The Lovestruck Novice Welcomes Diana Cosby!!!

Welcome back, TLN'ers!!

Today is a very special day! One of my all time favorite peeps is visiting the TLN Hot Seat! Ahh!! I'm so excited!

I met DIANA COSBY via Facebook. I loved the premise of her MacGruder Brother Series and decided to review HIS WOMAN for her. Since then, Diana has become a much loved friend and a person I look to when the writing gets tough. She's so very generous with her time and never fails to dust off my worries and set me back to rights. What's more, she hooked me up with Kim of SOS America who kindly showed My Hubs and I around Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base when we were in Honolulu back in April.

HIS CONQUEST, Book Three in the series, hits bookshelves in November. What better way to ring in colder weather than by keeping warm with a hunky Highlander in your hands?!

Hope you've got a sweet treat on hand and your cup topped off, because we're definitely diving into the good stuff!

1)If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

Diana Cosby is determined to be a New York Times Best-Selling author as well as Sponsor a house for Habitat For Humanity and aid numerous other charities. She is blessed by the ability to craft stories, and looks forward to meeting the many characters to come as well as people whom her stories have touched.

2)Using three words, describe your voice.

~strong, melodic, and evocative.

3)Tell us a little about your journey to publication. What was your favorite aspect of the trek?

~I'm a retired Navy chief. While stationed in Hawaii, as an avid reader and hopeful author, I took a creative writing course at the University of Hawaii. I struggled with the course, and finally the light began to turn on with my writing the final essay. Except, after I turned the paper in, my teacher was convinced that I wasn't the author. So, he wrote on the top, "Whoever wrote this paper gets an A-, and you get a D+." I was devastated that he thought I'd have someone else craft my work, and I set aside my hopes of writing and focused on my career.

Years later after I retired, I still had the desire write. So, I again started and discovered that I loved writing and I've never looked back. A wonderful lesson I learned is the power of words, how they can hurt or help, the choice is up to the author. For me, I cherish the gift of story with my goal to make a positive difference in others lives and to encourage them to pursue their dreams.

My favorite aspect of the trek?

The people, my family, my friends, those whom I've met, those who I will meet in the future.

4)Novice to Published Author: How have you grown as a writer?

~Finding clarity of my voice, confidence in my abilities of story, and understanding a word's placement as well as impact.

5)Do you have any advice for aspiring authors? Something maybe you wished you might have known back then?

~I wish someone had told me to focus both on writing as marketing, and to follow your heart on both, and to never settle, ever.


6)How do you structure your writing? Are you a pantser or a plotter?

~I'm a major plotter, which means I write the synopsis first and have the major story points plotted out before I begin.

Last, what sort of goals do you set for yourself when starting a project?

~When I'm writing new pages, I write five pages per day. Each day I go back and review the scene and edit up before I write new pages. This allows me to tighten as I go and end up with a fairly clean rough draft.

7)What's up next for you?

~I'm waiting to hear if my editor will pick up books #5 & 6 in the MacGruder brothers series. :)

Paragraph from back cover of His Conquest:

Seathan MacGruder, Earl of Grey, is not unused to cheating death. But even this legendary Scottish warrior is surprised when a beautiful Englishwoman creeps to his cell and offers him his freedom. What Linet wants in exchange, though—safe passage to the Highlands—is a steep price to pay. For the only thing more dangerous than the journey through embattled Scotland is the desire that smolders between these two fugitives the first time they touch . . .

News:
~I'm thrilled to share that I will be signing my books at the 25th Annual Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games in June, 2011 at Maverick Stadium at UTA in Arlington, Texas. I'm also planning a July 2012 book signing tour in Scotland! :)


All I can say is, "TAKE ME!" I've been wanting to experience both Scotland and a Highland Festival forever. *sigh* Talk about a fantastic voyage especially if trekking about with my pal, Diana! :)

I'd like to thank Diana for letting me interview her. It was a real treat, that's for sure! If you'd like to know more about Diana Cosby and her books, please hop on over to her beautiful website: http://www.dianacosby.com/index.html

THANK YOU, TLN'ers!! With the weather finally being kind to me, I'm lovin' life, so how about a classic to send us into the weekend? Here's CCR and DOWN ON THE CORNER! It's one of my favs and such a fun toe-tapper, too. Have an awesome weekend!!!