Author Interview: Heather Dixon

Wentworth Castle Gardens (what do ya know?)
Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

   Have you been looking forward to this? I have! Thanks to Heather Dixon (author of Entwined) for answering these q's!

How old is Azalea?

She's 15 at the beginning of the book, and 16--nearly 17--by the end.

Who was the inspiration for hilarious Lord Teddie?

That would be Bertie Wooster, of PG Wodehouse fame (who I'm kind of in love with). In fact he was originally named Lord Bertie...but it was decided he would be better at a Lord Teddie.  He's my favorite fella in the story ;)

When you started writing Entwined did you hope to get it published, or were you writing for a smaller audience?

I didn't think much about publishing or audience.  In the beginning, I thought it would be fun to write it as an illustrated story!  In the end, I just wrote what felt right, and tried to make the best story I can.  After I'd been working 2 or 3 years on it, I was lucky enough to attend a writing conference where an editor like the story as much as I did.  I think the best thing to do with writing is to write for yourself and the story first.

Did you use your many sisters as sounding boards as you wrote? I read online that one of them came up with the title.

You are quite right!  My second-to-youngest sister, Lilli, came up with the title "Entwined".  She was 17 at the time.  My sisters were also the first people to read the story, and they were more than honest in what they thought worked and what didn't.  I'm pretty lucky to have them.

How does your faith affect your writing?

Hmmm.  This is an interesting question, and one I've never been asked before.  I'm actually pretty religious (though you probably can't tell from my blog) and it does affect my story work.  On the surface, it's simple things; Family is important in the story, and I don't like to have profanity or innuendoes in my work; that's not my style.  (Of course that doesn't make me shy from going dark!)  On a deeper level, I feel very strongly about redemption, and try to make it the focus of every story I write.  I feel like that's the theme of everyone's life.  It certainly has been that way for me.

Heather Dixon's  blog: StoryMonster

Other interviews: The Book Rat
                             Melanie's Musings
                             The Bookish Type
                             Tynga's Reviews
                             Fantastic Book Review (hilarious comment about police uniforms)
                             Jean Book Nerd
                             ADR3NALIN3 (this interview is in white letters against black screen--it kind of hurt my eyes)