Featured Interview With Dianna Winget
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’ve spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest, and I currently live in the beautiful mountains of north Idaho with my husband, daughter, and two canine buddies–a mild mannered Chihuahua and a bossy Dachshund. I love reading, dogs, gardening, walking and writing, of course.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was so lucky to have parents who read to me from little on up. But I really fell in love with books about age ten. This is also when I started writing. I used to watch my favorite TV shows, and then I’d rewrite the episode inserting myself as a young character. Great fun! Even from that early age, my dream was to write middle grade novels for kids.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite genre is realistic fiction, but I also like light fantasy, and I read plenty of non-fiction as well. It’s hard to pin down my favorite authors, but mixing new and old, I’d have to include E.B. White, Wilson Rawls, S.E. Hinton, Bobbie Pyron, Kirby Larson, and Jennifer Nielsen.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
A Sliver of Sun is a sequel to my debut, A Smidgen of Sky. Smidgen features spunky 10 year old Piper Lee, a young Southern girl who is doing all she can to prevent her mother from getting remarried. It’s a lot of fun, but also delves into some heavy topics such as loss, grief, and step families, even internet safety. After its publication, a lot of young readers wrote to me asking, “What happens next? Do Piper Lee and Ginger find a way to get along? Does Ben forgive Piper for all her trouble making? Does Piper Lee find a way to fit into her new family?” There are so many step families today, and so many kids dealing with really complex emotional issues, and I was delighted to see that readers were able to relate to Piper Lee and her situation. I just had to write a follow up to answer all those heartfelt questions.
Because I’m a step mother myself, and the subject matter was close to my heart, neither Smidgen nor A Sliver of Sun took too long to write. But selling was a different story. It took me nearly six years to find an agent to represent my work, then it took another eighteen months for her to sell my book to Harcourt. In the mean time, I sold another middle grade, A Million Ways Home to Scholastic Press. But my agent and I decided to try self-publishing A Sliver of Sun, to get it out there faster, and also so I could try my hand at hybrid publishing.
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