Jessica Inclan | Changes

Hello! I’m so glad to be blogging here, and as I was thinking about what to write about today, I thought about change. Writers need to change, even if we think we shouldn’t have to or don’t want to. I went from writing women’s fiction to writing romance to writing nonfiction. As my latest romance INTIMATE BEINGS comes out, I find that I’m writing personal essays. We must adjust to new editors or changes in publishers. We have to consider marketing trends and reader desires. But most people I know hate change. We want things to be the same, for goodness sake! You’d think that buying a new car wouldn’t be that must of a struggle, but it certainly did present some interesting challenges for me, most about my difficulty with change, with what is “new.”

About one month ago, I drove out of the MINI dealership lot in my new pepper white, black top, black interior MINI Cooper S. I was lurching a little, still unused to the manual transmission. The last manual I had driven was my former spouse's 1972 VW camper van—a car I only drove under duress--and that beast is a story in and of it. Let's just say I would get in the far right lane on the freeway and stay there for as long as I could, ignoring the honks from other cars and praying hard and fast for no inclines to rev up over. When I saw the film Little Miss Sunshine, I went into VW Van flashbacks, wincing every time the Hoover family’s van’s horn blared because the sound was exactly right, a horrid, tinny whine of VW pain.

Back to the MINI. I drove it home, parked it in the garage, and there it was, the first car I had ever bought on my own. Every car before had been a car I bought with my husband or a car my mother had given me. There had been the 1968 Buick Sportswagon and VW Squareback (my mother’s gifts) and then the Volkswagen Bug, 1985 VW Van, Toyota Camry, Dodge Caravan, and Volvo X70 (cars with my husband). This car was mine, bought with savings and book royalties and very good credit. It was brand new, shiny, cute, and zippy.

I wasn't sure I liked it.

I closed the garage door, shaking my head. What was wrong with me? I had spent hours researching and considering cars. The only two options for me were the Toyota Prius and the MINI, both somehow better for the environment, but the Prius just not what I had in mind. The Prius felt too much like the good girl car, the right thing to do, and for about three years, I hadn’t known really what the right thing was. All I had been thinking about was what was the right thing to do.

So, I thought, the Prius can be my next car, maybe. From the get-go, the MINI was going to be it.

Michael told me that when he bought his BMW--his first new car since his marriage ended--he had the feeling of true freedom. He felt as though he'd let go of his past, his marriage, a lot of baggage. Almost a ton of baggage, literally.

Before I went into the house that first day of my new car, I walked around my MINI slowly. What did this thing mean to me? I wasn't sure, but as I stared at it, I started to immediately think of things I missed about my Volvo. The power seats. The expensive leather. The feeling I was driving a comfortable couch down the freeway. The Volvo had a lot of power, a great stereo, and room to drag home fully set up gas barbeques and other equally large household objects. I had used it in several moves in recent years, packing it full of my belongings and carting myself off to the newest abode.

And the Volvo said something about me that had been true. I was a person with people to move around. I was not alone. I had places to be and people to care for and the room and seatbelts to do it.

The MINI has a different story. It is small, close to the ground, fast and darting. Potholes and I have a new relationship. Every part of the road is always apparent, nothing covered up. When I drive around in this tiny thing, I feel small, slightly insignificant, a head in a piece of tin. I am an adult Fisher Price toy.

In my old car, I was planted on the road, solid, firm. I was "there."

In this car, I was like a wriggling child trying to get off Grandpa's lap.

I kept driving, and then a few days ago, Michael asked, "Don't you love your car?"

I wasn’t sure how to answer him because I felt the answer was full of so many other questions than simply the one about my MINI. I waited a minute, sighing, and then I said, "No, not really. I like it a lot. But I don't love it."

He was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “That makes me sad. I wanted you to love it. “ Then he went on to talk about all the good things the MINI had to offer such as traction and turning radius, gas mileage and wonderful air conditioning.

Everything he said was true, but what I’d said was true, too. Admitting that my feelings for the MINI were mixed, I released the notion that I was having a perfect love relationship with my new car. And then, saying it, I was able to talk about my old car and how I had loved it. Though the Volvo had been worn and breaking something important every other service or so, costing me hundreds if not thousands of dollars, it had been comfortable and sturdy and known. I missed the ease and familiarity. I was used to its heavy girth, its wide stance on the highway.

That car had been the literal vehicle for many memories—family vacations, book tour jaunts, rides with the entire family to events, my mother squashed between the boys in the back seat. This was the car my former husband and I drove up to Olympia, Washington to drop off my oldest at college, the last long trip we’d make in that car. So much of my life had happened in that car. I remember a drive down to Bakersfield with my friend Julie, crying the whole way because I knew that my marriage was failing. She and I went to a couple of bookstore readings, and then on the way home bought a flat of strawberries, eating them as the miles went by.

Julie said something to me that drive that I will never forget. She said, “You will do what you are doing until you don’t need to do it any more.” There was no judgment of my plans. She just listened, and we drove along Highway 5 toward home.

My friend Keri and I drove to LA, staying in Westwood at the W hotel, and going to a writer’s faire at UCLA. We met up with a number of my former students, and pretty much laughed the entire weekend. Except on the way home, we listened to a really stupid relationship tape for a while, and then argued with it for the rest of the drive back to the Bay Area.

So many years in that car—driving my sons and their friends. Driving to appointments and classes. Driving to work over and over again. The Volvo was my chariot, my stead, the one piece of machinery I truly counted on.

The MINI was a clean slate, fresh turf, virgin soil. No vacations. No long drives down Highway 5. No book tours, not yet. Nicolas and his girlfriend have been in the car. My friends Julie and Elizabeth and Kris. Michael. And that’s it. A car with no real history.

And I have to work so hard to drive the MINI. I’m shifting, I’m figuring out the gauges, the settings, all the computers in the car. I don’t yet know how to turn on the radio. Forget about the CD player. Everything is effort. I have to learn how to feel about the car, and it is sometimes a struggle. After my first day of teaching this semester, I walked out to the parking lot at the college, and I couldn’t find my car. I kept looking for my golden colored Volvo, but there was only this strange toy like contraption. And yes, it was, in fact, the car I was going to get in and drive home that day.

Each day, after scanning the lot for my Volvo, I see the MINI parked just where I left it, this tiny white and black thing. My new car.

Saying all of that aloud, admitting my disenchantment made me feel better, and of course I started to see the metaphor right away. My old car was like my old life.

Comfortable and known and sturdy and easy. My MINI is like now, shiny and new and scary and irritating and often unknown. It’s much more work than I'm used to.

When I was first with Michael, I often wondered if our relationship would get to a spot of ease and comfort. But then I worried that we would. I didn’t want to lose the feel of this new relationship, the sharp edges, the new discoveries. But I also hated the new discoveries. Once found, I had to deal with them, understand them, try to live with them.

It was like wanting a new old car.

When I first left my husband, I wanted all the new and nothing of the old. But at night, alone in the bed that threatened to swallow me up, I wanted the old because at least I knew what would happen.

It was like wanting the old car and not caring that it didn’t run any more.

In the next few days, I let go of having to be in love with my MINI, and it was a relief. And in the letting go, I started to enjoy my new car more. I loved the feeling a clean, solid shift from third to fourth, the way the turbo charged engine pulled me along the highway. I started to use the dual sun roof, letting the wind flow all around me. I figured out the tachometer and other little tricks on the mod control panel. After work, I would walk around the car and appreciate its short, sleek profile.

I even read the manual to begin to figure out the radio and CD player.

Without calling them forth or wanting them, there were sudden moments of joy when everything seemed to just work. Watch me! I thought. Watch me go.

By saying I didn't love the car I was allowing myself to feel more about it. And I don't know if I ever want it to become known. I want the wildness under me, the new feeling, a different ride than I have ever had before.

Jessica Inclan

http://www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com/

Cathy Lamb | Deadlines

I have 15 days to go.

Fifteen days until my deadline for my next book, Henry’s Sisters.

This means that – except for a short jaunt to drop a kid off at school on the east coast – I will spend most of my other days muttering to myself, half-crazed, almost sleepless, and teetering on desperate. I will talk to my characters out loud. They will talk back. They will throw things in my mind and screech and use poor language and make me laugh. I will laugh out loud at inappropriate times at my characters. I will try to avoid this inappropriate laughter during church.

It is most likely I will be in pajamas until 4:00. I won’t wash my hair much and I’ll probably smell stale. I will eat too much and gain weight, that is a given. I will be edgy and mentally hyperventilating.

This is typical for deadline time and I am almost used to this rollicking insanity. When the book is turned in I will go and drink. No, not bottles of rum, you silly. We’re talkin’ decaffeinated mochas with piled up whip cream.

I love to write and I love to read. If my arms suddenly fell off, I am convinced I would write with my nose (Large enough, by the way, to hunt and peck keys, do not be fooled by the photo.)

I am often asked where I get my ideas for my writing…I get zinged by ideas almost every time I venture out of my house. Before I wrote Henry’s Sisters I had two images in my head: Mermaids and a cane. Mermaids and two canes are in this book. I like mermaids and I’d heard about a cool, colorful cane, and things took off from there. There are also three sisters and a brother in Henry’s Sisters. In my family there are three sisters and a brother. See. Creepy.

Where else do I get my ideas? Well, this will sound odd, but if I stare too long at a person, and I’m in character – building mode, I can feel a story formulating in my head all about them. That’s odd, I know. And, if I ever meet you and I stare at you too long, you now know what I’m doing. It would be quite fair of you to yell, “Stop that, this instant, Cathy, you odd freak,” And, I will. (Probably).

I live in suburbia. Now, sometimes suburbia feels like a tight box so I go to Portland. Going to Portland can set my mind on fire for days. The cool people, the pace, wacky high heels, a crumbling brick building, the smell of beer, someone pushing a shopping cart, even the light or a peek at the river can do it for me. Heading to the beach or the mountains offers huge inspiration. In fact, all my stories have been at least partially inspired by both. Julia’s Chocolates is set outside of Sisters, Oregon. Suzanna’s Stockings is set in Depoe Bay, Oregon. The Last Time I Was Me is set in Welches, Oregon, and Henry’s Sisters is set in Hood River.

Hope you like my books…feel free to write to me via my website at any time. I answer all letters unless they’re mean, and that’s the truth.

Cheers and happy reading.
Cathy Lamb
www.cathylamb.net

The Last Time I Was Me, May, 2008
Julia’s Chocolates, May, 2007
Comfort and Joy with Fern Michaels. Suzanna’s Stockings, November, 2007
Henry’s Sisters, May, 2009

Maryrose Wood | HOW THE WRITER WORKS IN THE SUMMERTIME

Now that the hazy, lazy days of summer are morphing into one gigantic Back to School Sale, it’s time to review what has or hasn’t been accomplished over the last ten weeks and offer a definitive answer to the question: how do writers work in the summertime?

Now, I know that plenty of people work in the summertime. Most people, even. Students (and, one assumes, snowshoe instructors) are really the only people whose summertime months are likely to be work-free.

I’m no longer a student and I’ve never even met a snowshoe instructor, but the truth is that I resent working when third graders don’t have to. As soon as school is out in June, somewhere deep inside I’m convinced that I too deserve to be on vacation until Labor Day.

But I’m not, of course. Even though I’m writing this sitting by a pool, outdoors, barefoot, in a bathing suit, a tall to-go cup of iced coffee at the ready — I am not on vacation.

I’m not! Really! Ignore the evidence of your eyes! I Am Working. I must be working, because I’m combining words into sentences into paragraphs that have to be finished by a deadline. For the Writer, that qualifies as a long hard day at the office — no matter how many times she dips her feet in the water and applies sunscreen in between bouts of inspiration.

Speaking of offices: my office, like the office of many writers I know, is in my house. This is the same house in which I live, and in which my children live. And my children, being children and therefore students by profession, can (unlike me) legitimately be said to be on vacation, all summer long.

This is not a recipe for extreme productivity on my part. Meals and snacks must be prepared. Clean clothes and towels must be produced on a regular basis. Daily trips to the pool must be planned and executed. I must work nevertheless. I have a book deadline not exactly looming, but imminently looming. I have other projects in various “stages of development,” as we say in the trade, and there are e-mails to answer and guest blogs to write, which brings us back to the question at hand: How do writers work in the summertime?

Does it require superhuman levels of energy and concentration? The ability to multitask? A bottomless well of inspiration? No, my friends. Those are all icing on the cupcake. The key to poolside writing success is having the right equipment. Here’s my list of essential summertime writing supplies:

1) The Typing Device. Many people are willing to lug a laptop computer with them everywhere they go. I am not. One, it’s too heavy when I’m also lugging bags of beach towels and coolers full of nutritious snacks. Two, I’m not stupid enough to bring a piece of expensive and delicate equipment to a neighborhood pool full of sticky-fisted toddlers holding juice boxes.

My solution: The Alphasmart NEO. It’s light, relatively cheap, and you can type on it. I’m typing on it right now. Compared to a laptop, it’s indestructible. Plus, it has no Internet surfing abilities. Therefore, when working on the NEO I cannot ever, even once, visit Facebook and play Word Twist. This is more helpful than you can imagine.

Sadly, to my knowledge the NEO is not actually submersible. I don’t recommend attempting to use it while paddling around the pool.

The NEO, while nearly indestructible, is unfortunately not submersible.

2) My BlackBerry. This technological marvel lets me get poolside phone calls and e-mails from my agent and editors, which is excellent. And from my friends, which is very pleasant but distracting. It also allows me to check my friends’ Facebook status updates, which is bad, but it does not allow me to play Word Twist. This is purely to the good.

3) Coffee. During the summer, a large pot of strong French-press coffee is prepared at home every morning and poured in my tallest travel mug, for easy transport to the pool. This keeps me awake for large portions of the day — a mixed blessing, since I consider naps to be an essential part of the creative process. However, there is no comfy place to take a nap at the pool. Such hardships must be cheerfully borne.

Umbrella tables make nice poolside desks. Note iced coffee close at hand.

4) Snacks. These run the gamut. Today our menu includes hummus, chips, apricots, cherries and Pirate’s Booty. Some days there are no snacks and the Writer must walk to the pizza parlor and bring back pizza for the clamoring hordes. This requires far too much effort and sun exposure, and is to be avoided. If at all possible, bring snacks from home.

This is how it goes. Tasty snacks, iced coffee, occasional e-mail reading, and now and then a few sentences of the work in progress are typed into the NEO. The pool itself beckons every hour or so for a refreshing dip. Sometimes the Writer thinks plot points will be found resting patiently on the bottom of the deep end, and she goes looking for them. Pennies and broken goggles are generally her only reward.

If only plot points could be found at the bottom of the pool.

Yet, as demonstrated above, with the right gear it is possible, though difficult, for the Writer to work in the summertime. As for how she can possibly work during the autumn, when the leaves demand continuous raking up, or during the winter holiday season, with all its shopping and decorating and round-the-clock cookie-baking — these questions will be answered at a future, cooler date. Right now, I feel like taking one more dip in the water…

MARYROSE WOOD is the author of Why I Let My Hair Grow Out and How I Found the Perfect Dress (Berkley Jam), which follow the adventures of Morgan Rawlinson, a snarky Connecticut teen who moonlights as a half-goddess from the days of Irish lore. Maryrose also wrote My Life: The Musical and Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love (Delacorte). Visit her at www.maryrosewood.com/.

Julia London | Reading for Pleasure: History

Writers are readers, first and foremost, and I know a lot of my romance-writing pals read romance for pleasure. I used to read romance for pleasure, but when you write romance all day, it can be sort of a stretch to try and relax with one. That’s not to say I never read it—of course I do—but I don’t read it like I used to.

For BOOK OF SCANDAL, my latest release (in stores now), I read a couple of riveting biographies. You would think it really dry reading, but if you are into the regency period like I am, sometimes those books can read like the People Magazine of its time. There was some down and dirty goings-on!

The first book I read, The Princesses, by Flora Fraser, was about the six daughters of King George III. I didn’t even know he had six daughters. They were strictly monitored and kept close to the king and queen so as not to gain reputations—while their seven brothers were out gallivanting around and being accused of all sorts of things: adultery, secret marriages, incest, and even murder. Moreover, the king and queen were pretty picky about who they would marry their girls to, and as a result, none of them married until they were in their thirties, and two of them never married at all. I thought about writing a book to include them, but finding the romance in that was too hard.

Then I read The Unruly Queen by Flora Fraser, about Princess Caroline, who came from Brunswick (Germany) to marry the Prince of Wales, the future George IV. That is where I found the genesis for the idea behind BOOK OF SCANDAL. George agreed to marry Caroline so that Parliament would pay his debts. He lived the life of a profligate, complete with a “secret” wife, numerous mistresses, and some really bad debts from his extravagance. Caroline of Brunswick was not particularly handsome, nor was she very genteel. There were concerns about her hygiene habits and her own family seemed to be glad she was gone.

Whatever the truth, the two did not suit at all. They managed to consummate the marriage and produce an heir in one or two tries, but after that, they were permanently estranged. They were both awful—they both were rumored to have adulterous liaisons, they both participated in bawdy games, and they both continued to sling mud at each other, principally through an aging and ailing king. But did that stop them? Hardly!

Here’s another one you might enjoy: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. Now here was a chick who was dragged through the proverbial wringer. It’s another book that reads like pulp fiction, and I gobbled Reading for Pleasure: History

Writers are readers, first and foremost, and I know a lot of my romance-writing pals read romance for pleasure. I used to read romance for pleasure, but when you write romance all day, it can be sort of a stretch to try and relax with one. That’s not to say I never read it—of course I do—but I don’t read it like I used to.

I hope you will pick up a copy of BOOK OF SCANDAL, released just this week! Please stop by www.julialondon.com/ for excerpts, message boards and monthly giveaways. This month, we’re having a fabulous giveaway to celebrate the release of the book. it up. But if you don’t think reading Georgiana is your bag, by all means, wait for the movie. It comes out this fall.

Julia London

Michelle Gagnon | Thrillerfest 2008

Sadly, I missed the inaugural Thrillerfest, which was held in Phoenix. I had recently given birth to my first child, and the thought of Arizona in July with a newborn was not terribly appealing. Which is a shame, because from what I understand it was one for the ages.

I made up for it by attending the past few Thrillerfests in New York, and I’m happy to report that despite the fact that everyone always says, “You shoulda been at the first one,” I’ve had an amazing experience each time.

My week kicked off with a joint reading at the Park Avenue Borders. Tim Maleeny, Laura Caldwell, J.T. Ellison, Mario Acevedo, Laura Benedict, Shane Gericke, Alexandra Sokoloff, and I participated in “Quick Thrills from Out-of-Towners.” Lee Child graciously served as our MC, and in completely disregarding our prepared bios introduced us with anecdotes a hundred times wittier than anything we could have come up with. Everyone read for five minutes to an incredibly receptive crowd. The store was quick to add rows of seats as the place filled, we auctioned off Borders gift certificates and stuffed snakes (which were more of a hit than the $100 certificates, go figure). A good time was had by all.

I don’t know of many other conferences where you can rub elbows with Jeffery Deaver, Carla Neggers, Barry Eisler, and Heather Graham in the hotel bar, or where nearly forty top agents show up to hear pitches from aspiring authors. The organizers also made a serious effort to host panels outside the norm, and it showed. The “Lethal Weapons, Bombs, and Terrorism Hands-on Weapons Demonstration” by the ATF was definitely something I haven’t seen before, and perfect for thriller writers looking to expand their knowledge base. Other high points for me included the reviewers’ panel with David Montgomery, Bob Gussin, and Bookreporter representatives Joe Hartlaub and Carol Fitzgerald dishing on how and why books really get reviewed.

I am of course biased, but I loved the two panels I was on. I felt a little out of place on “Don’t Look Now: Paranormal Thrillers,” (my first novel, THE TUNNELS, has some paranormal elements but my latest is a straight serial killer thriller). However it was so amazing listening to Vicki Pettersson, Heather, Mario Acevedo, and Cathy Clamp discuss their work. The downside is that it added another stack of books to my already towering TBR pile, and nearly forced me to check my carry-on bag thanks to the added weight (you should see my biceps after hauling that thing into the overhead compartment!) Then on Saturday bestselling author Michael Palmer led our discussion of “The Art of the Thriller,” complete with berets and a lively discussion of Macguffins.

Thrillerfest is slated to take place in New York for the next two years, a decision which has inspired some debate in terms of the cost of attending and the fact that in a city with so many other attractions, people tend to disperse. I straddle the fence on this one. Part of me hoped that next year it would be moved somewhere less expensive (you should have seen my hotel bill!), preferably a place like New Orleans that I haven’t yet had the opportunity to visit. On the other hand, if it was moved it’s less likely that so many amazing authors would attend, or that I’d have the chance to meet with my editor and agent in the same fell swoop. I’m also not certain they would be able to attract as many participants in Agentfest were it held outside the city. But at least for 2009 and 2010, the deal is sealed and we’ll see what happens. I for one will be there, $16 glass of house chardonnay in hand. After hearing all the stories from the first one, I don’t want to risk missing out.

I’m running a series of contests this month to promote the release of BONEYARD. Go to http://www.michellegagnon.com/, click on “win,” and I’ll toss your name in the hat for an Amazon Kindle, iPod Shuffle, digital picture frame, Starbucks gift certificates, and other fabulous prizes.

Michelle Gagnon is a former modern dancer, bartender, dog walker, model, personal trainer, and Russian supper club performer. Her debut thriller The Tunnels was an IMBA bestseller. Her next book, Boneyard, depicts a cat and mouse game between dueling serial killers. In her spare time she runs errands and puts money in her piggybank to cover the cost of conventions .

Michelle Gagnon

Cheryl Holt | What DO Readers Think?

After 21 published novels, and numerous reprints of my old titles, I’m getting ready once again to contract with my publisher to write some more books. It’s always an interesting time for me, because I get to pick new characters, new plot twists, and new storylines.

As I go through this process, I’m interested in what readers think. I’m renowned as “The Queen” of erotic romance, as well as “The Queen” of villains, so I write a story that’s very different from mainstream romance. My books are very plot driven. By this I mean they’re very fast-paced, with a focus on action and dialogue. They’re also very passionate and very dramatic, with extremely evil villains.

If you’re one of my fans, and have read some (or all!) of my novels, I would love to hear what you enjoy about them. For example, is it the macho heroes? The great sex scenes? The heartbreak? The drama? The villains? What do you relish the most? Also, what could I leave out or tone down?

The answers to these questions help me pinpoint the direction my books should go.

If you haven’t read my books before, I’m curious as to why not. Is it that you haven’t heard of me? You don’t read erotics? You don’t read historicals? If you’re not one of my regular readers, how could I change my stories to interest you? What is it that makes you purchase one romance instead of another? Is it the cover? The back-cover story description? The author? The time period? What can I do – as a writer unknown to you – to intrigue you into becoming a fan?


Cheryl Holt
http://www.cherylholt.com/

Plano Book Club - Note from this month's author, Linda Conrad

Man, how I love reading good books! And geez, how I hate finishing one! If it’s a really good book that hooks me into the characters’ lives, then I want to know more! What happens next? I want to know whether the best friend finds her own true love. I want to know if the brother will ever change his ways and find a woman who can tame him. I just want to know more!

I guess that’s why I almost always write linked books and make up my own mini-series. Some readers tell me they feel the same way I do, that they love books in series. Others seem to feel somehow cheated that they must find and buy more books to satisfy their curiosity. I make sure each book tells its own story, but I guess I can’t help hinting that there might be more to it. And I suppose therein lies the problem. Sigh.

Which brings me around to my newest series of books, the Night Guardians, and the reason I'm so looking forward to talking with the bookclub!

The Night Guardians is a series of six books I've written for Silhouette Intimate Moments (now called Silhouette Romantic Suspense) The series tells the story of a new cult of shapeshifters spreading evil and terror on the big Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona . These shapeshifters, known as ‘Skinwalkers,’ are familiar to the Navajo from their ancient stories and legends. The heroes of the Night Guardians are Navajo medicine men, calling themselves the Brotherhood, who have banded together to fight the evil.

My latest book is book number five in the series. Called SHADOW WARRIOR, it’s the story of Michael Ayze, a professor of Anthropology at Dine College . He knows the most about the ancient legends and feels the answer to conquering the Skinwalkers lies there instead of fighting them openly. As if he doesn't have enough troubles, his younger brother’s widow and son have now appeared in the midst of the danger. One look at her reignites deep emotions in Michael that he’s denied for years.

It seems unseen universal forces are trying to bring Michael to his knees. Respect for tradition, natural disasters, even his own mother are pushing him closer to the woman he only wants to protect from the deadly dangers waiting in the night.

I had such fun researching and writing this series. I'd love to talk to the bookclub about it! Depending on the quantity of food and drink consumed, we can chat about just nearly anything! Any of the Silhouette Desires I have written in the past or any of my plans for the future. Everything is fair game except the surprise ending to the Night Guardian series! I can’t wait!

Thanks for you help!

Linda Conrad
http://www.lindaconrad.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/lindaconrad
2007 RT Reviewers Choice Award winner for SHADOW FORCE!
WisRWA '07 Write Touch Readers Award second place for SHADOW WATCH!
2007 Desert Rose - Golden Quill Award nominee for SHADOW WATCH!
Don't miss the final book in the Night Guardian series:
SHADOW WHISPERS - Silhouette Romantic Suspense - coming September 07

Book Club Rewind - Shanna Swendson

Book club last night was great. Of course, that had a lot to do with fact that this month's author, Shanna Swendson, was there in person rather than over the phone. Shanna, Harry Potter fan that she is, even provided a couple of meal suggestions for June or July's (I forget) Harry Potter themed book club menu. Besides that, how could you not like someone who has enough humor to admit that her longest relationship so far has been her four year crush on one of the local TV news guys?!

The idea behind her Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. series came from a trip to New York City with friends after she had some knee surgery done. There Shanna was moving around NYC not totally sure footed and she received nothing but kindness and assistance from the locals. Her friends apparently did not get that same polite experience in NYC. A few years later, she thought to combine the concept of the two different experiences she and her friends had in NYC with her love of Harry Potter (did I mention Shanna's a fan) and Chick Lit (which she sees as the style most like her life). The Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. series was born!

So what is next in the series? The fourth book, Don't Hex With Texas, is written and scheduled to be released in January 2008. Shanna said that book three, Damsel Under Stress, was written as a two part-er and that book four was planned for release sooner than the following May (the previous three books were released in the month of May). The fourth book will have a satisfying ending, but that the fifth and final book (currently unwritten) would wrap everything up if it were published (and that my friends is up in the air right now unfortunately).

TV and movie possibilities for MSI series? There was almost a TV deal. There is a possibility of a movie deal.

Shanna is currently working on a proposal for a Young Adult book. The YA book would probably be a standalone paranormal. "Grimms' fairy tales invade Grey's Anatomy."

What does Shanna Swendson like to read when she is not writing:
- Chick Lit
- bargain bin books (She's on tour right now and is seriously binge purchasing bargain bin books.)
- recently read and recommends Babe in Toyland by Eugenie Seifer Olson.

Some of her notable quotes from the evening with our book club:
- "My legions of minions plotting against..."
- "Certain books can only be read in certain weather."

Plano Book Club - Note from this month's author, Shanna Swendson

If there's anything I like more than reading books, it's talking about books, so I'm really looking forward to meeting with the book club (eating comes right behind talking about books, so I'm anticipating the food, too).

I write a series of books that could be called fantasy/chick lit or else light urban fantasy, depending on whether I'm talking to a chick lit reader or a fantasy reader. When I started submitting the first book in the series to agents, I wasn't sure which side of that line it really fell on, so I looked for an agent who handled both genres and let her decide what it was. Now I don't worry too much about genre and just write my books, which have a mix of humor, fantasy, intrigue and romance. The best way I can think of to describe the tone and content of my books is by saying "Bridget Jones meets Harry Potter." A grown-up Harry, of course.

The fun thing about writing a series with the same main characters is getting to watch the characters grow and their relationships develop. The first book in the series, Enchanted, Inc., introduced my heroine, Katie Chandler, to the world of magic and to magical people, including a certain very intriguing young wizard. We saw her get deeper into the magical world as she struggled with her own unique abilities in the sequel, Once Upon Stilettos. In the most recent book, Damsel Under Stress, she seems to have everything more or less together -- at least at first. She's finally got the relationship of her dreams starting and she's doing well at work. But, of course, things can't go quite that smoothly for her, and next thing she knows, everything she cares about is in jeopardy and she may have to make some tough choices. There's at least one more book in the series coming, and I have plans for one more after that. Depending on how much wine they make me drink, the book club might even manage to get some hints for the future out of me.

Shanna Swendson
Damsel Under Stress, May 2007
Once Upon Stilettos, May 2006
Enchanted, Inc., May 2005
http://www.shannaswendson.com/

Shanna Swendson Reading from DAMSEL UNDER STRESS

Shanna Swendson Reading from DAMSEL UNDER STRESS,
originally uploaded by freshfiction.

Bridget Jones meets Harry Potter is the way Shanna pitched her "Enchanted" series to Ballantine, and they are definitely fun, set in New York City where the "unusual" is not that much out of the ordinary...or is it?
Katie Chandler fled small town Texas to the big lights of New York City where she finds it isn't quite as she expected! People with wings on the subways, gargoyles winking and flying through the streets and magic every where. But Katie finds a new job, new friends and new adventures in the big apple!

Now just when her life seems settled, she also gets a fairy godmother. And as the fables go...it's isn't always all it's cracked up to be! Shanna read the scene where she and the fairy godmother go out to dinner. With a wave of a magical wane, confusion ensues!

Another winner from Shanna and we can only hope for many many more!

REPORT: Fellow readers have reported some book stores aren't carrying DAMESEL UNDER STRESS Be sure to ASK for it and have your local book store order a copy for you (it's free to special order from the big chains! We don't want this series to end!