RHYS: I meet the most interesting people when I do book signings around the country. It was in Scottsdale last spring that I met Dianne Freeman who told me about her upcoming book. It sounded just like my cup of tea so I was sent an advance copy and really enjoyed it. And when the book came out I invited her to come to Jungle Red Writers.
And her blog really strikes a chord with me. How many of us write about what we know? Most of our own lives (except Hank's) are boring. We go to the supermarket. We cook for family. We sit at computers. So I want to escape to somewhere much more thrilling in my writing life... and so does Dianne... don't we all?
DIANE FREEMAN:
Do I Have to Write What I Know?
I’ve never liked
the adage, “write what you know.” My debut novel is a fun whodunit set in
London in 1899. The main character is an American heiress who married an earl,
nine years earlier. When the story opens, she’s a widow struggling to live
independently.
This has no
relation to what I know. While I’m all about fun, I’ve never been involved with
law enforcement, nor have I ever committed or solved a murder. I’ve never lived
in London, certainly not in 1899. I’m neither an heiress, nor an aristocrat,
nor (thankfully) a widow. So, what am I doing writing a story with this premise?
It fascinates me!
First, the
mystery part. I love a good mystery. After all, I was an accountant for thirty
years which is a lot like solving a puzzle or mystery. I had to collect data,
piece it together, and try to determine if people were telling me the truth. They
were almost never telling me the truth. (Really, that trip to the Bahamas was
solely for business purposes?) I could
have written a mystery with an accountant as an amateur sleuth, but I read to
learn something new, to take myself to another place. Why shouldn’t I write for
the same reason?
The second
element is the era. I love history in general, but something of a phenomenon
happened from the mid-1870s through the early 1910s that makes this a period
that really brings out the history geek in me. This was a time when nouveaux riches Americans discovered
they would not be allowed to take what they considered to be their rightful
place among the upper crust of New York society. Neither could they buy their
way in. Imagine being stuck in junior high school forever. That’s what it was
like.
It didn’t take
long for these outsiders to learn they’d receive a warm welcome across the
Atlantic in Europe. At least their money and their young daughters would be
welcome. What started as a trickle soon became a flood of intercontinental
marriages between cash-strapped European aristocrats and American heiresses.
I doubted this
type of arrangement would make for a very happy marriage, but it had all the
ingredients for an intriguing murder mystery. A story took shape in my head and
resulted in A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder. I had much more fun
researching and writing this novel than I ever would have had my sleuth been an
accountant. There’s nothing wrong about writing what you know, but there’s a
lot to be said for writing about something you want to know better.
Dianne
Freeman is a life-long book lover who left the world of corporate finance to
pursue her passion for writing. After co-authoring the non-fiction book,
Haunted Highway, The Spirits of Route 66, she realized her true love was fiction,
historical mystery in particular. She also realized she didn’t like winter very
much so now she and her husband pursue the endless summer by splitting their
time between Michigan and Arizona.
And Dianne will give away a signed copy of her new book to a lucky commenter today!
