C.E Dimond - Author
Oh...Where were we?
AURi discovered another reality of Winnipeg: young adult fantasy writer, C.E Dimond.
Thanks to her short bio and the FAQ on her website we know that she's been writing since Grade 6 and that she's obsessed with revising everything that she writes. We also know that she's of Irish decent, but even without alcohol she admits that she often suffers from constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth. (She's not alone.)
This should be so much fun:
AR: Our translator is not in the office today so please bear with us. (just kidding) But, since you're Canadian, explain what the following phrases mean to you: booter, booze can, loonie, Rotten Ronnie's, and head'r.
CD: I don’t really use many of these in everyday speech so I’ll give it my best shot based on what I know.
Booter - when you step into water, or sometimes snow (I live in Winterpeg so it’s usually snow) that’s so high it comes over the top of your boot and gets inside and your socks get soaked. Not a fun time. You do not want a booter!
Booze Can – this one I’m actually unsure about, I know Booze is slang for alcohol so I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is a beer can? Maybe? Haha, I’m not sure. I don’t actually think I’ve ever heard anyone say this.
Loonie – Alright, this one I definitely know. This is the term for our $1 coin because it has a picture of a Loon featured on it. Our $2 coin is a Twoonie.
Rotten Ronnie’s - is McDonalds! As in Ronald McDonald, Rotten Ronnie. This is so funny because I haven’t heard that term in over a decade! I know my Grandpa used to say that when I was younger but he was from Ireland so I didn’t know that was Canadian slang! Learning new things every day!
Head’r – means announcing your intention to get out of here or to leave a party or something. Usually used in the context of “I think I’ll head’r”
AR: After tabulating your score, we have determined that you are 80% Canadian. Good enough for us! According to Michael Scott from the TV show The Office, "a concierge is the Winnipeg equivalent of a geisha." Is that true?
CD: Haha, Michael Scott says a lot of things. No! Your concierge is not a Winnipeg Geisha! Think of them more as your activities coordinator lol. That being said, there were a lot of great recognisable Winnipeg products in that episode! Old Dutch Chips, Fort Garry Brewing Company stuff it was fun to watch, I’m a proud Winnipegger.
AR: We've noticed. Tell us a secret that only your friends might know.
CD: It’s not really a secret if I share it now is it? I don’t really have a lot of secrets. I guess a secret only my friends know, and even then sometimes not, is I also write in and run online RPG games. I actually run two games, one is Supernatural (the TV show) future verse and another is a RL city/crime verse. It’s a lot of fun creating different characters within these worlds and getting to write with other people. I think it makes my writing better, it pushes me to adapt to different skill levels and styles. I really love it, but never talk about it! It’s like my fight club. Oh no I broke the first rule!
AR: Indeed. We'll discuss your punishment at another time. As an author, your work is considered your baby. How do you find the nerve to "let go" and find the nerve to make the transition from "overprotective parent" (always revising) to "proud parent"?
CD: Oh man. Well, let me just tell you I am still overprotective parenting my work. The first novel especially was never good enough, never quite finished. I think I’m the type of person who finds it hard not to try and please everyone. I made a lot of mistakes with my first work trusting people I shouldn’t putting money out where it should have been allocated elsewhere. It was hard to learn that some people were going to love my work, and some were going to hate it. That’s always the risk you’re taking when you put your art out there. I usually need to be told to ‘let go’ I have a very good friend who does my final beta reads and I trust her opinion when she tells me it’s ready, or to stop revising. It’s hard as the artist to step back because you’re in complete control, you can make things different if you want to, you can change the entire outcome of the story! It’s never easy to step back and say, no this is good. It was this need that was the reason Awakening took me almost five years to write. The story I started with was nowhere even close to the series I ended up with. I am proud where it ended up but I recognise there’s always going to be room for improvement and I just can’t stress about it.
AR: Easier said than done. Wandering is the prequel to Awakening, correct? For someone just now starting this series, which book do you recommend they start with and why?
CD: Please, please start with Awakening first. Yes, Wandering is set up as a prequel short novel, however; it is intended to fill in the blanks. I always tell my readers that things should always be read in the order they were written. Awakening creates an air of mystery and leaves a lot of questions in its wake. Wandering was written with the intention to answer those questions. It certainly could be read first but I feel it has more impact when read as a companion afterwards. As authors, we usually have a method to our madness. Usually.
AR: Noted. Congratulations on the third book of the Lost Legacy series. Can we expect the series to come to an end as the title eludes to, and if so will there be a spin-off series?
CD: Thanks! I’m really excited about the journey that’s evolving in Descending. No, it will not be the last book. The title is perhaps misleading in that way, but we will be Descending into a whole new world and tackling challenges in a new country. There will be at least one more book after Descending, possibly more. When I first started mapping out the series I said there would be three books, but then I started writing short novels and am quite enjoying exploring the Lost Legacies world from different points of view. There may very well be a spin-off, perhaps even several.
AR: Do you have any new projects in the works? If so, what can we expect?
CD: I do have a new project in the works! It’s called Granite Heights. It’s a little different than the Lost Legacies series. It’s not about Witches, or Ireland and anything like that. It’s a bit more of a mystery, but still in the Urban Fantasy genre. Secretive boarding school, missing students, dark pasts. It’s going to be a series as well, the first one is finished but I wanted to get Descending out before I launched the new series.
AR: Awesome. You studied film and theatre in college. What do you plan to do with that?
CD: Honestly? I plan to do absolutely nothing with that! When I was fresh out of High School, I had it in my head I wanted to be an actress, conquer the stage! Once I was a few years into the program I found that I didn’t love it like I used to anymore, plus I kept having terrible accidents and illnesses that were interrupting my studies, I think the universe was sending me a message. I loved directing always but I never got into that stream. The film portion of the studies has certainly been a great help to me, I love film editing and was able to use those skills to create my book trailer. Who knows, maybe I’ll write a play one day!
AR: What is your dream for your literary career?
CD: I think success is everyone’s dream. I’d love to be able to reach a point in my life where I can write full time. It’s hard to compete in a market where people are doing this fulltime when you’re working two jobs, and writing on top of that, and doing your own marketing, social media and publishing. I’d love to be able to have people help with those things, particularly marketing and advertising. There is such a learning curve there. Even though money is certainly nice, I don’t get the same joy from seeing sales. That probably sounds ridiculous but what makes me excited is when I see the book being talked about. I love my readers and I love their reactions and when they feel so passionately about the story they want to share it. It blows my mind when I see those sorts of things. What I really strive for it more of that. See my Hashtags brimming with posts and shares.
AR: AURi is about promoting artists all over the world that need a platform because we all deserve to be heard. Why do you support AURi and what do you hope becomes of it?
CD: You have no idea how excited I am about this! As indie artists, it is hard to be taken seriously or to find the right platforms to be heard. A Lot of places where you would get the sort of exposure you want and often need to succeed, won’t give you the time of day because you don’t have a traditional publisher, agent or manager behind you. Other platforms will give you help or a spotlight for a price, usually a high one that Indies can’t always afford. We need platforms like AURi to be heard!
We can't stress this enough. We all need AURi. By the way, a "booze can" is an illegal beer joint in Canada. Don't ask.
To connect with C.E Dimond and artists like her, be sure to visit the links below:
AURi...where u and i come together.
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