Over at at Unusual Historicals, Jean Marie Ward interviews me about 1885 Constantinople’s ins and outs for an author, including how I researched it for THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS. Please stop by – there are prizes!
I’m blogging today at History Hoydens about how I finally worked an elusive – and fascinating – historical character into THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS.
Please stop by and chat with us all!
Hey, I’m blogging over at Fresh Fiction today about CAPTIVE DESIRES, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and how dancers make magic.
Please stop by and say hi! if you get a chance.
Hello, friends!
I’m chatting tomorrow at Erotic Book Junkies about all sorts of crazy things. Please stop by and ask a question (or two or three)! We’d love to have you.
We’re also giving away a copy of KISSES LIKE A DEVIL.
Hope to see you there!
Hullo again!
Please drop by Unusual Historicals tomorrow (as in, Thursday, April 30th). We’re celebrating their Excerpt Thursday together with a taste of KISSES LIKE A DEVIL. It’s taken from later in the same scene as the excerpt posted at my website comes from. (And yes, I have been called a dreadful tease before!)
I’m blogging at Unusual Historicals this Sunday, May 3rd about THE SOUTHERN DEVIL and the very special Colorado mountains of 1872. Please feel free to drop by and ask any questions you’d like. Heaven knows those were a wild and crazy time and place, which were almost as intriguing to research as they must have been to live through.
Happy reading, y’all!
Diane, diving back into writing THE ARIZONA DEVIL, aka Lowell and Portia’s story
Hi, there!
I’m blogging today over at Brava Authors about KISSES LIKE A DEVIL and how William and Viola’s sons got their names.
Please stop by and chat if you get a chance!
Diane
KISSES LIKE A DEVIL, the latest episode in my Devil books, just arrived in your bookstores this week. (Whoopeee!) It’s about Brian Donovan, the second son of William and Viola Donovan, who you may remember from THE IRISH DEVIL. Teddy Roosevelt sends him off to the Grand Duchy of Eisengau in 1900 where he meets with many adventures, including meeting Meredith Duncan, the young student radical who steals his heart. (She has no use for marriage and the Russians want her at least as much as he does.) But I digress.
When I first started working on this book, Meredith announced very firmly that she had a black Standard Schnauzer. Nobody was more surprised than yours truly to hear this. She had a dog when she spent her days in school and her nights promoting revolution in turn of the century Europe? Huh? Could he handle keeping bullies away from one of the first young ladies to attend a university? Was he intelligent and strong enough to cope with the varied surroundings – and dangers – of beer halls, back alleys, firing ranges, and her mother’s drawing room?
Not to mention, just why did he have to be jet-black? Meredith was very, very clear her dog had to be completely black, as opposed to the more typical salt-and-pepper.
At the same time I was fumbling through this bit of characterization, a friend at Virginia German Shepherd Rescue announced there was a German Shepherd Dog in urgent need of a foster parent. She was petite, shy, and jet-black and had been rescued from a pound hundreds of miles away. Could we look after her for a few weeks until something more permanent could be found? One look into those deep brown eyes ringed by all that black fur and I was a goner.
Honey is now a permanent part of the household. In fact, I have to be very careful when I get up in the middle of the night. She patrols her new home – and there’s no way an intruder can spot that pure black dog moving through the shadows.
Research soon told me that Standard Schnauzers are great watchdogs and were well known before World War I. Some have always been pure black, including one of the earliest favorites. I named Meredith’s dog “Morro” after him.
I began writing and Honey watched me do it, just the way Morro guarded Meredith’s adventures. Heck, he even discreetly protected her from her abominable parents if he could. And whenever I needed a little extra inspiration for a scene with Morro, Honey was right there with an example. She was his guardian spirit.
I hope I did her proud. She’s certainly been a blessing for me and everyone in the family.
