A warm welcome to Diana Rubino.

Hi and thanks for having me.

My publishers are Eternal Press and The Wild Rose Press
I’ve written 9 historicals set in England and the U.S., two time travel romances, and a futuristic/fantasy novel which received a Top Pick award from Romantic Times.
I’m a member of Romance Writers of America and the Richard III Society. In my spare time, I’ve been pursuing a Master’s degree in archaeology and love to visit historical sites all over the world. My husband and I own CostPro, Inc., an engineering business based in Cambridge. I’m Director of Marketing.
My latest titles are A Bloody Good Cruise, a vampire chick lit romance set on an Italian cruise ship, and Traveling Light, a time travel in which the modern heroine travels back to 1485 England and meets the love of her life, after several brushes with death.
Both are available from the publisher, Eternal Press, or from Amazon.

1.First of all, people love to hear publishing stories. Can you tell us how your sale came about?

My story is a bit unique in that it took me 18 years before I received my first publishing contract, in 1999, by British publisher Domhan Books. I queried them, as I did everyone else, and the owner, Siobhan, liked my Richard III historical, because she’s also a Richard III sympathizer. She also bought my other historicals and my fantasy romance that went on to win a Romantic Times award. I did all this without an agent!

2.What is your favourite genre to write in?

I enjoy stories that combine the fictional hero or heroine with real historical figures that actually lived, using the turbulent times as a backdrop. You can always find a time period that’s turbulent, no matter where or when you set your story!
Chick lit is also fun–you can be a lot more daring!

3.Please tell us a little about your new book.

I wrote Traveling Light in 1993, and was never completely happy with it, until I hired the wonderful freelance editor Carol Craig of The Editing Gallery. She gave me some ideas to round it out and gave the story just what it needed to be complete and come full circle.
In the present, historic preservation architect Leigh Halliday makes a daring move–she sleeps in the bed once owned by King Richard III, and wakes up in Richard–s bed, but in Richard–s time, 1485.
In 1485, Guy Blakamour, trusted knight of King Richard, believes Leigh is Sandrissa, the wife he’d never met, having arrived for the wedding planned by the king.

Leigh has more than the obvious reason for wanting to return home to her own time–she knows that Guy Blakamour was recorded in history as having been executed for treason and drowning his first wife. When she realizes she can’t return home, and probably never will, she finds out that Guy’s ‘treason’ and ‘drowning’ of his wife was a setup by a Welsh clan who’s hated Guy’s family for centuries. She puts her life on the line to clear his name and attempts to return home–with Guy, whom she’s grown to love. But he won’t go with her to the future until he’s fought beside King Richard in battle–the battle she knows Richard perished in. But did Guy survive the battle? She has no way of knowing–so she must get Guy out of the fifteenth century. One more trip to the King’s Bed, but she returns to the future–without him. She believes he’s lost to her forever, until a call from the police two days later brings miraculous news–someone has turned up, claiming to be a knight from the fifteenth century!
Guy has returned to her, and together they prove that true love can transcend time.

What makes this story unique is that I’ve created a scientific explanation for traveling through time, without hitting the reader over the head with technical explanations. Simply put, the ley lines that cross England can transport a person through the time continuum¬no one knows for sure why. But this blend of supernatural and scientific makes this story plausible, and fires up our imaginations about the mysteries of the universe.

4. How do you devise your plots/characters?

With historicals, I use the events of the time as a backdrop, and have the hero & heroine get into all kinds of messes and of course fall in love, with the conflict being between each other, and the poverty or politics of the time, or whatever is going on in their world.

5. What are you working on now?

A biographical novel about Alexander Hamilton–but this has no fictional characters.

6. How can people keep up with your new releases?

You can visit my website or my new blog,
for lively chats about books, romance, history, anything in the universe.

7. Can you give any advice to authors who are struggling to be published?
Yes–be patient, learn as much as you can from how-to books, experienced writers who are willing to help you, and writing workshops, and always keep several irons in the fire.

8. How would you write a good query letter?

Capture their interest in the first 2 sentences, and be brief and concise about how and why your story is one they won’t be able to put down.

9. What is your response to rejection letters?

I used to take them personally and analyze every word. But I realize now that editors and agents are very busy, and see thousands of submissions. Getting published is a long shot, so you mustn’t let the rejections discourage you–just remember that The Godfather went begging for a long time before it got published. Rejection is part of the writing business.

10. Finally, what are your favorite books and movies? What movie star gets your pulses racing?

Don’t have a fav movie or star who’s living–but Hugh Grant played Chopin in an obscure movie, Impromptu–a serious role, nothing like the goofy comedies he’s so charming in–and one of my favorite stars of the past was Oskar Werner an Austrian actor who played Mozart in a movie from the 50s–he was the perfect Mozart.
I have a LOT of fav books,
The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
Wyndfell by Lynda Trent
Everyday Life in Early America by David Hawke
Naked Came I by David Weiss (biography of Rodin)
The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop
and so much more.

Thank you Diana for taking the time to do this interview.