To be honest, Dan Purdue’s blog profile doesn’t give away that much about him:
My name’s Dan. I write fiction – mainly short stories, but with a novel approaching completion. Well, sort of. I’m thirty-something, I live in Worcestershire, I don’t have a cat.
But it was a pleasure to meet him recently on an Arvon course, and getting to read his writing, I will put a bet on him becoming much better known in the future.

And not only that he is running an interesting treasure hunt/competition on his blog, with just one week left to enter. It’s just the kind of puzzle I like, and has been designed to promote his book, Somewhere To Start From which is a collection of 21 short stories, most of which have been published online or in print, or have done well in various competitions over the last couple of years. These include Writers’ Forum, The Waterhouse Review, Defenestration, The James White Award, and The Guardian.

You can read one of Dan’s stories here, but for now, finish those sentences Dan….

When you were small, you wanted to be… a palaeontologist. When I was a toddler I could reel off dinosaur names and facts like a chubby little encyclopaedia in a nappy. My parents taught me to say “I’m going to be a palaeontologist” and convinced a lot of my relatives I was some kind of infant genius. Once I started going to school, I decided I’d prefer to be a vet – until I got to my A Levels and discovered I wasn’t even vaguely competent at chemistry, after all.

The one thing you can never resist is… flapjack. When it’s made well, it’s more addictive than crack cocaine. I assume.

You may not say it aloud but… I don’t believe in writer’s block. If a writer steps away from the pen / keyboard for a few hours and doesn’t spot the inspiration bombarding them from every angle, they’d perhaps be better off taking up another pursuit. You might not find something you think is worth writing about, but there’ll always be something to write, and once it’s there you can work at improving it. Stories lurk anywhere and everywhere – you just need to appreciate the difference between seeing something and noticing it.

The last time you went ‘WOOP’ with excitement was … when I opened the box containing the first twenty-five copies of my anthology. It was a WOOP of excitement, joy, and – to be honest – relief. I’d done pretty much everything myself, so I had nobody to blame if it looked terrible. I’d ordered a proof copy, which had been pretty exciting, but seeing them en-masse, lined up and ready for action, looking all glossy and giving off that fantastic new-book smell, was a real rush.

Your five favourite words are … if I’m allowed a French word, I’d like to start with un oubli – because when I first encountered it, it was defined as “the opposite of a memory”, which I’m not sure is entirely accurate, but I love the concept; triceratops – because it’s one of the few dinosaurs I can remember these days, and it was pretty much the best one; bazooka – because it’s fun to say, particularly if you draw it out a bit (baah-zooo-kaarr); pod – because (in lower case at least) it doesn’t matter which way up you have it; pulchritudinous – because it sounds like it should mean the complete opposite of what it actually means.

Thanks, Dan! And help yourself to the plate above because, my, how pulchritudinous do they look?

Other FIVE SENTENCES…

* With Peggy Riley
* With Anthony McGowan
* With Tania Hershman
* With Abegail Morley.
* With John Siddique.
* With Clare Best.
* With Scott Pack.
* With Jonathan Pinnock.