August 21, 2007

The Write Side of Life

ST: Good morning, everyone and welcome back. Jen, what made you decide to be a writer?
JB: I didn’t decide, not really. Most writers say they wanted to do it from childhood and I did too but it always seemed such a huge thing to want to do that I never confided in anyone. I contented myself with lists, diaries, and reading, always reading. I’m told I ruined my eyesight by reading after lights out. I said I wanted the landing light left on. My parents thought I was scared of the dark, but I used to read in the slender column of light that came through the crack between the door and the door frame. I had to keep moving the book to have the light follow the word on the page…and that way I managed to keep reading till they came to bed. By then they thought I was asleep and put the light out.

ST: How long have you been writing?
JB: I started serious attempts at writing fiction in my thirties. Finding enough time to write whilst working full time meant it took ages before I actually produced anything and even longer before I felt confident enough to start sending it out anywhere. I do wish I started sooner! There used to be a wise old saying that went something along the lines of “get a bit of life under your belt before you try to write a novel” and of course I believed everything I was told! Today people have bestsellers at 17 and their autobiographies at 22!

ST: How many books have you written?
JB: Three that are published Banners of Alba, Dark Pool and Shadows. Plus three that have yet to find their way into the big wide world. I keep editing them, leaving them a while, going back and seeing where I could tweak them just that little bit more!

ST: Which is your favorite and why?
JB: I suppose it’ll always be Banners of Alba, because it was the first one I wrote and the first to be published, and the only one so far that I own in paperback format. But in a way it will always be the book I’m working on now as that one fills my imagination.

ST: Do you find writing to be fulfilling? And in what way?
JB: Of course it’s fulfilling. I don’t suppose I’d do it if I found it to be a drag! It is amazing when the story flows and I can’t type fast enough to get it all down, when my husband asks me something and I simply grunt and carry on typing. He’s learned to leave me alone sometimes, poor man. I can create whole worlds and have characters do exactly what I want, create countryside and houses just as I like them. Sometimes I think all writers must be megalomaniacs at heart! On the whole I like my characters and it is fun to be with them most of the time.

ST: What’s a normal day like for you?
JB: Wake up, have breakfast in bed, check e-mails. Start writing by about ten at the latest. Have lunch around twelve, go back to work around two and break off again around four thirty or five. I watch Neighbours on tv; it’s my one and only soap fix. I might go back and read some blogs, or write my own in the evening, but sometimes I just veg out with hubby. That’s a normal day, but of course, not every day is like that. Like everyone else, we shop, cook, clean, visit friends, go walking – I often take pics to include on my blog and you could find that here: http://www.jenblackauthor.blogspot.com. There are two other Jen Blacks around, so go for the one that says author!

ST: Thanks for sharing your time. It’s great having here.
JB: My pleasure and I’ll see you all in the morning.

ST: Until then…

Happy Writing!
Sloane

August 20, 2007

Jen Black Tells All

ST: Hi, Jen Black, welcome and thank you for visiting with us this week.
JB: Glad to be here! And thanks for asking me.

ST: Tell us about yourself.
JB: Well, here’s the potted version – I worked, married, got my degree as a mature student, worked, divorced and married again.. I live in the north of England, quite close to the border with Scotland, and suspect my Dixon and Wilson ancestors came from the reiver families. My husband’s name is also one of the reiver family names. Another ancestor, about eight generations back, died from a fall from his horse aged 65 in a little village on the Welsh/English border. I’m lucky in that someone on my father’s side of the extended family is into genealogy and kindly sent me the whole shebang: 90 odd pages and still growing. I have distant relatives I’ve never met - and I’m not likely to meet! - all over the globe – Australia, Canada, New Zealand. I can’t remember any in America, but they’re probably there too.

ST: Your latest novel, SHADOWS, looks to be an exciting hot read. Please tell us about it.
JB: It is an exciting read, but you may have to wait sometime to get at it now that Triskelion have closed their doors! All 140 of us authors are waiting to hear that the book rights will revert to us and then we can go and secure new contracts!

ST: How did you come up with the story line?
JB: I spend holidays in France in the Dordogne region. Friends kindly let us stay in their ancient watermill, and in the lazy, dreamy heat of France in summer, I wondered about the mill in days gone by. The mill isn’t spooky, quite the opposite; but it does look as if it has a history and finding out a little about it sparked my imagination. Once I found the mill once belonged to the local monastery I couldn’t get rid of the idea of black robed monks…at least one of them must have fallen in love, and the authorities were not kind when that happened. So I dreamed up a young monk and his ladylove, their story and his quest for justice down the centuries. Mix that up with a modern young couple who’ve just got together, haven’t the least expectation of seeing ghosts and throw in a Frenchman who fancies the modern day heroine and it all started to click together quite nicely!

ST: What a wonderful way to vacation. Where can we buy SHADOWS?
JB: Sadly at the moment you can’t, but I hope that will change very soon. Meanwhile, you could chance your arm on my other titles. The e-versions of both DARK POOL and BANNERS OF ALBA are available at FictionWise and there’s a POD version of BANNERS at Amazon. They’re both set in the eleventh century, one in Scotland and the other in Ireland. They’re adventure stories as well as romances. BANNERS is Finlay mac Ruaidhri’s story and DARK POOL tells how he attempts to rescue Eba from the Vikings.

ST: Here are the gorgeous covers for both books.
JB: Yes, please. I do love them.

ST: Thanks for your time today and hopefully you can join us in the morning.
JB: I’ll be here!

ST: Until then…

Happy Writing!
Sloane

August 14, 2007

American Girl Riot

I received an email from Studs’ oldest daughter the other day that had me dying. “T” has allowed me to share it with you. I think she needs to write a book. Enjoy!

Hi,

Sorry this is lengthy but I thought I’d share with you my lunch hour experience today at the store that will well go down as enemy number one in the book of every father’s worst wallet nightmares come true - The American Girl Place in Chicago.

You know that I don’t have a daughter, but I’m lucky enough to have a goddaughter, and her sixth birthday is coming up in a few days. I decide that I’m going to be “Aunt of the year” (as the lady on the AGP hotline told me when I called to make the reservation) and take her to afternoon tea at their cafe. The reservation is set for Sunday. I set out at noon today to get her a Bitty Baby doll so she can start her collection and her parents can kick my ass for how much all the accessories cost that she’s going to want to get with Bitty Baby.

So, at noon I run out because, according to our Kronos time software here, I’ve now officially got less than an hour to get from my building, across the city to the store, make the purchase, and hi-jack a cab back to the office in time to “punch back in”. So the race begins….

I literally stole a cab from some poor guy waiting with his suitcase. I didn’t realize it until I was already hopping into the cab and well, I figured if I was this rude already, why redeem myself?! I’ll just hope he’s not an attorney that works in my building and get on with it. The guy shrugged his shoulders at me and I mouthed a sincere “I’m sorry” with batted eyes and we took off. 8 minutes, a maniac cab driver, and one good bout of carsick nausea later, I’m standing in front of the store.

The store is, in a word, unbelievable. Where was this place when I was a kid?! If it did exist, I guarantee you my father made hell and high water sure that I didn’t know about it. I was fascinated and dizzy at the same time. There was so much to see. There are 3 floors of purple and pink walls with every doll, accessory, and amenity that goes with the dolls that you can possibly imagine. There are so many things in this store that there is a Concierge when you first walk in to answer any questions or handle any reservations you may want to make. Above her desk was a scheduled sign for the café, their theatre, the doll hospital (yes, a doll hospital) and the doll hair salon. (yes, a doll hair salon) all reservation slots for the rest of the day are sold out. All I can think of is that somewhere in this nation is a real rich lady because no guy ever thought this up.

I get to the floor with the dolls, and start heading for the bitty baby section. The place was a literal madhouse of women and young girls, and every once in awhile you would see a father being drug with a leash around his neck. Trying to keep with my tight schedule, I do a 360 looking for where I need to go, and a clerk walks up to me and asks if this is my first time here. I guess I was looking obvious. She leads me to the section of the Bitty Baby - which ironically was anything but bitty.

I squeeze my way through the crowds and mounds of accessories to get to the dolls. There were several different types of Bitty babies, according to hair color and eye color and skin color seemingly at least ten different combinations. I laugh at this, because I get a great visual of my father coming to pick something out for a possible granddaughter someday, (the only reason he’d ever be caught within even a 5 mile radius of such a store) Not because he’s color blind, but because he’s just a guy (like any guy) who when faced with a lot of choices tends to break out in hives. If the time ever comes, I’ll have to make sure he has a personal shopper with him so he doesn’t have a stroke and have to be escorted to the doll hospital’s ER.

So, to match her, I grab the blonde haired, blue eyed baby, and being the girl I am, could not resist one accessory, the diaper bag complete with diapers - a onesie, wipes, powder, sippy cup and a “baby toy” The details crack me up and I look around for a minute longer before I realize I could spend a lot of time (and money) here and I better get a move on and get in line. To quote A Christmas Story -”The line for the cashier stretched to Terre Haute and I was at the end of it”. Thank God there were three cashiers who were so eager at doing their job that each and every purchase took no less than 15 minutes. Ok, I guess it wasn’t that bad, but, the Kronos clock was ticking for me like a dead man walking, I had to get out of there.

I finally get my purchase made, and after some mild sticker shock, I’m back on the trail again to work. Luckily, Lighting McQueen disguised as a cab driver pulled up just in time to give me my second bout of carsickness for the afternoon and in the blink of an eye I was back at my building. Punched in with a minute and a half to spare, I now decide to breathe, and it felt good.

Love, T

August 13, 2007

Tonight’s the Night!

Join Lizzie T Leaf and special guests Deborah Smith and Sloane Taylor tonight in the Realms of Love Chat Castle!

Realms of Love is excited to have Deborah Smith chatting with us. Deborah is the New York Times bestselling author of A Place to Call Home, Sweet Hush, and other acclaimed romantic novels portraying life and love in the modern Appalachian South. She’ll have lots to tell us about, I’m sure.

Sloane Taylor has Francine on Fire and French Tart releasing soon. Looks like a heat wave coming from the the Midwest. Let’s find out more about Sloane!

Lizzie T Leaf will be telling us about Twice a Virgin, her latest release from Aspen Mountain Press and also give a sneak peak of her upcoming story from AMP, Waking Up Dead. What’s new in Lizzie’s world? She just won an award! Lizzie just might tell us about it.

Join us Monday August 13 at 6 PM PDT / 9 PM EDT at Realms of Love. You need to sign up in advance at www.realmsoflove.com.

Hope to see you all there,
Sloane

August 10, 2007

Gazing into the Crystal Ball

ST: Good morning and welcome back for our last day with Susan Kelley. Susan, what does the future hold for you?
SK: The second book in THE SOLONIAN CHRONICLES titled THE LESSER EVIL, will be coming out very soon also from New Concepts Publishing. It’s set in the same world but with a different hero and heroine. When you read THE GREATER GOOD, you’ll see the sparks fly between these two and want to learn more about them.

ST: If you had one wish that would be granted, what would it be?
SK: Like many writers, I would love to be able to work full time as a writer.

ST: How did you and New Concepts Publishing come together?
SK: I read some of their fine books that I purchased at Borders. I submitted to them and fortunately for me, they offered a contract.

ST: What’s in the works for the future?
SK: THE LESSER EVIL will be available soon. I also have another romantic fantasy trilogy that I hope New Concepts will be interest in publishing.

ST: Thanks, Susan, for spending so much time with us. It’s been a great week and I’ve enjoyed learning more about you. The very best to you in the future and keep us posted on your future releases.
SK: Thank you, Sloane, for all your kind words and this opportunity.

ST: Have a good weekend. I’ll be back Monday. Until then…

Happy Writing!

Sloane