I updated my Amazon author bio this morning.
Love to hear your feedback on it:
WORKSHOP:
Dianne Pearce is the founder of The Milton Workshop (TMW), in Milton Delaware, also the home of Dogfishead beer~ Cheers! TMW meets twice a month at Dianne’s home and is in its 4th year.
DEVIL’s PARTY PRESS:
Working with the fabulous authors of TMW caused Dianne to imagine and create the publishing company, Devil’s Party Press: devilspartypress dot com. She started working on the press in 2017 because she believes that older writers are under-served in the publishing world, and deserve to have their work read. She encourages all older writers to “Finish your damn novel!” and then contact Devil’s Party Press about publication. The Press does not charge authors, and is not a vanity press. Devil’s Party Press is named after John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, and the namesake of the town of Milton Delaware. In his day, John Milton’s writing was considered so good and so scandalous that he was accused of being a member of the Devil’s party, and that is how the publishing company was named. Thanks go out from Dianne to TMW member David W. Dutton for that story and idea! Please check out David’s Amazon page as well.
WRITING:
Dianne writes short stories and poetry. Her stories are quirky and compelling, with an immediacy to them that makes a reader feel that he or she must push on to the end. All her stories are 100% fiction, so readers should not conflate her stories with her life, as one can do with some authors. Her poetry is more personal, though also not autobiographical. In her poems Dianne works to transmit an emotion to readers that she has had, though the motivator for the emotion may not be the same as what appears in the poem. She writes in free verse, and the poetry makes magical and absurd twirls.
EDUCATION:
Dianne earned her BA at Temple University. She is a graduate of both the West Chester University and Vermont College writing programs, earning an MA and an MFA respectively.
MENTORS:
Dianne has been extremely lucky to work one-on-one with some wonderful writing mentors: Luann Smith, Syd Lea (Vermont Poet Laureate), Juan Felipe Herrera (US Poet Laureate), and Chris Buckley. Please check out their Amazon pages for some wonderful poetry and short stories.
EMPLOYMENT:
Dianne is presenting at the 2019 Bay to Ocean Writers’ Conference. Her presentation is called “Don’t Die With Your Secret.” Dianne has taught writing in Pennsylvania, California, Maryland, and Delaware. She is an insightful developmental editor (DE), and will often take on editing projects for other writers, and does the DE work for Devil’s Party Press. She has also done both writing and advocacy for causes close to her heart, among them adoption, developmental disabilities, and animals.
INFLUENCES:
Dianne’s favorite writers include folks like Tom Robbins, Lemony Snicket, Raymond Chandler, Diane Wakowski, Agatha Christie, Caroline Keene, JK Rowling, Russell Hoban, Arnold Lobel, and Douglas Adams. A special thanks to Stanley Charnofsky, who invited her into his writing group in Los Angeles, which helped Dianne to form her own when she relocated to DE, and which also taught her to love writing again.
PERSONAL STUFF:
Dianne is an adoptive parent of a wonderful daughter and also an admitted cat hoarder, but, sadly, has only one dog, a fact which she blames on her husband entirely. Check out her husband’s Amazon page as well: David (6 pets are enough) Yurkovich.
Dianne is a failed vegetarian (damn you sushi!) and also a failed gardener of vegetables (she does okay with flowers), but keeps trying all the same. Her favorite vegetables are the green ones, and her favorite color is the same.
Dianne is in a committed relationship with the semi-colon, and coffee. She is most proud of being an adoptive mom, a feminist in her fifties, inked (for her birthday in 2017!), and the founder of Devil’s Party Press.
Dianne is, above all else, a late bloomer. Late bloomers rock, and they deserved to be published. She hopes you are one too. Keep writing, and share what you write. “Don’t die with your secret!”
