Diane Burke Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself. 

A.  I have lived in Florida most of my adult life. I love the weather, palm trees and the hundreds of things there are to do.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A. It wasn’t one thing that lit the writing fuse. It was several little things along the way. As long as I can remember, books and I have had a very close relationship and before things went digital, I was a book hoarder and my house could have passed for a library.

Years ago I went to my first convention. It was thrown by Romantic Times in New York that I got to meet all my favorite authors. I decided I wanted to be one of them. I guess that’s when the writing bug bit me but it took a long time for me to take that bug seriously.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break? 

A. My very first publication was a small filler story for our local newspaper’s Mother’s Day section. It was called “Take my mother-in-law…Please!” That article originated from an adult education course I took titled Writing for Fun and Profit. The teacher returned my first writing effort with so much red ink I could barely see the words. He told me I was a terrible writer. It made me angry and I set out to prove him wrong. I was fortunate enough to get my piece published in the newspaper, the same newspaper he had a regular column in, and the irony of it was that the piece was a creative writing homework assignment he had given us. LOL

My first break came when I won first place in the Inspirational division of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense. Harlequin asked to see the full manuscript and I’ve been writing for them ever since.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Hidden In Plain View? 

It is the story of Sarah and Samuel. Sarah, an Amish woman, faces a tragedy and when the danger isn’t over, Samuel, an Englisch detective is assigned to go undercover as an Amish farmer to protect her. Sarah doesn’t know which is more dangerous, the man trying to kill her or her attraction to a man who isn’t Amish.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for Hidden In Plain View?

A:  I have always been fascinated with the Nickel Mines episode in 2004 or 2005, I’m not sure which, when a milkman, well-known in the community, walked into a one room schoolhouse, let the boys go, lined up all the girls and shot every one of them. I never forgot the ability of the Amish to forgive. They went to the gunman’s funeral and gave money to his widow to help raise his children. That supreme level of forgiveness made me want to find out more about them.

I also enjoyed exploring the concept of family. What is family and who belongs in it?

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?

A: That God turns ashes into beauty, every time, always.

Q: What is your favorite scene/chapter from the book?

A: Chapter Nine has to be my favorite chapter. I can’t really explain why without spoiling the story. What I can say is that it is a very emotional scene between Sarah and Samuel that actually had me crying when I wrote it.

Q: What inspires you to write? 

A. I honestly can’t answer that question. I only know that published or not published I would have to write because stories fill my life and my mind and that is how I creatively express them.

Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession? 

A: It is a HARD profession. Like many of the other arts, the spots at the top of the publishing industry financially belong to a handful of people while thousands of other authors are on various other levels of that ladder. You have to have a thick skin for criticism both from editors and, yes, sometimes from readers. You have to LOVE what you’re doing because it will consume hours and hours of your time, not just the time at the keyboard but all the other hours in a day when you’re trying to solidify your plot or when you’re puzzling over a particular character. But I honestly will say that it is the best profession in the world. The feeling of seeing a book on the shelf with your name on it or when you get a special email from a fan who is writing about something specific in your writing that touched their lives—there is nothing better than that.

Q: What advice or tips do you have for writers who are just getting started?

A: Learn your craft. Read books. Take workshops. Listen to other authors. Attend conferences. Then when you think you’re ready, try a contest or two and see what kind of response you get.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now? 

A. I have just finished a memoir. It isn’t an inspirational romance and yet it is inspirational and it has everything to do with love. Forty years after I gave a child up for adoption, he found me. It is a story of our journey back to each other told from both view points. The working title is One Perfect Day. It will be published in spring of 2014. It was an extremely difficult book to write because I had to let my mind and heart relive some very painful, emotional times in my life but it is a project that I did with my son and I am very, very proud of the work.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do? 

A. Read, read and read some more. Preferably under a beach umbrella.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? 

A. I have an author’s page and profile at Amazon.com. I am on Facebook. Also readers

can contact me at diane@dianeburkeauthor.com and I always love to hear from them.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us? 

A. Miracles can happen. Even if sometimes it takes forty years.