Interview Of Diana Lee Johnson

by Sue Thornton

1. Your novel is worked around a Civil War re-enactment. How did you do your research? Or are you involved in the popular re-enactments?

It's not really a re-enactment, just re-enactors adding color to a Civil War weekend. The strange thing is,I made it up, completely imaginary in 1993. Then, just this month, there is an advertisement in my American Civil War magazine for a "Civil War Getaway Weekend" in Fredericksburg, VA, where I set the story. Perhaps that's an omen of good. In it's first draft, I even called it "The Getaway."

I can't say I'm involved in re-enactments, though I have met some re-enactors. I just love all history, and Virginia history and the Civil War are my favorites. I researched the historical details in my personal library, and walked the streets and battlefield in Fredericksburg collecting my color and impressions after a strange set of circumstances started the story running in my mind.

Friends showed me an old house for sale, which turned out to have been Burnside's headquarters for a short time in 1862. A few weeks later, I was taking a Christmas tour of 18th and 19th century homes with the same friends in Fredericksburg. I had not seen the few re-enactors who were walking around adding color to the day. When we took a break for lunch, we popped into an art store, and I was distracted by a beautiful Civil War print by Mort Kunstler. I turned around and faced three men in Confederate uniforms and couldn't get my breath. After that, there was no stopping the story in my head.

2. What is your family's reaction about having an author in the family?

A great deal of disbelief, I think. No one paid much attention to my aspirations until my first novel came out in 1999. I have three older brothers, so they just kind of tolerated me. My biggest support from the age of seven was my dearest friend, who, bless her heart, always seemed in awe of my poems and stories. She now works for an author in Central Virginia, and we're still best friends. My Mom is a terrific critic. She reads a great deal, has a wonderful command of the English language and catches a lot of my mistakes. When I finally wrote a story that she got too lost in to keep track of corrections, I felt like I had accomplished something.

3. How long have you been writing? And when did you realize you wanted  to write?

I've been scribbling since first grade. As a matter of fact, I got in trouble for a two-line rhyme I wrote all the way back then. I was in a first/second combination class and bored. The "poem" as the teacher called it, was the second-graders' assignment. I got a stern warning to do my own assignments, and then was told to print the poem on a large paper which she hung on the classroom door. That was only the beginning of my dreaming and it hasn't stopped yet.

4. Do you let your significant other or any other family members read your work prior to submission?

Having no current significant other, that is a moot point. Neither of my husbands was ever interested. But as I said, I count on my Mom very much, my best friend, and a couple of co-workers who simply devour my manuscripts.

5. When is the best time of day for you to write and why?

Whenever I can carve out a little time. Then I let the movie projector run in my head. It's just difficult to turn it off, so I have trouble stopping when I need to unwind and go to bed, or need to get out to some event. I have a stressful profession, and writing is my escape. There are very few times when, given a chance, I couldn't just sit down and continue whatever I'm working on. So I have to keep the "projector" unplugged a great deal of the time.

6. How do you feel about working under pressure?

It just comes with the territory, but the pressure of something I love as much as telling stories, is not the same as the pressure of 35 years in public purchasing. They do tend to get in each other's way, but one has to keep a roof over the old head. Actually, my purchasing friends have been very supportive, and that really gives me a great deal of satisfaction, too.