Faster Than Kudzu

4Q with Rebecca Flowers (Yes. Four.)

Rebecca Flowers can’t count, but Lord knows she can write. I unabashedly LOVED her debut novel, NICE TO COME HOME TO,, enough to say so on the cover, on this blog, and recently in a bookstore to a browsing stranger.

Rebecca very sweetly came out to an event while I was touring for THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING, and she was as delightful in person as her prose is on the page. Look, this is us:

JJ: What writers influenced your work and how and why?
RF: When I first decided to write a novel, I read something that saved my life. Some big important writer, like John Irving or someone like that, said, Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, with your first novel. Just take a book you love and follow its plot. Don’t worry, your book will be your book. But you need a sort of road map to follow, your first time up at bat.
THIS IS GOOD ADVICE.
I decided to try my hand at updating Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, mostly because Pride and Prejudice had been done to death.

I was interested in how two sisters with different approaches to life – she of the head and she of the heart – fall in love. Whereas the Dashwood sisters become “unmarriageable” when they lose their dowry, the Whistler sisters are up against comparable modern-day forces: Pru is entering her late 30’s, and Patsy is the single parent of a young daughter. The men they fall in love with both seem too good to be true – and with good reason. The book follows the sisters as they try to put their lives together again, after true love wreaks its usual havoc.
Although I went in different directions with my ending for both of the sisters, I have to say, as I slogged my way through that sloggity first draft, thank HEAVENS I had such an excellent road map.
Austen is just a master at creating likeable, complex characters. I admire that incredibly.
Also, I kept a copy of Nick Hornby’s About A Boy always in reach, while I wrote this book. I also very much love Elinor Lipman, Melissa Bank, and Larry McMurtry.
JJ: Tell us about your own experience with LOVE… TWOO LOVE!

RF: My earliest readers had a hard time with Pru. One of them, a determinedly-single gal herself, had a violent reaction to Pru’s desire to settle down and get married, even if it meant forsaking some kind of great love. It really took me off-guard, I must say. I wondered if there was something wrong with me, that by the time I reached 35 I was in a similar frame of mind.

A writer named Lori Gottleib wrote about “settling” in the March issue of the Atlantic Monthly. She actually encourages women to do it, while they’re in their early thirties and optimally attractive. She thinks too many women wait for “true love,” which, according to Gottleib, doesn’t exist.

By the time I was 35 I knew I wanted to marry and have children. I’d been working my keister off, and I was ready to do something that seemed like it would give me something back. I wanted to be nestled safe and secure in the bosom of my family.

But I was with a guy I did not love. I didn’t know what to do – marry him, because at least he loved me, and would happily father some children? Or hold out for quote-unquote true love? Which I hadn’t experienced since the fourth grade? (Oh Danny Oliveri, you heartbreaker you!)

Well, the decision was made for me. I was dumped by my “safety”! I mean, what the?

It was the best thing he ever did for me. I owe that man like a case of Lowenbraus. Because that was when -- humbled, ashamed -- I met my husband. We were set up on a date by his brother, a good friend of mine.

We were supposed to meet for afternoon coffee; I didn’t get home until after one in the morning. I smashed into a table umbrella while walking toward him at dinner; he didn’t get the critical plot point of The Matrix. And – this will sound familiar – he wasn’t exactly available to me. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t, because I was totally in love with him by the end of the first date, when he asked me why Neo had to be resuscitated after being pulled out of that gooey human pod thingy.

Luckily, he made a decision that let us be together. I wrote NICE TO COME HOME TO about what would have happened if he hadn’t.

For the record, say I: hold out for true love. ‘Cause it’s just too hard to live with someone, under any other circumstance. And because yes, yes, YES!, it exists. It’s not what Lori Gottleib seems to think it is, however. True love is NOT the thing that gets you what you want out of life – a house, a baby, a family, perfect and unerring happiness. True love is the thing that complicates life, that makes it messy. And wonderful. And joyous. And profound. But will it get you what you’ve always wanted? Certainly not. Certainly, certainly not. It’s just like prayer, you know.

JJ: Tell us about YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH A BAD, NASTY CAT.

RF: In NICE TO COME HOME TO, our heroine, Pru, finds herself responsible for her ex-boyfriend’s very bad, very nasty cat, Big Whoop. Whoop seems intent on destroying the things Pru most cares about. But she’s stuck with him. (My husband likes to say that Big Whoop represents Pru’s libido. Hmm…)

I, too, was the victim of a bad, nasty cat who came to live with me. It’s a good story, but starts out sad.

I was introduced to my husband by his younger brother, Gil, who ran the writing workshop I belonged to in D.C. Andrew was going through a divorce at the time, and I had just been dumped in a manner readers of my book will find familiar. Gil set us up on a date, saying not to expect anything of each other.

Well, we had to go and fall in love with each other. Then, about six weeks after Andrew and I started dating, a shocking thing happened -- Gil was diagnosed with primary liver cancer. It’s the kind of cancer old men get, after lives of hard drinking. It was totally random and unfair and horrible, and six months later, shortly after his daughter’s first birthday, Gil died. I think he was about 35.

At the time of his diagnosis, Gil and Andrew and I were all living a few blocks from each other in Washington, DC. So when this all went down Andrew and I decided we would essentially live together, to make his apartment available to their parents, who lived in western Massachusetts, during Gil’s illness

So, a mere two months after our first date, Andrew moved in with me, bringing his two cats along with him. Although I’d only recently vowed to myself never to live with someone again until I was married, I was secretly thrilled. Like I said, I dug this guy. In a big way. It didn’t seem like much of a sacrifice, I must confess. And it felt good to be able to do something useful for the family.

But Zoe the cat was not a happy boy. He didn’t understand why he was in this lady’s apartment. He didn’t understand why she was feeding him, instead of Andrew. Furthermore, it smelled like other cats, even though other cats weren’t living there. It needed to be marked as Zoe the cat’s territory. It needed sprayed, and sprayed good.

I won’t go until too much detail here, but read the book. It’s all in there. Just like Pru, I was driven to take the boy to therapy. And guess what? It worked. Within, I don’t know, two weeks, he was a different cat. Less “anxious”. Happier. NOT SPRAYING MY THINGS. It was exactly as I’ve written it in the book – this therapist stood there telling me everything I was doing was wrong. I was to give Zoe everything a big fat old cat could ever want: space. Games. Petting. Food on demand. His choice of litter. And it worked! I had to swallow every bit of animosity I’d built up for that cat and learn to ACCEPT THE CAT FOR WHO HE WAS. I had to stop fighting, and start loving. It was very enlightening. Very Zen.

Zoe and I were never achieved pet-owner Nirvana, but we did manage to live together for a long time. Zoe taught me great lessons in tolerance, and opening to that which we think we can’t accept, and enzymatic cat urine removers. We shall never forget him.

JJ: I know you are a blogger, too. Why do you blog and does it feed you or take energy from you?

RF: I blog for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I need the contact with people. Okay, make that FEEDBACK. VALIDATION. LOVE . Whatever you want to call it, I need it, baby!

Writing – like bathing – is a lonely business. It’s a lot of hours sitting there thinking up thoughts inside your head. The blog lets me get things out quickly and get back some o’ the love – or whatever it happens to be that day – just as fast.

I have to laugh -- many, many times a day -- and I find the blog great for that. My friends are some of the funniest people in the world, I do believe. So when I find something that sets me off, I have to share it, immediately.

I love to check in there while I’m working. Sometimes someone will have left a comment while I wasn’t looking. It’s like getting a note passed to you in Social Studies class.

3Q with Deborah Leblanc (we were neither of us math majors…)

Hey guys – I am in Birmingham with a minor family emergency so will be out of pocket for a few days. Allow Deborah LeBlanc to entertain you in my absence; her latest release is Morbid Curiousity, and tra la la there is a BOOK TRAILER for it! I love watching those dern things---YouTube for Lit Junkies. You watch it by hitting the PLAY button on the very front page of her webpage.

JJ: What do you think of your cover and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

DL: I think the cover is perfect for the book. It’s dramatic, certainly eye-catching, and depicts the contrast between assumption and reality.

JJ: Your main character seems to be nothing like you. After all, your protagonist is a dewy 16, and you are the slightest bit older than that…What DO you guys have in common or, if nothing, how'd you manage to inhabit shoes so different from your own?

DL: Although I am way beyond 16, I still remember that horrid age .The societal issues that were relevant then haven’t changed over the years. My biggest challenge was getting the rhythm of the girls’ language and interaction with friends to ring true. To make that happen, I drilled my three daughters for details. 

JJ: A lot of writers read this blog how did you…find an agent?

DL: I found mine by querying 52 agents in the Guide to Literary Agents and Publishers

… sell that first book?

DL: Let the agent sweat those details. 

… come to realize you wanted to pursue writing as a career instead of a personal passion or a hobby.

DL: I do all three, so it’s all good!

JJ: What's a day in your life like?

DL: Out of bed by 5 a.m—inhale coffee—at the office usually by 6—go through emails, check to-do list, take care of the priorities for the day—and write/research in between.—back home around 6, slam dunk dinner, talk to my daughters on the phone to check in…write until 9 or ten—then collapse in a heap.

JJ: You write page turners with a supernatural edge, and action is your specialty…I hear you have trouble with your Joe-Schmoe-makes-breakfast scenes. How do you approach writing about the every day dull stuff that happens between action?

DL: To me, the hardest thing to write is about every day folks because lives can truly be boring. I just have to make sure that average Joe winds up in a not-so-average situation to keep things moving at a good, fast pace.

JJ: As a Southern writer, I think everything is about locationlocationlocation. How did growing up in Louisiana influence your work?'

DL: My Cajun heritage and the culture are so filled with unique folklore and special quirks, it’s easy to make the setting and the people in it colorful.

JJ:How important is location to you as a writer, or, a better way to say that might be, could these books be set anywhere else?

DL: My books will probably always have a Cajun flair to them. I might be able to set the story in Chicago, but the main character will probably revolve around a Cajun visiting that city.

JJ: What writers influenced your work and how and why?

DL: I enjoy Jodie Picoult’s work because she’s remarkable at characterization—James Lee Burke because his depiction of ‘Southern” is spot on—and Dean Koontz simply because, to me, he knows how to tell a good story.

JJ: Good choices….I just went on a Picoult backlist marathon--- she had several I had not read and I tore through three in a row. I know you blog both on your own website and on Murder She Writes. Why do you blog and does it feed you or take energy from you?

DL: I’ve been told that readers enjoy insight into the lives of the writers they read….so I blog…but it does sap a lot of energy out of me. Besides, I prefer telling a story over talking about myself any day.

JJ: Can you talk a little about the significance of your title and how you came up with it?

DL: The title of my books always come to me before the story is fleshed out in my head. In fact, the titles usually help mold the story. We all carry some form of morbid curiosity, (if we didn’t, we’d never have to worry about rubber-neckers at accident scenes!) so I thought it would make for a catchy title.

JJ: What's the weirdest thing you have ever done to try to promote your work or get the word out about a specific book?

DL: Was interviewed in a voodoo bar, cameras, lights, makeup, the whole ball of wax, by a television host.

JJ: How did you research the magical systems in your latest release? Books and google? Or did you get hands on?

DL: Most of my research on Chaos Magic and sigils was done over the internet, which in turn led me to people who actually practice it, and I was able to interview them in depth.
JJ: Do you think of yourself as a Southern writer, and what does that MEAN to you?

DL: I think of myself as a Louisiana writer, which is a bit different than being a Southern writer. Cajuns have a different rhythm to their language and lifestyle, in my opinion, than a typical Southerner. You know, now that I think about it, though, I don’t know that there really is a typical Southerner. Folks from Mississippi are certainly different from those in Georgia, and those from Georgia different from folks in Alabama….You’ve gotta love that great hodge-podge of nuances!

Updates, 3Q with Julie Kenner, and Shocking(!) News

Man, I have enjoyed reading the *&^@&^!(^#@ ing comments. You guys are fart and sunny, as my California homegirls say to mean Smart and Funny. Note to rereaders: If you search gods in Alabama for bathroom lovin’ you are doomed to disappointment. That happens in Between.

HEY! Did you see on WOOT.com
they are having a WOOT OFF? -if you do not know what this means then you do not know Scott’s SECOND favorite blog. *cough* Every day a new DEAL is up. We got a BLUE tooth from them and a portable 2 screened DVD thing that we use to keep from eating the children on long car trips. Good deals, there on the woot. A WOOT off is where they put up a FEW of something for very little money, and as soon as they all sell, they put up a few of something else.

LAST NIGHT!....Did you see that one the deals was a refurbed DYSON for 259 bucks + 5 bucks shipping? Did you see that by the time I finished waffling and said YES YES DO IT I WANT ONE and Scott clicked the “I want one” button that they were ALL GONE and that I missed a half price Dyson by about 4 seconds? Did you then see me STOMP AROUND and USE many of Very Bad Words we discussed on Wednesday? If the answer to all these questions is YES, then A) you are creepy and b) please come get all the hidden cameras out of my house.

The goodish-bad news is NOW I can NEVER buy a Dyson for MORE than 265 bucks, or I will feel CHEATED. SO! Perhaps that will abate my avarice. A little.

BUT WAIT! Julie Kenner is back to talk about the latest in her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series? YAY. I am pleased about that because I think she’s fart and sunny, just like you. I took one of her books in my BAG OF READING PLEASURES to the beach last year and QUITE enjoyed it. It’s Bufferiffic fun, this series, and the third one, DEMONS ARE FOREVER just launched.

JJ: What's a day in your life like?

JK: My schedule has changed dramatically over the years. At first, I was practicing law while writing and my husband was in grad school. We would both come home from work/school and write/study. Worked great :)

Then I had a baby, and life got hectic. I wrote in the evenings after she went to sleep until I could afford to quit and write full time. Then I had her in day care and would write during the day.

She has turned 5 and is in school now, but since we homeschool, she’s home with me during the day, and so is her sister, who we adopted at age three last October. So now I have two kids at home with me doing school (or preK play) during what used to be my writing time. So I’m back to writing in the evenings and squeezing it in.

Right now, a day might be:

7:30 — get up and veg in the recliner while the girls watch Curious George.

8:00 – noonish — school with the oldest while the littlest does “play school” and some speech and sign language games.

noon-1 — lunch, and I’ll usually answer emails while they eat

1-2 – any school we haven’t finished

2-5 – they play, sometimes by themselves, sometimes with me. I try to do non-writing writing stuff (emails, mailings, etc.). Or errands.

5-6 – daddy time. I write

Family time until their bedtime.

9-whenever. My writing time.

When I’m on a crazy deadline (like last week) going to bed at 2-3 is common. And I often will beg my mom to come over around lunch time once or twice a week to play with the girls so those afternoon hours can be writing time.

During those weeks we squeeze in karate, piano and speech therapy for the little one!

It’s insane, but I’m loving it.

JJ: What writers influenced your work and how and why?

JK: Stephen King — for his amazing stories, intricate plotting, and oh-so-real characters
Edward Eager — for showing magic in the “real” world
Madeline L’Engle — for strong characters in amazing realities that made me think

JJ: Your demon series is shelved as fantasy , but it has elements of mommy lit and romance and mystery. Can you explain how having a sort of HYBRID of genres helped or hurt you as you tried to market your book?

JK: Actually, I was extremely nervous when I learned it was going to be sold in as fantasy rather than as fiction. I called my editor in a panic, and was terrified that my readers wouldn’t find me. As it turns out, it was a brilliant marketing plan because the book has done well and found its audience, which keeps on growing. The romance readers have found the series (the 2nd book is currently up for a RITA award, the highest award in romance publishing) and I have gained a ton of readers (including many men) who might not have given the book a chance. The book has more of a chance to stand out (fewer “fantasy” books each month than “fiction”) and that bodes well for hitting lists, etc. So rather than a limitation, I think the placement has been beneficial. Marketing knows what they’re doing!! Also, I’ve done a few mystery cons, romance cons, and fantasy cons. The hybrid nature of the book has opened up the ways I can get my name out there. All good :)

Thanks Julie – always a pleasure to have you!

Lastly, AND BRACE YOURSELVES oh Best of my Best Beloveds, those regs who know me well, because I am about to say something you will find shocking…

I like a song.
Yes. A song.
It is a song made primarily up of MUSIC, and I LIKE it.

It is called FLATHEAD and it is by this band called something like The Fratellis that sounds like what would happen if the Pogues and the Clash had an angry baby.

Here, go watch them yodel it on You Tube.

Also by them, I like a song called the Gutterati? That there is no decent video to and which I can’t find a listen link to, but it is AWESOME.

So, dude, PUNKISHNESS is back? And no one TOLD me?
Discovering FLATHEAD led me to listen to more repunkers, and NOW….I like a WHOLE BAND. YES! AN ENTIRE BAND THAT IS CHOCK FULL OF SONGS!

They are called The White Stripes.
I like ALL their songs and I like how they SOUND and when I hear a song BY them I go, “Is that the White Stripes?” because I like them enough to recognize what they sound like. This is not UNprecedented, but it is ONE-precedented. I have not liked a whole band and all their songs and their sound since the late 80’s when I found Indigo Girls.

I a terrified that I may be experiencing personal growth.
I will work hard to bud nip it, never fear.

A Thought Provoking 3Q with Joni Rodgers

GOOD MORNING --- I am about to go grab Karen and head for New York. I told her I was going to show up a good half hour before I actually plan to be there, in the hopes that when I arrive, I will not find her standing around in her underpants with wet hair, looking helplessly down into a TOTALLY empty suitcase and saying, “Do you think I need to bring my wooden cloggy foot-bind looking shoes? Or just these toe flower things?”

Once there, we will meet up with Sara and Renee and do our very level best to get arrested. YAY!

While I sit on a plane, I leave you to be entertained by Joni Rodgers, who has joined me here to talk a little about the paperback release of her latest book.

In THE SECRET SISTERS, Pia feels the walls of her life closing in around her, until she discovers a strangely sensual world that leads her to a new existence. Lily, Pia's brash, tough-talking sister, makes a tragic mistake that leaves her incarcerated, body and soul, but in the prison library discovers a key that will unlock her mind and open her heart. Beth, married to Pia and Lily's brother, has never been able to admit her own failure as a mother. Finally forced to confront a tragedy of her own making, she discovers that the truth can set her free.

"Honesty, humor, and fearlessness...(Rodgers) illuminates the internal landscapes all women navigate." Houston Chronicle
JJ: Can you talk a little about the significance of your title and how you came up with it?

JR: Easter is a big deal in THE SECRET SISTERS, because the book is about resurrection more than anything else. There's even a character named Easter, a little girl killed by a drunk driver -- her aunt Lily. Someone with the best of intentions, but tragically bad judgment. After Easter’s death, her mother Beth is trapped in the past and must find a way past her grief and anger. Sentenced to seven years in prison, Lily loses her husband and everything else she loved about her life, but the prison library frees her mind and prepares her for a new life – and new love. For Lily’s sister Pia, the disintegration of the family brings on a powerful panic disorder that almost kills her. Her journey is the one most fraught with danger, as her fears leave her vulnerable to a seductive con artist, who leads her to an exhilarating new dawn, but at a terrible price.

The title refers to the three women (Mary, Joanna, and Magdalene, often called “The Secret Sisters”) who went to Jesus’ tomb at dawn on Easter morning -- the third day after the crucifixion. They found the tomb empty and were confronted by angels who said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen."

Two thousand years later, I often wonder the same thing, and I wanted to ask that question with this book. Are we looking for God in all the wrong places? Too many people of all religions -- many with the best of intentions but very bad judgment -- seek God among dead teachings that spout God's name, but were designed by men who use religion to divide and control. God is not there. He is among the living. The loving. The open-minded. The practitioners of daily loving-kindness. He rises up with the peace-makers and the forgivers and the healers.

We are the living. Ancient hatreds, past failures, fear we can’t see around, guilt we can’t give up—those are the dead. Like the Biblical Secret Sisters, the three women in this book journey from grief to wholeness, from fear to freedom. Each of the sisters dies and rises again in a different way, learning that redemption is tragedy cross-pollinated by grace.

JJ: What is the relationship between writing and motherhood? I mean this in a personal way -- for you. Does one feed the other, are they similar for you, does doing one make doing the other harder, do these things compete or come from the same place or? What?

JR: Watching the intimate daily evolution of two people from infancy to young adulthood has been an amazing gift, which deeply affects the way I think about people in general. When it comes to developing characters, it’s impossible for me to see one-dimensionally. I know now how every tiny moment of a person’s life weaves its way into who they are. And I know that there are no perfect heroes or perfectly evil villains. Everybody is somebody’s baby, and even if I don’t go into a detailed backstory for every character in every novel, I’d like to think that the perspective brings a certain depth to the people who populate my books.

My kids are also an unending fount of great dialogue and fresh ideas. And they definitely keep me grounded in real life any time I’m on a bus toward Diva Town. While the art of writing is something I do for myself, the craft and business is compelled by my desire to set a strong, successful example for them – and my need to pay their college tuition!

On the flipside, having a rich, vital writing life made it a lot easier for me when they both left home last year. The “empty nest” has been a lot easier to face than I thought it was going to be, because I’ve been able to throw myself into one great project after another without feeling guilty about the travel schedule or the crazy workaholic nose-to-the-grindstone hours I put in.

JJ:Tell us about your cancer experience and how it affected this book in particular and your writing career in general.

JR: I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1994. Chemo sidelined me from my acting career (such as it was), and I used the downtime to write my first two novels. Maybe it was the drugs, but it was like a whole new part of my brain came alive. (Picture me slapping my bald head like one of the Three Stooges. “Oh! So THIS is what I’m supposed to do with my life! How did I not know that?”) Chemo gave me the time and quiet to focus on writing for the first time, and in turn, writing gave me a way to process that devastating experience. After my first two novels were published by small presses and received generous reviews, BALD IN THE LAND OF BIG HAIR, my memoir about my cancer experience, was published by Harper Collins, which took my career to the next level.

I guess I’m still processing the cancer experience in some ways. Fear of recurrence is a huge issue for most cancer survivors. In the wake of 9/11, our country was left wounded and terrorized, and it was eerily reminiscent of my own fragile state in the aftermath of cancer. THE SECRET SISTERS is my response to that. It’s a parable about how vulnerable we become when we embrace fear as a lifestyle. It’s also an examination of the way tragedy can – and should! – change us. Survivorship is about accountability, courage, and hope. As we emerge from life’s refining fires, we have to learn from our mistakes, celebrate our strengths, and seize hold of every new day with joy.

Thanks Joni!

In Closing, allow me to share the PHONE PIC which finally came---Please note TOES OF DOG in the corner -- he is DYING for me to take those sandals off so he can EAT them. Stinker.

3Q with Becky Motew! (more contest entries below)

Today my guest is (the very funny) Becky Motew, here to talk about her new novel, COUPON GIRL

Booklist says, “Welcome to the not so glamorous but often hilarious worlds of mail-order marketing and community theater...Motew writes about every day life: work, family, relationships...there's plenty to love about this quirky novel.”

JJ: What do you think of your cover, and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

BM: I love the cover of CG. I had no idea what to expect. Because the book is half about coupons and half about theatre, specifically The Sound of Music, I had been sort of picturing a chorus line of nuns. Or something from a play. But with the title, that wouldn’t have worked. The cover I have is very Thelma and Louise, except the girl is by herself, so I guess it’s very Thelma. A girl is going someplace by herself and having a good time getting there. I LOVE that message.

JJ: I know you blog yourself over at COUPONS FROM THE EDGE. Why do you blog and does it feed you or take energy from you?

BM: It does both sometimes. I use it as practice. It’s open mike night for me. I try things out and see how they sound. Also, now that I have my digital camera, it’s way fun to show pictures from the inside of my kitchen cabinet and the high school track where I walk and personal things like that. I’m an instructor at two colleges and recently I photographed some of my students for the blog. They loved it.

Tell us about your experiences in community theatre, ya big secret actress, and how that helped you write the book.

Jeanie, my character, is a chorus member, though, and in real life I was fortunate to get lead parts . Well, secondary lead parts—the comic role, you know, the sidekick. That was me. Ado Annie, Rosalie, Miss Hannigan. But I had my share of stage romances, drama off the set, and cast parties that lasted two days.

Once in the early years, I was helping the house manager set up coffee and cookies in the lobby with another woman, who said she was in the Garden Club. My friend and I said oh, we should join that so we could get away from group politics. The lady looked very seriously at us and said, “Listen. If you’re trying to avoid politics, don’t join the Garden Club.”
I never did.

THANKS, BECKY.

10Q with, um, Me

THERE WILL BE A CONTEST ON MONDAY!!!! I thought of one, finally!

But for now, FTK reg Casey wanted me to do 3Q. Then she cheated and asked a bunch more. More proof that writers can’t count for squat…

CM: There are a billion books out there about how to BECOME a writer and get published and look pretty for an agent, etc. What I want to know is, what's it like to BE an author. I mean, do you finally get to stop living paycheck to paycheck?

JJ: Well, that depends on sales... I know working novelists who are regularly making book deals but who must work a day job to keep themselves in milk and Skittles. I know others who subsist bravely from advance to royalty check (our version of paycheck to paycheck), others who are comfortable and secure, others who have homes in different cities and a private jet to take them from one to the other.

The first kind is a LOT more common than the last kind. *grin*

CM: Do people recognize you on the street like they do with actors?

JJ: No.

It has happened a couple of times when I have been in bookstores, though, just shopping. After, I get to make “damn paparazzi” jokes, so I like it, even though it is a little…weird.

CM: Do you read books differently now that you know how they're made (kind of like sausages)?

JJ: In some ways, but this has less to do with behind the scenes stuff and more to do with MONEY. I am, shall we say, FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE… in the background you can hear my husband going, “*cough* tight wad *cough*” so BEFORE when I bought a books, I read them cover to cover. Period. If I spent my TEENY HORDE OF PRECIOUS MONEY on a book, I would wring every possible bit of pleasure out of the thing, even if the pleasures were scant and separated by MANY pages.

I once listened to THE WORST BOOK EVER PERPETRATED on audio. It was SO OVERBLOWN and melodramatic and the main character was such a WHINEY NARCISIST and all All ALL! the female characters just loooooooooved to sexy up to his deep tortured deep whiney depths, and UGH! Did I mention it was unabridged? ELEVEN hours of this guy. I listened to every bleeding minute, groaning and enraged, calling everyone I knew to scream about the horrid lines I had endured while driving to Kroger, and my friends would say, “TAKE IT OUT! GET A NEW AUDIO BOOK! WE BEG YOU! NO GOOD CAN COME OF THIS! YOU ARE GOING TO BURST A BLOOD VESSEL IN YOUR BRAIN.” And I would say, “Dude. I payed 40 bucks for that…” I couldn’t; bear to throw 40 bucks in the fire, even though in some ways, I ALREADY HAD.

And I have always been a book buyer…even back in the day when we were just married and I was a grad student and then a SAHM who made us grocery money by babysitting and he was in his starter job making twenty something thou a year which is NOT A LOT when you live IN Chicago…Even then, I bought books.

I reread, that’s part of why I need to OWN books, but another part is, if I like an author, I want them to get another book deal, and that means they need the sale. I thought of the books I BOUGHT new (as opposed to ones I bought used, or borrowed, or checked out of the library) as VOTES for a writer to keep going. I knew I could not afford to buy every book I read, but I bought my favorites. I understood buying-as-votes about the industry before I ever broke into it. Buying a debut novel or a novel by an author I had never read before was a little sexy---it felt like GAMBLING; I LOVED it when those gambles paid off and was BITTER when I lost---OH I was so bitter about that audio book. I am STILL bitter.

But now, because I am IN this industry, I have SO MANY BOOKS! Reps and trade shows folks and booksellers give me galleys and ARCs, people send me books for blurbs, both my American publisher and my UK publisher send me books, authors I am friends with mail me signed copies of their latest, and I buy books regularly by authors I like and new authors I think I might like and I am in a Signed First Editions Club. (BY THE WAY!!!! The LATEST first ed from that club is the new MICHAEL CHABON. I cannot WAIT to get my claws on THAT puppy. He DELIGHTS me, every word, every time.)

... So now, my TO READ pile is LUXURIOUS and HUGE, and if I don’t LIKE a book, I toss it aside and never re-open it. I not only believe that, “Life is to short to read bad books,” I also think life is probably too short to read good books that just don’t happen to speak to me.

CM: Are you more or less (or have you not changed at all) judgmental of other authors and their styles/writing abilities/getting-published abilities?

JJ: Same. I always read “like a writer.” There are things that get me every time and make me fall in love, and other things that I cannot forgive.

CM: Do you travel more?

JJ: Yes. Now, when I have time off, I want to be at home. *grin*

CM: Do you actually have an ENTIRE DAY to write?

JJ: HAHAHHAHAHAHA! No. Instead, I have children.

No no, actually I DO get whole days to write. But I wrote for years before I sold gods in Alabama ---short stories, many one act and two full length plays, two unpublished novels--- and I ALWAYS had whole days to write. My husband would take my kids out of town and GIVE me long weekends with just me, the cat, and the computer. He took my career seriously LONG before anyone in NYC did. *grin*

To finish TGWSS, I went to a hotel for a week and LIVED in sweatpants, fed only on Twix bars and Shiraz. So. I guess the answer is YES, but that’s not NEW.

CM: Do you see your family less/more/the same?

JJ: A little less. Because of the travel. But when I am at home, my schedule is the same. I am a mom and wife first, novelist second. I write when my kids are at school and have a mother’s helper three mornings a week in summer, and Scott gives me those weekends 4 or 5 times a book. Next year, Maisy goes to Kindergarten instead of a 3 hour little preschool thing---WOW. I wonder if I will WRITE more or SLEEP more? Probably neither. Probably I will play World of Warcraft more…

CM: Do you get to be Real Life Friends with other authors (other than ones you might already know from your normal Outside Your Publisher life), or do you just see them at publishing house parties?

Both. Some writers you meet and you click and are friends. Others you meet and like and then you are always happy to see them at conferences and whatnot, but you don’t call them when you are passing through their town and ask to sleep on their couch, you know? Others are very shy, introverted people who hole up in their rooms, and I try not to inflict my rowdy self upon them, even if (especially if) they are my heroes.

I am generally found in the bar at these sorts of things. (I don’t get drunk---if I drink too much, I have to go to sleep and miss the fun parts, plus too many times I have seen the people who DO get drunk kinda…inadvertently BECOME the fun parts. *grin*) But I stay down in the bar and I nurse my pretty cocktails along and enjoy being with ACTUAL ALIVE PEOPLE. In my work at home, I mostly only get to play with IMAGINARY people. After the bar closes, I am with the last lingering die hards, hanging out like derelicts in Sonny Brewer’s room. The only writers I have ever met who have consistently beaten me at LAST AT THE PARTY are Lee Child, Tommy Franklin, and Beth Ann Fennelly. Those three are secretly made of robot parts. They do not sleep.

CM: Are other people ( i.e., family and friends) more or less critical of your writing as you continue with your career?

JJ: My family has always been and remains WILDLY supportive and crazy about my stuff. I worried there would be this post publishing reaction where my writing group and crit partners would start to go SOFTER on me, but, um, not MY crit partners. LORD they hit me in the face with BRICKS when I get off the track…I love them for that.

CM: Is it different than you thought it would be?

JJ: Yes.

Isn’t everything?

3Q with Kelly Parra (Now with Bonus Undead Cannibal Readers!)

This week, my 3Q guest is YA author Kelly Parra whose hip new title Graffitti Girl tells the story of Angel Rodriguez, a headstrong, independent youngartist. When her entry for a community mural loses to Nathan Ramos--a senior track star and Angel's secret crush--she's angry and hurt.
That's when Miguel Badalin--from the notorious graffiti crew Reyes Del Norte--opens her eyes to an underground world of graf tags and turf wars. Soon she's running with Miguel's crew, pushing her skills to the limit and beginning to emerge as the artist she always dreamed she could be. But Nathan and Miguel are bitter enemies with a shared past, and choosing between them and their wildly different approaches to life and art means that Angel must decide what matters most before the artist inside of her can truly break free.

JJ: What do you think of your cover and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

KP: I'm very pleased with my cover. It conveys Graffiti Girl exceptionally well with the girl holding the messy spray can. haha! The only aspect that was different from what I thought might be included was a graffiti filled wall somewhere in the background. I think with the can the main focus and the lovely purple, the cover is eye-catching.

JJ: Your main character seems to have a lot in common with you. You both _are Mexican American and were teen artists . How is she different from you?

KP: What is different about my heroine Angel and myself is that she grasps onto her art as her self-worth and the only way she can communicate her inner feelings. In high school, I loved my art but I didn't need to take action with it. I was content with creating just for myself and I also would communicate a lot with my close friends, where Angel has a tougher time doing so.

JJ: Was graffiti part of your life as a teen?

KP: I loved art since the fifth grade. I was always drawing or painting at school or on my own. When I reached high school, my group of friends were into graffiti art and I became fascinated with the bold style. I tried my hand at graffiti designs on paper, however I was never really any good at it. After years past and I started to focus on writing, I thought I could connect with teen readers. A story line about graffiti was the first idea to pop in my head and I began to research more about the method. Luckily my agent and MTV Books thought I had an interesting story with Graffiti Girl too. :)

Thanks Kelly!

In other news, BETWEEN, GEORGIA debuted on the SIBA bestsellers list at number 11 last week, so THANK YOU to all you DARLING DARLINGS in the comments and the equally darling but non-commenting darlings who gave it to their moms for Mother’s Day or picked up a copy for a sister or husband or brother or friend, just because.

Lastly, Amy (the webmaster at the Huntsville library) picked up a signed HB copy when I was over there last week, and she sent me the following mail:

I thought you'd get a kick out of a photo from my weekend. I was in
Loganville for a dragoncon*tv photo shoot (we film lots of spoof commercials that air during dragon*con).

I had to work pretty hard not to get the stage blood on my newly-signed
book. I've always suspected that authors find it fascinating to know what happens to their books once they're purchased and go out on their own, but somehow I doubt you pictured 'zombie photo shoot.'

3Q with Lauren Barnholdt (and Then Maisy Jane Explains The Nature of God. You're Welcome)

FTK reg Nienke sent me this ---

Man! I have been “cat busy” all week, doing absolutely NOTHING really, feeling about as productive as if I had scheduled an hour for waving a pink sock flag off my toes. Every second it seems like I am doing something and yet…nothing gets done.

While I try to ACTUALLY get a few things off my TO DO LIST --- which has grown so green and mossy and unwieldy and vast I suspect it is gearing up to become sentient---- I will let Lauren Barnholdt
talk to you about THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY! which us launching MIX! Simon and Schuster’s new imprint for tweens. Tweens, for those not in the know, is what they call “pre-teens” these days. Devon, the heroine, is thirteen…

While Devon Delaney was living with her grandmother for the summer, she told her "summer friend," Lexi, that she was really popular back home and dating Jared Bentley, only the most popular guy at school. Harmless lies, right? Wrong. Not when Lexi is standing at the front of Devon's class, having just moved to Devon's town. Uh-oh. Devon knows there's only one way to handle this -- she'll just have to become popular! But it seems the more Devon tries to keep up her "image," the more things go wrong. It all has Devon wondering -- who is the real Devon Delaney?

JJ: What writers influenced your work and how and why?

LB: Honestly, I feel like every writer influences my work. There’s nothing that inspires me more than going into a bookstore and just seeing all the books, and thinking about how someone sat down to write that book. It motivates me to get back to the computer.

JJ: I know you blog, too. Why do you blog, and does it feed you or take energy from you?

LB: I think it feeds me, definitely. I love blogging. I like the chance it gives me to interact with other writers and readers, since sometimes it gets lonely being a writer. Plus, when embarrassing and humiliating things happen to me (kind of a lot), I’m always like, at least I can blog about this!

JJ: Have you ever lied about something like you character does in THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY?

LB: Okay, fine. Time to come clean. When my friends and I were in junior high, we were dating this group of guys from another school. So we made it seem like we were super popular at our school, and that all the boys wanted us. Which wasn’t even close to being true. One night some of the guys we lied to played basketball against some of the boys from our school who supposedly wanted us, and I just kept thinking, God, I hope none of them talk. And that was the inspiration for THE SECRET IDENTITY OF DEVON DELANEY. Only, unlike in my situation, poor Devon’s lies catch up with her.

Thanks, Lauren!

Lastly, I must stop making pink sock puppets and recount a conversation Himself had with Maisy yesterday. Miss Mais-O-May thinks her life is a musical... At any moment, if something of note occurs, Maisy will burst into narrative song while arabesque-ing and pirouetting about. It’s VERY gypsy.

Like just today she crept into my office and drooped by my chair and sang this dirge-like hymn:

OH IT IS A TERRIBLE DAY!
MY MOTHER WILL NOT GIVE ME A POPSICLE!
OH IT IS VERY SAD AND THE SUN IS NOT OUT TODAY FOR ME!” <--- actual transcribed lyrics.

Sometimes she sings about pretends she is having, like the other day she sang,

“I AM WALKING!
IN THE MISTY FOREST!
BUT I CAN’T SEE TOO GOOD!
BECAUSE IT IS A MISTY!

So anyway. Scott was driving her about and Maisy was singing to herself about the nature of God:

Maisy: GOD IS MY FAVORITE BOY! HE IS THE BOY WITH THE MOST IMAGINATION!
Scott: Maisy? How do you know God is a boy?
Maisy: *in the tone of a person explaining something very simple to a creature who is clearly not too bright* Because DAD! At the end of our prayers, we say aMEN. We don’t say aWOMEN!

HA! Scott had no way to rebut this bit of pre-K wisdom, so it is official. God is a boy. With a good imagination.

3 Questions with Paula Hyman (and more Psychic Amazon Jackson Books)

In So Not The Drama, Paula Hyman introduces readers ages 11+ to bright-eyed optimist Mina Mooney, a high school freshman with nothing more on her mind than climbing the popularity ladder, until a sociology experiment to rid the world – or at least Del Rio Bay High School – of prejudice backfires. The project causes a rift between Mina and her best friend, Lizzie and sends Mina on a journey of exploration that’s both funny and eye-opening.

Booklist calls it a “Contemporary friendship story, which revels in rich diversity of race, color and class,” and Publisher;s Weekly says, “Readers will like the genuine dialogue.”

JJ: Who did you dedicate this book to and why?

PH: I dedicated So Not The Drama to three people, my two daughters and one of my best friends, Eddie Sellman. I dedicated it to my girls because this series is my gift to them. I grew up without a series depicting African American suburbanites. And though that never ever stopped me from reading voraciously, as a mom it bothered me that the void still existed some twenty years later. So this is for my girls, may the void in teen lit I experienced be dead and buried forever and ever amen.

I dedicated it to Big Ed because he and I rolled in the same clique in high school. We were a core of best friends who had some of the greatest times – good, bad, ugly. Right around the time my final mss was due, Big Ed passed away. It was the first time I’d lost one of my closest friends. Since the book is about a close-knit group of friends, it was fitting that I honor one of my own dear friendships by dedicating it to him. After all, our high school years was an inspiration for the Del Rio Bay Clique.

JJ: This book is the start of a series… How do you keep timeline/world you have built straight and characters fresh, growing and yet still themselves from book to book? Did you always plan for it to be a series, and if so, did you structure the first book differently, knowing another would follow?

PH: I’d always planned for So Not The Drama to be part of a series. I actually wrote the second in the series, directly after the first. I had two other storylines in mind, as well. But I didn’t flesh them out because my focus was on getting the first book sold.

Right now, there are a total of five books planned for the series. I don’t want this to be an open-ended series. Right before I go to write book #5 I’m going to look at the series’ future and decide on a number. I don’t want my characters to overstay their welcome. Unofficially, I’d like to take them through their senior year. So there’s the possibility of having two books per year – you know, to cover fall and spring semesters. So if that’s the case, there would be nine books total.

Hey, I think I just kind of committed myself to a close-ended series of nine books! Let’s see if my publisher will go along for the ride.

I was at the SCBWI Mid-winter in ’06 and Francine Pascal mentioned there was a Sweet Valley High reunion of sorts planned, showing her characters as adults. That sounded interesting. But…not sure my mind is going there. I’ve been asked if I’d consider doing something like that. But it’s way too early to know if that’s in the cards.

When it comes to keeping the timeline and world straight and fresh, I’ll admit, it’s a challenge for me. For being such a planner, I am horrible with wrangling paperwork. It’s why I don’t outline stuff. I get too excited and want to jump right in!

I have an author’s wish list. It consists of all the things that would make my life as a writer easier. At the top is a comprehensive binder detailing the world I’ve created. Man, that would make my life sweet! But when I sit down to start it, I immediately grow bored with it. Writing is so much more fun than book housekeeping. So I use the guide provided by my Copy Editor. It’s a big help. What’s missing are those little details about a character that are hard to retain when you’re writing about so many people. My cast is six-strong. And even though everyone isn’t the focal point each book, they’re all playing some part each time. It’s exhausting trying to remember who looks like what, or their mannerisms.

Seriously, I need an intern. If anyone would like to intern with an author who is a bit scatter-brained, please look me up!

JJ: You were popular in high school. So. Um. What was THAT like?

You know, I endure a lot of “cheerleader/popularity” bashing. I’ve been in countless conversations with other adults and when the conversation gets around to high school experience it seems that someone always utters this, with a roll of their eyes “well, I wasn’t a cheerleader or in the popular crowd.” And of course popular has air quotes around it.
I always feel like sticking my head in the sand since I was a cheerleader and was popular. It’s like if you were either of these things you were automatically a huge, rhymes with witch. And that wasn’t the case, for me. I look back on my high school years fondly. Being popular wasn’t necessarily who I was or what I labeled myself. It was just the way other people viewed me.
I had a group of very close friends and my world revolved around them. But I was also very active in high school – so my life was full and I was well-known because I was so active. I guess that’s what popularity is, being well-known. So that’s why I can say I was popular. But I wasn’t a mean girl type and being popular wasn’t a priority.

What I’ve tried to do with my main character in So Not the Drama is make her a very involved student, which puts her in the mix of a lot of people. So by sheer volume of people she interacts with through cheerleading, track, writing for the school paper etc…she’s “popular.” But she’s also quite obsessed with being more popular.

I’m trying to show that popularity is relative and that for those people who are “ultra” popular they’re nothing more than slaves to that status – very fake, always on stage people. My MC, on the other hand, isn’t like that. Despite realizing others are like that, she still wants that ultra pop status.

Contrary to popular belief (even my mom thinks so), So Not The Drama is NOT autobiographical. I just wrote what I thought would be fun, a peek inside the various high school circles. For every similarity I share with my MC, we’re also quite different. And most of the experiences in the book are things I wished I could have done as a teen.

THANKS PAULA!

IN OTHER NEWS, The fantastical DEB R has “found” another book Psychic Amazon has decided I should write…

Okay, look, this is a long standing FTK in joke… here is the thing about the pink socks---first you have to read the entry where the WHOLE PINK SOCKS THING BEGAN.

Quite a cliff hanger ending, eh? Aren’t you breathless, I mean BREATHLESS!!! to know what happened next? No? Me neither. So the next day I had a 3 questions interview, and I said, “I am not going to finish my highly anticipated thrilling sock epic today -- PUT DOWN THE KNIFE! IT IS OKAY! THERE ARE OTHER PERFECTLY GOOD REASONS TO LIVE! I shall defer the rest of the story about my SOCKS (what is WRONG with me???) because a Merciful God has declared it is time for 3 questions…” etc etc. Upshot: I didn’t finish the sock story.

The NEXT day, my blog turned one year old, and I forgot about the socks as I did a birthday post, and the next post I had links and general housekeeping to do, and then gods was about to come out and I had to panic and flail, THEN I got stomach flu (and who wouldn’t pause to blog THAT?) and then I took an interesting trip to Nashville and Maisy fell in love with a 3 year old boy she called AYEX (all more blogworthy topics than SOCKS, fer cryin’ cats) and and and and life kept happening, life AFTER pink socks, until I FORGOT what happened with the socks that made me want to write an entry. All I remember is, I wore pink socks skating. Which, really, I had covered that already.

The regs here do not accept that. The Pink Socks have become the Shangri-La of blog entries, a lovely and coveted thing, transcendent but never attainable, the theoretical perfect blog entry that would end all blogging forever should its Socratic Cave perfections ever become manifest in the world. Now ANY time I say “Oh I have to go, I will finish this tomorrow,” the unforgiving Cult of Sock rises and says YOU WILL SO TOTALLY SHAFT US ON THIS! WE KNOW IT!

Okay, first of all, SINCE the socks, I have MULTIPLE times told stories in halves and always (um, almost) remembered to finish. SECOND! I suspect Sock Part Deux was something dumb, just me planning to make a molehill out of a lumpy pebble, and thirdiferously, I WOULD blog it, I REALLY WOULD, I swear because you KNOW you are my Best Beloveds and I would not deny you… but I have NO IDEA what happened.

Still, let’s look at the close-up. I like how Deb, no doubt feeling vengeful about the never-to-be-told sock story, is letting me set my own hair on fire...Grace in motion, I am, even in FICTION.

Three Questions with Sara Rossett

Welcome back Sara Rossett,
writer of a series of cozy mysteries about a military wife who can’t seem to stay out of trouble of the dead-bodies-popping-up variety. I spent the first half of my childhood on military bases---Daddy was Army---so I’ve got a special interest in this series and am delighted to welcome Sara back to talk about the second book. I interviewed her about Moving is Murderlast year.

The latest, StayingHome is a Killer follows Ellie Avery as she strives to balance motherhood, marriage, and her professional organizing business, but her ordered world is thrown into disarray when a fellow military spouse’s death looks more like murder than suicide. Toss in her husband’s deployment and her daughter’s separation anxiety, and Ellie has to keep the home fires burning as she sort clues from chaos and proves that home is not for killers.

Publisher’s Weekly says, “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.”

JJ: So, you've weathered the release of your debut novel with grace and aplomb---How is the publication of a second novel different?

SR: I was writing the third book and going down to the deadline with it, so I didn’t have nearly the same amount of time to promote the second book before its release. The deadline for book # 3 fell three days before the release date of my second book, so I felt way behind the power curve for Staying Home is a Killer.

Fortunately, I was able to do a lot of promoting with the first book, so a good bit of the promotion stuff was already in place. I only had to update press releases instead of writing them from scratch. I did feel more comfortable because it was my second time through the process. I knew what to expect for copyedits and uncorrected proofs. There wasn’t quite that same level of giddiness that came with the first book, but I’m still very excited to have another book out and I actually think the second book is stronger than the first.

JJ: How do you keep timeline/world you have built straight and characters fresh, growing and yet still themselves from book to book?

SR: I have to write down a timeline to keep all the dates straight. Last summer I had to work up outlines for the next three books in the series and I would have gone crazy without the long timeline that noted when people were born, when they married, and when certain books are set. I also rough out a calendar for each book so that I know what happens on each day. The first book, Moving is Murder, took place over about four weeks. Staying Home is a Killer, the second book, was a bit shorter, but I still needed a calendar for the three week storyline. I’ve just completed the third book, Getting Away is Dangerous, and it clocked in at one week.

Since my characters move every so often (Ellie is a military spouse) that helps to keep the story fresh with new settings. The fact that Ellie’s a mom helps, too, because no matter what stage of life your kids are in there are always new challenges to face and that means Ellie has to keep growing and changing as her family changes. It’s a fine line. I want to welcome a reader back into a world they love, but I can’t let that world get stagnant or boring because then the reader would lose interest. I’m still working on that balance!

JJ: Tell us about your experiences with military deployments.

SR: A large part of Staying Home is a Killer explores what Ellie’s life is like when her husband is unexpectedly deployed. I’ve been in that situation many times. The unknown is tough to deal with. Staying home when your spouse deploys really is a killer. You have to deal with loneliness and worry. Then there’s the added responsibility. Overnight you go from being a couple to handling everything on your own—the kids, the bills, and the house. Everything falls on you. Even though it’s a fictional story, I tried to accurately portray the emotional roller coaster of a deployment in Staying Home is a Killer and show that the loneliness, the frustration, and the worry are all normal.

Answer Comment Questions Day

BUT FIRST! THE HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are coming, you know. And with them comes present shopping in the dread malls of America. I personally finish my Christmas shopping BEFORE Thanksgiving or I get barn sour. I hate crowds and it brings my happy show down if I see mean people snapping at each other over the last BRATZ doll while a piped in Muzac version of Little Drummer Boy plays. I LOVE to shop for my family and friends though, but…malls? NO! NO! and NO AGAIN! This is why Al Gore invented the internet. So I can shop from home.

May I humbly suggest a signed, personalized first edition of gods in Alabama or Between Georgia? Or perhaps BOTH, if you RILLY like someone. I’m doing a Holiday Edition of the Virtual Book Signings I do with Alabama Booksmith…You have until the WEDNESDAY before Thanksgiving (That’s November 22nd) to get your orders in, and I’ll go by the BookSmith and sign em that day.

You can order here
or you can just CALL them at (205) 870-4242 and put your order in over the phone.

You’ll be supporting a ROCKIN’ independent bookstore, AND you’ll be supporting my novel writing, which allows me to buy little frivolities like food and medicine that make my life such a pleasure, AND you’ll get a portion of your holiday shopping done AND!!! You’ll have something personal and unusual to give Mom or your friend or your especial pet best auntie or your cousin Jack. Dude, we all win.

ONWARDS... In the spirit of Ze Frank ( Suh-Suh-Suh-Sumthin’ from the comments) I better answer some of the questions accumulating in the comments. It's like we're doing three questions, and you get to be me and ask, and I get to be the special guest answerer.

Speaking of my vastly overweight Walrus-Poodle, Jas said: Heck, he's a chunky kind of cat. My vet told me cats rarely overeat. Perhaps he is bored?

You know, perhaps he is. But he’s very world weary and jaded, and he cannot leave the house because he FIGHTS and he only has one eye. So. I’ve gone the cat toy route with him: Feather on a stick. Catnip mouse. Bell balls. I flail the stick around him and trail it along in front of him and hide it behind cushions and have it peek out at him, and he cocks the three-sprout of whiskers he calls an eyebrow and looks fondly down his nose at me, as if he thinks I am a very cute sort of disturbed person, and he hopes I am having a good time playing with my stupid feather thing.

He also has shown no interest in cooking classes, reading Proust, helping with the Domestic Engineering portion of my day, or watching Dexter on Showtime On Demand. The cat is clearly dead inside.

His favorite activity, when he DOES any sort of activity, is beyond my control. There’s this prissy little yaller cat with white feet, goes by Ginger, and Ginger likes to sit on our porch and sometimes our deck. When she does, Schubert’s one eye takes on a maniacal and murderous gleam, and he begins hurling his MASSIVE body at the closest window again and again and again, until the wall is shuddering, and all the while he releases this low pitched gravelly keening noise which I strongly suspect is the FIRST sound you hear should you be so unfortunate as to die and go to hell, the sound a TRULY happy deamon releases as it spots fresh meat.

I suppose I COULD get some sort of YALLER CAT DECOY and set it down on the porch as Trying To Bust Through The Wall and Murder Ginger is his aerobic activity of choice, but I’m not sure my windows could withstand a regular regime of such treatment.

Thus Sagt Edgy Mama: We need a shot of the ridiculous poodle tail up in the air, please?

I TRIED! Alas! He won’t HOLD it up in the air without LASHING IT ANGRILY. When he is at peace, the tail is at peace, and I have 30 pictures of an UPRIGHT LASHING POODLEY blur to prove it.

Desi, enchanted by the idea of HUGE FLOPPY FANTASY PANTS, asked, “by the way...where do you get those pants?”

First, you have to get my friend Amy pregnant. That’s key. Amy does pregnancy RIGHT, which means she gains as much weight as HUMANLY POSSIBLY without bursting her skin. Me too, by the way. I feel that pregnancy REQUIRES me to eat entire bags of revolting Palmer’s chocolate flavored wax, one after another.

ANYWAY. You get her pregnant. Then after she has the baby, she FINDS AND AQUIRES the pants to contain her post partum body. Then YOU have to get pregnant and gain as much weight as humanly possible. After Amy has returned to her normal size, you will have the baby, and she will GIVE you the fantasy pants. Three pairs in various Indian prints. It will make you feel good to wear them because even though they are large enough to contain the city of Amarillo, Texas, the tag staunchly proclaims them to be size “Medium.”

After you lose MOST of your baby weight (retaining 5 extra pounds forever PER baby, apparently) you do NOT pass the pants on to the next pregnant friend like you promised to do when the pants were gifted you. Instead, you decide to pretty much live in them whenever you are working. You can invite other people to come live in them too, whole crowds, but it might be distracting.

Good luck with the getting Amy pregnant, by the way. She already has three little rowdy boys. Also, her husband might not like you trying.

Answer Comment Questions Day

BUT FIRST! THE HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are coming, you know. And with them comes present shopping in the dread malls of America. I personally finish my Christmas shopping BEFORE Thanksgiving or I get barn sour. I hate crowds and it brings my happy show down if I see mean people snapping at each other over the last BRATZ doll while a piped in Muzac version of Little Drummer Boy plays. I LOVE to shop for my family and friends though, but…malls? NO! NO! and NO AGAIN! This is why Al Gore invented the internet. So I can shop from home.

May I humbly suggest a signed, personalized first edition of gods in Alabama or Between Georgia? Or perhaps BOTH, if you RILLY like someone. I’m doing a Holiday Edition of the Virtual Book Signings I do with Alabama Booksmith…You have until the WEDNESDAY before Thanksgiving (That’s November 22nd) to get your orders in, and I’ll go by the BookSmith and sign em that day.

You can order here
or you can just CALL them at (205) 870-4242 and put your order in over the phone.

You’ll be supporting a ROCKIN’ independent bookstore, AND you’ll be supporting my novel writing, which allows me to buy little frivolities like food and medicine that make my life such a pleasure, AND you’ll get a portion of your holiday shopping done AND!!! You’ll have something personal and unusual to give Mom or your friend or your especial pet best auntie or your cousin Jack. Dude, we all win.

ONWARDS... In the spirit of Ze Frank ( Suh-Suh-Suh-Sumthin’ from the comments) I better answer some of the questions accumulating in the comments. It's like we're doing three questions, and you get to be me and ask, and I get to be the special guest answerer.

Speaking of my vastly overweight Walrus-Poodle, Jas said: Heck, he's a chunky kind of cat. My vet told me cats rarely overeat. Perhaps he is bored?

You know, perhaps he is. But he’s very world weary and jaded, and he cannot leave the house because he FIGHTS and he only has one eye. So. I’ve gone the cat toy route with him: Feather on a stick. Catnip mouse. Bell balls. I flail the stick around him and trail it along in front of him and hide it behind cushions and have it peek out at him, and he cocks the three-sprout of whiskers he calls an eyebrow and looks fondly down his nose at me, as if he thinks I am a very cute sort of disturbed person, and he hopes I am having a good time playing with my stupid feather thing.

He also has shown no interest in cooking classes, reading Proust, helping with the Domestic Engineering portion of my day, or watching Dexter on Showtime On Demand. The cat is clearly dead inside.

His favorite activity, when he DOES any sort of activity, is beyond my control. There’s this prissy little yaller cat with white feet, goes by Ginger, and Ginger likes to sit on our porch and sometimes our deck. When she does, Schubert’s one eye takes on a maniacal and murderous gleam, and he begins hurling his MASSIVE body at the closest window again and again and again, until the wall is shuddering, and all the while he releases this low pitched gravelly keening noise which I strongly suspect is the FIRST sound you hear should you be so unfortunate as to die and go to hell, the sound a TRULY happy deamon releases as it spots fresh meat.

I suppose I COULD get some sort of YALLER CAT DECOY and set it down on the porch as Trying To Bust Through The Wall and Murder Ginger is his aerobic activity of choice, but I’m not sure my windows could withstand a regular regime of such treatment.

Thus Sagt Edgy Mama: We need a shot of the ridiculous poodle tail up in the air, please?

I TRIED! Alas! He won’t HOLD it up in the air without LASHING IT ANGRILY. When he is at peace, the tail is at peace, and I have 30 pictures of an UPRIGHT LASHING POODLEY blur to prove it.

Desi, enchanted by the idea of HUGE FLOPPY FANTASY PANTS, asked, “by the way...where do you get those pants?”

First, you have to get my friend Amy pregnant. That’s key. Amy does pregnancy RIGHT, which means she gains as much weight as HUMANLY POSSIBLY without bursting her skin. Me too, by the way. I feel that pregnancy REQUIRES me to eat entire bags of revolting Palmer’s chocolate flavored wax, one after another.

ANYWAY. You get her pregnant. Then after she has the baby, she FINDS AND AQUIRES the pants to contain her post partum body. Then YOU have to get pregnant and gain as much weight as humanly possible. After Amy has returned to her normal size, you will have the baby, and she will GIVE you the fantasy pants. Three pairs in various Indian prints. It will make you feel good to wear them because even though they are large enough to contain the city of Amarillo, Texas, the tag staunchly proclaims them to be size “Medium.”

After you lose MOST of your baby weight (retaining 5 extra pounds forever PER baby, apparently) you do NOT pass the pants on to the next pregnant friend like you promised to do when the pants were gifted you. Instead, you decide to pretty much live in them whenever you are working. You can invite other people to come live in them too, whole crowds, but it might be distracting.

Good luck with the getting Amy pregnant, by the way. She already has three little rowdy boys. Also, her husband might not like you trying.

3Q with Karin Gillespie

Karin Gillespie
cracks me up --- this is a chick who gives good interview. And she has new book out called Dollar Daze.
It’s the third in her beloved Bottom Dollar girls series, and it’s a privilege to have her here.

JJ: What's the most interesting/funniest/weirdest thing you have ever done to try to promote your work or get the word out about a specific book?

KG: When my first novel Bet Your Bottom Dollar came out, I heard scads of horror stories about book signings and how often the only people who speak to you are those who are looking for the restroom. Bad book signings are so common there’s even a book about them, aptly titled Mortification: Writers’ Stories of Their Public Shame.

I decided I didn’t want to be mortified all by myself so I came up with the idea of touring with three other authors. I’d heard about the Deadly Divas, a group of mystery writers who toured together. Since my novel was Southern I thought it would make sense to invite three other Southern novels and call ourselves the Dixie Divas. I dubbed myself the Dollar Store Diva (because my series revolves around a former dollar store called the Bottom Dollar Emporium).

The Divas and I dress in boas and tiaras and put on a lively show and reading with jokes and anecdotes. We’ve traveled together for over two years now and have received tons of press. When traveling all four of us pile into one car and one hotel room. I like to call us Thelma and Louise squared. (Sadly we don’t have our very own Brad Pitt but we’ll willing to consider any potential candidates.)

We haven’t been completely spared moments of mortification. Once, on a tour of Florida, the Cocoa Library hosted us. Our audience wasn’t large and most were retirees. The librarian apologized for the small turn out and one of the patrons overheard her.

“You should have been here last week,” the patron said. “There was an author here who had them lined outside the door. They were packed in like sardines.”

“Who was the author?” I asked, imaging Grisham, Pat Conroy or even Paula Deen.

“Well, I don’t recollect the name of the author,” the patron said. “But I do remember the name of his book. It was called Overcoming Incontinence.”

So there you have it. Despite all our glamour and pizzazz, the Divas were upstaged by incontinence. Who knows? Next trip it might be hemorrhoids.

JJ: You recently remarried --- Gratz! Tell us about yer fella?

I was in what I call “the hospice” stage of being single. I was in my mid-40s and after years of being divorced I honestly never thought I’d ever get married again.

There was this fellow named David I’d run into now and again but he could never remember my name and seemed utterly indifferent toward me.

I checked out this fabulous book from the library called The Crimson Petal and the White. I devoured the 800-word novel post haste and when I got to the end, I discovered a receipt with the name of the last person who checked it out. It was Mr. Indifference himself!

I ran into him again and mentioned that we’d checked out the same book. For the first time, ever, he finally took notice of me. We chatted enthusiastically, started dating, and yes, dear reader, I married him.

While our courtship was going on I was writing Dollar Daze: Bottom Dollar Girls in Love. My personal life kept bleeding into the manuscript. Everyone in the book was falling in love. It was like Cupid spiked the water of Cayboo Creek S.C. the setting for Dollar Daze. One of my characters, a proper Southern widow named Gracie Tobias, hooks up with the love-of-her-life via a library book.

JJ: Do you think of yourself as a Southern writer, and what does that MEAN to you?

I’ve lived in Augusta, Georgia for thirty plus years but I wasn’t really getting the true Southern experience. Yes, the dirt is red, the tea is sweet, and the Publix stocks Glory Pole Beans but with so many people coming in from other places, Augusta’s southern flavor is somewhat diluted.

Several years ago I dated a fellow from Swainsboro, Georgia and as soon as we visited his hometown I was slapped silly with the glorious Southerness of it all. People still said things like, “I swanee it’s hot out.” (Swanee mean ‘swear” but properly reared Southerners in small towns do NOT swear.) The cook at the diner got up at the crack of dawn to make slow-cooked grits and golly Moses, you have never tasted such wickedly good grits.

I flat out fell in love (not with the fellow, but with the town) and. I couldn't get a enough of small towns and their full-strength Southernesss. I went to Catfish Stomps, Chitlin Struts and Fire ant Festivals. Anytime I saw a meat-and-three diner on the road I’d pull over, order some country-fried steak and eavesdrop.

I’d copy down the signs I’d see in front of churches (Stop, Drop and Roll Doesn’t Work in Hell) and take note of the businesses I’d see (Tuff Luck Tavern, Bud’s Bait Shoppe and Tanning Salon, Dazzling Dos) I’d listen to the small-town chatter of the local radio station in between country songs like “There’s a Tear in My Beer.”

So the simple answer is, yes I am a Southern writer. The South, in fact, promoted me to write. I wanted to share what I saw. I wanted to preserve in my mind a culture that's disappearing.

Logo-a-Gogo

This is a pretty cool three questions, because first we have the fancy new LOGO, courtesy of Noah, and the author wrote the very book I plan to buy today. It's called Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA. I'm going to be reading/signing at the Borders in Athens, and the drive TO Athens ought to finish off the 11 CD unabridged HEAVY HANDED hyperdramatic boring miserable murder-and-angst filled CRAPPY audiobook I have been listening to for about 100 years. Which, I KNOW, right -- I should just throw it out. But I paid full retail for the dern thing (I bought it on the road instead of AUDIBLE-ing), so I am listening to EVERY FREAKIN WORD and wringing every possible drop of pleasure from it. It has provided I think 3 drops so far...

I expect MUCH better from this one, which will be my NEW audiobook---I always have one going. I am REALLY looking forward to it because the book sounds hilarious --- Intrigue and Machivellian schemes tear up the PTA when Applewood's elementary school gets the nod to be the location for George Clooney's next movie---and after 11 CDs of overwrought ponderous prose I am SO ready to be charmed. As a bonus, Lisa Kudrow read the audio version. Whee!

ALSO -- you have to love the Comic Book Art inspired cover:

PS Secreted in this interview is a link to a GREAT George Clooney story. Run and find out, oh my Rikki Tikkis....

JJ: As a Southern writer, I think everything is about locationlocationlocation. How did growing up in Long Island influence your work?

EM: First off, us Long Islanders suffer from a prepositional handicap. We don't say we grew up in Long Island, we say we grew up on Long Island. Why is that? People don't say they were born on Jamaica or that they grew up on Manhattan. I don't know where this oddity comes from, but it messes with our heads.

If that wasn't bad enough, we don't stand in line like everyone else. We stand on line. So when we tell someone to get on line and buy tickets for Snakes on a Plane, we're not talking about Fandango.

But prepositions aside, Long Island is unique in that it's a vast suburb with a more complicated caste system than anywhere in India (on India?). Indeed, there are class distinctions within class distinctions here, and people from, for instance, upper lower middle class will feel significantly superior to those from middle lower middle class. So growing up here made me acutely aware of ways in which people cling to status symbols to define their place in the community. It always felt like so much nonsense to me, and yet the sting of being judged for not wearing the right shoes or carrying the right handbag still smarts. I think that shows up in all of my fiction.

JJ: Can you talk a little about the significance of your title and how you came up with it?

EM: SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA started out with the title GEORGE CLOONEY IS COMING TO APPLEWOOD, which everyone loved. Everyone, that is, except the legal department at HarperCollins, which insisted I change the title, unless I could get George Clooney's permission within the next forty-eight hours. I couldn't understand why my innocuous title was verboten, while Al Franken could call his book RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT. (Friends have suggested it's because Al Franken's title is factual, while mine is fictional.)

I don't think the lawyers expected me to actually try to obtain the permission, but I gave it my best shot. If anyone's interested in the chain of phone calls and disappointments this entailed, I blogged about it.

The upshot, of course, was that I didn't get permission, and so had to come up with a title that pleased both me and my editor. I was after something that would be obvious in its irony, and finally came up with SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA, suggesting Lichtenstein-esque cover art to drive the point home.

JJ: Tell us about your own experiences with the PTA and how they relate to writing SECRET CONFESSIONS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA.

EM: I am, of course, a member of the PTA and have been for a number of years. Thus, people often assume I lifted experiences from my own life for the book. I didn't. However, I did try to capture some of the emotional essence of the experience. Understand that the book was conceived long before Desperate Housewives was on the air, and the myth of the perfect (and wholesome) suburban housewife was stubbornly prevalent. As an imperfect suburban housewife myself, I was eager to crack the veneer and show the heartache, pain and joy hidden beneath. It was a liberating experience.

3 Questions with Diana Peterfreund

I guest-blogged over at Literary Chicks telling them a Henry story you already know, but throwing ij a heretofore secret tale of CHILEAN DEATH SCRABBLE, a favorite pastime of mine. It may or may not involve the loser being fed to tigers...

Meanwhile, to entertain you HERE, I profer a heaping scoop of Diana Peterfreund, author of Secret Society Girl. It's the story of Elite Eli University junior Amy Haskel, who never expected to be tapped into Rose & Grave, the country�s most powerful�and notorious�secret society. She isn�t rich, politically connected, or�well, male...The New York Observer says, "Ms. Peterfreund�s descriptions of the ambitious Amy Haskel�s collegial life are both vivid and amusing ... Amy's story is both witty and endearing, peppered as it is with rhetorical questions and moments when she emphatically addresses the reader as �dude.�

Which, as you know, I recently become pro-dude. Because my nine tyear old son says it SO constantly, I have been unable to not pick it up like a virus. So. Dude. I'll let Dinana talk now...

JJ: What do you think of your cover and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

DP: They actually changed my cover at the last minute. The original cover looks a lot like my website (http://secretsocietygirl.com). Same teal color scheme and swirly fonts. The old cover was beautiful, but I think the new cover nails the tone of my book. When I was originally consulted for cover concepts, I wanted something along these lines -- gorgeous old stone building and then something cute or girly in the foreground to hint at the fact that it was a comedy. My editor and I did mockups of a scary stone tomb with a girl in college wear out front. (If you go to my website, you see the image of the "secret society girl" -- the girl in the hooded robe over her pink shirt and jeans. I think that's very in the spirit of the new cover. I love the cover. I love how it is a play on a scene from the book.

JJ: A lot of writers read this blog----how did you
a) Find an agent
b) sell that first book
c) come to realize you wanted to pursue writing as a career instead of a personal passion or a hobby.

DP: a + b) I'd been writing and submitting romances for several years, and though I'd gotten plenty of nibbles and a handful of awards, I hadn't yet gotten a bite. I started writing this story and it seemed to have the magic "lightning in a bottle" ingredients of voice, timing, and opportunity. I've always writen highly sarcastic characters, and this time I got to indulge in that voice completely, tell a story about strong women, use my own experiences, and add a dash of romance to the mix. I wrote three chapters, and then told a writing friend about the story, She went to a conference that weekend and sat next to an editor who, as luck would have it, was looking for something just like my book. And she wasn't the only one. By the end of the conference, my freind had garnered a bunch of requests for my uncompleted manuscript. I'd submitted to the woman who would become my agent before, and she'd always asked to see my next project. We'd actually met once, and she was currently considering my most recently completed manuscript when I emailed her and said I had a bunch of interest for this new proposal. She asked to see it as well, read it between the time I sent it to her from my office and took the metro home, and offered me representation. She turned around and sent it to a bunch of houses, and in a week and a half, we had a six way auction. I sold the book to Kerri Buckley of Bantam Dell. She's been an absolute joy to work with.

c) I've always written stories, but in college, I found it difficult to be in an academic environment and sustain a love for genre fiction, which is my passion. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life my senior year when my boyfriend read a story I'd written for one of my classes in lieu of a term paper and said to me, "I don't know why you're pretending you want to be anything other than a writer." He really encouraged me to put my money where my mouth was. After I graduated, while freelancing for a newspaper, I decided that it was about time to see if "someday I want to write a novel" could ever turn into something more. I told myself that if I could write a whole novel, then I'd invest the time and energy into the rest (i.e., researching the industry, joining writer's groups, going to conferences, etc.). So I wrote one, which really surprised me. Then I joined RWA, met a bunch of people who were career writers and took the next step. I knew I could write a book; could I write a good one? I definitely recommend that aspiring writers pass the first test before they start worrying about query letters and all that rot.

JJ: Who did you dedicate this book to and why?

DP: The book is dedicated to "the sons and daughters of Eli," which is a fancy way Yalies refer to themselves. The university in the book is an alternate-reality Yale called "Eli University." I think of this book as a love letter to my alma mater and all of its wonderful traditions and eccentricities, as well as a love letter to the people I went to school with, who are some of the best people I know.

JJ: What's the best STUPID LITTLE perk about having your book sell? You must here confess what RIDICULOUS dorky thing has pleased you WELL beyond the scope of it...

DP: I think the most amazing aspect of the sale for me has been connecting with people. Of course, there's the whole lofty concept of connecting to my audience, but the day the book came out, I got an email from an old college buddy I haven't spoken to in years. He sent me a picture of himself holding up my book in front of the Ottawa Parliament building. That one made me smile for days. I also got an email from a girl I went to summer camp with when I was thirteen, saying that I couldn't be the same Diana Peterfreund. Of course, how many of those are there? It's meant so much to me that people are actually interested in reading stuff I made up. And I sound dorky enough here to please anyone, I think.

JJ: Did you always plan for Secret Society Girl to be a series? If not, how did it grow into in, and if so, did you structure the first book differently, knowing another would follow?

DP: When I first queried the book to my agent, I told her I thought it had "series potential" so by the time we were shopping it to publishers, I'd started thinking along those lines. What would the series look like? What other stories could I tell in that world? The first book stands completely alone, but the collegiate lifestyle lends itself to particular character arcs. People grow and change so much during college. I was lucky in that I sold two books in the series straight away so I had the freedom to develop the story in a series manner. Still, there's only one or two minor plotlines that are not wrapped up in the first book.

Yeah, I know, it's more than three. We're WRITERS. We write. We don't...count. *grin*

3 Questions: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Today I am guest blogging over at my friend Lani and company's place, LITERARY CHICKS, so you can find PART ONE of the tale of the 90 minute flight that took 13 hours pretty much right here. Part one of SEVERAL, because IT WAS A THIRTEEN HOUR TRIP. Into hell. So.

Here, meanwhile, I am giving up my chair to a rawther extraordinary young woman. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she studied cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought). Her research on animal and child cognition has been featured on ABC�s World News Tonight, Animal Planet, and The New York Times, and Jennifer will be spending the 2006/2007 school year abroad, doing autism research at the University of Cambridge.

Jennifer wrote her first YA title, Golden at the age of nineteen, and her second book, Tattoo, will be available in January of 2007.

Borders Books and More is recommending Golden, saying "Set at Emory High, Golden glows with the spot-on insights and pitch-perfect prose of someone whose knowledge of adolescence is absolutely fresh. The story's young heroine, Lissy, must learn the rules of a rigidly regulated hierarchy of popularity when she moves from California to Oklahoma. The social challenges she faces will be chillingly familiar to anyone navigating high school, but cliques aren't all Lissy has to deal with. She can see things that the average girl misses, and it looks like there's something truly evil stalking the halls of Emory High. Golden is a captivating mix of everyday teen terrors and supernatural suspense."

I stuck Jennifer in the three questions chair and grilled her:

JJ: What's the best STUPID LITTLE perk about having your book sell? You must here confess what RIDICULOUS dorky thing has pleased you WELL beyond the scope of
it...

JLB: Honestly? The free books. I'm such an avid reader, and no one EVER told me that there would be free books involved in being a professional writer. For the first time in my life, I have more books than I could possibly read, and I'm running out of places to put them, but I can't quite bring myself to get rid of ANY of them, because I form this ridiculous emotional attachment to anything that my publisher gives me.

JJ: As a Southern writer, I think everything is about locationlocationlocation. How did growing up in Oklahoma influence your work?

JLB: I grew up in Oklahoma, but went to college on the East coast. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at my dorm freshman year to discover that all of my roommates mistakenly believed that I lived on a farm, rode horses to school, and personally knew people with hyphenated first names who had married their cousins. In GOLDEN, my narrator is a California girl who is transplanted to Oklahoma and discovers that it isn't all that different from any place else (a lesson I spent a good year and a half teaching all of my East and West coast roommates), and that, contrary to popular belief, being from California
isn't a guarantee of social success in an Oklahoma high school.

JJ: Golden is a book about a girl with an average girl with an extraordinary supernatural power. Tell us about your own supernatural powers.

JLB: I'm trying to figure this one out myself and sadly fear that I might not HAVE any super powers. The best I've been able to come up with is that I'm (a) really good at guessing whether a baby is going to be a boy or a girl, (b) equally good at guessing how many siblings a person has when I first meet them, and (c) supernaturally lucky at getting good parking places at the mall. I also dream in detail (and remember them) every night, and once in a blue moon,
they come true... but that happens to everyone, right?

I'm sure it does...THANKS JENNIFER!

Three B's: Barnholdt, BAD CAT BOO, and B4B

OMG the typos, even for me were out of control. FINALLY In St. Louis after missed connections and airport delays and looked at all the typos and OH WOW AM I ASHAMED OF THIS ENTRY! SHAME! SHAME!

B1--- 3 Questions with Lauren Barnholdt

How lucky is it that Lauren's last name starts with a B, thematically speaking? So lucky. She's the author of Reality Chick, the story of sweet and normal Ally Cavanaugh -- one of five freshpeople shacking up on In the House, a reality show filmed on her college campus. As if school isn't panic-inducing enough...

Sarah Mlynowski, author of Milkrun and As Seen on TV calls Lauren, "Hilarious... a fresh new voice in teen fiction." I bet she's SICK of hearing this, but I DO think it's worth noting that Lauren is only 26 years old---pretty young to have her first book out. I tend to tell people in their twenties who ask me about the BUSINESS part of a writing career that I spent my twenties alternately learning how to mix a decent cocktail and writing TERRIBLE short stories and I didn't make a serious run at writing a book to PUBLISH until I was in my thirties. Maybe I should eat those FIND YOUR VOICE words with no Green Goddess dressing. Having her first book out at 26...She's done something remarkable, I think, plus she gives SUCH good interview:

JJ: Tell us about the time you tried out for THE REAL WORLD?

LB: Oh, God. Yes, I tried out for THE REAL WORLD. It wasn't just me! There were literally hundreds of people in line for the audition, so I'm not the only dork. Trying out for REAL WORLD was fun, and was the inspiration for Ally's audition scene in REALITY CHICK. A lot of what happens to Ally during that scene actually happened to me. (I won't tell you what, except that it's entirely possible that I, like Ally, also made an inappropriate comment to the casting director. Which is probably why I'm now a writer and not a reality tv star...)

JJ: What do you think of your cover and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

LB: I LOVE my cover. It's weird, but I never had an actual picture in my head of what my cover would look like. I'm hopelessly unartistic when it comes to stuff like that. Plus I was trying not to get an actual picture in my head, because I knew it would probably turn out to be nothing like I imagined. (Kind of like going on blind dates -- the guys never look like what you thought they would.)

The day my editor emailed me the cover, I was almost afraid to open it. I was all set to hate it. And when I saw it, I thought it was perfect. I couldn't stop looking at it. I hope I'm as lucky with all my covers!

JJ: A lot of writers read this blog -- how did you find an agent and sell that first book?

LB: The first book I ever wrote, JOSH PARKER HAS A BIG HEAD.. AND OTHER THINGS I LEARNED THIS SUMMER was
rejected by every single publishing house in New York (and some publishing houses in Boston, Chicago, etc.).

My then-agent was so-so about my work, and there was a really small period
of time (like maybe fifteen minutes) where I wanted to give up.
I told my friend that I couldn't do it anymore, that I couldn't
imagine writing ANOTHER whole book, and besides, WHY WASN'T ANYONE
BUYING JOSH PARKER BECAUSE IT WAS GOOD AND FUNNY AND HOW COULD I WRITE
SOMETHING BETTER THAN THAT AND WHAT DID THESE PUBLISHING PEOPLE WANT
ANYWAY???

He tried to calm me down, but I just laughed maniacally and
read him my latest batch of rejection letters.

"See!" I said gleefully. "My character's emotional journey is thin!"
Then, a few weeks later, while moving files to a new computer, I found a
few pages of a book idea I had written a while ago. It was about a girl
with a long-distance boyfriend that goes on a reality TV show that
broadcasts her first semester of college. For some ridiculous reason, I
started writing it. Two months later, I left my previous agent and
signed with my current agent, Nadia Cornier. Three weeks later, I had a two-book deal with Simon
and Schuster.

All this stuff happened over a period of four years -- writing the first book, querying agents, writing the second book, etc. Writing is HARD, not giving up is HARD. But it's all part of the process, and you just have to do it.

THANKS LAUREN!

B2 -- Remember BOO THE DEVILCAT? I am not going to LINK because I am SHORT ON TIME -- must catch a flight---and he's in the entry RIGHT below this one. I think we all have opposable thumbs here and are capabe of scrolling down, except for Boo herself, and it's pretty dern clear that Boo can use the Forces of Darkness to scroll. Well. I posted Boo's photo and Boo was NOT pleased. Boo felt that the picture I posted did NT realy capture the TRUE BOONESS. SO. I agreed to give it another shot.

Say 1 2 3 Betty and HIT THIS to see Boo's second try...I'm not going to SPOIL it by trying to describe it. Let's just say, Brace Yourself, Bridget.

B3 (or B4, really...) Lastly but CERTAINLY not leastly. I have some B4B Winners from you, Courtesy of The Bloggess who pens Her Green Figs. Next month, remember, B4B will be over at The Zero Boss. THUS SAGT HER FIGLINESS:

Somewhere, sometime, I remember reading that Faulkner said *there's
something about jumping a fence that makes you feel good* (if I were a
responsible librarian or English teacher I'd go look this up, but I am
not a responsible anything). As these stories demonstrate, crossing
boundaries feels good because you get out of BETWEEN. In between, we
are uncomfortable, unsure, and undecided. Sometimes we are just "un."
Aimee calls these "dull gray moment[s]" in her submission and we've
all been there, though we may not all be so equipped to define
"between." What each of this month's winners has in common, and has in
common with Between, Georgia, is that it defines "between," in part by
looking at the two sides of the fence, and in part by saying how
pointy the fence feels beneath them.

And so, my selections for this month's winners are:

3) Keepin' the Faith

Congratulations to the winners, the finalists, and the entrants!

I GO HOME FROM TOUR ON FRIDAY and will get the appropriate prizes out to ALL THREE OF YOUSE GUYS! GRATZ! MUST RUN FOR PLANE NO TIME TO PROOF BIG SORRY SORRY NESS FOR ALL TYPOS!

Blogging for Books LIVES!

BLOGGING FOR BOOKS is on the road in its ENORMOUS tour bus, and all the roadies are hot for it. Screaming Girlenes in poodley skirts are waiting to rip its clothes away and run off with a shred or a button. B4B was at the top of the charts last month, and we want to keep it there. OH YES WE DO!

Otherwise, I imagine the tour bus will go around a dead man's curve just a shade too fast, and B4B will join Jim Morrisson's new band, in hell.

If you blog, I BEG you to remind you reading/blogging audience that it is B4B time, and ask other bloggers who read your blog to blog it, and then it will be JUST like Ricky Martin, if Ricky MArtin had ever released another song. PLEASE help get the word out.

We lift a glass in honor of The Zero Boss, because he made it up.

How to play: You blog on a chosen topic. You post a link to your blog entry in the comments below this entry. B4B closes next Monday when the comments close on this entry, EXACTLY seven days from the very second this posted. <----note the slight rule change.

If you have no blog, you write the essay and cut and paste it (no attachments please) into an email to Ann Fitten (the Bloggess behind Edgy Mama) and ask her sweetly to host it for you.

Your special guest blogger this month is Kim Wilson of Wilson World She won earlier and so, alas, she can never enter again, but she is eligible to judge. AND JUDGE SHE WILL.

If you are one of the seven finalists, your entry will be read by OTHER Special Guest Bloggess who pens HER GREEN FIGS. Her Figliness will greenly choose first, second and third place.
THERE IS NO SPECIAL GUEST AUTHOR. Because I am providing the loot for this round. And I live here. SO, I can't judge because I know too many of you too well to be impartial, plus ARE YOU ON CRACK? I'm on book tour and am thus sleep deprived and totally INSANE. BUT there are MANY fine prizes to be had.
First Place: Signed First Edition of Between, Georgia AND a copy of Between on CD. I READ IT!
Second Place: Signed First Edition of Between
Third Place: Signed Paperback of gods in Alabama

And now, THE TOPIC! As usual your topic relates to the book...

Between, Georgia tells the story of Nonny Frett, who understands the meaning of the phrase "in between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two men: a husband who's easing out the back door; and a best friend, who's laying siege to her heart in her front yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her and raised her right; and the Crabtrees, who lost her and won't forget how they were done wrong. Now, in Between, Georgia, population 90, a feud that began the night Nonny was born is escalating, and a random act of violence is about to ignite a stash of family secrets. Ironically, it might be just what the town needs...if only Nonny weren't stuck in between.
So this time, write about being BETWEEN. In any context. OH COME ON YOU HAD TO SEE THAT COMING!

GO!

3 Questions: Kyra Davis (creepy coffee for afters)

I JUST finished running the full draft of Togwiss off my printer, and now I am going to go give his choppy, sloppy buttocks to KINKOS to copy him and send him to my editor/agent/readers. TOMORROW I am going to FORGET HE EXISTS FOR A MONTH and go tour. When I come back, I will be ready to perform radical surgery upon his quailing personage, a surgery of many months duration, slicing and dicing and stuffing in new bits.

I am by turns relieved to be mailing him AWAY to not think about and then horrified that ANYONE, most especially my editor, is going to see him all FETUSY with his GIANT NOSELESS ALIEN HEAD and his little lungs as dense as lima beans. I am having a terrible urge to call her right now and say YOU KNOW HE IS A FETUS RIGHT??? And he IS, he IS---he is currently completely non-viable outside the womb, and yet I am stuffing him in a box and posting him to NYC. What's WRONG with me?

Since my metaphors are about to run off the road and kill people, we better talk to someone with a brain cell left. That would NOT be me. That would be Kyra Davis, who actually has BILLIONS of the dern things, and has turned them all toward penning a series of hip chick mysteries starring Sophie Katz, her San Francisco living, coffee loving heroine. Check it out:

JJ: A lot of writers read this blog----how did you come to realize you wanted to pursue writing as a career instead of a personal passion or a hobby?

KD: I didn�t realize I wanted to become a writer until I was a writer. I began writing Sex, Murder And A Double Latte (the first Sophie Katz mystery) when I was in the early stages of my divorce. I was a newly single mom on the verge of bankruptcy and at the time it felt like everything I had worked for had been completely destroyed. I needed an emotional outlet. So at night, when I couldn�t sleep (which was pretty much every night back then) I sat down at my computer and created a parallel universe in which I could lose myself in. One that allowed me to laugh and�well�legally kill people. Fifty or so pages into the manuscript I realized that this wasn�t just an escape for me, it was a dream. Once again I had a goal to work toward and unlike everything else in my life at that time, this was totally under my control. I decided what to and not to write and if I succeeded or failed it was because of what I did, not because of what my ex or my lawyer did to/for me. I hadn�t written anything that would qualify as creative fiction since it had been assigned to me back in high school so I went to the bookstore and got a few how-to-write-a-novel books. I also joined a writing group and started reaching out to every published author who was willing to offer me advice. It took me two years and God only knows how many drafts and sleepless nights but I finished that book and less than three months after doing so scored myself an agent and five months after that I was offered a four book deal with Red Dress Ink. I know how many incredibly talented unpublished writers are out there. I know I got lucky. All I can say is that I did pay my dues, just in a different area of my life.

JJ: How important is location to you as a writer, or, a better way to say that might be, could these books be set anywhere else?

KD: Neither of the last two Sophie Katz books could have taken place anywhere other than San Francisco. San Francisco's the only city know where a person could realistically meet a Russian, a psychotic and a debutante all in the space of an hour. Then add to the mix Marcus, Sophie�s friend and hairstylist who periodically gives the reader a peek into the city�s gay social scene (which is like no other), the cosmopolitan restaurants and night life my characters always indulge in, the extreme-to-the-point-of-being-silly political correctness of the people they regularly interact with and�well I could go on and on. The point is that no matter where I move San Francisco will always be my home and these books are my way of both honoring and mocking that home.

JJ: Can you tell us about some of your experiences as a biracial Jewish woman and how they helped shape your main character?

KD: Early on in Sex, Murder And A Double Latte a stranger approaches Sophie in Starbucks and tells her how much she respects her �Native American culture.� Sophie of course is not Native American. She is, like me, a biracial (half black, half Jewish of Eastern European descent) woman and she�s not in the mood to explain her ethnicity to anyone at that moment so she says, �Actually I�m Irish. I just wear a lot of bronzer.�

I�ve delivered similar lines in my day to day life. It�s amazing, but if your appearance is on the ethnically-ambiguous side total strangers will come up to you and ask, �Where are you from?� or better yet, �What are you?� I don�t mind when people ask me about my heritage, I�d just prefer that they take the time to at least ask my name first. If they are rude in their questioning I�ll do something just to mess with them. For instance there have been times when I�ve invented a South American country or Pacific Island and claimed to be from there. Then when the person asking confesses that they�ve never heard of it I pretend to be incredibly offended and hurt. It�s evil, I know. But it�s fun.

Thanks, Kyra. I hope you guys enjoy her books, and SINCE the first one features UPSCALE coffee, I throw in for free a link, courtesy of my friend Mr. Growlf, to the THE CREEPIEST COFFEE THEMED THING YOU WILL EVER SEE.

B4B Finalists (Followed by Repugnant Prancings)

That Buffy-Lovin' Groove Thang we like to call Our Special! Guest! Blogger! Angel!
has come through with b4b finalists in a month that was jam-packed with entries. Trala.

Remember, the winner will receive the adoration of the masses�, a link from my site, the right to be a Special! Guest! Blogger! and, last but MOST, autographed copes of BOTH of Shanna Swendson's MAGICAL novels, Enchanted, Inc and the sequel, Once Upon Stilettos.

Here's Angel:

Hi Joshilyn! There were THIRTY entries; I guess there was something magical about this topic ;)
Here are my top 7�I�m just glad the tropical storm didn�t come too close and hamper my judging duties. This was so incredibly difficult to narrow down!

Sandra Taylor
Daddy Tales
Cheeky Lotus
Her Green Figs
Cynical Optimism
Embroider the Silence
In Full Bloom

THANKS, ANGEL. I see some returning finalists on this list, as well as a blog that is sneakily trying to weasel its way into being one of my daily reads...this is going to be tough for Shanna.

I am going to quietly under the B4B foo-fa-rol whisper two of the other good newses I got because some of y'all asked in comments, and if I act as SMUG as a cat with a buttered canary feather still stuck to his lips, then blame Diane and Angel and DebR and Martha and Dara and Dee and Liz. I will try to sprinkle the last one in unobtrusively over the next week..

AOL's Book Maven, Bethanne Patrick, is currently touring the country giving her recommended summer reads, INCLUDING BETWEEN, GEORGIA (!!!) to television stations all across the nation. She read gods in Alabama right when it came out and really liked it and did an interview with me and stuff, so I was SO hoping she woudl like Between, too...here is what she said:

Between, Georgia'
By Joshilyn Jackson
Jackson's 2005 'gods in Alabama' (the small "g" is on purpose) seemed like another sunny-side-up Southern-fried novel -- only it wasn't. Same here -- eccentric and family-bound characters are where Jackson's similarities with others ends. Here, the story of the conflicted yet determined Nonny Frett will charm and disturb in equal measures.

I love that part about "charm and disturb in equal measures." I feel like she GETS me. *grin* If you want to see Bethanne's OTHER recs, you can