If we were meant to live in boxes, we would be square shaped.

Daily writing promptWhat’s a book you think deserves a sequel?View all responses F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby was a masterpiece of understatement. The untold story is as fascinating as the one on the page, inspiring homages and spinoffs of all types. If I were to write my own Gatsby, it would either be in space or a prequel told by the much more interesting Jim Gatz. Or maybe it would…

Daily writing promptWhat villain actually had a good point?View all responses Although I am not a muse myself, I have some sympathy for those who are, especially Gala Dali (Elena Ivanovna Diakonova). She was married to the successful poet Paul Eluard when she met Salvador Dali, a struggling artist. Paul Éluard According to a Paris Review article, Dali was suffering from a nervous breakdown…

Daily writing promptWhat’s a time you followed your gut and it turned out to be exactly right?View all responses This was written the day after I saw the Daily writing prompt below: Emperor Palpatine has announced open elections for a new Emperor — and he’s nominated Darth Vader. You get to nominate one challenger. My first thought was, “I have absolutely nothing to say about this.” Many times…

Daily writing promptWhat’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective?View all responses In elementary school, I learned about perspective in art. I always drew the same landscape, a straight road disappearing between mountains on the horizon. Electric poles lined one side of the highway, and train tracks were on the other. But what exactly is perspective? It can be a…