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• What is the next
book and when is it in stores?
The next book is Scandalizing
the Ton,
scheduled for release in North America and the UK in October
2008.
Adrian
Pomroy, Viscount Cavanley, appeared briefly in Innocence
and Impropriety.
A fun-loving, devil-may-care fellow, Pomroy deserved a serious purpose
in life. When he comes to the aid of a lovely young widow, a woman
who has become the target of newspaper gossip and print shop caricatures,
he finds a cause which is worth effort on his part. When it becomes
clear the widow is pregnant, everyone--especially Adrian--wants to
know if the baby she’s
carrying is her late husband’s or another man’s.
With Scandalizing the Ton I’m bringing
to the end the series of connected books that began with The
Mysterious Miss M, but, never fear,
there’s more
to come from me .
• Why did you
write under two names and what is happening with Diane Perkins?
A few years ago, when I first sold to two publishers, I decided to write
under two different names, a practice more common among romance authors
years ago than it is now. Some authors choose two different author names
when they write two different kinds of books, such as historical and contemporary.
For me, it was simply that I wrote for two publishers. I quickly learned,
though, that promoting my work became more difficult. I had to constantly
work to connect my two names, and I’m sure I’ve lost some readers
who never realized that Diane Gaston and Diane Perkins were one and the
same.
Because my books are all Regency historicals, it dawned
on me that it would be much more appropriate (not to mention easier for
readers) to promote only one author name: Diane Gaston. Now that my contracts
with the Diane Perkins name have ended, I’ve decided to drop the
Perkins name — not because I didn’t love all the Perkins characters,
but rather just because it makes sense. Unfortunately, this means that
my hero’s friends from The
Marriage Bargain, Blake and Wolfe, may never see their stories in print.
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• What will happen to the book Desire
in His Eyes, Blake’s Story? You’ve talked about it other places.
Blake’s story, which I promoted under the title Desire in His Eyes, and the story I planned for Wolfe, may, alas, never be published. It is one of the vagaries of publishing that character names tied to a book printed by one publisher may not always be permitted to be used in books printed by another publisher
unless complicated issues get ironed out. But I am not without hope. I, too, hate to think of Blake and Wolfe just aimlessly floating in the Land of Stories Never Told. If there is a way to bring them to life, I will! Subscribe to my newsletter — I promise if Blake and Wolfe get stories of their own, I will announce it.
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• Why did you choose to write in the Regency time period?
I
actually started out writing Contemporary romance even though I always loved
to read historical romance. I was trying to break into Harlequin or Silhouette,
but then a friend introduced me to wonderful books by Mary
Jo Putney, Laura
Kinsale, and Mary
Balogh, as well as traditional Regencies (I devoured them like candy)
and the master of them all, Georgette
Heyer. I adored Regency romances with their London seasons, country
houses, lords and ladies, their former soldiers, and vicar’s daughters.
At one of the Romance Writers of America conferences I learned that all
the major publishers bought Regency historicals. So I decided to get over
my fear of historical research and write what I loved to read. Ironically,
my first sale was to Harlequin— Mills and Boon, the UK branch of Harlequin.
That book became The
Mysterious Miss M.
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• Don’t you have
to do a lot of research to write Historicals?
Yes, but I discovered that I love the research.
I love learning about the Regency time period. I love buying research books
and if you read my blogs, you know I buy a lot of them. Even more, I love
research trips to the UK! I’ve been on two tours of England and Scotland that were designed for
writers and every day was a joy of discovery. I’ve been to Bath, Brighton,
London, Edinburgh, and countless country estates, like Stratfield Saye, Bowood,
Chatsworth. I plan to return to the UK for more research trips. Stay tuned.
You’ll hear of them on my website.
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• What is The Wet Noodle Posse?
The Wet Noodle
Posse is a group of writers who were all Golden Heart finalists for 2003. Each year the finalists for the Golden Heart, Romance Writers of America’s highest prize for unpublished writers, band together on an online loop to share the experience. The GH finalists for 2003 were no different except after the awards were made, they didn’t drift apart. Instead they became even closer, bonding together and supporting each other throughout each other’s journey in the romance writing world. The name Wet Noodle Posse came from a tendency to beat each other with wet noodles if any of us wavered in our confidence to succeed in writing. It is difficult to describe the bonds that tie this group together, but they are strong and caring and unwaveringly supportive. The Wet Noodle Posse also has a blog and you will find me posting there at least once a month, as well as commenting more often. Our motto is “Be Good to Yourself....Or Else.”
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• In your bio you mention having reaped a world of friendships. What did you mean by that?
Writing romance has opened up a word of friendships
for me, friends who are near and dear to my heart and who have enriched
my life in indescribable ways. I hesitate to list them because there
are so many, and I am bound to leave someone out. Of the Waxcreative
authors, I credit Kathryn
Caskie, Sophia Nash, Hope
Tarr, and Pam Palmer as
great friends of mine among my
many friends in Washington Romance Writers, but I also know Julia
Quinn, whom I’ve met often because we share a mutual friend, and I met Eloisa
James years ago through Jessica
Benson. Jane
Porter and I both write for Mills & Boon. I met Nicole
Burnham at my first Romantic Times conference and I know Candice
Hern from Beau Monde, RWA’s Regency writers’ chapter.
I have wonderful
critique partners who have been with me from the beginning, my
dear friends Julie, Helen, and Virginia. And my other critique
group and dear friends, Darlene
Gardner, Karen Anders, Elizabeth
Holcombe,
and Lisa Dyson. Even though they are not “official” critique partners, I
must mention friends Mary Blayney
and Lavinia Klein also of Washington Romance Writers. Of
course I must include Amanda
McCabe and the other authors at Risky
Regencies, all
my friends at The
Beau Monde,
and the incomparable Wet Noodle Posse. And then there is
All Of Us. When I first started writing and connecting with
other writers online, I met Marg Riseley, an Australian writer.
We shared the same birthday and a lot more. Through Marg,
I became a part of an international email loop, All Of Us,
that includes close friends, some of whom I have never met
face-to-face. I have met Australian Melissa
James who
writes Mills and Boon and Harlequin Romance. I’m in contact with Melissa
daily! Gee, there are so many more I could mention. All the
ladies who went on the two England tours with me. Other friends
from RWA. Readers who have become friends like Mary K, Judy
T, Keira Soleore, Kim L and Melissa L. Booksellers. Reviewers. The
Romance Vagabonds. The Grand
Central authors (formerly
Warner). The
Harlequin Historical authors. The Mills
and Boon authors.
You can see what I mean. I could go on and on....
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• Do you ever miss working as a mental health social worker?
I loved my profession and I am intensely proud of my service as a mental health social worker and psychotherapist. I loved helping people, and I still miss my clients. They taught me so much about life and about people and have helped make me into the person I am now. I would not trade a minute of the years I devoted to county service, but it was time for me to move on to my new venture of writing romance. The helping professions can be very stressful and stress can wear out a person. I wanted to leave knowing I had not slipped in my ability to be helpful. And I think I did leave before that could happen. I know I left my clients in the hands of very talented, committed, and caring colleagues. They are still receiving the best of care.
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