Interview with YA author Diane Billas

Young adult author Diane Billas joins me today to chat about her new superhero novel, Superficial.

During her virtual book tour, Diane will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly selected participant. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Diane Billas lives in Philadelphia with her husband and son. When she’s not writing she can be found reading multiple books at once, performing the French horn or piano, and dreaming of the next country she’s going to visit. She is the author of the young adult sapphic romance Does Love Always Win?, featured in Parents magazine, and the young adult superhero book Superficial, both with Creative James Media. Her short story, The Prom Do-Over, will be included in Wild Ink Publishing’s Prom Perfect Anthology, out spring 2025. Diane writes the books she wished she could have read in high school.

Welcome, Diane. Please tell us about your current release.
Superficial is for fans of Marvel and National Treasure. Both Lea Anderson and Jake Johnson would rather be any place else but WizCon, the biggest superhero fan convention of the year. While Lea is dreading being the third wheel to her BFF/ex and her other friend, Jake is tired of yet another appearance as famous superhero, The Amazing Boy. When a convention wide power failure unexpectedly throws Lea and Jake together, they must team up to try and figure out why all of the occupants of the convention have disappeared without a trace, including Lea’s friends. Things get even stranger when Philadelphia’s iconic treasures go missing one by one at the hands of a pirate determined to become the most powerful villain in the world. Lea, Jake, and a few new friends they meet along the way must defeat the sinister One-Eyed Barnacle to save the city of Philadelphia and the world.

What inspired you to write this book?
I was participating in a Twitter pitch contest querying my first book, Does Love Always Win?, and as I was taking a look at all the other pitches, I saw some really cool ones centered around events, such as a baking competition, and that got me thinking, what event could I base my next book around? Then I remembered how much fun I had at a comic-con convention in Philadelphia, one where it was focused all on superheroes and Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Chris Evans were there, and that’s when I came up with the idea to make it that the featured guest of the Comic-Con convention is actually a superhero in real life but no one knows that.

Excerpt from Superficial:
A lone figure lingers in the back corner of the elevator wearing a navy-blue Yankees baseball hat, their face cast downwards. I push for level two when there is a large bang. The lights flicker and go out. Deathly silence follows but is broken by a curse word behind me. I whip around, trying to make out the figure’s face.

“Watch that cape, you almost gave me cape burn,” the voice grumbles.

“Sorry. I never knew how annoying wearing a cosplay costume would be,” I reply, biting my lip.

When the silence continues, I nervously keep up my word vomit. “This is my first time coming to one of these things. I should’ve taken a page out of your book and worn the incognito star look. I would’ve been more comfortable on the plane flight earlier this morning and gotten less strange looks.”

Backup lights flicker on. I can barely see the figure lift his head and look at me directly in the eyes. My heart drops.

“About the incognito star look,” he says, his dark eyes full of hesitation.

No way.

No freaking way.

He isn’t playing an incognito star.

He is the star of today’s show. The last-minute addition that made the entire WizCon event sell out as soon as his name was announced.

A gasp escapes my mouth. I can’t physically stop it if I tried. I’m from the middle of nowhere Ohio. You don’t see a movie star on an elevator or anywhere in your vicinity. Keep calm, Lea, don’t scare him off. He’s incognito for a reason.

“Oh.”

That’s what I come up with to say. I mean, what else am I going to utter aloud?

What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m currently editing a draft of my young adult sapphic murder mystery set during Halloween at an indie bookstore. I didn’t expect to write a murder mystery, but I had the scene for a new book in my head, and I just started writing it and then someone got killed. That’s when it turned into a murder mystery!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I started to write seriously in 2015; I set up a consistent writing schedule and made it my goal to finish writing a book, and I stuck to that regiment and completed my goal! That’s when I first started to call myself a writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
My creative writing is not my full-time job. I set aside 7:30-9:00 a.m. and my lunch hour to work on my creative writing endeavors. For my day job I work in the fundraising department of a health system/university and write proposals to donors asking them to help support the organization’s mission and I also write reports to them explaining how their funding was used.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Whenever I get writer’s block, I sit down and play the piano, and it helps me figure out whatever I’m stuck on. It works like a charm!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a kid I had many “dream jobs” but the one that stuck the longest was that I wanted to be a librarian. I thought it would be so cool working with books. I may not work at a library now, but I still love libraries, so much so that I became a board member for my local library.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Growing up I never had access to queer books, so now I say I write the books I wished I could have read in high school. I make sure all of the books I write have some type of queer representation.

Links:
Website | Buy link | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | TikTok | Facebook

a Rafflecopter giveaway