Author weaves a wicked tale

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This article was published 20/10/2015 (3901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For one local author, there’s nothing quite like a historical romance to get the blood racing.

On Sat., Oct. 3, Dana Naskar — who writes under the pseudonym D.L. Robinson — celebrated the publication of Oh Wicked Escort, her second novel in the historic romance genre published by Melange Books, with a book signing at Coles in Kildonan Place (1555 Regent Ave. W).

“I sold 16 books, which was quite amazing according to the people there,” she said.

“It was a #1 best-seller… amongst family and friends,” joked her husband, Dan.

Naskar’s latest is set in Victorian London, specifically Whitechapel, where the notorious Jack the Ripper lurked in the shadows. While the elusive murderer doesn’t play a major role in Oh Wicked Escort, he does make an appearance.

“He’s in there for a bit of suspense,” Naskar explained. “He’s not a part of the romance!”

Naskar made her publishing debut in 2011 with Banish The Dragon, another historic romance set in Victorian England.

“I’ve always liked romance, and history I absolutely love,” said Naskar, a lifelong resident of Elmwood, who started writing when she retired from working at Health Sciences Centre in 2004, where she was a medical transcriptionist.

“I started to think, what am I going to do with myself?” she said. “You sort of have to have a plan. With our winters, you’d go crazy.”

While Naskar doesn’t follow a strict writing regimen, she works at it consistently.

“When I’m sitting there and have nothing to do, I’ll go in there and pound away,” she said. “I’ve tried (writing) all over the house. I’ve tried upstairs, it’s too isolated. In the living room, it’s too busy with the front street. But in my little room, it’s perfect.”

Naskar started smoking in 1956 at the age of 11, finally quitting in 1988. In 2014, while she was finishing work on Oh Wicked Escort, Naskar was diagnosed with lung cancer. She completed chemotherapy and radiation therapy earlier this year, and is already at work on a third novel, this one with a tie-in to her home neighbourhood of Elmwood.

“It’s called A Conspiracy of Mothers,” she said. “I started it last year and then got diagnosed with cancer. Then it sort of came to a halt. But now, the ideas are flowing, I want to get back to it before I forget everything.”

While Naskar hopes that her novels will find an audience, she said that she is satisfied that she completed them.

“I never did get rich or famous, but I didn’t set out to,” she said. “I’m shocked that I did it. Not that I wrote (the books), but that I let anyone read them! That was always my stumbling block. (But) everyone was full of encouragement, and that took me by surprise. And now here it is.”

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