What inspires you to write? 

Everyone and everything inspires me to write. I am an eternal lover of people, nature and events. I especially like history, psychology and science, which I always include somewhere in my novel, even if it is a romance novel. As a philosopher and lover of mysterious or psychological “smart” thrillers with magical and mystical elements, I never imagined myself as an author of romance. But like every woman, as a girl, I was in love with Jane Austen’s books as well as The Wuthering Heights and the film The Notebook inspired by Nicolas Sparks’s book. And what young girl doesn’t fantasize about Mr. Darcy or Ryan Gosling? So I said to myself: Just one romantic book! Just one! And I did it! I wrote a book in which the readers could find elements from my three favorite novels. I set the story in the middle of 20th century England, created a phenomenal female character with a strong but also sensitive nature. It is a character-driven story because that was the only way I could express my feelings from the hidden depths of a woman’s heart.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

The first time I considered myself as a writer was when I was in the first grade of elementary school. I have always loved to fantasize and make up stories. My parents noticed this and supported me in my desire to write. First I wrote short stories, then poems and then novels. My father still keeps my first stories from childhood in his diary.

Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?

I decided to write what I like to read the most. It’s very simple. At first, after reading Agatha Christie and Jo Nesbo, I thought I would never be able to write a thriller. And now, each of my books is actually a thriller. Even a romance novel can’t be good if it doesn’t have intrigue, a good plot and a surprising twist at the end.

What is the biggest thing that people THINK they know about your subject/genre that isn’t so?

After I published the thriller The Salvador Dali Formula, I received several comments about how the author might be too smart. But I don’t pretend to be smart. And I never wanted that. I just used the knowledge I have. I am a professor of philosophy, a psychotherapist, I have been studying science, metaphysics, quantum physics and anthropology all my life. I adore art and its connection with religion. And with all that, sometimes I just can’t help but use my knowledge. My thriller about Salvador Dali turned out to be so saturated and richly written that some people were simply surprised that a woman could write such a thing. However, Kirkus and many editors have compared this novella to Dan Brown novels.

What is the most important thing that people DON’T know about your subject/genre that they need to know?

Readers from US, Canada, Australia and the UK usually do not know that each of my novels is first written in my native language and then translated into English.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer and how does that affect your writing?

I am a full-time writer. It has a very good effect on my writing because now I can’t do without writing. My writing has grown from a hobby into my absolute love, into a purpose, into a job, into everything that I want to be. If a writer takes long breaks in writing, then it reflects on laziness and time.

Do you have a special time to write, or how is your day structured to accommodate your writing?

I write every day, anywhere, anytime. It can be late at night, early in the morning or in broad daylight. It can be at the kitchen table, on the couch or at the desk. But it has to be at home. Or inside the room, if I’m on vacation in a hotel. Also, very often I need complete silence. This concerns the period when I am writing and editing the manuscript. I write almost every day, in all seasons. What I like most is sitting by the window and writing. Since I live in Budva, Montenegro I prefer to write at home while watching nature’s changing games, rain showers, or Mediterranean sea storms. I never write on trips, then my inspiration goes through other channels that I use later in writing when the passions calm down.

What have you written so far?

ENSO THE ENDURING POWER OF LOVE, a novel

An inspiring novel about the incredible power of the human heart, about our ingenious abilities to understand the people and the world around us. After her mother’s death, Po closes all doors to the outside world, which are already scarce in her life. Exactly at the moment when she needs salvation, an old man enters her life. Denver is a descendant of an ancient discipline, which, according to the legend, can make a man immortal. However, he has one more goal…to entice her to go on a journey with him, Denver promises to help Po find the elixir which returns eyesight. On that journey, she begins to reveal one of the greatest mysteries of mankind. People who are able to see with their physical eyes are actually blind!

SECRET OF A BRIDGE, a novel

An inspirational novel about a possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

Antonio, the hero of this allegorical fairy tale, grows up with his father and from an early age listens to stories about famous bridges, as well as personal bridges that every man can build. His dream of building his own bridge is so rooted in his blood that, as a young man, he wants to accomplish it. After leaving his father’s home, he meets a snake on the road and she teaches him the most precious lesson in life: „Listen to your heart and on your path to fulfilling your dream there will be no obstacles. After speaking with the snake, in the port of Palermo on the coast of Sicily, he gets his first job, something he never even thought he would do. The path to opening his soul to the world is revealed to him by a seagull, in which he turns into for a moment in order to understand bird language.

PRIDE AND INTENTIONS, a romantic novel

Set in beautiful castles in the middle of the twentieth century, this is a story about Doris Rose the daughter of an English oligarch who cannot forget the poor young man who stole her heart a long time ago when her parents forcefully separated them.

But love has the power to turn the dark tragedy of their past into a miracle.
Reborn as one of the richest men in England, the former poor boy from her childhood returns to her parents’ lives…

Morally marred by lies, deception and secrets from her parents’ past, the former mistress of Magnolia Castle, Doris Rose, is forced to abandon her wealth and join the working class. She blames the very man she secretly loves for her misfortune.

The oligarch’s plans and the pride of the girl who has lost everything become the only things that tie two people who secretly love one another.

THE SALVADOR DALI FORMULA, an intellectual mystery thriller and suspense novel

″A fast-paced psychological suspense thriller dives into ancient myths, and unsolved astoundingly planned murders.″

A shocking mystery about a journalist who reveals Salvador Dalí’s formula about the secret abilities of the human mind and an anthropologist obsessed with revealing that secret.

Only he knows the secret, and only she knows how to discover it.

When the unsuccessful journalist, Charles Clark, falls into the mystery of Salvador Dali’s famous painting, Persistence of Memory, it turns his life upside down. In one day, he gets a new job, a car worth millions of dollars, and he meets the love of his life, an anthropologist from Barcelona, Anita Ruiz. That day they become the target of the secret scientific society from Oxford but also of the most mystical killer from England who disappeared thirty years ago after he murdered his last victims. They were Charles’ parents.

Charles and Anita investigate the mysterious formula due to which all his wishes came true. As the serial killer murders members of the scientific society one by one, Charles and Anita become the prime suspects. In escaping from the police but also from the killer, they fall into a murder labyrinth from which they will only get out if they solve the formula encoded in the human beings.

Ancient megaliths, churches, and museums become their refuge, as well as a source of information about a buried secret that will forever change their lives….

If your book was made into a movie, who would you cast? 

If my thriller The Salvador Dali Formula were to be turned into a movie, the main characters would be Penelope Cruz and Jude Law.

Want to learn more about D. Labovich?

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