Jenyfer Matthews

I escaped all of the responsibilities of my normal life, left the children with their father, and spent last weekend visiting two of my closest friends in Doha, Qatar.

I’d never been to Qatar before – my friends only relocated there in August last year. I was interested to visit though – not only to see my friends and to have a little me-time but also because I wanted to check it out. Qatar is growing rapidly and when you work in this region it’s one of those places that is on the short list of possible places to move for a job.

Doha is a boom town, a sea of construction. Everywhere you look there are cranes and construction sites – with everyone competing to see who can build the shiniest, tallest, most interesting high rise.

(click any picture to enlarge)

There was construction as far at the eye could see!

Not sure if this is an office building or apartments but it made me a bit dizzy just to look at it!

The pool at the Ritz Carleton hotel – an oasis of calm.

Taking an evening stroll in the Souq Waqif.

Coffee break!

Evening entertainment in the Souq Waqif

View of the Doha skyline from the corniche.

The Gulf region is great for street “art” – I simply had to have my picture taken with this giant oyster shell

Overall, Doha wasn’t a bad place to visit – very shiny and clean. There were lots of mall for us to visit, which was great since that is one thing that Cairo is sorely lacking. The weather wasn’t bad either – hot but with a constant breeze and surprisingly low humidity for being on the water. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in ten years.

And for anyone who read the account of my atrocious seat mate on the flight from Cairo to Doha, I am pleased to say that I had a row of three to myself on the return flight!

This month I’m blogging on behalf of All Romance eBook’s Go Green Read E! campaign in the hopes of getting the word out to readers that eBooks are a cheaper, greener alternative to traditional books. EBooks are the fastest (and perhaps only, given the current economy) growing part of the book market. Once the haven of very steamy romances, you can now find eBooks of all genres. My books, for example, are all offered in eBook format and I write mysteries.

Traditional publishers are increasingly offering readers a choice of eBook or print formats. And, though reading eBooks on a Kindle 2 is lovely (or so I, very jealously, hear), you can read eBooks on just about any electronic device (whatever you’re reading this on will do). If by some reason you’ve missed the news, note that the Kindle software is available for free on iPhones. (Oops, there I go being jealous again. Sorry. Will try to reign in those green tendencies.)

How eco is the switch from paper to electronic books? One pretty exhaustive study concludes that if, over the course of a year, you switched to reading 20 books and two newspapers electronically, you’d save one tree a year. Given all the readers out there, that adds up to a lot of forests. Such an effort would also reduce air pollution from turning trees into paper (less bleach, etc. in the air can only be a good thing). You’d have less fertilizer leaching into groundwater. There’d be less smog from trucking books from place to place, etc. etc. Maybe you don’t read two newspapers a day, but you get the point. (I’d happily give up getting junk snail mail to save some trees, hint, hint USPS!)

Earth Day is coming up. If you haven’t ever read an eBook, why not give one a try? And if you already read eBooks, have some virtual organic chocolate on me.

Liz Jasper is an award-winning mystery author and avid eBook reader, blogging this month for All Romance eBooks’ Go Green/Read e Campaign. Find out more about the Go Green/Read e Campaign. To learn more about Liz Jasper and to read excerpts and reviews of her books, visit her website.

Thank you, Jenyfer, for allowing me to visit your blog today. As part of the “Go Green, Read e” program, I’ve been part of an effort to make people more aware of what we can do to make wise use of our resources.

Although the inspiration for the program might have been to raise awareness of e-books as an alternative (note—alternative does not mean replacement!) method of reading, the concept of “green” is much broader, and covers every aspect of our lives.

Since I live in central Florida and Jenyfer lives in Cairo, we thought it might be interesting to compare some of the ways our respective countries and communities address the serious problem that there are only so many resources on the planet. And things like carbon footprints, global warming, and conservation should be dealt with on a planetary basis—we’re all in this together, after all.

Something we can all participate in: Recycling.

Terry
Recycling. Our county provides residents with two recycling bins. One is for newspaper, and recently they’ve added catalogs and magazines (at last—a way to get rid of all those mail order catalogs that show up daily). The second is for glass, cans, and plastic. At the moment, they will only accept plastics with a recycling label of “1″ or “2″, but perhaps this will expand in the future. When the program started, they took only newspaper and only specific types of plastic containers rather than anything with the correct code. (images of codes)

Jenyfer
Unfortunately, there are no formal in-home recycling programs in Cairo. Still, I do what I can: we reuse empty glass jars and plastic containers for food storage, I wash and reuse plastic zipper sandwich bags, and unneeded print outs become scrap paper for drawing. We use reusable water bottles for school lunches and have our water delivered in five gallon bottles which we trade in when they are empty, cutting down on the waste. Even our beer bottles are returnables! (I wish they still did that in the US!)

But that isn’t to say that recycling doesn’t exist in Cairo. There is a community of people called the Zabbaleen who live in the Mokattam hills. They collect about a third of the city’s garbage, take it back to their homes, and sort it for recycling. They not only recycle things like glass, aluminum, and plastic, but they also compost or feed the wet food scraps to their pigs and take cotton scraps and make things like mattress wadding, colorful rag rugs, and even quilts to sell. All in all they manage to recycle up to 80% of what they collect. No small feat in a city of nearly 20 million inhabitants!

Terry
Grocery stores have collection containers for plastic bags. More and more are encouraging customers to bring their own bags, and some even give modest rebates for doing so. So, when the bagger says, “Paper or Plastic?” your answer can be, “No, thanks” as you hand them your collection of canvas bags.

Jenyfer
If I am doing a small shop, I will tuck my purchases into my large canvas carry all. Often when I do a larger shop and request home delivery, my items arrive loose in a large cardboard box. Otherwise, I take the plastic bags that I am given and then reuse them as can liners for my small trash cans.

Terry
It used to be, any food product listed the ingredients. As we became more health conscious, the labels expanded to show nutritional analyses so we know how many calories, grams of fats, carbs, proteins, as well as sodium content and more. With more green awareness, we have another thing to consider when we look at packaging. Does it have the recycling symbol? It probably tells what percentage of the product is made of recycled materials.

Jenyfer
I prefer to buy food products with sensible packaging. Why buy something in a plastic or metal container when a simple cardboard box will do?

Terry
Some companies are getting creative. I was shopping recently, and found doormats made from recycled flip-flops.

Jenyfer
I bought a purse recently, entirely made from plastic fibers created from recycled materials! The Zabbaleen also make handmade paper for notebooks and tablets from a portion of the paper they collect.

Terry
What about electricity? Here, fluorescent light bulbs are touted as energy savers, and they’re becoming easier to find, and available in more varieties so we can replace the older incandescents in more fixtures. Remember when they were only available as long tubes, and pretty much relegated to the kitchen or garage? And now, LED is offering another alternative.

Jenyfer
I was pretty excited to see long life light bulbs available in my local grocery last time I looked. In addition, I use rechargeable batteries as much as possible, turn off lights when leaving a room, and always turn off my computers over night – an idle computer still uses a tremendous amount of energy.

Terry
Cars? Here in my neighborhood, gas is hovering around $2 a gallon. I park my little Honda Fit at the Y and it disappears amid all the bigger minivans and SUVs. It’s not unusual to see the occasional Hummer. And everyone drives. We have very limited mass transit, so rush hour traffic is inevitable. Unfortunately, the attitude seems to be, ‘if I can afford it, it’s might right to drive it.” I never saw gas-guzzlers when I visited my daughter in England, or on my trip to South Africa.

Jenyfer
Cairo is a tremendously large city and nearly everyone drive, making traffic a nightmare not to mention contributing to high levels of air pollution. My family does not currently own a car. I walk nearly everywhere I want to go. For trips further than I want to walk, taxis are plentiful and inexpensive – most trips across my section of town cost me about $1. There is also a mass transit train called the Metro with a stop near my home. I can take the train into downtown Cairo for about $0.20, arriving in less than half an hour (taking a taxi would not only cost more but I’d be stuck in traffic breathing exhaust for at least an hour)

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Those are just a few of the comparisons. Thanks again to Jenyfer for sharing this blog with me.

Terry Odell is a romance author and avid eBook reader, blogging this month for All Romance eBooks’ Go Green/Read e Campaign. Learn more about the Go Green/Read e Campaign, and to learn more about Terry, visit her website at . You can find Terry Odell’s ebooks and thousands of other eBooks on-line at All Romance Ebooks.

Leslie Langtry is, in fact, a mom and a Girl Scout leader, but she has never assassinated anyone, either professionally or for recreation. Okay, she knits, but she almost never garrotes anyone with the circular needles.

Instead, she lives with her husband, Tom, and two children, Margaret and Jack, in the Quad Cities – with no immediate plans to train either child as an assassin. She wants to make that perfectly clear.

Leslie shares blog space with four other amazing Dorchester writers at Killer Fiction. I Shot You Babe is scheduled for release July 1, 2009.

When Fractions Happen to Good People

The other night, my ten year old daughter asked me to help with her math homework. I laughed because, just how hard can 5th grade math be? I mean, I went through 5th grade and did okay. So we sat down to work. I kind of pictured it as a sort of Norman Rockwell painting…”Loving and Intelligent Mom Helps Child.” That sort of thing.

The first few problems were easy. No problem I thought. Of course I know what 1/5 of 100 is! I’m so smart it’s scary! The next two problems followed suit. I was really impressing my kid with my mad math skills. Little did I know that this is how they lure you in and then reduce you to monosyllabic rants.

What is 1/2 of 5/7? I rubbed my eyes. Surely this was a trick question. The answer was probably “mauve.” I read and re-read the question while my daughter looked at me expectantly.

“Um, er, what do YOU think the answer is?” That’s it! Deflect with psychology! She’d know the answer and I’d nod wisely, indicating that I knew it all along.

Margaret shook her head. “No clue. I was sick they day they studied this. You’ll have to explain it to me.”

Damn.

I have broken out in a cold sweat before. There was a job interview where they asked something and I promptly forgot the question before giving the answer – which, it turned out, I didn’t know. There was a pop quiz in Kievan Russia 1490-1628 when I hadn’t attended the class in a month. There was even the time I lied to my husband about how much that pair of shoes really cost just before he produced the receipt ala Perry Mason. This was like that.

Me: “Oh. Well, what is half of 5/7?”
Margaret: “That’s what I’m asking you.”
Me: “I think you should have to figure it out.”
Margaret: “Okay, but you have to help me.”
Me: Banging the book on the table and hoping for a distraction of epic proportions that, by the way, never comes. “What does it say in the chapter?”
Margaret: “It isn’t in there. I looked already.”
Me: After letting out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding in, “It’s a secret.”
Margaret: “You don’t have any idea, do you?”
Me: “Sure I do! I have a masters degree! I’m over 40!”
Margaret: Shaking head slowly. “You are so sad.”
Me: Pulling out my cell phone. “Yes I am. Let’s text Daddy.”

My husband came home later that night after the kids were in bed. He found me sitting in the kitchen, swearing at my daughter’s math book with an empty wineglass and, um, an empty bottle of wine.

He didn’t know the answer either.

Don’t let math happen to you.

That’s right – you’re stuck with me this weekend. Deal with it

Thought I’d share a quilt with you, which I made on commission for a four year old boy. The mother told me that his favorite color was pink. Yes, pink. The boy and his brother told me that his favorite color was orange. Well, it just so happens that pink and orange look pretty good together – I wouldn’t recommend wearing the combination in equal amounts, but in a quilt it’s extremely bright and cheerful. See for yourself:

And how cool is it that I happened to have a piece of pink frog print fabric on hand?

Bright isn’t it? The good thing is that on the off chance my customer doesn’t like it, I’m sure that my daughter will!

I was born in a small town in Iowa, and have traveled extensively, living in several different regions of the U.S. and briefly overseas. I ended up back in the Midwest where I’m married to a very talented glass artist who spends alot of time in the studio, making amazingly beautiful things. We have assorted animals who live with us and who make regular appearances in my books under various pseudonyms (they know who they are).

In 2003 I read my first romance novel and immediately decided this was the genre for me. But there was a problem: the books I read all featured young heroines, interested in starting a family and having babies. So I started writing romantic suspense (with an occasional side trip into paranormal fantasy) about older women, with some age on’em, who are interested in men and sex and having a good relationship (which may or may not include a marriage). I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoy writing about them.

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It seems like whenever I’m here at Jen’s blog I’m talking about second books in a series. I’m not sure what bit of timing causes that, but it’s interesting.

I have the second book in my “Fatal Writer’s Conference” series out now. The series features B.R. Emerson (Bea or “Ralph” to her friends … her pen name is Raphael Emerson, hence the Ralph). Bea writes sexy mystery stories featuring Cal Delvecchio, a fictional hero she created. But then she met a guy who reminds her so much of Cal. The problem was, the guy was a cop and he was investigating a murder that took place at a writer’s conference where Bea was a guest — and almost a victim.

The first book took place at a fictional writer’s conference in Abilene where I introduced Bea and the cop, Lucas Remarchik. The second book is set in Florida and I created a fictional conference based on the Clue board game. The categories for writing awards are the Mrs. Peacock (best historical), the Miss Scarlet (best sexy mystery), Mrs. White (best cozy) … you get the idea. The workshops are all held in board rooms with Clue board game names (the “conservatory” is where forensics talks are held; the “library” is the bookstore).

As part of the conference, there’s a cover model contest (anyone who’s gone to RT will be somewhat familiar with this, although I’ve changed it a bit to suit my purposes). As the book opens, one of these male models accosts my heroine, Bea Emerson, giving her a big kiss in the hotel lobby. Unfortunately Bea’s lover, Lucas, sees it and he has an argument with the model. When the model is found dead on the beach later, well, Lucas is a suspect. A few days later …

Oh, that would be telling. Suffice it to say, Bea & Lucas have had their ups and downs in their relationship (which started with the first book, Autographs, Abductions and A-List Authors). In this book, their relationship takes a definite twist, one that Bea didn’t see coming. What is it? Find out in June when the third book releases!

Here are links to excerpts for each book:

Autographs, Abductions, and A-list Authors

Sun, Surf, and Sandy Strangulation

For more info about both books (and the other books I have out), check my web site.

Are there more books coming after the third one? I didn’t plan to create more, but I went to a conference in January. It was on a cruise ship and I found the *perfect* place to murder someone on that ship. Then I came up with a motive, and a victim and a villain. And before you know it, I brought Bea and Lucas out of retirement and I’m working on that book now.

Sometimes these characters take on a life of their own…

Buy this book! Also available in print!

Eilis Flynn has worked at a comic book company, a couple of Wall Street brokerage firms, a wire service, and a magazine for futurists. She’s written a variety of things that don’t seem to belong together, but they do: comic book stories both online and in print, scholarly works in a previous life as a scholar, book reviews and interviews, and articles about finance (at odds with her anthropology background), before settling down to write romantic fantasies about the reality beyond what we can see.

Eilis’s latest book, Echoes of Passion, is coming out from Cerridwen Press on July 2, 2009.

With Spaceships Instead of Horses

One of the most famous stories about the creation of Star Trek is how Gene Roddenberry referred to the show as he was shopping it around: “Wagon Train” to the stars, he said, referring to a TV Western show that was popular at the time. Boiled down to the generalities, they had a lot in common: Every week, there was a new story about something different on their voyages. One voyage just happened to be on the dusty trail, the other in deep space.

When I was writing Echoes of Passion, I tried to keep that in mind. EoP, you see, is a sci-fi romance, and even though I’d written fantasies before, I’d never written anything resembling science fiction (I don’t count stories about super-heroines as sci-fi; they are firmly in the realm of the fantastic). Because EoP is a story in the Hunters for Hire universe, a shared universe created and developed by a number of Ellora’s Cave and Cerridwen Press authors, I had to make sure I adhered to the story bible. I couldn’t come up with plot devices out of the blue that might be at cross-ends with the bible, so I had to make sure that the indigenous peoples were either mentioned or not contradicting story canon. And it had to be something that was vaguely futuristic. It had to be space opera.

But I’m not a fan of opera in general.

I had a vague story idea but that was it, and my fear of having to deal with someone else’s canon kept tripping me up. But I kept reminding myself that the space opera was mere trapping, that a story was a story, and once I kept that in mind, EoP finally bloomed.

ECHOES OF PASSION is about Daegon Bosaru, a Secret Sciences Police officer, who discovers that someone is spreading damaging rumors about the role that his dying father, the former Neotian ambassador to the Amalgamation, played in the Neotian civil war. To discover the truth, Daegon must travel to the new home world of his clan — where he encounters a mysterious, passionate woman he has been seeing in his dreams for most of his life. She has information he needs — but she disappears whenever he gets close to her.

What does the mysterious woman know? And what do the accusations against his father have to do with this? Bosaru discovers that Verot Barus Kurog, the crazed ex-dictator who led the home world into a civil war, is still alive, and has plans to rise to glory again, no matter how many more people have to die for it to happen — and the doomsday device that destroyed Neotia Prime is still within his grasp.

Bosaru must track down the mad ex-dictator — but first, he must find out what the woman of mystery knows.

ECHOES OF PASSION

Secrets can destroy, but they can also liberate

Neotia Prime…

The home world of the Neoti and the Vozuans was destroyed by a doomsday device twenty years ago, but the troubles and the unrest that led to the event still plague those who resettled on the twin planet. When Daegon Bosaru arrives there, determined to find out who is out to smear his dying father’s good name, he discovers that the tragedies of that civil war still haunt those who remain. Not only that, the mysterious, beautiful woman he’s been seeing in his dreams over the past twenty years may have information he needs, but when he finally meets Imreen Dal in the flesh, she seems not to know him–and further, she runs from him every time she encounters him. Why?

And rumors persist that the crazed dictator who set off the doomsday device may still be alive…with fresh plans for conquest. Bosaru needs to find out how his father, the mysterious Imreen, and the madman are related…and stop another world from being destroyed.

ECHOES OF PASSION
Excerpt

Where did you go? You’re not getting away this time, Imreen Dal!

A flash out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. So what was going on, she hit him over his head and then tried to trip him up, but she stayed around to make sure he was all right? That was a mistake.

She took off, but he was faster, and now, he was angry. She knew the area better, but he knew it fairly well by now. And he was very angry.

Every time she took a turn, he took it a little faster. Every time she tried to double back, he blocked her way. Little by little, he cornered her again–into an open-air alley, with natural light, with no windows, no exits, no tunnels nearby. She was trapped.

If he hadn’t been blindingly angry, he would have felt bad about it. But just in case, he made sure there was nothing around that she could hit him over the head with again.

There was a small, quivering shadow in the corner, almost hidden behind the trash bins.

Her time was up.

“Imreen Dal. Show yourself!” Bosaru shouted.

For a minute the alley was dead silent. For a minute he didn’t think she would comply. Finally he heard a rustle in the shadowed corner before an indistinct form emerged. Even before she hit the light he knew who it was. The white and gold fabric of her priestess shift glinted, just enough to highlight the curves it was wrapped around.

Imreen Dal. The same priestess he first encountered in the shrine.

Imreen Dal. The woman who had been his dreams’ companion all these years.

“Imreen Dal.” Bosaru took a deep breath. “Good to see you again.”

The expression on her face was pensive. Or was it doleful? “I wish I could say the same, Officer Bosaru,” she said. “I did my best to keep away from you, but to this end.”

“Why?”

Her face shifted from pensive–resigned, he realized–to something set. There was a glint in her eye. “I thought it was clear. I do not want to speak to you.”

Well, that was blunt. “Just a few questions.”

“I decline.”

“Why? You don’t even know what I’m going to ask!”

“I can guess.”

“Then why didn’t you just decline instead of leading me on a chase?”

“Would you have let it go at that?”

“No,” Bosaru said. “And you didn’t have to hit me over the head, either.”

“I didn’t,” she said.

They stared at each other for a second. “Then who did?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

Bosaru stared at her some more. “You weren’t in the burned-out building around the corner?”

She shook her head. “I was hiding around the corner of it when you went inside. I avoid that building. It’s not stable.”

“But it’s got an entrance to the tunnels. I thought that’s where you were going.”

“I don’t like the tunnels either,” she said. “I only use them when I have to.”

“Then why weren’t you gone by the time I got back out?”

“I was worried about you,” she said. “I stayed until I saw you coming out and knew you were safe. And then I left.”

“Then why didn’t you go into the alleyway that was closest? That would have let you in a safe place.”

“I don’t like that alleyway,” she said.

“Is there anything you do like?”

“Being left alone.”

“What is with you?” he asked, exasperated. “I’m not asking for m–”

“I need to get out of here,” she said, her eyes growing huge. “Now.”

She tried to leave, tried to run, but Bosaru stopped her. “Why?”

Imreen Dal looked up at him, her eyes wide. “Haven’t you noticed?” she asked. “The sun’s set. We can’t be out.”

Echoes of Passion – coming from Cerridwen Press July 2009!

Christie Craig is an award-winning, multi-published writer whose non-fiction and photography have appeared in almost three thousand national magazines. A Golden Heart finalist, and a finalist in more than fifty RWA-sponsored contests, she has gained a well-deserved reputation for writing romance fiction that has both witty humor and a suspenseful, sexy tone. Published by Silhouette in the 90s, she recently broke back into fiction in a big way, making four book sales in one day. Her first single title romance novel, Divorced, Desperate & Delicious published by Dorchester, hit the stands in December 07. Her latest non-fiction book, to be released September 08, is The Everything Guide To Writing A Romance Novel.

Christie’s latest, Divorced, Desperate, and Dating, is available now!

Praise for DIVORCED, DESPERATE, and DATING

“. . . another delightfully entertaining novel with an intriguing mystery. “—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

“…deliciously sexy romances that are as addictive as a can of Pringles; once you start, you can’t stop!”—Night Owl Romance

“…Fans of Janet Evanovich should check [Craig] out.” –Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“Craig earns only the highest praise!”—Manic Readers
“…the jewel of finds when it comes to new authors.” —The Good, The Bad, and The Unread

“What do you write?”

I get asked that question by everyone who hears that I actually make my living penning words.

Now, I don’t mind being asked. As a matter of fact, I’ve kind of gotten fond of hearing people’s responses and even fonder of . . . well, gently educating them on my beloved genre. Oh, sure, every now and then I get one of those impressed looks that immediately informs me that the person asking said question actually reads romance and gets it. But let’s face it. These people aren’t nearly as much fun to deal with, or to blog about. It’s the others I enjoy.

Here’s a few of the more common responses I’ve gotten from . . . uninformed people about the romance genre, and how I gently educated them.

Scenario 1: Tact Only Goes so Far

Uninformed person: “Oh, you write that? I don’t read that.” Said with a look as if they’d just consumed a bad burrito.

Me: (Attempting to be nice.) “So what do you read?”

Uninformed person who is about to lose the uninformed person status and move straight to full-blown idiot: “Sci fi and horror.” (Said proudly.) “You know, by real writers.”

Me: (The gloves are off.) “Yeah. Real writers pen stories about psycho people running around removing people’s body organs, or eating people. They write real fiction about someone putting on a mask and using people as knife holders. Or maybe they kill women and use their skin to make themselves an outfit—you know, real life stuff. Or maybe they create alternate worlds where some people have a third eye, and two eyed people eat the three-eyed kind.” *

Generally, about this time is when the look on idiots’ faces remind me of someone who ate the bad burrito and it’s about to come up. I should shut up, but I can’t.

Me again: “Wait? I think some of that stuff appears in romance fiction, too. Sure, it does, it’s a tad less classy than what I described. But wait, we cheapen our stories by adding things like love, family, and commitment.”

Idiot who knows he’s stuck his foot in his mouth but must be hungry because he’s about to swallow it: “But you have sex in yours. What message would are you trying to send the young people?”

Me, having too much fun: “Yeah, and it’s generally the consensual kind of sex that doesn’t include torture, and we all know that doesn’t make it into real fiction. And I mean every parent would by far prefer that their children grow up to slaughter innocent victims or be prejudice against three-eyed aliens than do something so horrific as have sex with someone they will commit to.”

Scenario 2: Literature at Its Best

Uniformed Person (My son’s English teacher): “Oh, you write that. Well, I only read real literature.”

Me: (Did I tell you my son is failing English?): “Wow, you mean like Bridges of Madison County, and Romeo & Juliet.”

Snobbish teacher: Well, yes, I’ve read both of those. But they’re . . . different.”

Me (Totally understanding why my son is failing English): “Oh, I know exactly what you mean. When I lower myself to read a book in the romance genre like I write in, I seriously miss the unhappy, depressing ending that makes me want to go slice my wrists and neuter every penis-toting human within a mile radius of me.”

Yeah, I said “penis” to an English teacher, how cool was that?

Scenario 3: How My Doctor Became My Ex-Doctor

Uniformed MD (Aka—My doctor): “Romance? Hmm… It’s still fabulous that you’re a writer.”

Me (Not understand the . . . hmm, but still happy): “Thanks.”

Doctor: “How long does it take to write one of those books?”

Me (Not liking the “those books” comment, but giving him the benefit of the doubt): “Five or six months.”

Doctor (About to become my ex doctor): “You’re joking. I thought that type of fluff would go faster.”

Me (Thinking about the list of doctors I’d had to chose from when I accidentally picked this idiot): “Are you thinking about a writing a book some day?”

Doctor (Securing his position as my Ex-doctor) “As a matter of fact, I’ve thought about it. You know, doing it in my spare time.”

Me (being a smart ass): “That’s funny.”

Doctor: “What’s funny?”

Me: “It’s just I’m thinking about becoming a doctor in my spare time.”

Okay…that’s just a few of my responses about my beloved romance genre. Are you guys romance readers? Writers? What books have you read lately?

Please stop by my website and my regular Tuesday blog at Killer Fiction.

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* Hi Guys,

Christie Craig

I’m pleased to have Adele Parks as my guest this weekend. Adele is the Times best-selling author of eight fabulous books – I say that without reservation because I’ve read all but this one! I have my husband to thank for introducing me to her books because he bought me a copy of The Other Woman’s Shoes as a gift one Christmas. Since then I’ve gobbled up all of Adele’s other titles as soon as I could lay my hands on them.

(Need I say they all reside on my keeper shelf?)

Adele’s eighth book Tell Me Something was named Book of the Month by Cosmopolitan magazine and is now available in paperback. My husband has strict orders not to come home from the conference he’s attending in England in April without it!

A die-hard romantic, Elizabeth has always craved two things in life – an Italian husband and lots of rosy-cheeked bambini. So, when she meets fabulously sexy Roberto, she glides down the aisle and dreamily envisages the next stop will be a maternity hospital.

But, instead, Elizabeth and Roberto journey to Italy to run the family business where Elizabeth finds there’s more to living in Italy than enjoying ice cream in sun drenched piazzas. She doesn’t need to be fluent in the language to understand that her scheming mother-in-law and Roberto’s beautiful, significant ex are hell bent on destroying her marriage. Plus, Elizabeth is suddenly yearning the company of a gorgeous American stranger. She knows her filthy, flirty thoughts about him are totally inappropriate. Yet, undeniably, temperatures are rising…

Could it be that in Italy Elizabeth’s romanticism is boiling-up into something much more scandalously passionate?

Tell me something about Tell Me Something…

It’s perhaps my most romantic and passionate book ever. I suspect that’s partly to do with the setting but it’s also to do with the main theme of the book which is the relentless pursuit of a dream.

The story is about Elizabeth who has wanted two things her entire life, to keep her happy and fulfilled – an Italian husband and lots of rosy-cheeked bambini. The first is ticked off, now she’s bagged dark and sexy Roberto, the second is proving harder to achieve.

But when Roberto loses his job and decides to leave London for romantic Italy and the family business, Elizabeth hopes the change in lifestyle might help her relax and boost her chances of conceiving their longed for child. Except, no matter how much ice cream she eats in the sun drenched piazza, it’s impossible to relax when her wily mother-in-law (the original black widow) seems hell bent on destroying her marriage. The language barrier is proving tricky too, as is Roberto’s beautiful, significant ex who practically lives next door.

Is Elizabeth’s ferocious hunger for a baby enough to hold a marriage together or is it ripping it apart? And why is she suddenly craving the company of a gorgeous, blonde American stranger? Her filthy, flirty thoughts about him are totally inappropriate.

My books are renowned for being, erm, shall we say, passionate, so undeniably, temperatures are rising…

Tell me something about why you write…

First and foremost I want to entertain. My books are humorous, honest and happy. But they are also challenging, quirky and unexpected. Oh yes, and very sexy. I love it when my readers become engrossed and relate to my plots or characters. I like it when readers say they thought about the book long after they’d finished reading it. I suspect that is because the books send the heroine on a journey of improvement and self-realisation; it gives the reader a lot to think about.

Tell me something about your favourite place to write…

I do most of my hard graft at my desk in my office in the loft of my house. It’s not a dark, dank place. It’s very pretty and tranquil (although messy). However it is important to get out and about and thoroughly research the place where a novel is set so for Tell Me Something I simply had to spend time in Italy (I know your heart bleeds for me!) Less glamorously I’ve been to Whitby and Blackpool too. It’s all great fun.

Tell me, when did you know you wanted to be a writer?

As a child I wrote lots of stories and I often wrote things down if I was trying to understand my emotions but I did not keep a diary. Even before I could write I knew I wanted to be a writer. I lived in a daydream and constantly made up stories about anything and everything around me. I never saw anything as it simply was. For example, I’d imagine a salt and pepper pot to be warring queens from different countries or I’d be sure I was being spied upon by a black bird in our garden. People labelled me as imaginative before I understood the concept. I thought everyone saw things as I did. Once I realised that it was a skill it seemed natural to say I was going to be a writer. I think I first articulated my ambition as young as five or six years old.

Tell budding writers something…

It’s important to read, read, read and write, write, write. This game is all about dedication. I’ve had people tell me that they want to write a book but then go on to say they’ve never written anything longer than a shopping list. It’s important to be self-disciplined and write every day, even if you are not in the mood. Plus, develop a very thick skin. It’s a profession were you are exposed on a number of levels.

Tell me, chocolate or champagne?

Champagne but a good day would include both.

Tell me, what kind of books do you enjoy reading?
Anything other than Sci-Fi

Tell me, are you a romantic person?

Pathetically so.

Tell me, are the rather stunning pair of legs on the front cover yours?

I wish.

Tell me, where is your favourite place to read?

In bed. Actually bed is just pretty much my favourite place.

Tell me, if you decided to try your hand at something completely different to writing, what would it be?

I’d be a photographer. I yearn to capture what is.

Adele lives in Guildford, England with her family. To find out more about Adele and her fabulous books, please visit her website where she has excerpts from her books, more Q&As, and other fun tidbits. And good news: Her ninth book is scheduled for release July 2009!

In her previous life, Gemma worked in such diverse jobs as a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic. All of which have given her excellent fodder for future characters.

Her first book, Spying in High Heels, was published in 2006, and since then Gemma has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Reader’s Choice award and two RITA nominations.

Gemma now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area, where she is hard at work on her next book.

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Thanks so much for letting me crash your corner of the cyber world, Jenyfer!

So, how’s everyone’s 2009 going so far? Keeping to those resolutions? I’ll admit, I’ve probably done the exact opposite of each and every one of mine so far this year. Yikes! I’m thinking February will be the new January for me. But, I have a really great excuse. (No giggling from the peanut gallery. It is good. I swear!) My latest book, Mayhem in High Heels, came out at the end of December and between the interview, signings, and promo blitz, I’ve needed the chocolate just to function. On the up side, I’ve been waiting for this book to release for nine long months, and it’s been so fun seeing it hit stores.

Mayhem in High Heels is the fifth and final book in my High Heels series of romantic mysteries, and it follows fashion designer turned amateur sleuth, Maddie Springer, as she investigates the death of a wedding planner. Unfortunately, hers. As the killer closes in and wedding disasters from hideous bridesmaid dresses to incontinent doves pile up, Maddie’s race to the altar quickly becomes a race against time.

One of my favorite things about writing this book was all the research. Having never been married myself, I turned to my friends, family, and readers to give me the dirt on what really goes on behind the scenes at a wedding. Some of their stories made me laugh, some made me cry and go “awww”, but my absolute favorite one came from a young woman who posted hers on a wedding forum. I laughed so hard I think I pulled something the first time I heard this story. Here’s what happened at her wedding:

She was just 19 when she got married, and the night before her wedding she let her husband-to-be borrow her car to go to his bachelor party. Only neither he nor the car came home that night. The next morning he still hadn’t brought the car back, and the bride was beginning to worry. Finally, an hour before the wedding is supposed to start, the groom shows up at her house. Only, he didn’t bring her car back. He’s in a tiny, bright purple car. He tells her he knows purple is her favorite color, so he borrowed this one from a friend to make her day more special. (Smooth guy, huh?)

So, the two get in the purple car, pile the best man and maid of honor in the back, and drive into the city where the Justice of the Peace will marry them. But they can’t find the place. The end up asking a police officer, who gives them a police escort – lights, sirens and all – to the JP’s place. When they finally arrive, they realize, to their surprise, they’re in Chinatown. The JP’s assistant comes out and rings a giant bong three times before the JP makes his ceremonial appearance. He starts the service, but his accent is so thick that when he tells them to repeat the vows after him, they can’t understand what he’s saying. They totally wing it, making up the vows themselves as they go. After the ceremony he brings out little glasses with drinks for a toast. The bride and groom – water. The JP – vodka.

When, after containing their laughter from the mangled ceremony, the bride and groom signed the marriage license and paid the JP, he argued that it wasn’t enough money. They got the “deluxe” ceremony. So, they all started digging in purses and pockets, and between the four of them finally came up with enough to satisfy the JP.

As they were leaving the JP’s, his assistant threw rice at them… and accidentally hit a bee’s nest. Angry bees came flying out and chased the wedding party all the way back to their car. Oh yeah, the purple car? Once it was time to leave for the honeymoon, the groom confessed that he and his friends had been so drunk the night before, they’d completely lost her car. He’d borrowed the purple one at the last minute, but didn’t want to tell her until AFTER the ceremony. You know, so she didn’t change her mind. So, the bride’s father ended up driving them to their honeymoon destination, in the back of his station wagon. Very romantic.

With a wedding like that, I can only imagine how fun the marriage will be.

If you have any great wedding stories, feel free to pop over to my website and share them in my Wedding Stories Contest. The prize? An autographed copy of Mayhem in High Heels!