Featured Interview With Diane M. Johnson
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born and raised in Upstate New York (or maybe it’s Central New York–there’s a whole argument concerning which is where, and the dividing line between the two puts me square in the middle), the rural countryside was a perfect setting for a budding Stephen King fan. But I studied film in college, graduated from Binghamton University then headed out to California to pursue screenwriting. I spent many years as a script reader/reviewer for organizations and competitions like The Scriptwriters Network and Los Angeles Shriekfest, and I’ve had several scripts do well in competitions, including in Scriptapalooza and the Austin Film Festival.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing in the third grade, and I attempted my first TV script in middle school with a WKRP in Cincinnati episode. Needless to say, it didn’t get past the production company gatekeepers. A script sent in by a thirteen year old with no agent is not going to get read. But they were kind enough to send it back with the advice to keep trying. In that spec, I put the cast of the show in quarantine because DJ Johnny Fever had contracted mono.
I continued to write through high school and college, and ended up writing an erotic adventure that nearly got me in trouble at my first high school job (I wrote the chapters anonymously, and the managers of the diner really wanted to know who was leaving them in the break room…).
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m going to cheat here and say that some of the best writers I’ve read are screenwriters. If you like movies, I highly recommend finding scripts to your favorites and reading them. It’s a completely different way of writing, but it’s also interesting to see how what is written on the page transfers to the screen.
But I still have my favorite authors. Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, King and Joe Hill . Anne Rice. I tend to like a mix of horror and humor, both in the books I read and the movies/TV I watch. I’m a huge fan of the series Supernatural, especially those episodes that are meta and laced with humor. Some great TV writers from that series too, including Jeremy Carver, Ben Edlund and Robbie Thompson. Also, did you know S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders) is a fan?
Speaking of authors and screenwriters, one of my favorite Stephen King books is The Shining. I was super excited when they first made it into a movie — a horror classic (that Stephen King hated, by the way). That screenplay was written by Diane Johnson, author of Le Mariage and Le Divorce. Talk about range! Also, I am not that Diane Johnson…
Also, I’ve been trying to split my reading time to give some lesser known, indie authors a read. You can find me at Goodreads and BookBub and read some of my reviews there. The last thing I reviewed, at the time of this writing was The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, and WOW. Highly recommended.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is a sequel to my second book. In sequence, they are Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn. Yes, there is a religious aspect to them, but I would not categorize them as Christian fiction. Perfect Prophet is a Satanic Panic style story about a death metal atheist who uses Satanic themes symbolically in his music to tear religion down. But a Satanic cult from his hometown believes that he fulfills a written prophecy that puts him and his family in real danger.
Prophet Reborn follows a different character from the first book, a former Satanist who wants to change. Unfortunately, he chooses to right his wrongs with God by becoming a member of a Christian commune with extremist ideals. Again, the atheist from Perfect Prophet becomes a target, along with his son, but from the opposite side of the religious spectrum.
Perfect Prophet was originally a script that spent years on the shelf before I decided to write it as a novel. My first book The Schoharie (about a rural upstate New York community plagued by a vengeful Native spirit after floods and a bridge collapse seal off the area) was also first written as a script. That story was inspired by an actual bridge collapse that made national headlines in 1987.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles