Deanna Raybourn
Author Interview - Deanna Raybourn
Author I draw inspiration from: My formative authors were Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Elizabeth Peters, Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie, E. M. Delafield, Jane Austen--very old-school English writers with the exception of Peters. Those are the books I return to when I want comfort. When I want inspiration, I try someone new. My favorite recent read is Oyinkan Braithwaite’s MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER, which was utterly brilliant.
Favorite place to read a book: A lounge chair on a breezy beach with a view of bright blue water. I always take a stack of new books on vacation, and I can easily get through a novel a day. It feels deliciously indulgent.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: I’m slightly claustrophobic, so I’d like someone who would take charge and stay calm. Fitzwilliam Darcy, perhaps.
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I literally don’t remember a time when I didn’t know this.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Never audio. I like the rest for different things. I read nonfiction and research in hardback; ebooks are for novels except the paperbacks I take to the beach. I love picking up a book on my shelf and finding that it still smells like sunscreen.
The last book I read: I read multiple books at a time. Right now I’m halfway through Robin DiAngelo’s WHITE FRAGILITY and FLEABAG: THE SCRIPTURES by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Pen & paper or computer: Pen and paper for plotting and brainstorming—in fact, it’s not so much pen and paper as it is giant sheets of newsprint and markers. The computer is for writing all drafts.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Lucy Eyelesbarrow. She’s an Agatha Christie character who sleuths around at the behest of Miss Marple. She appears in only one book—4:50 FROM PADDINGTON—and is never heard from again, but she is a machine of efficiency and good humor and I think she would keep me organized.
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: 19th-century courtesan dying gently of consumption.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1790s in France. Clothing changed tremendously during that decade and there were so many daring experiments—a fashion for menswear-inspired gowns, hems above the ankle, the shift to Classical lines. And so many STRIPES.
Place I’d most like to travel: Greece. Ever and always.
My signature drink: Tea or champagne.
Favorite artist: Dead, Alexandre Cabanel. Alive, Maria Kreyn.
Number one on my bucket list: I don’t have a bucket list because that feels too regimented. I have daydreams instead and they change on a regular basis—largely because I usually make them happen.
