Falling Down, The Blog

Counterfeit Culture?

How perfect is it that I get to steal another writer's interview for a book that's all about stealing someone else's creative design?  Before I post the interview (generously donated by Judy Merrill Larsen) writer of the fabulous ALL THE NUMBERS, let's talk about Hank Phillipi Ryan.  Like so many of my cyber circuit girlfriends, her accomplishments are intimidating.  Like, man, they scare me.  Emmy winning TV reporter in Boston, has already written three mysteries in her spare time, and looks like she spends most of her time getting spa treatments and Hollywood stylings.  Not to objectify her but here's a picture because I don't think you can 'get' her dynamism without looking at her.

   Not only is she gorgeous, she's smart and witty and won an Agatha Award for a first novel, the opening to this mystery series set in TV land.  None other than the dean of mystery writers, the don of Boston suspense novelists, Robert Parker said of her

""Hank Phillippi Ryan knows the television business entirely;
she understands plotting; and she writes beautifully."
   —Robert B. Parker

She's also been a BookSense pick and is the September featured mystery on Barnes and Noble website.  And what does she do with this opportunity for domination and cyber-fame?  Just the opposite of what you'd expect.  She offers her fellow writers a chance to promote their books.  (I'll be up later in the month.)  This is one classy woman.  I don't know yet if she knew Ted Kennedy but in a week where the man's generosity is celebrated it's hard not to think there's something in that Boston water that promotes what Obama called a 'large-heartedness."  

In that spirit, here are the covers of all her books, which, I believe, you must order in succession to appreciate.

  indie bound

 amazon

Barnes and Noble  

Now, here's the interview Hank did with Judy Merrill Larson, author of:

 

1.) How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Imagine the research I had to do into the world of designer purses! It was tough, but someone had to dive in…

Actually, Charlie’s investigation into the world of counterfeit couture came s straight from been there-done that. In my day job as a TV reporter, my producer (not Franklin!) and I have done several in-depth investigations into the world of knock-offs—not only purses and scarves, but blue jeans and watches and DVDs and videos.

We went undercover and with a hidden camera—like Charlie does—into various back-alley stores where counterfeit merchandise was being sold, and also into some suburban purse parties where women—certainly knowing they were fake and thinking was fine—were scooping up piles of counterfeit Burberrys and Chanels.

You should know— law enforcement tells us, it’s not illegal to buy the purses—unless you’re buying large amounts that are obviously for resale. The illegality is in the copying and manufacture and sale of what’s clearly a trademarked and proprietary item. (As the elegant fashion exec Zuzu Mazny-Latos tells Charlie in AIR TIME—it’s like taking Gone with the Wind—and putting your name on the cover.)

Anyway—lots of AIR TIME is based on research and reality—besides the undercover work, and the research, I’ve done many interviews with the federal agencies in charge of battling counterfeiting, the attorneys who help big companies protest their products, and even the private investigators the designers hire to scout out counterfeits.

2.)Are you more driven by plot or by character?

Ah, it's both. I start with one little germ of a plot twist--and then figure out how Charlie is going to figure it out! So I know what I know--and she knows what she knows. And then she has to solve the mystery--based on what I let her know.

3.) Who's your favorite character in this book and why?

Oh, I can't possibly answer that. Charlie McNally is dear to my heart of course. When my husband talks about Charlie, he calls her “you.” As in: when “you” get chased by the bad guys, or when “you” get held at gunpoint. And I have to remind him, “Sweetheart, it’s fiction.” But Charlie can say things I can’t say about the reality of television, and because she’s fictional, she can go places I can’t go. And say things I can’t say!

And the very sweet 8-year-old Penny, I must say, touches me every time I write about her And I get so many letters from readers, concerned about her, and asking about her, and who I based her on. But really? She’s right out of my imagination. (She’s the character who sometimes makes readers cry...along with Charlie’s mother. I guess family relationships are sometimes—universal.)

And in AIR TIME there’s a new character . a gorgeous FBI agent named Keresey Stone. She’s amazing. And unpredictable. But I wonder what you’ll think about her?

3.) What's your writing process/writing environment like?

I’ve been a television reporter since 19, um, 75. I’m still on the air at Boston’s NBC affiliate, and still at work as an investigative reporter. (And I’m always hoping my best story ever is just around the corner.) So I come to work at Channel 7 every morning—tracking down clues, doing research, hoping for justice and looking for a great story that will change people’s lives. (Hmm..sounds a lot like mystery writing!)

Then at night we go back home—and when I’m in writing mode, I write til about ten pm, in a wonderful study that’s lined with bookshelves. I admit—I have a cluttered desk, and no real filing system, except for “piles.” But I know where everything is. I like it to be quiet.. At the TV station, it’s chaotic and loud, with three TV’s blasting all the time—and I can work fine there! But at home, with the books—quiet.

Because my schedule is so tight, I keep track of my words. If I know I have to write 90,000 words by the deadline, I literally divide that number by the number of days I have—and then set that as a goal. I try to write maybe—two pages a day. And on weekends, more. If I can do that, I’m thrilled.

I push my way through a first draft. I say to myself—just get the story down. Just do it. And you can fix it later.

Then I cook dinner, and my husband and I have a very late dinner together! You can imagine how patient he is!

I used to be a pretty good cook, and diligent about exercise. My husband and I gave dinner parties and went to movies and went on vacation. Sigh. That’s all pretty much over. I have a full time job as reporter, a full time job as a mystery author, and a full time job as a wife (with two step-children and two step-grandchildren!) That doesn’t leave much time for much else.


4.) What's your favorite part of writing?

Revision, no question. I love that. You have this whole first draft, and you get to go back and see what you really have. I often have wonderful revelations when I read over the first draft—there are themes and rhythms and even clues that I didn’t realize were there! It’s always so rewarding.

And after 30 years in TV, I know how valuable editing is—so I look at it as a real treat. To get to polish, and tweak, and rearrange, and make it all shine—oh, it’s great fun.

The other favorite part—when readers love the books. I can’t tell you how often I’m out on a story, for instance, and a stranger will come up to me , and pull the book out of a purse or briefcase, and ask me to sign it. I can barely resist bursting into tears. It somehow completes the writing, you know? when someone reads it.

5.) What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten about writing?

There’s a plaque on my bulletin board with the question: “What would you attempt to do if you know you could not fail?” That gives me a lot of courage.


Hank’s giving away five ARC’s of PRIME TIME to readers…to enter the drawing contact her through her website and put ‘PRIME TIME ARC’ in the subject line!

 

And This Little Mommy Stayed Home

 The title alone got me.  And the cover: Adorbs.

 

Ten minutes is as long as I can spend trying to get a picture to enlarge on my constantly improving-itself TYPEPAD but you can try and view a bigger picture at Amazon.

Bigger picture at Amazon

And even better are the blurbs, which are pretty dang great:

Praise for Samantha Wilde:

“Here’s a talent: when a narrator’s doldrums make a reader laugh out loud. Samantha Wilde’s inkwell must be filled with truth-serum because this brave and funny book gets the postpartum peaks and valleys so very, winningly right.”

—Elinor Lipman, author of Then She Found Me

“Think of the funniest person you know, give her a baby and a month without sleep, multiply by ten and you've got the incomparable Samantha Wilde rocking the hilariously appalling realities of motherhood and the modern marriage. This book belongs on the bedside table of everyone who's ever been a mother, or had one.”

—Karen Karbo, author of The Stuff of Life and How to Hepburn

“[This] is the funniest novel I've read in a long, long time. What a treat! Mothers everywhere deserve this book.”

—Ellen Meister, author of The Smart One

“Samantha Wilde is the irreverent, knowing, laugh-out-loud, brutally honest but most treasured best friend that every new mommy craves and every reader relishes.  They should issue this smart, hilarious novel along with newborn onesies and nursing pads.”
—Pamela Redmond Satran, author of Babes in Captivity

“Riotously hilarious, unabashedly honest and positively impossible to put down. Samantha Wilde’s debut is a must read for all moms and non-moms alike.”

—Jessica Brody, author of The Fidelity Files

From what I've read, this sounds like a great present to send an exhausted new mom, or even better, someone like me who gets to sleep through the night but wished there were a book like this when I was falling apart.

Here's our interview with Sam Wilde about her debut book:

.    IIf 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.

C                     Caution: Exhausted Mother at the Wheel                   Mothers are people too

2.    Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why? Movies? Do they still exist? Do people still go to them? I think I’ve seen a few I hated. But the popcorn was good.

3.    What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out? You never get to the top of the mountain. Getting published is not a lighting bolt. Life does not change in any substantive way. You never arrive at the place you long to be from outward things. The inward changes are cool, though. I feel like, impossibly, I am learning to be more gracious.

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.   ______.  Sleep. Yes, sleep. 

 

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 am a cross-genre reader. I don’t have three favorite writers—that’s too few! I adore Anne Lammott as well as Alice Hoffman, Cynthia Kaplan, Jen Lancaster, Caitlin Flanagan, Oscar Wilde, among many, many others, and in no particular order.

EVERYONE SHE LOVED -- OUT TODAY!

EXCEPT IN THE STORE WHERE I SCHEDULED MY PUB DAY SIGNING!

Anne Lamott has a great line about craziness, about how you might think you're crazy now, but if you're an author, you won't know insane until it's your publication day.  Well, since this is my second book, I thought I'd surpassed all that.  I decided to do a quiet signing at the cute local bookstore in Holden Beach, North Carolina, which is where my family vacations each June. 

I'm shy. People who know me don't believe that, but when it comes to talking to strangers, I get really nervous.  Nevertheless I screwed up my courage, put on a dress, make-up, jewelry and strappy sandals and toddled over to the store bearing cookies and sweet tea.  Walked in, and the proprietor told me the books hadn't come in.  She apologized, and I nearly fainted with relief.  With this personality I'll never make a best seller list!

Anyway, in lieu of face-time and hand-selling, here's some advance praise for EVERYONE SHE LOVED

.amazon link to everyone she loved

indie bound purchase link

“EVERYONE SHE LOVED is peopled with women of strong appetites---for love, for sex, for food---and Sheila Curran has amazing insight into the love-hate relationship that women have with each other and their own bodies. Curran is a beautiful writer, both witty and evocative, and she knows how to keep a reader riveted. I was up way past my bedtime, unable to stop turning pages. I had to know what happened to this family and their tight-bound troupe of friends as they meddled and muddled toward hope and new beginnings in the wake devastating loss. I fell in love with them all, from artistic, earthy Lucy, to broken little Tessa, to the oh-so-tightly-wound and mercurial Clover. Read this book, then pass it on to your dearest friend. She’ll thank you.”  Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stoppped Swimming

"Sheila Curran writes the novels that readers love -- full of emotional complexity and rich plot twists, novels that echo our own deep desires and greatest fears. In her second novel, she takes on themes that touch us all -- love, loss, motherhood, wifehood, and the sisterhood of friendship. It isn't so much that Curran has found her greatest muse in the unbreakable bonds between women, but that the unbreakable bonds between women have have found their greatest writer in Sheila Curran." -- Julianna Baggott, best selling author of numerous books including  THE PRETEND WIFE, MY HUSBANDS SWEETHEARTS, THE PRINCE OF FENWAY PARK

“Penelope Cameron May’s unusual last request sets off the action in this riveting novel of love and friendship, betrayal and lies. Sheila Curran draws the reader in and this inventive book won’t let go. Prepare to be surprised and moved. I read it in one delicious gulp.”  Masha Hamilton, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE

 Whoever thought death could be so complicated?  Or that love could demand a task force?  Or that after so many broken hearts, one woman's will could leave a legacy of such healing? Penelope Cameron, even in death, makes the lives of everyone around her richer-and that includes us, the readers of this brilliant novel.  We hold our breath as minor flaws become monsters, but in the end this group of friends and lovers really do take care of each other.  Everyone She Loved is for everyone who knows that love works, even when it's complicated, for everyone who screws up, and can still do the right thing after all, and for everyone who enjoys a great novel, with friendship and forgiveness at its heart.

Paul Shepherd, Mary McCarthy prize-winning author of More Like Not Running Away

 

'Everyone She Loved' was the voice inside my head - at a time when I first contemplated my own mortality ... this could have been my husband, my girlfriends and my children ... it raises every emotion and suppressed fear within us all, with a clarity that is both deeply uncomfortable and yet stridently beautiful   Julz Graham, television host, DIMENSIONS 

This might be better than the dog ate my homework

There truly is no excuse for how long it's taken me to blog about April Henry's new book.  She's a fairly recent member of the girlfriends' cyber circuit and shortly after her book came out she made the New York Times' bestseller list.  That is so exciting!

How hard is it to throw up a few sentences, post cover art and mention her rave reviews?  Her work is so good it practically speaks for itself.  I have no real excuse.  And yet, somehow, I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle.  Can it really be that after six weeks of telling myself to hurry up and get my blog updated I'm finally waking up and smelling the coffee? 

 Yikes.  Especially nervy of me when April Henry's own biography states in no uncertain terms that  she "knows how to kill you in a two-dozen different ways. She makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters...by the time she was in her 30s, April had come to terms with her childhood and started writing about hit men, drug dealers, and serial killers." 

Mercy, please Ms. Henry, please!  I have cancer!  I had cancer?  I think it's past tense but for the sake of forgiveness I will say that I recently had cancer (January) and what they did to cure me (February through April) came very very close to killing me. 

• Exihibt A, I've not had a martini in five months. 
• Exhibit B  I am no longer a food evangelist because I cannot eat.  In fact, I am still drinking smoothies (only) and sleeping twelve hours a day and wearing this really creepy plastic patch on my stomach that says Fentenyl 100 mcg/h. 
• Worst of all, I miss all my former pleasures so viscerally that my new-and-improved body (25 pounds lighter than my 'set point') gives me no pleasure at all.  It's the first time in my life I can wear a bikini and still, if I could snap my fingers and make this all unhappen, I'd gladly go back to being fifteen pounds overweight and complaining about how little willpower I have.
  

So, without further ado, I promise those of you who are wondering, that the doctors say I am cured and April, I promise that I will not only order Face of Betrayal but also Torched.  I love mysteries and am headed to the beach for two weeks in June.

Here's the skinny on April Henry and her writing.

   Publishers Weekly
“A sizzling political thriller. … The seamless plot offers a plethora of twists and turns.”

Romantic Times:
4.5 stars [and they don’t give out five stars] “Wiehl and Henry have penned a winner that seems to come straight from the headlines. Captivating suspense, coupled with tightly written prose, will entertain and intrigue."

Ingram:"Readers are in for a treat as trial lawyer/commentator Lis Wiehl and mystery author April Henry team up for a political thriller."

The critics say April is “a talent to watch” (Toronto Globe and Mail), “spoiling us” (Washington Times) and “a rising mystery writer” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Her novels have been called “splendid” (Denver Post), “witty and fun” (Dallas Morning News) “fast paced and harrowing” (BookPage), “cracker-jack” (Drood Review), “a galloping-fast read” (The Oregonian) and “off-beat and vital” (Publisher’s Weekly). They have been short-listed for the Agatha Award, the Anthony Award, and the Oregon Book Award. Two have been chosen for BookSense by the independent booksellers of America.

PLOT SUMMARY:

When 17-year-old Senate page Katie Converse goes missing on her Christmas break near her parents' white Victorian home in Portland, Ore., law enforcement and the media go into overdrive in a search for clues. Three friends at the pinnacle of their respective careers--Allison Pierce, a federal prosecutor; Cassidy Shaw, a crime reporter; and Nicole Hedges, an FBI special agent--soon discover that Katie wasn't the picture of innocence painted by her parents. Did Katie run away to escape their stifling demands? Was she having an affair with the senator who sponsored her as a page? Has she been kidnapped? Is she the victim of a serial killer?

Here's our interview: And hey, doesn't this writer seem like a great treasure trove, especially if you're the mother of a young teen?  I'll get Torched for my daughter and Face of Bertrayal for me.

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.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And can I modify yours? Appearances can be deceiving.


Your two favorite movies over the past twelve months and why?
The Wrestler and Gran Torino. I liked them both because they surprised me.

What was the one thing you learned in getting your book published that you were really surprised to find out?
With my first book, I was surprised to learn that most hardcovers were given a window of 8 to 10 weeks to succeed by the publisher. (Young adult publishers area little more forgiving than that.) I remember telling my publicist, “I’ve got yogurt in my fridge that is going to last longer than that!”



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.  ______.
I hate to say it, but coffee is probably more important than sleep.


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 like mysteries and YA. Recently, some of my favorites have been the dead and the gone, The Hunger Games, and The Intruders.


p.s. IS IT JUST ME or didn't a western senator lose his page rather suspiciously years ago, when Clinton was president?  

 

 

 

 

Save your shekels, only $5 a month, and get a really fun read, I promise.

The hardback comes out in June.  Money back guarantee.  If you aren't perfectly happy, send your book to me and I will write you a check.  Scout's honor.  (Even though I flunked Girl Scouts, I'm still your girl.) 

Here's the cover: to which I am indebted to the talented design team at Atria, a.k.a. a beautiful woman named Jeanne.  As for the title, which was the brainchild of my editor, Emily Bestler, it's perfect, which you will discover once you've inhaled the novel..

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Books are born in strange places.  This one was conceived in the front seat of a car. 

 No, not that kind of conception. 

 

My friend Julianna was driving.  Our daughters were chatting in the back seat. 

 

I was talking about an article I’d written for McCall’s about two young girls in Arizona whose parents had died within months of each other.  “Did you know that in some states, if there isn’t a will, the kids can be sent to foster care?”

          The girls in my story weren’t so unfortunate.Download Who will take my daughters   Their mother had named her best friends, another pair of sisters, as the children’s guardians.   ”Just make sure you chose someone to take over if something happens to you.”

          From there we talked about difficult it would be to chose which couple among one’s siblings and friends would best be suited for the job.  Where did one couple’s permissiveness slide into overindulgence, another’s consistency into unbearable strictness?  The idea of dying was hard enough, but figuring out which couple would most love your kids in your absence? Impossible.

          We paused in our conversation just long enough for my brain to settle on yet another catastrophic possibility.  “You know what would be worse?” I asked.  “What if I died and John (my husband) married someone awful?  I’d have no control at all!”

            Another pause.  “Unless,” I continued.  “I could get him to agree that if he remarried, my sisters and friends would check  out the bride.  Make sure she wasn’t some kind of wicked stepmother.”

          And thus was hatched the idea of EVERYONE SHE LOVED, a novel that explores the faith one woman placed in her dearest friends, the care she took to protect her family, and the many ways in which romantic entanglements will confound and confuse even the most determined of planners.

 

Now, here is the funny thing.  Really funny, except, as my friend Jane Mcpherson pointed out hypochondria is supposed to be funny. 

 

About a month ago I noticed a bump on the right side of my neck.  I googled bumps on necks.  Found that my bump seemed to imitate a perfectly harmless fatty lipoma.  Didn't freak out.  Eventually went to my doctor to figure it out.  He put me on antibiotics to see if it was an infection.  "Come back in three or four weeks.  And let us know if it gets any worse.

 

    I put off thinking about it much until I was getting ready to leave for Christmas in New Hampshire.  Packing for me is very much like that Jack Nicholson scene in AS GOOD AS IT GETS.  I lay everything in neat lines on my bed and obsess over what I might be forgetting.  I also obsess about dying, since I'm blessed with a fear of flying, based on some weird inside out inversion of my childhood.  My father was a fighter pilot and flew in a precision flying team that was the precursor to the Blue Angels.  I never thought a bit about it until I had children and then I started to feel I HAD to control the plane.  Keeping it in the air was difficult, let me tell you.  Anyhow, the panic had a domino effect. I looked at my neck again and called my doctor's office (fighting yet another phobia, dialing a number to talk to a stranger who I am perfectly sure will be greatly inconvenienced by having to talk to me.)  My doc fit me in, looked at the lump and said "hmmm."

 

  I said, "I'm kind of flipping." 

 

"Let's get you looked at next week," he said, since it was Friday morning. 

 

"I won't be here next week!" I cried. 

 

Through the first of many bureaucratic miracles, my doc got me into see an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor that very day.  That doctor stuck a tube in my nose and a small needle in my lump, for which I was obsequiously grateful.  Now that I was revved up with the end-of-days terror, I wanted to know as soon as possible what this hideous thing was. 

 

I waited for the results through Christmas eve, Christmas, and then the weekend that followed.  Got a call on my way back home (on the second death-defying leg of the journey).  The doctor said the fluid looked fine.   "But let's schedule a CT scan."  That procedure was followed in quick succession by another biopsy, this time guided by ultrasound.  I waited three days for the results and then a phone call from my new doctor.  "I have bad news," he said.  "The cells are definitely malignant."

 

Since then I've had a PET scan and am scheduled for surgery today.  They will remove the lump, which is now called a "mass" and biopsy the area around the base of my tongue which they suspect is the primary site of the mass.   I've just had my last sip of water at midnight and tomorrow I go to the hospital for a few days.  I hear I might not be able to speak.  Far worse, I may not be able to eat! 

 

Here's the good part.  I won't die, I just won't.  But I will be scared to death of dying despite my confidence that you don't fear plane crashes simply for no reason.   One last bit of irony, if you're up for such things?  The first work I ever published was a piece about my sisters and I, and detailed my family's colorful past with carcinomas.  Download Curran Sisters Magazine Articles

 

Despite such a past, I'm truly shocked to be attacked by cells tinier than minnows' eggs and (I'm sure) even less organized than the Democratic party.  (Of which I am a faithful and perfectly characteristic member.)  Until next post, in which I promise to detail the most embarrassing and awful parts of having to wear one of those butt-flashing robes, I remain, yours in the life-imitates-art world of head and neck surgery and the perfectly lovely life of the mind. 

 

Thank the Lord and Pass the Ammunition

Okay, I know I keep saying this about the other authors on the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit, but I really want to read this book.  It's exactly the sort of escapist (i.e. fun)  fiction I love to lose myself in.  (Also the kind I aspire to write.  Nothing makes me happier to hear than that someone 'couldn't put my book down." ) Besides, if you're being thrifty (and who's not, these days) books are an incredible bang for your entertainment buck.  Even if you're the kind of reader Woody Allen joked about who took Evelyn Wood's Speed Reading course, read War and Peace, and said, "It's about Russia," a book will give you hours and hours of distraction from the world. At pennies per hour.  PENNIES, I tell you!  Plus it's GREEN in the sense that it needs no plugging in, it is re-giftable in almost infinite measure, and it allows you to be completely happy staying home and not driving anywhere.   Now that's what I call public transportation.

Praise for Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead

"Through a winning blend of hip and humble humor, Rosenberg simultaneously skerwers and celebrates the institution of suburban sisterhood." - Booklist

"Great read. Hilarious and heartwarming!" - "Good Housekeeping Quick and Simple Magazine’s Book Pick of the Week (July 22, 2008)

Saralee Rosenberg’s latest novel is zany and will have you laughing out loud. But under all the hilarity is a wonderfully touching story that grabs you at page one and doesn’t let go until the end." -Debbi Honorof, Book Columnist, "Long Island Woman"

"Mindy Sherman is as loveable and funny a hero as any I’ve read in years... I laughed, I cried, and loved every minute!" - Valerie Frankel, author of Thin Is The New Happy

"Heartfelt, wildly funny, and pitch perfect. Rosenberg knows her turf like a Sherpa."
- Leslie Carroll, author of Choosing Sophie

"Filled with belly laughs and a great big heart! I loved this smart, saucy take on suburban angst. Every page is a gem!" - Ellen Meister, author of The Smart One

Lucy had Ethel living next door but I want to borrow my sugar from MIndy Sherman. I loved Mindy! Part "Dear Abby," part "Mr Rogers," part Bette Midler, what's not to love? If Mindy was YOUR neighbor, you'd never leave home again." - -Christine O’Hagan, author of The Book of Kehls.

"I just had to send you an e-mail concerning your book, Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead. I’m on vacation and finished it late last night. I have never laughed and cried so much while reading a book. Bravo!" -

Nora Ephron Hates Her Neck. Big Deal! Mindy Sherman hates her whole body.

In Mindy's yoga-obsessed, thirty-is-the-new-wife neighborhood, every day is a battle between Dunkin' Donuts, her jaws-of-life jeans, and Beth Diamond, the self-absorbed sancti-mommy next door who looks sixteen from the back. So much for sharing the chores, the stores, and the occasional mischief to rival Wisteria Lane.

It's another day, another dilemma until Beth's marriage becomes fodder on Facebook. Suddenly the Ivy League blonde needs to be "friended," and Mindy is the last mom standing. Together they take on hormones and hunger, family feuds and fidelity, and a harrowing journey that spills the truth about an unplanned pregnancy and a seventy-year old miracle that altered their fates forever.

Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead is a hilarious, stirring romp over fences and defenses that begs the question, what did you do to deserve living next door to a crazy woman? Sometimes it's worth finding out.

DRIVING SIDEWAYS

My dear friend Tom Cutrer, after following me home one hot summer afternoon, got me a bumper sticker of my very own.  Though I did not put it on my car, it sat on my kitchen desk for quite some time, and I was astonished at how many people thought it was funny.  I did not think it was funny, because I did NOT think it was at all applicable to me.  It said, and I quote, "I'm Just Driving This Way to Piss You Off."

How very droll.  I am a slow, hyper-safe scared-to-death driver.  I'm well aware of braking distances, turn signal laws and the possibility of overhead planes crashing directly in front of or on top of my car.  The problem with such white-knuckled fear-based defensive driving is that it can't be maintained for long without scaring the shit out of other people who are driving with me.  Which reminds me of another favorite bumper sticker "When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not like his screaming passengers."

Jess Riley, who is a relatively new to the girlfriend's cyber-circuit, has written her first novel, DRIVING SIDEWAYS.  It looks way fun and I'd love to show you the cover and I'd love to show you a picture but you will have to google both because the dadglammit typepad software is working not-at-all and will force me to commit some sort of dreadful suicide or drive without my seatbelt or maybe eat all fourteen of the hilariously funny

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!