Today Dee Ann Palmer sits down for an interview. Dee
Ann writes romance in several subgenres, some with a touch of murder or
suspense. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.
When did
you realize you wanted to write novels?
I’d sold shorter pieces of fiction and non-fiction, had
won awards, but I had this idea that real writers wrote books and sold them. So
I began one. I had no idea what I was doing, didn’t know about genres. When an
author in my critique group mentioned my “romance” novel, I was surprised.
How long
did it take you to realize your dream of publication?
The first thing I wrote and mailed -- cold -- to a
magazine was purchased and published. I had no idea that writers were paid for
their work!
It wasn’t as easy to sell my first novel. It was
rejected by 27 literary agents, but purchased by the first e-press publisher
who read it.
Are you
traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?
Hybrid. My romances have been published digitally and
in print by Amber Quill Press, LLC, since 2004. I’ve recently regained rights to
my male/female erotic romances, reduced the sex level to sensual, and have been
indie publishing them.
Where do
you write?
I work on a PC in a room where my husband is too
often working on his laptop at the same time, and he interrupts me at times. Until
she passed away on April 7th this year, Ella, our adored older cat,
often slept on the shelf above me.
Is silence
golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?
Music’s an important part of my life, but it demands
my full attention, so I usually write in silence. I did listen to Native American
music while writing the final draft of Where
Eagles Cry. However, turbulent Rachmaninoff and Brahms concertos set the
pace when I composed some hot sex scenes for two recent erotic stories, written
under a pseudonym.
How much of
your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in
particular?
I may use snippets of experience from something in my
life, such as setting this particular novel in the valley and state where I
live, but my characters are usually fully fictional. My plots are born when I
put my main characters together and put them in motion. I’ve tried to plot
ahead, but my brain defies me in this. I can’t do it until my characters are in
motion. And my characters don’t fully develop until I’m into the story.
Describe
your process for naming your character?
I research popular names for the period and/or
country. To assist my readers in keeping my main and secondary characters
straight, I choose names that don’t sound alike, begin with different letters
and have different numbers of syllables. Matching the names to the characters
is important to me. A strong hero named Wilbur is not believable, but a nerd
might be. Can you imagine Scarlet O’Hara with her original name of Pansy?
Real
settings or fictional towns?
I use both, but if you’re using a real town you need
to be sure you get it right. Saying you turned left onto Mountain avenue from
Third street while traveling south will throw some people out of the story if
they know you should be turning right.
Actually, a fictionalized area of the valley in which
I live is the setting for Where Eagles
Cry. I have a writer friend who, no matter what I say, is absolutely
certain she knows exactly where it is.
“No, Pat. I’m telling you…I made it up.”
If you
could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which
one would it be? Why?
Probably Ivanhoe.
It’s a classic, and one of the time periods I love. It’s why I wrote Christiana’s Choice. And I used that
time period for a shape-shifter fantasy called How to Seduce a Knight.
Everyone at
some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?
I just got to do one! After Knight Of The Captive Heart was released, I realized it had an
error of history in it. I had to wait several years before getting my rights
back. It’s now the indie book How to
Seduce a Knight…with the error corrected. Whew.
What’s your
biggest pet peeve?
Heroines or heroes who do something stupid.
You’re
stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Fresh water, food and shelter. Dull, isn’t it? I
know. But you asked.
What was
the worst job you’ve ever held?
Working under a bully. A mean girl grown up.
Fortunately, I was able to resign and get a better paying job under a much nicer
supervisor. Later, I contributed to a book by a psychologist about girls who were
bullies on the playground and still are. All grown up.
What’s the
best book you’ve ever read?
Can’t pick one out of the thousands of books I’ve
read over my lifetime.
Ocean or
mountains?
I prefer both and, luckily, we’re within an hour of each,
plus the beach.
City girl/guy
or country girl/guy?
I was raised in San Diego, went to college in San
Francisco. Love big cities. Live in a medium size one now.
What’s on
the horizon for you?
My WIP is extending A Night to Remember—my 2K contemporary romance included in Exquisite
Quill’s 2014 A Holiday Anthology, Volume 2—to
38 or 40K. Watch for Savage Lust, the
5K Amber Allure prequel to Night Train, my
vampire series.
Anything
else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?
Right now you’ll only find historical romances on my
website. I’m hurrying to post some previously released contemporaries and time
travels.
Where
Eagles Cry
Jilted by love in 1834, Cara, a young Bostonian woman,
sails to Mejico’s rugged California
to make a new life for herself. She takes a position as companion to the wife
of Don Miguel Navarro, the tough and
irresistible owner of a major inland rancho,
and finds herself as deeply drawn to him as he is to her. Love may break
her heart again for even though his wife has the mind of a child due to a
mysterious fall, Cara would never be mistress to a married man.
Undercurrents she doesn’t understand swirl through
the ranch. Native superstition says that when the bells ring and an eagle
cries, someone will die. Several people have. Will the next death be hers? Until ships sail again for Boston,
she’s trapped between danger and an impossible love.
