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WordVessel is proud to welcome author DiAnn Mills! Let's learn more about her and her books.
Award-winning author, DiAnn Mills, launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has over forty books in print and has sold more than a million copies.
DiAnn believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels.
Six of her anthologies have appeared on the CBA Best Seller List. Three of her books have won the distinction of Best Historical of the Year by Heartsong Presents. Five of her books have won placements through American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year Awards 2003 – 2007, and she is the recipient of the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award for 2005 and 2007. She was a Christy Awards finalist in 2008.
DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope and Love, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also a mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writer’s Guild.
She lives in sunny Houston, Texas. DiAnn and her husband have four adult sons and are active members of Metropolitan Baptist Church.
Glad to have you here, DiAnn. Tell us, how did you come to be a writer?
I distinctly sensed God calling me to be a writer. However I didn’t have the courage to get started, so my husband dared me. I viewed it as a full-time job.
How long have you been writing and when was your first book published?
I’ve been writing since 1996, and my first book was published in 1998.
What is a typical writing day like for you?
I’m up before 5:00. :) I knew you’d appreciate that, but I’m in bed before 9:30.
I have my quiet time, read e-mails, and organize the priorities of the day.
One hour of exercise.
Breakfast and shower.
Write until lunch.
Afternoons are a mixture of responding to e-mails, reading, writing, research, returning phone calls, studying, and reading lessons from my Christian Writer’s Guild students.
Cook dinner (I like to cook).
Usually have a more work to do.
Where do you write?
Different places, but not usually in my office. I prefer my game room because of the cozy atmosphere.
What are you currently writing?
I’m putting the final touches on Breach of Security, the second book in the Call of Duty series. I’m also finishing a historical, A Woman Called Sage.
Tell us about your latest book. 
Breach of Trust is about an ex-CIA operative who must choose between protecting those she loves and helping the CIA bring an unscrupulous man to justice. I love the book trailer on my website - http://www.diannmills.com/.
How did you come up with the idea for a CIA operative turned librarian?
Driving through rural Oklahoma and thinking this would be the least likely place to find a CIA operative. I’m a church librarian. :)
I love the book’s heroine, Paige Rogers. (Any character that keeps a Beretta under her car seat sure catches my interest!) Tell us how you come up with characters and how you build them.
Some writers state they have a plot first, and others state they establish a protagonist first. I believe my process works together.
1. What kind of woman would hide out in rural Oklahoma as a librarian?
2. Why? What is she hiding from?
3. What if she is ex-CIA? What kind of character traits would she need?
4. What does the CIA look for in their people?
5. What could make a problem so bad for her that she’d forsake her past?
6. I complete a lengthy character sketch & personality test. I write pages of back-story.
7. What kind of antagonist would be her match? – Repeat all the above for the antagonist.
8. Write the synopsis in the protagonist’s POV.
9. Write the synopsis in the antagonist’s POV.
10.
