Dina Leacock

This week: Dina Leacock!

The question of pen names often comes up among writers - to use or not to use? Dina Leacock is one who did utilize a nom de plume, as Diane Arrelle. Take a look at her answers to The Writer's Pane questions below!



Name: Dina Leacock pen name Diane Arrelle
Social Media: Facebook: facebook.com/DianeArrelle, facebook.com/JerseyPinesInk
Twitter: @DinaLeacock
Instagram: @JerseyPinesInk
Genre: Horror, Humor, Fantasy, Mystery



Where do you find inspiration?
Everywhere. So many times I've been in conversation and someone will say something innocent and I suddenly get a chill and think, "Wow is there a story there!"
Social media is a new place for inspiration, and I'm not saying that kindly toward social media. Other writers inspire me to think and sometimes stories I read don't go where I wanted then to go and I get ideas for other stories that have nothing to do with what I actually read.

Which character in literature do you associate yourself with the most?
None.  My sense of self is pretty complete, I never think about myself that way.

Which piece of your writing was the most entertaining/enjoyable to write? Why?
Every new story is a joy once it's finished, even the darkest saddest pieces give me great satisfaction.  I do love some of my stories more than others, and I love writing stories sprinkled generously with dark humor. I loved Everybody'd Eat Steak which is an older story and is in Seasons On The Dark Side and A Woman Sporned also in Seasons On The Dark Side. Saturday Night At The CatTail Bar is probably my favorite fantasy story and was so much fun to write. I'm planning to include it in my incomplete as of now fantasy collection.

Was the first novel you published the first you ever wrote? What was? 
Alas I am not a novelist. I wrote one, a comedy about hell but it was terrible and didn't deserve to be rewritten.  I love the short story as an art form, I love writing long stories as well as Drabbles. My favorite stories to write many times are flash fiction where I have to jam a complete story into less than 1000 words. 

When I’m not writing I’m usually…
I am ashamed to say, playing computer games. I am also painting watercolors again after a 20 year break, I like to read but not as much as I used to read. I love watching movies and I try to walk a few miles a day especially in the spring and autumn. I get a lot of writing done in my head when I walk. And I absolutely adore swimming in the ocean.

If you could tell or ask any character in literature or film anything, what would it be? (and where is the character from?)
Oh just about any character in a suspense or horror film. STAY OUT OF THE ATTIC...WOODS...LAKE...BASEMENT.  And to characters in some mystery series...listen to advice instead of acting stupid and charging in without thinking. 

If you had lived a different life, made different choices, what would you be doing now? 
I really don't know, I'd have remained in teaching and have a good pension now and I'd have traveled the world continuously on summer breaks. Although I don't regret my choices.

What are five things you couldn’t do without? 
My husband Tom, my children, a cat companion, my friends and my sister.

What do few people know about you? 
I don't know, I had a humor column in a newspaper for nine years and I hung out all our dirty laundry. I'd say just about anything for a laugh.

Are you working on any current projects?
As co-owner of Jersey Pines Ink, I am currently editing a horror anthology, Crypt-Gnats, Horror You've Been Itching To Read,  which is in the rewriting, editing stages. Putting a book together written by other authors is incredibly time consuming and it carries so much responsibility to the writers involved to put out the best product we can to make them proud to be included in it.

What work of fiction made you want to be a writer? 
Harlan Ellison books of short stories as well as Bradbury, Niven to name just a few. My favorite two books were/are A Wrinkle In Time and The Last Unicorn

What tools do you use for writing, organization, marketing? 
If I ever get organized I'll let you know. Seriously,I still like to keep hand written records in notebooks, pretty notebooks. I like the act of writing things out rather than on the computer although I do depend on my Mac a lot.

Why do you write?
Because I love to tell stories.

What are some profound experiences from your life you’ve worked into your fiction?
The death of my brother and his wife in a car accident. The story, The Party which was quite funny when it wasn't being tragic, was inspired by a dream I had about a year after the accident.
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Author Bio: Diane Arrelle, the pen name of South Jersey writer Dina Leacock, has sold more than 250 short stories and has three published books including Just A Drop In The Cup, a collection of short-short stories and a new collection of horror stories, Seasons On The Dark Side, released in 2018.   She is proud to be one of the founding members as well as past president of The Garden State Horror Writers and is also past president of the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference.   Retired from being director of a municipal senior citizen center, she is now co-owner of a small publishing company, Jersey Pines Ink LLC. She resides with her husband and her new cat on the edge of the Pine Barrens (home of the Jersey Devil). 

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