#WriterWednesday with Author Randee Dawn
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I’d like to welcome Randee Dawn to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Things you need for your writing sessions: Quiet, and a big block of empty time when no one's going to interrupt me. This includes time for frittering and staring out the window.
Things that hamper your writing: Interruptions, music playing, my own brain telling me I'm doing it wrong.
Last best thing you ate: Marble cake with buttercream frosting from my book launch party at WorldCon in Seattle.
Last thing you regret eating: Too much marble cake with buttercream frosting from my book launch party at WorldCon in Seattle. (But I'd do it again!)
Favorite music or song: I'm a jangle pop/Brit pop enthusiast of long standing, but could never narrow it down to one song. But if you want a band and an album, I'll point to The Trash Can Sinatras' first album, Obscurity Knocks.
Music that drives you crazy: Anything auto-tuned. It was a fun diversion for a moment, but now everything (that isn't already generated by AI) sounds like it's coming through the mind and microphone of a computer.
The last thing you ordered online: Sleeves to hold tea packets to help promote my books; I have different tea flavors for each that I hand out at conventions and other book-related events.
The last thing you regret buying: Artwork by my favorite artist. I love him – Luke Chueh is amazing – but I went a little overboard in my zeal for something original, and now I think I have three paintings coming to me that are basically the same thing.
Things you’d walk a mile for: Peanut butter cookies, ice cream, a new independent bookstore, a place to meet my friends for afternoon tea.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: My husband's kimchi snacking, ignorance dressed up as authority, people who say they don't read.
Things to say to an author: "How many copies can I order?" "This changed my life." "How can I help get the word out about your book?"
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: "I've always wanted to write a book." "I think I could earn a living as an author." "I don't read."
Favorite places you’ve been: Queenstown, New Zealand; Akureyri, Iceland; The Grand Canyon, USA
Places you never want to go to again: Las Vegas, USA; to an office job; the dentist (but I will, of course)
Favorite books (or genre): Anything by Jonathan Carroll; early Stephen King; Michael McDowell, Blackwater; Judy Blume's oeuvre; The House Next Door by Anne River Siddons; the short tales of O. Henry and Roald Dahl.
Books you wouldn’t buy: Most "literary" fiction. I'm a genre gal all the way.
Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Got one of my music video concepts turned into an actual music video by a friend at college who needed to come up with a final project for film class. Thanks, Scott – I still love our collaboration on The Alan Parsons Project's "Silence and I."
A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: A friend and I were going to make a different music video – a direct take on Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," until I realized how much it was going to cost to do it even halfway. We abandoned the project.
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: A version of how I met my close friend Julia when we were in 6th grade and bonded over books
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: That I struggled to become an actress by doing a lot of improv
The first 8-track, record, cassette, or CD you ever bought: Hustle '76 (album). I was really young and ordered it off the TV, and it arrived Cash on Delivery (something that doesn't exist anymore, I don't think), and mom had to fork over the $4. I also didn't realize until years later that the reason it cost $4 was it was a bunch of cheap covers of actual hit songs.
A type of music that’s not your cup of tea: I'm pretty open, but I just can't get into opera.
Your favorite movie as a child: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): The Blair Witch Project
About Randee Dawn:
Randee Dawn is the bestselling author of the "funny as hell" pop culture fantasy novel Tune in Tomorrow. She has two novels out in 2025: Dark Celtic musical fantasies The Only Song Worth Singing and Leave No Trace, while her next funny foray into the Tune-iverse, We Interrupt This Program will be out in March 2026. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including most recently Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight, Vol. 4. She is the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion. A veteran entertainment journalist for The LA Times, Variety and Today.com, Randee lives in Brooklyn and is known to usually emcee the monthly reading series Brooklyn Books & Booze.
Let’s Be Social:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRandeeDawn
https://bsky.app/profile/randeedawn.com
https://www.instagram.com/randeedawn/
https://www.threads.net/@randeedawn
