I met Diedra Drake over on twitter and found her a serious writer, someone who was kind and insightful, and especially bright. All that I'd read from her led me to think her both talented and focused on the world of creating. She is someone who will be writing best sellers in her chosen areas in the future, I believe this deeply.
ALEX: How did you become a writer? I ask most writers if they think writers are born or are created by life’s experiences and educations or labors. Did you have a chosen mode of labor prior to becoming a writer, or have you always been one?
DIEDRA DRAKE: When I was in school, I was a good writer, but I didn’t see it that way. I just thought of it as having a knack for churning out English classwork quickly. I didn’t really understand that I was a writer until I was much older. That’s not to say that I didn’t write. I’ve probably written more than a thousand nonfiction articles, as well as nonfiction manuals and courseware. I even published a book when I was 19 or 20, but still didn’t consider myself a writer because it was nonfiction rather than ‘creative.’
I wrote poetry when I was a young person, but never considered it anything special. Looking back on it, as someone who still loves poetry, I certainly don’t think I had any talent. It was OK. And I randomly make up song lyrics all the time, but none of them are really any good. I even put one of my awful songs in one of my books. But I figured if I was bad at it, that certainly didn’t count as being a writer.
Adding to the cluelessness, I also never understood that some of the other work I did, such as game development or running D&D games, were actually forms of writing. I don’t know how many of your readers were around back in the day of MUD & MUSH text gaming, but that was something but I also did for years, and it was years before I realized it was a form of cooperative storytelling.
In terms of career, I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and spent most of my life consulting in the technology and business arenas. I guess my answer to your question is that I’ve always been a writer, I was just too blind to realize it.
ALEX: What writers do you love reading? Are the works that you read fuel for your imagination, calm for whatever problems, or lessons for writing your own works? How does an author keep him or herself from becoming a sponge of style, subject matter, subtle means of expressing, as having been exposed to the works of great writers?
DIEDRA DRAKE: Most of my early reading was in the classics, and it was very formative. It’s where I developed my love of fairy tales, legends, history, and mythology. I consider my novels Mythic fiction, but it’s a rarely used category and they’re mostly referred to as fantasy romance, or supernatural suspense.
But I rarely read modern books in the genres I write, for a couple of reasons. First, because I don’t actually like most fantasy or mythology books, and second... because I don’t think it’s possible to read within your genre and not absorb some of it. Within the topics that I write, my mind is probably 90% influenced by things written far before the invention of the light bulb. Of course, that means my writing style can be a little odd because it’s more influenced by a background reading really old literature.
I do my fiction reading for relaxation. My favorite genre to read is historical romance, but I also read some paranormal romance, historical fiction, poetry, and some contemporary cozy mysteries or sweet romance.
ALEX: I know you write works that touch upon myth and fantasy, but romance as well. How have you chosen the genre? And why do authors perhaps limit their audience by labeling their work with a genre? Couldn’t a work succeed without that little help for people to choose what they read? I know writers who refuse genre, and actively oppose their publisher’s application of such, because they think works they create should find the proper audience by the audience. How about you?
DIEDRA DRAKE: My books are actually quite challenging to categorize, and that’s really my fault. At first, I thought it was actually urban fantasy - then we realized it wasn’t anywhere close to what urban fantasy readers were expecting to find. But I didn’t write them with a genre in mind, so they don’t tick off all the boxes for the reader's expectations in any one genre. Thankfully, most people seem able to enjoy them enough despite the genre straddling. The marketed genres were chosen by listening to readers, especially heavy readers who read widely in many categories.
I actually think choosing a few genres/categories for your book is essential - but it’s not for the writer at all, it’s for the reader to be able to find it. I call my work Mythic fiction, but it would also fit smoothly into Speculative fiction. Neither of which are areas most readers would even know to look at, and they don’t exist as categories in most bookstores - online or physical. If you want someone to read your book, they have to come across it somehow.
I guess what you’re saying is for writers relying only on word of mouth? But even with that, eventually, you go backwards down that ‘word of mouth’ chain far enough and someone found that book on a shelf somewhere. Genres aren’t something we’re picking for ourselves as writers — and refusing to do it doesn’t make anyone a better writer. It only makes it harder on readers, on stores, for reviewers, and in marketing. Refusing to pick a shelf to put your book on doesn’t help, or grant status, and it certainly doesn’t have to define who you are on a personal level. It just makes it harder for readers to come across.
ALEX: As a Texan, how is your writing influenced by the locale in which you live? Living in Minnesota, I don’t know that I write more or less about Winter, Scandinavian neighbors, or being cold, but I can’t help but think I am a product of my experiences. Does Texas define or limit you in any ways as a writer?
DIEDRA DRAKE: I think everyone is influenced by their surroundings and experiences, but I also really love being a Texan. I don’t inject myself into my stories in major character ways, but I pull in my personal life through subtle references to Texan things all the time. Sometimes it’s mentioning a football game involving the Dallas Cowboys, or describing the smell of oil in the Houston air, or a BBQ rub that’s a variation on a Tex-Mex mole sauce.
My books also frequently take me to Nassau, which is on the east side of the Gulf of Mexico and very touristy. I use my many trips along the Texas coast to Corpus Christi and South Padre Island to inform my descriptions because Nassau is just on the other side of the Gulf at a similar elevation.
Now, it can also limit, but only in the sense of what I need to do more research on. For example, two locations my characters visit a lot are Greece and Sweden. Greece I’m more geographically familiar with, but I didn’t have a lot of frame of reference for modern life in Sweden or the ground geography. That took more research.
But research isn’t something I’m afraid of. When I write my historical novellas inside the novels, I often will end up spending two hours to research something that results in a single line. However, it’s really worth it because if you inject those brief moments of history periodically, it can keep the anchor tethered firmly in place for the reader that you’re not in the present day.
ALEX: What are the ultimate goals of you as a writer and the impact of your works? Do you have them? Or, as a person who writes do you find that what is important is creating the work, and that whatever happens upon release of it to the wild, you are content to have simply created, and the response isn’t up to you?
DIEDRA DRAKE: I’m not just writing to put words on paper or get thoughts out of my head. I went into this wanting to write books people can enjoy, so I want people to both read and enjoy the books. I’m not trying to win awards, but I do want to entertain.
My goal is for the person boarding a 10-hour flight to have something to occupy their time. I want the food server who’s finally off their feet at the end of a long week, to be able to curl up on the couch and decompress into a bit of my fantasy world.
Entertaining people is what I’m after, so making the books easy to find and affordable to obtain are critical components. I want to be in as many stores and libraries as possible, in multiple formats, and hopefully multiple languages.
ALEX: Thank you so much Diedra, could you please give me some links for my readers to find you online?
DIEDRA DRAKE: Sure. Anyone looking for me and my books can start by checking out my website (DiedraDrake.com) and they can find everything they need there.
I'm on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DiedraDrake), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DrakeDiedra), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drake.diedra/).
If they want to follow my book releases and personal book reviews on reader sites, I'm active on both Goodreads (https://goodreads.com/diedradrake) and Bookbub (https://www.bookbub.com/authors/diedra-drake).
Thanks so much for inviting me to share some things about my writing and the path that I'm on!
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