1. Tell us your latest news.
Well, my first book, Red Riding Hood, was released August 1, 2010 by Decadent Publishing. And just the other day I saw that it was available on Amazon for the Kindle….OMFG! Seeing it there was more surreal than when I got my contract back from Decadent! It was so awesome, you know, like the reality that I am a published author really sunk in!
2. What initially inspired you to become an author?
I would have to attribute my love of reading and writing to my grandparents. When I visited them during the summer, they would be like, “No more TV, read a book.” And we would spend all night reading. Back then I loved my grandpa’s Louis L’Amour books, Passin’ Through is still a fav. I had to be about twelve or thirteen when my grandma gave me a journal and told me to write a story. I guess I have been doing it ever since. I wrote all through my teen years but got distracted with life, career and marriage. Reading and writing fell by the wayside. When we moved into our second house my brother-in-law tried to pick up a box. It was so heavy that he and my husband opened it. It was full of books and my husband looked at me like a cow looking at a new gate and said, “You don’t read books, why do you have these?” That shocked me because it had become true. To prove the worth of keeping all those Anne McCaffery books and Dean Koonz I started rereading them. And I remembered my first love: the written word. I found all my old manuscripts (such bratty little heroines, what does that say of me at 16?) and I said, “I’m gonna write a book.” But it wasn’t until I learned about a local RWA chapter in my area that I realized my lifelong dream could be a reality….and now? Well, it is really happening!
3. What is your favorite book? And Why?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, hands down. Every time I read the scene when Jane reappears at the Ferndean manor-house to surprise her ‘beloved master’ Mr. Rochester my heart skips and I can’t turn the pages fast enough. For my fifteenth wedding anniversary this year I ordered new wedding bands to inscribe the two phrases, ‘Her I love best’ for my ring and ‘Her who loves you best’ for my husband’s.
The story is about real love against all odds. While Jane is poor, plain and obscure and Mr. Rochester a crabby, less than attractive man, they find a connection they never had with anyone. Nothing, not even a fiend in the tower who burns people in their bed, blindness, age, handicaps, and poverty will keep them apart.
4. Do you have a particular time of day to write? We love to hear about a writer’s process.
Morning. I get out of bed, pass the computer on my way to letting my three little dogs outside (two cocks and a weenie) make coffee, fill the dog bowl, let the dogs back in, grab my coffee then plop my big booty in my giant comfy chair and my computer is ready to write! I don’t work on Monday of Tuesday and I have been known to write for ten or twelve hours non-stop.
5. What do you find to be the most difficult part of writing?
Too many ideas! Too many people living in my head that want their entire story told yesterday! I have WADD…Writers Attention Deficient Syndrome. My biggest issue is starting new stories all the time. As a plotter, I usually write a ten twenty page synopsis out for the entire book. Then I’m so jazzed I do the 30k lightning fast (like a week) but by that time I either got a request for a partial and I have to do some edits, or I’m going to a conference and I have to prepare a mss for pitching or some loud mouthed character starts yammering in my head for their turn. I tell the character and myself, “Well your story should only take a half a day to jot down.” But the characters are sneaky little bastards sometimes and they have no plans to let me finish their story so quickly. Two months later I’m still writing their story and the old story is in the ever growing to-do pile.
But I have a friend now that keeps me in line…though secretly I am working on a story she doesn’t know about. I know! I’m so bad, right? I feel so guilty. Like I’m having an affair or something! LOL Hopefully she doesn’t read this!
6. Do you have a favorite author?
That’s a tuffy. . . . . like picking just one candy out of the box of chocolates. Anne McCaffery, Sherilyon Kenyon, CS Lewis, Lewis Carrol, Diana Gabaldon, Kevin Anderson, Jane Austin . . . . I could go on but I won’t!
7. Tell us about your first published work.
It is an erotic fairy tale told in an old fashioned voice complete with the ‘Once upon a time’ intro and everything.
Red Riding Hood is on a journey to find the one man who can take her to heights she’s only sampled. She just doesn’t know it’s going to come in the shape of a powerful master in wolf’s clothing. I think it’s pretty darn funny for an erotica, too, if I do say so myself. Is that conceited? Sorry!
The inspiration for the story came when a friend told me I should write a dirty Red Riding Hood story because at the time all my other books were in various states of edit and she wanted to read something I wrote. Well, when I presented the story she went, “Holy crap, I didn’t meant that!” Guess she meant romance novel not a BDSM erotica. She forgot I am a writer and I take the word ‘dirty’ literally.
8. Do you have a favorite of your own works?
I tend to love all of my characters, because if they are just a passing idea I ignore their stories and move on to another book. See question #5. I am writing m/m right now and the two sexy men in my latest unfinished mss are my favorite. But I honestly love them all. To me my characters are real and I see their lives long after I type ‘the end.’ I guess that’s why I like the idea of writing series.
9. Where can our readers find you on the web?
I am still working on a website but you can find my blog “Midnight Ramblings” at deannawadsworth@blogspot.com
10. Where can they buy your books?
Decadentpublishing.com or Amazon.com under Kindle books
11. Anything you would like to add?
Just thanks, Kate! This was fun and I hope everyone checks out Red Riding Hood and keeps their eye open for my next erotic fairy tale…The Frog Prince!
+ comments + 4 comments
Hey thanks for the time to put this together! It was a lot of fun!
Fun interview! I learned things about you I didn't know...your grandparents' influence and Jane Eyre as a fave. Good questions. Great answers.
I really enjoyed your interview! The only thing I didn't like is knowing you have 12 hours a day to write! JEALOUS! Best wishes on your new release!
Sorry to chime in so late, but I wanted to say congrats on your first release, Deanna! Great interview too.
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