On Tour: Out of Your Mind: Daisy's Choice by Diane Hernandez, a Guest Post, and a Giveaway!

Out of Your Mind: Daisy's Choice

Diane Hernandez will be on tour August 24-28. 

Out of Your Mind: Daisy's Choice 

will be a FREE DOWNLOAD during the tour!

Though happy and carefree by nature, Daisy Fields is in a fragile state looking for stability and friendship when she moves to Solvang, California, hoping to find a fresh start. Instead, she finds herself in the midst of an intoxicating physical attraction to her sexy new boss, the famous reclusive artist Garret Brinkley. Daisy tries hard to resist the magnetic pull she feels toward the mercurial artist because she knows his desires are purely sexual and he isn’t capable of a romantic loving relationship, but the explosive chemistry between them is too strong to ignore. Still, Daisy must resist, and luckily finds companionship from Garret’s dog. The German shepherd, rapidly becomes Daisy’s new best friend, offering love and comfort to the lonesome girl since Garret is incapable of either.

When another man enters Daisy’s life, she finally feels a romantic connection and hope for her future, only to discover Garret’s feelings go beyond physical need. It’s a tragic turn of events that forces Daisy to choose between the two men. However, her depression has darkened her spirit and joyful disposition to such lengths that she feels her choice isn’t which man to be with, but rather, if she should be at all.

Diane Hernandez’s latest novel gives readers a glimpse at true love, growing through a foundation of anxiety and despair.

Out of Your Mind: Daisy's Choice 

FREE download during tour!

Please visit CLP Blog Tours for all the tour stops!
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Welcome to The Book Bag today, Daisy! I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books: the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.

I’ve never considered it a concept since I’ve just always heard the voices, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with my childhood and growing up in the seventies. I was diagnosed dyslexic. During that time doctors were able to diagnose the learning disability, but schools and teachers didn’t know what to do about it. Putting me and students like me in remedial reading classes was the humiliating and non-productive solution. My adolescents was the most difficult time because my peers and friends were reading Shakespeare and the American classics. The words on those pages were more difficult than ever, but I wanted to know the stories they were all discussing. The bits and pieces of what I could comprehend, mixed with the conversations about the required reading material had me imagining what the stories might be about. The characters talked amongst themselves in my head as I listened. 

My deep desire to see the words on the page like they were meant to be read, kept me picking up books. It was Judy Blume and the Jackie Collins paperbacks hidden in my mother’s nightstand that finally helped me see the words. Short sentences in simple English from books that I could read starting at the bottom of the page (because sometimes that helped) made all the difference in the world. 

Once I had children, and needed to help them fall in love with books, I did go back and read the classics, and I continue to revisit those books because they are wonderful stories. Not the stories I imagined them to be from my youth, those vivid stories are forever locked away in my mind.

When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?

I know that you’re joking, but I’m glad you asked your question like that. I really want to do my part to help take away the stigma of mental illness so that people will seek the medical attention they need. Depression and other mental illnesses are diseases that need to be monitored by healthcare professionals. I tried to make that clear in the second book of this Out of Your Mind series. That said, I’ve been married for a long time and my husband knows the difference between when my isolation is depression and when it is me listening to the voices that help me get through the tough times. 

I feel my stories come to me because I’m old. I’ve met unique individuals, seen things, done things, and experienced things that make for good stories. You mix that with my innate ability to make up scenarios about people I see or meet, and bada bing, I got a manuscript.

A reader asked me when Daisy’s Choice was released, “Why is Garret a metal fabrication artist?” I posted a picture on Facebook of a ranch near my home. The owner has these rustic metal animal sculptures in the front of his property and a big red barn in the back. I drive by all the time and the story of the owner of that property just started writing itself. First I imagined him a big mountain of a man, then I assumed he was bald and looked like Vin Diesel so that he could wipe his sweaty forehead with a bandana, and then because he worked outside in the Arizona heat, I imagined his skin was golden brown, making his eyes glow. Because the house is set so far back from the road, and his sculptures are only of animals, I imagined he was some type of recluse who didn’t like people. The day I took the picture of his property, I was scared to death to ask permission. But of course he, was nothing like Garret, and my writer’s imagination couldn’t have been more off base.

Then, I met this young woman, who was annoying the hell out of me because she was being far too nice to the stupid service advisor who kept coming out and telling us our cars were going to take longer than anticipated to repair, I glared, asking her why she wasn’t more upset. When she told me she hadn’t been out of her house in over a month because she had two small children and was caring for her mother with early onset Alzheimer’s, and that a day in an auto dealership, waiting for a recall repair on her car was like a spa vacation, I knew I had the heroin for my metal fabrication artist. I didn’t ask the woman a lot of questions because once she started talking she didn’t stop. She sat their comfortably on the couch in that waiting room as I listened. Her story was heartbreaking, but it made me realize how much mental deterioration disease and mental health disease had in common. Both ailments affected the people around them as much as they affected the patients. I know it’s hard to believe a romance novel could come out of those two characters, but I heard them telling me their story, so I just kept writing it down. I’ve written over a dozen stories just by people watching. Making up stories about strangers’ lives is the best therapy I could ever ask for. 

Thank you Susan for inviting me to spend some time on your blog. I really enjoyed myself. I hope your readers enjoy Out of Your Mind, Daisy’s Choice and consider continuing the series. Out of Your Mind, Garret’s Choice will be release this week (August 24th) exclusively on Amazon for Kindle.

Thank you, Daisy! What wonderful insight from you today. Best of luck with your series! 


About the author

Diane Hernandez was always aware of the voices in her head. But, it wasn't until her nest emptied, and the harried frenzy of being a wife, mother and chef was replaced with a quiet calm, did she listen to them. Once she realized those voices were telling her tales of love, desire and sometimes pain, she started writing them down. Those manuscripts have been turned into provocative novels she has decided to release for your enjoyment.

When Diane is not busy taking dictation from her subconscious, she works as a culinary arts instructor at an Arizona community college. She enjoys creating new recipes, reading women's literature, gardening, watching Project Runway, and shopping online for shoes. TALL GIRLS NEED SIZE 12--just sayin'.

Connect with Diane

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Daisy's Choice FREE ON TOUR

Garret's Control to be released August 24th

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