Book Club Rewind - Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs was the Plano (Texas) book club's author for our April get together. I was really looking forward to this month's call because I had just read and enjoyed Susan's latest book, Snowfall at Willow Lake. This is the fourth book in The Lakeshore Chronicles series, but don't fear. Those of us who had read Snowfall at Willow Lake and not the other Lakeshore Chronicles did NOT feel like we had just landed in the middle of the series. We didn't feel like we were missing any information nor were we trapped in a series summary for the first few chapters. The book truly stands alone...That's not to say I don't want more!

But back to book club.

Susan was super excited to be part of our book club. She had recently been to visit her publisher and been treated to the full Queen for day routine in Toronto and had not had a chance to rave about it to anyone. By Queen for a day routine, we're talking about large flower bouquets, limo ride, 1st class seat during flight, 5 star meal out with publisher, etc. Of interest to Susan's fans, the publisher expressed interest in a Lakeshore Chronicles Christmas story as well as a cookbook. They also talked about wanting hardcovers, but worry not readers, Susan said there were no plans at this time to have future Lakeshore Chronicles' books come out as hardcover. Her next book, however, called Just Breathe is planned to be released this September as a hardcover. While not part of the Lakeshore Chronicles, the main characters apparently did come and stay at the inn in Dockside (which she also mentioned was the book that she got the least amount of reader feedback on).

Regarding Just Breathe, Susan is asking that when the reprint of her historical The Charm School (complete with new cover art) is released, that you send Susan an email telling her what you think about the excerpt for Just Breathe included at the end of The Charm School.

Speaking of historicals, Susan is planning to do another historical, but it likely will not be one of the hardcovers that I mentioned earlier.

Susan is currently writing Fireside, the next in The Lakeshore Chronicles and featuring Noah's friend Bo from Snowfall at Willow Lake. We also heard that there will be at least another story after Fireside BEFORE Susan writes Daisy's story. She gets a lot of reader comments about Daisy what with her being an unwed teenage mother, but what can I say she was one of my favorite characters in the book!

Odd trivia:
The names of Sophie & Noah's adopted children came from names in SPAM emails. You know those banking or money transfer scams I'm talking about. She just "...can't let those go to waste."

Kathryn Caskie | Romantic Frame of Mine

Sometimes it's hard to get into a romantic frame of mind when its time to sit down and write, even when a deadline looms. For instance today. Two days ago, the sewer line from my 200 year old house to the street suddenly burst sending raw sewage into the air and across the yard. Yeah, how romantic is that? And then I see the outrageous bill, for digging up my entire yard to replace piping--none of which it seems is covered by insurance. There is no working plumbing in the house last night or today, the dogs had to be shuttled off to a kennel and the kids to a neighbor's house. So I have a little time alone--except for all of the plumbers with backhoes, shovels and long lengths of pipe--and it's time to write a love scene.

So how do I do it? How does an author write a rich, emotional scene when the world is not cooperating? I know of a fabulous New York Times bestselling romance author who pours herself a glass of white wine and then sits down to write three love scenes all in one sitting. I know another who watches sexy movies. I know another who calls her husband and asks him to come home for an early lunch. All very...inspiring.

Me? I read. It doesn't have to be steamy stories, or even Regency-set. I just need to read. Reading transports me like nothing else. Books can whisk you away to another time and place...where toilet paper isn't dangling from a limb and one plumber isn't daring the other to eat the five-inch worm he just dug up. Today I just happen to pick up The Seduction of an Unknown Lady by Samantha James. Within the span of a single page I was in her lushly detailed world, not my own. I was her heroine for an hour or so.

Then I opened the chapter I had been writing the day before. I read it aloud (I have this quirky way of launching myself into the scene--I read my pages in a British accent, but its not the Queen's proper British--it's more Monty Pythonesque. It embarrasses my kids, which is, I suppose, part of the fun of doing it. But it works!) Then, I close my eyes and watch the scene unfold in my mind. The characters come to life and I listen. And I write. The world outside my office has dissolved and Regency London has taken its place.

If ever there was a means for time travel, it would be reading. It takes us away and allows us to experience another reality for a while. Let's us forget our own troubles, replacing them with worries about choosing a gown for a ball--and whether the sexy hero is going to kiss you...um...I mean the heroine that night.

Books are pretty powerful things. If they were a drug, they'd be illegal. But they're not. They're only $6.99 or so. How great is that?

Kathryn Caskie's new book, How to Propose to a Prince, is on the shelves now! Stop by her web site for excerpts, fun and contests. www.kathryncaskie.com/

Linda Wisdom | Are you like the character you write and read?

I’ve been told that Jazz, the witchy heroine in 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover and I are very much alike. So let’s look at the similarities.

Jazz and I both speak our minds at times, but she can says what I’d love to say and have magic if she needs it.

She’s snarky. I’m snarky. She has red hair. I have red hair. She’s tall. I’m short. She’s gorgeous. I’m short.

I think many of us would say we echo at least one of our characters. I know that’s happened to me, but never more than with Jazz. She’s lived with me for quite awhile as I worked on the book and then had no choice but to work on the second book, Hex Appeal, which comes out this November.

She also gives me the chance to stick bits of history in the book. After all, she and her witch friends have been around for 700 years.

She’s lived history, had passionate ups and downs with Nikolai Gregorivich, a vampire enforcer from The Protectorate who’s now a private investigator. She’s dealing with a cranky ghost haunting her beloved 1956 T-Bird convertible and having to keep a tight rein on Fluff and Puff, the bunny slippers from hell and considering their background, it’s not far from the truth.

I like to say that I try to make the unbelievable believable. I hope my imagination allows you to consider that it’s possible to have a vampire living down the block. Just don’t expect him to mow the lawn midday. Or run into a witch at Starbucks or Victoria’s Secret. And just maybe some of those after-hour clubs have a pretty diverse clientele. And those Midways at the fairs? Maybe the Weres handle that.

So allow your own imagination to go a little wild. What would you see?

Enter and be one of three winners in my One Day Only blog contest.

Linda

www.myspace.com/lindawisdombooks
www.myspace.com/magickbunnyslippers

Susan Wiggs | Shopping

So I splurged a little on a dress for to wear to the tea. Never mind that I'll only be there "virtually." Sometimes the perfect dress is called for, even in cyberspace.

And okay, I splurged on the shoes, too. And, um, the bag. As a working writer, 90% of my clothes are the kind of thing you wear to clean out the garage. The other 10% of my wardrobe looks more like this. And how did I earn this hot little number?

See for yourself. This is a shot of me at a booksigning–yes, a booksigning–at a military base in Florida. The day was organized around an air show, and there were tables and booths set up in the hangars along the air strip. I found myself sharing a table with an army ranger and his pet, Roxanne the Snake. The ranger wanted me to hold his snake. I said no. I hid behind my tower of unsold books. He insisted, so I told him I would only hold his snake if I sold all these books. (I never sell out at a signing.) But people kept buying books, and I was down to 3, so the ranger bought them all and I had to make good on my promise to hold his snake.

The snake seemed to like me. The ranger did not, because I told him his snake felt like a purse.

Anyway. Here I am with Roxanne, smiling through my inner silent screams of horror, earning any damn dress I want. For life. So there:

Note that this shot is slightly blurry. Why? Because Mr. Manly-Man Husband of Mine was standing about Note that this shot is slightly blurry. Why? Because Mr. Manly-Man Husband of Mine was standing about fifty yards away, too afraid to come closer, so this is with the zoom lens. And, I admit, I was not exactly holding still.

Diane von Furstenberg has to get her inspiration somewhere, right?

So...where are your favorite places to shop on the Internet? My bookmarks point me to http://www.net-a-porter.com/, http://www.anthropologie.com/, http://www.smartbargains.com/, and http://www.endless.com/. Shop on!

Visit me on the Web! You can find me here: http://www.susanwiggs.com/, my blog is here: http://www.susanwiggs.wordpress.com/ and my photo show at http://www.susanwiggs.shutterfly.com/.

Susan Wiggs

The Charm School - May 1, 2008


Special bonus material–I spotted this on Story Broads:
I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what’s underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I’m the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment
from its hanger like I’m choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin,
it’ll be the damned
dress they bury me in.
–Kim Addonizio

Jane K. Cleland | Jane’s Time Management Strategy: Just Say No to Cookies

For many years, I was the official "cookie baker" for my family’s holiday get-togethers. Chocolate chip cookies were my specialty, but I dabbled in sugar, chocolate, apple, creamy fillings, and other gourmet styles, too.

As the years passed, and I became busier at work, I grew less entranced with the prospect of baking dozens of cookies under enormous time constraints. In fact, to me, baking cookies for the holidays became a duty, not a pleasure. Then came the year when I was up past midnight completing the task. I was irritated and snappy. The next day, I grumbled to my husband that this had to stop. “I’m too busy to bake all these cookies!” I complained. And, cleverly, I thought, I asked him to call my mother and tell her that I was no longer going to bake cookies. He declined.

The next year, as cookie-baking time approached, I girded myself, picked up the phone and said, “Ma, I’ve made a decision. I’m just too busy. This year, I’m not going to bake cookies. I’m going to buy them instead.”

I’d expected a long, sad silence, followed by, “All right, dear,” or some similar, kindly worded phrase that left me feeling inadequate and guilty. Instead, do you know what my mother said? “Sounds smart!”

And in that one flash of a moment, I learned an important lesson. I learned that what I’d perceived as an obligation had never, in fact, existed at all. My family thought I liked baking cookies. And I did! I just didn’t like having to bake them. I’d volunteered once, then a second time, then a third, until finally it became an expected part of family get-togethers. I could have stopped any time, but I didn’t think I could The sense that it was a non-negotiable duty was all in my own head.

I recall that story a lot when I’m struggling with time management issues. I really, really want to spend my time doing things I value—not doing things other people value—or doing things because I think other people value them—or doing things that have become part of a tradition simply because they’re been done in the past.

That’s pretty unconventional thinking, I know. Most people value traditions for their own sake. I don’t. I value traditions for the deeper meaning they convey to me at that moment in time. And those deeper meanings shift as my circumstances and needs change.

For instance, I used to decorate like a wild woman for every holiday. I don’t anymore. For Halloween, as an example, I used to suspend paper skeletons from the ceiling in front of windows, adding backlighting so they’d glow eerily as they fluttered. To say nothing of the spiders and cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns! Now I put a few mini-pumpkins on the fireplace mantle and call it a day.

Why the change? I liked my big-time decorations—a lot. It was fun to do and fun to live with. I don’t do it anymore because I don’t need the joy the decorations provided to fill a void and I’d rather spend my time doing other things.

During the period when I’d decorated every nook and cranny of my apartment, I was enduring a tough time in my life—my mother had died, my brother had died, my beloved cat had died, and I’d gotten divorced after a 20-year marriage—all within a year or so. Decorating provided joy during a joyless time.

Things are different now. I’m happily remarried and doing work I adore. For the moment, all is well in my world.

In the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, my protagonist, Josie Prescott, is an antiques appraiser who uses her knowledge of antiques to solve crimes.

Josie likes to cook. She uses the recipes her mother wrote out by hand in a leather bound book as she lay dying, part of her legacy to her beloved daughter. Josie likes it when the recipes take time. She doesn’t want to hurry when she cooks. To her, multiple steps and complex instructions mean that she gets to spend extra time with her mom.

That’s luxury! To be able to spend time as you choose.

All of Josie’s mom’s recipes are on my website: www.janecleland.net/. (There are oodles of fun, free elements on the website in addition to the recipes, including several autographed book give-away drawings, an opportunity to pit your antiques appraisal skills against those of the experts in What’s It Worth? You Be the Judge, text and audio podcasts of excerpts, and book club discussion questions... and more. Sign up for the free newsletter, too!)

Time—we all have only so much of it. If you’re like me, you strive to spend it wisely, by your own definition of "wise."

But if you bake cookies for the holidays, may I please have one?

Your thoughts? I’d welcome your comments.

Jane K. Cleland

ANTIQUES TO DIE FOR, available April 2008.

Susan Whitfield | Tangled in seaweed and Testicles?

Genesis Beach, my first novel (published in 2007) tells the story of an investigative intern on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast, who is trying to solve the murder of a millionaire. Imagine her surprise when she discovers he was beaten to death with a sock! She pursues a prime suspect who is a slippery rascal (to borrow a phrase from the movie, Pretty Woman). While in pursuit, Logan Hunter must deal with a hurricane that wipes out most of her worldly possessions. At the same time she is having recurring sleep terrors that threaten to derail her when she realizes she may have been molested as a toddler. Her strength and determination keep her in the hunt, and she nails the killer even though she trusted the wrong person.

Just North of Luck evolved out of my need to carry on with Logan Hunter’s character. (Reader feedback indicated that she was likable and, perhaps, worthy of a few more adventures.) Logan is assigned to corral some bootleggers in the remote mountains of North Carolina when two murders occur. Once the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) is called in, Logan takes the lead and teams up with hunky Chase Railey, a local detective. Together they pursue the killer but not before more victims are added to the list. The serial killer is targeting school employees and using a diversity of means to off them, causing some of the murders to be classified as accidents. Over the months of investigation, Chase introduces Logan to Appalachian festivals, including The Testicle Festival. Yes, that’s what I said. Now, I must explain that there really is NO festival like this in North Carolina, as far as I know. However, I thought it would be fun to add such an event to an intense setting. It adds humor, I hope, (Logan is coerced into eating the delicacies), shock, and a much-needed break from the gruesome murders. Logan gets her first taste of love when Chase takes her to his cabin, and together they zero in on the killer. So, this book offers killing folks, eating testicles, and making love.

When I’m not writing, I’m reading. I keep a basket of books by my sunroom rocking chair at all times. I read all genres. At one time in my life I read only best selling authors, but the more I visit book and writings sites, the more unknown authors I read. I have found many writers who have become cyber friends of mine, “talking” through email and blogs, offering advice and encouragement, and reading each other’s work. Isn’t that great? Ah, the wide world! I’ve collected reviews as well as blurbs from some of these awesomely nice folks, and have reciprocated when asked to do so.

I’m often asked where the ideas come from. My answer? Reading, television shows, comedy acts, billboards, phone books, editorials, eavesdropping (just kidding). You get the idea. I have more ideas than I will ever be able to use! I’m also fortunate to live in a beautiful state where I can travel from the mountains to the sea in one day. There are many gorgeous regions here for inspiration.

My first video trailer (for Just North of Luck) is posted on my website, www.swhitfield.com/

I welcome feedback for this blog, my site, and the trailer.

Special thanks to FreshFiction for having me as a guest blogger. Keep reading! Susan Whitfield