We wondered at the time, Whatever happened to Deeanne Gist? Is she still writing?
We had no idea – but then, I got an email from someone who could answer that question and wanted to do so on the podcast.
And so this week’s podcast episode features two surprise guests – Dakota Lacoy and Deeanne Gist.
I’ll be honest with you: editing three voices can be tricky, but thankfully, Deeanne and Dakota are the same person!
Yup – you can get all the details in the episode, but Deeanne Gist, bestselling and award-winning author of historical romances is also Dakota Lacoy. As she put it, ”
In 2016, at the height of my career—with over a million copies sold across trade, audio, foreign, and special editions, and fresh off winning the RITA for Best Historical—I walked away from the industry. Or so it appeared.
As Dakota Lacoy, she’s been writing fun, contemporary romantic comedies set in the fictional (and pun-filled) town of Honky Tonk, Texas.
Dakota reached out to me to do this interview to try to get the word out to her many, many Deeanne Gist readers who have been asking for years now, “When are you going to write another book?”
And specifically, as she discusses in detail in the episode, she wanted those readers, some of whom seek out her books specifically because there wasn’t any swearing or sex on the page, to know that her Dakota Lacoy books are not the same thing – they’re “a little bit naughty- still closed-door, but [the]characters swear, sleep around, and do all the things.”
Heck, yeah, all the things!
The decision to start again under a new pen name isn’t new, and neither is choosing a different name when the genres are very, very different. In the late 2000s/early 2010s, it was common for authors whose books had exploded in the YA genre to have a different pen name if they were writing erotic or contemporary romance with sex on the page.
In this case, Deeanne seemed to disappear, and now that Dakota is heading to reader conventions, she’ll absolutely be recognized — she was a presenter at RT and RWA for years, and a featured author at many different conventions. She didn’t want her Deeanne readers to find out from rumors from conferences, and wanted to have space to explain the differences in content, and why she went incognito.
In the episode we discuss the transition from deeply-researched historical romances to contemporary comedies, and what it was like to move from a very successful traditional publishing career to starting over from scratch as an indie author.
Also, I say this in the episode and I’ll say it here – her Dakota Lacoy website is nifty. Do not miss the store names in the town square map.
So if you’ve been missing Deeanne Gist novels, good news: the detail, world building, and dialogue are all there in her Dakota Lacoy books.
I hope you enjoy the episode, and if you’re a Deeanne Gist reader who arrived here looking for information, welcome!
Did you read Deeanne Gist’s books and did you have a favorite? Have you read Dakota Lacoy?
I haven’t listened to the podcast (yet), but I am so happy to hear she is still writing. I am not a reader of inspirational romance, but I loved Tiffany Girl. I met her (at RT I think?) and she was really nice and encouraging to someone trying to write. I will definitely look for her books under the new name.
There are so many other authors I miss, I feel like there could just be a series of finding out what they are doing now: Meredith Duran, Anne Calhoun, Joanna Wylde, Cara McKenna,…, and more that aren’t popping into my head right now but I’m sure will once I post this.
I’m willing to take a chance! Thank you Deeanne/Dakota!
A Museum of Undergarments! Love the map!!
I saw the final email this morning. Good for her if this is the direction she wants to go. I loved Tiffany Girl and enjoyed several of her other books.
Oh my gosh, I remember Deeanne from my time at RT. (Did I do a Q&A with her in the issue with Tiffany Girl? That, I can’t remember!) I feel like she used to say that she was considered the “bad girl” of inspirational romance because maybe there was a kiss or somebody smoking in a book. GASP. She was such a delight to talk to. I’m so glad to hear she’s still writing under a different name! Hopefully Dakota’s a bad girl, too!