This is just too, too funny ....

Coming in 2009!

Check out the blurb about my new sale that appeared today in Publisher's Marketplace:

Fiction:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy -- USA Today bestselling author Julie Kenner's new paranormal series featuring an Assassin of Evil who believes she's fighting for the side of good, but discovers she's been duped by the underworld, tricked into killing those who would stand in the way of her demonic handlers.

The books will be published by Ace back-to-back in 2009. Not sure of the months, but they'll be 3 in a row. I'm psyched!

Now back to my regularly scheduled deadline ...

GUEST BLOG: Carly Phillips & Cross My Heart

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I've been dying under deadline, so I'm thrilled to have my friend Carly do a guest blog for me today! Be sure to check out her hot new release! (Doesn't she say nice things about me? LOL! I'll keep my mouth shut and not tell her I **am** losing my mind!)

I met Julie Kenner when we both started writing for Harlequin Temptation. She and I both share an editor, Brenda Chin, at Harlequin, and we had girls, and we hit it off right away. We’ve done a series together and we’ve stayed in touch. I really admire Julie as a writer, a mother, a home schooler, and a lawyer (also like me!). I always thought it was perfect that Julie wrote paranormal books too because in my mind she IS paranormal. She creates hours in a day. I need more hours. I’m frazzled and I don’t even home school my kids.

Check out my office during a deadline. A deadline that I’m still on. While a book it coming out. While one daughter graduates elementary school and the other gets chauffeured back and forth to final exams in high school. I’m losing my mind.



Julie is not. (At least I don’t think so!) How does she manage? I need lessons. For me, I think the answer is NOT planning. When I plan, Murphy’s Law inevitably kicks in and something goes wrong. If I have an entire day free on my calendar and I think I’m going to write, one of my kids wakes up sick. If bring my laptop to use while one of my girls is in an appointment, they call me in with them. I’ve been just doing the best I can, barely treading water for a long time now. And I thought Julie’s blog was a good place to talk about this because she also has mom readers from her home school and adoption loop (right, JBK?)

So who here has suggestions on time management? Help me please!

A side note - Julie was gracious enough to let me blog for her today, when my book CROSS MY HEART is being released in paperback. (Woo Hoo!) For a sneak peek at CROSS MY HEART, visit www.carlyphillips.com and check out the video trailer and remember to click on the Free Reader Giveaway at the top of the page – and see what I have in store for readers who purchase CROSS MY HEART!


Thanks for having me, Julie! It’s been a blast. HAPPY TUESDAY!
*****
Thank you, Carly!

And here are some photos. Aren't her dogs adorable? And I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one with a messy office!

Hamlet by Cats ...

Who can resist Hamlet performed by cats? Check this out ... from YouTube:

GCC Tour: Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

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Congrats to Joshilyn -- the current GCC tourer! Jackson won GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR for this book. How cool is that?

More, Jackson read the audio version herself and won a Publisher’s Weekly Listen Up award, a starred review in PW, and made AudioFile’s best of 2006 list!

But, wait ... there's more!

Between, Georgia was a #1 BookSense pick, making Jackson the first author in BookSense history to achieve #1 status is back-to-back years.

Here's some quotes:

"One of this decade's most commendable novels. Every now and then a remarkable writer, following in the footsteps of great authors, comes along to reenergize American fiction. So it is with Joshilyn Jackson. ...overflows with gut-wrenching sadness and laugh-out-loud humor. Jackson's novel brilliantly explores abstractions - redemption, love and grace - through the most compelling characterizations to be found in contemporary fiction. Between, Georgia is an exemplary novel by a singular writer who is in full command of the art of story telling. Don't miss it!"
- Bookpage

"Between, Georgia is a small miracle, and Nonny Frett is the most engaging woman who ever lived in the pages of a book. Joshilyn Jackson is an enormously talented writer."
- Anne Rivers Siddons, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetwater Creek


Want to hear more? Here's a summary of the book:

There's always been bad blood between the Fretts and the Crabtrees. After all, the Fretts practically own the tiny town of Between, Georgia, while the Crabtrees only rent space in its jail cells.

Stacia Frett is a deaf artist with a genetic condition that is causing her to slowly go blind. She's lost the love of her life, and when her vision goes, she'll lose her career as well. She's asking God why He keeps her breathing in and out, until the night fifteen year old Hazel Crabtree shows up on her doorstep brandishing a stomach swollen with a pregnancy she'd hidden for nine months. Stacia thinks Hazel's unwanted baby might be God's answer, and so the Fretts decide to steal it...

Thirty years later, Nonny Frett is a successful interpreter living in Athens, Georgia. She understands the meanings of "rock" and "hard place" better than any woman ever born. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two men; Her husband is easing out the back door and her best friend is laying siege to her heart in her front yard. She has a job that holds her in the city, and she's addicted to a little girl who's stuck deep in the country. And she has two families; The Fretts, who stole her and raised her right, and the Crabtrees, who lost her and can't forget that they've been done wrong.

In Between, Georgia, population 90, the feud that began before Nonny was born is escalating, and a random act of violence will set the torch to a thirty-year old stash of highly flammable secrets. This might be just what the town needs, if only Nonny wasn't sitting in the middle of it...

Here are Joshilyn's answers to my GCC questions:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?



I don’t have one. I have two kids instead. I don’t have time for the luxury of ritual. Oh how I wish I did! It would be romantic and fun to say, “I can only write a pink room…” or “I can’t work if there’s a black cat within a mile of me…” But the truth is much more pragmatic and dull: If I get an hour or more with no kids in the house, I work. My husband takes them out of town for long weekends when I need to draft. If I get desperate I leave and check into a hotel.



DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?



About 15 years ago, I was attending UGA in Athens, and I had friends in Atlanta, so I drove back and forth quite a bit. On the old route 78, I used to see this sign---I don’t know if it’s still there. It said something like, “Exit here to see Between, Georgia, Population 97.”



One day, I saw someone had snuck over and crossed out the “97” and written in “96.” That tickled me to death. I started wondering who would do such a thing. I was young, so of course my first thought was that it was some kid near my age who was born and bred in that tiniest of towns. He had always sworn he would get out and have a bigger life. As he headed off to college or New York or someplace that felt “big” to him, he stopped to lower the number as a triumphant farewell.



I thought about that kid for a few years, but he never gelled for me. I’m more interested in someone who can live a huge life in a town of 90 people than someone who tries to find significance externally. I never forgot Between, though. I started imagining the town layout, created families who lived there, and gave it its own specific and odd economy. Sadly, I never had a story that fit there. All I had was a strong sense of place.



About ten years later, maybe I had grown up a little, and I realized a kid had not changed that sign. It was an old southern lady, tough as nails, someone with her thumb ground down on that town. Earlier that day, the preacher had laid her greatest rival in the ground. She stood at the church in her best black dress and pressed a hanky to her mouth, but her eyes were alive with triumph and she had on a thick coat of monkey butt red victory lipstick. Later that same night, she’d crept out of her house, driven to the highway, and changed the sign in a gesture of small-minded and terrible victory.



That scene never happens in the novel, but the idea of a character who would do such a thing, of a rivalry between Southern Matriarchs that strong and virulent, began a story in my head. The sign changer became Bernese Frett, and I pulled her rival from the grave and let her grow into a crafty, drunken criminal named Ona Crabtree. Nonny Frett, the narrator, is by birth one of those trashy Crabtrees, but she is stolen and raised by the unbendingly respectable Frett clan.



I started to get a strong feel for Nonny, bravery, her desire to be loved, her good, good heart, and the way she hesitates, hopeful and cautious. I felt she was a character who lived “in between” on any number of levels, so the town itself, that strong sense of place I’d been growing for almost fifteen years, became a character as I started playing around with ideas about identity and nature v/s nurture, and what makes someone a mother.



PICK A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK AND TELL US WHAT TRAIT YOU SHARE (OR COME CLOSEST TO SHARING) WITH THAT CHARACTER.



My main character, Nonny Jane Frett, is a bit of a waffler. She’s Between on a lot of levels, and over the course of the book I think she grows into her own big voice…I am not sure I have yet. I am STILL a bit of a waffler. Her waffling irritated me no end, and I was so glad when she started standing up and making decisions and saying DAMMIT and fighting for what matters to her. I keep waiting for me to do that…

IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK THAT GAVE YOU LIMITLESS BOOKS TO READ, OR A LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF PAPER ON WHICH TO WRITE?



I’m a pragmatist. I’d rather have fresh water and limitless supply of Lean Cuisines with a solar powered microwave…Hrm. I think the books. I have to read!



I could write in my head and memorize it --- I came out of theatre and I often think of writing in terms of performance. I’d perform each chapter as a monolog and when the boat came for me I’d write it down.




BEER OR WINE? Wine. Or a dirty martini. OH! Or wait, a Blueberry Smash made with Jack and POM wonderful. Or.okay, why not! Beer. You got Rolling rock? Or no, I’ll have what your having. Make mine a double. ßSee! I waffle!

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate. The darker the better!

WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?



Oh Hrm. Can I have a tie? From childhood, it is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I still reread that probably more than any other book. But the book that spoke to me loudest since I (allegedly) became an adult is THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY. I love everything Kimmel has ever written, but her first novel, about finding all kinds of love in the ruins of broken families, remains my favorite. It’s hard to find a book this elegant, precise, and intelligent that has such a warm heart.


Visit http://www.joshilynjackson.com for more!

GCC Tour: THE SECRET SISTERS by Joni Rodgers

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Currently touring with the GCC is Joni Rodgers and the mass market release of THE SECRET SISTERS. I've got this one in my TBR pile. Can't wait!

Exploring the timeless themes of family, self, misfortune, and hope that have made the novels of Anna Quindlen and Sue Miller bestsellers, Joni Rodgers's moving and powerful tale tells the story of three women bound together by loss and set free by love.

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

Praise for The Secret Sisters

"Believable...brilliant...beautifully written..." Armchair Reviews

"Honesty, humor, and fearlessness...(Rodgers) illuminates the internal landscapes all women navigate." Houston Chronicle

"A page turner, full of surprises, insight, and spine-tingling erotica..." Helena Independent Record

"A rough gem of a narrative...Pia's tale has it all: death, danger, sexual discovery, and resurrection." Missoula Independent

"An emotional maelstrom worth getting wrapped up in." Easton Express-Times

"A modern tragedy...Rodgers wisely resists the temptation to whip up tidy endings, and her smart choices give The Secret Sisters the necessary measure of grit." Texas Monthly

Here are Joni's answers to my GCC questions:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?

What? There’s such a thing as a typical writing day? Why was I not informed of this?!


DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?

THE SECRET SISTERS began with an erotic short story I tucked in my husband’s suitcase as a sexy little surprise when he went away on a fishing trip to Cabo San Lucas. The story about the shopkeeper/con artist Dalphine was never intended for publication, but the characters stayed with me. I kept dreaming about Pia sitting in a chair in a waiting room. I kept wondering how this smart and competent woman had become so vulnerable. Then the world changed on 9/11. Over the next year or so, I saw our country embrace fear as a lifestyle, and it was eerily reminiscent of my own fragile and fearful state in the aftermath of cancer. THE SECRET SISTERS is my response to that. It’s a parable about how vulnerable we become when we embrace fear as a lifestyle. It’s also an examination of the way that tragedy can – and should! – change us. Survivorship is about accountability, courage, and hope. As we emerge from life’s refining fires, we have to learn from our mistakes, celebrate our strengths, and seize hold of every new day with joy. I finally understood what Pia was waiting to tell me: That redemption is tragedy cross-pollinated with grace.



PICK A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK AND TELL US WHAT TRAIT YOU SHARE (OR COME CLOSEST TO SHARING) WITH THAT CHARACTER.

When family tragedy leaves her shaken to her core, Pia is seized by a panic disorder that has the walls of her world closing in around her. As I researched agoraphobia, some of the symptoms began to feel uncomfortably familiar. Writing is of necessity a lonesome task, and since my kids went off to college and I’ve become more focused on my craft and career, I’ve become more and more of a hermit. This realization prompted me to pay attention to some friendships I’d let slide and to seek out some new writer friends to network and socialize with. I joined The Midwives, a critique group of accomplished women authors. Best thing that’s happened to me in years, both professionally and personally.


IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK THAT GAVE YOU LIMITLESS BOOKS TO READ, OR A LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF PAPER ON WHICH TO WRITE?

If you stop reading, your writing is going to shrivel up and die, so I’ll take the books and write on the endpapers.


BEER OR WINE?

My husband’s homemade pinot grigio is pomegranate-nuanced orgasm in a bottle.



CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

I used to be a major choco-holic, but ever since chemotherapy, the smell and taste of it make me nauseous. How sad is that?!



WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?

SIDHARTHA by Hermann Hesse. Whenever the vagaries of the publishing biz start to overwhelm, I try hard to remember the mantra of the emerging Buddha: “I can fast, I can pray, and I can wait.”



About the Author

Joni Rodgers, a Houston author who ghostwrites celebrity memoirs between novels, has a unique take on the popular idea that everyone has a book in them. “Everyone has a story in them,” says Rodgers. “But everyone has a pancreas, too. Only in rare cases should it be taken out and displayed on a shelf.”

The ghost gigs pay well and make for “some interesting elevator rides”, but Rodgers is selective about new projects. “It takes a compelling client to drag me away from fiction, my first love.” Rodgers’ latest novel The Secret Sisters (Harper Collins 2006) comes out in trade paperback this week with an added “PS Section” in which Rodgers discusses the story behind the book. The added material is bound to generate some juicy book club discussions. “I can’t wait for the sparks to start flying,” says Rodgers, who intended the story of a woman’s struggle with agoraphobia to be “a parable about how easily exploited we are when we embrace fear as a lifestyle.”

Joni is a long-time wife, ridiculously proud mother, and doting dog owner. She divides her time between Houston and New York City.


Visit Joni Rodgers on the web at www.jonirodgers.com

Joni Rodgers blogs about the writing life on “Boxing the Octopus”: http://boxingoctopus.blogspot.com