http://www.romancejunkies.com/artman/publish/article_1044.shtml

I just have to ask this, when you just gotta have it, and the feelings won't go away, what is that one special snack food that brings you great comfort? Ñ

Well, I'm a pickle junkie.Ñ I mean, this is serious.Ñ Every kind of pickle except sweet, I have about six jars of different pickles in my fridge right now, all opened.Ñ Pickled tomatoes, hot vegetable pickles, cocktail onions, it's an addiction.Ñ When I go on vacation, I buy jars of pickles and keep them in my hotel room.Ñ When my cousin Jill, who lives in England, met my friends andÑme in Vancouver last summer, she was amazed at the amount of pickles I consume and never have heartburn!

If you could choose anywhere in the whole world to visit tomorrow, where would it be? Ñ

Dublin.Ñ I want to meet the people at ShadowHawk!Ñ I've never been to Ireland, and it exerts a great pull on me; I am British, and before the advent of Christianity into Ireland it was a center of Pagan religions.

It 's a wonderful pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hill.Ñ Thank you so much for spending time with us here at Romance Junkies.Ñ Now that you've completed JEROME'S QUEST and from what I've read it's absolutely stunning, what other surprises do you have waiting in the wings for your readers?

I still don't know what my third novel will be!Ñ There are two choices at this time for my editor, Roxann Caraway, one is a singleton romantic/fantasy entitled A WIZARD BY ANY OTHER NAME, and the other is the first of a trilogy entitled THE STARGAZERS.Ñ This is mainstream glitzy romance; the first volume, Diana and Cameron, takes place largely in the high-stakes world of rock music.Ñ I started out my career as a rock music journalist and published three nonfiction books in that genre during the 1980's.

I have to tell you, Debora, that your subject matter intrigues me greatly.Ñ Like you, I do believe in the spirit world, soul mates, and the power that is all around us.Ñ Many of your books have taken on that incredible tone.Ñ Have you always believed in these beautiful flavors? Do you feel as if there is a special course that you are following? Ñ

As long as I can remember, yes.Ñ I know I was baptized an Episcopalian and attended church when I was very young, but my father had left traditional religion behind before he married my mother (he was raised Southern Baptist) and my mother became disenchanted when I was still a very young child.Ñ My own path led me to Wicca and Neo-Paganism when I was still in high school, and I have investigated many other religions but this is my life-path.

I have always wanted to write; there were other things in high school that interested me, but I started writing professionally when I was 16, so there has never really been another serious path for me.Ñ Within the writing, however, I have branched off on a number of side paths; rock music and that whole scene palled for me when I was still in my late 20's, and I moved over into fine arts journalism for a while, then into investigative journalism, mainly the ecological and environmental end. I did a short stint in television work and am now working in film and novel-writing.

What an exciting thing that is happening right now for you.Ñ You are working on movie scripts.Ñ Is this style of writing very different than writing your own novel?Ñ When you are writing the scripts, do you have any idea who might be playing some of the characters?Ñ If so, do you write with them in mind?

I have a three-picture deal with ShadowHawk Productions (Ireland) and United Film Production International.Ñ My first film, DEATH OF A SHINING STAR, is based on true events from my own life.Ñ I graduated from high school in 1979 and was part of the first AIDS generationÑ -- this story is about my lover (Robert in the film) whom I met the summer after I graduated from high school; he had a drug problem and died when we were 28.Ñ I don't know who would play me, I would lean towards Rose McGowan or Scarlett Johanssen, but then I'm not in charge of that part!

You've been writing for most of your life, Debora.Ñ Please tell us how you first started?Ñ What gave you the impetus to pick up a pen and put it to paper?

I don't remember when I started writing; I was quite young, I know.Ñ I do remember when I was ten or eleven that the class had an assignment to write a poem on color, and I picked green.Ñ Everyone else wrote four or five lines.Ñ I wrote two pages.Ñ All the teacher wrote at the time was, èyou do exhaust a subject, îÑ It's a good thing my parents were so very supportive, because I don't remember getting a lot of positive reinforcement at school during my early years.

Before you were a novelist, you had an array of interesting and unique writing careers, one of which was in the music field.ÑDoes music play in important part in your life?Ñ I also have to ask, since I'm so very curious, what was it like writing about some very popular musicians?Ñ What did you do when you were able to meet them?

I started out in music because my cousin Diana worked as a PR assistant for Bill Graham Presents.Ñ I was fifteen when I started going with her to concerts, and there were some very strict rules, she and my parents were quite determined I wasn't going to turn into a groupie.Ñ So I wasn't allowed any drugs, even pot, on pain of never going to another concert.Ñ I'm allergic to alcoholic beverages, so that wasn't an issue.Ñ And Bill made certain all the musicians and their people knew I was off limits.Ñ I don't recall having any particular excitement about meeting anyone; I loved music and liked to listen to them, and talk to them, but most of them were older than I was, and I've never been attracted to older men.Ñ There were certainly some groupies as young as I was, though.

One cannot write romance without being a romantic at heart, it's just something in our nature.Ñ How would you describe a beautiful, romantic weekend?Ñ Of course, you must be in that description.

I haven't seen my lover in a couple of months, as he has been overseas on business.Ñ I fly to New York and he meets me in the lobby of The Plaza hotel, where we have reserved a suite with a hot tub.Ñ When we go up to the suite, the management has left us a basket of fruit and chocolates, and champagne (which he can drink, but I can't!).Ñ We get into the hot tub and the next few hours are devoted to love-making, holding one another and sleeping together.

That night, we go out to dinner at a favorite restaurant and dancing, not swing dancing, which we love, but some little club that plays lovely, slow dance music.

The following day (it is May, I think, ) we take a picnic to Central Park and feed the ducks.Ñ That night, dinner at a different place and a Broadway play.Ñ Sunday brunch at Tavern on the Green, and we fly home together.Ñ Yep works for me!

Your first novel, A GHOST AMONG US, was used as a test book for the publishing company.Ñ Could you please explain exactly what that means for us?Ñ I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the publishing firm must have had great faith in your writing abilities, Debora.Ñ They must have seen something in you that completely caught them.Ñ What an honor that was.

It wasn't actually the company, it was my editor.Ñ We've been together for a few years; when I met her she was an agent, and she moved into electronic publishing during the early, error-filled years.Ñ She electronically published a fantasy series I wrote with another author, Sandra Brandenburg, and then was forced into bankruptcy by an unscrupulous business partner.Ñ She is an intrepid lady and persevered, and I stuck with her.Ñ I think she does have faith in my talent, and people like that are hard to find, though I've been finding them more and more lately!

When you are not writing, are there other special interests that you enjoy?Ñ Do you have any special collections or special hobbies that you hold dear?

I am considered a master seamstress and taught sewing for six years.Ñ I still design costumes, mostly for the Renaissance fair, Halloween, The Dickens Christmas Fair, and sometimes gowns for New Year's Eve, I'm not a casual person!Ñ I like to sew for my friends' children, too, I've made Wizard of Oz costumes for several of them;Ñ I think the Glinda dresses were the most successful, or perhaps the Tin Man.

I love live theatre, and films, and playing party games.Ñ And travel; I'm going to San Diego and Disneyland for two weeks this spring, and my friends and I will be going to some live theatre as well as our usual zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, aquarium, I'll do and see anything involving animals.

How do you feel knowing that your talent in writing brings so many people happiness?Ñ Have you ever given any thought to what your words mean in the hearts of so many?

Having people appreciate something that has been such a labor of love is an honor.Ñ It thrills me beyond measuring when someone tells me, èI love your book!îÑ My assistant, Amanda, is 22, and when she read the script for DEATH OF A SHING STAR she started raving about it to everyone she knows.Ñ My friend Cathy has read A GHOST AMONG US several times, and bought copies for all her friends.Ñ I cannot really describe what this kind of thing means, the reviews of the books have been mostly fabulous, although one reviewer in England complained about the inclusion of the animal rights material in Ghost, but many other people have told me how much they loved it! Ñ

Yes, this has always been of great import to me.Ñ I am trying to reach certain people, those who are dissatisfied with the traditional, both religion and culture, and offer something different.Ñ Much of the time I know I'm preaching to the choir, but somewhere out there is someone who is thinking about where he or she is going, and looking for a new path.Ñ I want them, I want to talk to them, and present my views to them, then they are free to accept or reject them, but at least they will have had that opportunity.

If you were to map out a plan of the rest of your life, Debora, what things do you most want to accomplish?Ñ Is there something special that reaches out to you, calls to you?

I am in a whirl right now.Ñ I am extremely happy and mostly have always been despite some of the horrific things I've seen and experienced.Ñ I guess I am a survivor, and I've always been healthy.Ñ If you have that, you can do a lot.Ñ I never married, and never wanted children, and now that I'm in my early 40's, it is amazing to me how many people tell me they wish they could have taken my path.Ñ Some of it was choice, and some of it was bad choices, particularly as far as men were concerned!Ñ Since I am so happy, I guess that was the way it was meant to work out.

Now, I see so much on the horizon.Ñ The first two films in my three-film package are scheduled to begin production this year; the second film is for television, entitled THE SEWING CLUB, and the kind of film Lifetime or Oxygen would present.Ñ The third film, FRUIT OF THE POISON TREE, was written with Sandra Brandenburg, and is based on a true-life story about chemical poisoning in California.Ñ Our business manager things that film could be an Oscar contender if done right, and I have great faith in Anthony Whelan, our Executive Producer, to do just that.

We will probably incorporate our company, LOST MYTHS INK this year.Ñ Sandra's husband Tom will be leaving his job and coming to work for us full time, and Amanda will be working for us part-time while she finishes college.Ñ I have reached the point where I can't handle all the details and large planning projects myself, I desperately need someone to do PR for my novels, and Sandra and I have also collaborated on a nonfiction about visionary art that will need heavy PR and coordination with the artists.

Looking ahead five years at this point is like dropping acid; everything is as huge and distorted.Ñ But ShadowHawk is now reading a second proposal package for future scripts, so there could be years of work with them down the road.Ñ I hope so; I am liking this place where I am very much.Ñ There are so many more places I want to see in this world; I am going to New Orleans for the first time this autumn, and taking a Mississippi riverboat cruise.Ñ It's all good, and like a child, I want it all at once.

I have always been driven by the need to communicate, to get my ideas out there.Ñ I cannot not write, it would be like a little death to me.Ñ And some of my work is really off-center; there have been difficulties getting it read, much less published.Ñ Traditional publishing companies have always been leery of some of my ideas and presentations; I would like to reach a larger audience, but perhaps the traditional way isn't for me.Ñ It never has been, after all.

You have the most beautiful red hair.Ñ My sister is a redhead, too, with lots of freckles.Ñ I've always known people with this beautiful color to be fiery, passionate about their beliefs, and enjoying life to the fullest.Ñ Is this true of your personality, too?

Yes, absolutely!Ñ And the funny thing about that is, although everyone believes I am a natural redhead because of my skin coloring, I'm a natural blond!Ñ I was blond until my mid-twenties, when I was going to live in England for the publication of my third nonfiction book, and I decided I was tired of being blond.Ñ I'd never dyed my hair before, and when I tried red, it was me.Ñ I've never gone back; I was born to be a redhead!Ñ My assistant, Amanda, is a natural strawberry blond, and lots of people think she's my daughter, a lowering though to realize she could be, if I'd had a child when I was 20!

MORE FUN!Ñ

Are you a fuzzy slipper person or more of a bare feet kind of person?

Bare feet, hey, I live in California!

Is there a special place in or near your home where you go just to escape the day?

My whole house is a sanctuary; everyone loves to come here because I designed it to be soothing, and calming.Ñ I entertain a lot and give a lot of parties, and everything in it is to my taste, after all, I don't have to contend with any ugly brown recliners or beige sofas!

If you could wriggle your nose like in the old television show, Bewitched, what would you like to have appear right before your eyes?

I think I'd rather have the power to transport, like on Charmed.Ñ I could travel anywhere in the world, visit friends, have dinner, do stuff, and sleep in my own bed that night!

Debora, with your interest in music, one day you should come to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.Ñ I'd be more than honored to take you to the place I've visited more times than I have fingers.

Oh, I've thought of that!Ñ I'd love to see it, Goddess, another item on my travel.Ñ Oh, hell, I'd better live forever! Ñ

Thank you and Cheery bye! Ñ

Debora, Ñyou've certainly lived a fascinating life.Ñ May all of your future dreams come true.Ñ I can't imagine for one moment they won't because your spirit is so very strong and vibrant.Ñ Ñ

Thank you for everything, Debora.