Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, will keep you riveted until the final twist is revealed! We had the pleasure of chatting with Diana all about her new release, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Diana! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi, thanks so much for wanting to interview me! I’m an author of dark, twisty thrillers, including These Deadly Games and All Your Twisted Secrets. I enjoy torturing fictional characters way too much, as well as reading, playing video games, fawning over cute animals, and looking at the beach from a safe distance. I live with my husband and cat in Boston, and my cat’s name is Kitty—I can’t claim I’m always creative.
How has the first month of 2022 been for you?
Fully exhausting! I know I’m not alone; it’s been a rough couple of years, and we’re all feeling burnt out. I’ve been spending a lot of time this month recovering from writing two books back-to-back and playing tons of Dragon Age (the third game, Inquisition, may now be my all-time favorite video game). But I’ve been excited about the launch of These Deadly Games, and love that readers can finally get their hands on it. I’m already getting lots of messages from readers who finished reading at 3 a.m. and immediately needed to scream at me, and this is the best part.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I always thought being an author would be the coolest thing in the world, but all while growing up, I never for one moment thought I had what it took to write a book. I let my fear of failing keep me from even trying. Then in my mid-twenties I got a very sudden flash of inspiration, and an entire story poured out of my brain in three months. That manuscript got a literary agent but never sold… but once I started writing, I simply couldn’t stop!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember was a book of nursery rhymes; my mom taught me to read before pre-school so I was a very early bookworm. But the first book series I remember being invested in were the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine and The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin. I can still perfectly picture so many of those covers. The Fear Street books also inspired my eventual love of writing thrillers. A book I can’t stop thinking about is A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson. It’s a YA murder mystery fantasy coming out next month—I was lucky enough to read an early copy, and can’t wait to re-read it once it’s out!
Your new novel, These Deadly Games, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Scary, fast-paced, heart-pounding, unsettling, creepy.
What can readers expect?
These Deadly Games is about a girl who has 24 hours to save her kidnapped sister’s life by playing her abductor’s game… a game that forces her to hurt or kill her own friends one-by-one. Readers have reported literally feeling anxious for the characters and staying up way too late to finish, so… that! They also might look at their phone warily for a while…
Where did the inspiration for These Deadly Games come from?
I always wondered what I’d do in a murder mystery a la Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer, where a group of friends gets targeted by a serial killer, and where the police are either unreliable or not a viable option for getting help. Would I panic and run? Or would I have the smarts to solve the mystery and stop the killer? So I wanted to examine that. I knew I wanted to write a thriller where a group of friends got picked off one-by-one, but I wanted to up the stakes even more and have the culprit force the protagonist to do the killing, or else they’ll murder the person who matters to her most. I do love a good moral dilemma.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I wrote These Deadly Games in the early days of the pandemic, when going outside was terrifying, I wasn’t sure where I’d get my next roll of toilet paper, and I was hand-washing bags of Doritos. But that didn’t keep me from being productive; if anything, my defense mechanism was to work around the clock to distract myself from the horrors outside. I wrote this book in six months on top of a full-time job, and at the time, I loved escaping into my protagonist’s horrifying situation instead of facing my own. But that pace wasn’t sustainable over the long-run—at least, for me personally—so it did lead to burnout later on. I’ve learn how important it is to find a balance between work, self-care, and spending time with your loved ones—especially when the world outside is crumbling.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I had the most fun writing the climax of this book. I usually have a hard time with endings, but I had a blast writing this one.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
I don’t remember where I first heard this advice but I repeat it every chance I get… when writing a first draft, use brackets whenever you’re stuck and move on. [description] or [witty comeback] or even just []. When you’re revising, you can search for the brackets. The first draft doesn’t need to be anywhere near perfect. The magic happens while revising.
The worst writing advice, in my opinion, are most often the tips framed as “rules.” You can write every day if you want, or not. You can write an outline before drafting if you want, or not. You can show more than tell… but you can tell, too, if you want. Every writer’s process is different, and every story calls for different conventions, and that’s okay. You do you.
What’s next for you?
I’m bursting at the seams to tell you about my third book, which is my favorite thing I’ve ever written, but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet. I should be getting an edit letter and working on developmental edits any day now! Stay tuned…
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
I already mentioned A Forgery of Roses above, but I also recommend All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown, a YA post-apocalytic novel with horror, humor, and gay romance; I enjoyed it to bits. I’m also very excited for The Undead Truth of Us by Britney S. Lewis, which is a YA zombie book. And I just preordered V.E. Schwab’s upcoming YA, Gallant, for which I will literally put my entire life on pause to read.
