Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We're a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people in the cowboy state. And today, oh my gosh, this person is so interesting, and she's kind of hiding in plain sight - because she's a business person in Casper, but she has this amazing talent and this amazing other profession that is bringing her some real notice right now, and we're so proud to call her a Wyomingite.
This is Dana Volney. She is our guest today on the Roundup. And Dana not only has a marketing consulting firm in Casper, she is an author, and one of her books is being made into a movie with some big names in it. So I am just so thrilled today to introduce to those of you who don't know her, Dana Volney.
Hello, Dana. Welcome to the Roundup!
Dana Volney:
Hey, Wendy. I'm so excited to be here on your podcast with Cowboy State daily.
Wendy Corr:
Well, we're excited to have you, I have to say, I'm always looking for interesting people. And Todd Titus, who is our advertising manager, said, Hey, have you talked to Dana Volney? I said, I don't know who Dana Volney is. You need to know Dana Volney, and he started to tell me about her book.
And so Dana, let's start off with, you are a Wyoming girl. You were raised here. You're a Casper native. Tell us a little bit first about your background and what brought you kind of to this point in your career.
Dana Volney:
Well, I ended up in Laramie, of course, as most Wyomingites do.
Wendy Corr:
My daughter's there right now, yes.
Dana Volney:
Right. A great experience. Loved it. Go Cowboys. I decided to get a marketing degree because it seemed like the easiest, honestly, for me to get. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.
I was in property management at the time, and then after I graduated, I bopped around on my own. I would just move for different positions to Nebraska and to Seattle, where I traveled a ton, and then decided it was just time to come back, time to come home and move back to Wyoming.
And I used to read a ton when I would travel in Seattle. I mean, I always grew up reading. My mom would check out, you know what? You could check out 10 books at a time at the library, and so she always had stacks by her bed.
We grew up reading. She would always have Fabio cover books, which, at the time, like, you don't think twice about as a kid, I had no idea, like, either, they were just mom's books, I don't know. And then when I started reading in Seattle, I started very, like, prolifically reading.
Like, you know, three or four books a week, because I was traveling, and that was my entertainment. And so when I got back to Casper, I had been putting it on my list for a while to write a book, like my new year's resolutions. I'm a big goal setter, and one day, my sister was like, you have been putting this on your list for years. Just take a class, do something about it.
And so I signed up for a class at Casper College, like one of the night classes, like the outreach classes, and it was, of course, advanced fiction writing, which there was nothing advanced about me. And so I just dove, dove in headfirst.
And from the very first class, I just absolutely fell in love, because I had started stories before that, you know, throughout my life, when I was in Seattle, and that really taught me a lot about finishing a story, and we would read in class, and you would get critiques, and it was just fantastic. Fell in love. Have never looked back. That was in 2012, so 13 years ago,
Wendy Corr:
13 years ago and 13 books later.
Dana Volney:
Yep. I got my first contract in 2013 and it was a holiday book, because I am a holiday movie-obsessed girly. I love the cheesy. I love - I know it's going to be cheesy going in, and yet sometimes I still cry, like I just I love it. I am here for the holidays. They're just my favorite.
So that is, like, the longest like series I have is six books and it's the holiday series, yeah.
Wendy Corr:
But you have other genres too. So you, you do the holiday books, the kind of the Hallmark movie formula books, which are just, they're they're candy. For those of us who love to read, if you've been reading a heavy novel, it's like, I need something light, and so you'll go to these wonderful books about relationships.
Your holiday books are, I love them. They're romances, but they're not the steamy romances.
Dana Volney:
The holiday books are not, they are meant to be like Hallmark movies. They are sweet, you know, there's like a kiss in there. They are just very clean and just everything you want when you think of watching a holiday movie. And you know, it just kind of scratches that itch of sweet,
Wendy Corr:
But then, you've got the other books that you've written. Tell us about the thrillers.
Dana Volney:
I love, my nature is suspense. My nature is mystery. I need that in a full length book or in shows that I watch. I enjoy everything else, of course, the romance that comes with it, and people falling in love, when people are shooting at their faces and the excitement.
So I definitely have other books that are steamy, that are sexy, romantic suspense books, I like to call them, and they're strong women. And like, I have one who is a woman who is the bodyguard, and she's protecting the guy.
Wendy Corr:
I've downloaded that on my Kindle. I have not had a chance to read that yet, but I've downloaded that one on my Kindle, and so I'm ready to read that.
Dana Volney:
That's the first in a three book series. It's called Protecting the Prince. It's the Wyn Security series. And there's a little fun fact, that book actually started as a twist on Snow White, and so that's why he gets poisoned, like, with an apple at the end and, like, yeah. So that's a fun fact about that book, is it kind of started as a twist on a fairy tale.
Wendy Corr:
I'm very much looking forward to reading this now. That's great. So you've got these, these 13 books that you've written. You are holiday book obsessed. And I have to say, my favorite holiday movie, it's called Spirit of Christmas, and it's just my favorite. And the star in that movie is an actress named Jen Lilley.
So how excited was I when I looked up your book that's being made into a movie, to find out that Jen Lilley is going to be the star of the movie Holiday Hearts, which is based on your novella, which is ‘A Heart for the Holidays.’
Tell us about, number one, finding out that one of your books was picked for a movie. How does that work? How do you get notified? How do they even pick?
Dana Volney:
You know, it is honestly a surreal experience. So the writing industry, like a lot of industries, can be very predatory, so you have to watch out for scams and stuff like that. And I got an email in November of 2023, and I skimmed it. It was like, noon, and I was like, Oh, I don't know.
And so I'm a night owl, so I was going through my email again at midnight, and I was like, Wait, this sounds like, real. This sounds different. And it was from a gentleman named Bill True, who now I've met with several times. He's amazing.
He's out of Arizona, and he had gotten my book, a film deck that had been made for a different publisher years before. And he was like, I want to write the script for this book. And so I sent it to my agent that night, who's in Rhode Island, and so the time difference, but she's also a night owl.
So I was like, Hey, what's up with this? Do you think this is real? And she was like, I don't know. He seems legit. Let's set up a meeting with him. And so we met with him, like, the following week or something, and he is just such a fun person, and he has written scripts before. He's got things in progress, and just a really cool individual.
And sure enough, he wrote it. We signed the shopping agreement with him. He had the script done that next March, and then has just been such a champion with his connections in the industry. And got connected with Jen Lilley, who just, I have not met her yet. Full disclosure, I'm so excited to meet her soon.
But from her social media and what Bill tells me, just, you know, fell in love with Silver and Fisher and the script, and has just been an absolute champion of the team that they have put together to bring this forward and hopefully start filming soon, and it's just been so exciting.
The first time I saw her talking about these people who live in my brain and like they're real human beings, and just the absolute excitement. And it's a surreal experience, honestly, and Bill has been amazing about keeping myself and my agent, Tara, who's amazing, in the loop.
I don't think you normally get that like he, I've read the script, which I don't know that writers normally get, because I'm not writing the script. I write novels. I write books. It's a different beast. And so. It's just been really cool to watch that process, and I'm so thankful that Bill keeps me informed on who they're casting or what's going on.
So I get, like, the best part of the roller coaster, because I get the exciting news or what's happening, and I don't have to stress about making it happen, but I do. My sister and I will get to be on set when they film. We get to be background people, and which, I'm just tickled pink about that. I'm able to do that because my sister is also a big holiday movie fan, and that was one of her things.
She was like, get us on set. And I was like, I'm trying.
Wendy Corr:
And you did, and you did. Now, of course, talking about casting, there are some big names. I mean, Jen Lilley for, you know, Hallmark movie fans, Lifetime, we know Jen Lilley, but everybody knows - folks, everybody knows Kathleen Quinlan. Kathleen Quinlan is in this movie. So is Michelle Hurd.
I mean, you hear about movies and you think they're gonna get, you know unnamed people, or you know, people who aren't necessarily big names, but this is a big deal to get those two powerful women, amazing actresses, to be involved in this project, and they play major, major parts.
In fact, there was an article in Variety magazine which named you. How big of a deal was that for you to see your name in Variety magazine?
Dana Volney:
It was so cool. I never, I didn't know to dream that dream. And it was just amazing that my name was in there with the title of the book that the movie is based off of, and just with the amazing cast and the interview with Jen, and it was so cool that, like, it was more like nationwide and people were talking about it, and just, I don't know, it's been so surreal.
Wendy Corr:
That is just so fun. But the other fun thing is, and this goes back to the book. Now, I don't know, is the movie also set where you had set the book, which is Casper Wyoming?
Dana Volney:
That is a dream. That is a dream, Wendy, I don't know at this point, they are trying, but they want to film in New Mexico. So there's different, you know, credits for different things, and sure, might be location that it's considered. So anyway, I'm not sure yet. I'm still fighting that good fight for as you know, little say as I have, but that would be the dream.
I mean, obviously, it's set in Casper. There's different landmarks and things I thought of when I was writing it, but I don't know yet.
Wendy Corr:
That would be very, very cool. But I love the fact that your holiday books, all of your holiday books are set in Casper, Wyoming. And obviously you don't have to imagine too far. Now, when you're writing those thrillers, you have to have quite the imagination to set your thrillers in these other places.
But to have the holiday romances in Casper, it's just got to be like again, visiting old friends.
Dana Volney:
Of course, yeah, when you're thinking of small town, some people make up towns. I've certainly made up towns. But I was like, No, I just, we have a, you know, small, small town. And so it's like, let's just do it here. I love Casper.
Wendy Corr:
Well, I think everybody needs to read this book simply because, and read this novella simply because it brings you home. I mean, it does. It brings you home. The name of the hospital that Silver works at is different from the Casper hospital, but still, you're got the Wyoming wind. It's Christmas and it's just a, it's a great, great story.
And I'm so tickled that I was able to read it. It was a short, short turnaround between booking this and recording this podcast, but I'm so glad that I was able to read that. I look forward to reading more of these books.
Let's talk about your characters. I got on your Facebook page in preparation for this, and one of the things that you had put up there was about how you’re writing the characters, and these are people that you created, but then they kind of take over. Tell me about that, because the writing process, it's, it's such a different way, your brain has to work in a whole different way
Dana Volney:
It does. And it's really kind of weird, because, you know, I make up these people, right?
Wendy Corr:
You are the creator.
Dana Volney:
I want them to be strong, or I want them to have this flaw, or, you know, whatever. But after you kind of get that set, they kind of just take on, honestly, a life of their own. They're their own people.
So it's as if I'm picturing my mom and sister. You're having a conversation, and what I know them to say, you know, because you can kind of anticipate what your loved ones are going to say. And so it just, it kind of takes on a life of its own.
And while I know I'm a bit of a “pantser” in the industry, so I don't, I don't meticulously plan everything with the plot - I have it set up, and a general idea of how I want it to go or how I want it to end. But I like just to take the ride with the readers - as I'm writing, I'm kind of reading the book, if that makes sense.
And it's just more fun for me that way, because if I already know the story, then why do I want to write it, I guess? And so they just kind of take on a life of their own, and they become their own people, and how they react, which can sometimes take me for a loop, and it goes in a different direction than I thought it would be.
Or they're more mad. The other day I was writing, and he was really mad about something, and I didn't see that coming. So it's just kind of weird.
Wendy Corr:
It’s like you're channeling, you're channeling these characters.
Dana Volney:
Yes, it's a very, it can be a very weird experience to be, like this movie is playing in my head, and I'm just kind of writing, what's what I see, and what is happening with these people talking. But they are essentially still me. So it's weird.
I don't really put, like, it's not my personality, necessarily. It's not me doing those things. So it's, you never want people as an author to picture you as the characters, because that's not the case. So it's weird. It's just weird.
Wendy Corr:
Although I have to say, when you're describing Silver in your book, she's blonde and blue eyed. And that’s you.
Dana Volney:
Sometimes you know you like what you like. And blonde, not always. They're not always blonde.
Wendy Corr:
I just think that it's so fascinating for those of us who don't write, to figure out, how does the character take on a life of its own? And it just, like, inhabits a different part of your brain, and it just kind of, it's almost multiple personality.
Dana Volney:
I mean, honestly, it is these people talking in my head and these plots happening, because halfway through the book, maybe, or edits, for sure, you plot more, but like, when I'm just writing the first draft, and then things happen in the plot, but then it like circles back, if I just keep going.
Like, your brain is an amazing tool. And in my case, if I don't overthink it too much, it will work itself out, which is just something I've discovered recently, if I kind of let my Type A go a little bit.
And so it's, it's been kind of fun. It's been a ride, but it is a weird experience when you really get into it, when you're writing - you know, people that are not you, doing things you would not do. I do know how to shoot a gun. I grew up doing that and different things. It's not like I am out there hunting people. One of my series is, they are assassins. Like, that's not what I'm doing.
Wendy Corr:
So how do you research for a plot like that?
Dana Volney:
I have weird Google searches, Wendy, very weird. So I will reach out to people I know. My dad would help me with some gun stuff, you know, and I have kind of a distant family member that works in a coroner's office, if I have question about finding a body, or, you know, something like that.
And so just a lot of Google, or use who I know. I was thinking about a bounty hunting series, and I met a person at a craft show that has experience with that. And so we might have coffee soon.
Wendy Corr:
The people who live in Wyoming!
Dana Volney:
I know, like, you know, normal everyday people that this is their job, or they have experience in or a lot of Googling and just weird. I don't even turn on an incognito browser. I just Google, because at this point, whoever's watching just should know my Google it's gonna be real weird.
Wendy Corr:
That’s absolutely awesome. You've mentioned your type A personality. I want to shift real quickly and talk about the fact that this is not your full time job.
Dana Volney:
No, I have a full time job.
Wendy Corr:
And so how do you balance being a marketing consultant with clients all over the state, with writing these amazing stories?
Dana Volney:
I work from home, so that kind of helps. I say I set my own schedule, but every client is like a boss, and so you answer to a lot of different people, right? And so I try to just organize my schedule and the way that I know I can take time to write. And then, like, I have days where I have to focus on my marketing work and get things done.
And I'm a night owl by trade, and so maybe a lot of writing gets done at night. And where I work more in the day. Sometimes that gets flipped depending on my mood, I guess, because also, like, I can block out a whole day to write, but is that going to be a writing day? Not always. But, butt in chair is like a mantra of most writers. You’ve just got to sit down and try to do it.
But, yeah, it's a lot of, I see my writing as a client, and so I try to schedule appropriately, without letting anybody down. So it's taken a while. I've had my marketing business, in May it turns 15, so I've had many years to figure out my schedules, which, the way I work changes year after year.
And then with my writing. I've been writing since 2012 and so, you know, they've always kind of been really one for me. And so just trying to, it's not always a good balance, but I try my hardest at that.
Wendy Corr:
And so you've got all of these, you’ve got to be an organization queen in order to be able to do all this.
Dana Volney:
Yep, I’ve got my phone calendar, I have my written calendar. I have my Kanban board for goals, which I love setting goals. I've got notebooks for clients. I've got, yeah, like, I just love me a good journal. Love me some stickers and some washi tape and some to-do lists.
Wendy Corr:
You and I are wildly similar, wildly similar. This is fantastic. Dana, what is next for you then? I mean, you've got Volney ventures, which is your marketing company. You've got all these books out. You've got the filming coming. When is the filming going to take place for Holiday Hearts?
Dana Volney:
So right now they're looking at May, June, somewhere around there, I think, from my understanding. It takes about three or four weeks to film something like this, and so that'll be down in New Mexico, which is really exciting, so that's going to happen here soon. And just so exciting.
I have another holiday book out on spec with the publisher that publishes all my other books, so we'll see if they take that one. I haven't heard back yet. We just sent that proposal in because I think it would be fun to add to this series with the movie coming out. So we might see a guy who owns a taco truck and a girl who owns a doggy daycare. Of course, you know Casper.
Wendy Corr:
Will it be summer this time, or will it still be a Christmas?
Dana Volney:
He’s wanted a taco truck, and now it's winter, and that's not a great idea. And so he's gotta win some money, and that's the basis of the book. So they all have to work together. I'm a big enemies to lovers fan. I just think the dynamic is so fun. Some, a lot of my books are enemies to lovers.
Wendy Corr:
Heart for the Holidays was not.
Dana Volney:
That one not necessarily, it's more, I guess, friends to lovers, you could say, because she goes in, she decides she wants to save him and make him, spoiler alert, he wants off the heart transplant list, and she runs the transplant list, and she decides that she's going to show him life is worth living. And he runs a type of food bank kind of situation for kids.
So she goes there to talk him back into wanting on the list, and she ends up volunteering. And so they do become friends. And, and, yeah, so this one is not necessarily enemies.
Wendy Corr:
No, it is not enemies, but those are fun. Those are the twists. It's like something is irritating about this person, but that's just because I'm actually secretly attracted to them. And yes, yeah, all of those things.
Do you get inspiration from other books that you read? Do you get inspiration from people that you meet, from movies that you see? I mean, does something just spark you and say, You know what? That would make a great plot.
Dana Volney:
I do. I mean, I think everything around you can be just a little morsel of it. You know, the book that I just finished, that I have drafted, it started because I read a series that I actually hated. I hated it. I read all three books anyway. It was a mafia romance, actually, but I hated it. But I happened to see an article that said something about, like it takes 88 days to fall in love.
And that, between my hatred of the books I just got done reading and that article, something sparked in me. I needed to start a new story and write a new enemies to lovers, but they happen to be married, and so that sparked that.
And then away I went. And so you never know just where things will kind of like mix in your head together, I guess. So you just kind of take it, take little bits from different places, yeah.
Wendy Corr:
And where can we find your books? I know I found them on Amazon, and you've got a website.
Dana Volney:
Yep, I do, danavolney.com is my website. You can find links to the books there. My YouTube channel is linked there. And so they are all right now, I think they are wide so you can find them anywhere that you read. Probably soon they're going to go into Kindle Unlimited, though. So if you don't read on Kindle or on Amazon, you probably want to go get them now, because I think this summer that they're going to go into Kindle Unlimited.
The holiday books, like those are my self published books, which were not all self published, but now I have the rights back to all of them. The holiday books, though, are with a publisher, and they are wide, so those you can find anywhere that you read, and they're in two - so the six books that are the holiday books are in two bundles. So you can buy a bundle that has three of the novellas together right now.
Wendy Corr:
That's what I had done. I bought the one that had ‘Heart for the Holidays’ in it, and so now I'm looking forward to reading the other two that were around it, because that was the middle book in there. So this is, but the publishing part of it, that is also, I mean, that's a trick. How did you get noticed? How did you find a publisher? And there's a process there.
Dana Volney:
Yeah, it can be really hard, and I definitely got a lot of rejections. And so that's, you know, you write a query letter, you tell them what the name of your book is, what the tropes are, where the category it falls, how many words that it is, and then you send your query letters out to either agents or publishers.
At the time, I was just directly submitting to publishers and then I got it picked up. I actually specifically wrote, my first book is called ‘Holiday Hoopla,’ and I had found a publisher who put out a call for short, you know, novella sized Christmas books. And since I loved Christmas so much, I was like, Yeah, okay, I'm going to do this. I can do this totally.
And I got on my treadmill desk, and away I went. So I only submitted that book actually to that publisher, because I specifically wrote it for who happened to pick it up. And at the time the head of that company, who is now my agent - so that's how I met my agent - and so then we formed a relationship, and I was able to keep, you know, querying them with whatever I was writing.
Because I don't always stay in the same lane, which is hard for me, because I have a lot of interests. So I want to write a sweet holiday, but I want to write sexy suspense, or I want to write middle of the road something. And I don't know, I'm kind of all over the place.
But that's how I formed that relationship. But I had definitely ad learned the process of, okay, this is what is standard in the industry. This is what people are looking for when you query them. This is what a synopsis is, which is a three to five page summary of your book and how you write one of those. And so I definitely had to learn those steps.
So I did mostly publishing through a publisher, and then in like 2016 or 17, I did just flat out self published my own book, which is that one is ‘No Good Dead,’ and then you have ‘No Good Truth.’ So those have always been self published, but through different years and events, I now have the rights back to everything, except for the holiday books.
So definitely, you know you have to do your research on the industry. Start following people. Start following agents you like. So a good place to start is books that you enjoy and the genre you're writing in. See who their agents are. See who's publishing them. Go look them up. Start there, find out what they're looking for.
Not all agents are always open to submissions, or only certain times a year. Sometimes publishers want it through an agent, or you can do it yourself. And so that's where I would start, and then you can kind of snowball and with your research, and go from there.
Wendy Corr:
That's great information. Thank you. It's, to me, again, not being a writer, I think that that's just fascinating, the process of how you even get noticed in such a wide field, right?
Dana Volney:
Yeah, so many people are submitting, and so many authors who are wonderful and who are self publishing. And so there's just, I forget the number, but it is like thousands of books a day are newly published to like Amazon. And so it's hard to kind of cut through that fray and find your voice and tell your story.
Wendy Corr:
But you have done that. You found your voice. You're telling your stories, and people have noticed. And now ‘Holiday Hearts’ is going to be filmed in May, starring Jen Lilley, Kathleen Quinlan, Michelle Hurd and Dana Volney!
Dana Volney:
Me and my sister in the background, maybe!
Wendy Corr:
That is fabulous. Dana, this has been such a fun conversation, and I'm just thrilled that we've got, that we can claim you as a native Wyomingite. We can claim you and your success in saying, look at the talent that we have here in Wyoming, and in Casper.
Dana Volney:
Thank you for having me on.
Wendy Corr:
This has just been fun. And I wish that you and I could sit down and have coffee sometime - like I say, I think that we're wildly similar in so many ways. This has been just a grand conversation. Dana, thank you, and good luck with all of the things that you've got coming up. And I can't wait to read your next story.
So now I'm following you on Amazon, so now I've got you there. And folks, you need to follow Dana Volney on Amazon, or you need to look her up in Casper, if you are in need of marketing services, Volney Ventures in Casper, Dana is the one to talk to.
So Dana, thank you. Good luck. Thanks for being our guest today. Folks, thank you for tuning in today. What a fun conversation this has been. Next week, we've got another great conversation coming up. We hope that you'll tune in - and go back and see some of our other conversations that we've had.
We've been doing this now for, oh my goodness, almost a year and a half, with these conversations with the most interesting people in Wyoming, and Dana Volney certainly counts as one of them.
So folks, have a great week. Tune in next week.
