In the southeast section of the country there is an author who is breaking down barriers for herself as well as for many others. Creating a foothold for success with her widely popular play My Husband’s Woman playwright, author, and entrepreneur Dee Dee M. Scott is garnering the attention of all who will listen with her unique brand of writing and creative outlook on life. Not only has she penned a number of stories for stage and print but with the help of her husband has started a multi-faceted business that will not only help them realize their dreams of taking their work digital but also fulfill the dreams of aspiring artist. Parlé Magazine spent a few moments getting to know Scott and her work and we think you should too. Check it out.
Parlé: A large portion of your notoriety seems to have happened around the year 2011 but like all great success the work must have happened before then. When did you start writing?
Dee Dee M. Scott: Well, I started writing when I was six years old and I actually started out writing songs. After that I went a little further and started writing poetry.
Parlé: We know you have come a long way since then but are you still writing music and poetry?
DDMS: I actually still write poetry and I’m also going to be doing some recordings of some songs soon. That’s a future project though.
Parlé: Awesome, it’s always exciting to see multifaceted artists. Clearly you’re creative but what would you say drew you to writing? How did you know this is what you wanted to do?
DDMS: Well I’ve always had an active imagination and I just loved language arts. Because I had an overactive imagination I would write all the time and that’s how I had fun. Writing songs, or poetry, or books or anything like that, it allowed me to use my imagination and have fun.
Parlé: So when did “fun time” become a reality for you? At what point did you say this could be your career?
DDMS: Well that didn’t happen until I was 27. I just had my last child, my son, and after I had gotten really sick. It was a bad case of anemia and it put me down for a few months. During that time I promised myself that if I did get well I wouldn’t hide my stories anymore. I was going to take everything and just run with it. By the grace of God I did get well again and after that I did everything that I wanted to do and was no longer afraid to do it.
Parlé: That’s amazing, unfortunately you were sick but so many great things have come out of that situation.
DDMS: Yes it has!
Parlé: Prior to chasing that dream did you have another career?
DDMS: Actually, I was a teacher. I taught during the daytime and wrote whenever I could find time at night and just held on to the stories until then. That’s pretty much what I did after graduating high school.
Parlé: So it’s clear that you are more than just a writer especially since another career aspect of yours is the company you and your husband started. Can you tell me about that?
DDMS: Well, there are four different companies that are all apart of my parent company which is DDMS Entertainment. We have a the publishing company, which is Ahsyad Publications, and the theater company( DDMS Theater productions) where we do our stage plays. We also have a talent agency (Awesome Scott PR & Talent Agency) and our film company D&D Films.
Parlé: There are two aspects of the company I understand are making major changes, what does that entail?
DDMS: Well we are going to be bringing out our first film, Lake House on October 31st this year.
Parlé: Congratulations on that and I know the talent agency is doing some great work as well correct?
DDMS: Yes. The talent company was started by my husband. We noticed when we were auditioning for our theater productions and movies that some of the people that were coming through were really talented but did not have a platform to shine on. So he brought the idea to me and we got together and decided to start an agency to sign some of these talented people.
Parlé: That’s amazing but I also see that growth in those divisions aren’t the only ones. Your stage play My Husband’s Woman has just been picked up by some big name companies like Walmart, Hulu, and Netflix. How did that come about? How does that make you feel?
DDMS: I feel really humbled. Like as if everything is starting to pay off. The opportunity came about because of my husband. He was a general contractor before we started DDMS Entertainment and we decided a long time ago that he would be my manager. I knew that his experience from doing contracting would help so once he became my manager he really put on different hats and did a lot of the negotiations with people and by the grace of God a distribution company picked it up and we’re just thankful.
Parlé: And why do you think that particular play was picked up amongst all of what you have written?
DDMS: Well I had written other books before My Husband’s Woman, but this was actually the first book that I had published and it really dealt with an issue that I think touched a lot of people. Men as well as women and the twist that’s in the play and the book really grabbed a lot of people’s attention because it dealt with real life and things that people may go through. When the distributor actually reviewed the product he was very impressed with the real life story and the innovative topic of it. I think that’s why it was picked up.
Parlé: Do you have any plans to continue rolling the ball with adopting any of your other stage plays or novels?
DDMS: Yes, actually we are in the works for one of my books called Sent From Heaven. That is actually going to be a television series so we are talking to some people about that and hopefully it will be picked up soon as well.
Parlé: A question I always have for creators of all sorts is where do you get the material from to produce so many works of art? Are your book inspired by real life?
DDMS: I would say its off the top of my head as well as things around me. Being a writer I’m privy to conversations of friends or conversations people have with me and I use that and try to stick with what’s real (the stories) and then it just comes to me. Life experience and these conversations help me me keep it real and tell an effective story.
Parlé: Now the movie Lake House is a bit more of a thriller than your romantic work, did you use the same method to create it?
DDMS: Well, that one is a different story and process because I was going into another genre. Usually I wrote romance for the African-American books but I knew this one had to have a commercial appeal. This one was from my love for horror and using my imagination.
Parlé: Continuing with the growth theme I mentioned earlier, it sounds like you are broadening your horizons all around.
DDMS: That’s correct, I like to try and stretch myself. One thing that I don’t want to do is be placed in a box. As artists people will say “you’re this type of artist, or she’s just a romance author, or she/he is this”and I have too many different things that I want to write about. If there’s something I want to try then I will try it. It’s all about keeping my imagination unrestricted.
Parlé: No one should limit himself. That’s great to hear. So it seems like everything is on the up and up for you and DDMS, what would you say is next? Or what do you see happening going forward.
DDMS: We have a motto for the talent agency, it’s “The more people you help become successful the more successful you become.” When I first started seeking help in getting published I couldn’t find it anywhere, everyone was being selfish with their knowledge. So during that time I decided that if I ever had a chance or got a platform that I would help as many people as I could. So going forward with our company not only do we want to show good films and to produce good stories but we also want to help someone else shine.
Parlé: Amazing and a great message for all future writers/entrepreneurs like yourself. Thanks for sharing a little bit with me.
DDMS: Thank you for talking with me!
