D. B. Woodling is the author of seven books, including historical fiction, mysteries, YA, and now her latest, The Immortal Twin, a paranormal romance about a mortal twin brother and sister adopted by vampires. (See my Amazon review here).
I like to help other authors by promoting their books, so I recently interviewed Deb over email, to learn more about her books and her writing process.
Did you always want to be a writer? What got you interested in writing?
At a young age, I often wrote poetry. Later, while in high school, despite the encouragement of several English teachers to tap into my ‘talent’ for creative writing, I set my sights on a theatrical career instead. Twenty years and a thousand or so performances later, my passion for the theater waned. Soon discovering that I needed a creative outlet, my attention turned to writing. Like many writers have often confessed, this doesn’t seem to be a vocation one chooses, but rather one that chooses us.
Where do you get your ideas?
All seven of my novels began with a single opening line that came to me out of nowhere.
Describe your writing process. Do you outline? Do you always know how the book is going to end?
In the beginning, I never outlined. When I began the sequel to my detective series, I found it prevented glaring errors when transitioning from the first book to the second. After that, although having fought the idea of anything so regimented in the past, I found it extremely helpful. That said, despite the best of intentions and a meticulously detailed synopsis, the ending doesn’t always follow the prescribed course, the characters often taking the story in an entirely different direction.
How long does a first draft take you to write? How many edits do you usually do before you feel your book is ready to be submitted?
The timeline varies. I work best under pressure, so I tend to procrastinate until forced to comply with a deadline, which usually constitutes a two-to-three month period. I never submit a work until I’ve dissected and examined it four to five times. I’m an obsessive perfectionist, so I never truly feel the book is perfect.
You have written several books. Which is your favorite and why?
I have a soft spot for Shannon’s Revenge: Broken Promises—a contender for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for literary fiction and recognized by The Copperfield Review, a renowned literary journal. A fictional account of the circumstances that led to the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the battle itself, I hope I’ve successfully captured the story as told from both sides.
Name your favorite books by other authors.
There are so many. If pressed, I’d have to say Howard’s End by E. M. Forster and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, works that dive deep into the human spirit and, to some extent, reveal something of the authors themselves. My guilty pleasures are anything written by Janet Evanovich and several titles by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, and Karin Slaughter.
One thing I wondered about The Immortal Twin is why the Toroks adopted Celeste and Nick. Can you explain that?
Guilt. Despite repercussions from the Omniscients, they could have given their parents immortality and chose not to.
Is The Turning of Nick Torok a sequel to The Immortal Twin? Will CamCat be publishing it in the future? Will there be additional books in the series?
The Immortal Twin is a revised, longer version of The Turning of Nick Torok. I am hard at work on the sequel to The Immortal Twin, with the hope it will find a home with CamCat Books later next year with a series to follow.
Tell me something that your readers would be surprised to hear about you.
During hunting season, I persuade countless deer within the safe confines of our property, enticing them with bags of corn and oats.
