Please introduce yourself and your book(s)
Hello! My name is Delaney Diamond and I’m the USA Today Bestselling author of more than 40 sensual contemporary romance novels and fast-paced romantic suspense novels. My hobbies are cooking, traveling, and watching way too much Netflix. All of my stories contain characters of diverse cultures and ethnicities who love hard, with lovable heroines and heroes you’ll fall in love with.
Tell us about the characters and relationships in your stories
I enjoy writing about opulent lifestyles, whether the characters are self-made billionaires or they inherit their wealth. That’s evident in my Johnson Family series, about five siblings in Seattle that run a beer and restaurant conglomerate. You’ll also see it in the spinoff about their Atlanta cousins who run their mother’s cosmetics, film, and furniture businesses in the Brooks Family series. But I also write about relatable characters. For instance, the heroine in Until Now is a bookstore clerk, the hero in The Temptation of a Good Man is a professor of astrophysics, and in Wild Thoughts the hero is a metal sculptor while the heroine is a podcaster.
No matter their job or backstory, all of my characters are looking for love, even if they don’t know it when the story opens. That love could come from meeting a new person or reconnecting with an old flame. The point is, there is an emptiness inside them—a longing for some unknown thing that can only be satisfied with love. The stories show you not only the hot attraction between the main characters, but how they enrich each other’s lives. And why, when all other relationships have failed, that person is the person for them.
What lessons could readers learn about real-world relationships from your novel(s)?
1) Good communication is a must. Sure, it can be uncomfortable, but open dialogue curtails misunderstandings, builds trust, and makes for a healthy relationship that’s more likely to thrive.
2) Keeping secrets will often end in disaster, so always be honest and upfront. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the fair thing to do for the person you love. Don’t take away their right to make an informed decision by lying or keeping information from them.
3) If you want to find love, you have to put yourself out there. It’s scary and can be messy, but the reward is amazing.
What real-life relationship experiences, observations or insights have influenced your writing?
On the experience front, I’m lucky enough to be close to my two siblings and come from a tight-knit family. Because of that, I tend to write about families who are fiercely loyal and willing to do anything for each other. In each of my family series, the siblings are close and find love with partners who then become part of that loving family.
Over the years I’ve observed how lack of communication and bad communication can affect relationships. So often we misinterpret the actions of our loved ones and cause ourselves unnecessary misery. It’s easy to say “just talk,” but, it’s not that simple. Honest communication can mean reopening wounds and having to face hard truths, which many of us are uncomfortable doing. Not only that, it’s simply not that easy to openly communicate!
In my stories, you’ll often see characters who have misconceptions about the person they love, or misconceptions about how they believe that person perceives them. They act based on their own belief system, sometimes missing out for years on the love they so desperately crave due to fear of hurt or rejection.
Another thing that affects interpersonal relationships is past pain. People who’ve loved and been hurt, whether through the loss of a loved one, getting cheating on, or the relationship falling apart for other reasons, tend to carry that baggage into future relationships. In my stories, however, they learn to overcome all of that. They learn to communicate better and they learn to deal with past pain so they can move forward into a healthy relationship with their new partner.
Thanks to finding love, my characters ultimately grow as a people.
Are there any relationship themes or topics you want to cover in future releases?
Being a writer means having way more ideas than I have time to write, but two ideas simply won’t leave me alone. Ever since I read a historical romance with a deaf heroine, I’ve wanted to write about a deaf character falling in love. I will eventually, but I need to do the necessary research to do the character justice. I also have an idea for a Robin Hood-themed series, where the heroes and heroines fall in love while plotting and executing heists to right past wrongs. Doesn’t that sound fun?