Today I'm hosting Keta Diablo on her wonderful Blog Tour for her current erotic romance Where the Rain is Made. I'm happy that she has stopped by to answer some very interesting interview questions that I had such a fun time reading and I'm sure you all will too. And to find out more about the CONTEST where you can win a free eBook read the bottom of the interview.

I’ll say the male/male novellas are quicker because they’re not full-length novels. The erotic romance is almost always full novels. And there’s more research with the historical romance. I enjoy writing both because of the variety and the different lengths, but if you really pinned me down I’d have to say I’m really fond of reading and writing historical romance.

The first book I wrote was a sensual historical based on a real-life event in my family history. Not too long after that first book I began writing erotic romance and like I mentioned above added Gay fiction. Several years ago I wrote an erotic fantasy romance called Dust and Moonlight and I really enjoyed writing that genre too. I hope to do another fantasy/time travel one day. More information about Dust and Moonlight (Amazon Kindle) here.

I absolutely loved The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne and hope to get to the other books in the series soon. I think she’s a wonderful writer with an amazing grasp of plot and character depth. Like many authors, I don’t have a lot of time to read so I have to be very selective in what I choose. I’ll often read the reviews and ask around if I’m on the lookout for a new book. My TBR pile AND TBR list is huge. I still have book sitting on my nightstand that I received last Christmas and haven’t had the time to open them yet. I know, pathetic.

When time, I do read in a wide variety. Right now, I have about three books going, which isn’t unusual for me. One is a fantasy, one is a historical romance and the other is a book on writing.

Thank you for asking about Where the Rain is Made. My youngest son is responsible for the inspiration behind the book. About six years ago he took a keen interest in American history, particularly Native American history. I can’t tell you the number of hours we spent at the library checking out books and reading about all the different tribes. For some reason, he loved the history on the Dog Soldiers and so we accumulated a lot of documents, research articles, etc. About a year later, his reading interests shifted, and here I was with all this information about the Cheyenne. It made sense that I would write a book about the Dog Soldiers.

Oh, boy...which one? I’m writing a follow-up to Blood Oath, a vampire story for Amber Quill Press and a follow-up to Hot and Sticky for Amber Quill Press. I still have two novellas to finish out the CROSSROAD series for Phaze, and I’d love to write a sequel to Where the Rain is Made.

Not anyone in particular. I’m a research nut, and thus the reason I write historical. I try to read everything I can get my hands on about the craft. And, of course, the only true way to become a better writer is to write that next book.

Again, this a hard question to answer. I wouldn’t choose a favorite, but some of the authors I read are Helen Kirkman and Joanna Bourne. I love Bourne’s The Spymaster’s Lady. I also love a few older novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Windflower, which I read about once a year.

Blood Oath Keta Diablo

My schedule is very odd. It depends on whether everything gels for me. You might find me writing at 4:00 in the afternoon or 4:00 in the morning. I don’t have a set time, but I do write every day just to keep myself fresh on the story.

Always the beginning. It’s hard not to get into a lot of back story because we love to tell the readers about our characters, but this isn’t to exciting for them. I try to start out with excitement or at least an incident, yet place the setting and one of the main characters.

Internet, libraries and books. I have a large collection of books on writing and refer to them often. Once I just purchased and am really enjoying is Bastards, Bullies and Bitches. It’s given my new insight on how to write the perfect villains.

My family has always been very supportive, but I seldom take their word verbatim. Of course, my mother thinks all my books are fabulous, but she’s my mother after all. Trying to get an unbiased critique from her is difficult. My children don’t read my books—and that’s a good thing, but they are very respectful and accommodating about my writing schedule.

I don’t belong to any critique groups, but have two wonderful beta readers. I’m notorious for thinking faster than I can type and will often leave out small words. They’re very good at finding those missing words and other small things. And if I’ve said in Chapter one the character’s eyes are blue and then referred to them as green in Chapter Four, they always catch things like that.

Hot and Sticky Keta Diablo

How hard it is. I hear so many people say, “I’m going to write a book soon; it looks fairly easy.” And I always think to myself, “Good luck with that.” There’s a lot of basic rules, point of view, dangling modifiers, passive voice, and a hundred other things you have to remember and learn. It’s not as easy as it looks.

Thank you for asking. I write for Noble Romance Publishing, Amber Quill Press, Decadent Publishing and Phaze Books, all wonderful publishers.

I think I’m a fairly simple writer. I try not to get too verbose, and I think I probably talk very similar to how I write. And I ask a lot of questions of my characters, as I do in life. My brothers said I should have been a lawyer.

Thank goodness, yes. I love hearing from readers. Mostly they tell me how much they enjoyed the book. I haven’t had any write to me and complain, but I suppose they wouldn’t. Sometimes they say, “I have this great idea for a story. Can I send it to you?” And I must tell them that I have so many stories in my head now, I won’t live long enough to publish them all.

Plot. You can have the best characters in the world, but without a great, fascinating story, what do you have? The meat of the story has to be there, and then interesting characters to play the roles.

I have three children, two boys and a daughter. The first two are ten years older than the youngest, and they have always been very good friends. And yes, they are all from the same father.

I don’t listen to music while writing and never have. It has to very quiet when I write or I can’t concentrate. I know there are authors who wear headphones when they write, but that wouldn’t work for m.

Where the Rain is Made Keta Diablo

Are you kidding? I grew up with all boys, and there are a ton of them. I have no idea how I lived through childhood. I still ask my mother, “Where were you?” I almost drowned in a pond when I was four, got hit by a utility truck when I was five, hit in the head by a baseball bat when I was seven, and got stabbed in the hand during a game of stretch when I was ten. I have the scars to prove all the injuries. To this day, my brothers won’t fess up, but they did watch out for me while I was growing up. Can you imagine? I would be dead if they hadn’t.

One Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Speaks the Nightbird and Captured by Moonlight. I generally have three books going at once (short attention span) and I try to read two chapters from every book before I go to bed.

I thank them all the time, and realize how important and crucial they are to a writer. I would still write books even if I never had a following, but it wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding.

You can find out more about Keta Diablo and her books by going to her website, Keta's Keep, The Stuff of Myth and Men, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter.