10
community
august7
2014
Local Author Speaks to Book Club
Local author Diana Peach met
with the Vernonia Library Book Club on
Monday, July 28 at the Vernonia Library.
Peach, who publishes her books
under the name D. Wallace Peach, spoke
with the group for over an hour. Peach
discussed her motivation for writing, her
writing style, and the difficulties of be-
coming a published author.
Peach recently released her third
book through Mockingbird Lane Press,
titled ‘Sunwielder.’ Her first book, titled
‘Myths of the Mirror’ was published in
2013. Peach followed that by publishing
“The Melding of Aeris,’ also in 2013.
A prolific writer, Peach’s sto-
ries are in the fantasy genre and are set
in imaginatively created worlds. Her
highly original plots include themes that
can be interpreted as relating to current
day issues; environmental destruction,
science gone wild, and the ethical treat-
ment of other species are subject mat-
ter that feature prominently in Peach’s
stories. “It’s really interesting what dif-
ferent people take from books and what
they see as relevant,” says Peach. “I feel
like there are themes in all my books
that are relevant to our lives. That’s part
of what makes them compelling for me
to write. I feel like I’m writing about
things that matter, even though it’s fan-
tasy.”
Peach also explores other per-
sonal issues like the power of choices
and how our choices define our lives,
love relationships, vanity, and the idea
that happiness cannot be bought.
‘Myths of the Mirror is a com-
ing of age story about two young people
who defy the forces of fear and power to
free the dragons of the lair.
‘The Melding of Aeris’ takes
place in a world that grafts animal and
human flesh where Aeris is born a mon-
ster. He receives a gift of human skin,
learning too late that he wears the flesh
of a murdered man. Aeris vows to end
the process of melding, no matter the
cost.
In ‘Sunwielder,’ mortally
wounded Gryff receives a medallion that
returns him to the critical moments that
altered his life’s journey. New choices
lead him on an epic journey through
death, war, friendship, and love.
Peach told the book group that
it takes her about thirty days to initial-
ly write the first draft of her books. “I
write twelve hours a day, seven days a
week,” said Peach. “I start at 4:30 in the
morning and write straight through until
4:30 in the afternoon. The story is just
there, the dialog is there and my charac-
ters are there and I just have to disgorge
it into my computer. Then I take about
six months to work on it, edit it; looking
at word choices, and reworking sentenc-
es.”
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Peach’s writing in each of her
books is very different. “I’m a
new enough writer and I’m just
exploring the very broad genre
of fantasy writing,” explained
Peach. “I’m trying different
voices—trying first person, try-
ing third person. Trying present
tense, trying past tense. Trying
lighter work, trying darker work.
Trying war. Trying the male pro-
tagonist, trying the female pro-
tagonist. It’s still an experiment
for me and I’m still playing with
it. My style is kind of the same
but the books are all very differ-
ent.”
Peach seems to have no
problem coming up with new
ideas for stories. “There are lots
of ways to refigure a story,” says
Peach. “I often have discussions
with other writers online about the fact
that all the good plots have already been
used a million times. But if you just
tweak a story here or there and add this
and change that, you have a whole new
story.”
What is most amazing is that
Peach says she didn’t start writing until
after she turned fifty years old. “Once I
started I was hooked,” said Peach. Peach
says her work rate has slowed consider-
ably since her first grandchild was born
this past year.
Peach’s books have received
very complementary reviews on Ama-
zon. She says she is almost ready to
release her newest work, ‘Dragon Soul
Trilogy’ which will include the books
‘Eye of Fire,’ Eye of Blind,’ and ‘Eye of
Sun.’ The trilogy is a sequel to Peach’s
first book ‘Myths of the Mirror’ and
should be out by the end of the year.
“It’s a sequel but it can also stand alone,
so someone could read it without read-
ing the first book,” says Peach. “It kind
of fills in the back story.”
She says her seventh book, ‘The
Bone Wall,’ which she described as “...
very dark, very grim; almost a horror
story,” is basically finished and is being
critiqued by other writers before going
to print. She says she is currently work-
ing on her eighth book.
Diana Peach’s books are available for
purchase on Amazon.com and for check-
out at the Vernonia Library.
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