An Interview with Keta Diablo

Author Keta Diablo is a creative dynamo with a talented pen. We recently connected online at the Scarlet Magazine forum, and I’ve been getting to know her and her work. She’s just released a new novel, Where the Rain is Made, and is currently touring a blog near you! She interviewed me earlier this week for Quackers & Tease, a multi-author romance and erotica blog. I just had to know more about his fascinating woman, her work, and her creative journey. Keta, welcome to Indigo Skye: Ink and Art!

 Q: Our readers are anxious to know more about your newest novel, Where the Rain is Made. What originally inspired you to write about this period in history?

A: Thank you so much for asking about Where The Rain Is Made, and you asked the perfect question about what inspired me. When my youngest son, Dylan, was twelve, he took a sudden fascination with American history. We spent endless hours at the local libraries researching and checking out a lot of books about the Native Americans who shaped our country. He took a particular interest in the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and their bravery and ill-fated life. He moved on to another topic of interest about a year later, and here I was with all these wonderful stories and research about the Dog Soldiers. It seemed only natural that I should write a story about them.

Q:  Where can readers obtain a copy of your new novel?

A:  Where the Rain is Made is now available at Amazon Kindle and at Decadent Publishing.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about the plot and characters in your newest book, Where The Rain Is Made?

A:  A decadent-looking savage has captured Francesca DuVall and her brother, Marsh. Now she must spend every waking moment planning an escape. However, she didn’t count on the powerful draw of desire interfering with her scheme in the camp of the brutal Cheyenne dog soldiers.

Ethan Gray is a curator at a national museum . . . most of the time, but when he travels through time to help his beloved People he becomes Meko, leader of the most revered and feared tribe of the plains. 

Although their worlds are decades apart, Meko can’t resist the dark beauty he kidnapped during a raid. He has many battles to fight but none he wants to win more than the one that will capture Cesca’s heart forever. From the windswept plains of Colorado and the harsh life of a Dog Soldier to the placid life of a curator, their love was fueled by passion and kindled by destiny.

Meko

Where the Rain is Made

A New Novel by Keta Diablo

Now a Bestseller on Amazon!

Q: Sounds like you’ve got a lot of exciting events planned to promote your new book. Can you tell us more about what’s involved in promoting your work, and give us a few details about your upcoming blog tour?

A: Yes, well as most authors know writing the book is only half the battle. Now to get that “baby” in front of readers it takes an enormous amount of publicity. I spend approximately two hours out of every day, precious time away from my writing, posting blurbs and excerpts to many social networking sites. I also belong to many online communities, forums, nings, MySpace, Facebook, Live Journal, Twitter and a host of others. If you Google “Keta Diablo” several pages will appear. In large part, this is due to spreading the word about my books.

You can find me here, on Twitter. I’m an affiliate author at a wonderful site in the UK called Alternative Read. Join their forums here, where you’ll find me hanging out quite often. I also spend time at Erotic 4 All in the UK, another fun site.

Q: Have you already started work on a new book? Give me all the juicy details!

A: I always have several projects in the works, since I write for five publishers now. Oh-oh, now you know what I do with my life! I’m working on a Texas Ranger series, and writing a sequel to Where The Rain Is Made. I also write gay fiction for Noble Romance, Phaze Publishing and Amber Quill Press (mostly novellas). Some of my new releases in the gay fiction arena are Hot and Sticky, and Blood Oath, a vampire novella. My best-selling Male/Male novella on Amazon right now is Magnolia Heat.

Q: Do you work with a story outline, or do you prefer to let the characters surprise you?

A: I work with a story outline in my head for weeks before I sit down at the computer. I don’t generally use an outline to work from, but will sometimes jot down my thoughts about a scene or the characters. I’m one of those writers who have tried outlines, note cards, sticky notes and scene-by-scene chapter scribbling and they don’t work for me. So I plan everything in my head, go over every conversation and every scene before I plop my butt in the chair. Once I know my characters well, then I begin to write.

The characters rarely surprise me, although one time I planned on killing off a secondary character in a novel. When it came time to actually cut him from the novel, I my fingers wouldn’t cooperate with my brain commands. As it turned out, I’m glad I spared him since he eventually had his own book.

Q: What’s the toughest part of your job?

Remaining disciplined, particularly in the summer months. If you’re a serious writer, it can’t be a part-time dalliance.

To make a living or a career from writing you have to write every day of the week, even if it’s nothing more than nonsense at first. I like to remember that you can do something with words on the page, but a blank piece of paper is going nowhere.

And of course the other thing is reading all the commentary about your books. I learned long ago to avoid reading reviews, and I if I happen to stumble across one where the reader wasn’t fond of the story, I take it with a grain of salt. Not everyone has the same reading tastes and authors shouldn’t take reviews too seriously.

Q: Any words of wisdom for fledgling writers hoping to get into the biz?

Again, write every day and read everything you can get your hands on about writing, particularly regarding those genres you intend to write. I’ve never sought the assistance of an agent, and right now with the publishing industry in such a flux, I don’t see that on the immediate horizon for me. I’m waiting to see what happens when the dust settles.

Bookstores are closing left and right, agents seem to be wringing their hands over the state of the industry and many authors I know are branching out on their own, delving into self-publishing. With the explosion of ebooks, who knows where the market will be in two years?

For me, writing is not a hobby, but my livelihood, so I can’t afford to take it lightly. Don’t listen to the naysayers. If people tell you all the negative stuff about your writing or the endless hours you spend going nowhere, ditch them. This includes family (lol).

Never give up. Keep at it every day, and this means putting your butt in the chair and writing, and then write some more.

Q: What’s the worst professional advice you’ve ever received?

A:  To abide by every rule ever written about writing. Know the rules, learn your craft, study everything you can about writing, and then learn when you can break the rules and when you can’t. Point of View is important, so is learning about passive voice, sentence structure, knowing proper grammar and the basics. But if I had listened to every rule I ever read – “Don’t do this, never break this,” etc. I would be a very stagnant, boring writer. Push the envelope and breech the barriers in your writing. In other words, take a chance and don’t adhere to all the rigid guidelines. I think we can get so hung up on dos and don’ts we stifle our writing, kill the thrill and adventure of the written word.

Q: If you could travel back in time, and give your unpublished self one gift, what would that gift be?

A: If I could travel back in time, I’d go back a lot further than when I began my writing career. Hell, I’d be back in early Scotland chasing down kilts. Or perhaps early Wales. I haven’t wasted my time wishing for favors or praying someone comes knocking on my door with a million dollar contract. It’s not going to happen.

Writing is a lot about patience, talent and the luck of the Irish. Being in the right place at the right time doesn’t hurt either. The success stories you hear where an author becomes an overnight sensation is about as common as pigs that fly. Keep writing, and stop wasting your time on frivolous thoughts- whatever happens has already been decreed.

Q: Leather or lace?

A: Leather for sure. I was raised with all boys and there are a ton of the little hoodlums. I have the scars to prove it. Mom is still around, thank goodness, and I often ask her while looking in the mirror, “Where exactly were you while I was growing up?” Just kidding, she’s a wonderful mother. It’s a wonder to me at all I survived childhood. Course, not one of my brothers will 'fess up to being responsible for my minor battle wounds, but claim they spent their childhood watching out for me. Lord, help me if they hadn’t, I guess.

lndigo, thanks so much for hosting me on your lovely site.

My Pleasure.

A Special Note To Readers from Keta Diablo:  If you want to know more about my writing, you can find me on the web at the following links:


Keta’s Keep Erotic Romance blog, http://ketaskeep.blogspot.com/


Keta’s Haunt, Author Home, http://www.ketadiablo.com/


The Stuff of Myth and Men, Gay Fiction Blog, http://thestuffofmythandmen.blogspot.com/