1. Do you write a single genre or do your fingers
flow over the keys creating tales in many forms? Does your reading choices
reflect your writing choices? Are there genres you wouldn’t attempt?
I started writing historical fiction when I was a
child and it’s still my preferred genre. I do read a lot of historical novels,
and non-fiction for historical research. I recently wrote a vampire novel, A Savage Exile, but the setting is
historical, on the remote island of St. Helena during Napoleon’s exile in 1815.
I used to think I wouldn’t attempt horror novels,
but my vampire novel nudges in that direction.
2. Heroes,
Heroines, Villains. Which are your favorite to write? Does one of these come
easy and why?
In my recent novel, A Savage Exile, I loved writing the villain, Hudson Lowe, a person
with few boundaries and ugly intentions. Great fun! Heroines come much easier
than heroes, probably because as a woman I can delve deeper into a woman’s
mindset, emotions and so forth.
3. Heroes. How do you find them? Do pictures, real
life or plain imagination create the man you want every reader to love? Do they
come before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?
My heroes are
always flawed and never the Alpha-males with muscled, perfect bodies so popular
in romantic fiction. I like a man who is real, has a temper, harbors secrets,
can be selfish, mysterious, but always, deep down, good at heart. Oh, but, he’s
usually very handsome. Sometimes I’ll base my hero’s looks on a movie actor,
with his own quirks of course.
My heroes at first come from the plot, but as I
write (I don’t outline a story) he grows and changes as I get to know him
better.
4. Heroines. How do you find them? Do pictures, real
life or imagination create the woman you want the reader to root for? Do they
appear before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?
My heroines
are me inside, tough, determined, and outspoken, but beautiful on the outside. They
are never perfect, however. They have insecurities, and other flaws. In my
research into the eighteenth century, my favorite time-period, I found many
women with the strong qualities mentioned above. Many believed in women’s
rights, wrote books on the subject, so don’t let anyone tell you that those
ideas didn’t materialize until the twentieth century.
As with the hero, my heroine grows and changes as I
get to know her.
5. Villains
or villainesses or an antagonist, since they don’t always have to be the bad
guy or girl. They can be a person opposed to the hero’s or heroine’s obtaining
their goal. How do you choose one? How do you make them human?
I’ve only
ever been in one villain’s POV, in A
Savage Exile. I did give Hudson Lowe some good qualities; his love for his
wife is one, his agony over what happened to turn him into a vampire is
another, so the reader can understand him as a person.
6. What is
your latest release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the villain?
A
Savage Exile is my latest release. The hero is Ali Saint-Denis,
a conflicted man with a terrible secret. The heroine is Isabelle, a French
maid, who falls in love with him, despite her suspicions as to his strange
predilections. I’ve already mention the villain, Hudson Lowe.
7. What are
you working on now?
A historical murder mystery set in Cornwall, England
during the American Revolution. It’s called The
Apothecary’s Widow. Here’s a blurb: Who poisoned Squire Pentreath’s scold
of a wife? The apothecary who prepared the infusions—Pentreath owns Jenna’s
building and wants to sell and push her out, one of the manor’s disgruntled
staff, or the beleaguered husband himself? Two disparate people, Jenna and
Pentreath, must come together to solve the crime before either one of them is
sent to the gallows.
8. How can
people find you?
Website: http://www.dianescottlewis.org
Blog: http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DSLewisHF
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diane.parkinson.794
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