Author Spotlight: Diane Fordham

I am delighted to welcome Australian author, and fellow blogger, Diane Fordham to my first Author Spotlight of 2012. Diane's exciting debut novel, Dream Keeper, is now published and hopefully will be keeping readers awake all over the land! Great cover.

Welcome to Reading and Writing, Diane, it's great to have you here. Please tell us a little about your debut novel.

DREAM KEEPER is a supernatural thriller. The dream travellers’ desires to fulfil what’s missing in their waking world imprison them in their dreams. Dream Keeper is building his kingdom: The Dream Tunnels. People are falling asleep and not waking up. How was Senior Investigator Macarthur T Egan supposed to apprehend and arrest someone who popped in and out of dreams?

DREAM KEEPER is about our desires and the consequences. It is also about facing our fears!

Sounds thrilling and creepy! I'm sure readers would like to know more about you, so thank you for answering the following questions.

Tell us a little about how you became a writer.

I was always keen to learn how to read and write. Before I could even read I would turn the pages and make up my own stories. I'm sure the moment I could write, I would walk around with an exercise book and pencil and make up stories - how I wish I kept all those note pads with my scribbles in them.

How did Dream Keeper come about?

Dreams tell us a lot about ourselves. What inspired me to write Dream Keeper is my fascination of dreams; their ability to guide us through our waking world by revealing our hopes and desires, and the power of the subconscious through those dreams to sort out our fears and assist us in facing those fears. One day I asked myself, ‘What if there was a price for the reprieve our dreams gave us from our waking world?’ - and Dream Keeper was born.

Was your genre influenced by any favourite writers?

Stephen King and Dean Koontz sit on my bookshelves, perhaps they are my influence.

Current writing plans?

I have just finished writing my third novel manuscript (I've sent the first chapter to Allen and Unwin who run a Friday Pitch program) and already thoughts of a sequel to this one are whirling around in my head. I want to revise my second novel manuscript too, and my short stories of course - I will always write short stories.

Any tips for new writers?

Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write. Read and write some more. Be persistent, be determined, never give up and always believe in yourself!

Great answers! Thanks for that, Diane.

Dream Keeper is available in print from the Author Website and Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK)

You can find Diane at her very interesting blog.

Diane enjoys life on the mid-north coast of NSW in Australia – where the rainforests meet the sea. She does what makes her happy and brings out the best in her – She WRITES! Her dream is to one day write something that impacts on, and changes peoples’ lives in an uplifting and positive way. Writing is her passion; the magic that dreams are made of.

Armed with loads of persistence and determination, Diane has been privileged to have short stories, poetry and articles published in literary magazines, journals, writers’ bulletins and newsletters. She is thrilled to have 50 plus of her short stories published in general circulation magazines.

You can also read some interesting stories about dreams on Teresa's blog.