By Kathryn Le Veque
A lovely, touching novel about the price of true love and redemption.
Dana d'Angelo weaves a delicate, beautiful story. Not to be missed!
Excerpt:
For breaking the sacred vows of knighthood, Gareth de
Mowbrey is banished to the outer realms of the kingdom. He is broken down and
is plagued by the demons from his past. He has lost everything, his reputation
is in shreds, and he is walking the path of self-destruction. That is, until he
meets one woman who may have the power to save him from himself...
Clarisse de Servian knows that her duty is to marry the man
that her family chooses for her. But even for the betterment of her people, she
cannot bring herself to wed a man she does not love. She does however fall in
love with a man who is forbidden to her, and for once she enjoys happiness. But
this happiness is only fleeting, for Clarisse possess a dark secret that
threatens to destroy her and everyone she loves.
I’m so honored to be on your blog today, Kimi. Thank you so much for having me!
1. Tell us about yourself
I like to think of myself as a storyteller rather than a
writer. Technically, I’m sure that there are better writers out there, who are
more masterful with the written language. For me, I just want to take readers
into a world that I’ve created and make them forget about their troubles, at
least for a little while.
I guess growing up in a strict family has largely shaped me.
I wasn’t allowed to go to parties or have boyfriends. Escaping into books was a
great way for me to forget how unfair my life was. I also used this escapism
when my second child was born. (Man, she was a really fussy baby!)
Nowadays I don’t read as much as I used to, but I find the
same escapism in writing stories.
2. Tell us about
your book?
My books tend to deal with deep emotions such as jealousy,
anger, love, hate, joy…pretty much all the things that a person can experience.
I want my characters to feel such passion, whether it’s positive or negative,
that the readers can experience it too.
My intent is to jump around in different sub-genres, but the
one thing that will be constant will be my exploration of human nature.
3. When naming
your characters, do you give any thought to the actual meaning?
Yes and no. My biggest concern is to have an authentic name
for the time period. It irks me a bit to see, for example, a medieval character
with a modern sounding name. If I like the name, and the meaning is adequate,
then I use it for my character.
4. What made you
want to write and also what made you want to write the genre you are writing?
I used to enjoy drawing quite a bit. I would spend hours
sketching and lose track of time while doing it. While I was trying to decide
on a career direction, I was convinced by my high school art teacher that there
was no money in it. Of course, being the practical person I was, I decided that
I needed something that was more marketable like writing.
I took English Literature and History in University with the
idea that I had the option to maybe pursue a career in journalism or public
relations. But that never happened, and I jump from job to job, making money
but not really feeling happy about it.
Writing made me happy though. Unfortunately I was plagued by
self doubt and worries, and I wasn’t able to get that off the ground for many
years. I think it reached a tipping point where I was getting older, and had
enough of just dreaming about the act of writing. I finally committed myself to
writing seriously. And that was when I made my break-through. Now when I write,
I get the same feelings as I did when I used to draw. I lose track of time and
immerse myself in my imaginary world.
I like reading and writing romances because I’m assured that
there’s a happy ending. I know that life is rough, and I would rather focus on
the good feelings than read or write about the depressing stuff. That is one of
my main reasons for writing romance stories – to make me and other people feel
good.
5. Do you think
about a book of yours, being made into a movie, or do not when writing?
No, I’ve never thought about my stories being made into a
movie. I’m satisfied that reading allows for better experiences than movies.
You can see, smell, taste and even touch the things that an author describes –
at least in your imagination. With movies, you mostly rely on visuals and
sounds. But of course, this is only my opinion.
6. Do you have
any tips for our readers that might dream of writing?
A good tip is to commit yourself to writing, and to stick to
it no matter what. I’ll tell you, when I wrote “One True Knight,” my first
book, I had so many doubts and fears that I was almost incapacitated; there
were just too many unknowns. But because I had already committed to my dream, I
pushed through. And you know what? Those doubts and fears didn’t kill me. Of
course new things crop up. But you just keep pushing and you reach a new level
of comfort and you just continue to move forward. And that's how I think a
dream turns into reality. It's the many small steps that you have to take in
order to get there.
It was fun to be a part of you blog today. Thanks once again
for having me, Kimi!
About Dana D'Angelo:
Dana is the only girl from a family of nine children. As a
teenager, there was a constant battle for the T.V. remote, which she lost so
she was forced to find her amusement in books. Soon after she discovered
historical romance novels from best selling romance writers like Johanna
Lindsay, Judith McNaught and Julie Garwood. She read as many as 10 romance
books per week, and spent hours with her nose pressed between the pages,
skipping meals and cutting out sleep. Medieval romance and love in the Regency
era was just too exciting.
It wasn't until she was married with two young kids that she
decided to take a stab at writing her own historical romance books. She is
intrigued with the idea of writing romance fiction that could bring hours of
enjoyment to readers, help them escape from reality, and perhaps remind them
how sweet love is and should be. These are the things that she enjoys as a
reader, and these are the things that she wants to give back as a writer.
Dana resides in a city east of Toronto, Canada. When not
writing or reading, she's dining at local restaurants with her husband and kids
and enjoying the spectacular foods of the world.
You can learn more about Dana by visiting
www.dana-dangelo.com, look her up and like her on facebook,
or follow her on twitter.
