It’s a scary celebration here today. I’m happy to announce the release of
GHOST HUNTRESS BOOK 1: THE AWAKENING.

You can check out Marley at her website here and also at her blog which she shares with other wonderful young adult authors: Book, Boys, Buzz here. Enjoy!

Deb, Diane and Amanda

DIANE: Amanda was my mentor! Shortly after she sold to Signet, she signed up to be a Beau Monde mentor and I was her first mentee. It turned out to be a great way for us to become friends and led to us rooming together on the 2003 Novel Explorations Regency Tour where we became friends with Deb.
Deb has the most wonderful laugh. It is infectious and I love to hear it. When she sold to Harlequin Historical and joined the author loop, I welcomed “Deb Marlowe,” not realizing I was welcoming my 2003 travel buddy!

DEB: Hmm, well, Diane has more research books than my local library! If you ever want to know anything at all, she has a book for it! And Amanda has the most amazing collection of adorable, hand-made costumes. I’m always breathless at the Beau Monde Soiree, waiting to see who she will transform into next!

AMANDA: LOL! Last year it was Cherubino; this year, maybe Marie Antoinette.
Well, Diane loves cats as much as I do! And she has a mega-cool talking Leonidas action figure from 300. Deb has a kick-ass sense of humor—try and sit by her in the bar at RWA, you will have a blast!
It’s been too much fun, and a great privilege, to work on this project with them!

Thanks so much for being here today. I can’t wait to read it for myself being a big time Regency fan.

Amanda and Diane can be found over at the always fun Risky Regencies Blog here or
Amanda here amandamccabe.com
Diane here dianegason.com
Deb here debmarlow.com

Please leave a comment by Friday at midnight and one lucky commenter will win a copy of the new anthology.

Best,
Kwana

Wow! I had so much fun reading the comments from yesterday’s Whats Your Number post. It was so interesting. Very telling to me about how secure some of us are in our weight and it clearly depends on where you are in your relationship with your weight. We’ll have to do more of that type of polling here.

I’m happy to announce that the winner of the Barnes and Noble Gift card for making a comment on my interview over at Romance Writers on The Journey was Hope! We did the drawing at knitting the other day. The winning name was pulled by the lovely PVE. And, Yep, I resisted all those sweets. Notice Jack’s no sneaking gate in the corner.

Best,

Kwana

What’s Jack up to? Well the wild vacation week is over so it’s back to what’s supposed to count for normal with just Jack and I at home for a big hunk of the day. I think he’ll be spending the day enjoying a bit of quiet. At least for a little while.

I hope you all had a good weekend. Anyone have a fine time with The Oscars last night? I’m amazed at how much fun I had on twitter with The Oscars last night. Seriously, it was a little party that I didn’t have to dress up for. The DH was so not getting it, but I was having a grand time with my tweets.

I’m a newbie to the whole social networking thing. Fact is, I really don’t consider myself all that social. Just a big faker. So how social are you? Are you Linked in? Do you tweet? Do you follow me? (um, over to the right) Are you Faced out? Or do you like to hang back and stay off the grid? Who needs Big Brother watching all that much, eh?

Now, in the ultimate outing, I’m extremely honored to have been interviewed by Keli Gwyn over at her blog Romance Writers on The Journey. It’s my first blog interview so I’d love it if you stopped on by. You can check it out here. Thanks Keli!

Best,
Kwana

What’s Jack up to? As I type this he’s sleeping sweetly after a rip roaring day. Ah, peace is so good.

We’ve got a treat today. An interview with Phyllis Bourne Williams, fab author of A Moment On the Lips and fellow blog buddy.

Hi, Phyllis thanks to much for being here at KwanaWrites I really appreciate you doing this interview today.
Thanks, Kwana! I’m a longtime stalker…uh, I mean reader of your blog. It’s a thrill for me to actually be your guest today.

I’ll start with my traditional question. What lead you to become a writer is it something you always wanted to do or is this a career you backed into?
I can’t remember not loving romance novels. In college, I hid issues of Romantic Times in my textbooks and read while the professor lectured.
A journalism major, I went on to become a newspaper crime reporter. After a long day of covering the unbelievable things people do to hurt each other, I couldn’t wait to escape into a good romance.
Years of reading evolved into the urge to write my own.

Please tell us the story of your overnight success?
Overnight success? I have to laugh at that. For me, it was more like years (and years and years). I spent a lot of time thinking, dreaming and talking about writing, but not much actual writing. Once I sat my butt down and wrote, my efforts were rewarded with several RWA chapter contest wins and two Golden Heart finals.
A Dorchester editor was the final round judge of one contest, and she requested my full manuscript. I didn’t win, but the editor bought my book.

What’s you typical writing day like? Are you a plotter or a pantser and how do you work this non-traditional job into your life?
I’m easily distracted. I don’t think about laundry or cleaning – until I sit down to write.
So when I need to get some serious writing done I go to the library or Starbucks. There I accomplish in a few hours what would take days for me to get done at home.
I try to get out of the house early, so no matter what crops up later I’ve got my writing done. I’ve also learned to say no and not alter my schedule to wait around on repairmen or deliveries.
I was a die-hard pantster, but I’m waning. Nowadays, I write my synopsis first and use it as an outline.

I loved A Moment On The Lips. How did this book come to life for you? Also it incorporates knitting which a love of mine, is it a passion of yours?
Thanks, Kwana!
The story didn’t truly come to life for me until after it sold. My editor encouraged me to delve deeper into my characters and the story. By the time I was done, Melody and Grant were my best friends. I hated to leave their world.
Yep, I knit. Keep in mind, I’m not a very good knitter, but I try hard.
I typically start a knitting project at the same time I start a writing project. I like watching my skeins of yarn transform into a garment as my words turn into a novel.
I just started working sweater. Here’s what it looks like now. (*See attached photo)

(Sidebar: Phyllis’ knitting ROCKS!!)

The main Character, Melody is a real woman with real curves is writing real women important to you?
I wanted my heroine to wear a size 12, the average size of most American women.
I also wanted the hero to appreciate and adore her voluptuous shape. It was important she didn’t believe she had to lose weight to be loveable.

What main piece of advice would you give to an aspiring writing?
BICHOK – Butt in Chair Hands on Keyboard. Simple advice that I don’t always follow myself, but it works!

What’s up next for you, Phyllis?
I have a novella in Dorchester Publishing’s October 2008 Christmas anthology, The Holiday Inn, along with authors Farrah Rochon and Stefanie Worth.
In my story, “By New Year’s Day” I write about a couple whose thirty-year marriage is crumbling under the endless demands of their adult children.
The fed-up husband whisks his wife away to a remote ski lodge, to rekindle their passion and save their troubled relationship.

Thanks so much for being with us today, Phyllis. Please check out Phyllis at her website and her fab blog http://phylliswilliams.com/ and http://www.fortyisthenew20.com/. You won’t be disappointed.

Best,
Kwana

Today we’ve got a treat on KwanaWrites, a guest blogger, Roberta Iselib who is here to share a few secrets with us. Take it away Roberta!

Six Secrets for Keeping Your Sanity While Chasing Your Dream (Writing, that is!)

Clinical psychologist Roberta Isleib has just seen her eighth novel published in seven years. ASKING FOR MURDER is the third book in the series featuring advice columnist/psychologist Rebecca Butterman. Roberta’s also wrapping up her year of service as president of National Sisters in Crime.

In ASKING FOR MURDER (Berkley, 2008), Dr. Rebecca Butterman’s dear friend, a sandplay therapist, is found badly beaten and left for dead. Rebecca’s determined to help search for answers. With a would-be killer on the loose, she can only hope the clues are buried within easy reach. Think: best friends, crazy families, and the mysteries of sandplay therapy.

ROBERTA: Thanks for agreeing to host me on your blog Kwana! It’s hard to believe eight books have come out since SIX STROKES UNDER in 2002. I promised I’d try to pull together some of the things I’ve learned over this time and here they are, in no particular order.

MAKE A PLAN: As I begin a book, I look ahead to the due date and figure out how many pages I’ll need to write each week in order to hand it in on time. I build in time for trips and family and time for my writers group to read and critique, and then time for me to rewrite. Then I have a page goal for each week. I write until I’ve hit the goal, sometimes even getting a little ahead. If I have an unproductive day, it just means writing a little faster later in the week to keep up.

HAMMER IT OUT: Get it all down, even if it’s awful. You can always go back and fix things later. Anne Lamott called this “the shitty first draft”—she had it right!

SET YOUR SIGHTS HIGH: As a psychologist, I know the importance of having “big goals” for my subconscious to aim at. So I keep a copy of the NY Times bestseller list pasted up over my computer. Then I forget about it and work on the books word by word…

FIND A BALANCE: The business part of writing is hard–the part I have no control over. I can produce a fabulous book, but unless the publisher is really behind it and I have a bit of luck somewhere along the line, it’s unlikely to be a commercial success. That’s why I do as much as I can to promote, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my writing! I want to be able to say I gave it my all without killing myself in the process.

MANAGE YOUR PROCRASTINATION SOFT SPOTS: I’m still learning that I don’t have to answer every email the second it arrives! If I’m having trouble concentrating, best approach for me is to turn the email off and look at it as a reward for when I’ve reached my word count goal.

YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE FRIENDS: Writing can be such a lonely, discouraging business. I’ve gotten very involved with mystery organizations (Sisters in Crime and MWA, and joined Romance Writers and Yahoo groups such as Fiction That Sells. The friends I’ve met there have saved my sanity and supported me endlessly along the way.

TAKE YOUR TIME: Don’t rush off too soon to try to get your work published. This business is extremely competitive so it’s crucial to have your writing polished before sending it out. The Internet makes querying too easy—don’t press send until you’re sure the piece is the best it can be. I have lots of info on my website about agents and getting published and some of the scams writers fall for. Read it over when you’re ready. http://www.robertaisleib.com/

Wonderful advice! Thanks so much for guest blogging here today Roberta. Stop back anytime. Everyone check out Roberta and her amazing books. You won’t be disappointed.

Best,
Kwana

P.S. Scroll down for “reality” rundown

What’s Jack up to? Well he’s being a total Jack in the butt. Completely under foot with everything I do and feeling full of himself, barking up a storm. I’m sorting laundry and he’s stealing socks. Oh, Jack you are so asking for it.

This Friday we have a treat. At RWA National I had the pleasure of meeting the super cool friend of my PIC, Carolyn Jewel. I was so happy that we hit it off right away. How awkward would that have been if we hadn’t? Whew.
Well, Carolyn has agreed to be interviewed in my little corner of the blogosphere today.

Carolyn is the author of: A DARKER CRIMSON, THE SPARE AND LORD RUN. Her newest release MY WICKED ENEMY is just out this August.
Thanks for being here Carolyn. Let’s start with my traditional questions. Did you always want to be a writer and can you tell us the story of your ‘overnight’ success?

Yes, I always wanted to be a writer, pretty much from the time I could hold a pen. But for some reason it never occurred to me that writing was something I could actually do. When I finished college I got a job and worked and really pretty much didn’t like what I was doing. I was, naturally, reading a lot. But overnight success? Kwana, it is to laugh! No, no overnight success, despite the story that follows. Read on for someone who sold her first book ever after sending one query. . . When I was 25 or 26, I read a book I thought was just awful. It was a historical romance that read (to me) as if it had been badly translated from some other language. I thought to myself that, surely, I could do better. From what I hear, this is a very common inciting event for writers. After that reaction I got to thinking that I really ought to see if it was true. I bought a computer and started writing and just kept going until all I was doing was changing the punctuation. Must be done!I did some research into next steps and discovered I needed a literary agent and a query package. I decided that I would not be able to tolerate more than two rejections at a time so I prepared two queries. I managed to transpose some digits of one of the street addresses on one of them so, leaping ahead a bit, I’ll reveal that six months later it came back as undeliverable. Flash back to me mailing off my two queries. Two weeks later, I came home from work to a message on my answering machine from a woman who introduced herself and said that she thought she had an offer on my book, could I call her, please? Well, I live in California so I had to wait until the following morning. In that one conversation I learned two Very Important Lessons about the publishing world. St. Martin’s Press had a line of historical romance called Americans Abroad. They featured, not surprisingly, American heroines who were, eventually someplace other than America. (Note: my heroine was French.) But an author had not turned in her manuscript. The woman on the phone with me was an agent and book packager who was desperately looking for a book to fill that slot. We chatted for a bit. She told me I was a talented writer and then said something along of lines of, “and you seem like you’re a rational person.” Would I mind, she asked, rewriting my heroine to be American. Heck no! And would it be possible, she asked, to do the rewrite in six weeks? The book was due out before the end of the year and they were all in a jam. No problem, I said. So the deal was done!.I’d sold my book to New York! But not for a royalty contract, for a flat fee. I knew nothing about the business, really, though as it turned out, I have no complaints about that sale.
The two lessons were, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, that deadlines really do matter and that it pays to be easy to work with. They were, I realized much later, taking a risk that a complete unknown could pull off a rewrite as promised. There is a third lesson embedded in this, which is that talent isn’t necessarily enough. There’s luck involved. I was lucky not to have misaddressed that query. I was lucky that it arrived at a time when there was a need for a book like mine. If my writing were dreadful, they would have kept on looking. I wrote another book in pretty much the same unconscious way. By the seat of my pants. And when all I was doing was changing the punctuation, I figured I was done. I found an agent, which I confess didn’t take very long at all, and she sold my second book. It was ten years before I published again. The reasons are varied but it comes down to two pretty simple things. I wanted to write a more purposeful book, but I had not yet learned that I’m a panster, and I had a baby in the middle there and spent three plus years absolutely exhausted because I swear that boy never slept. As a single parent, I did not have any help, so the exhaustion was pretty desperate.Eventually, I did learn more about writing and myself as a writer, most of which occurred after I joined RWA and met other writers. I did publish again, but I also had other periods when I thought my writing career was over or that I would never be able to write a publishable book again. So, overnight success? Uh, no. Not exactly. The battle continues. Each and every day.

You are a mother, a writer and you also hold down a separate job, not to mention all the many animals you care for, how do you handle it all and still make your deadlines? What is your typical writing day like?

Let me start off my saying I am NOT a morning person. Nope. As far as I’m concerned, a good morning is one you sleep through. (Carolyn’s preaching to the choir here!) But I get up at 4:25 a.m. so I can get to the gym and then to work early enough that I’m home in time to supervise homework and perform amazing feats as a soccer mom. At the gym, I use an exercise bike because that leaves my hands free for 45 minutes of notebooking and brainstorming my current writing project. If I’m behind or otherwise panicking, I bring my laptop to work and write on my lunch hour. On days when there’s soccer practice, I get two uninterrupted hours in the car to work. Otherwise, in between or after my family responsibilities are done, I write in the evening, from 6:00pm to about 10:00pm with lots of interruptions until after dinner and homework. I put in as many hours as I can on weekends. If I’ve met my daily minimum word count, then I can stop.

You seem to live in two worlds, the historical and the paranormal. How do you balance the two?

When I was a child, my mother always complained I had a one track mind. So it should be no surprise that I write in two different genres by focusing on one project at a time. Although I think my voice is similar for both types, the sensibilities are very different and if I were to switch off between them, I think things would be very rough going.

Tell us about your newest book MY WICKED ENEMY, especially the sexy Nikodemus.

MY WICKED ENEMY is set in the contemporary world, but it’s a world in which there are demons and people who can do magic. They don’t get along. The demons can and sometimes do take control of innocent people and destroy lives. They also can only reproduce with humans. Is it any wonder that magic-wielding humans (the magekind) have learned to protect themselves and other humans? Unfortunately, they do this by enslaving the demons or by outright killing them. Worse, some of the mages have learned how to kill a demon in order to prolong their own lives. It’s no wonder the demons are thinking about outright war.Nikodemus is a demon warlord who has sworn to kill the mage Magellan and Carson Phillips, the witch who’s helping Magellan murder his kind. Imagine his delight when he discovers Carson all by herself! But Carson isn’t what he thinks and, as it turns out, she has ample reason to fear and hate Magellan.

What’s next for you Carolyn?

A book set in the same world as MY WICKED ENEMY is set for summer of 2009, it features Xia, a secondary character from that book. SCANDAL is a historical romance that will be out in February 2009 (Berkley Books). It’s about a Regency rake who has fallen deeply in love with a woman he’s treated very badly. Will he be able to prove he’s reformed?

Thanks so much, Kwana, for asking me to appear in your wonderful blog. Please give the adorable Jack a biscuit from me, okay?

Aw. Thanks to you Carolyn for being here and just because you said so I will give jack that biscuit and tell him it’s from you!

Check out Carolyn’s book trailer for MY WICKED ENEMY below and catch up with her on her site here.

Best,

Kwana

What’s Jack up to? Well, I’m watching him closely today after he’s gone and gotten into the DD’s pockets yesterday and into a pack of gum. Oh, Jack.

Today I’m please to be interviewing a friend and fellow RWA/NYC Chapter member, Leanna Renee Heiber on the release of her futuristic/psychic/fantasy book: DARK NEST!



Hi, Leanna, Major Congrats on the release of DARK NEST. Thanks so much for doing this interview. I’m so happy to have you here at my little blog.

Leanna: Thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be here, Kwana, major thanks for letting me chat with you!

1. Let’s start with my traditional question. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Leanna: I was writing as an outlet before I was doing anything else, so it was something I just did out of obsessive love, not something I thought to make a career of. I was scared I’d stop loving writing if I focused on it as a career. Pursuing it professionally didn’t occur to me until after college when I started realizing that, all my other artistic pursuits such as theatre aside, writing was what I cared most about and I had to take it more seriously.

2. Tell us the story of your “overnight” success. This is my favorite question.

Leanna: *chuckle* Well, nothing feels overnight (it took me almost four years just to get an agent) and just the fact that I haven’t walked away from this often brutally painful business would be my only claim to being a “success”. That goes for any of us that can face the notepad or computer and keep writing week in and week out.
— Sidebar to this question: did your agent sell this book for you?
Leanna: No, this is a novella and he only represents my traditional book length work.

3. How do you feel about being an eBook author? Where do you see the future of eBooks going and your future in it?

Leanna: I believe it’s a great opportunity. I’m still learning a lot about the marketing aspects of being a writer. But I do know that the eBook industry is invaluable in taking temperatures. EBooks can respond to what the public is reading and can attend to trends and tastes almost immediately. The advantage of the electronic market is the turnaround time. I had my book accepted, contracted, cover art created, copy and line edited and released within 4 months. Due to the nature of New York houses, that sort of turnaround time just isn’t possible. So while my agent is trying to swing the bigger stuff in NY, I can get my feet wet and hit the ground running with a short work that will hopefully start building me an audience. The future of eBooks will only get bigger. All major houses are now offering downloads and with the electronic readers on the market, I know they’re here to stay. However, if I have a choice, I confess that I like tactile books best. And many publishers, big and small, will do both eBook and print runs. (In fact, I just found out that my book will be going into a print run as well!) I will say it’s true that with smaller, new or electronic companies you accept some risks. Crescent Moon Press is very new and doesn’t have the benefit of being a familiar, ‘tried and true’ company yet. But sometimes you make choices because of the type of work you create. I specifically accepted a contract from Crescent Moon Press because of their interest in and commitment to Cross-Genre fiction (all my work is very cross-genre, DARK NEST is a futuristic/paranormal/fantasy/romance) and I believe in their mission to produce quality fiction that lives and breathes outside of the traditional genre boxes. I can get behind that. Electronic presses like Crescent Moon, while still adhering to quality standards (my editor was exceedingly thorough with me, which I loved), can give an author a great deal of artistic freedom and that’s exhilarating.

4. Have you always wanted to write in the Fantasy market? What draws you there? The possibilities of the imagination seem endless.

Leanna: Yes, always Fantasy. It was my second skin growing up and to me, no other genre holds such potent magic. There has to be a love story too, to keep me bound and loyal to the work. Blending large, sweeping, fantastical and supernatural realms with the lushly intimate human experience of love is my favorite combination.

5. Tell us a little about your writing process. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Leanna: Full-blooded pantser. People with spreadsheets scare me. I need a notebook filled with unintelligible scrawls paired with a blank computer screen and a lot of time on my hands. Eventually I come out on the other end with a book. I can’t really tell you how I get there. It’s cosmic every time.

6. What’s next for you, Leanna?

Leanna: I recently sent off a YA proposal to my agent; a magical time-travel series set in and around Central Park . I need to work on finishing the first manuscript in the series.
Thanks again for hanging with us.
Leanna: Kwana, you’re wonderful, thank you.
Please check out Leanna at her website (http://www.leannareneehieber.com/) or at her fun blog (http://www.leannareneebooks.blogspot.com/) and don’t forget to check out DARK NEST! (www.crescentmoonpress.com/catalog)

Leanna grew up in rural Ohio and began her first novel in grade school. It was many years later that she thought about doing something with one of her books. Choosing to pursue BFA degree in theatre performance, Leanna continued writing in the midst of arduous rehearsal and performance schedules. Hopping around the country performing in the theatre circuit, her first publications came in the form of short plays and essays for Dramatics Magazine. Her short plays won awards and garnered productions. This gave her the confidence to begin publishing longer works of fiction. Leanna is a proud member of the actors’ union Actors Equity and a certified Actor-Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. She is represented by New York literary agent Nicholas Roman Lewis
A selection of her favourite things include: stained glass windows, social justice, Central Park, the Muppets, vegetarian restaurants, ghost stories, classy sword-fights, a finely tailored corset and ridiculously cute furry animals. Leanna lives in New York City with a wonderful gentleman and a fuzzy white bunny.

Best,
Kwana

PS- Scroll down to yesterday’s post if you’re a fan of Survivor!

What’s Jack up to? He’s still sleeping since I’m cheating and writing this at midnight. Must get some zzzz’s. Jack will make me pay tomorrow.

Today I have the honor of interviewing author and fellow agency sistah Marley Gibson. Check out the photo of Marley and me from the NEC conference. Marley’s first 2 releases ev-ah in the Sorority 101 series Zeta or Omega and The New Sister comes out today, May 1st, written under the name Kate Harmon! Three cheers for Marley!

Here a blurb about SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega?:

Who wants to be a sorority girl?
High school is already a distant memory for incoming Latimer University freshmen, Jenna, Roni, and Lora-Leigh. Jenna wants to meet cute college boys, Roni wants to get away from home, and Lora-Leigh…well, Lora-Leigh couldn’t care less. She’s going to LU and participating in sorority recruitment only to appease her mom. Sorority girls are pretty, rich, and snotty, and Lora-Leigh doesn’t want to be one of those girls. So she’s shocked to find herself actually connecting with the sisters of Zeta Zeta Tau. And her new friend Jenna can relate. She came to sorority recruitment only because her roommate begged her to, but now she can’t decide which sorority to join; she likes them all! Roni knows which sorority she should join. The Tri Omegas are exactly the type of “it” girls she would usually befriend, but Roni came to LU to reinvent herself. As recruitment progresses and the girls prepare to make big decisions, they’ll need to heed the best advice there is: follow your heart. But where will it lead?

And here’s a blurb for SORORITY 101: THE NEW SISTERS:
So far, college life at Latimer University has been everything Jenna, Roni, and Lora-Leigh expected. They’ve already made close friends, caught the eye of a few hot frosh boys, and participated in sorority recruitment. As if it were meant to be, all three found a home in the Zeta Zeta Tau sorority. Now Roni hopes to be the most perfect ZZT in history, while Lora-Leigh can barely believe how quickly she went from cynic to sorority new member! Jenna is just as excited to be in the sorority, but she also has classes to stuffy for, a nasty roommate to put up with, and a marching band scholarship to uphold. How’s a girl supposed to appease everyone and everything—not to mention strike up a romance with an adorable fraternity boy—all the while keeping her diabetes hidden? Lora-Leigh and Roni are there for her, but ZZT initiation is on the horizon and Jenna must decide if she really trusts her new sisters enough to share her secret…

Now to the hard hitting interview. (I love saying that):

Thanks for being here Marley. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you here on this wonderful occasion. I’m just thrilled.

1. Let’s start with my traditional question did you always know you wanted to be a writer? Is this something you always knew you’d do?
Awww…thanks Kwanster! Much appreciated that you’re helping me pimp my books. LOL!! As for the question…I don’t know if I always knew I wanted to be a writer, but it’s something I’ve always done. When I was really little, I used to write stories (okay, they were like one page and six sentences) and then I would hold an “auction” where my mother, father, sister, and brother would bid against each other for them. Hmmm…maybe that prepared me for selling, eh? I’ve always written…in school, in my professional career, and finally, in 2001, I decided to do it for real. Seven years later, my first two published works hit the shelves!

2. Now for my next favorite question. Please tell us the story of your “overnight” success. You just know I’m cracking up as I say this one.
Yeah…seriously. See aforementioned starting to write “for real” in 2001. I had been dabbling for years with romance novels and have an entire folder on my computer entitled “Ideas” that’s full of all sorts of story ideas. I took a Fiction Writing class in 1999 where I was pretty much the oldest person in the class. All these eighteen year olds were writing about killing themselves, killing their grandparents, killing their parents, killing their roommates, killing the guy they babysat for, I think one even wrote about killing the neighbor’s dog. It was tres dark. And here I was, writing a story about two girls finding love on Capitol Hill in the 80s. We would all critique each other’s work and I remember one of the angsted-wants-to-kill-but-never-would kids wrote, “This sounds like a romance novel.” Seriously…underlined the word. Like it was a curse. Flash forward to 2002 and an assignment the teacher gave us (to write a sex scene) turned into my book A LAPSE OF VIRTUE about my favorite heroine, Vanessa Virtue. (http://vanessavirtue.blogspot.com/)

Anyway…I’m prattling…but I started writing my first novel in January 2001, called FOOTPRINTS ON MY HEART, which was about a girl reminiscing about her senior year in high school in 1985. It took me about eight months to write it and in the end, it turned out to be 863 pages and over 200,000 words! It’s a mess, with some glimpses of brilliance in it—LOL!—but it was a process and it taught me to write. Then, I went on to write Vanessa’s story, which got me my first agent, went to committee with two publishers and almost got published by a third, had the line not gone under. I finally had to put Vanessa aside in 2005 (although, I had written four other manuscripts in the meantime), as well as writing romance. In 2005, I decided to take a shot at the YA story that was calling to me…which was a good thing because it got me my new agent (the wonderful Deidre Knight) and some close calls on that, as well. In 2006, a publisher approached my agent asking if she had any authors who could write a proposal for a sorority series. The publisher had the idea, but needed someone to write it. Well, I took a shot at it and about two months later, we had the deal for the SORORITY 101 books.

3. What’s your writing process? Are you a plotter or a pantser and how do you get it all done working full time and meeting your deadlines.
Just the word “pantser” scares the ever-loving crap out of me. Before I can start writing, I have to see the whole story in my head from curtain rising to the final credits. I have to see it clearly, otherwise, I don’t know what I’m writing towards. I write out a full synopsis and then stick to it pretty much 85%…there are always twists and turns that come up…but that’s the fun part. Being a meeting planner my whole career, I’m used to deadlines. I simply set the deadline and work backwards from it. It’s all about sticking to a schedule and looking at it like a job (which it is.) I’m also a wicked-fast typist (over 100 WPM) so when I’m writing and in the blood-fever of getting the story done, I can get about 1,500 words done in my hour lunch break—when I write. Then, when I get home, I go over what I write and do a little editing and tweaking and then lather, rinse, repeat. It’s down to a science for me…and it’s what works for me.

4. Tell us about your characters in Zeta or Omega? and The New Sisters.
Well…I there are three heroines: Veronica “Roni” Van Gelderen is a Boston Brahman from Beacon Hill who was born to very hands-off parents who see her more as a reflection of their social status than a daughter with needs, desires, and dreams. Roni rejects her mother’s Wellesley and her father’s Harvard offers of admissions and goes off on her own to Latimer University in Latimer, Florida, to find herself. Next is Jenna Driscoll from Marietta, Georgia. She’s a serial-joiner, and over-achiever, and the big sis who spends every spare moment taking care of her little sisters. She also became diabetic at the beginning of her senior year in high school. Since then, everyone treats her with kid gloves and looks at her like she’s different. Thanks to a band scholarship to Latimer, Jenna has the chance to start fresh and she can’t wait. Finally, there’s Lora-Leigh Sorenstein. She marches to her own drum, designs her own clothes, and can’t wait to fly away from the nest. She wants to go off to New York for design school, but her father, the dean of students at Latimer University, says she has to go to school locally. All three girls meet during sorority recruitment (known as Rush when I was in school) and become friends.

Sidebar question: I hear there’s an intriguing minor character in The New Sister with the interesting name of Kwana. Tell me what inspired such a choice?
LOL…why yes! Kwana “Johnson” (ahem) is a very important part of the initiation ceremony in THE NEW SISTERS

5. What up next for you, Marley? A little birdie tells me you’ve been hanging around in some really spooky place lately?
Yes! I’m verrrrrrrrrrrrrry excited about my new series that comes out in May 2009 from Houghton Mifflin – GHOST HUNTRESS. It’s a three-book deal and here’s the blurb for the first book: GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING: Sixteen year old Kendall Moorehead never imagined in a million years that she’d become a ghost huntress. But after moving from Chicago to an historic southern town, she finds herself awakening to her latent psychic powers…and discovering there’s a ghost in her bedroom! With the guidance of a local medium and the help of her new friends and ghost hunting team (including a massively cute skeptic who makes her heart do flip-flops), Kendall must quickly develop her newfound intuitive abilities to talk to the other side and discover why a belligerent spirit is trying to harm her father.
I’ve been doing a lot of research for the series, which means a lot of lectures by paranormal experts, many hours of watching Ghost Hunters, Dead Famous, Psychic Kids, Paranormal State, and Most Haunted, and several ghost hunts to see this stuff first hand. I’m having a ton of fun with it and I can’t wait for the books to come out!

Thanks so much for doing this interview and more than that thank for being a great friend and wonderful inspiration over these years! All the best to you.

Thanks so much for having me and for helping me promote the SORORITY 101 books! Hope people enjoy them! Hugs!!

Best,
Kwana

P.S. You can check Marley out at her web page or at her blog here.

Oh and keep scrolling down for Top Chef and ANTM it’s a late night.