Falling Down, The Blog

Melissa Senate, an amazingly prolific writer who lives in Maine,

 has just come out with her new book,

QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE MARRYING,

The amazon link, which may look attrocious but that's Typepad's fault for changing buttons on me, is

http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Ask-Before-Marrying-Dress/dp/0373895607/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212675874&sr=8-1

Here's the description:

A very popular New York Times article lists fifteen questions couples should ask (or wish they had) before marrying. Ruby Miller and her fiancé, Tom Truby, have questions 1 to 14 almost covered. It's question 15 that has the Maine schoolteacher stumped: Is their relationship strong enough to withstand challenges?

 

Challenges like…Ruby's twin sister, Stella. The professional muse, flirt and face reader thinks Ruby is playing it safe. And that the future Mrs. Ruby Truby will die of boredom before her first anniversary or her thirtieth birthday, whichever comes first.

 

Challenges like…sexy maverick teacher Nick McDermott, Ruby's secret longtime crush, who confesses his feelings for her at her own engagement party.

 

But before Ruby can plan the wedding that may never be, Stella announces she's pregnant by a one-night stand whose name might be Jake (or James? Maybe Jason?) and who lives somewhere under the glittering lights of Las Vegas. Ruby and Stella hit the road to find him—with a lot more than fifteen questions.

 

And after three thousand miles, a stowaway relative and hitchhiking teen lovebirds bound for an Elvis wedding chapel, the Miller sisters might get some answers.

 

“Senate’s prose is fresh and lively.” –The Boston Globe

 

Bio: Melissa Senate is the author of seven novels, including her debut, the bestselling See Jane Date, which was made into a very cute TV  movie for ABC Family, and Theodora Twist, her first YA. A former editor of romance novels and teen fiction, Melissa lives on the southern coast of Maine with son, his Pokemon cards collection, and their two witchy black cats. She’s hard at work on her next YA for Delacorte, and just sold her next two adult novels to Pocket Books.

Here's our interview:

1.          If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.:

 

A: “Should I or shouldn’t I?” And “Will she or won’t she?” In Questions To Ask Before Marrying, estranged twin sisters go on a long and bumpy road trip from Maine to Las Vegas, during which Stella, a professional muse and face reader, tries to convince Ruby, conservative school teacher, not to marry her “boring” fiance. Meanwhile, Stella, pregnant from a one-night stand, is searching for the father of her baby without even knowing his name.  The sisters learn a lot about themselves, each other, and life on the road. But their bigges questions don’t get answered until the very end: those bumper stickers.

 

2.          Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?:

 

A: I loved the film Waitress, the out-of-the-box quality, the magical realism, the wistfulness, the dreaming, the friendship among the women at the pie diner. I can’t think of another movie this past year that I loved—probably because I see so many kiddie flicks with my son. I can tell you all about Kung Fu Panda. Next weekend, a girlfriend and I are going to see Sex In The City, which I’m really looking forward to. I loved that show, especially the first couple of seasons.

 

3.    What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?: That most of the people you know won’t read your books. They’ll be excited for you, they’ll ask for a book and a special inscription, but they won’t actually read it!

 

 

 

4.     If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffiene   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______. 

 

A: Definitely solitude. Solitude and absolute quiet. Maybe a purring cat at my feet, and there’s always a pair of purring cats at my feet. I also need a lot of Coke Zero, my addiction.

 

 

5.       Do you have a favorite genre?  If so, who are your three favorite writers? If not, who are your three favorite writers and how have they influenced your work?:

 

A: I love Elinor Lipman and Anne Lamott and Fay Weldon and Pam Houston. All very smart, very witty, but with heart. I don’t have a favorite genre, but I do love women’s fiction, whether it’s romance or chick lit or literary. My almost-six-year-old son constantly says: “If you like X (fill in the blank) so much, you should just marry it!” And then he burst into laughter. I feel this way about the book Loved Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. Truly special writing. I could marry this book!

 

 

NO, IT CERTAINLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY DRINKING

      

Sara Rossett's protagonist is a professional organizer married to an Air Force pilot, so I can only assume that Sara too is proficient at things like to-do lists and deadlines, to say nothing of paying bills and updating credit cards.  For me, who spent my childhood as a military brat (my dad was also air force, also a pilot) the influence appears to have had the opposite effect.  The more I try to get my ship in shape, the greater number of leaks it springs.  Yes, Sara, I am making excuses, for being tragically late in blogging about your book, but truly, as part of my Suze Orman take-control-of-your-money regimen, I somehow changed credit card numbers and this created no end of havoc with the gods of the internet including TYPEPAD, home to this column.

Also, I have been working around the clock trying to get my second novel revised and back promptly to my new beautiful new editor at ATRIA while also worrying about every single semi-colon, dash and eggregiously embarrassing sex scene in its cluttered four hundred plus pages. 

The final straw was a last minute invitation to a weekend (coincidentally involving military personnel from every branch of the service) central to researching my third work in progress that I couldn't pass up.

Thus was I pulled out of my normal state of utter confusion into a much more mystic chaos, preventing me from doing the simplest task such as updating my credit card information by correctly reading certain codes or GOD FORBID having to make a phone call to my Visa company to ask why it was that the damn computer kept telling me my card was invalid when it was Suze Orman shiny new.

There Sara.  Do you need any more whining or do you believe me when I tell you I'm sorry and hey, if you're not busy writing your own books and having to move kids and husbands all over the globe, would you mind coming here and fixing me?  I need a huge compensatory system for what my therapist friend recently diagnosed me with, Attention Deficit Disorder.  Even my mental illness is behind deadline, so last century really.  Never mind that, I have greeted the list of DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION symptoms like long lost BFFs.   And it's not just the possibility of Adderal.  More it's the soothing exculpation of a syndrome instead of a chronic character flaw.

SO.  Let's do talk about Sara's newest book, a clever twist on her first entitled STAYING HOME IS MURDER

   

It was the perfect vacation until murder rearranged the itinerary

With swollen feet, pregnant Ellie joins the nation’s tourists in seeing the sights in Washington D.C.  But a fatal incident at the Metro station convinces Ellie that something is rotten in the capital city. Should she do the safe thing and pack her bags? Not likely when too many people are telling lies, hiding secrets, and acting suspiciously.  Luckily, Ellie Avery is just the right woman to clean up the most mysterious cases of murder—even if she has to brave the most dangerous byways in the corridors of power . . .

Reviews for Getting Away is Deadly:

Publishers Weekly:  “…sparkling….”

The Mystery Gazette:  “Fans of amateur sleuth mysteries will relish GETTING AWAY IS DEADLY as the tale contains a delightful whodunit that serves as a tour of Washington DC.”

Reviews for the Mom Zone series:

Publishers Weekly:  “The author, also the wife of an air force pilot, includes practical tips for organizing closets, but the novel's most valuable insight is its window into women's lives on a military base.”

Romantic Times:  “Thoroughly entertaining.  The author’s smooth, succinct writing style enables the plot to flow effortlessly until its captivating conclusion.”  (Four stars)

Check it on Amazon

Here's our interview:

.    If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.

“Vacations are murder.” In this book, Ellie accompanies her military husband Mitch to Washington  D.C. He’s going to training classes and Ellie’s going to sight-see with her girlfriend Abby, who’s husband is also at the same training class. At least, that’s her plan. Things aren’t quite as relaxing and fun as she thought they’d be. Before her first day of touring the capital is over, she’s witnessed a death in the Metro.

2.       2.       Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?

I’ve been rewatching lots of old movies lately, so I’d have to say Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Romancing the Stone. It was funny to watch Romancing the Stone and see it through the eyes of a writer. The first time I saw it I wanted to be a writer. I dreamed of being a writer. Now I have several books out and, I have to say, the scene where she’d in the bulky flannel shirt, finishing her novel—on a typewriter!—ignoring everything in her world rang very true. Loved it when she couldn’t find one bit of tissue or even a paper towel in the house. Pretty much describes the month of March in my house!

3.      3.      What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?

I was surprised to find out how generous other writers are. Other writers are so helpful and really want to see other writers succeed. You’d think established writers might be protective and reluctant to help out newbies—we’re the competition, after all. But, in every case, other writers have gone out of their way to help me out, freely giving advise and help whenever I asked. Writers really are an awesome bunch!

4.    If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffiene   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______.

No contest—solitude. I work best when it’s quiet. I’m getting better at filtering out distractions, but there’s no way I’d get a lot of work done in Starbucks. I know writers who write everyday in a coffeehouse, but for me, I do better with my laptop and a quiet house, which doesn’t really happen that often, so I do quite a bit of my writing when my kids are off at school.

4.      4.      Do you have a favorite genre?  If so, who are your three favorite writers? If not, who are your three favorite writers and how have they influenced your work?   

Mystery, of course! I love the writers that first drew me to the genre, Elizabeth Peters, Mary Stewart, and Phyllis Whitney. I suppose they’d be classified as more romantic suspense instead of straight mystery, but they are still some of my favorite authors today. 

Moonlight and All That

    I know for a fact, having met the San Fransisco Chronicle book review editor in 1992 or so, in Rome (he was wearing avant garde trapezoid glasses) that they are incredibly picky when it comes to who they review and why.  So, this review, coming from that paper, should speak very, very loudly.   

Tokunaga suffuses the book with warmth and lightness .....Just as the right dessert hits the spot, reading this delicious slice of escapism makes for a perfect afternoon. But instead of suffering a sugar crash afterward, you'll muse for days about the characters you've left behind and why they matter so much to you.

    —San Francisco Chronicle

Also, of course, there is the cool factor of anyone who lives in San Fransisco and manages to get anything done other than walk around eating and drinking.  Ooh, did I mention there seems to be some eating going on?  What's not to like about that?

Here's the cover and and then I'll post Wendy's answers to our questions.

Amazon link

“[Midori by Moonlight] draws upon vivid imagery when defining traits of Japanese culture and really hits the nail on the head when depicting some American attitudes toward others.... witty and charming."

    —Charleston Gazette


“Midori is endearing, feisty, and funny: the novel is a delight.”
    —Ellen Sussman, editor of Bad Girls and author of On a Night Like This.

1.    If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.

~ These would actually be my character Midori Saito’s slogans: “Don’t get stuck being up the creek without a saddle” and “There’s nothing that a good cupcake can’t cure.”

2.    Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?

~ I really enjoyed “Michael Clayton” because it was intelligent and suspenseful. You had to pay a lot of attention and use your brain to follow it. I also liked “For Your Consideration” from Christopher Guest (“Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind,” “Waiting for Guffman,” etc.) because it’s a spot-on satire of the entertainment industry and the actors are all amazing, especially Catherine O’Hara.

3.    What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?

~ That things in the publishing world move either very quickly or very slowly, but never in-between.

4.     If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffiene   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______.

~ a. solitude

5.   Do you have a favorite genre?  If so, who are your three favorite writers? If not, who are your three favorite writers and how have they influenced your work?

~ Three of my favorite writers are Haruki Murakami, Amy Tan, and Nicky Hornby and with all of them I like their straightforward prose style. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

http://blog.WendyTokunaga.com
http://www.WendyNelsonTokunaga.com
Midori by Moonlight - A Novel (St. Martin's Griffin) - Available Now

I think my husband may be sleeping with June Cleaver

I started this blog planning a short digression on how it's Valentine's Day and I've been thinking long and hard about the nature of true love, married love, endless love, you name it.  And of course, what better title for a book about a woman who's feeling just a little bit restless in her relationship than SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER?  I interviewed Jenny using my standard questions but I have to say I got off on a bit of a tangent below, all because a dear friend sent me an article that included a quiz on how passionately married you were and I took it and I found myself pretty damn smug that after thirty-two years of sharing the same bed with my husband, we (I took it for him and for me) came out just dandy, thank you very much.

Our secret?  Well, if I told you, I'd have to kill you.  No, seriously.  I took the quiz and then i read the rest of the article which was very informative.

According to The New York Times, most couples who've been together for years find their passion ebbs into a 'calm contented' kind of love'.  And this is a good thing.  But, say you’re feeling just a bit wistful?  Not to worry.

Your passion can be revved right back up with a walk on the wild side.  As in, taking risks, doing something just a little scary, a little unfamiliar, together.  Apparently, it's like Red Bull for the libido. 

Depending on your personality, this might include things like sky-diving or running with the bulls, or maybe, if you're like me, just stepping out on the ledge.  Being crazy.  It doesn't have to be expensive, just expansive, just a quick trip to the land of La-La-La- LOLA   (Hey, they don’t call them The Kinks for nothing.) 

Like, say, last weekend, I was feeling the need to express my Inner Anarchist.  I was driving in my car, well, my husband's car.  That was the first crazy part.

I knew I could have taken my station wagon.   Should have taken the station wagon.   After all, no one has ever, ever, died in the back seat of a Volvo Station Wagon.  Hard to argue with the facts, except maybe a Philistine could argue that since I was in the front seat, it didn’t matter so very much.

I still don’t know how to explain myself, but something came over me in the driveway.  I’d already closed the door and said goodbye.  As if it were any other day and I was planning to run a quick errand. In and out.  Back and forth.  Same old, same old. 

Instead, I found myself fingering my key chain, eyes wide shut, groping for the thicker, shorter, more supple and yet vibrantly resistant grey leather remote until it responded to my touch with a strong click and an incredible lift of all four door locks simultaneously!.  Feeling some force deep inside me begging to be cut free from its chains, I turned on the radio and then, just like that, I found myself thinking, hey, to hell with all that  I don't care if Marketplace Morning’s Sound Money is on or not!  I don't care!  I AM WOMAN!  HEAR ME ROAR.  With a turn of the screw, NPR was history.  History, I’m telling you.

From that point forward, I found myself overcome by a tingling vibration that worked its way up my loins and made me do some things I can tell you now I never ever thought I’d do! 

Some devil-may-care deep within had -- many months earlier -- hidden deep within the tight crevices of warm leatherette, a Bruce Springsteen compact disc.  Before I could admit to myself what I was moving toward, I was wresting the stiff bit of voice-candy from its rubber casement and slamming it into the player.  Hungrily I pressed my fingers against the volume, pushing it up and up and up, relentless in my desire until I was overcome by BORN TO RUN  Well, in my defense, I might quote just some of the suggestive language contained within. Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims and strap your hands across my engines!

From there on in, I was toast.  Not burnt, but definitely on the rotisserie, in search of meaningless thrills and random acts of insanity. I found myself groping blindly at a black buckle-like button dangling so close above me, I swear, I felt it was taunting me give in, to reach out, to touch it.  I knew even then I would have to pay the costs at some later date.  There would be a reckoning.

For starters, I knew I wasn’t wearing any sun block.  As in, zero.  Not even SPF 15 moisturizer.  Not even Chapstick on the only part of the human body that is not endowed with a single molecule of protective pigment against the elements! I knew too, deep in my heart of hearts, that my hair was barely contained. Coils of unfettered red curls could tumultuously spring forth at any moment from the inadequate fasteners I’d carelessly donned earlier that day. Still.  I had started this wild goose chase and I wasn’t backing down in the face of collateral damage.  I was in it for the long haul. 

So to speak.   

Just like I’d read in the operator’s manual, the machinas gave itself over to my needs.  Can you blame me if I simply took what was mine and allowed myself to experience the slow, yet forceful, even inevitable, release of glare-proof glass?  Did you know glass is the strongest material known to man and can resist several tons of pressure in the deepest darkest ocean?  So true, and still, with what I can only call a natural, even elemental, graze of my tender fingers, this immovable object had met its irresistible force.  Appearing allmost sullen in its initial hesitation, the locked orifice opened wide and revealed the naked clouds above.  A slight ripple of wind forced its way into my surprised mouth and nose.  I knew the risks I was taking were beyond free-radicals and broad spectrum ultra violet rays.  It had been a warm day in North Florida, and for all I knew, there were mosquitos within the vicinity. 

Bring it on! I thought, and with that, I dialed my husband and told him to break out the Solarcaine and no-more-tears Johnson and Johnson’s detangling rinse.  I was bringing sexy back.   

“Is she wearing a seat belt?” he asked.

“As if,” I laughed, knowing just between us, just how twisted a wild child like me could get when bent on thrill.

Now, enough about ME.  More about Jenny, who has gotten rave reviews for her book.

"Jenny Gardiner brings to life Claire Doolittle with such vibrancy that I feel I know her. Such was my concern over Claire's and Jack's happiness, that I couldn't put the book down which is a rarity for me.With her sharp wit and hilarious descriptions, Ms. Gardiner has a delightful voice that left me wanting more."

"This is book is the 'Bridget Jones Diary"'for all of us married and harried moms! And perhaps a good gift to give to our younger and single girlfriends. It's a gentle and humorous way to give them a glimpse of what's to come . . ."

"Sleeping With Ward Cleaver is a fun, cheeky, often candid and thoroughly engaging story that hits on relationship issues to which many readers will relate."

Here's our interview:

1.    If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.

I think the first one would simply be ARE YOU SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER?

Because I think it would get women to ponder that question--and I think many women would come to the immediate conclusion that they are!

The other one would be maybe a WARD with a slash through it and perhaps "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE" because part of the message in the novel is that sure, your marriage might really suck, but if you start looking at things differently, you can change it.

2.    Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?

One was Paris, Je T'aime, a series of about 30 short films about love, all set in Paris. This film left me to think a lot about love in its many forms. One vignette showed a marriage-weary man about to dump his wife for his mistress, when he learns some news that completely alters the way he treats her. The narrator intones: "once he began acting like a man in love, he became a man in love." This concept really resonated with me because it is all about actions, perceptions, etc.

The other was Juno. I left that movie with a severe case of dialogue envy. Man, that woman can write the hell out of a conversation. I was so impressed with her snappy dialogue and getting so many different types of people so right.

3.    What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?

It's hard to say--I think I really educated myself about the business a lot so was very prepared for what to expect. And having been a writer/journalist, I'm so used to many of the quirky idiosyncracies of publishing. I will say that being in the thick of publicizing now, it's even harder and more laborious than I'd anticipated, and I had anticipated a LOT of work.

4.    If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffiene   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______.

Solitude is a really neat idea. I am so used to working with very many distractions, between kids, spouse, pets, emails, telephones, TV. It's good because I've learned to tune things out, but the idea of peace and quiet for writing is a charming one. However in reality I'd probably be freaked out by the loneliness of it!

Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Once, many years ago, when my husband had a Mellon Fellowship at Harvard, he asked one of his colleagues what it was like to teach in his particular department.  The guy thought about it a minute, then said, "Well, I've been to the mountaintop, and there's nobody home."

Or like Yogi Berra famously put it, "Where ever you go, there you are."

Today I'm guest blogging at The Stiletto Gang where I'm making a true confession about certain vacancies in my own homesteading, especially when it comes to managing my website, living life in the fast lane and uncovering the existence of certain homo sapiens who are not, as far as I can tell, HOME, at least in ways that count.  Please join me over there by clicking on the link above.  Then email me with dirt on vile husbands, even wives, even dogs or children, as long as they're real wankers, they're welcome.  Home to Mama, that's right, we got Eustice and Bertha waiting.  (You won't understand that reference unless you double click on the purple writing above, which is otherwise known as a link, named after HYPER-LINK, as if that tells you a thing.)

this is what my dog does when there's no one home, and that's not the worst of it, as the tell-tale empty bag of JOLLY RANCHERS will attest.  It makes you wonder, how does she keep her figure?

Make My Day

It's not everyday that two people from the same small blogging group (the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit) get chosen by World Book Day, a UK site of some renown, to have their books on the best 100 list.  But, wait! Just like the Popeil commercial, there's MORE!  Not only did Joshilyn Jackson and Elizabeth Graham make the centurion list but they made the TOP TEN!  Amazing, or as they say in England, brilliant.

Both these books deserve the notice, and, just like in the good olde days of Chicago under Daley the first,, now that they've made the short list, my motto is, vote early and vote often.  I'll give you the link below,  but before you go there, please know you'll need to register if you haven't already.  So far, I've only gotten a tiny tiny bit of spam and most of it does not involve penis enlargement, Nigerian dictators with money to unload or hot coeds ready to do ANYTHING.  What is up with those English people?  Have they no spunk?  All I've heard from are bootleg designer clothing, jewelry and handbag makers and were I in the market for such fripperies, i'd be all over it.

Anyhow, here's the link to go vote for my girlfriends.  Just do it.   World Book Day Wants You to Weigh In  Do so for no other reason than you can spare a couple of minutes to make someone's day.  Joshilyn has been mighty sick with the FLU, and I do put that in capital letters because EVERYONE has been SO DAMN SICK that they can't even come to super bowl parties.  I have become an even more FURIOUS hand-washer and the trick is (you heard it here first) after you wash, you then take the paper towel (or the sleeve of your sweater in an emergency) to open the door to the bathroom as you leave.  Also, no bannisters, no party dips where someone might just have double dipped their flu encrusted Dorito, no sex with male or femail prostitutes.  Just part of the clean living campaign we're waging here in the Panhandle.  Clean, clean, clean.

Sometimes A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I would definitely opt for judging this book by its cover.  It's fabulous.   Karen Neches, who is also known as a very important person in the blogosphere and a writer of renown, is the pen name for the Creator of this comic novel:

As Publishers' Weekly put it, EARTHLY PLEASURES is:

"...Appealingly unorthodox... a heaven where angels lust, drink and follow terrestrial celebrity gossip… A tangled story of cold ambition and true love unspools. Neches’s funny and sweet novel shows that to err is human and angelic as well."

      The novel is also a BOOKSENSE NOTABLE for February.  Here's the synopsis:

Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

Here's my interview with the elusive and tantalizing Karen Neches:

If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.

My first slogan is “love transcends all” since EARTHLY PLEASURES is about a greeter in Heaven who falls in love with a mortal on Earth. (Getting them together was a small miracle.). The second one is “Heaven is a state of mind” because even though my main character Skye can eat unlimited chocolate without gaining weight, order up whatever she wants on her Wishberry and is able to loll around in paradise all day, she feels like something is missing from her life.   

2. Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?

RENT. I’m a total Rent-head, A lot of people hated the movie, thinking it was overly sentimental but that’s why I loved it. I also enjoyed Waitress for the same sappy reasons. I’m a sucker for a feel-good flick.

3. What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?

I had no idea how much promotion work the author has to do. I knew there’d be some involved but there are times when it feels like a full-time job.

4. If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffeine   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______.

I have to chew Extra Watermelon gum when I write. I used to chew a weird flavor called boysenberry but Wrigley discontinued that flavor so I had a hellish week training myself to like watermelon. Now I’m hooked.

5.   Do you have a favorite genre?  If so, who are your three favorite writers? If not, who are your three favorite writers and how have they influenced your work? 

I don’t have a favorite genre, but my favorite writers are Anne Tyler, Donna Tartt and Anne Lamott. The two Anne’s are so wickedly funny and since I fancy myself as a writer of humorous novels, I’m inspired by them. I’m in awe of Donna Tartt’s SECRET HISTORY. I think it’s the best novel ever written. You could learn to write from this novel because she has it all, plot, characters, setting and voice.

Patry Francis, Today is Your Lucky Day!

Patry Francis, you should know, today is one lucky day.

Sixty-three years ago, my parents met on a double date in San Angelo, Texas.  They fell in love and had four children under the age of six,  In 1950, my mom was diagnosed with Tuberculosis.   At the time there was no cure, so besides being quarantined away from her babies for a year, she faced a terminal prognosis.  Through a fluke of good fortune, my dad's commanding officer had heard about new drug trials being held in a Denver hospital and pulled strings to include my mom in the trials of what became the miracle cure.  Five years after she was cured, she had me on this very day.  I was the sixth.  She went on to have four more children, but I like to think I was both my parent's favorite.  (Of course, my sibings disagree, having come to strikingly identical conclusions themselves.) 

Most important is -- and Patry, on this you must agree -- today is the release of your first novel, after years of writing, years of rejections, years of slogging through waitressing and wondering if your day would ever come.  Not only is it here, but you may be the first author in history to have over 300 authors promoting your book on line  on its publication day.  I believe in grace, and I think it's fed by the kindness of strangers and of friends and family alike.   I am hoping your cancer, like my mom's TB, will someday be a story you and your kids will talk about in a tone of complete wonderment, both because it was so difficult and equally so life-affirming.  In the meantime, you must enjoy each and every one of what we in my family call cancer percs.  This is a term we employed frequently when our brother Tom was diagnosed, and later my sister Dede and Carolyn went through breast cancer treatments.  It is official Irish Catholic for dispensing all guilt and entitling you to a huge boatload of indulgence. 

Okay, now, I turn to you, my readers, and ask: wouldn't you like a book so readable it made one writer say:

"I absolutely LOVED The Liar's Diary. It had me walking into walls because I couldn't stop reading. I even brought it into the car and read at stop lights."
— Tish Cohen, Author of Town House and The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama

Praised by Tess Garritson and Jacquelyn Mitchard, and beaucoup (boo-coo) other noted authors, THE LIAR'S DIARY is a mystery/thriller with a great cover and premise.

Synopsis

What would you do if your best friend was murdered—and your teenaged son was accused of the crime? How far would you go to protect him? How many lies would you tell? Would you dare to admit the darkest truths—even to yourself?

Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly "perfect" life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne's husband as well as their teenaged son, Jamie.

Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.

The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can't prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home-and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali's soul.

When Ali is found murdered, there are many suspects; but the evidence against Jamie Cross is overwhelming. Jeanne's personal probing leads her to the question none of us would ever want to face. What comes first: our loyalty to family—or the truth?"

"The new questions and revelations just keep coming. But the final mystery is a twist you'll never see coming and one that is ultmately satisfying...Readers will be heartily rewarded."
— Ladies' Home Journal

Those of you who still need convincing, watch the trailer before going to Amazon or your favorite bookstore to make this the first of Patry's lucky days! 

Blogging irregularly, if ever, and still going strong, one thousand and one glitches later

Colleen Thompson's sixth novel is called THE SALT MAIDEN.  I would normally post her cover were it not for my own personal brain injury having to do with a collision of tsunamic proportions: my family, the holidays and certain character traits that make it impossible for me to refuse any of God's earthly delights and subsequent monkeys-at-typewriters pressing of buttons intended for teetotalers and dieters and other more virtuous souls.

What I can tell you is that the snow gods were extremely generous.  Here's the view outside my bedroom window at my parents' house.

Sounds really delightful.   Looks really wholesome.  Which it was for several hours a day until the darkness fell at the sort of hour that inspired Druids to set candles on trees and light them.

Okay, back to Colleen, who lives in Houston and shares a great blog with Joni Rodgers, who is in the Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit too and whose novel THE SECRET SISTERS knocked my socks off.  (Check out their recent posts on hate mail from people who think their books are dirty and the true-life legendary story behind Lady Godiva.)

Okay, again, back to Colleen.  Here's the story line, stolen from the press release: and OMG I think I just figured out how to fix my cover shot problem.  BRB.

Ooh, here's the photo of the cover too!  I am healed!  All I had to do was uninstall the Kodak software that somehow dominatrixed my freakin' picture files and I AM WOMAN!  Hear me ROAR!  HEAR IT LOUD, I purged and I'm proud!

Here's Colleen's storyline:

"Some novels begin with a character, others start with a what-if question or a situation, but my sixth romantic thriller, The Salt Maiden (Leisure, Dec. 2007) was inspired by a place I visited a few years back, a sunburned, sand-scoured desert community in the dead center of the least populated county in the U.S. With water too briny for human consumption and land too to support any but the hardiest of desert plants, it’s an eerily daunting landscape, one that made me wonder, What on earth would bring a person out here?

Apparently my subconscious took it as a challenge, and came up with a Houston veterinarian, Dana Vanover, in search of her troubled missing sister, the birth mother of a child in desperate need of a bone-marrow transplant. In spite of her ambivalence about her sister, Dana braves heat, rattlesnakes, and hostile locals — as well as her attraction to the handsome sheriff who wants her gone."

Here's our interview:

1.    If I had to offer two bumper sticker explanations for my novel, they’d be “Appearances are deceiving” and “Mean people suck.”  Tell me what your slogans would be, and why.

I'd answer that with a question: "How far would you go?" because THE SALT MAIDEN explores to what lengths someone would journey when the stakes are at their highest.

2.    Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?

I'm not much of a movie-goer, but I recently saw and enjoyed GONE BABY GONE and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I loved both for the richness of their characters, particularly secondary characters that seemed to naturally spring from their environments.

3.    What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?

THE SALT MAIDEN is my thirteenth novel (sixth romantic thriller; the rest were  historicals written under my Gwyneth Atlee pseudonym), but the business continues to teach me new lessons all the time. With this book, I've been pleased and impressed that an editor's enthusiasm and in-house support can make such a difference. That and a great cover!

4.    If you had to pick one and only one condition (beyond computer or pen and paper) that would allow you to write would it be: a. solitude   b. caffiene   c.  sleep   d. food   e.  sex  or f.   ______.

Hmmm. I'm thinking choice F should be "all of the above," but if I had to choose just one, I think sleep might be it. I'm useless when I'm zonked.

  Do you have a favorite genre?  If so, who are your three favorite writers? If not, who are your three favorite writers and how have they influenced your work?   I adore many types of books, as long as they're well-written, but suspense would be my first choice. Some favorite authors include Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, and Linda Howard.

Oriignally posted on A GOOD BLOG IS HARD TO FIND

SOUTHERN AUTHOR?  AUTHOR WHO WRITES IN THE SOUTH?  ABOUT THE SOUTH?  THE NEW SOUTH?  WAIT, HOW DID I GET HERE? 

Hollywood has a way of reducing a book to one sentence.  They call it a  log-line.  They toss around terms like ‘Coming-of-age tale set in Maine’ or ‘Die Hard in a submarine.” I don’t think in such cogent soundbites.

In fact, it wasn’t until Jodi Picoult described Diana Lively is Falling Down as a fish-out-of-water tale that I realized that was exactly what my first book was about

Having moved all my life, first as an Air Force Brat, then a faculty wife, the fish-out-of-water concept expresses my own sense of belonging.  Or not. 

If you’re supposed to write about what you know, then being an outsider is exactly what I’m drawn to.  I’m the person who wants to, but doesn’t really fit in.   When Karin Gillespie invited me to contribute to her blog on Southern authors, I felt like an imposter, despite the fact that I live in the South and spent much of my childhood in Florida and Georgia.  If you count seven years in Charlottesville, I have spent more time here than anywhere else.

My outsider role officially commenced in second grade.  Having moved from England to Florida, every time I spoke in class, the other kids turned around to stare at me, grabbing the backs of their chairs to steady themselves against the sound of thirty-two jaws dropped in amazement.  Was it my English accent?  The fish-belly-white-skin?  Maybe it was the wildly curly, fiery-red hair that I refused to brush?