An interview with author Sarah Diemer, and a giveaway!

I posted happily about Sarah Diemer’s The Dark Wife when it was published, and I am happier still to have been afforded the opportunity to interview her.  And because I believe in Sarah and her work, I am sponsoring a giveaway of a signed hard copy of The Dark Wife.  Details of the giveaway at the bottom of the post.

1.  What is your writing routine?  (Do you work in a set place, set time of day, have any rituals you perform beforehand?)

*laughing*  I dream of the day that I can have an actual writing routine.    I have complete (and detailed!) fantasies about it, but for right now, I write anytime and anywhere.  I’m the girl furiously tapping away at her keyboard in the back of a grungy coffee shop.  I’m the girl who drags out her laptop in the middle of a field because the bird song is really inspiring me.  I’m the girl who gets up early to get out five-hundred words before work. Writing is my passion, and anytime and anywhere I can get down words of the story begging to be told, I do it.

The only set thing that I do have is this:  the day I don’t get at least three thousand words down is the day that I’m sad (so I try to get around 3K every day)–I have to be able to write every day or I go mad.  (It’s the whole “writers are slightly crazy thing.”  ;D)

SOMEDAY, I will TOTALLY have a routine, and it will be AWESOME.

2.  You live very openly as someone who is pagan and LGBT. How does this feed into your work?

I think that a lot of my beliefs about how the world should work end up in my fiction.  I believe that being GLBT should be No Big Thing.  Living with the basic prejudices against me every day has caused me to write a different world, a world that I would want to live in (big slightly toothsome monsters aside), where being gay is considered just as “normal” as being straight.  I want a culture that does not degrade me or treat me differently.  I believe, firmly, that culture follows literature, which is why I write what I do.

Being Pagan (and worshiping the Goddess) influences my work in almost more obvious ways.  There’s a mention of a Goddess in every book I write–not because I’m trying to convert anyway (which I’ve never done), but because there are very few mentions of the Goddess in popular written culture (or, at least how I see Her), and I wanted to change that.

I write what I would give anything to read:  simply put, books about lesbians being awesome, doing courageous things, with a Goddess watching over them all.

3.  What authors have been the most inspirational for you, and in what way?

Peter S. Beagle and Tamora Pierce changed my life.  Mr. Beagle wrote books that–as a child–broke my heart apart and rebuilt it.  Honestly, I consider his novels like spiritual texts.  There is not a single word amiss or out of place.  I really believe that the divine moves through him when he writes.  From a little girl I noticed this, and there was awe in me.  “I want to write like that,” I said.

Tamora Pierce made me believe that people wanted to read books about kick ass young ladies.  When I was a kid, I was inspired ceaselessly by Daine and Alanna in my own life.  These heroines–though fictional–taught me that girls have power, and that message has never left me.  It changed my life, and my writing, forever.

4.  Do you have a music playlist for The Dark Wife?

You know, I didn’t, but I listened to a lot of Beethoven while writing the book.  Also, a cover of Katy Perry’s song, “Teenage Dream,” sung by The Rescues became the book’s anthem for me.  It really captured the Pomegranate Marriage, I felt, and a lot of the longing and desperation of the last part of the book.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THUk6dVwbyE

5.  Where did the original spark of inspiration for The Dark Wife come from?  How has it evolved as a project over time?

My wife and I have been working on a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth for…what, eight years now?  Longer, on her part.  In our version, Cupid is a woman.  The Persephone myth has always been my favorite, and I’m deeply embedded in Greek myth as it is, and I just got to thinking about things.  In super old variations, they say that Hades came from Hec/kate, and–originally–there was no Hades, but that old Hecate, Goddess of the Underworld.

I love myth deeply–there is so much about human longing and hope and love and hatred in those stories.  They touch us deeply, and they continue to touch us many millenia later.  But, as a lesbian lady, I have absolutely nothing I can relate to.  Yeah, Artemis, okay, but the homosexual stories about her aren’t canon, are sort of made up, are sort of a joke.  That’s frustrating.

I’m nobody, really, I thought when I began.  How dare I retell this myth, and change so much of it?  But it was divinely inspired, and I knew I had to do it.

6.  You and your wife, Jenn, run Glamourkin.  Is there a chance that we’ll see some tie-in Dark Wife Glamourkins? 

*laughing*  You know, I really should make a whole update of them!  I hadn’t though about it.  There have been a few, but I don’t really notice I’ve done them until they’re done.    For this update, Jenn did one that is completely THE DARK WIFE:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_plus_jenn/5789975785/in/photostream

I also have one for myself:  “she fell in love with the queen of the underworld.”  It makes me so happy.

7.  Why self publishing rather than traditional publishing?  Did you consider the traditional publishing route for The Dark Wife?

You know, I did, and–at the end of the day–I decided it wasn’t for me.  A lot of people are saying “oh, she self published the book because it’s gay, and the evil publishing industry kept her from publishing it traditionally,” but that really had no bearing on whether I wanted to self publish or not.  I knew I wanted to go indie with this book because I’m an indie person.  I love doing things myself, love being in control of my own destiny.  I’m making this happen–we’re making this happen, Jenn and I and all of the people who believe in this book.  I was able to control the cover art, was able to make the final decisions about what would happen in the novel, had an incredible editor in my own wife.  I love that I’m so much closer to everything, that it’s all up to me.  It can be totally scary, realizing that whether it fails or triumphs is entirely based on you, but it can also be freeing.  I don’t have to pay back my advance, I don’t have to justify myself or my book to anyone.  If people love the idea, they’ll buy it–if they love the book, they’ll talk about it.  It becomes so much simpler and clearer to me, and I love that deeply.

8.  What is the next project that we can expect from you?

I have two coming!  One, a young adult novel entitled RAGGED:  A Post Apocalyptic Fairy Tale, due out at in summer:

Talula is one of very few who survived the Dis-Ease. Now that most humans are dead, there is a rumor spreading that the survivors are being killed off, one by one. By fairies.

Talula doesn’t believe it until a fairy comes for her.

On orders of their queen, the bloodthirsty and savage fairies have risen above ground to finish what they believe Mother Earth started: the annihilation of the human race.

But there are some fairies who don’t want to kill humans, and Din is one of them. When Din is sent to murder Talula, she can’t bring herself to do it. Din sees signs in everything, and she harbors a last, desperate hope: that Talula could be the foretold Oracle, and–together–they could save mankind, along with a real and dying creature, the earth Herself.

Funny that, in the midst of a last-ditch-effort, race-against-the-clock quest to salvage the world, all Talula can really process is the fact that she’s falling in love with a fairy girl.

And my next project–a novella–SUGAR MOON, is coming out this month!  (A caveat–SUGAR MOON is Fantasy, not YA Fantasy).

Elise sells magic, charms and dreams out the back door of her brightly painted wagon. A Witch and daughter of the Maja, she believes that everything happens for a reason, but she has never quite understood why there is a hollow feeling in the place where her heart should be.

One night, at the fabled Moon Market, she meets a stranger who gives her a star. The woman’s name is Via, and she offers Elise this shining treasure freely, asking for nothing in return. Love finds Elise; for the first time in her young life, she feels no emptiness.

But Elise does not yet know that it costs much to possess a star. In the dark of night and burn of day, the Fevered turn their soulless faces in her direction, changing course. They begin to hunt her, intent on devouring her light.

SUGAR MOON is the first novella in the MAJA Trilogy.

9.  Do you think you will continue with self publishing for future projects? 

My absolute and perfect eventuality is putting out self published books every few months, while also having a few titles through small presses and larger presses.  I would eventually love an agent, but don’t feel like I need one at this time.  I think that a marriage of the two ideals is the perfect way to go for me.

10.  Would you like to share one of your favourite excerpts from The Dark Wife?

The Pomegranate Marriage is my favorite part of the entire book.  Persephone has asked Hades to marry her–Hades has said “yes,” and they’ve wed.  After the marriage, together, doubt begins to seize Persephone–she must return to the above ground because of threats from Zeus.  Everything she’s worked so desperately to keep in her own life, those few precious things, are about to be lost.  This is what happens after she breaks down:

There was a stain of pomegranate juice on her chin, and I traced it with a shaking finger, touched her lips, cherished the warmth and realness of her. Now that it was over (even though it wasn’t, the reverberations of it still quivered through me, the most liquid light feeling I had ever known), it was over, and all I had was this moment where we were together, and how long would the night last, and I mustn’t cry, I mustn’t, but even as I thought, even as I did my absolute best to hold onto the moment of here and now, I lost it. I lost the string that connected me here; it snapped away from me, into the blackness, and I began to weep.

Hades said nothing, only drew me closer, pressed her lips to my hair, held me close enough that I could feel the pulse of her heart, beating beneath her lovely skin, against my skin. We were so close, I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began. Now, on this night, we were one, and we would never—no, I couldn’t use that word, never.

But I wouldn’t delude myself. Did I really believe that Zeus would let me go, would ever let me go? Did we really believe that it was possible to build a life together under the shadow of a god who wanted to keep us apart?

It was too much, and I was too tired, and I wanted to be swallowed up by the darkness of the Underworld and sleep forever in Hades’ arms, obligations obliterated. A long, immortal life of unhappiness lay before me, while my dark wife lived a world apart, alone.

“Persephone,” Hades whispered. I turned to her, nose to nose, closing my eyes. I couldn’t look at her. If I did, I would sob and never stop sobbing, and I wanted to do my best, I wanted to show her I was brave, as she thought I was. If I could be brave now, maybe she would believe I could be brave above, too, and then she wouldn’t worry about me…

“Persephone,” she said gently, touching my chin. I opened my eyes, took hers in—they were filled with such love, such kindness, that everything I was holding onto so tightly broke apart within me, and I was weeping again. How could we endure this?

“I know you think that it’s over,” she whispered to me, lips against my ear. I buried my face in her neck, drew my arms about her. “You think it’s over, but it’s not. I promise you, Persephone.”

“How can you know?”

“I know,” she breathed. “And I promise you this—we will be together again. I swear it. Do you trust me?”

It was a surprising question, and I looked at her, perplexed, tears spilling from my eyes. I pushed them away. “Of course I trust you. I love you.”

“Then do you trust that I will find a way for us to be together?”

“Hades—”

“Persephone. Trust me. Have faith in me.”

“I do,” I whispered, heart breaking, numb.

“Please continue to trust me. I swear to you, I will make this right.”

She waved a hand at the glittering sun over our heads, and it dimmed, softened. There was only darkness. I felt as if I had descended to another time and place. She was all around me, within me, holding me, part of me, now. She kissed me, gently, promised again that she would find a way.

And I didn’t know how she could stop this, what she could do—there was nothing she could do—but I had faith in my goddess, faith in the possibility of something beautiful happening in my life, and remaining.

We came together in the dark, whole in one another, a marriage of the truest love, built upon a single dark fruit devoured.

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Sarah Diemer is a Persephone girl.  She tells stories, makes jewelry and runs around after several animals in a lovely, purple-doored house in the country.  She likes to think she is funny.  When not up to her elbows in glue and words, she hula hoops and gardens, dresses up like a fairy and recites poetry when she thinks no one is looking.  She loves her wife more than anything in the universe.  You can find out about her new novels, take a peek at the jewelry she makes out of old fairy tales and generally see several sparkly and interesting things at her site, http://www.oceanid.org, or her blog, http://www.muserising.com

 

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The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer
Three thousand years ago, a god told a lie. Now, only a goddess can tell the truth.

Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want–except for freedom. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice.

Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny.

But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.

The Dark Wife is a YA novel, a lesbian revisionist retelling of the Persephone and Hades myth.

- on Amazon.com (for Kindle) for $2.99
- on BarnesAndNoble.com (for Nook) for $2.99
- on Smashwords (for eReaders/reading online) for $2.99
- beautiful paperback edition here for $12.99

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Want to win your own personalised copy of The Dark Wife? Simply comment to this post and you will be entered for a chance to win a hard copy of the novel as well as a sample vial of the perfume oil, “The Dark Wife,” made by The Misery/Love Co. This is the perfume oil that Sarah wore while writing the book.  (Crushed rose petals, bitter myrrh, honey wine, red sandalwood, dry palmarosa grasses, black pepper, dragon’s blood, six pomegranate arils, and a fresh hint of new tears.).

The giveaway is open internationally and will run until 5pm my time (GMT+8) on June 26th.

Mandatory entry: Comment on this post, being sure to include a valid email address.

For a bonus entry, tweet about this competition, including a link to this entry (Enter @Stephanie_Gunn’s giveaway to win a copy of @sarahdiemer’s book The Dark Wife: http://bit.ly/iUu5U3).  Please copy the link to your tweet in a separate entry.  You may tweet once per day for a separate entry each time.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. Please comment there.