5.6.2018  San Antonio novelist Camille DiMaio on Paul McCartney, Amazon, and Jane Eyre

San Antonio author Camille di Maio has had three historical novels published in three years. Lone Star Lit talked with her via email about her very interesting path to publishing, including being discovered by Lake Union, one of the “by agented representation only” imprints of Amazon. As an author of romantic historical novels, she also reveals her take on what creates romance — both in fiction and real life.

Where did you grow up, Camille, and how would you describe those days?

I am a fourth-generation San Antonian, but my parents moved to Denver when I was a baby. (That Texan blood stayed in me, though. I moved back as an adult!) As I grew up, so did Denver — it had the nickname of a “cow town” when I was younger, and now it is quite a popular place to live! But it was a small city then and an absolute joy. Personally, I was always a very shy kid. I spent recesses in the library reading through nearly all of the school collection, and I was fascinated by these authors' names and I built up such mystique about them. I wanted to BE one of them and write books that captivated people the way these did for me.

What about your formative years might have influenced your decision to become a writer?

Immersing myself in everything I could read definitely inspired my desire to become a writer. My friends were Anne Shirley, Jane Eyre, Nancy Drew. I adored these characters. Another influence was a dear friend of our family named Ann Sullivan. She wrote middle grade fiction, and as I was the right target audience, she'd let me read her manuscripts and get my thoughts before turning them in to my publisher. I thought that was AMAZING!!! And I wanted to be just like her.

Did you always want to be a writer? If not, what was your career aspiration — and if so, how did you pursue the writing career?

Although I did always want to be a writer, a lot of other things took my attention as time went on. I was quite passionate about bringing good to the world and was especially passionate about grassroots campaigning for candidates and issues I believed in. I even met my husband as an intern in Washington, DC. But that national political scene is a doozy, and we realized that we wanted to do things on more of a local, volunteer level. At one point, after moving to San Antonio, we became Realtors and had a very successful business there for about ten years. But an idea for a book started brewing, and with the encouragement of my husband, I decided to give it a go. We had the business, were homeschooling our four kids (one of whom was still a baby) and he helped so much with all of that while I stayed up until 3 and 4 a.m. working on the manuscript that later became The Memory of Us.

What was your first big break as a writer?

Would you believe that Paul McCartney was my big break? Yes. The Beatle. My manuscript (The Memory of Us, which was originally titled “Jar by the Door”), was inspired by the Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby.” I wondered about these two characters — Eleanor and Fr. McKenzie. Who were they? Did they know each other? What if they had a history together?

So, I wrote what I envisioned their story to be. I spent years working on it and sending it to agents, and as some of the more successful agents receive up to 40,000 submissions a year, it is really, really hard to stand out in that pile.

Then, lo and behold, Paul McCartney got put on the schedule to be one of the first acts at the brand new Tobin Center in San Antonio — quite a small venue (1700 people) versus his usual arenas. A very dear family member of mine bought a ticket for me. I brought my manuscript and a folded-up sign that said, “I wrote a book about Eleanor Rigby.” At one point in the concert, he crossed in front of me to switch guitars and I held up my sign. He actually called me up to the stage, accepted my manuscript, and even began reading it to the crowd! Really, it was one of the best moments of my life. The reason that became my break-through is because I now had this story that I could include in my query letters to agents — something that helped me stand out. It turns out that the agent who ended up signing me had just seen his concert a few weeks earlier and was a fan herself. Of course, she had to actually love the story itself, and thankfully, she did. (Side note: We did have to end up changing the names of the characters, so it is no longer “about” Eleanor Rigby, but with the exception of the name changes, readers will definitely still see the heavy influences of the song on the story.)

You were selected by the Amazon imprint, Lake Union, as one of their authors. Would you tell our readers about how that process came about and how might that be different than say, working with Simon and Schuster?

Once I’d gone through some edits with my agent, she sent it to a variety of publishers that she thought would want it. She always believed that Lake Union was the right fit. We actually had serious interest with one of the “big five” publishers. They wanted me to make one change in the book and resubmit it. I did make that change — and it was a great suggestion, but before we heard back from them, we got the offer from Lake Union. I trusted my agent to make the right decision on my behalf, and though the Amazon imprints were still fairly new, she was seeing them do amazing things. So, we signed with LU. I can’t say from personal experience how they are different from other publishers as they are the only ones I've ever had, but I can say that I’ve been very happy. The marketing reach of Amazon is legendary for a reason and my books have reached so many hands because of it. In addition, they have allowed me to have opinions about my book covers, and have been very approachable about my ideas on a number of things. I hope to have a publishing home there for a very long time!

You’ve written three books in three years — all historical fiction. Can you tell us a little about each book?

As I mentioned, The Memory of Us was inspired by the song “Eleanor Rigby.” It’s set in Liverpool during the early days of World War II. It is about a wealthy Protestant girl who falls in love with a gardener who works at the mental institution where her brother is a resident. But she learns that during the school year, the gardener is a Catholic seminarian — he’s going to be a priest! So this is a story about forbidden love, familial expectations, cultural and economic obstacles, the world at war and how love can survive among all that. One of my favorite books is Jane Eyre, so I would say that it has a similar haunting British tone.

Before the Rain Falls is my Texas book! I wrote it during out of our South Texas droughts, and that definitely became a part of the setting. It’s about an impoverished border town that comes into possession of a portrait that appears to be miraculously crying. A journalist from Boston comes to investigate, and a doctor from New York returns to her little hometown to care for her ailing grandmother. Together, they discover who the girl in the portrait is, the circumstances behind her murder, and how what they learn will impact the entire town. My favorite parts to write were the flashbacks set in the real-life Goree State Prison, which in the 1940s was the women's prison. I wrote about the all-female musical group who played on nation wide radio from behind the walls (they were all inmates!) as well as the Prison Rodeo that used to be held every October in Huntsville. It is a story of love, loss, sacrifice, and redemption, all in my beloved home state.

The Way of Beauty is my newest book, released on May 1. It is set in New York City and follows the lives of three women from 1900 to 1962, with the backdrop of the once-magnificent Penn Station. My character, Vera, develops a childhood crush on a young Italian newsstand owner when he helps her after she falls and scrapes her knee. When she is older, she’s convinced that the man will now see her for the woman she is and ask her to marry him. But she is heartbroken to learn that he has become engaged — to an elegant, wealthy woman. His fiancee, Pearl, is an ardent suffragette, and soon Vera is as captivated by her as Angelo is, and Vera finds herself swept up in the enthusiasm for the cause. As their love triangle develops, the stakes grow, and the decisions that each of them make will affect the next generation. Part 2 follows Alice, a woman who is embracing new opportunities for women as men go off to fight in World War II. Her heart is torn between the kind William — a man with the world at his feet, and the mysterious Emmett — a man who seems to be hiding secrets from that world. It is the story of love, change, opportunity, and the meaning of what is truly important.

What is your creative process like?

Most of my story ideas — both the ones that have become books and the ones that are percolating — begin with a love of location. My passion is travel and that has inspired me to research places I’ve been or want to go. And the research starts to inspire characters and plot. I’m toying with ideas right now set in Nashville, Florida, Hawaii, Paris, and Maine.

I noticed this morning your most recent book, The Way of Beauty, is in the Top 50 in three different Amazon categories. Now, that you have achieved the dream of being a full-time writer, is it what you imagined it to be or is it different? If so, how is it different?

Great question! As that kid in the library at recess, I just wanted to write a book. I had no real thoughts of bestsellers or foreign editions (The Memory of Us is about to be translated into French and Hungarian), or anything like that. To have now written four books with more in the pipeline is so very surreal. It is my deep with to always have a sense of wonder and gratitude about that and to never take it for granted. I also did not expect the amazing community of readers and writers that I have gotten to know. I would have thought that being a writer was an isolating experience, but it is resoundingly the opposite! Some of my very dearest friendships have grown from these groups. Finally, the process is so different than I envisioned. I thought that writers were continually inspired — that they would sit at the keyboard with words and stories flowing. This is definitely not the case! About 10% of the time is blessed inspiration, and the other 90% is spent writing, rewriting, erasing, questioning, doubting, pushing through, editing, and overcoming. Editing is also brutally hard work. But it is all so worth it.

I understand you have a fourth book in the works. Can you tell us what it’s about?

Yes! My 2019 is in the hands of my editor right now, so things may change in the next few months, but I can tell you this: the working title is The Beautiful Strangers. It is set at the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego and is another dual timeline historical. Part of the book is about a real-life woman who was found dead on the steps of the hotel in the 1890s and who is said to haunt the hotel. The other part takes place in 1958 during the time period that the Marilyn Monroe movie Some Like It Hot was filmed there. My main character, Kate, comes to the hotel from San Francisco at the request of her dementia-riddled grandfather, who begs her to go to Coronado to find “the beautiful stranger.” But Kate finds so much more — mystery, legend, friendship with movie stars, discoveries about herself, a ghost, and of course...love.

You write books that some would describe as historical romances. I am going to ask you the question I ask every author with romantic elements in their writing. This is a particularly important question for someone who's been married for twenty-plus years, such as yourself. Describe your perfect romantic date.

Oh, I love that you asked that question, because it hits on one of the central themes of The Way of Beauty — what love really is. The balance between new passion and long-term commitment. I would honestly be super-happy with Chinese food delivery and watching a movie that doesn’t get interrupted by kids. But...the dream romantic date would look something like this: flying to London (a city we both love), seeing great theater in the West End, and eating all sorts of international cuisine. That looks a lot like what our dating life in DC was. And, with one kiddo out of the nest and another on her way soon, we might not be too far from that again!

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