Interview with Rowena Cherry

 

Give us the 411 on yourself. You know, the basic information minus address and phone number.

 

 

At the time of this interview, I’m just back from a long drive (from Michigan to Houston and back). When playing I Spy palled, I listened to a couple of remarkable audio books. One was Clive Cussler’s “Dragon” –which wasn’t about dragons– and the other was a novel-length essay about modern espionage.

The latter included a definition of “eavesdropping” which I’d not heard before. Very approximately it was: “people who listen under windows and behind doors, for the purpose of making mischief.”

I was interested because I’ve frequently –perhaps ignorantly– described myself as a lurker, an eavesdropper, and a fact-magpie. I don’t set out to make mischief, and I never betray my sources. I collect rare insights to make my stories more convincing and more interesting.

I’ve watched carefully as Las Vegas magicians made an elephant disappear, but had to send men with brooms and buckets to make an unplanned-for elephantine bowel movement vanish from the stage. I’ve examined Henry VIII’s armour, with particular attention to the submarine-sandwich sized capsule that protected his wedding tackle. In fact, I made a minor plot point of it in FORCED MATE.

My travels have taken me from the English Shires (Warwickshire), to the mystic and fog-wreathed Channel Islands, to Cambridge University (Cambridgeshire), to Dorset, to Andalucia in Spain for a couple of summers in a Spanish castle folly near Marbella and the Puerto Jose Banus, to Harpenden in Herfordshire (where I got married), to Koenigstein im Taunus, to Detroit… with excursions along the way to the Royal Henley Regatta in company with Olympic oarsmen, to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed and for the Revival, to the corporate pace cars at the Indy 500, to the Pebble Beach concours d’elegance, and elsewhere.

The places I’ve been, the things I’ve done, and the people I’ve met are fabulous inspiration for my alien romances about gods and royals from outer space. I get a kick out of weaving uncommon knowledge into my books … such as deviant frog mating behaviors, lion taming tips, fair-use quotes from Machiavelli, and military uses for urine on the battlefield. Not all of it survives the editing!

This may sound pretentious: I set out to write a book that is like an onion, not because it stinks or because it makes you cry (blame my stiff, Brit, upper lip — I loathe books that make me cry!), but for the layers I like to build up, so that if you were to read one of my books a second time, you might see something cool that you hadn’t noticed the first time.

As for the gross anatomy of a hero, being a minor Historian, I had qualms about endowing superhuman (or super-villain) sexual prowess and dimensions on real historical figures. I have no such reservations about Darth Vader types, whether they hide out on Earth or prowl the galaxies in very large and sinister spaceships!

My editor describes what I write as Futuristic Romance. I prefer to think of my subgenre as Science Fiction Romance (because it is not set in the “Future”).

How long have you been a word ho for publishing pimps? (Er, a writer?)

 

Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, was once pleased to call me a cow… in a kind and witty reference to where I lived at the time. I’ve been called a Hoot, a Horror, and a Joy. I dare say I have been called many things by many people, but I have never considered literary or semantic prostitution …. unless you count writing about “sexual favors” instead of “sexual favours”. I don’t “do” quickies (in the sense of writing fast-reads). I don’t write for the money.

I’m too anal…

…about finding the right simile or metaphor, the “mot juste”, about getting the research right. All that
deep thought and useful “stuff” takes time.

If I’m going to write in the point of view of an elegant, sword-fighting hero, then I want to find someone who can tell me what it feels like to stab someone (legally, of course). If I plan to throw a heroine over a saddlebow, I need to know what that feels –and smells– like. I’ll try shaving my legs with the proverbial razor shell to see if a seashell makes an acceptable accessory for the desert island beauty routine. It doesn’t, by the way. The unsightly hairs look worse when they push up under, and through, scabs.

I accepted my first publishing contract in 2003. I pleased myself (and, occasionally, contest judges) from 1992 when I started writing my first novel.

All my titles are word plays on chess terms. My first romance was FORCED MATE, but although the title was thoroughly appropriate, it was widely misunderstood. Readers who wanted a violent book were disappointed. Others were deterred by what they assumed it was about. Some call FORCED MATE an alien abduction romance with a twist. It’s a futuristic take on the myth of Persephone and the god of the underworld. A dark ruler of an interstellar superpower abducts his perfect mate, never dreaming he’ll fall in love.

Insufficient Mating Material is not about a guy with E.D. It’s a chess term for a “No-win situation.” At some point in a game, the rivals realize that no matter how many bad moves the other guy makes, it’s going to be impossible to checkmate him.

Can you give us a brief VIRGIN story? I mean, give us the nitty gritty on your first sale.

 

The “Virgin” (Cherry) gets “The Call”

Prologue.
Ms Cherry doubts that she can write a brief ANYTHING. Words run away with Ms Cherry.

Writing in the best possible taste means controlling her lamentable sense of humor, especially during love scenes. Cherry has a tendency to amuse herself (and only herself). She comes to call these unnecessary, naughty bits of prose “Gorilla Testicles.”

What, you might well ask, do Gorilla Testicles have to do with overblown writing? Wide-eyed Ms Cherry once saw a wildlife program where the scientist found it necessary to measure the size of a sleeping gorilla’s testicles using a monkey wrench. No one is sure why. He must have had an odd sense of humor! The testicles were remarkably small… not worth the time and effort involved in measuring them, or in watching them being measured.

By giving a funny name to them, Cherry minds less when the naughty bits are cut.

Chapter One.
Long, long ago (in 2003) Rowena Cherry gave up on trying to be a paperback writer, and submitted (and only The Published know the full implications of “submitting” ) the book of her heart to NovelBooksInc aka NBI.

At the time Linnea Sinclair was one of NBI’s top authors and artists, and she was asked to read FORCED MATE for a second opinion. Linnea is now a RITA winning author for Bantam Books, (for Finders Keepers, I think), but she’s also written An Accidental Goddess, also Gabriel’s Ghost, and her latest book is Games Of Command.

Apparently, Linnea sat up in bed for much of the night, snorting and howling with laughter, much to the annoyance of her husband, and the next day Linnea informed the publisher that she should buy everything Rowena Cherry wrote including her shopping list… or it might have been the Cherry laundry list.

Chapter Two.
Ms Cherry was negotiating the contract that had been offered her when another of her friends, Susan Grant (who now writes for Harlequin, and My Favorite Earthling came out recently), told her that she would be an idiot not to enter the Dorchester-Romantic Times New Voice in Romance contest. That year, it was the New Voice In Paranormal Romance. Entries of previously e-published books were permitted.

Ms Cherry asked NBI’s permission, and entered.

Chapter Three.
To cut a long story short (???) the Cherry was one of the three finalists, was offered a contract by Alicia Condon, and ended up splitting the rights.

Epilogue
Meanwhile, NBI shut down for a hiatus, and later went out of business. The Cherry got her rights back, but since she had invested so much in her own cover (Cherry had personally bought the rights to the Matt Twiggs photograph for the e-book cover), and in lawyers’ fees to split the rights, and since she liked the e-book editing just as much as the mass market editing, Cherry decided to buy some ISBNs and self publish the e- version.

Moral: Linnea Sinclair (to a greater extent) and Rowena Cherry (to a lesser extent) are proofs that your published e-book can still sell to a New York print house.

Everybody’s got a fantasy. What’s your writer’s (wet?) dream?

I’m not sure that I have wet dreams. I imagine most writers’ secret ambition is to win a major award, and to place on a major best-seller list. I’d like that, of course.

 

Actors wanna be in pictures. Where do you want to be?

 

In pictures!

Not in person. I think Insufficient Mating Material would make a splendid movie, if only Peter Jackson would do it. On the other hand, I am well aware of the saying, “Be careful what you wish for. You might get it!”

This saying has been the basis for a lot of fractured fairy stories, most genie tales, and not a few Faustian takes on the devil offering a deal to a human… such as in Bedazzled.

When a novel has a hero with a bioluminescent tattoo on his penis that glows in the dark when suitably excited, you can imagine the Off-Topic fun a comedian might have. Prince Djetth’s manly decoration has the potential to be his downfall if the wrong person sees it, but not in a slapstick sense. I don’t write slapstick.
I stop short at the alien prince’s dilemma when he strikes a pose and is sitting on the edge of a filling bathtub (so many romances include a scene where the hero wants to watch the heroine take a bath) and there comes a moment when he realizes that his seated bottom is going to get wet.

Get any bad advice early in your writing career?

 

Lots. However, someone once told me that everyone in the industry lives to some extent in a fishbowl, and that one should never “break someone else’s ricebowl” (don’t deliberately ruin someone else’s livelihood). That’s good advice.

 

Word, baby. Get any good directions that you’d like to pass on?

 

Persist.

Network.

If you’re unpublished, enter contests for the advice you’ll receive. Write gracious and positive thank-you notes to your anonymous judges, even if you don’t particularly agree with what well-intentioned critics tell you.

Start your future mailing list early (always with the consent of your correspondents) so that you’ll have friends when you need them…when you’re getting the word out about your forthcoming release.

Lock in your own name for your website before you become famous. You don’t want to have to be www.theofficialyourfirstnamelastname.com. You DO want to be a dot com!

Say “thank you” often and as graciously as possible.

Keep control of your newsletter and your contests. If your name is on it, you are legally liable if someone sues you for whatever grievance.

Dream within reason, especially when it comes to money. Here are two great links which explain advances and what it costs to publish a book:

http://sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/profit-motive.html http://alg.livejournal.com/84032.html#cutid1

It’s better to have a smallish print run, and sell most of it, than to have a huge run and end up owing money to your publisher!

Carla Arpin (publicist for Linnea Sinclair) and sexy, paranormal author Sahara Kelly, and witty Dorchester author Marianne Mancusi all report that having a site on MySpace.com has been amazing—and cheap— promo for them. I haven’t seen the benefits, but that could be because I have confined my friendships to brother- and sister- authors, booksellers and librarians, and I have not been aggressive about self-promotion (mostly because I –being a techno-dinosaur– found it a pain to set up a site, and am super cautious about running the risk of having my site deleted).

I like what The Romance Studio does for me. Email: holly@theromancestudio.com. Membership for an author is around $2.50 a month. For that, you get a profile page, a link, and the opportunity to run contests and add to your mailing list.

Other sites I really like are Romance Junkies www.romancejunkies.com because they have over a million hits, and Cat Brown is so wonderful to work with. Fallen Angel Reviews is another site with great presence, and a fabulous reviewing staff in my opinion: check out http://www.fallenangelreviews.com ; And then there’s MyShelf, http://www.myshelf.com which is also highly trafficked and easy to work with.

I shouldn’t really mention so few sites. I know I have forgotten some wonderful ones. Oh, and if you have $200 to spend, everyone I know swears by a print ad in RWA’s Romance Sells.

For free, chose a good signature file, that says something about you or your book, and how to find it (your own website url). Do not quote homespun philosophy from great thinkers of the past. Most lists allow 4 lines or so of tag line and moderate promotion of other types.

For 25 tips on free ways to promote yourself or your favorite author, check out my “25 Ways” article on my website (under Research workshops). Go to www.rowenacherry.com and poke around. You’ll probably also find links to all the handouts put out by the EPIC organization for the entire RT convention.

Join chat lists—and I have to thank outgoing EPIC president and promo genius Brenna Lyons for some of these tips, because I’m not a great chatter—look into: ebookChatters ; enchantersloop; FallenAngelReviewChatters; karenfindoutaboutnewbooks (Karen Simpson runs Coffeetime, which is a great site with some very innovative promo services and ideas) ; Novelspotters ; RomanceJunkiesReaders ; paranormalromance.com.

Other great new places (suggested to me by Jacquie Rogers of Fairy Good Advice) to network are Bebo.com; theyack.com; wordpress.com; LibraryThing.com.

Wherever you go — and this is my best and most delicate marketing advice– remember that you never know who is watching you and reading your posts. You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

We need the 420 on where to find you and your stuff. Cough ‘em up!

In sci-fi speak, my heavy-duty mothership in cyber space is http://www.rowenacherry.com

If you dock there, you’ll find exerpts from my books, an interactive family tree to assist readers to keep all my characters and their complicated relationships straight in their minds, my bi-monthly newsletter, jigsaw puzzles of bare-chested hunks, links and research tips, podcasts of my radio shows, my promo video for Insufficient Mating Material, and lots more.

I blog about non-human lovers and other matters of vital interest with other award winning science fiction authors (Linnea Sinclair, Colby Hodge, Susan Kearney, Margaret L Carter, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Susan Sizemore, and guests) at http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com

Animal lovers might enjoy my new cross-genre blog with authors who specialize in adding furry characters to their romances (Deborah MacGillivray, Jade Lee, and others).
http://males-and-other-animals.blogspot.com

I’ve two sites on MySpace. The Rowena Cherry space is where I befriend and am befriended by other authors, cover models, industry professionals– http://www.myspace.com/aliendjinnromance_rowena ;

The “Insufficient” site is more fun for me– http://www.myspace.com/insufficientmm ;

If a book could talk, this might be what he’d say. “He” overcompensates for his unstudly name (Insufficient) by chatting up librarians (“Will you have me between your stacks, dear Library Lady?”), booksellers (“My greatest dread, dear Book Lady, is that you will strip me in public,”), book lovers, and boldly asking all comers to take him to bed. “He” is territorial, so will not tolerate glitter, sissy images (rabbits, bling, flowers, fairies, other naked men) on his profile page, nor will he befriend anyone with children on their avatars… because he has adult interests, and he does talk dirty.

And last, but not least, there is Amazon-Connect.

Hope to see you there.

Rowena Cherry

Rowena Cherry
http:// www.rowenacherry.com

INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL

Interview with Jena Galifany

Who are you?

I write under the name of Jena‘ Galifany. My real name is a secret to protect the innocent (no, not me!). Jena’ Galifany was a D&D character that I made up back in the late 70s but I like the name and the personality of the character.

I have a wonderful husband. We have been married for nearly 17 years now and it has been great. He helps me with my writing in that when I get myself into a corner, he usually gives me an idea on how to get out again. He suggested the most romantic moment in ShadowsForge 3: Retaking America. He is an ex-roadie and has given me a lot of direction concerning backstage issues for the ShadowsForge series. How else would I have known how to properly electrocute Jon Wiles, guitarist, in ShadowsForge 2: Trial on Tour?

 

I have three children and one lovely granddaughter.

 

What do you write?

 

I write sweet romance, romantic suspense, and dark romance.

 

I believe that the bedroom scenes should be left to the reader’s imagination because what I think is the ultimate romantic encounter would not necessarily be what the reader would think. I want to let the reader see in their imagination what they would want to happen between the lovers, so I leave it to the reader.

 

I write dark romance because I know that every romance does not end happily but it is romance, regardless of the outcome. One of the greatest romances ever penned was “Romeo and Juliet”, but look where it got them!

 

Where do you live, and what does your workspace look like?

GASP! Don’t look at my workspace. It’s a total disaster that only I know where everything is. I’ve tried to keep it straight but… it’s just not meant to be. =)

I live in NELAC. (Translation: North East Los Angeles County), California. I’ve lived in a lot of small towns all over California but we landed here when I was nine and we got to stay here for (mumble-mumble) years.

 

When do you generally write? Do you have a regimen?

 

In terms of actual writing, I work a night job that is fairly mindless and monotonous. I am able to cope with it (for over 5 years now) by writing stories in my head. On the weekends, staying on the same schedule, I write after my family goes to bed, between 11pm and about 6am.

 

How do you write? Do you outline? Or fly by the seat of your pants? Do you like silence or rock out to a certain soundtrack?

 

I start out with the ending. I know what I want to happen or a line I want someone to say. I develop the character in my mind, picture how they would look and act, what kind of character would do or say the thing that I want the story to end with. Then I systematically work backward. What would have to happen to make this happen? How would he cause this? What did she do to make him feel that way? Why would two close friends decide to beat the snot out of each other on a moving bus?

 

Once I answer all those questions all the way back to a beginning, I make an outline of the facts and start in. I like to follow the characters through each step to see what side roads they take me down as well. The outline is not carved in stone by any means.

 

When I’m at work, I’ve got my headphones on and crank it up to ear bleeding levels. 80s classic rock is the best but sometimes I like to have something a bit more contemporary like Nightwish. I have different songs for each project. Some WIPs have come from a line or flavor from a song. Music is a must for my writing.

 

Got anything to brag about? (Awards? Upcoming releases?)

 

ShadowsForge 1: Three Times a Hero was a Reader’s Choice #1 Best Seller at Whiskey Creek Press in August 2006. From then until now, only one month has gone by that at least one installment of the ShadowsForge series has not been in the top 10.

 

ShadowsForge 3: Retaking America, the third installment of the ShadowsForge series, was release April 1^st.

ShadowsForge 4: The Long Way Home will be released November 1^st at www.whiskeycreekpress.com .

 

After eighteen years in the making, Her Perfect Man, a dark romantic suspense is available at Chippewa Publishing LLC

http://www.chippewapublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=144

 

I had the honor of placing Third Honorable Mention in a flash fiction competition to raise money for Flash Me Magazine. The 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd place winners and three Honorable Mentions were published in a special edition titled Flash for Big Cash Anthology available at http://www.wingedhalo.com/ffbc.html only until June 15th. Some great flash fiction (besides mine) is included.

 

 

I was the April 2007 Spotlight Author at Whiskey Creek Press. I got to write about me!

http://whiskeycreekpress.com/authors/Jena_Galifany.shtml

 

What are you working on at the moment? Tell us what it is and why you think it’s gonna be a “gotta have” k?

 

At the moment, I’m in the middle of deciding who gets my full attention. I have several works to choose from.

 

Day Labor – Mark Langston wants a child. Beth Langston will do anything to make her husband happy. When their efforts fail, Beth vows to find a way to give her husband the child he so badly wants. I have a lot of plot twists in this contemporary… not sure if it qualifies as a romance. We’ll see.

 

Cole – Two hundred years in the future, when law is upheld depending if it is day or night, strange creatures with feather or leather wings do what they have to for the survival of their species. Cole fights his father, Raven, for the human woman who came in search of her kidnapped friend. If he can keep from loving her, she may survive. Erin swears to rescue Jaycee, who was captured by Raven when they ventured outside after lockdown. Futuristic Dark Romance.

 

Better Not Tell Her – Julie meets Michael aboard her wedding cruise after deciding to go ahead with the trip even though her groom bowed out at the last minute. By the end of the ten day Caribbean cruise, Julie and Michael know they can never be parted… until their plane lands in Los Angeles and the police arrest Michael to ship him back to Florida to face criminal charges.

 

ShadowsForge 5: Jon’s Way – Jon Wiles, second guitarist for the British rock band ShadowsForge has some interesting adventures, not the least of which is waking up one morning with a brand new bride.

That’s only a small glimpse of the ideas I have banging around in my head and in my computer. I want to begin a children’s series, tentatively titled Grandma’s Jewelry Box. Each piece of jewelry in the antique box will begin a new and exciting adventure for three children. I am still in the thinking process on that one.

 

Tell us how to find you and your stuff.

 

I’m all over the net.

My main site is at http://jenagalifany.bravehost.com

 

My Yahoo Group is always looking for new members. I have a contest almost every month and don’t send out tons of posts, usually the monthly newsletter and updates when I book a new chat or have an announcement that didn’t make the newsletter. Not a chat site. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JenaGalifany/ (Hot picture of Ty Synclair posted to the home page right now, too.)

 

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jenagalifany I post a blog here as well.

 

WCP Author page:

http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/authors/Jena_Galifany.shtml

 

Her Perfect Man:

http://www.chippewapublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=144

 

Video Trailers for the ShadowsForge Series and Her Perfect Man can be found at: http://video.yahoo.com/video/profile?sid=23205

 

I’d love to hear from readers at jena_galifany @ yahoo.com.

Cheers,
Jena
Believe in Dreams!

ShadowsForge 1: Three Times a Hero – Available NOW!
http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/chapters/Shadowsforge1_JenaGalifany.shtml

Watch the promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srOdhV1TQ3wShadowsForge 2: Trials on Tour – Available Now
http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/chapters/Shadowsforge2_JenaGalifany.shtml

 

Watch the promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_tXhoFdFk

 

ShadowsForge 3: Retaking America – Available Now
http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/chapters/Shadowsforge3_JenaGalifany.shtml

Watch the promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8r1IidbN98

From Chippewa Publishing LLC: Her Perfect Man – Available Now
http://www.chippewapublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=144

http://jenagalifany.bravehost.com

 

Interview with L.A. Day

Who are you? 

I’m author L.A. Day but I answer to Laura or occasionally to other unflattering names.

 What do you write? 

I write erotic romance for Ellora’s Cave, Cobblestone Press and Twilight Fantasies. My stories always have a dominant, alpha male and usually some paranormal or Sci-Fi elements.

Where do you live, and what does your work space look like?

I live in the southern part of the US. I share my space with a husband a daughter and two dogs. My office could best be described as a disaster area. To get to my desk you often have to step over piles of books and research material. But, I know where everything is and I like it that way.

When do you generally write? Do you have a regimen? 

I work full time so I write when I can which is early mornings and evenings usually. I often get up in the middle of the night to jot down a thought. My husbands swears if I start taking notes during sex, he’s divorcing me. I tell him, I wouldn’t want to bore my
readers! (Slap my hand over my mouth) I didn’t say that.

How do you write? Do you outline? Or fly by the seat of your pants? Do you like silence or rock out to a certain soundtrack? 

I am a seat of the pants kind of girl. I start and let the characters have their way. Often times I have to go back and rewrite because my characters have a change of attitude.

Got anything to brag about? (Awards? Upcoming releases?) 

Alpah male alert!

I have two releases in the month of May. Barbarian Mate releases from Ellora’s Cave on May 2nd. Undercover Pleasure Droid releases from Cobblestone Press on May 25th.

What are you working on at the moment? Tell us what it is and why you think it’s gonna be a “gotta have” k?  

I just finished a Sci-Fi novel of EC title Savage. It is part of the Hunters for Hire continuity series. This is a new EC/CP series and 6 authors myself included, spent months just setting up the Sci-Fi world before we ever began our individual stories. There will be some hot stories in this series.

Currently, I am working on another Sci-Fi tentatively named Alien Possession, Zarius. This is a long story for me 80K. If you’ve read any of my books you know I love an alpha male and Zar is that. He’s delicious and let’s just say he has some impressive attributes that human males don’t possess.

Tell us how to find you and your stuff.  

I’m not hard to find:

http://www.la-day.com
http://la-day.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/ladaywrites
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AuthorLADay

Thanks, Jennifer.
 
Thank you!

Interview with Marcia James

Who are you?

That’s a deep question!    To avoid going all metaphysical on you, I’ll just say: my pen name is Marcia James, and I’m an advertising copywriter/PR writer who is enjoying the heck out of her new career writing romances – especially the love scenes!

What do you write?

Thanks to my highly developed sense of the absurd, I write comic, R-rated romantic suspense/mystery.

Where do you live, and what does your work space look like? (No address, please. Just generalizations. You know.)

I live in central Ohio, and my office is a sunny room on the second floor of our home. My “writer’s cave” contains a maroon, L-shaped desk (which is so covered with files you can’t tell its color), romantic movie posters (like the one from Ghost), toys to fiddle with (including a vintage slot machine bank) and a sexy screen-saver of a semi-nude man bench-pressing a large barbell with an improbable part of his anatomy.

When do you generally write? Do you have a regimen?

Regimen? LOL! I wish I had one, but I’m not that disciplined. I usually write from mid-morning to early evening – interrupting the flow constantly to check my email. Yes, I’m addicted to email.  ;-(  I start out the writing portion of my day by tweaking the pages I wrote the day before and then writing new pages.

How do you write? Do you outline? Or fly by the seat of your pants? Do you like silence or rock out to a certain soundtrack?

I’m a plot-driven author, so I make notes about future scenes and plot points, but I don’t outline every chapter. I work hard trying to make my characters compelling and three-dimensional, so I’ve been known to fill out character charts on my protagonists. As for music, I can’t listen to any – even instrumental background music – while writing because it gets in the way of my hearing the music in words. That seems like an odd statement, but there really is rhythm and sound in alliteration, pacing, etc.

Got anything to brag about? (Awards? Upcoming releases?)

Before I was published, I finaled in eleven Romance Writers of America chapter contests. My second manuscript, At Her Command, sold to Cerridwen Press, garnered great reviews and was just released in trade paperback. At Her Command is a risqué comedy of errors that explores the premise: “What would happen if the DEA, FBI and Washington, DC police all — unbeknownst to each other — put operatives undercover at the same hedonistic club?” The tiny Chinese Crested hairless dog, who’s a drug-sniffing dog in the book, has been so popular, I use a caricature of it as my author logo.

What are you working on at the moment? Tell us what it is and why you think it’s gonna be a “gotta have” k?

A full of my latest manuscript is with St. Martin’s and Kensington. It’s the debut book in a comic mystery series featuring a sex therapist who amateur sleuths to the endless dismay of her police detective boyfriend. It’s a fun mix of action, humor and sex.

Tell us how to find you and your stuff. (All your website and blog links)

My Web site URL is www.MarciaJames.net, and there are excerpts and blurbs from my books on the site.  There are also links to Cerridwen Press and Amazon, for those interested in buying my trade paperback or e-book. The blog on my site is actually a sex advice column “written” by my sex therapist/amateur sleuth character. Readers submit questions to the column, and the answers are tongue-in-cheek (pun intended).

Interview with Michelle M. Pillow

First, give us the basics. Who are you, personally? Got a family? Any deep dark secrets you’d like to share? Wanna tell us where you hang your hat or pantyhose or something?

I’m Michelle M. Pillow, Author of All Things Romance… what? More? LOL. Um. I’m addicted to coffee, love pajama pants and have a strange ‘compulsion’ that forces me to keep my toenails painted red.

I’m a wife and mother. My family is very supportive of what I do and have adapted to my eccentricities quite well, though every time my back is turned, they tend to sneak home a new pet. So far, we have 2 English Bulldogs, a Schipperke, a ½ Lab ½ Boxer that everyone things is a Pit Bull, 2 cats and a rabbit—this isn’t counting the tailless squirrel, rescued turtles and duck who temporarily take up residence. I’m pretty sure all creatures of the animal kingdom know directions to our yard.

My husband almost brought home a tiger cub—yeah, you read the right, lol. Lucky for him, he came to his senses and brought the baby back to the person who’d given it to him.

Oh, and lest I forget, Marc our fish.

Second, what do you write? And how do you do it? Spill it all. Are you a shower poet? Pet your cat while you type one handed? Get the name of your next character by what appears in your Alphabet soup or cereal?

I write romance in almost all its wondrous forms—dark fantasy, fantasy, historical, paranormal, contemporary, futuristic, chick-lit and all the combinations thereof. I also write sweet to steamy.

Ideas normally come to me in the shower, when I have quiet time and am relaxed. Or, when I’m trying to fall asleep. Ideas will pop into my head and not let me rest until I write them down. Because of this, I have notebooks hidden all over the bedroom, lol. Normally, I write either in my office or on my laptop in front of the television. I like the low noise when I work.

Wherever I am, I have the two Bulldogs right there, following me around the house. Somehow, I was nominated as their pack leader—though they didn’t consult me when the vote was taken.

When I first started working, I actually named my heroines by going through the alphabet—Alexandra, Brenna, Chloe, Della…. Yeah, I know, strange, lol. I did make it through the whole thing though. It’s how I kept which order I wrote the books in straight. I can’t seem to write a book until I know the characters name. It’s always the first thing I pick out when beginning a new story.  

Third, how long have you been writing professionally? Any cool stories about how you got started? Or mistakes you’ve made. Feel free to elaborate. Just paragraph in between, but, by all means, ENTERTAIN US.

My first book was published in ebook by New Concepts Publishing in April 2004. It has since gone out of print. When I first submitted to the company, I hadn’t heard or even read an ebook—now I love them!

Since first publishing, I’ve worked non-stop to try and build a career for myself, often putting in 18 hour days. I’ve signed over 50 contracts—though some were for short stories—and recently won the prestigious Romantic Times Award for Best Erotic Romance, for the historical Maiden and the Monster, published by Ellora’s Cave.

I have several publishers I work with—Ellora’s Cave, Samhain, New Concepts, one title in an antho from Pocket Books, and Virgin Books which is now part of Random House.I’d say that my mistakes were those most newbies make—not learning more about promotion and marketing before being published. I didn’t realize how much effort it really took on the part of the author to market a book.

Since 2004 I’ve taught myself how to make book videos, banners, build a website from scratch and maintain it, established the Pillow Scavenger Hunt that has had over 80 great authors in participation, created the Raven Vampire Nightclub with Mandy Roth where we do blogging, podcasts, free stories for readers, ect… It’s been a wild ride and I’ve learned a lot. In fact, I’m still learning.

Fourth, any cool stories about meeting other writers or industry professionals that have influenced or helped you? We like to hear the silly stuff. Ever stutter at an agent? (I have.) Ever sidestep an editor? Or have a margarita downing contest with one? (Pleading the fifth on that, myself.)

Aside from the time the aliens abducted me and I met Mandy Roth…or wait, was it she broke into my house…or was it we met at the Salvation Army fighting over a t-shirt… Well, anyway, I’d have to say teaming up with Mandy has been a great plus for both of us.

We compliment each other’s styles and have the same hard work ethic that pushes the other onward. Many of the milestones of our career we’ve met together, often not intentionally. It’s great to share that journey with someone and she’s become the big sister I never wanted… LMAO, Just kidding, Mandy. I’ve only had one editor “issue” where we both felt the best course was to part ways. It came down to a matter of different styles and opinions—not that either one of us was wrong, just too different to work together. It happens.

The only time I remember being a little awed and tongue-tied is when I got a phone call from the new publisher at the recently opened Virgin Books USA branch under Random House. I was shocked by the unwavering support and by the call and probably stuttered my way through it. Though, hopefully I didn’t muck it up too bad as they’re still working with me.

Fifth, tell us about your first published work. What was it? When did it come out? 

The book was entitled, The Mists of Midnight, a Victorian ghost story that is no longer in print, or ebook rather. I do hope to rewrite it (I cringe to think of that earlier piece, lol). I’ve learned so much since that first piece and hope to resell it for print distribution.  The book was published in April 2004. 

Got any awards to brag about? 

Yes! I do!! I just got back from the Romantic Times Magazine convention in Texas where I was awarded with the RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Erotic Romance for the historical romance, Maiden and the Monster. It was just released in print from Ellora’s Cave Publishing, appearing for the first time at the convention. So, as an interesting side note, it was an ebook when it won the award.

Blurb:

Vladamir of Kessen, Duke of Lakeshire Castle, is feared as a demon in the land of Wessex. The Kings have granted him a title of nobility in exchange for his part as a political prisoner. Discontent, he bides his time in his new home until war will once again rip through the land.

But boredom soon turns to devious pleasure as the daughter of his most hated enemy is left for dead at his castle gate. Now the monster bides his time plotting revenge. Lady Eden of Hawks’ Nest doesn’t know what to think of the man who saved her life, but she can’t wrench her thoughts away. His words are those of a tyrant, true to his vicious reputation, but his touch is that of a man, stirring passion and lust when there should only be fear. It would seem the infamous monster is not as monstrous as he appears.

Do you have any dreams as a writer? Go ahead, give us your best fantasy.

Plenty of them. I’d like to work on a literary fiction (though I do love genre fiction and am plenty busy with that), be part of a nonfiction compilation, perhaps a children’s book (under a non-romance author name of course). I’d like to write more for magazines.

As a person, I’m open to new opportunities and experiences in both my writing career and personally. There are also many authors I’d like to be in anthologies with.

I think every writer wants to be successful at what they do. I’m no different in that regard. I want to reach bestseller lists, get awards, get big paychecks, but most of all I want to be happy doing what I do.

Got any projects in the works? Please tell us it’s amazing and give us a short excerpt or something to make us HAVE to go and buy it. What makes it so great?
 

I always seem to have several things in the works, though this year I’ve been a little slower with all the extra promotions I’ve been doing with Virgin Books (Random House). My book, Along for the Ride, is one of their USA launch books in October 2007 and is for pre-order at Amazon.com. The books I do for Virgin are different than some of my other titles in style. They all deal with strong, modern day women who don’t necessarily believe that a romantic happily-ever-after is all there is in life.

Happily, they discover that in some ways their “modern” notions were wrong. Since I am a HEA kind of girl, all my stories do have that HEA ending.  

Blurb:

Detective Megan Matthews is cursed with always being right. Her instincts are good, her deductive reasoning even better. She’s found her hard-headed ways to be too much for most men, so she’s given up on trying to find Mr Right and has settled for arresting Mr Wrong.

Photographer, Ryan Andrews, has had a crush on the sexy detective since he first took her photograph by accident at a crime scene. That picture became headline news and she hasn’t talked to him since.

He’s tried everything to get her attention, even enlisted the help of her sister. Nothing works. When opportunity presents itself, he’s left with little choice. But is blackmailing a cop into marriage really a good idea? 

Read an Excerpt: http://www.michellepillow.com/ride.htm

I’ve also been working on the last book in the Call of the Lycan trilogy at Ellora’s Cave. It’s about half way finished. I’m almost done with the first Space Lords book, part of the Dragon Lords universe, though I’ve not contracted it with anyone as of yet. And for Virgin, I’m working on Recipe for Disaster, the third Matthew Sisters book, which include Bit by the Bug and Along for the Ride.

Any tidbits of help for other writers that you’d like to pass along? Please, by all means, inspire us. Point us in the write direction. 
 

Do your research. That’s pretty much it. Research everything—the industry, your book topic down to every last detail, publisher guidelines, everything.

Do you have any suggestions as to what a writer should avoid? Any mistakes you made that you could give us fair warning on?

Never close yourself off to learning more, even when you think you have it down. And never close your ears to the criticisms that count when it comes to your work.

Though you might not like all the ideas people give you, you can learn and grow and possibly make your book better by at least listening. I say “criticisms that count” and want to emphasize that.

Don’t listen to everyone with an opinion, choose carefully those you do listen to and disregard the rest. And know that opinions are only as good as the people giving them—and people can have bad days and bad attitudes.

Let the negativity roll of your back, just make sure that you don’t ignore the useful critiques in the process. Um, yeah, hopefully that makes some kind of sense. Oh, and don’t air your dirty laundry publically—even if you are frustrated.

Give us links to your websites, blogs, etc.? 

Links:

Website – www.michellepillow.com

Blog- http://www.michellepillow.com/authorblog/  

Contests- http://www.michellepillow.com/contest.htm  

Newsletter – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/michellempillow/join

Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/michellepillow 

The Raven, with co-author Mandy RothFree Story – http://www.ravenhappyhour.com/raven.htm  

Paranormal blog – http://ravenhappyhour.com/ravenblog/

Podcasts – http://www.ravenhappyhour.com/raven_podcasts.htm  

Chat Group – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Raven_Vampire_Nightclub/join

Thanks for giving us your fifty cent interview. Come back and see what other authors and readers have to say. Send your friends this way, too. K?

Thanks you so much for having me!

GREAT Interview with Cat Muldoon

First, give us the basics. Who are you, personally? Got a family? Any deep dark secrets you’d like to share? Wanna tell us wear you hang your hat or pantyhose or something?

My name is Cat Muldoon.  I have 2 children, both girls.  They are wonderful felines.  I’ve never been married but am open to the possibility.  Currently, I’m living in the Ozarks, but I have lived various places. 
 

Ireland and Scotland are a couple of my favorite places to be, but I enjoy spending a good deal of my time in, shall we say, “other worlds.”  If you ever hear that I’ve gone to Ireland and never returned, perhaps I found a Faerie hill and went inside.

Second, what do you write? And how do you do it? Spill it all. Are you a shower poet? Pet your cat while you type one handed? Get the name of your next character by what appears in your Alphabet soup or cereal?

I’ve never been one for alphabet soup, but I do like the idea of naming characters that way.  Maybe I’ll try it sometime. 

Anyway, what I write is whatever comes to mind.  Typically my stories are fantastical.  I love wordplay and I love creating interesting “what if” scenarios. 

My characters are real to me in that I write dialogue by hearing them interact.  Occasionally I have to break up fights or tell them they don’t get their own way. 

I had to change a character’s name in my novel Rue the Day, and he wasn’t at all happy about it.  He wanted to be called Aiden, but that name too closely resembled the main character Aislinn, and her name had to stick.  But he got used to Cian and liked its meaning well enough that he settled down quickly.

How do I name?  It depends.  For the Faerie folk Rue the Day, I chose the names carefully based on their meaning in Celtic traditions.  Now for the Selkie, I made them up. 

Corlath simply had to be Corlath.  It has no special meaning in any earthly language (a far as I know), but it expresses his essence well. 

If I am not sure what to name someone, I will use letters like YYY until I figure it out, then do a universal find/replace (because what word has YYY in it?). 

At one point I had too many B names and had to rename someone.  The bard “won,” and her name changed from Brighid to Eliatha, which she likes better anyway.

Sometimes I choose names based on meaning and sometimes on “feel.”How do I write?  Mainly by feel, but it is typically based on the interaction of characters rather than an idea. 

Oh, an idea may spark the story, but the characters are definitely in charge, and I do let them live their stories (with the occasional reigning in as necessary).I think a writer should let things flow and not get in the way. 

So if I’m writing a scene and it’s 5 pages of dialogue at first, I don’t stop to put in gestures or bits of action or have someone order pizza. 

Flow is a beautiful thing and should never be interrupted to worry over a word or fuss over details.  I spiral back through the story to fill in details or movements or whatever is missing. 

This means my scenes have bits of setting sprinkled through them, for the most part, and not in huge clumps.  I like to let readers see through the eyes of the characters.

Spiraling…I adore spirals, and when I think of how Rue came together, I really did spiral my way through.  I didn’t do “first draft,” “second draft” as such.  I spiraled through to add or change as the needs came to me. 

BUT I did have a sense of where the plot was going at all times right from the moment I realized this was not a short story.Suspense is one of my favorite features in a story, and there is a lot of suspense in Rue the Day, and in many of my stories. 

I was a bit surprised Wings ePress put the book as fantasy romance, because I had always thought of it as fantasy suspense, or maybe epic fantasy.Which brings me to how this book came to be. 

It all started because of a misty Ozarks morning with fog so thick you lost the world in it.  I thought of stories in which someone crossed through the mists into another realm, like Mists of Avalon and some of the faerie lore. 

I honestly did think I was writing a short story for a while with only 3 characters (one of them a cat named Bree).  Then all sorts of interesting characters and situations came to me and I realized I needed to write a novel.

Funny thing is, there are so many people who dream of writing a novel, and I never did.  Not that I’m opposed to it.  But writing a novel never occurred to me until then, and here I was writing a complicated suspense story with a couple of suplots and minor characters who could easily hold their own in their own book.

Third, how long have you been writing professionally? Any cool stories about how you got started? Or mistakes you’ve made. Feel free to elaborate. Just paragraph in between, but, by all means, ENTERTAIN US.

In some ways, I don’t feel like a professional.  I love writing and I do work at writing better and better all the time, but I really did fall into being a novelist. 

Now I am planning out the next in the series that took its first breath on a foggy morning. Short stories are also fun for me, but I have to reign myself in so that I don’t add too many complications for a short piece.

Fourth, any cool stories about meeting other writers or industry professionals that have influenced or helped you? We like to hear the silly stuff. Ever stutter at an agent? (I have.) Ever sidestep an editor? Or have a margarita downing contest with one? (Pleading the fifth on that, myself.)

This isn’t really what you asked, but the margarita contest put me in mind of it.  One time I was writing a story that’s a bit randy, and I had to drink a couple shots of Brendan’s before I could write it.

So for your question…I had an opportunity to pitch a “big New York Agent.”  Not a big person, just a well respected agency.  Because I was there at the writer’s conference the night before the “real” event, I had the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time with this agent and another author in a hotel room. 

This is what’s interesting, and it is an important principle I want you to write down and maybe even tattoo on yourself somewhere. This agent and I did not choose each other, but what I want to point out is that as I listened to her talk, I knew there was NO WAY I could work with her.  It was not the right fit.  Always follow your gut or your instinct or whatever you wish to call it on these things.

Another time I heard an agent speak at a conference (a different one), and I thought, “This person has all the energy of a slug on a slow day.  She couldn’t work up a spark of passion if I lit her butt on fire.” 

So there again, I knew this was not someone I could work with.  I’m not suggesting she’s a bad person or an ineffective agent, but I’m a focused person, and we’re not the right fit.

Now this is a funny story for you.  One time I was pitching an editor and…well, let’s just say the hormones were alive and well that day with the particular editor in question.  That was the most interesting pitch experience I have ever had.  I did manage to stay focused, and I definitely was not nervous, but the hots added a whole new dimension.

Fifth, tell us about your first published work. What was it? When did it come out? 

“Seal Skins” is a short story that takes place in ancient Kirkwaa (now called Kirkwall) in the Orkney Islands of Scotland and features the Selkie.  Perhaps I should say that the Selkie are shape-shifters from Celtic mythology who, in the tales, can take off their seal skins and take on a human form.  They tend to enjoy dalliance with humans.  There are a number of stories in which a man hides the seal skin of a Selkie woman and forces her to marry him.  The first scene ends with a human husband shooting at the Selkie who has tarred with his wife.  This story is in a book called WomanScapes, available through Amazon.  The other stories in the book are wonderful! Got any awards to brag about?  

Rue the Day was a semi-finalist in the ArcheBooks 2005 First Novel competition.  One of my short stories took a door prize in the Writer’s Weekly 24-hour short story competition.  That contest is fun because you have no way to prepare and no idea what you’re going to write.  The judges do NOT appear to like anything fantastical, though, so I’ve actually had the challenge of writing something “normal.”  This last time, I wrote something that seemed as if it might have fantasy or paranormal elements but did not.Do you have any dreams as a writer? Go ahead, give us your best fantasy.I want Rue the Day to become a movie.  I’m putting it out there right now.  I think it would translate well to the screen. 

What are you up to now, writing wise? Got any projects in the works? Please tell us it’s amazing and give us a short excerpt or something to make us HAVE to go and buy it. What makes it so great?

I have a couple of stories I’m playing with, and I’m working on an anthology.  Whether they are great is for readers to say, not for me, but I will say this.  I love working with interesting characters and playing in other worlds.  When you go to my website http://CatMuldoon.com, you will read and hear excerpts of Rue the Day, and when you sign up to receive excerpts in yor inbox, you’ll get more of Rue and also bits of 2 other stories that are published.  You can also go to my page on Author’s Den http://www.authordeden/catmuldoon  

Do you have any tidbits of help for other writers that you’d like to pass along? Please, by all means, inspire us. Point us in the right direction.

Follow writer’s guidelines and contest rules absolutely to the letter. “Get attached” to the process of creation, not to the results.  If something is rejected or doesn’t win, simply send it elsewhere and don’t take it personally.Trust your own instincts.  Yes, you want to improve your craft, but every writer works differently.  You need to discover what works for YOU. If you meet an agent or editor you can’t stand to be in the same room with, or who sets your teeth on edge, you will do well to look elsewhere.Be careful of scams.  Be a wise consumer.

Talk to other writers.

And finally, the only way for you to find your true writer’s voice is to WRITE WRITE WRITE!  It’s not delivered by the stork.  You have to put out a lot of words to find your own flow. 

Do you have any suggestions as to what a writer should avoid?

Any mistakes you made that you could give us fair warning on?I think I’ll let my answer to the previous comment inspire you.  I can’t think of a mistake, and rather than saying “don’t,” I prefer to teach you by saying, “do.” 

Give us links to your websites, blogs, etc.?

My website is http://CatMuldoon.com my blog is http://blog.myspace.com/CatMuldoon  and I’m on Author’s Den http://www.AuthorsDen.com/catmuldoon  

Thanks for giving us your fifty cent interview. Come back and see what other authors and readers have to say. Send your friends this way, too. K? 

Of course! But this interview is worth $50 at least! Cat 

Interview with Beth Wylde

Give us the 411 on yourself. You know, the basic information minus address and phone number.

I write under the name Beth Wylde. I currently live out in the boonies of Virginia with my hubby, my three children, my dog and my muse.

 

How long have you been a word ho for publishing pimps? (Er, a writer?)

I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. (My imagination is a fun place to visit sometimes when the kids and the hubby have me stressed out) I just decided to pursue getting my work published a little over a year ago. I want to be able to write full time.

 

Can you give us a brief VIRGIN story? I mean, give us the nitty gritty on your first sale.

I was pregnant with twins when I decided to write seriously and try to get something published. As a result the finished product came out with a strong female lead with a bit of an attitude and a big mouth. (I blame it totally on the hormones!) I did get a few rejections but finally polished up the piece and got it published. Full Moon Madness was the result and I’m still proud of it today. I even have a sequel or two planned.

 

Everybody’s got a fantasy. What’s your writer’s (wet?) dream?

To be approached by a major agent or publishing house, or both. That would be my big O!

 

Actors wanna be in pictures. Where do you want to be?

On everyone’s bookshelf in every bookstore in the world. (I know it’s a huge wish but if I’m going to dream I figure I ought to dream BIG! LOL)

 

Get any bad advice early in your writing career?

Not really. In fact the person the proofreads for me is a godsend and I always try to run new pieces by her for an honest opinion before I submit them. She’s my online beta Goddess! (Pennie r u feeling the luv?)

 

Word, baby. Get any good directions that you’d like to pass on?

If you really want to get published do your research and your homework and make sure to submit to a reputable company. Don’t give up on the dream.

 

We need the 420 on where to find you and your stuff. Cough ‘em up!

You can email me at b.wylde@yahoo.com

my website can be found at http://beth-wylde.tripod.com/

check out my yahoo group for hot excerpts and fun author days at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/

And I finally broke down and joined in on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/bethwylde

Also I have yahoo IM. Just look for b.wylde

 

I love to chat online and get emails from readers and other authors. 

Beth 

 

Thanks, Beth. It’s always interesting to hear how other writers do things, what’s important to them, and so on. We appreciate you sharing.

-Jennifer DiCamillo

http://www.jenniferdicamillo.com/

 

Interview with Adriana Kraft

Give us the 411 on yourself. You know, the basic information minus address and phone number.

First off, there are two of us: we’re a married couple writing erotic romance under the pen name of Adriana Kraft. If you think “erotic” and “married” don’t go together, read some of our books! We love to spice things up and we write what we love to read: strong women, men who deserve them, hot sex whether m/f, f/f, ménage or more, and believable characters facing the ups and downs of real life (well, except for our paranormal characters!).

How long have you been a word ho for publishing pimps? (Er, a writer?)

Hmm, writing non-fiction all our careers (we teach college when we’re not writing fiction). Writing erotic romance? Probably three years since we started, but it took us a while to polish and submit, see below!

Would you give us a brief VIRGIN story? I mean, give us the nitty gritty on your first sale.

This won’t hurt, did it? Really, it was kind of a quickie: we submitted the first three chapters of Colors of the Night to Silk’s Vault last May thirtieth. June first the publisher emailed us, said she couldn’t put it down, and offered us a contract! It was released a bare three and a half months later! That (and some good reviews) opened doors and now we’re published at three houses with a contract at a fourth, all since last September!

Everybody's got a fantasy. What's your writer's (wet?) dream?

Not gonna tell! For two reasons, actually ~ what’s fantasy today might be reality tomorrow, and whether it is or isn’t, we’d probably want to put it in a book, so we’ll save it for the published page!

 Actors wanna be in pictures. Where do you want to be? 

Sammiched between a happy couple (of whatever gender) having mind-blowing sex! Seriously, 

some authors are good beach reads ~ we wanna be a good bedroom read! We’ve got two genders contributing to everything that goes onto our pages and we’ve heard from readers that both genders like what we write. We want to send you out into fabulous erotic fantasies and bring you back to this reality for some action, and we love what Frost at Two Lips Reviews wrote about Colors of the Night: “I highly recommend this book, although the reader will no doubt want either a partner or a bucket of toys close at hand.” Yeah. We hope our book can be found tossed aside in the heat of the passion it’s engendered. Even on the bedroom floor would be just fine (tho that might be a little hard on the computer)! Being in pictures would be good, too; we think some of our books would make great screen plays for adult films of the both-genders-enjoy type!

Get any bad advice early in your writing career?

Nope, just not enuf GOOD advice! Nobody told us how much time we’d have to spend promoting and getting our name out there, so we’d done pretty much nothing when our first book was released last September. The down side? We’ve had to be real fast learners! The up side? Getting to meet so many helpful authors and readers who support us!

Word, baby. Get any good directions that you'd like to pass on?

Yup! Keep dreaming, believe in your dreams and invest the time effort and money in them that they deserve. They’ll need that to succeed! 

Specifics? Polish your craft, talk with other writers in your genre, enter contests if your submissions aren’t being picked up, get feedback, join writers groups and on-line groups where you can really talk with readers and writers, and never give up!

We need the 420 on where to find you and your stuff. Cough 'em up!

Finding Adriana:

(1) Our website http://www.adrianakraft.com

(2) Our monthly newsletter ~ to sign up, send us an email at adrianak @adriana kraft.com (without the spaces) and put newsletter in the subject line, and tell us where you saw our info so we can let Carys know what a great job she’s doing!

(3) Our MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/adrianakraft   

 Finding Adriana’s stuff:

Cherry Tune-Up; (Available Now from Silk’s Vault http://www.silksvault.com )Colors of the Night (Available Now from Silk’s Vault http://www.silksvault.com)The Diary (Available Now from eXtasy ebooks http://www.extasybooks.com )  Seducing Cat (Coming May 16 2007 to Twilight Fantasies http://www.twilightfantasiespublications.com )Atlantis Woman Found (Coming summer 2007 to eXtasy ebooks in the Atlantis Anthology http://www.extasybooks.com)A Woman for Zachary (Coming September 19, 2007 to Twilight Fantasies http://www.twilightfantasiespublications.com )The Merry Widow (Coming January 2008 to Whiskey Creek Torrid http://www.whiskeycreekpresstorrid.com/ )

Interview with Cheryl Hagedorn

Disclaimer: When you first asked me to keep this light and funny, my system went into shock. One of the killers in my book, PARK RIDGE, does use a banana as a weapon. And one reviewer wrote that she thought my book was “uproarious,” “delightful,” and “extremely funny.” (Reader Views: http://www.readerviews.com/ReviewHagedornParkRidge.html)First, give us the basics. Who are you, personally? Got a family? Any deep dark secrets you’d like to share? Wanna tell us wear you hang your hat or pantyhose or something?

Geez, I’m a senior citizen! You need to slow down and speak up.

My partner and I have aged together over the last 28 years. I practiced the murder by banana on her.

Second, what do you write? And how do you do it? Spill it all. Are you a shower poet? Pet your cat while you type one handed? Get the name of your next character by what appears in your Alphabet soup or cereal?

I feel like I’ve wandered on stage with a stand-up comedienne. Uh, let’s see. I write mysteries. I do it sitting at my computer and lying on my back in bed just before I fall asleep listening to the cat snore. The only time I typed one-handed was when I broke my left hand. I prefer baths to showers so I don’t do poetry. Naming characters is trickier than opening a new can of soup if you don’t like Xandra Zaria.

My first book has four elderly pinochle players who are main characters. I needed to name them and describe them in ways that would help my readers keep them separate. Do it think it was too obvious when I made Jack short and hairy, the Professor tall, thin and handsome, Ellie morbidly obese with long red (from a can) hair and Margaret a tiny vegetarian with earrings?

Two major characters in the second book were named Gina and Joan. The physical descriptions were almost opposite but my critique group found the names confusing (the initial g-sound) so I renamed Gina to Ceci.

Third, how long have you been writing professionally? Any cool stories about how you got started? Or mistakes you’ve made. Feel free to elaborate. Just paragraph in between, but, by all means, ENTERTAIN US.

Actually, after I got my MA in Writing from DePaul University in 2005, the plan was teach at Truman College in Chicago, not write mysteries. (Midwest Book Review called me “a late bloomer”!) (http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/feb_07.htm#shelley) But as the writing instructor at the Park Ridge Senior Center (yes, it’s a real place!), I had given my class the task of writing a 700-word mystery. That project evolved into a center-wide contest: it had to be murder, had to happen at the Center, could only be 700-1500 words.

I entered the contest – imagine five murders in 969 words! Anyway, I decided to rework it and it kept growing.

I will confess to getting interrupted on a frequent basis by my unconscious. That’s where the banana came from. And the bit about the detective’s mother dating one of the suspects.

Fourth, any cool stories about meeting other writers or industry professionals that have influenced or helped you? We like to hear the silly stuff. Ever stutter at an agent? (I have.) Ever sidestep an editor? Or have a margarita downing contest with one? (Pleading the fifth on that, myself.)

Sorry.

Fifth, tell us about your first published work. What was it? When did it come out? Got any awards to brag about?

PARK RIDGE: A Senior Center Murder is the first of three (maybe more?) It came out in September, 2007. It’s about four elderly pinochle players who finally reach the breaking point with people telling them to get off their butts and do something other than play cards. They form a mini-gang and begin offing the overzealous activity boosters. It’s a WHYdunnit, not a whodunnit.
The second is tentatively titled Senior Games and is at the publishers now. This book, too, is based on something real, the Six County Senior Olympics. The games seniors play with and against each other involve athletics, sex and murder. I really enjoyed killing the victim in this one.

The third will be about Des Plaines. This real-life situation intrigues the heck out of me. The Senior Center currently occupies two facilities as they transition to a renovated strip mall which they’ve purchased. The schizoprhrenic component, the neither-here-nor-there thing provides some phenomenal twists.

Do you have any dreams as a writer? Go ahead, give us your best fantasy.

When I wrote one of my short stories, which was then adapted as a play to be produced by the Senior Center, I thought, “How cool if I could find someone to videotape it!” I really saw it as a short-short movie.

And then, at the tail-end of her review, Shelley Glodowski wrote, “PARK RIDGE is an entertaining whodunit that rates with Agatha Christie and could easily convert to an enticing television movie.” (http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/feb_07.htm#shelley)
What are you up to now, writing wise? Got any projects in the works? Please tell us it’s amazing and give us a short excerpt or something to make us HAVE to go and buy it. What makes it so great?

I’ve got four books I keep bumping into when I sit down to write. Des Plaines is a WIP. Another is a biography of a woman that I’ve put a year and a half of research into. Theodora Van Wagenen Ward made a name for herself by helping to date Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts, but very little is known of Teddy herself.

I’m also working on something I refer to as sci-fi but don’t know if it really is. It could be fantasy. The distinction escapes me. The working title is GS, Obs.

Then there’s a novel-length allegory – my writing group really liked this excerpt (draft excerpt: http://www.cheryltime.com/murderblog/snakeexcerpt.html)Do you have any tidbits of help for other writers that you’d like to pass along? Please, by all means, inspire us. Point us in the write direction.

I’ve been following the current buzz about making books available for free – notably ebooks, but also serializations (http://murder.booklocker.com/2007/04/12/giving-your-novel-away-serialization/). I’m involved with the Lobe Library from the State of Illinois in a project to make my book available as a free audio file for the visually-handicapped.

Do you have any suggestions as to what a writer should avoid? Any mistakes you made that you could give us fair warning on?

I’m tempted to say something about agendas. Most writers tell you that if you’ve got an agenda, keep it to yourself. Maggie Abrams didn’t and she’s had great success with her books about murder and the environment (I’ll give you the link to Maggie’s interview as soon as I post it). In the same way, I’ve gotten good feedback from professionals who work with senior citizens.

Give us links to your websites, blogs, etc.?

Website: http://www.Cheryltime.com/books/

Emily Dickinson Stuff – http://www.cheryltime.com/ED/interim.htmlBlog: http://murder.booklocker.com

Crimespace: http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/clh760

Excerpts:http://www.booklocker.com/books/2637.html (Chapter Four is the beginning of the romance between the suburban-cowboy detective and the curvaceous Italian center director)

For the first murder (http://www.cheryltime.com/books/PRch2.html)

Book Trailer:http://thoughtgarden-cheryl.blogspot.com/2007/04/park-ridge-trailer.html

Reviews:Midwest Book Review – http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/feb_07.htm#shelley

Reader Views – http://www.readerviews.com/ReviewHagedornParkRidge.htmlPurchase:Available as Ebook ($8.95) or trade paperback ($14.95)

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/PARK-RIDGE-Senior-Center-Murder/dp/1601450230/ref=sr_11_1/002-1923302-5712014?ie=UTF8

BookLocker – http://www.booklocker.com/books/2637.html

Thanks for giving us your fifty cent interview. Come back and see what other authors and readers have to say. Send your friends this way, too. K?

Interview with Janet Riehl

Janet Riehl is an award-winning writer and artist whose artwork, fiction, and nonfiction have been published in Harvard Review, International Poetry Review, and Lullwater Review, among other prestigious venues. 

An active participant in the community art scene, Janet has served on boards, given outdoor art performances, produced poetry readings, and performed in theatrical productions such as The Vagina Monologues.  Her work has shown in several Women’s Caucus for the Arts exhibitions and she has twice been nominated for poet laureate of
Lake County, California. 

Her recent book, Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, was written after her sister Julia Ann Thompson’s death. The result is a beautiful tribute to her sister and family in a rich collection of poems and family photos. Her frank portrait documents her family’s coming to terms with grief and celebrates its past and its difficult present.

 Q: Janet, give us the basics. Who are you, personally? 

I’m an all-around creative-type—author, artist, actress, musician, speaker, workshop leader—sort of thing. I’ve found it doesn’t work well to do all of these things at the same time, so usually one area will nag for more attention at any given time. Right now, that’s writing. 

I’m single, in my late 50s, and in transition from Northern California to the 
Midwest, specifically St. Louis and the Illinois site of the river where my 91-year-old father still lives a darn good life. But, I want to be closer to him in his last years, however many of those he has left, so I’m cueing up the cross-country move. It’s a big deal for me to come back home.

Q. What do you write? And how do you do it? 

My stories, poems, and personal essays are published in literary journals and anthologies. My book Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary came out last year. I wrote that mainly sitting up quickly in bed first thing in the morning and just writing straight from the heart after taking notes during the day while I took care of my mother who suffered from stroke-induced dementia.

I almost always write in longhand first. Email and blog entries are the exception. I find ideas and words come to me while walking and dreaming and washing dishes. I also thrive when I have a writing buddy. I do better with one-on-one sharing than in writing groups.

Q. Tell us about people in the industry who helped you.

Two men helped me enormously in writing better and getting my work out. Clive Matson runs Crazy Child workshops and helped me just write without clutching up so much. Hal Zina Bennett supported me in getting my poetry book out; he was always just an email away. He allowed the work to shape itself, and didn’t force himself on it. He kept throwing decisions back to me, with just a few thoughts and guidelines. 

Q: Tell us about your first published work. 

My first book-length publication is “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” that came out in 2006. It’s a collection of 90 story-poems—a downhome family love story beyond death—that tells the truth and offers inspiration and quirky humor for aging, caretaking, and grieving. There are five sections for three people and two places I love.

Q: Got any awards to brag about?

“Driving Lessons,” a story of how my father taught me how to double-clutch through sand drifts and ford a river in Africa won an award from Travelers Tales in Best Family Story category.

Q: What are you up to now, writing wise? Got any projects in the works? 

I’m working on a nonfiction book “White Girl Passing as White” about the five years I lived in 
Africa when I was in my twenties. It’s a story about belonging, no matter where in the world you are. Here’s an excerpt from a chapter : “African Women, My Hair Belongs to You” that’s  posted on my blog:

The body speaks words the tongue cannot.The children wanted to get their hands on my hair, its texture under their fingers. The women wanted to get their fingers on my hair. The women wanted to braid my hair. On a slow afternoon, braiding my slick hair provided guaranteed entertainment. Strands of my white woman’s hair slipped out of the line bound by braiding string.“Your hair is too slick, Naledi. It doesn’t braid right.”

“I know; I know,” I joked back. “You can’t do a thing with it.”

My hair knew whose head it grew upon. My hair knew whose genes it sprang froth from. Both braid-er and braid-ee knew how our afternoon’s entertainment would end, but how good it felt to have a woman’s hands wielding a comb to make parts all over my scalp in preparation for the wayward braids to come.

How good it felt for the woman as she stroked my smooth hair plotting a strategy to finally subdue my hair. And, how good it felt to soak in the sounds of stories, even as the words galloped past in the smooth stride of a language not yet mastered. How good it felt to pick a few words, phrases, and names out of this endless narrative stream that stood out with meaning.How good it felt for hands to reach out in punctuation of a juicy story–touching in rhythm my shoulder, arm, or thigh.How good it felt to be part of the circle of woman. No matter that my hair didn’t stay in place. How good it felt to belong.

Q: Do you have any tidbits of help for other writers that you'd like to pass along? 

You know that slogan “Dance as if no one is watching”? Same thing with writing. Write as if only your heart is listening, and in time other hearts will want to hear, too.    

Q. How do we contact you?

Check out my blog “Riehl Life: Village Wisdom for the 21st Century” and website at www.riehlife.com. It’s focused on connections between the arts and across cultures. I often feature my father’s stories, poems, and events as well.