The Dragon Shield Blog Tour: Author Interview and Giveaway

Hey everyone, today I have a great Author Interview/blog tour post for you all of you.  So sit back, relax, and read this great post.  Enjoy! 

Thanks for having me on your blog, Ali!

If you could have a casual, 30 min conversation with any author that you admire, who would it be and what would you ask?

I would love to sit with C.S. Lewis. I’m sure I would be completely entranced with anything that he had to say, but I would ask him about Narnia. He created such a beautiful world; I want to know if there was anything about the place that he didn’t write. If there were some other thoughts that he had. Was Narnia an allegory to his idea of heaven, as many of his fans believe it was, and would he have liked to expand on it more?

And was Susan no longer a friend of Aslan’s forever? What were his thoughts behind that one line that left people wondering?

How long have you been creating beautiful images and writing?

I’ve been painting, sculpting, and drawing ever since I was little, taking a hiatus to raise seven children, and then back again. I wrote poems continually during my youth and young adult life but had been discouraged from ever seeking to make either art or writing a career.

You can’t stop someone who is creative though, so once my children were raised, and we moved onto property with a lovely studio, I again took up painting. My favorite subject was, and still is, portraiture in oils and I’ve done many commissioned pieces. It was only recently that I thought it would be fun to write a novel.

How long did it take you to write The Dragon Shield?

All in all, it took about three months to write the version of Dragon Shield that is being published now. I had written another version before I wrote Deception Peak intending for it to be the first book. But after editing and having professionals critique that first edition I realized it was really the second book. There had to be a prequel. By the time I finished Deception Peak (book I) the edition of Dragon Shield I had written was no longer relevant. I had to start over, keeping only the bare minimum of what I had.

If you could be any creature, which would you pick and why?

A horse. A wild horse.

When we lived in Arizona we had a herd of horses that ran wild on acres and acres of BLM land. They were beautiful to watch. Wild horses are so different than the horse you see today being raised in penned up pastures and stables. People have a tendency to domesticate them, humanize them. That really robs them of what they are. Horses have a spirit that is akin to the wind. A wild horse is the epitome of freedom.

Thank you so much  for being on the blog today Dianne, it was great chatting with you! 

Dianne Lynn Gardner

Author-Illustrator

Young Adult Fantasy-Adventure Fiction

Dianne Gardner is both an author and illustrator living the Pacific Northwest, Olalla Washington. She’s an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the National League of American Pen Women. She has written Young Adult Fantasy novels as well as articles for national maga­zines and newspapers and she is an award-winning artist.

Dianne spent many years living out in the desert wilderness of the American Southwest, lived in a hogan made from adobe and cedar for thirteen years, co-owned 25 horses both pure bred and Native American ponies, traveled horseback and by wagon throughout the Navajo reservation, herded sheep and goat, worked in the forest planting trees and piling, farmed on barren soil and even lived in a teepee for a short while. She spent many long years using survival skills as a way of life.

Later she studied pastoral counseling and was a Pastor’s appren­tice at a mainline church. She and her husband have been feeding the homeless for over twelve years. Today she shares both her survival experiences and her love for people, especially young people, into her writing as a way to not only to give her readers a firm understanding of her stories’ characters, but a rich appreciation of nature.

  

Teenage Ian Wilson follows his father through a portal into a deceptively beautiful Realm, where horses run free, the wind sings prophetic melodies, and their computer avatars come to life. But separation from his dad puts Ian in peril as he’s abducted by a tribe of dragon worshipers and forced to find his courage. As he struggles for his freedom and embarks on a perilous search for his father he meets the true peacekeepers of the Realm, and learns of a greater purpose for his being there.

Blog  http://dragontargeseries.blogspot.com/

Hydra Publications link http://www.hydrapublications.com/our-authors/dianne-gardner/

Facebook Ian's Realm link  https://www.facebook.com/TheIansRealmSaga?fref=ts

Twitter @DianneGardner

 

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