About Deanna
Deanna Burnhouse is the pen name of a woman who spent more than a decade writing technical manuals. Numbered steps, warning labels, the phrase "do not attempt." It turns out to be excellent training for a career in monster romance, where nearly everything is a warning label and somebody always attempts it anyway.
She grew up in a conservative Southern California household, which is where she learned that the fastest way to want a book is to be told you can't have it. Late-night B-horror, paperbacks with cracked spines, anything with a monster on the cover. Later came an MA in Gothic Romance, which is a real degree and not a cry for help, and then the cubicle, where she learned that the real horror is the quarterly review.
The fastest way to want a book is to be told you can't have it.
Deanna Burnhouse
What she writes
Alien bosses, goblin kings, haunted Victorians, and the occasional crime lord with opinions about breeding. Her heroines are never just lovesick or waiting around to be rescued. They talk back, they bargain, and sooner or later somebody in the story regrets underestimating them.
The stories run short, funny and dark, usually in that order. If you like your romance with a body count, a cheap thrill and a monster who is somehow the most emotionally available person in the room, this is probably your corner of the internet.
The process
How she writes
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The notebook
Every story starts on paper, with an outline that lasts about as long as the first act of a horror movie.
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The free-write
A full draft, with margin comments to herself about what each section should become.
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The second pass
Guided by those comments, not a total rewrite. No hostage negotiations.
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The spicy scenes
These come late, once the characters have real chemistry. A love scene with nothing underneath is just furniture being moved.
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The heavy edit
Cohesion and final polish, courtesy of a corporate career that left her a perfectionist.
Roughly six hours a day go to the writing itself. The rest goes to everything that happens around it.
Unsolicited advice
Her hot takes on writing school
Worth the time and money
- Accredited creative writing classes
- Writing that makes something complicated clear (medical, tech, even sales)
- A senior writer who cares about you and your work
Not worth it
- Seminars run by business people with fake credentials
- Writing groups that only like your story if it has a dragon or a wizard in it
- Ghostwriting, which she describes as spooky, and not in the fun way
Nobody has to accept less than they deserve just to get started.
The setup
The desk
Keyboard
Mechanical, with the right switches, because typing should feel like heaven.
Notebooks
Leuchtturm, with numbered pages and an index. She is that organized, on paper at least.
Candles
Lavender to clear the mental clutter, vanilla to finish a hard scene.
Soundtrack
Dark academia piano and moody ambience, loud enough to disappear into the story.
Dream office
A 90s author's lair, somewhere between Stephen King's eclectic retro sanctuary and Anne Rice's haunted drama.
Dress code
Whatever she woke up in, occasionally upgraded to sensual grunge.
Off the clock
At home
Home is California, with a very supportive husband and two small dogs who supervise everything. She is a proud dog mom, and it shows. Gatsby, a Maltese puppy who is almost a year old, has not been told he's an adult. She reads more than she should, cleans the house whenever a deadline gets close, and replies to every message that comes in, in case you ever feel like saying hello.
Contains:
a decade of technical writing, an MA in Gothic Romance, one Maltese, a husband with great patience, and strong opinions about monsters. For mature readers 18+.
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