Author Interview | Meet Diane Scott Lewis and her new release, Secrets of Lakeluster House #authorinterview #yalit #youngadult #teenlit #mustread
- N. N. Light
- Jun 9
- 7 min read
Happy Monday, readers! I’ve got a treat for you today, especially if you love reading young adult/teen novels. Diane Scott Lewis is an author I met a few years ago. She normally writes historical fiction/romance. She’s branched out into young adult novels and she’s here to talk about herself, her writing journey, and her new release, Secrets of Lakeluster House. So, grab your favorite beverage and join us. Diane, take it away…
What is your writing process?
I grab a cup of coffee and retreat to my office where I check my emails for all the notes I’ve sent myself with the ideas that have popped unto my head later the day before. With this book, since I worked it with my granddaughter, I printed out chapters for her to go over in case I used words she didn’t believe the young characters would say. She’d give me feedback on where the story should go and what to add.
What book do you wish you could have written?
The Wolf Hall series by Hilary Mantel. Those books were brilliant. It’s sad she has passed on. Her writing put you right into the story, living the life of Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor era.
How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
Names are very important, especially in historical fiction. You want to use names common to the time and place. Often names have just popped into my head, but I check them for veracity. In my new release, I did check what surnames were popular in Massachusetts where the story takes place, My granddaughter provided the first names of the main characters.
Have you always liked to write?
Yes. I used to draw pictures when I was five and tell my mother to write down the story I’d dictate, I wrote my first long novel when I was ten, actually two novels. One set in ancient Egypt, inspired by the movie, Cleopatra, and a murder mystery, inspired by the movie Marnie. At seventeen I wrote a western adventure from my own imagination.
What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?
Go to writers’ conferences, I met so many well-known authors at them, and you can sign up to talk to literary agents. Take writing workshops to improve your craft. And never give up.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’m definitely a pantser. I have the characters in mind, and the story’s beginning, then I’ll do the research into the era I’m writing about. From there I can work my characters’ goals, obstructions, etc. around the historical events. Often I’ll go back to the beginning to change things when I’m deeper into my characters’ motivations.
What are you working on now? What is your next project?
My next project is a Victorian time travel. A modern woman falls back into Victorian England and must adjust to a more restricted life as a woman of that time. She rebels against it of course. And might find love with a dashing baron.
Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
I got picked for a curfew violation when I was fourteen. Me and my friends, all underage, were taken to the police station. The police questioned us then let us go with a warning. They never called my parents, thank goodness.
Do you drink? Smoke? What’s your vice?
I like a glass of red wine each evening. My late husband and I used to attend wine festivals and sample the many varieties of wine. We’d visit the wineries of those we liked. The dry reds were our favorites.
Where is one place you want to visit that you haven’t been before?
Italy. I’ve been in the airport to change planes but never had the pleasure of touring the country. I’m interested in the Roman ruins, the old villages, and the food and wine of course.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
A bald eagle. I could fly wherever I wanted, and I’d be a protected species. These birds are so majestic when they soar through the air. What freedom.
What’s on your bucket list (things to do before you die)?
I wanted to visit all fifty states. I’ll get my wish in September when I cruise to Alaska with my best friend. I’d also like to travel all through Europe and see the historic sights.
Do you have any scars? What are they from?
I have a scar on my right thigh. It is from a head-on collision we had when I was ten. A drunk driver crossed the line and hit us. I dove under the dashboard. My mom and best friend (the same one I’m cruising to Alaska with) broke bones. The car had no seatbelts, which was normal for that time.
What do you dream? Do you have any recurring dreams/nightmares?
I dream I’m with my husband, who died last year. We’re always young, and our sons are young, and living our normal lives. How I miss him.
Thank you, Diane, for the insightful interview. I loved getting to know you better and I know our readers did too. Readers, scroll down to read more about Diane’s new release…
Title Secrets of Lakeluster House
Author Diane Scott Lewis with Jorja Parkinson
Genre Young adult
Publisher BWL publishing, inc.
Book Blurb
Sage, at fourteen, grows up in turmoil in Nahant, Massachusetts. Her changing body, her parents’ rocky marriage. When her cousin Patrick visits for the summer, his parents’ divorce has given him a reckless anger. He insists they explore the creepy mansion in the woods. Nate, Sage’s younger brother, is reluctant to approach the manor where a beloved teacher was found hanged months earlier. The children’s great-great grandmother worked at Lakeluster House in a previous century and was under suspicion of shooting another servant.
Now an old lady and her butler have moved in and the kids bring a welcome cake. Invited inside, Sage encounters a strange little girl who shows her the manor’s dark secrets—sparking Sage’s curiosity. Will the butler—a man with his own mysteries—throw them out for snooping? Who is real and who is a ghost? Was her relative guilty? And what danger lingers in the attic? Sage must gather her courage, risking her life to find out.
Excerpt
After lighting a lantern, his disapproval obvious, Huntley returned to the foyer and indicated for them to walk up the stairs. Their feet brought squeaks and creaks along the treads. The deep shadows and dark wall panels here added to the feeling of entering a dungeon, high up instead of low. The windows to the left seemed to fight the light rather than let it in. The musty smell increased.
In a long hall with several closed doors, Huntley opened one. “In here is the private parlor. The one Miss Dora refurbished for her own use.” He spoke in a distracted monotone.
The room was blue, a blue sofa, blue wallpaper, and a blue curtain at the window. The wood floor had a blue-flowered rug. A blue and white tea set sat on a low table. It looked unused, staged almost.
“What’s on the next floor?” Patrick asked. “Is there an attic?”
“Dust and cobwebs,” Huntley replied. “Not a place for overly curious children.”
Then he lifted a high, smaller door on the opposite wall. “This is the dumbwaiter, which brought up food when the kitchen was still in the basement.”
The boys peered inside.
“These other rooms are private or empty. The first Mr. Brubaker filled them with many guests when he held his stylish parties.” Huntley opened another door. Inside the dim interior cobwebs hung everywhere. Dust and dirt piled in the corners. A chair was knocked over on the floor. No dust surrounded it as if something bad or dangerous had recently happened. But the strangest thing was no one else seemed to notice, only her.
Huntley, expression blank, shut the door and walked back toward the stairs, the lantern light bobbing.
Patrick pushed on the wall panels. “Are there secret passages? Don’t all old houses have secret passages?”
Nate covered his mouth as if fighting a laugh.
“Please try and behave,” Sage said, but she too studied the panels.
The boys hesitated near the banister. “This tour sucks, bro. I want to see the attic,” Patrick groaned.
“Maybe there’s a skeleton up there.” Nate stared at the ceiling, which had decorative plaster squares. “Or ghosts.”
“Where’s the stairs to the next floor?” Patrick asked.
Sage paused at the dumbwaiter. “We need to chill ourselves.” She was turning into her mother. She was curious, too, more than she thought she’d be; but there must be a better way to explore.
“You never know, do you, about passages and attics? And things that go bump in the night.” The butler glanced over at her, his eyes in wary slits. “Miss Emery, you and these young men need to come back downstairs with me.”
Why, suddenly, did she feel this was all an act? A bad play at her school. Or he was hiding something and wanted them out as quickly as possible.
Sage started to follow but a movement in a corner startled her. She stared harder. An outline formed into a woman in a long apron, deep despair in her eyes, a pistol in trembling fingers. The figure opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Then she stepped back, flattened, and dissolved into the shadowed corner. A spike of cold chilled the air, then it too disappeared. The wall panel where the woman vanished seemed to move in and out, as though breathing.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
Author Biography
Diane Parkinson (Diane Scott Lewis) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the Navy at nineteen and has written and edited free-lance since high school, where she had a short story submitted to a literary festival. She wrote book reviews for the Historical Novels Review and worked as a historical editor for The Wild Rose Press. She’s had several historical novels published--her first novel won a reviewers' award. She enjoys graphic arts and camping with her unpredictable dachshund. Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania.
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