WWR: Hi Dianne! We're thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with you. Our interview is meant to be fun and entertaining, so if you get bored with the questions, make up your own. :-) Seriously. Feel free to have some fun with your answers, too. We'll love you for it.
Dianne, Til There Was U, part of your Four O'Fallons and a Baby trilogy from Brava, will be released this month (November 2005). The book received a four star review from Romantic Times Magazine. Would you tell us what you find most exciting about the book and its characters?
Dianne: The best things about the O'Fallon series are the heroes, Ryan, Keefe and Quaid. No hot sexy romance is worth a darn without great guys. 'Course they're not looking to fall in love when they come home to O'Fallon's Landing on the Mississippi but steamy nights, sultry blues and three sassy gals get in the way.
WWR: Til There Was U has been called "captivating," "mysterious," and "entertaining" by reviewers. The buzz on this book has been great. Tell us about the story, and what it is that you think gives Til There Was U that something special.
Dianne: It's a fun read! No angst. I hate angst. I need to laugh and fret over the characters and see them do crazy things just like I do. Ryan and Effie come to the backwaters of the Mississippi from San Diego leaving their sophistication behind. They deal with Ryan's new baby sister, baby-nappers, a neighbor marring for money, an old family mansion, a naive housekeeper who's crazy over the Beach Boys and General Ulysses S. Grant prowling around and getting in everyone's business.
WWR: You write for Harlequin American Romance and Kensington Brava. Is it fun to switch between writing books of varying sensuality levels?
Dianne: Writing for Brava gives me a chance to write an edgier book. The hero and heroine are more in each other's face, the language sharper, the sex steamier.
WWR: Can you tell us what might bring your Harlequin American Romance readers to your Brava books and vice versa? What elements do your stories have in common (the Harlequin books and the Brava books)? What makes them different?
Dianne: The stories are always fun and exciting and a touch of mystery. The Brava books are longer and I get to develop the secondary characters more and they sometimes do things the hero and heroine would never do. A bit more wicked!
WWR: Is romance your one true love, or do you plan to write books in other genres someday?
Dianne: I can't imagine writing a book without a love story going on and a commitment at the end where the hero and heroine do the happily-ever-after thing. After all they go through and not wind up together that would be so dismal.
WWR: You've said before (on your website) that your daughter introduced you to romance novels. What was it that first led you to want to write your own stories?
Dianne: I started rewriting the stories I read. I'd think 'What the heck! He wouldn't say that' or 'She wouldn't do that.' I hated the wimpy heroines and always rewrote them to kick butt and set the hero straight.
WWR: Do you still get scared when you have a new book out on the shelves, or did you ever? What's it like for you on the day your book hits the bookstores?
Dianne: I worry if the readers are going to like the story. Did I give them a good time? Did they have fun and laugh? If I can do that I'm happy.
WWR: So, the first time you wrote an explicit love scene--were you worried about what your romance-reading daughter would say? :-)
Dianne: My kids think they all came from storks and that I get someone else to write all those love scenes because surely their mother couldn't know about such things.
WWR: As a frequent visitor of your website, I love the way your site changes to match every time you have a new book out. Do you get a lot of comments about your website from your readers?
Dianne: My daughter, Ann, does my website. She did the layout for my ad in the November issue of RT and that got noticed a lot too. Ann does good work...and she's free! I knew I sent her to that expensive college for a good reason.
WWR: It's time for the typical what-advice-would-you-give-other-writers question, but, well, I'm not asking. Instead, I'd like to know what advice you were given when you first started writing--that you didn't get until it was too late. What mistakes did you make at the outset of your career that made you want to beg for a do-over?
Dianne: No critique groups! They are the work of the devil.You write what others tell you to write and it kills your creativity. My critique group set me back years. You can brainstorm a troubling scene with your group, or cry over a reject letter but that's it. No book by committee! I say this every chance I get and yet unpubs still cling to their critique group. Ugh! Write your story your way! Good luck!
WWR: Thanks so much for the interview!
