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

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

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

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

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