July Conversation with CARLY PHILLIPS

Books are like old friends. You can easily retreat to one and escape the pressures and anxieties of a busy world, especially when all around you is consumed with mayhem. At the beginning of June, our youngest son had major surgery at Johns Hopkins. As a parent, the most difficult life lesson to learn is that you may not always be able to fix everything, especially when it comes to your child's health. You find yourself putting your trust in God and of course, the surgeon's capable hands, praying that your baby will be alright.

As I spent what seemed like an eternity at the hospital (it was actually eight long days), I found myself escaping to the pages of Carly Phillip's latest release, Hot Item. As I watched my usually well orchestrated life turn into chaos, I found pleasure in knowing that when all was quiet, I could enter her world and forget my problems for just a few moments and simply relax. That is precisely what a good author does. She allows the reader to become one with her story and enables the reader to put aside what might be a worrisome day.

Carly and I first met back in 2004 when we both were lucky enough to have been a part of Reading with Ripa. I sent her an e-mail asking if she would be willing to call in for my book club discussion at the library, which she did, and she even generously sent an autographed book and book marks for the members. To top it off, last summer I had the pleasure of actually meeting her at the Book Expo in NYC, which was such a big thrill.

What I like most about Carly is that what you see is what you get. A New York Times Best Selling author, Carly knows what it takes to be on top and she is more than willing to share her experiences with struggling writers without feeling threatened for her place in the market. Hard-working, dedicated and continually fine tuning her craft, Carly consistently finds herself topping the charts because quite frankly, she's got what it takes to succeed in the romance business, staying power! Being such a charming person doesn't hurt either! As a bonus for my readers, Carly has agreed to give away five copies of her latest release! Thank you, Carly!!

Go grab a glass of iced tea and get to know Carly! Don't forget about the book offer at the end!!! It pays to read the entire interview.

JEN: Since there may be some readers who are not familiar with you, please tell us a little bit about your educational and professional background.

CARLY: I'm a lawyer, licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut. I passed the NY State Bar Exam in 1991 and I was sworn in the same day/time as John F. Kennedy Jr. I worked for a little under a year in a NY law firm before leaving to have my first baby. I was lucky enough to stay home with my daughter afterwards and I was always an avid reader. Soon reading became looking into authors' backlists and I discovered romance as a genre. I knew I could have the happily ever after in every book and I was thrilled!

JEN: When you decided to take the leap and write a book, about how long did it take for you to write it? What was the title and when was it published? Is it still in print?

CARLY: My daughter was colicky and reading was my escape. Romance was my escape. I started writing by purchasing a HOW TO book and I outlined it from cover to cover. Must have been the law student in me! Then I sat down and wrote a story I called Kindred Spirits. I believe I used to write books in four to six months. I wrote ten completed manuscripts before I sold my first book seven years after starting. Kindred Spirits was never published and for good reason, LOL! My first published book was Brazen in 1999 and I'd started writing in 1992 or so.

JEN: As I mentioned in the introduction, your big break happened when your novel, The Bachelor, was selected as a Reading with Ripa book pick. Tell us how it all evolved and what the most memorable thing about the entire experience was.

CARLY: Wow. It's hard to believe how many times I retell this story! It's the one thing people love to hear about and since it's the luckiest thing that happened to me, I never mind telling about it! But as lucky as I was, the lesson within the Kelly Ripa story is that an author has to be prepared, so when opportunity knocks, you're ready to open the door. I was watching TV when Kelly Ripa started joking with Regis about doing a book club to replace Oprah's since she'd just shut hers down for awhile. Kelly said she wanted beach trash and smut and all I remember thinking was I have this book coming out and I have to get it into her hands. Basically, I called my publicist and asked her to send in the book; but there was more to the story in that we did a lot of follow up and also sent a custom cookie basket based on the cover of THE BACHELOR. But to this day we don't know if it was the earlier book alone she saw, or the one with the cookie basket. Regardless, the book was the thing that ultimately swayed her and I was the one who acted on the opportunity as soon as I heard about it. The full story is on my website. The most memorable part of the experience was meeting my longtime idol, Kelly Ripa. I'd watched her on All My Children even before LIVE! Also being on live television was quite a trip!

JEN: Do you keep in touch with Kelly? Do you send her your latest books?

CARLY: I wish! Unfortunately I don't keep up with Kelly except that I still watch LIVE! I did, however, send her the sequels to The Bachelor, The Playboy and The Heartbreaker. I have no way of knowing if she ever received them though.

JEN: Comparing your first novel to your latest, in what areas do you think you've grown the most as a writer?

CARLY: Oh, wow. Great question. I'd say I've grown in all areas. I try to do better with each story, learn from mistakes and move forward. I can't pinpoint any one thing although I hope from my first single title The Bachelor to my current books; I'm doing less dragging of storyline! Remember I started out writing Harlequin Temptations which were very short books and I had to learn to write longer. It's still a challenge!

JEN: In general, how many books do you write each year? How do you escape the intense pressure of exceeding your last novel and making this one even better? Do you treat each book as its own entity?

CARLY: Two books a year. One is published as hardcover and one as paperback. The rest that come out are reprints of older books. I try to let readers know on my website when they're getting a reprint so they don't accidentally purchase something they've already read.

You don't escape the pressure. At least I don't. I do try to treat each book as it's own entity and during the writing process, that's fairly easy to do, since the books take on a life of their own (or they don't and I struggle more with the writing) and in either case, I need to focus on what's happening in this story, what is working and what isn't and how to fix it. The angsting and the worrying come afterwards. If I find myself comparing during the writing process, I shut it off or try to because I can't change it. Once I start to write a book, it is what it is.

JEN: What three adjectives would best describe your writing style and why?

CARLY: Character driven (is that an adjective?), sexy fun although with Cross My Heart, the August hardcover, I'd say that there's less fun and more digging deep. Oh I can't give you three adjectives, LOLOL.

JEN: Do your family and friends critique your work or do you just leave that up to your editor?

CARLY: Author Janelle Denison is my critique partner. She's a bestseller, she and I became friends before all the big stuff happened and it's a solid, dependable friendship and partnership/critique. We complement each other in many ways. My father reads my books in the galley stage (the part before it's a book but after it's accepted and edited), my mom reads in book form. And my editor is the revision queen and doesn't let me get away with anything, which is why I love working with her! So I hope between Janelle and my editor and myself, we catch all the major stuff.

JEN: As I have heard from many authors, writing the book is only half of the job. Promoting it is just as important if not more! What is your promotion schedule like?

CARLY: Well, I can get lost for hours and days on end promoting. I really enjoy some parts of it, interacting with people on line, working with Nancy Berland, my publicist, putting things together for readers. On the other hand, promoting can become an excuse not to write if I'm not careful! It's so important but, without the book, without the work, there's nothing TO promote!

JEN: Some of your readers may not know, but Carly Phillips is not your real name. Why choose to write under a pseudonym?

CARLY: When I first sold, Harlequin asked me to take a pseudonym. A pen name. They said that I would be solely writing for Temptation Heat/Blaze and they wanted a name that would be easy for readers to remember and that would have that modern, sassy edge. Carly Phillips was born.

JEN: Are you recognized on the street? How does your family handle your fame?

CARLY: Not really. Sometimes if I've just had a newspaper article out with a photo, or if I've been on local cable, people will mention seeing me but otherwise around here, it's Karen the mom. My family is fantastic. My parents are so proud and so supportive and I've really modeled who I am after everything they've taught me. I adore them. My husband has been my rock, and was even before the writing ever began. When I was in law school, he'd stay in every night with me and watch TV while I studied. Just having him there was what got me through. It's the same thing now. We have something that just works. I'm so lucky. And the kids are great about it too. I hope I am teaching them they can accomplish whatever they aspire to.

JEN: What's the best perk about being an author? The worst?

CARLY: The best perk is the people I've met in this career, the big name authors who are just real people who I've been lucky enough to get to know, and the authors who I am fortunate enough to call my close friends, like the Plotmonkeys (my plotting group, Janelle Denison, Julie Leto, Leslie Kelly). The worst thing about being an author are the obligations that come along with bestsellerdom. The promotions that entail travel when I'm not up to it or don't' want to leave the family. And yet some of those are also the best perks. It's life. It depends on my mood, my health, my family. Just like any other career!!!! (Except I get to work from home (big perk!) and nobody tells me how to dress, LOL!

JEN: Looking back on your career, if you could do one thing over again, what would that be and why?

CARLY: Amazing questions, Jen! All I can think of at the moment is that with each book, I wish I'd settle in early and write every day and not waste the first three months of the writing process so that I'm crunched at the end. I always am crunched at the end. The beginnings take me forever. But career wise, I think I've been very lucky and fortunate. Whatever happened, even the stuff that seemed bad at the time, happened for a reason and helped me get to where I am now. I'm certainly not Pollyanna, I just can't think of anything major I'd like to redo!

JEN: Who is your typical fan?

CARLY: Well from what I can tell, the age demographic varies from eighteen to eighty. Seriously! Mostly women, though a few select men do write to me as fans. Mostly either working women and/or moms who read as an escape, so they can get lost in a fun story that takes them away from the reality or drudgery of life at the moment. They all appreciate their lives but also the escape my fiction provides. And I appreciate them!!!!!

JEN: Your web site is fabulous!! Please give us the address and what would you like to tell us about it?

CARLY: Thank you! My web design is brand new and I hope everyone will visit me at: www.carlyphillips.com. It's just been created by Heidi Mack at www.xuni.com. She has done mostly mystery and suspense authors until now. When I hired her she'd just finished Lauren Weisberger's and I was impressed with her client list, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child among others. I told her bright colors and fun and gave her carte blanche. I had a blast with her while working on it! The About Carly section is one of my favorites!

The other place I'd encourage everyone to visit is my blog: www.plotmonkeys.com that I share with my plotting group mentioned above. We each take a day of the week to blog about whatever is on our minds. Friday is Jungle Madness where we give away a prize each week and there have been some great ones! Saturday we answer writing related questions asked by our readers, and Sunday we announce Friday's winner along with some tidbit or joke. It really is a blast and I have to say that we're growing in visitors and commenters and we love hearing from everyone!

JEN: Hot Item is the third book in The Hot Zone trilogy. What was your inspiration behind writing these three books? Why focus on sports and PR?

CARLY: I think that writing sports heroes was a secret fantasy of mine ever since I was told that you could not write sports heroes in category romance. So first chance I got, I wanted to write them in single title. The key though was to do it differently, because talented authors like SEP and Rachel Gibson do it so well. So I opted for the Hot Zone Sports agency. As I said, the uncle was based on my grandfather (Loosely based!) and the prologue idea came to me and the rest just fell into place.

JEN: Of the three books, which one was the most difficult to write and why?

CARLY: Each book was the toughest to write as I was writing it, LOL. Aren't they all that way?

JEN: In Hot Item, the chemistry between Sophie and Riley was, for lack of a better term, hot, hot, hot! The love scenes were tastefully done without going over the top. How do you consistently write such sizzling romances without it becoming stale?

CARLY: Thank you! That's a challenge with each book, I'm afraid I'm not doing it differently or as well as the last time. I can't tell you how I do it each time. Those have become without a doubt, the hardest scenes to write in each book.

JEN: Were you relieved when you finished Hot Item because the trilogy was finally complete or were you thinking perhaps you wanted to continue the storyline and write a fourth?

CARLY: At the time I finished, I truly believed I'd completed the trilogy. I wasn't relieved, I was just finished. And then I started getting letters asking for more Hot Zone books, asking for specific characters' stories. This isn't new, readers ask all the time for more, but HOT ITEM did so phenomenally well out of the gate, I thought maybe I was onto something and I'd do some more! So now I am going to ask for publisher OK to go forward with more Hot Zone books. Watch the website for news!

JEN: Your upcoming release Cross My Heart due out in August is quite the departure from your past work. After reading both Hot Item and Cross My Heart, I really can't choose a favorite because they are so different. Please tell us about this book and why it was a challenging, yet successful, undertaking for you.

CARLY: Yes, they are different and that scares me, to be honest. What happened was that I thought if readers were going to pay more money for a hardcover, maybe I should give them something more. Something different! Then, I was thinking I needed to stretch creatively. Cross My Heart just happened. It's deeper and not light like my past stories but it IS a Carly Phillips story. It's sequel Sealed With A Kiss (8/07) is in the same vein. Whether I do more like these I suppose will depend upon reader reaction, I think!

Thanks for the interview, Jen. I really enjoyed talking with you. Your column is always a pleasure to read.

Thank you, Carly! It was my pleasure. You are the best!

Here is the trivia question! Good luck!

What is the name of Carly's August 2006 hardcover release?

Please contact me at Jen Vido with your answer!

Congratulations to the five winners:
Sally L. Atlanta, GA
Beth F. Bel Air, MD
Tracy J. Bel Air, MD
Harriet R. Bel Air, MD
Lisa M. Bel Air, MD

Don't despair, you can still be in the running for a signed copy of CROSS MY HEART if you sign up for the July Fresh Fiction contest.