Interview with Portugal publisher
By Jude Deveraux - August 18, 2011
More Posts by Jude Deveraux
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September 30, 2009
1. You have a degree in Art. However, your career is as a writer. How did this happen? How did you discover your passion and vocation for writing?
I really and truly wanted to be one of the top artistic weavers in the world, but after I graduated from college, I found that no one was willing to pay me for weaving. I got a job teaching elementary school. I loved the kids but hated the administration. Reading was my escape. I never wanted to be a writer or sought it, it just seemed to happen.
2. Your novels are mostly historical. Why this interest in telling stories set in the past?
I love doing the research, finding out the way people did things. If they have a steak dinner, how did it get on the table? I like knowing what my characters are facing in the world and you can only do that if you go back in time.
3. You’ve been writing for more than 30 years. What’s your perspective about your long career in writing?
I started by planning to write forever. Many of my books are intertwined so readers will want to go on to the next one. I made a lot of career decisions by thinking of the long term rather than just what’s selling at the moment. I had to battle editors and lots of other romance writers, but I always stuck to what I believed in and it has paid off.
4. Do you still find it easy to make up stories?
Some books are easy and some are so difficult I want to give up writing. I like the ones that flow, that seem to write themselves.
5. After three decades of writing, is there any advice you can give based on your experience?
Keep your ego intact. I have seen many careers killed by the ego of the writer. Look at each book as though it’s your first because it is to some reader. And never think you’re something special because you’ve written a few books.
6. Before becoming a full-time writer, you were a teacher. Was becoming a writer a surprise for you or something you were planning for a while?
I had never thought about being a writer, never yearned after it. I just had an idea for a book and started writing it down to make it go away. But when I finished the book, I had ideas for many more.
7. Despite being a writer, you prefer watching movies than reading books. Why is that?
Reading has become almost a busman’s holiday. I start looking at the line editing and asking myself why the author put this chapter here and why didn’t she take that scene out. I can hardly read fiction anymore. I do read a lot of nonfiction, though.
8. When you’re writing your stories, do you think of any message that you want to transmit to your readers? Are there any challenges?
I always have something in mind that I want to tell, but I don’t write it out in the book. My challenge for the book I finished recently (Moonlight in the Morning) was to see if I could make my hero and heroine fall in love without ever seeing each other. It wasn’t easy to do.
9. As a writer and a person who make up stories, do you have a dreaming life which you wish you had?
Oh yes! I would very much like to live inside one of my stories!
10. Although you’re a romance writer, you don’t use to read this genre a lot, do you? What’s your favorite genre for reading?
I never read romances. I like murder mysteries.
11. What kind of feedback do you most get from your readers? And from Portugal?
I have had problems with feedback as people tend to write nice things to me in private, on my Website, but the ones who write mean-spirited reviews put it out there in public on Amazon.com. I was in Portugal just a few months ago and I was astounded at the beauty and serenity of the country. I really want to go back and spend more time there!
12. What do you think about your Portuguese fans?
I would like to hear more from them! I have recently been added to facebook and twitter and I try to answer everyone who writes to me.
13. Besides writing, what gives you more pleasure to do?
I like to garden, to travel, and I do a lot of boxing.
14. What fascinates you more in Edilean? What made you decide writing a series about the city of Edilean?
I wanted an isolated town where I could get to know the people in it and take them down through the centuries. I wanted to see how the descendants of a few families got along in the modern world and what traits stayed with them.
15. Is it a town of your imagination or is it based on reality? What inspired you to create it?
Edilean is all from my imagination.
I really and truly wanted to be one of the top artistic weavers in the world, but after I graduated from college, I found that no one was willing to pay me for weaving. I got a job teaching elementary school. I loved the kids but hated the administration. Reading was my escape. I never wanted to be a writer or sought it, it just seemed to happen.
2. Your novels are mostly historical. Why this interest in telling stories set in the past?
I love doing the research, finding out the way people did things. If they have a steak dinner, how did it get on the table? I like knowing what my characters are facing in the world and you can only do that if you go back in time.
3. You’ve been writing for more than 30 years. What’s your perspective about your long career in writing?
I started by planning to write forever. Many of my books are intertwined so readers will want to go on to the next one. I made a lot of career decisions by thinking of the long term rather than just what’s selling at the moment. I had to battle editors and lots of other romance writers, but I always stuck to what I believed in and it has paid off.
4. Do you still find it easy to make up stories?
Some books are easy and some are so difficult I want to give up writing. I like the ones that flow, that seem to write themselves.
5. After three decades of writing, is there any advice you can give based on your experience?
Keep your ego intact. I have seen many careers killed by the ego of the writer. Look at each book as though it’s your first because it is to some reader. And never think you’re something special because you’ve written a few books.
6. Before becoming a full-time writer, you were a teacher. Was becoming a writer a surprise for you or something you were planning for a while?
I had never thought about being a writer, never yearned after it. I just had an idea for a book and started writing it down to make it go away. But when I finished the book, I had ideas for many more.
7. Despite being a writer, you prefer watching movies than reading books. Why is that?
Reading has become almost a busman’s holiday. I start looking at the line editing and asking myself why the author put this chapter here and why didn’t she take that scene out. I can hardly read fiction anymore. I do read a lot of nonfiction, though.
8. When you’re writing your stories, do you think of any message that you want to transmit to your readers? Are there any challenges?
I always have something in mind that I want to tell, but I don’t write it out in the book. My challenge for the book I finished recently (Moonlight in the Morning) was to see if I could make my hero and heroine fall in love without ever seeing each other. It wasn’t easy to do.
9. As a writer and a person who make up stories, do you have a dreaming life which you wish you had?
Oh yes! I would very much like to live inside one of my stories!
10. Although you’re a romance writer, you don’t use to read this genre a lot, do you? What’s your favorite genre for reading?
I never read romances. I like murder mysteries.
11. What kind of feedback do you most get from your readers? And from Portugal?
I have had problems with feedback as people tend to write nice things to me in private, on my Website, but the ones who write mean-spirited reviews put it out there in public on Amazon.com. I was in Portugal just a few months ago and I was astounded at the beauty and serenity of the country. I really want to go back and spend more time there!
12. What do you think about your Portuguese fans?
I would like to hear more from them! I have recently been added to facebook and twitter and I try to answer everyone who writes to me.
13. Besides writing, what gives you more pleasure to do?
I like to garden, to travel, and I do a lot of boxing.
14. What fascinates you more in Edilean? What made you decide writing a series about the city of Edilean?
I wanted an isolated town where I could get to know the people in it and take them down through the centuries. I wanted to see how the descendants of a few families got along in the modern world and what traits stayed with them.
15. Is it a town of your imagination or is it based on reality? What inspired you to create it?
Edilean is all from my imagination.
