Get to Know LL Diamond! An Author Interview

Last month I was thrilled to be interviewed by Jack Caldwell; this month its LL Diamond’s turn for the hot seat! Hope you enjoy our little author chat! — Amy

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First the obvious question—how did you get into writing Austenesque fiction?

I was reading it! 🙂  I picked up a Austenesque book in Target and it sent me looking for more. After finding the chat room at AHA, I had friends there telling me I’d write. I never considered myself a writer, so I laughed them off. Eventually, it felt like a “I have to prove them wrong” thing. We all know how that worked out!

Do you see any of yourself in Elizabeth Bennet? How so or how not? Is there another of Jane Austen’s characters who you think is a lot like you?

I would love to be Elizabeth Bennet, but l don’t know that I can manage her quick wit. Sometimes inspiration on that strikes, but most of the time, I have the late comment or my banter falls flat. I think I’m more of an Elinor Dashwood, dependable, steady, etc. Sigh!

You are a woman who wears a lot of hats—military spouse, mother of three, fitness professional, artist, author—how do you manage your time? How do you prioritize your writing life with so many other demands pulling at you?

Those hats are always seeming to evolve and change too. I think the biggest thing is that I’m not always doing all of them all of the time. With my back injury almost three years ago, I was sidelined as a fitness professional for a while, and with my other commitments, I haven’t felt like getting out there and pushing to teach. I still keep up my certifications, which help with swim coaching which I still love and have managed to get back into since returning to the US. Right now, I’d just love to get back part of my own fitness from before the back injury! It’s amazing how difficult it can be to get back into the swing of things with a demanding schedule.

As for military spouse, while we were in England, I was more involved in my husband’s work life, teaching fitness classes for his wing’s physical training, etc. Here, his office is in another state, so I don’t have the military spouse obligations ruling my life as much. As I always have, I have to keep the house and family going and operating despite his schedule, but with my second child about to go away to college, it’s not as harrowing as keeping up with 3 who are younger and require more. Hubby will be retiring next year. We’re planning on remaining where we are until my son graduates, but after we’re not averse to seeing where civilian life and employment takes us.

I do enjoy art and graphic design, but I mostly design for myself these days. Occasionally, I get a request for a book format or book cover, but most of my artistic endeavours lately are mostly for myself or Austen Variations, which helps a lot with my time management.

My biggest time commitments are probably fixing up the house we bought when we moved to Maryland (as I call it, the fixer upper that we didn’t know was a fixer upper), swim coaching, and writing. I do try to prioritize writing during the day. I sprint with some fellow authors twice a week, which has been amazing to help keep me on task. I wrote Endeavour to be Worthy mostly during the swim team’s 3-week break in the autumn. I think it’s just making sure I get that writing time. My husband took a week off last month and had me outside working in the yard the entire time. I eventually had to put my foot down (aka temper tantrum 😉 ) and tell him I needed to get some writing done—and that he had to go back to work because he was killing me. After pulling out bamboo with an excavator for 2 days, levelling and repaving part of the patio, and coaching in the evenings, I was exhausted, had poison ivy, and hurt for days.

I talk too much, so I’m sure there’s very little people don’t know about me. If we’re going for a random fact, I have 14 half-siblings—7 brothers and 7 sisters. We’re not all close, but we’re spread out so much in age, that it would be difficult to be close. My oldest siblings were married and had their own children when I was born.

You have probably written more modern adaptations of Austen’s work than any other author I know of. What do you think is special about modern interpretations? Do you personally prefer them? What do you wish more readers knew about them?

I love the freedom of modern interpretations. With Regency, you can do a lot but to an extent, you still have the constraints of Regency morals and customs to think about. For me, I need the change from time to time or I start feeling like I’m forcing words onto a blank page. As for whether I prefer Regency or modern, if a story is well-written, I’ll read either. It doesn’t matter. My favorites fall all over the Austenesque spectrum from published to unpublished and from Regency, to other era, to modern. It’s the chemistry between Darcy and Elizabeth that will win me over in the end. They have to have chemistry. You can have a crazy original story, but if D&E are vanilla together, then you’ve lost me. As for writing, it depends on my mood and that of the muse. She’s a fickle sort.

Are there any story lines you would never write? Anything that is absolutely off-limits to you?

That’s an amusing and kind of frightening question. I’ve had this conversation with a few friends, and I think it’s always about the same subjects that come up. I would never write rape romance. No Luke and Laura for me (If I’ve lost you with my reference, it’s Luke and Laura from General Hospital, which was a rape romance on a daytime soap opera). I know some authors do it, and it’s their prerogative, but I just get an ick factor with it. **shudders**

Other than that, I think it would be situations I cannot imagine or identify with. A friend of mine recently told me I ought to write a gay romance. Love him for suggesting that I could do it, but I would mess that up so badly. A loveable gay friend or co-worker in a straight romance? Sure. No problem. As a cis-het woman, I just don’t have the right perspective to write the other and do it well. As it is, I have a sensitivity reader who reads my books with LGBTQ characters to make sure I’m not creating a caricature. I find that daunting enough at times without having that character be my one of my protagonists.

How have you, as an author, changed in either your process or your focus since your first writing projects?

I used to write and whenever a book came out, it came out. I never had timelines for publication or numbers of books I hoped to publish in a year. While I love it, as my children have grown and I’ve learned more and found the time, I try to write 2 books a year, 3 if I can and the muse is having a good year. Sometimes, no matter what I do, I can’t stop her when she wants to eat loaded fries with ranch dressing while vegging in front of the TV or while reading an old Austenesque favorite.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to publish their Austenesque fiction?

Don’t do it!! Haha.

You have a new book coming out this month/soon. Tell us about it!  

A Gentleman of Worth is in editing at the moment. We’re swapping gears and following Amelia and Sir Anthony as they navigate their way to happiness. I had some fun with a seaside cottage (the seaside in March! Gasp!) and hopefully, having my female characters do a bit more of the problem solving in this one than in the past (you’ll see!) D&E will make appearances as will Nicholas, Jane, Grandmamma and Grandpapa, and Georgiana if I remember correctly. I hope you’ll join me when it releases. I’d love to have it out for my birthday at the end of the month, but I have other people’s calendars to consider.