Interview: Dia Calhoun: PART TWO

View Part One here.

All of the characters in Avielle of Rhia felt incredibly real. Were any of them based on real people?

Oh! Thank you so much. I worked very hard on those characters! I love Master Steorra, the absent-minded astronomer who has to make his living doing astrological readings. And Tinty, the teenager with her wayward magic. I made them all up out of my own imagination. All of the characters are eccentric; I think this is what makes them so colorful and vivid. I had a lot of fun creating them and grew to love every one of them.

What were some of your favorite books as a teenager?

I loved A Wrinkle in Time, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, National Velvet, The Black Stallion, Ballet Shoes and The Hundred Dresses. I was a complete bookworm, one of those flashlight-under-the-covers’ bookworms. I spent a lot of time riding the bus around Seattle to school, ballet lessons, and piano lessons, and I read the entire time.

What are you working on writing next?

I’m writing a fantasy novel written in first person in four different voices—two girls and two boys. It is about faith, music, madness, and magic. It’s my first book with a strong romantic element, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’ve had to do a lot of research—also fun.

My next book coming out in October 2007 is something new for me. It’s a short Christmas fable for all ages titled The Return of Light: A Christmas Tale. The Christmas Deer chooses Treewing, a young Christmas Tree, for a special destiny. With the help of a boy named Luke, a special baseball, and a group of homeless people, Treewing brings the Return of Light to those who need it most.

What’s your favorite thing about being a writer?
I would have to say the sudden flashes of inspiration that burst forth from my subconscious. The “ah-ha!” moments. The moments of wonder. I absolutely love those. They send a chill and shiver up my spine. A huge grin spreads across my face. I work and work and work and suddenly an image or an idea comes that makes perfect sense, that propels the story forward, that ties everything together. But these “ah-ha!” moments only come if I’m diligently working every day, feeding my unconscious. It always amazes me how much work the subconscious mind does for you if you only let it.

Thank you so much, Miss Erin!

Thank YOU, Dia!