Gregory G. Allen moved from Texas to New York in the late 80s and has been in the entertainment business for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer, songwriter, playwright and author. He’s had over ten shows that he has written produced on stage, been the recipient of musical grants from BMI, ASCAP and the Watershed Foundation, and has had short stories and poetry published in Off The Rocks, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Oddville Press, Perpetual Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Word Catalyst Magazine, and Rancor’d Type.
He is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, and the Theatre Communications Group. He now lives in the suburbs of New Jersey and for the past five years he’s managed an arts center on a college campus. Proud Pants: An Unconventional Memoir was published this summer and is available as a digital download on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. "Well With My Soul" is his first novel.
What is your favorite quality about yourself?
I attempt to inspire others to ‘go for it’ by going for it myself.
What is your least favorite quality about yourself?
I’m not a very patient person.
What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why?
“In the end it’s not the years in your life that counts. It’s the life in your years.” Abe Lincoln. I follow this and try to live life to the fullest, no matter how many years we may have on earth.
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
I’ve managed to be happy in each job/career I’ve gone after. I climbed the corporate ladder (accidently from a job that started out as part time), but was so pleased to walk away from that to get back into the arts to manage an arts center at a college campus five years ago. It was a very scary move at the time, but it got my creative juices flowing once again and I’m so happy that I did it.
How has your upbringing influenced your writing?
I’ve been told many ‘southern tales’ as I grew up and being a kid from a middle class family growing up in the 70s and 80s has definitely found its way into my writing in different forms.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I remember watching Laverne & Shirley in the 70s and writing my own ‘episode’ for the show. I guess I needed the structure and characters of a show.
When and why did you begin writing?
I started writing original short stories around fifth/sixth grade and have old spiral notebooks full of them . . . somewhere in a drawer.
