Next Big Thing
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| via Ruth Madison |
Still, this seemed like fun and a neat way to connect authors and networks. It’s an interview about upcoming work and you get tagged for it. At the end I’ll tag
I was tagged by Ruth Madison, who writes some amazingly sensual and interesting love stories featuring disabled people (though I hear her newest work goes in a different direction). I'll be interviewing Ruth and reviewing some of her books later on this blog.
What is the working title of your book?
CLOSE KNIT. Though I've lately been thinking, I may want to make that the name of the series, and have the initial book be titled CASTING ON.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
My agent originally suggested it, but then, the more I researched and worked on it, the more intrigued and challenged I was. Could I tell a romance that included multiple storylines, hot sex, and knitting?
What genre does your book fall under?
Women's fiction. (With hot sex. And knitting.)
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
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| Drew Barrymore headshot (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
GAVIN, 28 - all the hot men of Hollywood rolled into one delicious if somewhat inhibited package - Jessie Pavelka
(I'd embed his picture here but then I'd have to kill you. You'll just have to follow the link for a peek.)
AMBER, 27 - this rising star actress and former foster child is everyone's friend, no one's best friend. I 'd cast Izabella Miko or Scarlett Johansson (though Scarlett would need a to get a breast reduction).
FELECIA - 40-something cougar - Alyssa Milano, perhaps, though she's a little young. Her hair in this shot is much as I imagined Felecia's, and most men would have a very hard time saying no to her.
DANIEL, 26 - tall blond surfer, such a nice guy with atrocious style in clothes despite being gay - Chris Evans (not that I'm casting a slur on how Chris Evans dresses! And I have no idea of his RL sexual preference).
CRISTINA, mid-thirties - Mommy, wife, boss, friend - Elpidia Carrillo
NAOMI - 60-something, warmhearted busybody - Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Can a free-spirited sex goddess and an uptight screenwriter untangle the patterns of the past and knit their lives together?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It's represented by Alison J. Picard, of the agency of that name. I'm going for traditional publishing, though if that doesn't pan out, I may consider self-pubbing some ways down the road.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Ugh! Three years. (Some extenuating circumstances).
The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knitting Under The Influence, Dirty Sexy Knitting, 50 Shades of - nah! Not that one - though I do some things with knitted materials that Christian Grey never dreamed of.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Among the things I wanted to explore is how a love relationship develops within a close-knit circle of friends, when people within that group put in their advice and "help," to either make the relationship work, or perhaps to break it up. How the blooming relationship, itself, affects the group dynamics and helps the others discover things about what they want, or don't want, from life.
Kind of like "Friends," only these friends are multi-generational. I love "regular" romance, that focuses like a laser beam on the heroine and hero, but... decided to see if I couldn't weave in the other threads.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Los Angeles is a featured player in the story, as well, from the San Fernando Valley (we locals just call it The Valley) to Dodger Stadium, the Renaissance Faire, the Griffith Park Planetarium, the Getty, to Venice Beach. There are so many very different neighborhoods in LA, so many different vibes and people, and it was fun showing them off as my characters experiences their toils and conflicts.
And one place we had to go was the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, because the only thing better than a rollicking party is one with wings.
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| via Flickr Creative Commons by Clinton Steele |
So, who do I see as The Next Big Thing?
RYCJ of OEBooks - blogger and author of the Rhapsody romance series, as well as other sexy, romantic stories. From Leiatra's Rhapsody:
Leiatra, a professional counselor, wife, and mother innocently opens this novel trying to discover why men cheat. Her lessons learned are so profound and perplex that before long, an educated woman who had taken for granted what she recklessly imagined she knew, finds herself entangled in a cascade of sexual indiscretion so deep that she risks losing her business, friendships, and the people most meaningful to her. Do you think you know why men cheat? Do you really want to know why men cheat? ...or do you prefer to believe otherwise?
Brenda Moguez - blogger, poet, novelist, lyricist. From her blog post Shall We Dance:
As the pages in the new WIP accumulate, my characters grow fierce. Their voices, once faint and willowy on the page, are now a force. Their strength rises from the page as heat off the asphalt on a two-lane highway does in the Mojave Desert. I am in awe of them and the story as it welds its power on the page, and over me.
...I am sitting there now. It’s the crosswords of Imagination Avenue and Ethereal Way. And let me tell you, it’s like hell, heaven, a sandy beach at midnight, a thunderstorm over Miami in August, its hot chocolate chip cookies out of the oven, the third glass of pink champagne. It’s goodbye after a ten-year love affair, its hello to come-hither flutters from Mr. Lanky. It’s all this, and some kind of special.Brenda is still waiting for The Call from an agent, which I am sure she will receive, and until then... I'm getting my fix of her beautiful writer's voice from her Passionate Pursuits blog.
Karen Wojcnik Berger - blogger at Bibliophilic Blather, author of Until My Soul Gets It Right and A Whisper To A Scream. Each book in the women's fiction series takes on the life journey of a different character or characters. From Until My Soul Gets It Right:
You can’t run away from yourself.
Catherine Elbert has never been good at making decisions, whether it was choosing an ice cream flavor as a small child, or figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up. The only thing Catherine knew for sure was there had to be more to life than being stuck on her family’s farm in Wisconsin.
While watching a PBS travel show, Catherine becomes entranced by Portland, Maine. The ocean. The lobsters. The rugged coast. Nothing could be more different from the flat, nondescript farmlands of Burkesville.
Despite her parents threatening to disown her and her brothers taking bets on how many days until she comes home, Catherine settles on Peaks Island, off the coast of Portland.
She is finally free.
Or so she thought.
"Until My Soul Gets It Right" is a story about growing up, making peace with your past, and finding a little love along the way.
Valerie Bowman - her debut novel Secrets of a Wedding Night releases this week and has been garnering rave reviews. (I know she's absolutely buried in promo for it, now, so she won't be answering these questions, but she is on a blog tour if you want to cyber-stalk her.) I met her at RWA12 and she is a lovely person as well as an exciting new romance author. I preordered my copy of Secrets of a Wedding Night:
Lily Andrews, the beautiful, headstrong Countess of Merrill, is rumored to have authored a scandalous pamphlet. Secrets of a Wedding Night has scared the ton’s young ladies away from the marriage mart. The young widow soon meets her match when recently jilted Devon Morgan, Marquis of Colton, issues her a challenge: write a retraction or prepare to be seduced!
Eleanor Brownn - inspirational speaker and author of Mile 9 and 44 Life Lessons. I've met Eleanor in person at my ToastWriters club, and she is truly inspirational.
Lifelong couch potato Eleanor Brownn was facing 50 when she decided to train for the 26.2 mile Los Angeles Marathon. MILE 9 is a personal memoir that tells the inspiring story of the spiritual lessons she learns along the way as she travels past her doubts and fears to challenge a notion she's held in her heart and mind since childhood: the idea that she's "too fat" to participate in life.
Kelly Hashway - blogger and author of YA (young adult) and MG (middle grade) novels. Her debut novel, a YA paranormal releases in January. Touch of Death:
Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.
<snip> Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.
One of the things I love about blogging and the internet, is all the fabulous talented writers I never would have otherwise met and read. (Which sometimes, I curse, too, because I have SO MANY great books yet to read.)
Do you know a talented up-and-coming writer?
Please share, in the comments below.
