Fresh Fiction: Author News has an article up about the charity auction I'm in the thick of putting together! Be sure to mark your calendars for October 4! There's some cool stuff coming ...
 

You really don't want to miss Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love by Karin Gillespie. This is an absolutely delightful series! Even Booklist says so: “Each character is lovingly crafted in Gillespie's hilarious, heartwarming, and often irreverent look at senior living in small-town America.”— Starred Review Booklist



Karin Gillespie’s Bottom Dollar Girls are back with a sugar-spun vengeance in Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love . Broaching the age-old question – Is it ever too late to find one’s heart’s desire? – the feisty ladies of Cayboo Creek are suddenly blindsided by schoolgirl flights of fancy when unexpected romance enters their lives.

Mavis Loomis, Birdie Purdy, and Gracie Tobias, widows in their mid-sixties are certain their dating days are over until they observe their friend eighty-something Attalee Gaines in tempestuous relationship with Dooley Prichard, a trifocal-wearing charmer. If it’s not too late for Attalee, how can it be too late for them?

Unfortunately the eligible men in Cayboo Creek are as picked over as a garage sale at noontime. Things look discouraging until an old high school heartthrob comes to town and Birdie and Mavis compete for his attentions. In the meantime socialite Gracie Tobias finds unlikely love in the arms of a rugged duct doctor. Can she overlook the vast differences in their backgrounds?

****
All of the books in series have been selected as featured alternatives for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs. Bet Your Bottom Dollar has been optioned for film by the actor James Woods. Gillespie www.karingillespie.com is also co-author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel. (Simon and Schuster, January 2007) and has a story called TRASH TALK in This is Chick Lit This is Chick Lit


***Here are Karin's answers to my GCC questions:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?

I journal in a notebook first thing in the morning. It’s like a warm up for the real writing , and I get out all of the kvetching and set my goals for the day. Then I run because physical activity helps me work out any thorny plot issues I might be having.

Then I get burn incense, chant and perform a top-secret writing ritual that I simply cannot disclose ( hint: It involves diet coke, whiskey and peanut M&Ms.)

All right. I’m lying. I procrastinate by reading other writers’ blogs and then I face the laptop. Every time I manage to eek out a page I get to check my email. After thoroughly perusing all the ads for Ciali in my inbox, I go back to writing. I’m constantly doing a word count check because as soon as I hit 1,000 I’m done for the day. This is usually happens between three and five p.m., hopefully in time for happy hour.


DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?
I was in what I call “the hospice” stage of being single. I was in my mid-40s and after years of being divorced I honestly never thought I’d ever get married again.

There was this fellow named David I’d run into now and again but he could never remember my name and seemed utterly indifferent toward me.

Then I checked out this fabulous book from the library called The Crimson Petal and the White. I devoured the 800-word novel post haste and when I got to the end, I discovered a receipt with the name of the last person who checked it out. It was Mr. Indifference himself!

I ran into him again and mentioned that we’d checked out the same book. For the first time, ever, he finally took notice of me. We chatted enthusiastically, started dating, and yes, dear reader, I married him.

While our courtship was going on I was writing Dollar Daze: Bottom Dollar Girls in Love. My personal life kept bleeding into the manuscript. Everyone in the book was falling in love. It was like Cupid spiked the water of Cayboo Creek S.C. the setting for Dollar Daze. One of my characters, a proper Southern widow named Gracie Tobias, hooks up with the love-of-her-life via a library book.




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

I most identify with Elizabeth, who is struggling with being a stay-at-home-mom in Dollar Daze. When I stayed home with my son during the summers (I was a school teacher for many) I would get Blues Clues cabin fever and couldn’t wait to get back to work. I admire moms who like staying home with the kids but I wasn’t one of them.

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?
It would have to be the trunk with all the books. In order to stay sane I’d need to hear someone’s voice in my head besides mine. Besides I could probably make paper out of seaweed and use bug juice for ink or scratch my book out on a big rock if I really wanted to.


BEER OR WINE?

Pino Noir over Pabst’s any day of the week.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

Does anyone ever say vanilla? Let me have their names so I can report them to the chocolate authority.

WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
 

Love Without Boundaries: "Read, Write, Love, Help, Shop" Charity Auction: October 4 to October 14----Love Without Boundaries is proud to announce that author Julie Kenner, will be putting on an online
auction with benefits helping children in need of
medical help."

For more info, click on the link and scroll down to the article. Please stop by my home page to see the generous donations so far! More info coming soon (I'm madly building the webpage and the corresponding eBay pages!)
 

Here's a really fun book: Melanie Lynne Hauser's CONFESSIONS OF SUPER MOM that I blogged about when it was released in hardcover. If you missed, it, now you have the chance to catch it in paperback!



Check out some of the great press:

"Like its title character, this debut novel has a secret identity...it's unexpectedly poignant and packs an emotional punch despite the cheery veneer... at the heart of this story is a narrative about a lonely, wronged woman who just wants to do right by her children and stand up to an uncontrollable world. Hauser slips in soliloquies on motherhood and womanhood that, though brief, are moving, showing us Birdie Lee's heart and in that, the wishes and dreams of super moms everywhere. "
- Publishers Weekly

“This silly but fun twist on the superhero tale comes packaged with a socially responsible message about consumerism, but it doesn’t get in the way of the high jinks.”
—Booklist

You can read all about it and about Melanie at her blog, The Refrigerator Door

And now .... Melanie's answers to my GCC questions:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?
DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?

Typically I write between 12-3, and sometimes I go back right before I start dinner and work a little more. I started this routine because I had to write when my kids were in school. Even though my kids are older now and more self-sufficient, I still stick to this schedule - except when I'm nearing the end of a project. Then I tend to write whenever, wherever - even sitting outside my son's drum lessons!

There were two inspirations for this book. 1) - I had come close to publishing two previous books (a third was so horrible that it's buried out in my back yard, but it was my first attempt and so I cherish it for that). Both books made it to the marketing committee level, but were rejected as being too "quiet." So I got mad, thought about things, and decided to go as far away from "quiet" as I could, while still writing about issues that were important to me as a woman, and a mother - so that's why I decided to write women's fiction from a superhero's perspective!

2) The other inspiration was where I was in my life, when I could see the end of the tunnel, so to speak, concerning child rearing. My kids are fast approaching the day when they're out of the house (hopefully!) and that's kind of a daunting thought. I wonder, who will I be when I'm not "The Mom?" The heroine in my book is going through this, too, and I wanted to show, through her journey, that we shouldn't live in the past, which is tempting. Instead, we should embrace all our strengths and all the knowledge & wisdom we've earned through motherhood, and use it to propel us forward - to leap tall buildings in a single bound.


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

Well....I do share a passion for cleaning products with my heroine, Birdie.

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?

Books to read! I couldn't write unless I had inspiration, through books. So I'd scratch in the sand or keep my stories in my head, and go for the books.

BEER OR WINE?

Wine

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

Chocolate

WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?

"Howards' End"
 

Check out these cool covers of THE GIVENCHY CODE and THE MANOLO MATRIX in their Russian editions!




 

Does Berkley keep coming up with great covers, or what? I seriously think they just get better and better. And that pesky demon just gets into everything!

Check out the cover of DEMONS ARE FOREVER, coming in July!


 

Hell With the Ladies by Julie Kenner,Kathleen O'Reilly,Dee Davis -- coming in October! This one's special b/c Dee and Kathleen are my critique partners and have been since before any of us were published!

Here's a nice blurb from Romantic Times: Living up to a parent's expectations can be a devil of a problem -- literally -- in the case of these three heroes. This hugely talented trio of authors has taken a fun premise and crafted three sexy and romantic tales utilizing the world's ultimate bad boys ... the sons of Satan. The characters in this anthology are an amazing mix of charm, wit and unmatched sex appeal, giving each story true zest!


 

So one of my best friends was reading my website ( Stephen Carver) and decided that he, too, must answer my standard GCC blog tour questions. So here, for your reading pleasure, are his answers!

1. My typical writing day begins when I get into work and sit down at my desk. I logon to the lovely computer I have (flatscreen, baby!) and begin opening emails. While much of my business writing IS in email form, I do also occasionally write a proposal or two to go out and get additional monies for the company I work for. This provides me with two things: money to pay the bills, and more money to pay the bills. So, while my bills are being paid, I am usually distracted from what I REALLY want to do, which is acting and directing theatre and hopefully someday, film, which at the moment, DOESN'T pay the bills.

2. Because I’m not writing a book but instead writing proposals to generate more business for my company, inspiration isn’t required. Usually, only an email asking for a response to a Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Bid (RFB) will do. (Collectively, we call these RFx…that’s a buzzword in the biz. How cool am I, what?)

3. I share no traits with any of the characters who send me the RFx…except that we all want to make money the old fashioned way…by paycheck.

4. I’d have to say limitless books, because there are always margins and if someone really wanted to read my response to their RFx in the margins of a book, then more power to them because I figure I could scrounge up some writing utensil and get the job done.

5. Tequila.
6. Rum.
7. Tequila.