Interview with Julie Metz

Jen: Today we are excited to welcome Julie Metz to Romancing the Book. Julie, will you please share a short bio with us?
Julie: I grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and after four college years in Massachusetts I returned to New York City where I began my career as a graphic designer and met my husband. I write about my married life in my memoir Perfection. Since 2005 I have lived in Brooklyn. I am the mother of a teenaged daughter.

Jen: Tell us about your memoir, Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, and where it's available.
Julie: My memoir tells the story of the discovery of my husband’s infidelities seven months after his sudden death. I take the reader on the emotional journey through grief, anger and renewal as I experienced it. An unusual feature of my story is that I contacted many of the women with whom my husband had affairs and in one case formed a friendship that continues to this day.

Perfection was published in June 2009 and was a New York Times bestseller and a 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection.

My book is available at chain and indie bookstores and on Amazon. You can purchase Perfection as a hardcover, paperback, or e-book.

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Julie: I am a bit of a late bloomer. Until I wrote Perfection (in my mid forties), I worked as a freelance graphic designer. The events of my life prompted me to begin a writing life. My first published piece was for mrbellersneighborhood.com, a storysite founded by writer Thomas Beller.

Jen: Describe your writing in three words.
Julie: Others have described it as intense, lyrical, honest.

Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
Julie: With nonfiction I work from an outline but with fiction it’s been a bit of both. I have a working outline but I don’t want to get too attached to that. Characters need some room to grow.

Jen: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing?
Julie: Being alone in front of the empty page…

Jen: Easiest?
Julie: Until the deadline, you can always rewrite!

Jen: What’s the most rewarding aspect?
Julie: Hearing from readers who respond to my work.

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write? Is there a genre you’ll probably stay away from and why?
Julie: My next project is fiction. As a reader I am drawn to all sorts of books, so I want to leave my options open for future work.

Jen: What five authors or people, from the past or present, have been important to you as an author?
Julie: just a few of many writers I love:
Jane Austen: for writing sentences I can’t wait to read again!
E. M. Forster—for his ingenious plots and emotional depth
Richard Ford for mastery of first person narration
Virginia Woolf for sheer beauty of language
Jhumpa Lahiri for her subtle understanding of modern life

Jen: What did you do to celebrate your first book?
Julie: The publication of Perfection coincided with a birthday, so I threw myself a party!

Jen: What do you do in your free time?
Julie: I love to plant and weed my Brooklyn garden. It was a bare lot, so I have lots to plan. But that’s the fun part!

Jen: What's next for you?
Julie: I am working on a novel…

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Julie: www.perfectionbook.com I invite readers to check out the site for interviews, reviews, FAQs, and more.

Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Julie: What are you most looking for in a book? How do you choose your next book to read?

Jen: Thank you Julie for stopping by the blog and letting us know more about you and Perfection. Readers, Julie is giving away copy of Perfection to a lucky reader. Due to shipping costs, the contest is open to US/Canada residents only. To enter the contest, you first must leave a comment or question for Julie. Then to complete your entry, you need to either leave your email address in your comment or send a message to contests.bookblog@gmail.com. The winner will be chosen on Sunday, October 10.

Interview with Donna Kauffman

Jen: This week we are excited to welcome Donna Kauffman to Romancing the Book. Donna, will you please share a short bio with us?
Donna: Here’s the publicist’s version: USA Today Bestseller, Donna Kauffman is an award winning author and former RITA finalist, who has been published steadily for 19 years, with more than 40 titles currently in print, translated into more than 20 languages, sold worldwide. She has seen her work reviewed and excerpted in venues ranging from Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, to Cosmopolitan and Entertainment Weekly. She currently resides just outside the nation’s capital in the northern Virginia countryside where she is busy writing her next happy adventure.

Jen: Tell us about The Naughty List and where it's available.
Donna: The Naughty List will be released the end of September/early October from Kensington Brava and features three novella length stories. I share the title with Susan Fox and Cynthia Eden. My story, NAUGHTY OR NICE, wraps up a three story novella arc that began in To All A Good Night and continued in last season’s Kissing Santa Claus. The latter is also being re-released the end of September in the mass market size. To All A Good Night is available in both trade and mass market, too…and all three are available in digital. They can be found or ordered from any of the major book retailing outlets.

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Donna: My mom tells me I wrote long stories about our gerbil family when I was little, with full color illustrations—and thank goodness those have been lost through the vagaries of time! Think of the blackmail potential!--but I didn’t seriously start writing until my early 30’s. I joined a local writers group (thank you Washington Romance Writers!!) which was a long established chapter of Romance Writers of America and knew immediately that I’d found My People. I jumped right in and got very involved with the group, volunteering to do everything from being program coordinator to editor of our booksellers newsletter and eventually even served as their president. Which meant that while I was soaking up everything I could learn about plotting, characterization, and storytelling in general, I was also educating myself and forming connections to people presently working in the industry I was hoping to become a part of. I’m positive that it was because of that dual approach that I was able, eventually (two years later), to sell the first book I completed. I signed a three book deal with Bantam for their then-category line, Loveswept, and have never been out of contract since. I encourage anyone trying to break into this business to not overlook educating yourself about the industry side of the process while also writing the very best book you have in you.

Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
Donna: I do a little of both. I do put together a general synopsis or story outline detailing the main characters, their general backstory, their conflict (both personally and with each other) and what path I see them both taking to get to their happily ever after. Then I ignore all of that and write the story that they tell me to write. Sometimes it has a passing resemblance to the concept I began with, but it’s just as often that it goes in a completely different direction. As I get to know the characters, the ideas, plots, concepts, and all manner of other information all comes out….which I couldn’t possibly have dreamt up sooner, because I didn’t know them yet. There are many times I wish they’d be a little less vague and mysterious in sharing these details with me, but eventually I drag it out of em! So, I guess you could say that I’m a general outliner, then a major fly-by-the-seat-of-the-my-pantser.

Jen: Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing?
Donna: Iced tea and a small, tastefully appointed cave would be the best of all possible worlds. Anywhere that I can shut the rest of the world out and sink into my imaginary one, works for me. Once I’m in, bombs could detonate right outside my door and I wouldn’t hear them. But it’s being somewhere where I can sink in and get lost that’s vital. Well, that and the endless supply iced tea. Of course.

Jen: What is it about the romance genre that appeals to you?
Donna: I think two people finding each other and forming a rich, rewarding and fulfilling bond is sort of the core of who we are. I think that’s why I can write a book set in the mountains of North Carolina, and get a fan letter from a reader in Sri Lanka who found something in the story that spoke to her, despite the cultural chasm that might exist between her personal experience and those of the characters she connected to. Love is universal, yes, but it’s also the need to bond, to share, to unite that speaks to us all. I love the hope, the optimism, and the absolute leap of faith required to achieve that unity, that bond. Getting the chance to explore the paths two people can take to get there is pretty much the best job ever. Telling their stories reaffirms my own hopes and optimism, as well. By filling those stories with laughter, excitement, baited breaths, sexual tension, personal growth, and, finally love and commitment, I feel like I’m putting more of that joy and optimism into the world, and that’s a legacy I’m very happy to have a part in creating.

Jen: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Easiest?
Donna: Most challenging? Developing the right story for the characters that I think up. Then coaxing them into telling more, telling me now, and telling me all! Easiest? Developing new characters and concepts that I want to explore. I have more than I will ever be able to develop.

Jen: What’s the most rewarding aspect?
Donna: Initially, writing a story I’m proud to share with my readers, that I happily anticipate them enjoying. And secondly, because I don’t get to actually see the result of my work directly, it’s all rather anonymous as I don’t get to see readers enjoying the results of all my work, unlike, say a screenwriter could by sitting in a crowded theater and viewing a screening of his or her work – I love getting feedback from readers, hearing how the stories have touched them, made them laugh, provided a boost to their day, or even something more profound and moving.

Jen: Do you have a favorite character or one you most identify with?
Donna: After 20 years and more than 50 books filled with characters, I just feel like I get to live in one mammoth extended family filled with a lot of people I adore and love. They’re all dear to me in their own way (and wouldn’t it be fun to have a virtual reunion and get them all in the same place?) So no particular favorite, but I do think about what each one contributes to the “family” legacy.

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write? Is there a genre you’ll probably stay away from and why?
Donna: One great thing about romance is that, as a writer, I can use it as a platform to jump into just about any form of fiction there is, from mystery, to s/f, to horror, if I so choose. I’ve had the pleasure of writing suspenseful romance, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance as well and have enjoyed every foray. I don’t think you’ll ever see me writing an entirely historically set work of fiction, but I love the paranormal potential of bringing a bit of history forward into modern times…or sending my contemporary characters backward (or forward!) into other times and places and having the chance to explore a bit of the past and/or future that way.

Jen: If NAUGHTY OR NICE, from The Naughty List, was made into a movie, which actors would you choose to play the hero and heroine?
Donna: Hmmm….I never think in terms of real people (famous or otherwise) when I create new characters as they are an entirely new and different person. But if they had to be brought to film life? Hmmm….I don’t know, you’ve got a spunky American heroine and a hunky Irish hero. I think I’ll leave that up to the readers to debate…(and any Hollywood producers who might be reading this as well! I’m open to suggestions!)

Jen: What did you do to celebrate your first book?
Donna: My agent and publisher sent flowers and my family took me out to dinner to celebrate. Due to scheduling issues, it didn’t actually come out for almost a full 18 months after it sold, so we just used that as an excuse to keep the celebration alive for a year!

Jen: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Donna: I read stories from all different sorts of genres and have favorites in all of them that keep my Tower of Pisa book pile at an always-alarming tilt. At the moment I am reading a brand new author, Anne Fortier, and her debut novel, Juliet. Loving the duality of the different stories set in different times, and the new take on Romeo and Juliet. Or should I say the very old take. Sort of like Davinci Code Goes Shakespeare! Next up is the launch book of Janet Evanovich’s new Diesel series, Wicked Appetite. And, of course, like a lot of folks, I’m waiting with drooling anticipation for the final book in Nora’s Bride Quartet series (Happy Ever After), hitting the stands in early November.

Jen: What's next for you?
Donna: Next up is Off Kilter, the sequel to my June release Some Like It Scot. It should hit the shelves right about the time Santa is making his stocking stuffer rounds (shameless hint!) I hope everyone enjoys their trip back to Kinloch. Also out at that time is my short story contribution in The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance. I love Scotland as a setting for romance and it’s been a real thrill getting to write stories set in contemporary Scotland. The MAMMOTH BOOK contribution gets a little paranormal boost as well! And I just signed on to launch a new series for Kensington Brava, CAKES BY THE CUP, which will launch the end of 2011. I’m happily doing cupcake research as I type!

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Donna: My website and daily blog are at www.donnakauffman.com. I’m also on Facebook and Twitter.

Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Donna: I love writing connected books. I’m careful to make each book stand completely on its own so they can be read in any order, but I love getting the chance to revisit some of my “extended family” members again. So my question to readers is….how do you feel about connected books? Do you read them as they come out? Wait for them to all be released and then dive in? Or reread the last one when the next one comes out? (Me! Me!)

Jen: Thank you for guesting with us. I understand you have a special contest for our readers.
Donna: I love giving away free stuff, so I say YES! Speaking of connected books, the winner will get all three books in the current Christmas novella series: To All A Good Night, Kissing Santa Claus, and The Naughty List (the latter of which is signed by all three contributing authors.) No location restrictions. The more the merrier!

Jen: And now for the small print. As Donna said, there are no restrictions on the contest. So, to enter, first you need to leave a question or comment for Donna. Then to complete your entry, you must either leave your email address in your comment or send a message to contests.bookblog@gmail.com. The winner will be chosen on Thursday, October 7. Good luck!

Interview with Charlotte Hubbard

Jen: Readers, please help me welcome Charlotte Hubbard to Romancing the Book. Charlotte, will you please share a short bio with us?
Charlotte: After 10 years of being a school librarian/French teacher, I broke into print on the pulpy pages of TRUE LOVE magazine and never looked back! This was in the mid-80’s when Romance was just hitting its stride and booming, so my career has spanned a LOT of changes in books and the industry. I work from a home office, with my border collie, Ramona, as my office manager. Have been married to the same guy--Neal--going on 35 years now, and we recently celebrated that anniversary on a 15-day Panama Canal cruise! 21 single title books have seen print, along with many novellas, and more are now under contract! I intend to stay in this crazy, nerve-wracking, ever-changing business as long as I’m selling and having fun with it.

Jen: Tell us about Law of Attraction.
Charlotte: Law of Attraction is a new direction for me--sort of. Gets into New Age spirituality, as it’s set on the Oregon coast (we LOVE to vacation there and have considered buying a home there…when I win the lottery or get a six-figure advance!! ) The hero is a realtor who’s into numerology and can feel residual vibrations in homes, so he matches up prospective buyers that way--and it so happens our heroine has returned to Harmony Falls to lick her wounds after a NASTY divorce, basically with only the clothes on her back, and sees that the beach house she vacationed in as a kid is for sale… Also have a “wise woman” character who is psychic, very Earth Mother, and teaches Angie to read tarot cards. The housekeeper, Elena, loves to cook--so my newly designed website reflects a LOT of these various interests!

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Charlotte: I was fascinated with writing (and reading) as a kid--first published in about 1984 when I sold a story to TRUE STORY magazine. Didn’t get a “call” for that--simply got the one-page contract in the mail. Sold my first book, COLORADO CAPTIVE in 1990 to Zebra Books, which at the time was big on publishing racy Western romances. The editor called in the afternoon, I jumped around a lot and talked about it with my agent--and then the NEXT day, the editor informed me I had to CUT 70 pages of the book because it was too long for the Heartfire line. Was my first taste of publishing reality. THEN--I was working part-time at Waldenbooks--she called a few weeks later to ask me, over the phone while I was working the cash register, to change my hero’s name! Like, right then and there, after I’d lived with Dee McClanahan for MONTHS while I wrote the book! Well, he became Matt, and was probably a manlier man for it…but it was another Reality Check, for sure!

Jen: Please tell us a little about your writing under the name of Melissa MacNeal.
Charlotte: Melissa came out in 2000 as a reinvention effort, after about 6 years of not being able to sell squat. You THINK you have a career path after you’ve sold 6 books in quick succession, but not so! Meanwhile, my then-agent had fritzed out on cocaine and we’d parted ways, so on my own I sold my first erotic novel to the Black Lace line of Virgin Publishing in London, Devil's Fire. Wanted a pseudonym, obviously, so Melissa is my middle name, I write on a Mac, and I’m married to Neal--hence, Melissa MacNeal. After 4 books there, Melissa and I --and my new/present agent--started selling to the Aphrodisia line at Kensington. In general, Melissa has a lot more fun and raises a lot more eyebrows at social gatherings, but she’s woman enough to handle the notoriety!

Jen: How does your family feel about your career?
Charlotte: Mostly they’re PROUD of what I do! Mom died before Melissa came out of the closet, but I have cousins/sibs who LOVE the Melissa books--just as I have aunts and nieces and a mother-in-law who are SO happy I’ve sold this Amish series because they like Sweet Charlotte stories better than the hot sexy stuff. My husband is very supportive, so I’m really lucky that way. He’s never asked me to get a real job--even in those years when I couldn’t sell anything.

Jen: Do you have a writing routine?
Charlotte: Gee, what a novel idea! My days vary and my writing gets done in spite of water aerobics classes, church activities, and other Real Life events/activities. While my writing times may vary from one day to the next, I do have a weekly page quota, however: when I know a deadline for a book, I figure out how many weeks I have to actually WRITE it--allowing for conferences, vacations, visiting relatives, holidays, judging contests, etc. Then I divide the word count/pages by the weeks I have to work, and post that chart by my computer so I can mark out each week’s quota as I reach it. Sounds anal, but it keeps me on track.

Jen: What is it about the romance genre that appeals to you?
Charlotte: Truth be told, I have trouble writing romance…always trying to work in a mystery, or a secret that tends to overshadow the love story, or some other angle that seems fascinating to me but other folks (my agent, for instance) consider a little quirky or over the top. I like the idea of everyone finding somebody to love, though! Even when my stories don’t come out as the usual “romance” they have a lot of love in them. Sometimes it’s wild, wacky hot-sex love, and sometimes it’s deep, emotionally satisfying love, but it draws the characters together in ways they need, so they can be whole and live out worthwhile lives.

Jen: How do you pick the character’s names?
Charlotte: Because I’ve written historicals, contemporaries, erotica, inspirational--you name it--characters take on the life and times they live in, which often determines a certain slate of names you use. Melissa’s recent characters in Victorian London have vastly different names than, say, these Amish characters I’m writing now. I also like to have names that SOUND like they belong to the characters, and sometimes I choose names I can use as the basis of puns or plays on words later in the story.

Jen: Do you have a favorite character or one you most identify with?
Charlotte: Oh, I like ‘em all--but I LOVE the ones that seem to take on life without me having to prod them and analyze them! Thank goodness I don’t much identify with Angie, the heroine of Law of Attraction, because she’s a compilation of a LOT of crap that happens to married women around 40ish who find out too late that their “bad boy” lover really is…rotten. Ross, the hero in that book, plays trumpet in a ragtime/jazz band and is SO cool in a lot of ways! But his ex is still in town, causing a lot of trouble for him and Angie, of course. That’s what exes do best, isn’t it?!

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write? Is there a genre you’ll probably stay away from and why?
Charlotte: I tried my hand at lots of different genres when I was trying to publish again after that first wild rush of 6 Westerns led to a dry spell. Tried mysteries--and my stories often have an element of mystery in them. Tried Christian romance, but I realize most of the CBA-related publishers won’t touch my stuff because of my checkered career path writing as Melissa MacNeal. And that’s OK! I am who I am, and I have a lot of stories to tell for a lot of different audiences! My flexibility is exactly what has kept me published all these years. I have no qualms at all about writing whatever genre I can sell at the time--and over this many years, that covers a lot of territory! And even though I was once a children’s/school librarian, writing for kids is a whole nuther realm and I don’t want to go there. Sci-Fi/Fantasy isn’t my gig, either, although I wrote a couple of erotic serialized novels online, which were paranormals.

Jen: If you could travel back in time for one year, what time and place would you choose? And if you could only take 3 things with you, what would they be?
Charlotte: Back in time for a year? Sounds like what I did when I wrote my first historical romance! And, (this question made me think the hardest…) I think I would go back into the late 1800’s in the American West. After all the settings and situations I’ve written--even though my research points up how we have romanticized that period of our history, it still pulls on me. I would definitely take my border collie, Ramona. The reading glasses would be good to have … and if I could remain relatively sane and keep my skills--like writing and sewing and cooking and musical ability--enough to earn my keep that year, I’d be set! (And if I could honest-to-God pack that light for a year, wouldn’t THAT be a miracle! A book in itself!)

Jen: What did you do to celebrate your first book?
Charlotte: Jumped up and down for a while…dared to believe it when that editor proclaimed “we’re going to make you a STAR!” and we popped open a bottle of cheap champagne.

Jen: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
Charlotte: I was sitting at an autograph table in a bookstore, signing Devil's Fire(has a great, typical clinch-type cover) and a lady came up, SLAPPED her hand on my stack of books, and proclaimed, “THIS is what’s wrong with the world today!” I wasn’t sure how to take that, but I knew better than to try to make her see my side! The bookstore manager’s mouth dropped open, I can tell you!

Jen: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Charlotte: I love Barbara Samuels--who now writes as Barbara O’Neal. Recently, as research for an upcoming series, I’ve been reading a LOT of Amish series, especially Beverly Lewis and Cindy Woodsmall. Because---

Jen: What's next for you?
Charlotte: I have recently sold a new Amish series to the editor I used to write for at Dorchester! She’s at Kensington now (Alicia Condon, who filled the gap after Kate Duffy’s death) and is really excited about these books. I wrote my Angels of Mercy series for her, so she knew I was a perfect writer to take on the faith-and-family stories about Old Order Amish that are selling so well right now.

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Charlotte: www.charlottehubbard.com and my Melissa stuff is at www.melissamacneal.com

Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Charlotte: How will e-books and online buying affect your reading habits? Do you LIKE e-readers, or do you still prefer the book in your hand? And if you don’t browse in physical bookstores anymore, how do you see yourself discovering new favorite authors?

Excerpt from "Law of Attraction" by Charlotte Hubbard

“Gregg, you’ve got to stop calling! You’re tying up the hospice lines.”

“But I’ve gotta see you again! Baby, we were so good together, and you know it!”

Angie Cavanaugh hunkered down behind the reception counter, thankful no one sat in the waiting room to witness her rising anxiety . . . hoping none of the nurses came by before she got her ex off the line. “It’s history, Gregg. Over. You’ve got to get it through your head that I’m not coming—”

“But when we’re together—when nobody else is calling your shots—”

Angie hung up. Her pulse was pounding toward a headache and all her nerves jangled and she just wanted out. Six months ago when their divorce had become final, she knew Gregg Dysart wouldn’t take it well, but this!

She focused on the computer screen again, sucking in a deep breath. Not even nine in the morning, and already the day was spiraling downward into the hell she’d known for most of her ten years with this man. Couldn’t take “no” for an answer, or understand why she meant it. Couldn’t see his obsessive need to control her as abnormal or abusive. He’d been so sweet and loving when they’d dated . . . when she’d first married him.

Her cell vibrated against her belt. She didn’t have to check the incoming number: the constriction of her chest told her he had nothing better to do than toy with her today. Angie opened her phone. “Gregg, the restraining order means—”

“But I apologized for all that! We agreed to be friends, remember?” he crooned. “Do you think I can just stop loving you, like flipping a light switch? I gotta see you—”

“Angie, will you come with me, please?”

Angie gasped and looked over her shoulder. Marilyn McCoy, the hospice administrator, stood beside her, wearing a smile as pale and professional as her lab coat. And what was Dorothy doing here? Her shift didn’t begin until two this afternoon. Feeling like a grade school girl being sent to the principal, she closed her phone. “I’m sorry, Marilyn. I’ve told Gregg not to call me here, but—”

“You’ve had a rough couple of months.” The slender blonde glanced around the empty reception area and sighed. “We all want the best for you, Angie, but we can’t let this continue. I’ve had complaints from two nurses and a doctor about lines being busy, and about your lack of concentration lately.”

Angie nodded, hanging her head.

“We want you to get counseling. And we want you to return when you’ve got this proverbial monkey off your back, because the patients and their families respond to your compassionate nature. When you’re yourself, you’re one of our best.” Marilyn smiled sadly. “Stop by the office for your check, hon. Call me when you’ve got things ironed out.”