Is it a book or...?
Actually, it's Jackie's darkly funny
mystery, Danger Music, rendered in a ceramic
sculpture by her mother, Sylvia Hyman. New works by
Sylvia, who turns 90 this year, will be featured in an
exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in
Nashville, Tennessee, June 22 - October 7. For more
information,
visit here.
 Jackie addresses the question readers ask most:
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Writers tend to give silly answers when asked where we get ideas ('I
find them under a rock," or "I buy them at the store"). That's
because, to us, getting ideas is intrinsic to being a novelist.
But the question deserves an explanation. After all, writing
isn't simply magic...well, not all the time, anyway!
For each book, I can usually trace an initial
inspiration.
For example, my upcoming Downhome Doctors series was inspired by a
situation from real life. For a number of years, my
father, Maurice Hyman, M.D., was the only doctor in Menard, Texas.
Before we moved away, he had to find a replacement so as not to leave
his patients without care. When I was seeking a premise
for a series, the notion came to me about a town in sore need of
physicians. I loved the concept because it provided lots of
opportunity for interesting storylines. Developing an
entire book--not to mention three--requires a lot more than simply one
idea, of course. It takes a collaboration between conscious and
subconscious mind as bits and pieces of plot arrive, sometimes at
inconvenient times like when I'm trying to sleep. Gradually, I
assemble them and begin writing, only to discover that the story makes
unexpected turns and new characters crash the party. So,
where do I find my ideas? All sorts of places...and sometimes,
they find me first!
Did
you know Jacqueline Diamond's books have been published in
countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden?
In
addition to Japanese and Swedish, her novels have been
translated into French, German, Italian, Danish, Greek, Spanish,
Norwegian, Dutch, Hungarian, Turkish, Czech and Portuguese. When
you read an author's biography, sometimes it appears that everything went
smoothly. Well, I'm here to report that it took ten years of rejection
slips (that's starting when I graduated from college - I also collected a
few earlier) before I sold my first book.
It was a Regency romance called Lady in Disguise (1982), and it sold in
hardcover to Walker and Co. for $2,500. Not exactly a fortune even
twenty-odd years ago! The good news is that it may still be available at
your library.
But let's go back and hit the highlights…
I was born in 1949 in Menard, Texas. My father, the only doctor in town,
delivered me and my brother
who's two years older,
at home with the assistance of a nurse.
When I was six, we moved to Louisville, Ky, where he did his residency in psychiatry, and
five years later, moved to Nashville, Tenn. With a psychiatrist for a
father and a ceramic sculptor for a mother, I grew up in a very creative
environment.
I wrote my first story at age four. By six, I knew I wanted to be a
writer. My early publications included an essay in the old American Girl
Magazine and book reviews in our local paper.
After graduating from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., I spent a
year in Europe on a writing fellowship from the Thomas Watson Foundation.
The play I wrote about Lorenzo de' Medici never did get produced, but I
had a great time and learned a lot! I still try to keep my Italian and
French reasonably rust-free.
My next move, at age 23, was to Southern California, where my brother
lived. I worked briefly in public relations, then for two newspapers and
The Associated Press bureau in Los Angeles. I covered a variety of news
stories as well as theater from 1980-1983. In 1993-1994, I wrote a
nationally distributed TV column for AP. Along the way, I had the fun of
interviewing stars including Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Debbie
Reynolds, LeVar Burton, Dick Van Dyke, Pearl Bailey, Lily Tomlin, James
Garner … and many more.
All this time, I was writing plays, scripts and books. Except for a
couple of plays produced locally, they all came back with those painful
rejection slips.
In 1980, I fell in love with a PBS series based on Jane Austen's Pride and
Prejudice. I read all her books, discovered Regency romances, and got
inspired.
A year later, I had sold my first two Regencies. Since then, I've sold
one horror novel, one fantasy novel, two hardcover mysteries and
seventy-some romances in subgenres ranging from romantic suspense to
screwball comedy. My publishers have included William Morrow, St.
Martin's, Berkley, Five Star, Walker and Co., and Harlequin.
I've written under the names Jacqueline Diamond, Jackie Hyman, Jackie
Diamond Hyman, and (for Berkley's old Second Chance at Love line)
Jacqueline Topaz, as well as one book under the name Jacqueline Jade for
Silhouette Desire. Publishers used to want exclusive names for an author;
today, they're more likely to recognize the value of cross-publicizing.
I live in Southern California with my husband and younger son, while our
older son attends university. We've adopted two stray cats.
Here are a few q-and-a responses:
What is the easiest part of writing for you?
The easiest part is writing scenes where the two characters have an
interesting confrontation. Sometimes the pages just fly! The hardest
part is exposition, or background - weaving it in so that the reader
doesn't get big boring chunks at one time, but also isn't left clueless
with inadequate information.
Do any of the celebrities you've interviewed stand out in your memory?
I'm a big "Star Trek" fan, so it was a thrill interviewing actors from
those series, including Patrick Stewart (very charming), George Takei,
LeVar Burton and Rene Auberjonois (Odo). I grew up watching "Perry
Mason," so it was a thrill to have lunch with Raymond Burr. Sadly, he
died only a few months later - he hadn't seemed ill at the time. Two of
my "lasts" stand out - the last theater interview I did for the Associated
Press was with Donald Sutherland, and he was delightful. The last TV
interview of mine that AP ran was with Michael Caine, who was so much fun
to talk to, I'd love to do it again!
Which of your books would you describe as your favorites?
I really love Danger Music, an offbeat mystery that took me ten years to
sell. I had to rewrite it just to update the technology! Many of the
rejections I received indicated the editor enjoyed it, but that it didn't
quite fit the mold. Happily, it's been published in hardcover by Five
Star (ISBN 1-59414-197-5) and may be available at your library.
Among my favorite Harlequins are Kidnapped? (Duets),
Daddy Warlock
(American) and One Husband Too Many (American.)
My hardcover horror novel, Echoes, received terrific reviews. Library
Journal said, "Like the best of Dean Koontz's supernatural
chillers, this novel forces readers to suspend disbelief… veteran novelist
Hyman (The Eyes of a Stranger, St. Martin's, 1987) has written a
compelling tale."
I'd love to see it back in print … and produced as a film, now that
special effects can handle what wasn't possible back then!
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