|
Welcome to our New Faces column, where we are pleased to introduce debut romance authors to our readers. This time we're visiting with Carol Ann Didier, whose first book is Apache Warrior, from Zebra Books.
Carol Ann, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself. I'm origionally from Baltimore, Maryland (Towson was the exact town) and graduated from Towson High School with a Business/Secretarial Diploma. My family then, consisted of mom and dad, a sister and two brothers. I later followed my sister to the East Coast of Florida where I now reside and where I wrote my first novel on Apache Indians. Are you coming to romance writing from another job? I worked as an Executive Secretary most of my adult life and in many of the jobs had to write my own letters, create presentation documents, and was editor for the company newsletter. I have since retired. What led you to write romance? I always loved historical romances and read avidily any that dealt with our Wesward Expansion and Native Americans. I also loved the Civil War period. In school every book report and term paper was on these subjects. I came to feel that we did not treat the first Americans fairly and when I decided to write my novel about Apaches, I wanted to tell it with compassion and empathy for them and from their point of view. During the 1980's I met several missionaries working on the Navajo and Apache Reservations in New Mexico and Arizona and would spend summer vacations on the reservations themselves. I attended many Indian Convocations and got to know several personally over the ten years I visited out west. This also solidified my desire to write about them. Tell us about your road to publication. It was a long one for me. I actually wrote the first book, APACHE MOON, back in l982 on a regular typewriter. I sent it off and had a favorable response from a publisher at the time, but they wanted changes, and I just didn't have the time (I was a single mom by then raising two boys alone and working full time) to rewrite, and retype the 200 plus pages over again, so I put it on the shelf for "someday" to do it over. About ten years ago, I joined a local chapter of the National Organization, Romance Writers of America, called STARs-SpacecoasT Authors of Romance. I found the encouragement and time then to drag out my APACHE MOON story and ended up adding two sequels to it, making it The APACHE MOON Trilogy. Book two is called APACHE SUMMER, Book three, APACHE WINTER, which deals with the end of the wild and free Apache and their being put on reservations. I entered many RWA contests, had fellow writers review my work, joined a critique group, and attended many, many RWA conferences over the past ten years. It finally paid off in 2007, when I attended a conference in Birmingham, AL and Mr. John Scognamiglio, Editor-n-Chief, of Kensington Books asked to see the full manuscript of the first book. He subsequently took it for publication and changed the title to APACHE WARRIOR. What kind of research was involved for your first book? It was amazing how much "stuff" I had retained in my memory from all those reports done in high school, the other books I had read, and of course, my visits to the actual reservations and talking with the Apaches and Navajos personally. I also read a lot of history books on my own. One particular book I read was called "Nino Cochise" which was the story of the great Cochise's grandson, who escaped the reservation and lived in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico for years before coming back to the US. At the time the biography was written, he was 101 years old. Through unbelievable circumstances and coincidences, I was able to locate him, still alive at 105 years of age, living in Tombstone, AZ and was privileged to send a part of my manuscript that dealt with the Apache culture to him for review. The highest praise I ever received came from him when he said, "Not too bad for a White-Eyes." Tell us about your debut book. APACHE WARRIOR is the story of an Eastern Baltimore belle and an Apache brave caught up in a taboo love that has the power to heal or harm a broken people. The trilogy is set in historical SE Arizona during the years 1860 through 1874 when Cochise finally surrendered to General Olvier O. Howard. The first book proves that love knows no color, creed or race. It happens in the heart, when and where you least expect, and if allowed to grow, can conquer differences in culture, hatred, and personal loss. Two sisters are left orphaned at the outbreak of the Civil War and travel west to find their only living relative, an uncle who had gone to California during the Gold Rush years. Their stage coach is stopped by the Apaches and one sister taken and the other left behind. Amanda is a woman ahead of her time, independent and feisty. She does not submit to being a slave for his mother, but earns their respect and becomes part of the family. She learns that Apaches are 'real people' too, and there is no difference in how they care for their children, wives that scold their husbands, how they love and take care of their elders; that when cut they bleed red blood, they cry when they lose a loved one, laugh and joy with others over the good things, they had strict rules about conduct and hospitality. Amanda vows that if she ever gets back to "civilization," she will try to make her people see them as she has learned to see them, and she hopes to work towards finding someone who would be willing to talk to the Chief of the Chiricahuas about peaceful co-exsitence between the two races. Who are your influences as a writer? Glory, so many. I love Karen Kay who also writes Native American love stories. Patricia Potter and Heather Graham who have written wonderful historicals about the South and Westerns of the same time frame. Lucia St. Claire Robson is another one. Gee, there are just too many to name them all, but I have enjoyed those I've mentioned especially. What does your family think of having a published romance author in their midst? My sons and 91-year old Mother, are thrilled. In fact, it was my oldest son who dared me to write it in the first place. I had made a comment about an author's book who was being reviewed on TV one day, and I said to him, "I've read her books and I think I could write one every bit as good as the one she wrote." He answered and said, "OK, do it!" And I said, "OK, I will!" So I sat down the next weekend and wrote every night and weekend for the next three months and finished APACHE MOON and then told him to read it. He smiled when he handed it back after reading it and said, "Reads like a book!" Another high praise. The rest of my family are excited for me too and am hoping for good things. Tell us about plans for future books. Yes, I am contracted with Kensington for another book due out winter 2008 or first part of 2009. This one will be on the Navajos and doesn't yet have a title, but as I found out, it may be subject to change by the publisher anyway. I've started it and hope to be finished by June of this year. How can readers get in touch with you? I am in the process of setting up a web site and hope to have it done soon. In the meantime, they could email me at cadidier1@bellsouth.net if they should desire to do so. I would love to hear from them after they read APACHE WARRIOR and I am hoping they will ask Kensington for Book two to find out what happens to the sister and the gambler who were on the stage coach with Amanda when she was kidnapped.
Carol Ann, thanks for visiting with us, and best of luck! Readers we have a review of APACHE WARRIOR here at TRR.
May 17, 2008 |
