Interview with Historical and Paranormal Author Diana Rubino @DianaLRubino
A BLOODY GOOD CRUISE is a fun-filled blend of the vampire world and luxury cruises.
Romance writer Mona Rossi’s book sales are slipping. She needs new ideas and fast! Her vampire love, Fausto Silvius is a doctor aboard the Romanza, a luxury cruise ship. Holding a “Motion on the Ocean” writer’s cruise sounds like a great idea. What better way to combine a career boost with romance? But they soon discover hunters on board who give chase to Fausto and his fellow vampires. While he longs to bring Mona into his world, how can he convince her to join him with fringe lunatics on the hunt? In the prime of her life she’s not sticking her neck out for a shot at eternity.
Diana Rubino is my blog guest today. Diana’s passion for history has taken her to every locale of her books, set in Medieval and Renaissance England, colonial Virginia, and New York. Her a fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, received a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr Association. In her spare time, Diana bicycles, golfs, plays her piano and devours books of any genre.
How do you decide on setting?
I’ve always set my books in my favorite times and places—medieval and Renaissance England, Colonial America, and anytime in New York City. But now that I’m writing biographical novels, the setting comes with the figure I decide to write about.
What genre(s) do you write in? Why?
Historical, because I’m such a history nut, and paranormal because I’ve always been fascinated with ghosts, reincarnation, the spirit world—anything otherworldly. Then of course romance has to come into it.
What is your favorite part of writing?
The research—I can lose myself in library stacks, and now with the miracle of the internet, one website can lead me to another, until I’ve gone on a multi-hour journey where time just flies by.
How much research was involved in writing your book? How did you go about it?
My husband and I are hooked on cruising, and my very first cruise was on the Eastern Mediterranean, beginning in Rome and ending in Istanbul. The ports of call included Rhodes, Cyprus, Santorini, and Egypt. Because I love Italy and cruising, I wanted to combine those passions with a story about vampires and how they face prejudice in the human world.
What inspired your latest release?
My latest release, A NECESSARY END, is a paranormal (ghost) romance centered on Booth’s insane plot to kill President Lincoln. A Lincoln buff since third grade, I always wanted to write about him. Adding the paranormal twist combined two of my biggest interests.
E-books, print, or both? Any preferences? Why?
They both have their pros and cons. E-books are so easy to travel with, you can load as many as you want onto your E-reader, but there’s nothing like settling back with a good old fashioned printed book and inhaling those inked pages.
How much time do you spend promoting your books?
About a third of my workday—some first thing when I sit down, and some last thing before I log off.
Have you had other careers before becoming a writer?
Sure have…I own a construction consulting business with my husband, which I still run when I’m not writing, and I have a real estate license, although I’m not with a brokerage right now.
What is your least favorite part of writing?
The times when it doesn’t explode out of me—when finding each word takes major scouring of the thesaurus, when the prose comes out of my head looking sloppy and unpolished. But this stuff comes out of my head at 120 wpm, so I allow myself some sloppiness in first drafts.
Some writers edit excessively as they write; others wait until a novel is finished to do the bulk of editing. How about you?
I edit after I finish writing for the day, after I’ve met my 2,500 word goal. But I go over it and over it, until—as the saying goes—when you’re no longer rewriting, you’re only tinkering.
Visit Diana at www.dianarubino.com, her blog at www.dianarubinoauthor.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/DianaRubinoAuthor?fref=nf
Purchase A BLOODY GOOD CRUISE: http://amzn.to/NrBF43