It's been a while since I posted a new interview, and I've been trying to get this one up for a while since it is with My Favorite Writer.
Diana Gabaldon writes the immensely popular Outlander series (Cross Stitch for those of you across the pond), and the Lord John series. Her writing is so outstanding that the literary world can't even decide on what genre it falls into. I say it should be a genre all of its own called Awesomeness.
She was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for me and I think it's about time that I share her wit and wisdom with the rest of the world. I think I learned more about writing from reading this interview than I did in two semesters of college English.
Enjoy!
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1. What is the most important lesson you learned from your parents and how has that made a difference in your life?
Love of family; love of reading. How has that made a difference in my life? Errr….well, I suppose my life would be much worse if I didn’t have those things.
2. What were the best and worst things about growing up in Arizona? What aspects of your childhood were you the most eager to pass on to your children?
Um…love of family, love of reading. What else?
Arizona. Best: Beautiful mountains, wild weather, wildlife walks, small town where everyone knew my family for several generations.
Worst…small town where everyone knew my family for several generations. <g> You couldn’t get away with anything.
3. What did you want to do with your life when you were younger and what did you do in pursuit of your dreams?
Oh, I’ve known I was supposed to be a writer since I was eight or so, but had Not the Slightest Idea how to go about that. And I came from a very conservative family; my father was fond of saying to me, “You’re such a poor judge of character, you’re bound to marry some bum. Be sure you get a good education, so you can support your children!” <ahem> So I went into science.
I liked science; I was good at it, loved teaching—but I knew I was supposed to be a novelist. And when I turned 35, I said to myself, “Hey, Mozart was dead at 36. If you want to write a book, maybe you’d better get a move on.” So I decided to write a novel for practice, in order to learn how.
4. What is the one thing you are most proud of accomplishing and why?
Being married to the same man for forty years. <g> It’s so much better than promiscuity or loneliness.
5. How did you handle being a working mother? Did switching to full-time writing make that easier or harder and why?
Easier, because I was able to quit both the full-time jobs I was doing. <g> (I was a university professor, and wrote—just about full-time—free-lance for the computer press.) As for how to handle being a working mother….
(You might want to put this in a separate link <g> -- “busyday” attachment.)
*Busyday Attachment is added as the next chapter in Number One Fan!*
6. What is your favorite song?
Don’t have one.
7. Back in the 1970’s you were a script writer for Disney comics. How did you get that job and what does a comic script writer do? Were you writing comics at the same time that you were writing your doctoral dissertation?
