Spotlight on Author Deirdre O'Dare By Connie Vines #Author Spotlight, #Author Interview, #Iditarod Race

Welcome to 

'Dishin' It Out' Author Spotlight!

This month's guest is Deirdre O'Dare.

*Deirdre and I have been friends for decades. 

We met while serving on the International Outreach Chapter of Romance Writers of America board.

Flashback Moment: When I stood up and introduced myself at the writer's conference in Anaheim, California. Deirdre kept staring at me, then blurted, "I thought you were a blonde." 🤣🤣

Gwen Morgan, AKA Deirdre O'Dare

Now, on with the interview 😀

1. Please tell us about your current release 

Relative Dangers is a romance novel with plenty of action and adventure. My characters are people I know and I understand. Just regular folks with unusual jobs and who live in rural or remote places may seem exotic to some readers. 

I have also written a few historicals, some sci-fi and fantasy, and police procedurals. The only area that I really avoid is horror. The heat levels of my books are all over the spectrum, from Sweet Tales to NC-17. Relative Dangers was initially published under my Gwen Morgan synonym.

Relative Dangers is mildly spicy, with a couple of realistic love scenes. 

 

2.  What was the inspiration for the story?

In my younger days, I was a semi-professional horse trainer. When I started creating the story, it seemed to be my heroine's natural lifestyle or career. In some ways, she is the avatar of the girl I was. A girl experiencing her first love. Only time, life would deal them a happy ending.

The plot in the main events is strictly petitioners, but the horse work is real, totally based on what I know. Another pattern of my writing is to have current or relevant issues in today's life and world and find other ways into the plot's challenges, conflict, and progression. In this case, the development of a remote area and environmental issues become very significant. Several f Gwen's romance novels do this for various issues, such as Reservation casinos, women in the military, and law enforcement. 

 3.  What would you like to see more/less of in your genre?

Erotic and explicit romance has moved into the mainstream, with the heat levels once limited to Indy and e-press firms like Ellora’s Cave now found in many lines and publishers. While I do not take issue with this, I find that too many books I pick up are basically “sex stories” with a bit of emotion and action. I have always said I write love stories. While a lot of hot sex is perfect and realistic for some couples, for others, not so much. I want to feel the emotions and have the people cope with real life in the real world in which they, like I live. 

Recently I have read more Inspirational Romances, not so much because I prefer the sweet or clean portrayal of relationships but because I feel those authors pay much more attention to making their characters real and appealing, to development of a solid plot--say mystery, danger, or struggles,  and overall the product is just better fiction and more absorbing. It is ‘easy’ to go from bedroom to back seat to back in the bushes with a couple while we do not know them very well, and hardly anything else happens! Authors must put more effort into their story while keeping it as sexy as they wish or their couple fits. Now I will say this is JMHO--and probably does not work for all readers-- but that is where I am in my reader hat.

4.  What, in your opinion, makes a good writer? 

First and foremost, the fiction writer must be a good storyteller. Yes, the experts say show, don’t tell, and it is generally correct, but if there is no story, no key characters you can identify with who face a variety of challenges, complex, and obstacles, they must somehow brave and strive their way through to win their goal or reward, why bother to read it? Beyond that, a deep understanding of human nature, a curiosity about people and what makes them tick, a special sense to visualize and create a world where those characters abide with century details, then let the reader feel she he is there, and perhaps most of all, in the imagination that find stories in most everything And then the compulsion to tell details characters bring to you. My characters just appear out of the universe and begin to nag at me until I let them share their tail, which I transcribe from their images and put into words for others to experience

  5. Do you have a favorite paragraph/line in this novel? 

This is hard. Several scenes resonate when I re-read the book some years after the original writing. Mari’s struggle with Mitch (the dangerous relative)  and then her anguish over her little dog being hurt. Perhaps when she asks the hero, Dusty, why he is trying to help her and being very kind. She shocks him with part of her speech which I excerpt here.  

“Maybe I’m paranoid or too suspicious or something…but, well. Everybody is out for what they can get, you know? So I don’t understand why you are doing things for me. I mean, well, I know all about sex and stuff. So if that’s what you want, you don’t have to buy me things and take me places. If you just asked, I’d probably let you.”  He realizes then that she has been oddly sheltered and is far from naïve or innocent and is hard-pressed to answer her!

 6. If you were forced to live the rest of your life as one of your characters, who would it be?

I have loved almost all of my heroines, but Mari in this book and Melissa in The Man in Black probably feel the most like a person I could be. I have had a few secondary characters that I identified with too, but hey, we all want to be the heroine of our story, don’t we? So I can see myself as Mari, although she is much younger. Melissa, by birth, is almost edging into the “upper crust’ class in her background, but she becomes an ordinary woman living an ordinary life which fulfills her deepest wish. 

 7.  What are your hobbies? Do any of your characters share your hobbies/interests? Do any of your hobbies play a part in your novels?

Oh. I am a super dabbler! I enjoy almost anything creative, so over the years, I have done a lot of sewing, made jewelry, sketching and watercolor painting, photography, and written poetry, to name a few. Although my work with horses--and mules--was hardly a hobby, I have always deeply loved animals, and there are not too many pieces of my fiction that do not feature horses, dogs, or even a whole menagerie. I have always loved the outdoors and hiking, camping, exploring, and such, which find a way into most of my tales. I’ve had characters write poems, be ‘rock hounds,’ be an artist or a crafter, and most women are at least tomboys at heart.

Thank you, Connie, for having me as a guest at "Dishin' It Out!". 

It has been so much fun, and I hope the readers enjoy it too. I hope other readers, like me, are more intrigued by the guy next door or down the street than a Middle Eastern Sheik, a Greek tycoon, or a sexy version of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos!! If there are, you are who I write for. 

So I hope you will check out the potpourri of fiction by Deirdre O’Dare at Amazon or, preferably, directly at JMS Publications.

 https://www.jms-books.com/deirdre-odare-c-224_244/

 

An avid fan of the sport of Sled Dog Racing, she was also fortunate enough to visit Alaska during the Iditarod.

Thank you for sharing your interesting writing life and leaving us with a poem inspired by lady mushers.

Iditarod

Iditarod: far, distant place.

A dream. A myth. A trail. A race.

Beneath aurora blazing bright,

Through cold and wind and long, dark night.

Cheering crowds at start and end

But in between, rare is the friend

Who braves the wild to aid or say,

They’re with you in spirit along the way.

Out on that trail, just you and your team

The elements battle to chase this dream.

Those dogs on which your life depends,

Now closer and dearer than kin or friends.

Together, such trust and faith you share

For only true teamwork will get you there.

There are no losers; only winners complete.

Your goal you’ve reached and it feels so sweet.

Despite the pain and the tears you spend,

Somehow you hate to see it end.

Iditarod: far, distant place.

A goal, a dream, a test, a race.

© GMW 25 Aug 14

Thank you, everyone, for visiting "Dishin' It Out'" today.

Happy Reading 📕📖📗📚📱

Connie 

XOXO