Dianna
Benson is a member of the John 3:16 Marketing Network, but I (Lorilyn Roberts) got to know Dianna better when she almost went with me to Nepal to distribute Christian books to
orphans.
Shortly before the trip, however, she was hit by a car while biking. Subsequently, she was laid up in the hospital for several days with a long recovery
afterwards. I wondered
how that impacted her relationship with God and her writing.
I am blessed today
to have Dianna with us to share her writing journey over the last year and her newest book, Persephone’s Fugitive, in this short interview.
LORILYN: Dianna,
thank you for taking a few minutes to share with us the release of your
latest book, Persephone’s Fugitive.
DIANNA: Thank you for having me.
LORILYN: First, tell me how you are doing five
months after your accident?
DIANNA: Yeah, on August 31, 2014 (on my oldest daughter’s 21st birthday)
I was bicycling – I was in a crosswalk with a stop sign when a car failed to
stop at the stop sign and failed to stop in the crosswalk and struck me. I’m
still battling injuries, and some of them are permanent (damage to my left hand
is one), but I’m doing tons better and I’m right handed, so life moves on.
LORILYN: Where
were you in the writing process of Persephone’s Fugitive when this
happened?
DIANNA: On August 15 (so two weeks before my bicycle
accident) I delivered the book to my editor and she was working on copy edits,
so I was working on my next book.
LORILYN: As a
Christian, I’m always looking for God’s redemption in the hard things that come
our way. How did the accident affect your life and writing?
DIANNA: My first thought after I regained
consciousness (I was only unconscious for 30 seconds maybe): “I’m glad someone hit me instead of me
hitting someone.”
That may sound strange, but I’d rather be injured than deal
with the responsibility of hitting a bicyclist with my car. The driver was a
seventeen-year-old and he was so freaked out (I felt a little bad for him).
Keep in mind that I’ve been an EMT for a
decade so this high trauma scene was normal for me, except this time I was the
patient.
My second thought after I regained consciousness was about my dad’s
death in a bicycle accident when I was a junior in high school (after my dad’s
death, I was on my own from that day forward until I married my amazing husband).
For my three children’s sake, I’m so grateful I survived my bicycle accident – I don’t
want my children to endure losing a parent like I did at such a young age (my
kids are 21, 18 and 14).
Life is hard, but that’s the point. Through our trials
and tribulations, God is building our souls so when our flesh dies, our souls
are developed to where God wants them to be for our life in eternity.
In Persephone’s Fugitive (and in all my
books), I want readers to see how my characters don’t just “get through” or try
to “get over” the difficult stuff in life; instead, my characters accept the
pain that difficult events in their lives cause them, and they move forward with a renewed sense of understanding in themselves,
in life, and in God.
This applies to me as well (not just my characters).
Every stepping
stone in life (large to small and everything in between) leads me in the right
direction for me at that time in the chaotic river of life. God's hand is
always there, but I must choose to reach for it so He can keep me balanced to
prevent me from falling into the river. In the times I'm floundering in the
river from a fall, I reach for God's hand, and He lifts me out of the river before
I drown.
LORILYN: I completely agree, Dianna. Thanks for sharing that. As
an author, I’m always interested in how authors come up with their story
ideas and plots. What is your creative process like?
DIANNA: Like my respiratory system exhales and
inhales, each day throughout the day my mind automatically develops scenes and
dialogue, always suspenseful in nature and typically opening scenes – this is
my ongoing daily writer brain at work.
With opening scene ideas in abundance
for me, I keep a document of them all and pull from that list when the time
arises. When I start a new book, I take an opening scene idea and simply write
from there on paper with a pencil, allowing my muse to play until I have a full
rough draft for my eyes only (meaning, I lock away my inner editor and
critiquer and just have fun with the characters and the story, writing it at
the seat of my pants; however, at times I’m a plotter even during the rough
draft phase).
LORILYN: Can
you tell us a little about Persephone’s Fugitive, Book Two in the Cayman Islands Trilogy?
*** SPOILER
ALERT *** Reading Persephone’s Fugitive
(including the book blurb) before The
Hidden Son (Book One in the Cayman Islands Trilogy) will ruin the ending of
The Hidden Son. However, both books
are standalones.
DIANNA: When a routine 911
call turns deadly, Paramedic Sara Dyer finds herself held at gunpoint
by Jason Keegan, an injured psych-ward patient charged with murder. The
situation spirals out of Sara’s control when the confrontation becomes
a tense standoff between Keegan and the Royal Cayman Islands Police
Service.
As
Keegan’s hostage, Sara fights to save them both before
he blows them up. She realizes his warning to the Cayman police is no
empty threat since he’d rather die than spend the rest of his life in
a prison cell. Sara soon discovers Keegan is just as determined to survive
as she is - provided he can escape Grand Cayman and disappear forever.
As she struggles to trust in God’s protection, help from an
atheist turns her struggle into a lure away from her faith.
LORILYN: Is
it part of a series?
DIANNA: Yes. Persephone’s Fugitive is Book Two in the
Cayman Islands Trilogy. Book One is The Hidden Son (released 2013).
LORILYN: Thanks
for sharing with us today your newest book. Where can readers purchase Persephone’s Fugitive?
Dianna T. Benson is the
award-winning and international bestselling author of The Hidden Son and Final
Trimester. Persephone’s Fugitive
is her third release. An EMT and a HazMat and FEMA Operative since 2005, Dianna
authentically implements her medical and rescue experience and knowledge into
all her suspense novels. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and their
three children. www.diannatbenson.com
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