Diana Tuorto Interview

July 2008 Interview

Q: Welcome! Please tell us, how did you get started as a writer?
I’ve always loved telling stories. When I was six years old, I did drawings that told stories and then bound them together as books. As I grew older, I wrote short stories and poetry, and began my first novel, MY DESERT SUN, at age twelve. I got my initial start as a writer through drawing hieroglyphics.

Q: Have you always been interested in writing?
Yes! My main inspiration was reading BLACK BEAUTY at age seven or eight. I wanted to read more stories from a horse’s point of view and there just weren’t any. So I started writing from that perspective as a way to keep myself amused. Eventually that turned into the desire to entertain others!

Q: How do you keep your creative juices flowing?
I find that I’m most able to keep the juices flowing by simply locking myself indoors and letting my mind wander—if I don’t have that downtime, I seem to find a million other things that I should be doing instead of writing.

Q: Do you have any projects you’d like to tell us about?
I have four! I’ve written three middle-grade children’s novels—MY DESERT SUN, JANIE’S NEW LEGS, and LUCK OF THE DRAW. MY DESERT SUN is the story of a mustang struggling to regain his freedom, and I’m hoping to re-release it in 2009. JANIE’S NEW LEGS is the story of a paralyzed girl and her friendship with a pony that is rescued from abuse and neglect. LUCK OF THE DRAW is the story of an unsuccessful racehorse searching for his life’s purpose. I also have a poetry collection called LET THE HORSES DIE: POEMS OF LONGING, LOVE, AND LOSS from 1997-2005 that I released in early 2006. The title sum up my main themes: friendship/love, longing, the struggle for freedom and change, and rising above when loss happens.

Q: What is something you wish other creative artists understood?
It shouldn’t be ALL about the money! For me, I just love when anyone reads my books, especially when they find themselves inspired. I’d give my books away for free if it didn’t cost me anything to print them. At the same time, I’ve thankfully turned royalties into a way to help others—each of my books benefits a particular charity—from a handicapped riding center to various horse rescues. If I sold a million copies of a book, I’d take enough to afford a simpler job working/volunteering full-time for a rescue or other charity, but I’d still donate the majority of the royalties to charities regardless. There are plenty of less fortunate animals and people that need the money far more than I do.

Q: What are some of the challenges and obstacles you faced during your career?
When I was a teenager, I always had people saying that I was too young to write or try to get published. There was pressure to go to college and pursue a job where I could earn more money, but I wouldn’t get to do what I loved: writing. I went against the norm and earned degrees in English Writing/Fiction and History. I’m now working happily as a full-time writer/editor and also write on a freelance basis. I don’t regret the choices I’ve made.

Q: What inspires you?
My main inspiration comes from my pets and from animals in general. I was first moved to write MY DESERT SUN while watching a TV special about wild horses being rounded up and slaughtered for meat. I became so angry that I wrote the novel’s first paragraph that night, which is one of the sections of the book that hasn’t been revised since 1992. Being fired up about animal cruelty, neglect, and abuse inspires me. I’m motivated by hope to eliminate such atrocities and to help educate people, especially children.

Q: How do you manage your time when you are working on more than one project?
I try to work on one fiction or one poetry project at a time. With fiction, if I work on one novel, I will set another project aside to avoid confusing characters and plot. I’m able to juggle freelance and non-fiction writing by keeping material organized and budgeting my time on a calendar. I don’t write more than one fiction or poetry piece at a given time.

Q: What do you do to relax and to just have fun?
I hang out with my husband, pets, and friends. During the week, I love being home after work, relaxing on the sofa with my cats in front of the TV. I’m addicted to movies and I also love surfing the internet, or occasionally playing a video game. On weekends, I try to spend Saturdays with my horse and with friends on daytrips. Having a good balance of home time and mini-trips keeps me relaxed and focused.

Q: What is the number one thing you would like to tell new writers?
Probably the same thing everyone says … don’t give up! A true writer will persevere even when all options seem lost. When I was in college, I entered a small, local fiction contest and was sure it would be my big break. While the number of entries was small, the contest staff reported that no entry was “quality” enough to win. I thought, “If I can’t win this contest, there’s no way I can ever get published.” I threw my manuscripts in a drawer and didn’t touch them for almost six years. Then I joined a writer’s group and fellow writers encouraged me to pick up the books that I had written during my teenage years. With their advice and editing, the books became stronger. Each have done very well as self-published titles.

Q: Do you have a support system?
Definitely—my husband, pets, and friends are extremely important to me. They motivate me to keep trying new things and to get going every day.

Q: If, at the age you are today, you could spend a day with you at age seven, what would you take back in time, what would you say, what would you do?
I’d probably take back an edited copy of MY DESERT SUN (and all of my books) and ask my younger self to lock them in a drawer somewhere—it would spare the younger me from editing the manuscripts a thousand times! I have great memories of playing with friends and spending summers at the beach when I was seven, so I’d probably like to go to the beach or play in my yard (with my younger me) and enjoy some chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream (wait, I still do that part). I’d tell the younger me to not worry so much and I’d assure her that things really do work out with time and patience.

Q: When you feel creatively blocked what do you do to get yourself back into the creative flow? When your muse is napping what do you do to wake him/her up?
I try not to force myself back into the groove if I can help it—the best inspiration, for me, just happens. But when I really need to focus and want to write, I’ve found that using professional art photos or paintings to get in to or start a story works wonders.

Q: What is your greatest inspiration?
As I shared earlier, my pets, friends, and family are a huge influence, but one of my greatest early inspirations was BLACK BEAUTY written by Anna Sewell. I owe a lot to Anna Sewell and I dedicated MY DESERT SUN to her.

Q: What advice can you offer to a creative artist that is struggling with their inner critic?
Turn it off. It’s hard, but you’re best bet is to keep writing, drawing, etc. and don’t listen to your critic at first. When the piece is developed (first draft or so), have other writers or artists constructively critique your work, and then go back and decide what needs to be changed. If you find yourself stopping and starting constantly to make revisions, you’ll never finish that chapter or that drawing, will you?

Q: What creative individuals do you admire?
It’s hard to narrow that list down. I have a lot of great writer/poet/artist/musician friends who are very inspiring—you all know who you are. I admire famous writers like Anna Sewell, Walter Farley, and Marguerite Henry for taking a risk to write about horses—they were all exceptionally talented and I’ve looked up to them throughout my life. I also have great respect for modern-day writers like Laura Hillenbrand, who brought the compelling story of Seabiscuit to life so vividly, and for J.K. Rowling for her tremendous vision with the Harry Potter series. I also respect a number of movie directors, including Gary Ross, P.T. Anderson, and several others for giving stories life on the screen.

Q: What is your favorite first sentence in a book?
I have two (the first is a paragraph):

“The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.”

BLACK BEAUTY by Anna Sewell

That gives you a clear picture of the beautiful place where Beauty grew up and what is important to him.

And:

“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know.”

THE STRANGER by Albert Camus

(If that line doesn’t give you a sense of a character, I don’t know what will.)

Q: If you only had one more day to live what would you do with the 24 hours?
I’d spend as much time as possible with my cats, horse, husband, and friends. I’d want to go horseback riding and to have a great last meal (Chinese food, of course). I could say travel, but I’ve traveled a lot. For me the thing I would want to experience last is being around home.

Q: What traits, if any, do you think that creative people have as compared to people who are not creative?
I think a lot of creative people are problem-solvers and think outside the box. There are different types of people everywhere, but I’d say most creative people that I know are not “victims” and they truly want to help others, they strive to make some kind of positive difference. They want to live every day and to not waste time.

Q: Can you see your finished product before you start it?
Yes. With all three of my novels, I knew the beginning, end, and title immediately. Determining the end was more unpredictable—I always had an idea of how I’d conclude, but much of the story developed and refined itself as I wrote.

Q: Do you feel that you chose your passion, or did it choose you?
It chose me. Writing and telling stories is something I’ve naturally had a gift for from as long as I can remember—I don’t think I had any choice in the matter, except to try and ignore it, which would be a waste to do.

Q: What is the last movie you watched?
THE FIRST SATURDAY IN MAY, a 2007 documentary about thoroughbred racehorse Barbaro and six diverse trainers as they jockey for position along the 2006 Kentucky Derby trail. It is a great film.

Q: What is the most favorite question you were ever asked and what was your answer?
“If you could come back as any animal, what would it be and why?”

I know my answer is probably obvious, I would come back as a horse and I would hope that I had a great, loving home. Living in an open field (with a shed) where I could come and go as I pleased and enjoy yummy treats wouldn’t be a bad gig.

Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was eleven, my grandmother adapted a famous quote and wrote it in one of my horse books a few months before she died. It read, “The outside of a horse is the best thing for the inside of woman or man.” For me, that’s exactly right—I’d be nothing without horses.

Q: Your famous last words, will you share with us a piece of advice, a favorite quote, a tip, whatever you wish?

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” Janis Joplin