Meet the Author: Dyanne Davis

This week my guest is Dyanne Davis also known as F.D. Davis. She’s a terrific writer in a number of genres.She’s also active in several writers’ organizations including the annual Slam Jam Conference.

In Blood We Trust

 

 Thanks Andrea for having me here on your blog. So, you want me to go on and on for 600 words huh?  You know you should never give a writer a word count it takes a few days of panicking and more for procrastinating and then finally it’s okay and it’s lets see how many words I can use by saying nothing. (Smile)

Seriously now, my name is Dyanne Davis and I’m a writer. Considering that the kinds of things I write are morphing into something different every time I begin a new book I think writer best describes me. Besides being a writer I’m married and thank God, happily for going on thirty-nine years now. Bill loves me and makes me laugh. He makes me feel young and he even makes me feel skinny.  You’ve seen me so you know this is a feat. We’re such a part of each other lives and have been together since we were both young and skinny. We have one son, Bill Jr. and yes we still call him Billy though some people think he’s too old for that and we should move on to Bill. Did they have labor pains for the child? I think not.

I am deeply spiritual. I have dropped the term religious as it carried with it a lot of baggage. As I’ve aged thankfully I’ve matured and at least try not to judge. I think that’s one of the biggest faults of Christians IMHO including me, the judging. Being more spiritual is kinder though my Baptist roots do tend to pop up each day and cast me back into the religious mode. I have become more…more…accepting of lifestyles that I might not choose for myself. Let’s say I’ve chosen to do this by realizing I’m the judge of no one. And I use the quote; Love the sinner not the sin.

Did I just tell you more than you really wanted to know? Probably but I’m in that kind of mood as I do this interview. Actually I’m trying to decide what is there about Dyanne that people haven’t already read and that made me decide to take this there. Besides, I see that you already have book related questions so if I went into that this would be redundant.

I think everyone already knows that I’m a retired nurse but maybe they don’t know that I still keep my license up to date just in case.  I think everyone’s also aware that it was Bill who encouraged me to retire, what has it been now ten, eleven, twelve years? I’m not sure. But he’s the one.

Back to Bill for a moment. I know that I’ve shared this information in an interview around 2003 but it’s time to share this again, just one of my many reasons for loving Bill as I do. In my mother’s last weeks of life when we learned that the cancer had metastasized to her brain and she was in the hospital she was talking and saying how much she’d always loved Bill and my brother in law not so much. Actually she called him what’s his name and since I know he won’t be reading this I can say it in print. When my Mom was released from the hospital she came home with us. Bill helped in her care including helping to change her when that time came. The few people that knew of this (family mostly) thought this wonderful. I had not thought about it one way or the other until then. That is just Bill. That is us. We’re a team always have been. We have each other’s back and never have to double check on that.

Now I’ll end my soliloquy I just thought it important to share the things that are truly important to me.

 

Question of the Month: Economics are tight right now for everyone. Most of us are cutting back in some way. With the holidays coming, what one tradition would you keep if you couldn’t do anything else?

 To be honest with you Andrea none that cost money. Lisa G. Riley calls me contrary and I probably am but I hate being told what to do. I kinda started my own personal boycott of holidays over twenty years ago. I will cook whatever traditional holiday meal but I will do it the day after or even two to three days after. And yes I do it just to be different. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the lights that others put up. And since December 25^th isn’t the actual birth of Christ and the trees comes from a pagan tradition it’s not something that I miss doing. But still I would love to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy safe and prosperous New Year.

 

Where to find you on the web

Andrea, I have several places on the web. I have my website www.dyannedavis.com and I have a website for Adam Omega, my larger than life vampire who demanded his own email and website separate from my own. www.adamomega.com  and his email address is adamomegavampire@aol.com   I have a blog at blogspot http://www.dyannedavis.com/blogspot.com  one on Yahoo and Adam has one on Yahoo and he has an advice column. Let’s see I’m also on Amazon connect. You can get to any of the blog through my website by just going to my site and going to links. Does this mean I don’t know all the links by heart? That’s exactly what it means. 

 

What’s your current project?

 I have three books I’m working on simultaneously; one is actually a romance with an Asian hero. Let me digress here for a moment. One of my reasons for writing interracial is a simple message I’m trying to convey. Love is love and it’s okay to love whom you chose. Initially some readers were shocked to learn that while I wrote interracial my own dear sweet husband is Black. That idea came as a shock to me that readers had expected me to be in an interracial relationship because I was writing fiction.

But back to the current project that you will see on the shelves soon. The others have to be sold. My third in the vampire series is, Lest Ye Be Judged. I think this one is one of my favorites of mine. If this book doesn’t have people wanting to hunt me down and want to save me nothing will. LOL. But they should Judge Not.

 

What’s your genre and how did you choose it or have it chosen for you. Are the labels too restrictive?

 Andrea, I don’t think I really have a genre. I have been listed as a romance author but people have complained that I don’t follow the formula. Can I say right here for the record that I know the formula and do not wish to follow it to the letter. That’s not me. My great love is paranormal of all kinds and you will see more of that from me. It gives me more range to use my imagination. I’ll probably also be moving into more mainstream fiction. Even though you didn’t ask why I’m going to tell you. I purposely write characters that people don’t like. It’s not that I’m insane or don’t realize the kind of characters I’ve written it’s because as Sidney Rickman my editor says, I’m trying to teach. Obviously I’ve failed by doing it in the romance genre because readers want likeable characters. I on the other hand want more realistic characters. I want the reader to be able to recognize themselves or someone they know in the characters I write. I want them to think, so and so acts just like that. God is she evil, mean, stupid, a real B. Whatever. In mainstream fiction readers aren’t looking for perfection in the characters. They expect them to be flawed. I’ll digress again and tell you a funny story. When I began to write about Adam Omega (vampire) Sidney asked me was I not going to teach anymore. I didn’t know anyone was aware of what I was trying to do. But I shouldn’t have been surprised that Sidney knew. We’re so in sync. When she saw that lessons cold be learned via vampire she understood my motive hadn’t changed just the mode of delivery.

 

How did you get started in writing?

 I started writing as a teen and had many years after where I’d try and stop. While I was working as a nurse a patient Shelly Tracey who was a school teacher told me about Romance Writers of America. At that time I definitely was not a romance reader and didn’t know any of the authors. She wanted us to partner. We went to the meeting where Susan Elizabeth Phillips and other published writers were members. I had no idea who they were. Even though after a few weeks I discovered I was a solitary writer and couldn’t write with a partner, I remained a member of Windy City RWA, served on every thing imaginable including as vice-president and two terms as president of the chapter. There I learned the craft of writing, POV took two years. It was also a safe haven of a group of people with common goals that understood how rejections crushed you and were elated for you when you had the least bit of news. Making a sale was not complete until I shared it with the group. No one else understood what it truly meant, not even Bill. You can be happy and proud but you have to have walked that road to really get it.

At first I continued to work while trying to write then one day out of the blue Bill came to me and said, “Why don’t you retire, take two years off and see if you can get published. If you haven’t gotten published after that time you can go back to work. During that time I was having a love affair with QVC. I was totally addicted to the home shopping network and lived for the UPS trucks to come to the house. I took stock of the things we could live without and took him up on his offer. Two years later I was not published so I told him I was going to go back to work and he said, “Naw, why don’t you give it more time. Besides, I like it that you’re home.” (God, I love the man) Anyway one year later I had a contract from Genesis Press for The Color of Trouble, which is being re-released by the way in February of 09.

 

What kind of activities do you do to clear your head?

 I can watch one episode of The King of Queens. If it’s really bad, two. And music will do it every single time.

 

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you ever got?

Write what you know. LOL. Seriously it’s been writing about the things I didn’t know and had to research that has made things interesting. But the absolute worst advice was someone telling me what vampires can’t do and that I couldn’t write that. Didn’t I already say I don’t like people telling me what to do? I have had self proclaimed vampire experts tell me what vampires can and can’t do. Now, unless they know something that I don’t and have actually seen a for real vampire, I’ll listen to Adam and let him tell me what he can and can’t do.

 

Name the three qualities you think a good writer must possess. Which do you think you have?

 I think a good writer must have the discipline to finish the project, a tough enough skin to not allow bad reviews and nasty comments to stop them. And I think a good writer must be just a little bit insane and listen to the voices. I am disciplined and a little bit insane.

 

What is this romance writer’s idea of the “perfect romantic evening”?

 Bill and I have this on a regular basis. We take the phones off the hook, keep the screen door locked so no one can even get to the door to ring the bell and we do whatever the heck we want.

Dyanne, this man is a treasure!

 

How many books a week do you read?

 This is my greatest regret since becoming a writer. I have always been an avid reader, since I was four years old. Now I can barely find the time to read a book. Someone is always asking me to read their work but that doesn’t count. Plus you have to be so careful not to read what you’re writing so something of another author’s doesn’t accidentally slip into your writing. That actually happened with my second vampire book. I hadn’t caught it but Sidney had. It wasn’t big but she noticed it. There were certain words that I had Adam use and she told me she didn’t think Adam would speak in that manner. She was right, he wouldn’t. But I had been reading L.A. Banks vampire series and I’m totally in love with Carlos. What I had Adam say was something Carlos would have said. Not Adam or should I say Adam would not have said it in the manner that I had him saying it so I changed it. Thank God for Sidney.

 

If you decided to no longer write, what would you do instead?

 Andrea, I truly don’t see that happening but if it did I would read more.

 

I think we can all agree with you, Dyanne on that one. You’ve been blessed with a wonderful support in your husband and your editor I can tell. Give them both hugs from your happy readers for me!

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