Q&A With Dianne Ebertt Beeaff

Dianne Ebertt Beeaff is the author of Spirit Stones, On Traigh Lar Beach, A Grand Madness Ten Years on the Road with U2, A Grand Madness Twenty Years After, Power’s Garden, & her release that came out back in the fall of 2025. Infinite Paradise. I read Infinite Paradise & loved how Dianne’s words made nature come to life as we see it within the pages! 

Q: Dianne, would you please give a brief description of each of your books beginning with Infinite Paradise? 

A:   Many thanks for this opportunity.  With personal vignettes and color photographs that track the seasons of a single year, my memoir Infinite Paradise, connects readers with the wildlife on sixteen acres of forest and water meadow along the Conestoga River in Southern Ontario, Canada. The book focuses on the complexity, beauty, and healing power of the natural world.

Borne by the Gulf Stream, thirteen curious objects are tangled in the flotsam on the Hebridean beach of Tràigh Lar in Scotland. In my short story collection On Traigh Lar Beach (2020) Erica Winchat, a young writer struggling with the stresses of a book contract, discovers them and tells the intriguing story behind each item. 

My non-fiction book Spirit Stones (2011) explores the enduring lessons of Western Europe’s prehistoric monoliths, stone circles and burial chambers, breathing new life into the transcendent relics our ancient ancestors left behind. 

In my historical fiction novel Power’s Garden (2009) tragedy and triumph unfurl when a devout Mormon family hires a head-strong young widow during trying economic times. Two families—one Texan, one Mormon—develop an embattled but gripping relationship in the Arizona desert against the backdrop of WWI. 

A Grand Madness, Ten Year on the Road with U2 (2000; reprint 2019), my first memoir, follows the Irish band U2. Taken from my journals, the book covers the band’s tours from 1987 to 1998 and covers 36 concerts from the Joshua Tree, Zoo, and Popmart Tours.  

A Grand Madness, U2 Twenty Years After (2019) is a sequel to A Grand Madness, Ten Years on the Road with U2 and continues the U2 story from 2001-2018 with concerts from six tours, the Elevation Tour, Vertigo Tour, 360 Tour, Innocence Tour, The Joshua Tree 2017 Tour, and the Experience Tour. 

Both U2 books tell a story about the impact music known inside out has on a life and about all the adventures along the way; a story for anyone who has ever surrendered themselves, however briefly, to the euphoria of fandom. 

Homecoming (1999) is my collection of poetry. It is illustrated with eleven of my graphite drawings and was inspired by my first trip to Great Britain in 1986.

Q: How long did it take you to write Infinite Paradise and why was now the right time to write and publish it?

A: I’ve been working on this book for some years off and on, but the actual final writing probably took a year. To me the hardest part of writing is a first draft, and in this case, I already had that in the form of my own and my father’s journals. Contrary to the way I often write, I did a lot of research in the moment as I came upon the need during the writing of the book. 

This felt like a good time to get such a book out, as the world is in such a dire state in so many ways, not the least of these being climate change. It seemed like an appropriate time to focus on the riches that remain in the natural world, so that individuals can contribute to and benefit from its protection.

Q: I like how descriptive you are with the writing as it makes me picture your time in the Canadian wilderness and I love the pictures you put in the book of the wildlife and nature! I know living in the wilderness would not be for me. Were there any parts you enjoyed writing the most? 

A: The property is not technically wilderness. It lies amidst some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world, not to mention in the most populated area of the Canadian province of Ontario. Farmland surrounds the acreage and the massive metropolis of Toronto is only about fifty miles away. That said, the experiences we’ve had there are very wild. 

I enjoyed writing the entire book. However, there were some especially magical moments. Writing about the summer-fall blackbird murmurations, for instance, as well as other worldly fireflies in July.

Q: Are you currently writing another memoir similar to Infinite Paradise or is it something totally different?

A: I am currently working on several projects. A second book of short stories and a possible second book of poetry. 

But true to the unusual way I write, I am looking at, of all things, a cookbook! In Canada, where I was born and grew up, Thanksgiving is in mid-October, well before Christmas. When I moved to the U.S. Thanksgiving came far too close to Christmas to repeat a meal of turkey with all the trimmings. Rather than settling on a ham or a beef roast, I decided to focus on different countries depending on the year’s travels, a specific world event during the year, or some other criteria. I did this for forty years and have kept a binder of each meal with photographs. The title of the work is Forty Days of Christmas. We’ll see where that goes.