A Dame to Reckon With: The Multi-talented Dianne Harman

Hello hello!

I have a real treat for you today. A long time ago, I ran into Dianne Harman around the internet. I really enjoyed the story in Blue Coyote Motel, and Dianne herself proved to be an indecently charming lady with a very eclectic history. When BCM hit the bestseller list and became an ABNA quarterfinalist, noone was surprised. So, as a noire interruption to our usual sci fi content, please welcome the lovely dame Harman! 

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Q: Describe yourself in 20 words or less.

A: Have to try new things. Loyal to a fault!

Q: Tell us about your novels.

A:  Blue Coyote Motel is the story of six wayward travelers with serious life issues, who spend a night at the Blue Coyote Motel and all their previous issues leave because of a “feel good” drug piped into the air conditioning. Their lives, and the lives of the motel owners, are thrown into chaos as the drug wears off.

Tea Party Teddy, while a political novel, is also the story of a woman who finds love and in the journey, finds herself.

Q: One of your series is an Americana travel-romance and the other is a political tell-all. How did those interests arise?

A: Blue Coyote Motel came about when my husband and I were wedding guests at a boutique hotel in Palm Spring, California. It was 106 degrees out. I remember saying to my husband, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if someone put a ‘feel good’ drug in the air conditioner?” He looked at me and said, “There’s your novel!” And so it was.

My husband was a California Senator so I spent a lot of time in Sacramento, California, going to political functions. Two nights in a row I was seated next to the most biased, bigoted politician I had ever met. Over the next few days I wondered what his home life was like, how did he get to be that way, and what was his wife like? It stemmed from that.

Get it here. Cover provided by author. 

Q: There are some definite noire aspects to Blue Coyote Motel. What inspired its genesis?

A:  I can’t say there was an inspiration for it, it just happened. I often felt I was reading the novel as I was writing it.

Q: Freedom was a very interesting drug. Tea Party Teddy also explores freedom, in a sense. Do you consider the books to be related?

A:  Wow, there’s an interesting concept! Have never thought about it, but now that you bring it up I am very independent, and definitely believe in the concept of freedom (notice the little “f”) for everything and everybody!

Q: Americana is a big theme in your works. Will you keep setting your work in the good old USA, or do you plan to work in other settings?

A:  Coyote in Provence, the sequel to Blue Coyote is set in Afghanistan and Provence, France (yes, Michelle, added 14 new chapters since you’ve seen it). As to others, I don’t know. I love to travel, so imagine that places beyond California will be a part of future novels.

Q: How have your life experiences informed the direction of your writing?

A:  I don’t think you can write without drawing on life experiences whether it’s a phrase someone spoke or a place you’ve been. While my books are fictional, I have traveled to the Mani Rimdu festival in Nepal, I have spent some time in Provence, and I love to cook and eat, so there’s some of that in my books as well. A reader told me that my books were rich in description, that he felt he was in the places I described – even rooms. I was an antique and art appraiser for 20 years, so evidently some of that is going into my novels.

You have no idea how much mischief there is behind that grin! Photo provided by author. 

Q: What do you plan to write or publish next?

A: I have written the third in the Coyote series and there may be more. Just had a beta reader tell me that she loved the characters so much I had to write more books. I like Bob and Nina in the Teddy saga. I have a sequel written to that and am in the midst of the last of the sage. I also have written a “boomer book.” Beyond that, I don’t know. 

Q: Which foods do you absolutely hate?

A: Creamed corn and I have no idea why. Other than that I love food!!!

Q: What is your favorite noire or black and white movie?

A: I’m not a good one to ask. I’m a voracious reader and prefer to see things in my mind.

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Thanks for dropping by the nest once again. Don't miss any of the phuquerie. Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tumblr. I have more interviews and more cool stuff coming. It might even get political in here, and you don't want to miss that. This is your darling SciFiMagpie, over and out!