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.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a child, but wrote my first musical at 14 years old and it was produced by a local children’s theater company.
When did you first know you could be a writer?
I always thought I wanted to be an actor, but wrote three musicals in high school for the same theater company. The president of that organization said I may be surprised where my life would take me (when I moved to New York City to be an actor). I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind I heard what she said.
What inspires you to write and why?
I’m inspired by personal journeys. People attempting to overcome an obstacle: whatever that might be. Then I might be traveling and meet a truly interesting person who would be a perfect character type. All of these things hang in my brain and notes start to pour out of me to write a story.
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I really don’t categorize myself into any genre. I’ve written literary fiction, women’s lit, non-fiction memoir, short stories—I’m drawn more to the character and putting them in a believable situation in which to work out their issues.
What inspired you to write your first book?
Well With My Soul is actually my debut novel and I wrote it first as a play. After hearing it read by a cast, I knew I needed to write it as a novel and tell the story of the fifteen years of these brothers.
Who or what influenced your writing once you began?
When I read Augusten Burroughs Running with Scissors, I knew I wanted to write in that powerful, raw, storytelling voice. Sometimes what I write can be abrasive, but I believe in staying true to my character and letting them speak in the way they would.
Who or what influenced your writing over the years?
Reading other authors has truly influenced me. I believe I can see what I really like and what I don’t care for as much. Then I know what it is I want to do.
What made you want to be a writer?
I never really thought “if only I could be a writer . . . ” I think instead—I just wanted to be a storyteller. In my writing. As an actor, director, producer—it’s all a way to express a story to an audience.
What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
I think the loneliness of writing. Not when you get to the point of sharing it with others and turning to other authors, but those moments when it is you…inside your head…wondering if the story is moving in the correct way. That can be a challenge.
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?
Writing Well With My Soul taught me I can speak from two different sides of a situation…no matter how “Greg” may feel about it. My characters do not all see things as I do and it was liberating to find their voice and be able to allow it to be heard even when it goes against my own beliefs.