Diane
Gilmore was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, from an early age, had a love
of books and writing. At age twenty she got married, started a family, and worked
in Fort Lauderdale's legal profession for twenty-five years while raising her
two daughters. She was active in the legal community as a legal assistant, public
speaker and trainer in computers and legal procedures when she wrote two post-secondary
textbooks for South-Western/ITP, Legal Office Document Processing
and Legal Office Projects. Meanwhile she began writing music reviews and articles
for a regional music publication, South Florida Music News.
It was her experience
with the twists and turns of the South Florida criminal justice system and the
trendy lifestyle of the music business that inspired her first novel, Perilous
Circles. She is already working on the sequel.
When she isn't
writing, Diane works as an at-home medical transcriptionist for a national medical
records company. She is an avid reader and an active member of the Romance Writers
of America® and the Heartland Writer's Guild. She lives in rural Tennessee
with her husband and daughters. She enjoys reading, music, tending to the family
garden, and helping to care for their horses, cats, chickens, and a couple of
dogs from down the road who "adopted" them last winter. | |
| If
you love romance... if you love adventure and suspense... then you must read Perilous
Circles.
What Goes Around, Comes Around… Buy
Book
Read Excerpt |
L.A.
publicity agent Taylor Fairchild travels to England to escape a hectic work schedule
and failed marriage. Hardening her heart to desire, the last thing she wants or
needs is a lover, until she meets Craig Phillips, a musician and, unknown to her,
a drop man for powerful drug kingpin Robert Bongiorno. For Taylor, Craig is the
man who could ease the pain of the past and make all her dreams come true. However,
their newfound love is soon jeopardized by the murky shadow of the drug trade
which silently stalks Craig as he flees the Organization to pursue a music career
in the States. Later Bongiorno, long
annoyed with the idea that his best employee had suddenly forsaken him to pursue
fame and fortune in the music industry, discovers Craig's whereabouts. He also
learns that Craig is represented by Fairchild Enterprises, and a firm owned and
operated by his former law partner, Bruce Fairchild, whose discovery of Bongiorno's
illicit activities years earlier sent him to prison. Seeking revenge against his
enemy, he devises a way to get Craig back into his service and use him as a pawn
in his scheme to get even against Fairchild for past misdeeds. Horrified
to discover that Craig has turned up missing, Taylor sets out to investigate Craig's
sudden disappearance and encounters a deadly game of lies, murder, and a vicious
drug lord bent on revenge. Will Taylor and Craig find each other before the hostility
and secrets lurking deep in the rugged Mexican hills overcome them both? |
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The Differences between Self-Publishing and Traditional
Publishing |
I often think about the differences between
self-publishing and traditional publishing, and how the publishing field has changed
drastically with the input of more authors finding new ways to get their work
read by the public. I am already a published author by traditional means
in the legal field with two textbooks, Legal Office Document Processing and Legal
Office Projects, both by South-Western/ITP. Perilous Circles is my first fiction
endeavor. I just had this wonderful story in my mind that wouldn't go away, so
I went with it. I never took a writing course; I didn't know the "formula"
requirements or what was "supposed" to happen in the romance genre according
to the big publishers. I simply wrote this tale from my heart, and its a heck
of a ride. Thus I have had experience in both forms of publishing along with the
pros and cons of both. With traditional publishing (ITP, my traditional
publisher, is one of the biggest educational publishers in the country), the production
and marketing of your book is done for you, including the appearance, layout,
art work, and sales strategies. Your one and only job is to write. On the other
hand, an author's input is pretty much secondary in this situation. Sure, the
author is an important part of the writing process of a book, but the bottom line
is, the publishing house already knows what it wants in their product at the outset
and thus tailors an author's writing to that end. That is why the traditional
writing process is long (approximately a year to publication) because the author's
original text is read and worked over by various reviewers who offer changes according
to their own thoughts, and then finally, to the needs of the publishing house.
An author gives up a good chunk of sole control in creativity in exchange for
having the publishing house take over the production and marketing of a book,
and ultimately, full responsibility for its success. Self- or subsidy publishing
is a different ball game, one where an author can retain completely control over
what is written and the message conveyed to readers. In my case, Perilous Circles
doesn't follow the traditional "formula" or guidelines of many romance
houses. If I went with a traditional publisher, I probably would have had to change
my characters and events drastically to fit the cookie-cutter format required
by these houses. In addition, most houses have drastically limited their "mid-list"
titles (The RWA once wrote that "the mid list is dead") and put the
smaller houses out of business because they want the tried-and-true monster best
selling authors (or an author with a connection to them) to crank out a sure thing;
another obstacle to new authors to get in the door. I believe the Internet
has made a huge impact on publishing today. A new niche has developed for authors
in the print-on-demand and e-book areas where talented authors who otherwise couldn't
get past the front door of a publishing house can have their work placed directly
into the hands of readers via the internet (including Amazon and Barnes &
Noble) or their own web sites, when the Abig houses@ have drastically limited
their intake of new authors. This way, readers can have more of a direct connection
to an author and have a variety of choices as to what they want to read, as opposed
to a pre-set recipe prescribed by a publishing house. I have enjoyed publishing
Perilous Circles independently. People seem to like a story they can't predict
the ending of. It is a wonderful book because, simply put, it doesn't follow the
rules. The characters are people like you and me who feel like you and I would
in a similar situation. They have realistic feelings and goals. They make some
wrong choices and you pull for them to work through their problems to reach a
happy ending. It isn't "formula," but it's a great read, anyway! And
I hope to see more readers support self-published authors and web sites like Romance
Junkies so that these talented voices can continue to be heard. |
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My favorite time of the year is winter!
I love the crisp, cold air, and the beauty of falling snow. I love the excitement
in the air at holiday time and burning our fireplace. I also love watching the
forces of nature at work, with the delicate life of trees and animals just knowing,
by centuries of age-old tradition, how to protect themselves against nature's
cold winds and dark days. By the time winter is over, it is hen a joy to watch
a new cycle of life begin again. | |
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