CL Dennis

The pen name I use is CL Dennis, but my first name is Christopher, although I prefer Chris. I just turned 30 in November 2019. I have been writing since, technically, third grade, but I didn't decide to make use of it until High School. After several other career paths didn't work out, I found I would always fall back on my writing. Specifically, my two biggest projects/stories, 'Chains of the Raven' and 'Stones of the Highland,' later dubbed 'The Awakener.'

Which brings me here, why should my work interest you? The protagonists in my books have always been crafted or molded from chunks of myself. Virr in 'The Awakener,' I took my anxiety, self-consciousness, and my desire to find purpose or meaning to my life, and put it into a High Fantasy world. A world inspired by so many I had read and grown to love as a kid. A world of mystery and magic. A world for those who feel like there is something more to life, where everything has meaning. A place where destiny and fate are as real as life and death. For Simon in 'Chains of the Raven,' I took my depression, self-loathing, and self-destructive behavior and stuck it in a dark, grim world where you have to fend for yourself, a world that's functionally morally grey. A world with no good guys or bad guys, just people and all their habits, both good and bad. I took their greed and cruelty, but I also took their compassion and naivety. 

I have always been a fan of characters that weren't your stereotypical flawless or misunderstood heroes. I find them boring and unrealistic. I don't like storybook endings. If my characters have a happy ending, its because they have worked hard to obtain one. They are real people, and they face real problems, like self-doubt, emptiness, and loneliness. It's them against themselves and then, ultimately, against the world. I try to incorporate those ideas and themes into my characters, and I absolutely love them and hate them for it. Hopefully, you grow to feel the same. Thank you.