Amazing Stories: So tell us a little Bit about yourself?
Dianne Gardner: I’m an author and illustrator living in the Pacific Northwest, married to a wonderful man who supports all my craziness, mother of seven and grandmom of sixteen.
I love writing, painting in oils and living in other worlds! My books are middle grade to young adult adventure fantasies with dragons and wizards and sorcery and battles on the high seas. My grandchildren are a big inspiration for my stories. There’s a camaraderie we share, something akin to what C.S. Lewis said about someday being old enough to enjoy fairy tales again.
AS: Tell us about your books.
DG: I have written six books in a series titled The Ian’s Realm Saga which begins as a story about a young teen who steps through a portal with his dad, through his computer, and ends up in a world of magic, both beautiful and frightening. When Ian is separated from his father he has to fight for survival to escape from a camp of dragon worshippers and find his father and his way home. Book two and three are about Ian’s adventures when he returns to the Realm to help his friends rid their world of tyranny. During the course of the saga we learn some of the history through four short stories that I wrote A Tale of the Four Wizards. In book IV, the wizards enter Ian’s Realm. There is another book I’m writing titled Abbott which concludes the Wizard stories, and book VI is Cassandra’s Castle, which we currently made a screenplay for and are doing an Indie Film. That book should come out sometime next year.
AS: What is your favorite genre to write in?
DG: Middle grade and young adult, fairy tale, adventure and fantasy.
AS: Are any of your characters in the books like you?
DG: Probably. I can relate to almost all of my characters one way or another.
AS: What is your next book?
DG: I’m writing a science fiction dystopia novel.
AS: Can we get a sneak peek?
DG: Sure! So far this novel is untitled.
Synopsis
When the one world order nestles in on American soil, crops propel the engine. Uncontrollable tyranny has succeeded in dictating where people live, what they do, and also what they eat. When Bree, a spunky twelve-year-old is taken away to learn the trade of genetic modification, she discovers an evil plan, and a way out, if only she can escape to tell the others.
“The door flew open, filling the living room with hot summer air. Nathan jumped from the couch and caught the brass knob before it made another hole in the wall.
“What the heck, Bree?” he cursed, turning to stare at the ten-year-old standing on the porch.
A wadded ball of green paper hit him on the chest and fell at his feet.
“I’m not going!” His sister’s hazel eyes locked onto his, her cheeks turned brilliant pink. Always when Abree was mad her cheeks lit up like fire.
“Not going where?” Nathan stooped to retrieve Abree’s projectile and unfolded it. He already knew what it said without reading. Ivana had sent him a news tweet earlier in the afternoon about the National Emergency. Abree’s note from school simply brought the reality home. Her reaction was exactly what he had expected.
“You know where,” she said, her lips turning into a sneer as she pushed past him and fell onto the couch.
Bree didn’t cry. It wasn’t her nature.
“You’re just a kid, Bree. You have to do what they say. I wish it weren’t that way, but it is.”
“Do you do what they tell you?”
Nathan didn’t answer. His disdain for the new system was nothing he wanted to feed his little sister. She had enough of her own.
“I’m not leaving Mom,” Abree said, jumping up again, bumping her knee on the coffee table as she did. Her face flushed as she rubbed the impending bruise. “What will they do to me if I don’t go?”
Even if Nathan knew the answer, he wouldn’t tell her. The thought of harm coming to his little sister boiled his blood.
“Just do what you’re told and spare us the consequences,” he answered. Nathan pulled his phone from his pocket and thumbed a text to Ivana, wondering how her twin siblings were handling the news.
“Yeah right, do what I’m told. Do they think kids are going to cheerfully skip along, singing songs on our way to boarding school?”
“Obviously not. That’s why they’re calling in the National Guard!”
It was fear that filled her eyes now, and Nathan immediately regretted being the cause. “I’m sorry, Bree.”
If it were only the National Guard that hovered over the students at the schools, he wouldn’t worry so much. But what he knew, that Abree didn’t, would have terrified her even more.
Every day that week he had been pulled out of his study hall with a group of ten of his peers and bussed to a compound just outside their city. There, in a tall metal building encircled by barbed wire, the teenagers were led to a room furnished only with desks. Each day a different notebook and a pencil were set before them by a tall robust man in a suit and tie. The teens were told not to speak to each other. The tests were timed.
Aptitude tests. No threat there.
The threat lay in the soldiers who guarded the door. They didn’t wear American uniforms. Their cammies were gray and they had straps of ammunition draped over their shoulders. Machine guns were cradled in their arms and their berets bore the One World Order insigne. More then once, Nathan found his heart racing at the sight of them.
“No one is going to hurt you, Bree.” I hope. “Maybe they’re just going to test you, like they’ve been testing me and Ivana and the other kids in my class.”
“I don’t do well with tests.” Her eyes never let his go. Neither did her face pale. “I hate tests.”
“I’m not too fond of them either. But I answer as best I can.”
AS: Do you need special conditions to write?
DG: Yes. I need quiet and alone and I need to not have much else going on. I also really should close up Facebook.
AS: Are you a typer or longhand writer?
DG: Type. I love to type.
AS: Who inspires you?
DG: My grandkids
Nature
Images (I collect them on Pinterest)
AS: Favorite authors?
DG: C.S. Lewis
C.S. Forester
Quick shots:
Favorite color?
Earth tones-greens, browns, colors of the forest
Favorite food?
Homemade tamales
Favorite writing snack?
Dark Chocolate Truffles! Going to go get one right now!!
Favorite Song?
Il Divo’s Isabel
Favorite vacation spot?
The Olympic Mountains near my home in WA
Favorite beverage?
Herbal tea
Favorite books?
The kind that make you laugh and cry all at the same time.
Favorite Movies?
Ever After with Drew Barrymore. That is a romantic fantasy writer’s romance!
Favorite TV Show?
I don’t have a TV but I used to love M.A.S.H.
Links
My website https://gardnersart.com
My blog https://dragontargeseries.blogspot.com/
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/diendrial/
Twitter @DianneGardner
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DianneLynnGardner
Amazon Author Central
https://www.amazon.com/Dianne-Lynn-Gardner/e/B0090LIYEO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
