Full name: Deirdre JoanBlackmore
Fond childhood memories: Roast dinners after Sunday school, but perhaps the best sharing times were creating cottage crafts with my mother.
Education: Diploma of Dietetics and Nutrition Q.I.N.S
For many years as a child I wanted to be someone like an archaeologist. Then I dabbled in the thought of acting. Yet I always, for as long as I remember, loved the power of words, and the world of books. I realize that in writing historical fiction, I have combined history with drama, and I know now with a certainty that this is what was ordained for me.
My inspiration for writing comes from life's trials, tribulations and choices. I have recently realised that even when we think we are the master creator, we are in fact pawns to our deepest fears and desires, penning them with without conscious thought. A novel is not so fictional after all; it is a journey of the soul.
Every challenge in life seems the biggest at the time.
Although I would dearly love to travel back in time, I would only ever want to do it in the skin I'm in. I desire for no other identity but my own.
Favourite genre: historical romance. I also enjoy a little suspense thrown in to the mix.
I began writing at the age of fourteen. The urge to set words to paper has only grown.
Charter to Redemption is the first of my works to be published. It's sequel, Consider the Ravens, is complete and awaiting my publisher's perusal.
My goal is to share as much of myself through my words as I am able. So because we never know for how long we are here, I'm in a hurry to get things done.
The characters in my work reflect the main influences in my life. Often aspects of either one or both parents figure in the plot, yet there are other lesser characters who are fictitious.
An author breathes the instinct for story, and will find the snatch of a tale out of nowhere, often times without deliberate thought.
Many countries would be dream holiday destinations, since every country has a story, every people a song.
I was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. My father was Cornish, and my mother a first generation Australian. My grandmother was a Scot, and my grandfather came from Scottish convict descent.
So many lovely times of the day, but I love when the late Summer afternoon grows purple with the threat of thunder, and the warm wind picks up. That for me is pretty atmospheric.
The last books I read were RUN by Chance McLin PhD, and MINE by Janelle Kahele, both Christian writers. The former concerning the great tribulation, and the latter focussing on domestic violence.
Favourite books: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The Last Sin Eater, by Francine Rivers.
Favourite movies: The Last of the Mohicans, The Crucible, BBC drama Wuthering Heights BBC drama, North and South.
I don't have a favourite celebrity, since their public face is of no importance to me. It's true the the measure of a real man's character is what he would do if he thought he would never be found out.
Favourite food: I'm really into Food in History - see Reay Tannahill - and I have fads. I'm particularly passionate about simple traditional foods of my cultural heritage, but I love fish, prawns, vegetables, and fruit straight from the orchard.
Favourite quote: William Shakespeare has a treasure trove of them. Standout biblical quote: Ephesians6:12"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Autobiographical line: to give voice to my words, long after I am gone.
djblackmore.com.au DJBlackmore1@ twitter
