The Pajama Gardener

Pictures from American Library Association

2009-07-17T11:00:00.001-06:00

The amazing authors Marlon James (THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN) and Bich Minh Nguyen (SHORT GIRLS) and I after our panel discussion. More pictures here.

Happenings

2009-07-09T11:38:00.003-06:00

Heading to ALA to hang out with librarians in Chicago this weekend. Yay librarians! Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures. Following are some of my upcoming events:

Thursday, July 16th

Local peeps, don't forget: we're partying at LoDo Tattered Cover to celebrate the release of Children of the Waters.

Friday, July 17th

4-5 p.m. EDT, I'll be hosting a discussion about faith and mysticism in fiction on Litchat (via Twitter). Please join in.

Friday, July 24

5-5:30 p.m. EDT, I'll be yakking with the girls on Mixed Chicks Chat (scroll down a little for instructions on how to listen live; requires registration with TalkShoe).

Sunday, July 26

3:30 will be doing an interview with Connie Briscoe in Second Life. More details to come.

Contest on my website

2009-07-08T20:24:00.001-06:00

I'm sorry to say if you entered the contest to win a free, signed copy of Children of the Waters on my website before 7/8, I did not get your email. I apologize and ask you to re-enter. It's working now.

Welcome Samantha Wilde

2009-07-06T01:04:00.001-06:00

So, as y'all know my new novel is out and I'll be doing a tour of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit the week of July 20th. In the meantime, allow me to introduce you to another GCCer, a new member, Samantha Wilde. Samantha is the author of THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME, which was released the same day as my book. I'm excited about her book because she got a blurb from one of my favorite authors: Elinor Lipman, who says: “Here’s a talent: when a narrator’s doldrums make a reader laugh out loud. Samantha Wilde’s inkwell must be filled with truth-serum because this brave and funny book gets the postpartum peaks and valleys so very, winningly right.”

Any mommy writers or mommy bloggers out there? You might get a kick out of this one!

THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME introduces Joy McGuire who has gone from being skinny and able to speak in complete sentences to someone who hasn’t changed her sweatpants in weeks. But now with a new baby to care for, she feels like a woman on the brink and as she scrambles to recapture the person she used to be she takes another look at the woman she is: a stay-at-home mom in love with her son, if a bit addled about everything else. As a new mom herself, Wilde, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, wrote THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME after the birth of her son when she was experiencing the ups and downs of new motherhood. According to Samantha, “I wrote the book because I couldn’t not write it. I took my lap top to my bed during my son’s naps and wrote and wrote. I wrote the book I wanted to read. The book takes a hard look at the effects of new motherhood on a woman and on a marriage through the eyes of one stressed but insightful woman. It’s a story that will keep mothers going when they think they can’t go any further.”

Check out what Samantha has to say about writing, and balancing kids and her writing life:

Q: When deadlines hit, what happens in your house?

A: I get more tired. The toilet bowl has to wait until late at night to be cleaned. I “stay-at-home” with my kids, so that’s my real job. If anything suffers during deadlines, it’s the house, which is not so tidy to begin with. No, that’s not true. It’s me who suffers. I won’t nap, and I’ll stay up later. I’ll forego a shower or a walk. So I guess I’m saying that I get stinky and fat. That doesn’t sound very good, does it?

Q: Um, I don't have kids and that sounds like my house! If you weren't writing, what would you be doing instead?

A: I’d teach yoga, which I do once a week anyway. And be with my kids more, though it hardly seems possible. Or maybe I’d just be lying in bed reading and eating chocolate. That would be nice. But then you didn’t mean if I wasn’t writing AND was wealthy, did you?

Q: Which scene (or scenes) in your novel did you love writing? Why?

A: I loved writing the fights between Joy and her husband. It was more fun than fighting and used up all my crankiness. Actually, I enjoyed writing most of it. Joy is so sassy and funny, I looked forward to what she might say or do.

Q: What would you change about your life if you became the next Sophie Kinsella?

A: Oooh, good one. That’s such a good one. I’d do what I’m doing on a bigger scale. I’d have more children. I’ve always wanted more children. I’d adopt some children. I’d have more friends for dinner, and more dates with my husband, and spend more time with family. I’d use the money for our children’s education and I’d buy as many books as I wanted. And it wouldn’t be bad to have a kitchen from this century. Or a house with a entry way for dirty shoes!

Q: Any tried and true tricks for beating procrastination?

A: Who has time to procrastinate? Have some young kids. You will not have the privilege of indulging it.

Q: What has brought you the greatest joy since you were published, and what has caused you the greatest angst?

A: Publicity has been difficult. I find self-promotion challenging on many levels. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I need to do something. My greatest joy? Probably realizing that my happiness has nothing to do with my book. I know that’s counterintuitive, but here’s the thing. When you long to be a published writer your whole life, you imagine when it happens, something will change—fireworks, lottery-style money, fame, etc. Getting the book published has put my dreams into perspective. I feel so blessed to have the book out there, but I am also relieved to find that my life is rich enough to sustain the possibility that it is—simply—a book. My treasure is in my children and my family. Strange kind of joy, isn’t it?

No, it makes total sense to me! One of the things I've also learned. If you make publishing your whole life, you will be sorely disappointed.

Upcoming radio interviews

2009-06-29T12:38:00.003-06:00

I'll be on the Voice of America Radio Network (on "Hip Hop Connection") Tuesday, June 30 at 12:05 p.m-12:20 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday, July 1 at 9:15 a.m.-9:25 a.m. ET, I'll be on WCBQ-AM/WHNC-AM on "the Alvin Jones Show."

Hope you'll listen in!

Black or white

2009-06-26T08:21:00.002-06:00

RIP Michael. Since this song goes with the theme of my new book, I'll post this. If you want to see the actual video, go here

Book News

2009-06-25T09:01:00.004-06:00

Lifetime extended the option for Orange Mint and Honey, which is very good news! The head of the network is reading the script. Cross your fingers for the green light!

Lori Tharps is giving away a copy of my novel at her blog My American Melting Pot.

LadyLee blogs about buying a copy of Children of the Waters and makes my day!

I was on Blog Talk Radio yesterday with Cyrus Webb of Conversations Book Club. You can listen here. This evening at 7:30 p.m. ET I'll be on with Deardra Shuler and you can join us live.

I posted some pics of Children of the Waters and a few friends' books on the shelves at Tattered Cover.

Summer reading

2009-06-23T05:36:00.001-06:00

Looking for something good to read in the hammock this summer? Children of the Waters is out TODAY.

Shelia Curran and Everyone She Loved

2009-06-22T08:18:00.005-06:00

I have a special request today, author Sheila Curran's 2nd novel Everyone She Loved is on sale now. She's hoping that people will order it on Amazon today to help the book get in their top 100. Because Sheila had a tiny, little bout of cancer this year she won't be touring or doing many events to promote the book. Buying today on Amazon will help.

To the Go On Girls with love!

2009-06-18T09:42:00.011-06:00

The GOG DC #1 chapter with me and my Aunt Verlene.

This is a love letter. I've said it many times that I love book clubs, but let me say it again: The people who form groups to get together and talk about books (whether online or in person) help me keep the faith. So thank you to all the book clubs out there!

This time, I'd like to specifically address the Go On Girl! Book Club, who I had the pleasure of meeting with in Houston at their annual meeting. What a joy! About 160 smart, funny, kind, lovely, well-read and fun women (and a few "supportive husbands") showed up (out of the 300 or so members around the country) to shower lucky authors (including myself) with affection.

I didn't know much about the Go On Girl! Book Club when I sent them my book, except that they were a book club and I thought they might enjoy reading my novel. They only pick 12 books a year (6 fiction and 6 nonfiction), so it's quite an honor for them to have selected mine. Anyway, I didn't know much about them but last weekend I learned about their mission and history and I have to say it floored me. And brought me to tears more than once. Their mission is to let publishers know that black people do indeed read and they enjoy quality fiction. After they read a book, they send a letter to the author's publisher to make their voices heard, to say, in effect, "black readers exist."

The group was founded about 18 years ago, and sadly, their efforts are needed just as much today as they were then. Some might say even more. (Indeed, some of the members told me that it felt like that "we are going backwards" or said they've been hearing the same author tales of how hard it is out here for all their years in existence.)

This group's mission is basically to keep black authors going so that readers like them can keep getting good books. At the awards dinner, several of the members spoke about how they know that writing is a lonely art and they want to tell authors that we are not alone. That when we're worried or disheartened that people like them are out there rooting for us and waiting on us to write another book for them to read. This alone is balm for the writer's soul.

But on top of this, they give awards! And put together a hell of a weekend of events to almost literally heap praise and support on the writers lucky enough to attend. This year, Ravi Howard, author of Like Trees Walking won the New Author Award. Tananarive Due, Stephen Barnes and Blair Underwood won Authors of the Year (and you have never heard so many giggly women in your life when they showed Blair's video acceptance speech!). And J. California Cooper received the Life Achievement Award (and stole the show every time she opened her mouth-very wise and funny woman!).

It is a credit to the Go On Girls' hospitality that, while I wasn't an award winner, I still felt well-loved over the weekend. We had a pajama party with orange mint cookies, and I'm drinking coffee out of the GOG mug they gifted to me (along with an apron and boxes of tea)!

And, on top of all this, they give scholarships for new writers! This is a group that offers a wonderful model of walking their talk. Dear Go On Girls, you humble me, inspire me and awe me, and I am so, so grateful for your support!

June in the garden

2009-06-15T15:11:00.007-06:00

Privet hedge in bloom.

Mock orange flowers.

One of the first "heart of gold" roses.

Poppies and fire witch dianthus.

California poppies and snow-in-summer.

Poppies and yarrow.

Iris, yarrow, snow-in-summer, mugo (shrub).

Ground cover.

Feverfew and yellow roses.

Lots o yarrow.

We've had weeks of cool, rainy weather with just enough sunshine. The plants are very happy.

Stop! Hammer time!

2009-06-10T08:43:00.002-06:00

A flash mob invades a hipster store. I am officially in love with flash mobs now!

Welcome Judi Fennell and beach getaway contest!

2009-06-04T09:25:00.008-06:00

My pub date is just a couple of weeks away and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. So how appropriate that the new Girlfriends Cyber Circuit title is In Over Her Head. While the title says, "Modern women, I can relate," the cover says, "Forget your problems and come with me!"

In Over Her Head is by Judi Fennell. Here's a peek:

When Erica Peck, one terrified-of-the-ocean marina owner, finds herself at the bottom of the sea conversing with a Merman named Reel, she thinks she's died and gone to her own version of Hell. When the Oceanic Council demands she and Reel retrieve a lost cache of diamonds from the resident sea monster in return for their lives, she knows she's died and gone to Hell.

When they escape the monster and end up on a deserted island, she amends her opinion - she's died and gone to Heaven.

But when Reel sacrifices himself to allow her to return to her world, she realizes that, Heaven or Hell, with Reel, she's In Over Her Head.

Here's some of the early buzz:

"In Over Her Head is a heartwarming, but action-packed story of two people-one human and the other of the seaworthy body-joined together in an adventure. I enjoyed this story immensely."

-Dawn M. Ekinia, Armchair Interviews

"A delightful underwater adventure... full of good-natured humor and fun. A strong first effort by a promising new talent."

-Romantic Times

"A playful debut... sincere wit."

-Publisher's Weekly

And I have to point out the front-cover blurb from LA Banks, not only because it sings the book's praises, but because I've wondered about authors of different races blurbing for each other over on my other blog.

Judi's hosting a great contest over at her site. Check it out-you might win a free trip!

To celebrate the release of each of her books, Judi Fennell and the Atlantis Inn (www.AtlantisInn.com) and the Hibiscus House (www.HibiscusHouse.com) bed and breakfasts are raffling off three romantic beach getaway weekends. All information is on Judi's website, www.JudiFennell.com

And on to my chat with Judi:

Who do you picture in your mind when you write?

I see the scene. It's one of the best things about writing paranormal, and being under the sea. I can make anything be there that I want to be and can explain it away with magic. But I also do adhere to reality as much as possible and LOVE when that reality exists where I need it to.

What's been your biggest surprised about getting published?

The biggest surprise was going to industry functions and having different interactions than you do as an unpub with industry professionals. It's more like, you're there, in the business and you're not looking for a sale as you are always hoping as an unpubbed. I hadn't thought about it but when it happened, it was very obvious. Surprising.

Is writing your main job? If not, what do you do for your real source of income and how does it impact your writing?

I got laid off from my day job (in the housing industry) shortly after I sold. I do still do a few hours for the company and am waiting for the market to turn around to go back to work, and in the meantime, I'm writing. The layoff was actually a blessing, although that pesky money/bill thing isn't fun.

What's the main thing you hope people take away from your book?

A good time and laughter. And a desire to read about the rest of the Mer family.

Art or entertainment? Is one more valid or important than the other?

I'm a reality tv junkie, so I'll go with entertainment. Is one more valid? No. The beauty of a democracy is allowing people their freedom to choose. What works for you might not work for me, so to have the selection is great.

What comes most naturally for you to write, dialogue? plot? character? And what's hardest?

Dialogue is the easiest and that's usually how I write. I'll write that first for each scene then build the rest of the scene around it. Hardest? I don't know that any other element is harder than the other. They're all part and parcel of the scenes and once the story is on the page with the dialogue, everything gets worked in.

So...go buy the book and don't forget to enter her contest!

Salon: Writing in and out of the niche

2009-06-03T05:00:00.002-06:00

The Lighthouse LitFest begins this Friday.

I'm doing a panel discussion. Please join us! 8 p.m. Thursday, June 18 at the Wynkoop Brewing Company.

Cost:
$10/members $15/nonmembers

Description:

Carleen Brice started “White Readers Meet Black Authors” as a lighthearted way of calling out the sometimes limiting ways bookstores categorize her (and many other authors) books. But there’s something to this. Do partitions exist between authors and readers of different genders, races, and backgrounds? Where do genres of writing fit into all of this? If the partitions exist, how can we all benefit from tearing them down, at least at times? Join this fun, interactive, enlightening panel of Brice (Orange Mint & Honey, Children of the Waters), William Haywood Hendeson (Augusta Locke, Native, The Rest of the Earth),and Mario Acevedo, whose Vampire Detective Felix Gomez has appeared in four books so far.

Children of the Waters "sparkles"

2009-05-27T06:59:00.003-06:00

Says AOL Black Voices Book Shelf! Among some of the choice bits....

Brice is a fine storyteller, and her characters, including Trish and Billie, are alluring, which should come as no surprise. She won the 2009 First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for 'Orange Mint and Honey.' She also is the bestselling author of 'Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color.' Her blog "White Readers Meet Black Authors," www.welcomewhitefolks.blogspot.com, has won widespread attention from various media outlets, including the Washington Post. She lives in Denver with her husband and two cats. After reading 'Children of the Waters,' fans will wonder what Brice is up to next.

A bookseller weighs in

2009-05-23T10:54:00.001-06:00

One of the Tattered Cover reviews of Children of the Waters: "Not only strong, confident and kick-ass, but an important book with a lot to say about forgiveness and belonging...Even better than Orange Mint and Honey. I see the writer's growth."

Bad review

2009-05-18T07:41:00.004-06:00

Just got my first stinker. And I'm reporting it here cheerfully because it doesn't devastate as I've always feared. My real, genuine reaction is, "OK, not the book for this reviewer." God knows there have been books I thought sucked rocks that other people loved (sometimes millions of others). And there have been plenty of books that got bad reviews that I very much enjoyed. Different strokes for different folks.

Here it is from Publisher's Weekly (with a couple minor errors, including the fact that Trish doesn't have lupus).

Children of the Waters Carleen Brice. Ballantine/One World, $14 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-345-49907-3

Brice’s uneven second novel (after Orange Mint and Honey) follows two lonely women as they discover they have a lot in common. Having survived a messy divorce and a move back to her hometown of Denver, Trish Taylor already has her hands full raising her teenage son when she reads a letter left by her deceased grandmother. In it, her grandmother reveals that Trish’s mother died from a heroin overdose and Trish’s baby sister, Billie, was given up for adoption because the father was black. Despite her grandparents’ prejudice, Trish has no issues with race. She’s white, her ex-husband is black, but Billie is unwilling to believe that her adoptive parents would have kept the secret that she was adopted and is biracial. Billie has other problems as well: an unplanned pregnancy has sent her jazz-musician boyfriend packing and she, like Trish, has lupus. Brice sets up the sisters for the blandest of confrontations (one watches chick flicks, the other teaches African dance), but as they come together in the second half of the book, the initially stock characters develop enough to compensate for a narrative tending toward melodrama. (July)

Update: Just was reminded of this wonderful post about bad reviews.

Denver Reading

2009-05-13T10:12:00.002-06:00

I'll be reading at 5:30 tomorrow night at Baur's Italian Restaurant in Downtown Denver. It's part of the Colorado Book Awards festivities. Also reading are:

Fiction/Literary

Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice, One World/Ballantine Books

Home Pool: Stories of Fly Fishing and Lesser Passions by Bruce Ducker, illustrated by Duke

Beardsley, Stackpole Books

The Song of Jonah by Gene Guerin, University of New Mexico Press

People of the Whale by Linda Hogan, W.W. Norton & Co.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, Ecco

Poetry

A Murmuration of Starlings by Jake Adam York, Southern Illinois University Press

Wayfare by Pattiann Rogers, Penguin Group - Viking Adult

Holding Three Things At Once by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Turkey Buzzard Press

Hope you can join us!

Mother's Day Memories

2009-05-10T07:29:00.004-06:00

My Mother's Day post from last year is here.

When my brothers and I were in elementary school, our mother would send Valentine's Day cards to us at school. I remember this at least twice. We'd get called to the principal's office. Remember the principal's office? I'd be all freaked out only to find out I had some mail. I was in elementary school. I never got mail. And to get mail at school? Amazingly cool.

When I was in high school and needed a Social Security card for a real job (non-babysitting), my mother got me out of school for a few hours. We went to the SS office and got me signed up. Then we went to the top of the Woodmen Tower, which was then the only skyscraper in town, for lunch and had steak sandwiches and strawberry daiquiris.

Prom night. My girlfriends and our dates meet at my house for pictures before we go. Mom walks into the room and says, "Who's got the joint?" So the boys smoke a little with my mother before prom.

Once I was home from college on a break and my mother helped me get into a club by telling the bouncer, "I'm her mother. Would I lie to get my underage daughter into a bar?" He let me in, but the answer was yes.

College graduation. Mom: "But why can't I wear a bustier and fingerless lace gloves to your graduation? If I lost weight, I'd look good. I would think most daughters would be proud of a mother who could look hip at their graduation." (This was during the Prince/Vanity 6 days understand, and evil child that I was I still demanded that she not show up dressed like Apollonia.)

I'm 26. I live in Colorado. She is in Kansas. We're talking on the phone long distance. She has a problem and asks me what she should do. I say, "I don't know Mother. What do you think you should do?" She says, "Stop talking to me like a fucking shrink!" I say, "Then stop treating me like a fucking shrink." She hangs up.

Two years later. She has cancer. It's spread to her brain and she can't see. I've brought her home from the hospital and settled her into her chair. The TV is on. She asks, "Who's in here in a blue outfit?" I say, a little freaked, "Um...nobody. Who do you see?" She dodges the question, so I ask what if anything she can see. She tells me, "I see things in my mind's eye. Planets, mountains, rivers." And I'm amazed and wonder who is this person. She goes on, "And clothes, furniture, jewelry." Ah, that's the mom I know and love. The woman, who after she dies, I have to go to the mall in Topeka to break the bad news to all the shop clerks. They mourn almost as much as I do. Almost.

Twouble with Twitters

2009-05-08T09:24:00.002-06:00

So I'm collecting tips and stories about using social networking to promote books. This parody of Twitter cracked me up. Thanks to The Bottom of Heaven for the link!

Writing Contest

2009-05-07T09:52:00.002-06:00

$4,500 in awards for writers
THE NEW LETTERS LITERARY AWARDS Next postmark deadline: May 18, 2009.
The $1,500 New Letters Prize for Poetry
for the best group of three to six poems
The $1,500 Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay
for the best essay
The $1,500 Alexander Patterson Cappon Prize for Fiction
for the best short story

Click here to read a 2007 Interview with Robert Stewart, editor of New Letters(conducted by Jendi Reiter for Poetry Contest Insider).
GUIDELINES
For a printable version of the 2009 guidelines, click here.
Submit by regular post or electronically. Simultaneous submissions of unpublished entries are accepted with proper notification upon acceptance elsewhere.
Enclose with each entry: $15 for first entry; $10 for every entry after. Entry fee includes the cost of a one-year subscription, renewal, or gift subscription to New Letters, shipped to any address within the United States. (Subscriptions mailed outside the U.S. require a $12 postal surcharge.) Make checks payable to New Letters. Two cover sheetsthe first with complete name, address, e-mail address, phone number, category, and title(s); and the second with category and title only. Your personal information should not appear anywhere else on the entry. For sample cover sheets, click here. A stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt and entry number. A stamped, self-addressed envelope for a list of winners. This is optional. Please send only one envelope if submitting more than one entry.
RULES AND NOTES All entries will be considered for publication in New Letters. Fiction and essay entries are not to exceed 8,000 words. A single poetry entry may contain up to six poems, and those poems need not be related. Multiple entries are accepted with appropriate fees. Please make cover sheets for each entry of fiction, essay, or group of poems. Manuscripts will not be returned. No substitutions after submissions. No refunds will be offered for withdrawn material. Current students and employees of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and current volunteer members of the New Letters and BkMk Press staffs, are not eligible. Postmark by May 18, 2008.
MAIL ENTRIES TO:
New Letters Awards for Writers
UMKC, University House
5101 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499
PAST WINNERS			PAST JUDGES
2007	Jennifer Maier, Poetry		2007	Mary Jo Salter, Poetry
	Sara Pritchard, Fiction			Rishi Reddi, Fiction
	Beverly Blasingame, Essay			Gerald Early, Essay
		Entire list			Entire list

Lo siento

2009-04-29T18:55:00.003-06:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging here much lately. I was busy with freelance deadlines and I've been sucked into Facebook land. If you're on FB, friend me.

A little news: I'm a finalist for the Colorado Book Award for literary fiction and for the Colorado Author's League Top Hand Award for mainstream fiction.

And, I got a Mac! It's hubby's gently used one, which is a zillion times faster than my 6-year-old PC.

Nothing much else exciting going on. Working, picking dandelions, walking. Counting the days to book launch. What's going on with you?

Welcome April Henry!

2009-04-20T09:42:00.007-06:00

I'm doing a panel next month on social networking, and I get interviewed from time to time about my other blog. One of the things I love to point out about online networking is how great people can be to one another. Almost daily I'm amazed at the generosity people show to each other online, providing information and support to virtual strangers. The Girlfriends Cyber Circuit is just one example of that!

April Henry is a new member of the GCC, so let's give a big pajama gardener welcome to her! And check out this book...sounds like a mighty good read.

Face of Betrayal
When 17-year-old Senate page Katie Converse goes missing on her Christmas break near her parents' white Victorian home in Portland, Ore., law enforcement and the media go into overdrive in a search for clues. Three friends at the pinnacle of their respective careers--Allison Pierce, a federal prosecutor; Cassidy Shaw, a crime reporter; and Nicole Hedges, an FBI special agent--soon discover that Katie wasn't the picture of innocence painted by her parents. Did Katie run away to escape their stifling demands? Was she having an affair with the senator who sponsored her as a page? Has she been kidnapped? Is she the victim of a serial killer?

April co-wrote Face of Betrayal with Lis Wiehl, a legal analyst on FOX. They have a contract for three more Triple Threat mysteries. In March, April’s young adult thriller, Torched, came out from Putnam.

April Henry knows how to kill you in a two dozen different ways. She makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters. April had one detour on her path to destruction: when she was 12 she sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to noted children's author Roald Dahl. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine. By the time she was in her 30s, April had come to terms with her childhood and started writing about hit men, drug dealers, and serial killers. She has published six mysteries and thrillers, with five more under contract. Her books have gotten starred reviews, been on Booksense (twice!), translated into four languages, short-listed for the Oregon Book Award, and chosen as a Quick Pick by the American Library Association.

What others are saying about Face of Betrayal:

Publishers Weekly: “A sizzling political thriller… The seamless plot offers a plethora of twists and turns.”

Romantic Times:4.5 stars [and they don’t give out five stars] “Wiehl and Henry have penned a winner that seems to come straight from the headlines. Captivating suspense, coupledwith tightly written prose, will entertain and intrigue."

Ingram: "Readers are in for a treat as trial lawyer/commentator Lis Wiehl and mystery author April Henry team up for a political thriller."

And now to our Q&A:

Who do you picture in your mind when you write?
I really write for myself – someone who is busy and wants to be entertained and/or informed, or they’ll move on.

What's been your biggest surprised about getting published?
One surprise was that I imagined when you were published all your worries disappeared and you just sat back and cashed fat royalty checks. Another was that adult books only have about an 8-10 week window to succeed. (With children’s andYA books, that time is a lot longer.) A more recent discovery was just how different YA and adult publishing are from each other.

Is writing your main job? If not, what do you do for your real source of income and how does it impact your writing?
For a long time, I worked full time in health care as a writer. I wrote everything from ads to “What you need to know about ovarian cancer” [the answer to that one is: that you should hope to never, ever get it.] Having to write on deadline taught me about discipline. And I learned that what I loved best about writing was telling stories. I’m good at getting people to open up and tell me their stories.

Art or entertainment? Is one more valid or important than the other?
If art isn’t entertaining, then it won’t find much of an audience. But entertainment without substance is like trying to live on marshmallow fluff. There has to be a balance.

What comes most naturally for you to write, dialogue? plot? character? And what's hardest?
I often forget to have my characters do something while they talk. But it’s so important, because the right interaction with an object can really speak volumes without any dialog.

Thanks April!

Novel Adventures

2009-04-18T13:02:00.003-06:00

Novel Adventures is a CBS web series/commercial for Saturn. But the cool thing is the series is about 4 women in a book club who go on adventures (in their Saturns) inspired by the books they read. 8 books, 8 episodes.

The series went up in November. Anybody watch? I wonder what you think of web shows that double as commercials?

Good Friday

2009-04-10T09:21:00.001-06:00

A friend emailed me this advice for having a Good Friday and I thought I'd share:

Nothing you probably haven't heard before but everyone needs to be reminded once in awhile.

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,' My purpose is to __________ today.'

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don't waste your precious energy on energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest
your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone..

11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

14. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. GOD heals everything.

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch!!!

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.