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Interview with Diane Marquart Moore, August 1, 2010

 

Diane Marquart Moore writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and news articles. She has published 26 books, most recently Chant of Death with Pinyon Publishing, which she co-authored with Isabel Anders.

PINYON: Please tell us briefly about yourself.

DIANE: I was born in Franklinton, Louisiana, educated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU and ULL, majoring in English. I have lived in Louisiana, Texas, Maine, Iran, and Tennessee.

 

PINYON: When did you start writing?

DIANE: I began writing when I was eleven years old after I read a rhyming poem and decided that I could do as well. Additionally, my mother inspired me with her nightly readings and encouraged me to read. I am an omnivorous reader; I think that inevitably leads to a desire to write.

 

PINYON: Why do you write?

DIANE: I have a very strong compulsion to express myself, both in the written and spoken word. I write also because it's therapy when I feel depressed; however, I also write when I feel joy. I write because it is the only way to live my life. I wrote when I was in Iran because I suffered from cultural shock, and the writing propelled me into the culture. I wrote (and am writing) in Tennessee because I had lived in the Cajun culture since 1964, minus the Iran experience, and it was a way to adjust to moving away from a culture I loved.

 

PINYON: How do you write? Do you start with pen and paper? Work entirely with a computer? Do you have a special room or place you go to write? Or can you write anywhere?

DIANE: I compose everything first in journals or small notebooks. I do have a special room, my study, but I can write anywhere, including in the passenger seat of a speeding car. Once, I wrote twenty poems while traveling from Tahoe to Palmdale, CA where my daughter lives. I was having some kind of peak experience.

 

PINYON: Are there special people (family members, other writers, friends) that have influenced your writing?

DIANE: All of my friends encourage me to write, but Darrell Bourque, poet laureate of Louisiana, has been a big influence on my poetry; Judge Anne Simon has been a constant supporter; Drs. Mary Ann Wilson and Lisa Graley inspire and support me. Morris Raphael, New Iberia author, has given me long-term support for thirty years. My dear friend, Victoria Sullivan, has not only supported but formatted many of my manuscripts and formed her own publishing company to make sure all of my novels saw the light of day. I had begun collecting them in a cardboard box, and they, in turn, had been collecting dust because I would not send them out. Isabel was a big encourager and challenged me to do what she intuitively sensed I could do in a collaboration.

 

PINYON: Is there a genre (poetry, fiction, etc.) that particularly appeals to you? If so, why?

DIANE: Poetry is the supreme emotive language, some poet, said. Another wrote that it is as important to the human spirit as bread is to the human body. However, Darrell once said while introducing me at a poetry reading that “I owe no allegiance to any particular genre.” I like feature writing as a journalist, writing poetry, fiction, short stories, and children’s books.

 

PINYON: Where do you get your ideas from?

DIANE: Everywhere. I am a constant observer of human behavior and of environment—love to travel and record the scene. I also spend time meditating; poetry comes from within, I think, and I have worked toward developing a level of self awareness that sometimes births memories which become components of poetry, stories, books… My experiences in the Church fuel some of my poetry, and definitely helped fuel Chant.

 

PINYON: Which aspects of writing are easier for you? Which are harder?

DIANE: I despise the technical procedure of putting my longhand work into a computer and use one like a typewriter. However, the entire process of writing is much easier for me than most anything else I do, including writing sermons (I still preach up here on The Mountain at St. Mary’s Convent chapel).

 

PINYON: Is place (i.e., where you live or work) important to your writing? It is difficult to imagine, for example, William Faulkner writing his great novels anywhere but in Mississippi.

DIANE: I grew up in Louisiana and am especially attuned to south Louisiana, a place of rich cultural mix and charm. It reeks of history and romance, and I love the Acadians’ joie de vivre. I’m also inspired to write when I am in California, and am affected by the ocean and the desert. When I lived in Iran, I was fascinated with this mid-eastern culture and wrote a column entitled “In A Persian Market” and sent it back to the Daily Iberian, New Iberia, Louisiana.  I like to record what I see, and I am not afraid to feel what I feel, then translate it into writing.

 

PINYON: Are you affected by other people's comments about your writing? Or do you write independently of others' opinions?

DIANE: I write independently of others’ opinions, and I think writers should have a strong tolerance for rejection, and I might add, a certain humility. However, I would write regardless of strong criticism. When I studied with Ernest Gaines, he insisted that we fervently believe in our own work. It was one of the things I derived from his course on Creative Writing.  Also, he hammered into us this trilogy: “Revise, revise, revise.”

 

PINYON: Why did you and Isabel decide to write a novel together?

DIANE: I think that my friend Victoria suggested it. I had never collaborated with anyone but thought it might be a good adventure.  Isabel had an agent and that was something I had never had, so I welcomed that idea. Isabel represented a genre of writing that I had not ventured into—non-fiction Christian writing, and I thought perhaps we were a good match for collaboration. We experienced a kind of mystical connection almost immediately that inspired the idea of co-authoring a mystery.

 

PINYON: We know that both you and Isabel write poetry and personal essays, both genres that depend on individual insights. So when writing a novel together, how did you reconcile the writer's natural independence with working (and perhaps compromising) with another writer's views and style?

DIANE: You know, I never did think about that too much—it seemed that the writing became seamless in the revising. I did not compromise my style.

 

PINYON: Did each of you lead specific parts (or chapters) of the novel? Or did you work together on most parts (or chapters)?

DIANE: We had certain characters to develop, and Isabel dealt with the chants a lot. She is also a storehouse of quotations and supplied most of them. She is a master at presenting red herrings. I think the only place we differed was in that I did not think we could produce a novel that carried the spiritual weight of something like a Charles Williams or Dorothy Sayers mystery. Isabel did. She has believed in the publishing of Chant from conception to completion, and this kind of optimism and persistence helped me past one very negative review by an editor and ultimately resulted in Chant finding a home.

 

PINYON: What process did you use for exchanging information? A storyboard? Chapter revisions through a word processor? Conversations in cafes or on the telephone?

DIANE: I think I presented the initial storyboard, and we revised it together, sending it back and forth to get one another’s approval. We never communicated by telephone. It was solely an email process.

 

PINYON: Is working solo or co-authoring easier? One can imagine co-authoring meaning half the work. But perhaps not?

DIANE: Co-authoring does not mean dividing up the writing. It becomes a process of ideas, writing, revisions, additions, reworking a storyboard, asking questions about syntax of each other, but one person probably carries the narrative forward with the help of the other. We respected each others ideas, editorial suggestions, and writing.

 

PINYON: Do you have any advice for other writers?

DIANE: Don’t think about marketing when you have an idea, love the process, and invite the Muse. Make writing a way of life.

 

PINYON: What's your next project?

DIANE: I am working on a book of poetry and another novel. I think Isabel is working on some compilations of prayers and a sequel to her recent “Becoming Flame.” No plans for collaboration at the moment.