Meet My Latest Guest - Diane Burton!

I want to welcome Diane Burton. First I’d love you to introduce yourself.

Thanks for having me here, Barbara. I’m a wife, mom, grandmother, and a writer. Not necessarily in that order. Apologies to my grown children and husband, but Nana duties come first. <g> I write science fiction romance and romantic suspense. The commonality between my books is adventure. I love action/adventure movies, especially if a relationship develops between the main characters. Romantic comedy movies is another favorite, so I try to incorporate humor in the stories I write. I live in West Michigan and can never get enough watching Lake Michigan sunsets.

Tell us about your latest release.

The Case of the Bygone Brother is a PI mystery. It’s the first in what I plan as a series of adventures featuring Alexandra (Alex) O’Hara as a private investigator carrying on her retired father’s business. You won’t believe the scrapes she gets into trying to find a missing man.

Now I have a few questions for you – I have found readers do like to know fun things about us writers.

1.) Who is your favorite villain – it can be from a book (even one of yours), movie or TV show. And why?

Professor Snape in the Harry Potter books. I know he isn’t really a villain, but he acts like one until the end of the series. He is so skillfully written that the reader doesn’t know his intent.

2.) Who is your favorite character out of your books? Why?

Oh, gee. That’s like asking me my favorite child. I always love the heroine in the book I’m writing. Jessie in Switched has a special place in my heart. Her story was my first published book.

3.) What do genre do you write? What made you pick that one?

As I mentioned above, I write sci-fi romance. I fell in love with Star Wars. Action, adventure, and romance all in one. That’s the kind of science fiction I love to read—not weighty tomes with so much technical data that I’m put to sleep. (I know others love that. Just not me.)

I also write romantic suspense, which I love to read. My PI mystery, The Case of the Bygone Brother, has a little romance, but it’s more mystery oriented. Again, I write what I like to read.

4.) What are you working on now?

I’m working on the 3rd book in my Outer Rim series—stand-alone stories connected by the locale and recurring characters—about strong women on the frontier of space. In this one (no title yet), the heroine tries to take down a slave ring that dares to come into her colony.

5.) What got you to start writing?

The prospect of an empty nest. My children were in their last years of high school and would be going off to college. I was fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom and was a volunteer in sports, scouts, school, and church activities. I kept the family together through all the moves with my husband’s job. I figured it was my turn to do something for me. I loved to read so how hard could it be to write a book? LOL I found out.

6.) Where do you get your ideas from?

I don’t know. I used to clip newspaper articles that I thought would make a great story. I never used them. I think my Muse must work overtime, whispering in my ear while I sleep.

7.) What would people who read your work be surprised to find out about you?

That I hated science in high school. And now I write science fiction romance. Go figure.

8.) Do you have any special talents?

Besides being able to quote movie lines? LOL I love to garden. I always took small sections of plants from my garden at one house to the next. I still have plants that originated in my grandmother’s garden (lilies of the valley) and my mother’s (irises, tiger lilies, and Shasta daisies). Arthritis in my knees and back make gardening difficult, though, so Hubs does the work while I “supervise”. I also like to quilt and hope to get back to it soon.

9.) What was the one piece of advice you received when you were an aspiring author that has stuck with you? Why?

Don’t give up. We all hit bad times, either in our writing careers or personal life. Persistence will win. Friends from my writers’ group (Mid-Michigan RWA) had to remind me of that advice when I was going through a bad personal time a few years ago.

10.) If you could talk to any famous figure (present, past or fictional) who would it be and what would you talk about?

Madeline L’Engle. I read A Wrinkle in Time to whatever elementary class I was teaching when it came out. I would ask her what inspired her to write that series. It was so far ahead of anything I’d read at the time.

11.) What song would you say describes your life?

You Don’t Always Get What You Want.

12.) If you could come back as any animal – what would it be?

A family dog. Faithful, loyal, and fetches slippers. LOL At least I wouldn’t have to cook.

The Case of the Bygone Brother Blurb:

After taking over O’Hara & Palzetti, Confidential Investigations from her dad and his partner, Alex O’Hara’s bottom line has taken a plunge. So when a femme fatale offers her the case of a lifetime along with a huge advance, Alex sees her finances on a definite upswing. But someone doesn’t want her to find the long-lost brother. Complicating matters is the return of Alex’s old heartthrob, Nick Palzetti. Is he really there just to see her or does he have an ulterior motive? The Lake Michigan resort town of Fair Haven is abuzz with the news that O’Hara & Palzetti are together again.

Excerpt:

“Hello, gorgeous.”

I whacked my head on the display shelf.

Well, what would you do if you were lying across the top of a four-drawer lateral file cabinet, and your arm—yardstick attached—was wedged between the wall and the cabinet, trying to retrieve the license renewal application that if you mangled, crushed or couldn’t get would mean the end of your business, and the ex-love-of-your-life stood in the doorway looking at your butt?

The shelf shook on its braces from contact with my head. Never mind that the encounter didn’t do much for the aforementioned body part. The Fair Haven Chamber of Commerce awards rattled, and signed Detroit Tigers baseballs pelted my head, shoulders, and the back of my thigh. I dropped the yardstick and swore.

“I thought you promised your mother you wouldn’t swear anymore.” He would remind me of that vow.

“Relapse,” I muttered as I looked over my shoulder.

In that loose-limbed, cocky manner I once thought scary, sexy, and so cool, Nick Palzetti stood in the doorway to the spare office. He even dressed the same in a black leather jacket, black knit shirt, and jeans that molded his hips. Lordy, he could still make my mouth go dry.

As I wiggled back and sideways across the long cabinet, I felt my skirt ride up. Of all days to wear a skirt. With my foot, I searched for the desk chair I’d climbed to get on top of the cabinet. I’d kicked off my high heels before standing on the chair, probably the only smart thing I’d done so far.

“Red panties, you naughty girl.”

Buy links:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00P1GPR0Q

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/489085

Bio:

Diane Burton combines her love of mystery, adventure, science fiction and romance into writing romantic fiction. Besides the science fiction romance Switched and Outer Rim series, she is the author of One Red Shoe, a romantic suspense, and The Case of the Bygone Brother, a PI mystery. She is also a contributor to the anthology How I Met My Husband. Diane and her husband live in Michigan. They have two children and two grandchildren.

For more info and excerpts from her books, visit Diane’s website: http://www.dianeburton.com

Connect with Diane Burton online

Blog:  http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/dmburton72

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/dianeburtonauthor

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