Interview with Deborah Dupre + Win $100 Visa Card!

New Orleans native Deborah Dupré reports censored human rights news stories. With Science and Ed. Specialist Grad Degrees from U.S. and Australian universities, Dupré’s been a human and Earth rights advocate over 30 years in those countries and Vanuatu. Her unique humanitarian-based research and development work, including in some of the world’s least developed and most remote areas, led her to write articles appearing in dozens of popular print and Internet media internationally.

Her latest book is the nonfiction, Vampire of Macondo.

Visit her column at Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/user-gdeborahdupre

Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning? Where did you come up with the idea to write your book?

When BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on Earth Day 2010, with no end in sight to the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, it personally impacted me. I’ve advocated for human rights for 30 years and been a rights news reporter for three years. I’m also native of New Orleans. My favorite weekends were with kinfolk at their homes on the bayou.

I know what it means growing up in the nation’s Cancer Alley that stretches between Baton Rouge and the Gulf.I experienced a lifetime of chemical sensitivity since moving near an oil refinery at age three. My heart went out to the people of the Gulf coast, especially the most vulnerable: the children, elderly, pregnant women and people with pre-existing health issues.

I was driven to write Vampire of Macondo by a sense of outrage at the rampant corruption of, by, and for the fossil fuel industry. The non-renewable energy industry has infected governments at all levels, from local to national. Long ago, that industry joined forces with the military-industrial complex, transforming it into the even more monstrous petrochemical-military-industrial complex, as I document in my book. They have stolen our democracy from us and thus, destroyed the American Dream.

Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

Writing over 200 articles on the BP catastrophic event over two and a half years helped me meticulously chronicle this event. If a writer begins by writing well-referenced news articles on an event, it helps enormously. If you’rekeen to expose human rights violations by the petrochemical-military-industrial complex, however, be prepared for an onslaught of vicious attacks from the perpetrators, some of which are addressed in Vampire of Macondo.

Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

Media, BP and the government have continually censored the human suffering of thousands of people impacted by BP oil and Corexit for over two years. Self-publishing Vampire of Macondo was better for me than relying on another publisher because I figured this book’s value would be more likely reaped if I could get it out there as fast as possible to people needing it.

Q: Is there anything that surprised you about getting your first book published?

It surprises me that I still weep when reading certain passages about the untold human suffering this event is causing. Reading passages aloud in the book still makes my voice quaver in compassion and sorrow over the real stories in it that have been otherwise censored, passed over by the culprits and commercial media.

Q: Can you describe the feeling when you saw your published book for the first time?

I smile just seeing this question, I’m so proud of the finished product. When I first held my book, my heart leaped.

Q: What other books (if any) are you working on and when will they be published?

I’m reporting on another disaster created by the petrochemical industry. In this case, a monster sinkhole has developed in bayou country that is a once again a consequence of fossil fuel extraction and processing. I plan to bring this to the attention of the public, as further documentation of the cost in human lives paid for fossil fuels that we don’t even need.

Q: Fun question: How does your book contribute to making this world a better place?

Vampire of Macondo provides insight into needless suffering of innocent people and Mother Earth trampled by the petrochemical-military-industrial complex (PMIC) and the American public’s addiction to fossil fuels.

Q: Finally, what message (if any) are you trying to get across with your book?

Vampire of Macondo alerts readers to the continuing assault on their human rights and the enslavement of the government and people by the PMIC. Vampire of Macondo is a call to Americans to go back to being citizens after decades of enslavement as mindless consumers, and highlights the tragic consequences of not dong so.

Q: Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?

Thank you for this opportunity to share my motivations, experiences, and hopes with publishers and other authors. By exposing the appalling deeds of corporations and the people they control throughout society, we can work together to end their tyranny over us.