Life & Work with Richard Dennis of Richmond, Fort Bend County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Dennis.

Hi Richard, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I moved to the Houston area in 1983 after finishing law school at UCLA. I was a corporate lawyer for years with major area law firms before serving as general counsel of Oshmans Sporting Goods and later moving to the legal department of AT&T. About ten years before I retired, I began writing fiction, something I had long wanted to do. Short stories came first, and after a few of them were published, I worked up the courage to begin a novel. Last year I published my second novel and immediately began work on the third.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I first began writing, I was working pretty long hours. Between work and family responsibilities, time for writing was a precious commodity. I forced myself to write early every morning, first thing before going to work. The old adage about making time rather than finding time was crucial for me.

Soon I learned how much I didn’t know about writing fiction. an endeavor quite different from legal writing. Both require clarity, but fiction derives much of its power from suggestion, allowing the reader to interpret. When you draft legal contracts, in contrast, you had better spell things out in detail. I read books about fiction writing and devoured as many novels as I could. And I took online courses for several years from The Writers Studio and the Stanford University Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing. They taught me about tone and voice and character development, among other things. Slowly, I saw my writing improve.

Now that I have retired, I still write every morning and digest as much good fiction as I can.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My novels Fiume Restoral, published in 2024, and The Rumbling of the Waters, which came out last year, bring a literary flair to fiction set in the years after the First World War. They address the struggle of individuals against the tyranny of ideology. So much of our modern world was shaped by the turmoil of those years, not always for the better. My narratives try to capture that era with a passion for truth and an eye for detail honed in my years of legal practice.

What’s next?
I’m working hard on my third novel. Once that is finished, I plan to focus on short stories which may involve the characters I have introduced in my novels. I can’t imagine not writing.

Once a month, I spend an afternoon or an evening providing legal advice in a pro bono clinic setting with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers. I will continue that as long as I can, and I’ll work on spending more time with my beautiful wife, Cheryl, and our three adult children and five grandchildren. As I said, time is precious.

Contact Info:

• Website: rgdennis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richard_g_dennis_author/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richarddennisauthor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-dennis-09787215b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichardGDennisAuthor