This is a special interview with Dianne Castell using questions posed by our readers of the AR All-A-Blog. Enjoy!

AR Reader: Tell us about your new series, Four O'Fallons and a Baby. What inspired it?

Dianne: I’m a river rat and I wanted to write about people who live in a small river town and love the river as much as I do. I chose the Mississippi River because it’s such a big part of the Midwest.

I did three women who were friends in Forty and Fabulous (Harlequin American) and wanted to tell this next series from a guy’s point of view. So we get a dad and three brothers. There’s a baby left on a doorstep, but it’s not one of the son’s; it’s the dad’s. The boys come home to help him find the mother.

It’s fun and wild and really sexy.

How can four men not be a sexy read? :-)

AR Reader: Have you ever based a character on a real person?

Dianne: I think I take parts from people I know. Something that makes someone interesting may wind up in a character in my story. But most of the time not even that. These are fictional characters, top to bottom. More fun that way.

AR Reader: Do you think characters in their mid-life have more to offer than those in their quarter mark or earlier?

Dianne: All characters bring something unique to the table.
Twenty-somethings are fun because they’re just getting started living and make dumb choices and think they know a lot more than they do. The guys are fun because they are so hunky and love being the manly men and they are full of themselves.

Forty-somethings are interesting because they’ve been around the block and know how rough life can be. They make intelligent decisions. Also, forty-year-old women are not blinded by hunky men, they can take them or leave them.

These women know who they are, what they are about and what they want in life. If the right guy comes along, fine. If not, they are doing okay by themselves.

Also, again. When it comes to sex...forty-somethings are dynamite. No twittering virgins or inexperienced giggling girls. They’ve got good moves all their own.

AR Reader: Do you have any plans to ever write historicals? Or follow up your story in Star Quality with a bit of a paranormal?

Dianne: Historicals...maybe. I have something in to Brava editor Kate Duffy on that. We’ll see what happens.

As for paranormals, I have a proposal in to Kate Duffy for two books set in Savannah. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a ghost in that town. Very haunted, and they take their voodoo seriously. In my stories there are two vampires, psychics, a pirate ghost, a necklace with a curse...you get the picture.

I’s a lot of fun.

AR Reader: If one of your books could be made into a movie, which book would you want it to be and who would you want to play the hero and heroine?

Dianne: Til There Was U, the first book in Four O’Fallons and a Baby would be my pick. It has a good main story and really strong secondary story. The setting on the Mississippi is interesting with a lot of local flavor. The music score is Delta blues and very mellow and steamy on hot summer nights.

I am terrible on actors. I don’t know who’s who. I think Matthew McConnaughey would be good as Ryan and Sarah Jessica Parker as Effie. Then again, maybe this is fueled by the fact that I just saw Failure to Launch. I love movies that make me laugh and this one did.

AR Reader: Does your family read your books?

Dianne: My brother buys a hundred copies of each of my books and passes them out to his friends! Now that’s a good big brother!

AR Reader: Are there days when you wish you had chosen any other profession? If so, what would your "dream job" be?

Dianne: I’m doing my dream job. I taught for twelve years...that is not a dream job. I love writing stories. I will continue to write till they pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers. :-)

AR Reader: How on this earth were you able to be in the same room as James Denton and not either (1) jump his bones or (2) melt into a puddle of goo or (3) possibly both.

Dianne: Too many people!

Also, everyone wanted a part of him...press, TV etc and I felt bad for him. He is so nice and accommodating and I didn’t want to be one of those people who gushed. He is truly a wonderful guy. It was a pleasure to meet him and his family.

AR Reader: What is something about you that your readers would be completely surprised to find out?

Dianne: I pretty much tell them everything. They know I love junk food, hate to exercise, eat Peeps by the boxful, love to shop, am a horrid speller, and hate to clean my house. The only thing else I don’t think they know is that I bite my fingernails and cuticles till they bleed. Writing is really stressful, and I gnaw. Ugly habit. Also I have really ugly feet. But they touch the ground, and I can walk, so there are worse things.

AR Reader: How do you balance your working/family life with your writing life?

Dianne: Like you all do, family first, then writing. These kids are mine to take care of so they get first priority. Every woman I know is doing a million things at once. Most men sit around and wonder how we do it all. Go girls!

Interviews Index > Dianne Castell (April 06)