TJ Forrester’s debut novel, MIRACLES, INC., has enjoyed a warm critical reception for its unique setup and effective - ahem - execution, and his current personal adventure is of the stuff that will keep fans checking in for updates. AuthorScoop was lucking enough to draw a few minutes of his time to learn a bit about both.

We’d like to thank him for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

TJ: My first publication was a short story titled “The Glove.” The story was published in UpDare?, then reprinted in the Storyteller, where it was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

TJ: My latest release is my first release (Miracles, Inc. / Simon & Schuster / Feb. 1, 2011), and it’s a novel about Vernon Oliver, a young man who wants to make a better life for his lover. When his employer, the mysterious Miriam Mackenzie, asks him to lead a scam faith healing business, he quickly accepts. His climb to the top is swift and so his fall, a plunge that takes him straight to death row. It is there, in a Florida prison, that he writes his story.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

TJ: Stubbornness, I suppose, is one of my best assets. It kept me writing, even when an early mentor did his best to convince me I had no chance at becoming a professional.

These days my stubbornness keeps me hiking. I’m attempting to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to New York, where I will turn right and hopefully walk onto the set of the Colbert Report as a guest author. I’m 1,000 miles into my hike, still no word from the show, but I’m not about to give up. If anyone is interesting in following along, I blog this adventure on my personal website.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

TJ: I do my best writing after I wake. Sometimes I split up my sleep, so I wake more times a day.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

TJ: A. Read good writing.

B. Write every day.

C. Never give up.

***

Get thee to a bookstore or a computer, charge card in hand, to get your copy of MIRACLES, INC and find out more about TJ Forrester and his walking feet (and feat) on his website and blog.

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Authors, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, first put their heads together in collaboration on their debut novel, I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING. Now they’re back with a brand new release, THE D WORD, so we’ve hit them up for one more joint effort to bring us a little bit more on how it all came to be.

We’d like to thank them for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Liz & Lisa: I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING is our first novel. It all started in college when we said, “Hey maybe we should write a book.” And it may have taken ten years, but we wrote it! (Note: never give up!)

IHWSH is the story of sisters Kate and Kelly who lead very different lives (Kate cannot find a lasting relationship to save her life and Kelly isn’t sure her so-called lasting relationship is the right thing) yet they’re both searching for the same thing - a happy ending. Through a series of hardships and self-doubt, they realize they were looking for happiness in all of the wrong places. It’s a novel for anyone who ever let their insecurities get the best of them. And we’re excited to announce that it’s being re-released on June 14th as an e-book with a brand spankin’ new cover along with our new book The D Word.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Liz & Lisa: THE D WORD is the story of Jordan Daniels and Elle Ryan who thought their lives would become less complicated when they walked away from their respective relationships one year ago. But instead they find themselves vying for a relationship with the same divorced man. You’ll walk in the shoes of Jordan and Elle as they discover that sometimes you’re not that different from the person who makes you feel the most insecure. We’re humbled that author Laura Dave calls it sassy, smart and highly enjoyable and author Amy Hatvany calls “thoughtful and witty.”

THE D WORD was published as an e-book on June 14th!

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Liz & Lisa: Believing in ourselves, taking rejection in stride (not always easy to do!) and relying on the expertise of successful authors who’ve been gracious enough to give us advice.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Liz & Lisa: Lisa does her best writing in the wee hours of the morning before her four-month-old baby wakes up. The house is silent, the coffee pot is all hers and no one cares if she’s in her pajamas.

Liz does her best writing late at night after her kids have gone to bed. The house is silent, the desk where she writes is all hers (it’s located in what she calls the grand central station of her house) and no one cares if she’s in her pajamas.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Liz & Lisa: To build relationships with published authors you admire. Who can give you invaluable information not only on how they found success, but also on their take on the publishing world.

Also, don’t let the rejection get you down.  Take the criticism and look at your WIP objectively-try to benefit from it!  But at the same time, always stay true to yourself and your vision.

***

Liz and Lisa keep the chick-lit world up-to-date on their adventures at chicklitisnotdead.com (where you’ll find handy links to their two books) and in short little nibbles on Twitter.

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Author, Alissa Johnson, is fresh out of the gate with her new release from Berkley Sensation, NEARLY A LADY, but we caught up with her for a quick chat before she was off and running with her latest tale of romance and intrigue.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Alissa: My first was the historical romance, AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT.  Released in 2008, it was part of my Providence Series.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Alissa: My latest is NEARLY A LADY.  Out on June 7th, it’s the start of a regency-set series from Berkley Sensation.   From the back cover—

After the death of her father, Winnefred taught herself to live on a pauper’s allowance—until a charming visitor promises her the funds that had been stolen from her through the years.  But Freddie isn’t comfortable with the trappings of money—or the attentions of a stranger from London…

Lord Gideon Haverston was expecting to be greeted as a hero by the tough young woman his stepmother cheated out of house and home, not suspected as a conspirator.  Indeed, the situation is more complicated than Gideon had expected—and the task of taming Winnefred Blythe, much more alluring…

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Alissa: That makes for a long list.  I’ve received invaluable support from family, friends, my agent and editors.  I could name a dozen brilliant teachers who inspired and encouraged me over the years.  If I have to pick one individual, however, I’m going with my mother.  She was the first person to read my work and push me to try for publication.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Alissa: Early morning, absolutely.  I don’t much care for the whole waking up process, but once it’s managed, I’m always glad to have made the effort.  There’s something about the first light of dawn that never fails to motivate.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Alissa: When it comes to submitting your work to agents and editors, follow the rules.  When it comes to writing, follow the story.

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NEARLY A LADY is waiting on a shelf or cybershelf near you, and Berkley/Jove has provided the handy links to get there quickly, if you’re keyboard and credit card inclined. You can keep current with Ms. Johnson via her blog, not to mention Twitter and Facebook, too.

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Jael McHenry’s debut springs onto the shelves and critique pages and AuthorScoop is quite pleased to have snagged a few moments right at the launch to hear a bit about how, THE KITCHEN DAUGHTER, came to be.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Jael: In high school, I went to a writing conference at a nearby college, and I had a poem in the conference handout – it was just a photocopied series of pages, and I don’t remember if they included something from everyone who attended, but I do remember two things about the poem: it was about a deaf woman in an airport, and it definitely rhymed.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Jael: The Kitchen Daughter is my debut novel. It’s about a young woman who discovers that she can invoke ghosts by cooking from dead people’s recipes. The main character, Ginny, has lived with her protective parents all her life, but when they’re killed in an accident, she seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. She finds that making her grandmother’s bread soup brings that grandmother’s spirit into the kitchen, and the ghost gives her a warning that she needs to figure out. Complicating things are her undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome, and her bossy sister Amanda, who doesn’t think Ginny is capable of living on her own and making her own choices.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Jael: There are so many people who have been absolutely essential, whose advice and support and help I wouldn’t be here without. One is my incredible agent Elisabeth Weed. I can’t emphasize enough what a difference a smart, enthusiastic, dedicated agent makes. I’m so lucky to have her.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Jael: Of necessity most of my writing takes place on evenings and weekends, and it’s usually around 9 or 10 at night that I hit my stride.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Jael: Never give up, but don’t mistake repetition for perseverance. I’ve been working steadily for more than 10 years to get a book published – but I didn’t just send the same query for the same book over and over again, which I think is what some people think when they hear “keep trying.” I wrote other books that didn’t make it to publication and I’m actually glad they didn’t. This book is so much better and I know so much more about publishing than I did back in the day. So don’t be impatient – if things don’t happen right away there’s probably a reason. Learn and grow and write what you love. When everything finally comes together, it’s magic.

***

THE KITCHEN DAUGHTER is available now, so hit the bookstore or follow the links to get your copy today. And for more on Jael McHenry, visit her lovely website.

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Author PM Terrell has got a lot of experience writing thrillers and now she’s taken what she knows and joined forces with an expert collaborator, T. Randy Stevens, to bring her fans her twelfth novel, THE BANKER’S GREED. It’s just rolled off the presses, and we’ve snagged 5 Minutes of her time to chart her path through the publishing industry thus far.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

PM Terrell: It was in 1984, and the first book I ever had published had the exciting title “Creating the Perfect Database.” It wasn’t exactly the kind of book you’d want to read in bed, or you’d be asleep within five minutes. I remember approaching my editor at Dow Jones about writing suspense/thrillers and his deer-in-the-headlights expression as he told me he didn’t know anything about publishing fiction. It would take me nearly sixteen more years to get my first suspense/thriller published.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

PM Terrell: The Banker’s Greed, my 12th book, is my first collaboration with another author. T. Randy Stevens is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of First Farmers Bank; and if I’m going to write a book entitled “The Banker’s Greed” it works out really well to have a banker help co-author it.

The book begins when the daughter of a powerful and influential banker is kidnapped. She knows her survival could depend on her ability to remember every detail, and when she manages to escape, she provides that information to the FBI. But all the clues lead to one man - her father. Now she’s the prosecution’s star witness - but could she be sending an innocent man to prison? And if her father didn’t orchestrate her kidnapping, who did? And why?

Besides being a fast-paced suspense with lots of twists and turns, it poses the question: would you testify against your parent? Could you?

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

PM Terrell: Persistence. And dedicated fans who have kept me writing through their encouraging words and feedback. Writing is a solitary experience, and you have to find it in yourself to keep going even when the path seems daunting. But when I think about what I’d do if I wasn’t writing, my mind goes blank. So I keep moving onward, and sometimes just staying in the game makes all the difference.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

PM Terrell: I dream every scene before I write it. So the best time for me  to get started is first thing in the morning, while the dream is fresh in my mind. Once I get going, I might not move from my chair for 10 or 12 hours. And it will feel like the blink of an eye. I write six days a week, week in and week out.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

PM Terrell: Hone your craft. Learn the technical aspect to writing as well as the creative. Listen to critics and don’t allow your ego to become intertwined with your writing. Make your writing the best it can be. When you get rejections - and you will - just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Believe in yourself, or no one else will.

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THE BANKER’S GREED is just a few keystrokes away, and here’s a handy link to get you started. Learn more about PM Terrell at her website, and find her on Facebook and Twitter, as well.

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Cole Alpaugh strikes out from the everyday with a novel that floats on quirk. And he’s having a hell of a ride with THE BEAR IN THE MUDDY TUTU. Not long out of the gate, we’re fortunate to snatch a few minutes with Cole to hear more about how it all happened.

We’d like to thank him for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Cole: It was during a photo internship on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I wanted to make a big splash, so while doing the obligatory grip-n-grin check passing photos by day, I convinced the local police chief to let me do a ride-along with one of his midnight shift guys. But he’d set me up with an old Vietnam vet who avoided confrontation, just drove through parking lots shining his spotlight on front doors. He was pretty much a security guard with a gun, and I suspected he would have kept driving even if any doors had been pried open. Nice guy, but just wanted to tell wartime stories of working in an Army warehouse. It went on like that for a week. Not a single traffic ticket, nothing. Then, on night eight or so, he gets a radio call for a bank alarm and my heart starts pounding. This was it! I’m outside the doughnut shop in a flash, hopping up and down next to the cruiser, chanting c’mon, c’mon, c’mon! He finishes his chocolate twist, orders a coffee to go, and off we eventually drive. Ten minutes later, we pull into a long strip mall, where the bank is kind of an island in an expansive parking lot. He circled once with his spotlight checking the bank windows and doors, then jams the cruiser in park and orders me to stay put, he doesn’t want to accidentally shoot me. His giant shadow from the spotlight gets smaller and smaller as he approached the front door, and just as he reaches out to test the lock, there’s a flash and boom. I’m thinking it’s an M80 firecracker at first, but he comes running back, gun drawn, yelling for me to get out and lay down behind one of the cruiser tires. His head looks like a big red tomato even in the dark as he was dripping sweat, panting, fumbling with his radio cord. He calls in that there’s been shots fired, probably a high-power rifle. And then there’s more gunfire, and the black sky is lit up from the blasts. I have my camera out, shooting blurry pictures of nothing, as the sound of a dozen cop cars raced toward us in the night. They were the cavalry coming to our rescue after we’d been pinned down with heavy cross fire, caught interrupting a million dollar heist. I was in combat reporter heaven, adrenalin central, until a big old power company truck lumbers into the lot and a guy hops out and explains to the frantic cops that a series of transformers had exploded. My first publishing credit was about a power outage.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Cole: The Bear in a Muddy Tutu is a melancholy love story about a hapless cult leader, an abducted child and a traveling circus. That’s the tagline, anyway. I tried to write a story about salvaging hope from some really rotten circumstances. My characters tend to get run over by speeding cars and hit by lightning, especially when things have started looking up. You have to be very careful when believing you see a glimmer of hope — it could actually be the glint from the broken bottle some drunk guy’s about to crack you with.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Cole: I got really lucky to find a great writing partner. I met Regan Leigh on the AbsoluteWrite forums about two years ago. We chat online just about every night, which mostly entails her yelling at me and poising the whip in a ready position, claiming I’m not working hard enough. I love her writing voice and she sometimes breaks down and pretends to like my stuff. BTW, she’s single and wicked hot, so any guys out there under sixty drop me a line and I’ll see if I can hook you up. <Cole ducks>

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Cole: It’s currently 3am. This is my zone. In the good old days, this is when the drinking and dancing started to heat up. I love writing when it’s dark and the house is making unexplained sounds. I write when I’m alone and when there are no distractions.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Cole: Write with confidence. It’s something I learned from ski racing — I’m a lowly beer leaguer, but have raised two wonderful racing daughters. The difference between good and great is believing you can handle an icy turn on a steep mountain face while at full speed. Hesitating is like passive writing. You can be the quietest, kindest, most introspective person in the world, but your words have to scream out that you believe in what you’re doing. Learn from your crashes, but never stop charging forward.

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THE BEAR IN A MUDDY TUTU is a just click away via Cole Alpaugh’s website, with links straight through to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Find him on Facebook here and here, and in 140 character doses on Twitter.

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AMERICAN ROSE: A NATION LAID BARE - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GYPSY ROSE LEE, by Karen Abbott, has already impressed us enough to write a rare AuthorScoop review of it. Now we’ve been so bold as to snag her, mid-tour, to tell us more about her path through journalism and her critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling, SIN IN THE SECOND CITY, to the feet of the erstwhile most popular woman in America and forever most accomplished burlesque performer in history.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Karen: It was in 1994, back in college, and I was interning for a free weekly called the Main Line Welcomat, which served a certain stretch of suburban Philadelphia. I had a column called—wait for it—”Main Line Jailbait.” I was 21 at the time so it didn’t technically apply, but my job (and I say that loosely) was to chronicle college life in this uber wealthy, privileged milieu; I came from a neighboring blue collar town and was a bit of an anomaly, to say the least. Anyway, my first column was about my quixotic quest for the perfect fake ID. I branched out from there, but obviously I didn’t get into journalism because I thought I had anything profound to say…

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Karen: My grandmother is 92 years old—just eight years younger than Gypsy, who would’ve turned 100 on January 8—and she always told me stories about growing up during the Great Depression. She once relayed a tale about a cousin who claims to have seen Gypsy Rose Lee perform around 1935. The cousin said that Gypsy took a full fifteen minutes to peel off a single glove, and that she was so damn good at it he gladly would’ve given her fifteen more. So this story got me thinking, who was Gypsy Rose Lee? Who could possibly take the simple act of peeling off a glove and make it so riveting that one might be compelled to watch this for a full half-hour?

So I began researching, and I came across a series of articles from the year 1940 about Gypsy in Life magazine. One said called her “the most private public woman of her time.” I thought that was interesting—here’s someone who was primarily known for (literally) exposing herself, and yet she was considered intensely private. Another article expanded on that theme, saying that she was “the only woman in the world with a public body and a private mind, both equally exciting.” Another claimed that she was the “most popular woman in the world, even outpolling Eleanor Roosevelt.” Wow, I thought—pretty impressive. And then I came upon a telegram from Eleanor Roosevelt herself to Gypsy Rose Lee that read, “May your bare ass always be shining.” That was the clincher; I had to write about this woman. I spent three years researching American Rose, research that included connecting with Gypsy’s sister, the late actress June Havoc (I was the last person to interview her) and Gypsy’s son, and also spending countless hours immersed in Gypsy’s expansive archives at the New York Public Library. I became obsessed with figuring out the person behind the persona.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Karen: Honestly, luck. Sure, you have to write a good book and be tenacious as hell, but you also have to connect with the right agent and the right editor on the right day. I know too many talented writers with brilliant manuscripts who should be published by now but aren’t, and I have to think that luck is the missing ingredient.

I’m also extremely fortunate to have the best writing group on the planet. They’re novelists and they really encourage me to focus on storytelling in my nonfiction. If I get too showoff-y with my research, they’ll write things like “zzzzzzzz” and “information dump!” in the margins, and I know I’ve veered off track and am losing narrative momentum.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Karen: I’m a chronic insomniac and night owl, and I love writing at night when I’m rid of all my usual distractions–the ping of email, the phone ringing, my parrots squawking. It’s a nightly effort to coax myself to sleep, but when I get there—if I’m lucky—I can sometimes dream parts of my book. A chapter outline might flesh itself out, or an anecdote might run through my head written in an different way than I’d imagined. This sort of subconscious editing doesn’t happen too often, but I’m trying to learn how to control it.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Karen: This sounds obvious, but write. Just sit your ass in the chair and do it. Which is easier than it sounds, of course. My writing group has a motto, of sorts: we hate writing, but we love having written.

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AMERICAN ROSE is available now in hardback, electronic, and audiobook versions. However you get it, do get it.  Your local bookstore should be able to put in in your hands today, or there’s always Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble on the web.

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Author Jen K. Blom’s debut novel, will lead mid-grade readers right out of winter with charm and insight into POSSUM SUMMER. Warm with message, it speaks to all a story can and should be to kindle a kid’s love of reading.

We’d like to thank Ms. Blom for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Jen: My first pub is my debut, POSSUM SUMMER (Holiday House, March 2011)

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Jen: Well, the short version is it’s about a girl, her decision to adopt a possum against her military father’s orders, and how she deals with trying to raise him and set him free. The long version involves snakes, dogs, possums, falling in ponds, getting caught, discovering your teachers are actually pretty cool, and eating. A lot of eating.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Jen: Writing friends, definitely. And my husband. He read POSSUM SUMMER in the bath and stayed in until he finished it. It was the first time I’d managed that feat.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Jen: Whenever my little girl (10 mos, at present) is sleeping! Time to write gets more and more precious as she grows!

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Jen: Never ever give up. Make sure your query shines. And write the book that you would like to read. It’s a certainty at some point others will want to read it too.

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POSSUM SUMMER awaits, and here’s how to get it. Find out more about Jen at her website, blog, and what she might be contemplating at any given moment on Twitter.

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In 2008, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Yvonne Thornton about her wonderful memoir, THE DITCHDIGGER’S DAUGHTERS. It’s wonderful to learn that Dr. Thornton is back in the memoir-writing business with SOMETHING TO PROVE. The bookshelf is a finer place for it.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Dr. Thornton: A scientific paper in 1973 when I was a fourth-year medical student at Columbia P&S doing a research elective at The Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City entitled, Pharmacology of Cyanate, II. Effects on the endocrine system.  Journal of  Pharmacology and  Experimental Therapeutics 1973, 186:667-675.  My co-authors were Joseph Graziano and Anthony Cerami. My first non-medical publication credit was the national bestseller, “The Ditchdigger’s Daughters” in 1995. The story was published in 19 languages and made into an award-winning movie.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Dr. Thornton: Dr. Thornton has written a new memoir as a sequel to The Ditchdigger’s Daughters.  It was released in December, and is entitled, “SOMETHING TO PROVE”.  The memoir chronicles of Dr. Thornton’s life as a wife, mother and a full-time practicing obstetrician in an academic medical center. SOMETHING TO PROVE picks up where the bestselling memoir, “The Ditchdigger’s Daughters” left off in which Dr. Thornton tells the story of her amazing father who moved his wife and daughters from the tenements in Harlem to a small house in New Jersey that he built with his own hands from materials bought on a ditchdigger’s salary.  Donald Thornton cherished a mighty dream – that all of his daughters would become medical doctors, respected professionals in white coats and “scripperscraps” (stethoscopes) – a designation he believed would shield them from the pernicious specter of prejudice. In this sequel, Dr. Thornton reveals how she ascended to the top of her field as a physician by drawing on her father’s teachings. Despite bias and setbacks, she became the first African-American woman in the United States to be Board-certified in the obstetrical sub-specialty of maternal-fetal medicine. Dismissed and shunned by her peers for entering the male-dominated world of academic medicine, Dr. Thornton relied on her father’s life lessons, which taught her to be strong and rise above adversity. Through intelligence, determination, and hard work, Dr. Yvonne Thornton overcame the odds to reach the pinnacle of her profession.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Dr. Thornton: My husband.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Dr. Thornton: Late at night and the weekends after my hospital obligations and family obligations are completed.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Dr. Thornton: Never give up, Never, Never, give up!! You need to be your own champion.

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SOMETHING TO PROVE is available now and there’s much more to learn of (and about) Dr. Yvonne Thornton here at Wikipedia and on her blog, Paging Dr. Thornton, and hear her on NPR’s, The Root.

Alice Loweecey knows a thing or two about being a nun and then being something else. Lucky for us, that something else is a writer, and lucky for her readers her protagonist protégée, Giulia Falcone, shed the veil for the slueth’s hat. Ms. Loweecey’s debut novel, FORCE OF HABIT, has launched to applause and now we get a look behind the scenes.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Alice: A short story in a local newspaper when I was 16. There was a photo prompt, something like a drive-in movie screen with a man’s silhouette superimposed on it. My story was one of three chosen. I remember that it was a cliché teenager offering: chock-full of angst and drama and pathos. I fervently hope that the microfiche for that issue has been lost.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Alice: Force of Habit is an ex-nun Private Investigator mystery.

Giulia Falcone is convinced she’s going to Hell. First, because she left the convent. Second, her new job with a private investigator has her sneaking around and lying. Adjusting to life in the outside world isn’t easy. Makeup, dating, and sex are all new to her. And despite a crush on her boss Frank Driscoll—a foul-mouthed, soft-hearted ex-cop—Giulia is sure he’d never fall for an ex-nun.

Her first case involves drop-dead handsome Blake Parker, a man with immense wealth and an ego to match. He and his fiancée are getting disturbing “gifts” with messages based on biblical verses. When Giulia is drawn into the stalker’s twisted game, salacious photos of her appear, threatening her job and her friendship with Frank. No one imagines—least of all naïve Giulia—the danger ahead, when following the clues turns into a fight for her life.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Alice: The Absolute Write Water Cooler, without a doubt. Five years ago, when I had a first novel I thought was All That, I got a contract offer from Publish America. Because I worked in direct marketing at the time, something about the supposedly personal letter seemed too boilerplate. I did some searching, and found the truth about this notorious vanity printer on AW. I was smart enough to stay around AW, and there I learned a ton about the mechanics of writing—and made some terrific writer friends. My road to publication would’ve been much longer without the knowledge and support I found there.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Alice: Late in the evening. Alas, I have to get up at 6:20 am for the Day Job. I’ve rewired my brain to write when the sun is up—mornings and afternoons. But it’s grumpy, and still prefers to create in darkness. Appropriate, I suppose, since I write some dark stuff!

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Alice: To everyone reading this who has a novel gathering dust in a drawer (or on a hard drive) and can’t bring themselves to take the step into the world of trying to get published… and to everyone staring at their umpteenth agent rejection: Never give up! Never surrender! I had a lot of setbacks on the road to my book deal. A lot. Head-exploding setbacks: 185 passes for 3 books over 4 years, among other things. But I started on this path with one goal: To see my name on a shelf in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. I wasn’t going to stop till that happened. I’m certainly not going to stop now that it is happening. My next goal is to see a total stranger reading my book. After that, well, I’ll think of something very soon.

***

Don’t miss FORCE OF HABIT. Snag it at your local bookseller or click at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble to get yours. And find out more about what’s happening with Alice at AliceLoweecey.net.

We were fortunate enough to host her once, for her debut novel MADAPPLE, and now Christina Meldrum joins us again at the kickoff of her latest work, AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY.  For books that span age appeal and literary tastes, a pair of Meldrum novels is the start of a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection, assuming, of course, that we all could do with a new favorite.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: Your debut novel, MADAPPLE, pulled in some rave reviews, so we’re very happy to see you back again. Tell us about your latest release, AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY.

Christina: Thank you for inviting me back!

My new novel, AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY, tells the story of an American family and their journey from Michigan to West Africa. It’s the story of a mother and a father who long for love but who don’t know how to love, and of their four daughters, each of whom strives to find meaning in what seems, at times, a meaningless world. At a deeper level, AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY is a myth about myth, a story that seeks to ask: to what degree is each of our lives a myth of our own making?

AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY, which will be released on February 8th, is adult fiction, unlike my first novel MADAPPLE, which was marketed as young adult fiction. That said, both books are more “crossover” novels, meaning they are appropriate for older teens to adults. AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY has received some nice reviews as well—thank goodness! You can access the reviews on my website at http://www.christinameldrum.com/amaryllis.php#praise. I also have a beautiful trailer for the book—thanks to the assistance of my thirteen-year-old son! The trailer also is on my website at http://www.christinameldrum.com/features.php.

The catalyst for AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY stems from my early twenties when, between college and law school, I traveled and worked for a short time in West Africa. I lived in a village that was very similar to the village Avone, the village in AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY. As I grew older and thought back on that time, I wondered how much of my experience of Africa and my memories of Africa were colored by the kaleidoscope of my own culture, values and expectations.

Although AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY takes place partly in West Africa, partly in Michigan, the story is really less about West Africa or Michigan, more about the power of perspective: how is our reality impacted by our unique sensory perception, our unique perspective, our history, our longings and our culture? It is this interest in the power of perspective that led me to synesthesia and ultimately to my beloved character Yllis who is a synesthete.

What is synesthesia? It is a very real condition when two or more of a person’s senses are conjoined; in other words, stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an automatic, involuntary experience in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. For instance, a person with synesthesia might “hear” color or “taste” sound. She does not imagine she hears color; she truly hears it. She does not imagine she tastes sound; she truly tastes it. Hence, synesthesia raises some fascinating questions about the nature of reality. All of us must experience reality through our senses: our senses are the filter through which we must take in the world. But how do we know that our sensory experience of the world matches the sensory experience of our neighbor. And if it does not match, then who’s right? Whose read of reality is the “right” read? It turns out, reality is far more subjective than most of us realize.

My character Yllis is an emotional synesthete. Her experience of different emotional states triggers an automatic and involuntary sensory experience. To Yllis, anger has a smell, joy has a sound, love has a taste—meaning it is very difficult for others to hide their emotions from Yllis. Yllis detects their emotions on a subconscious level then experiences the emotions through her senses. In a way, Yllis is forced to carry others’
burdens, whether the people want to share those burdens or not, because Yllis senses the unspoken. Most of us assume that, for the most part, when we see, hear, smell and taste, we are seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting exactly as those around us. Then come synesthetes like Yllis. Who experience the world differently. Not incorrectly. Differently.

AuthorScoop: Has the ride of a career novelist, so far, been what you’d dreamed it would be?

Christina: First off, I have to say I feel incredibly lucky to be a published novelist. I have so many talented writer friends who have written wonderful novels that they’ve not yet been able to sell. I understand how fortunate I am. Because, honestly, I’m well aware I am no more talented than they are, and I mean that sincerely. That’s not to say people shouldn’t read my books! Please! Read them! But people should also read the books of my friends who’ve not yet been able to publish their books. To the degree being a novelist is different than my dream, it is for this reason: I’ve become more aware of the barriers and distractions. Being a novelist is not just about writing. It’s not just about being passionate and inquisitive and wanting to share that passion and curiosity with the world. It’s not just about reading great works and honing one’s craft. It’s not just about perseverance. It’s also about luck and self-promotion (yuck!) and connections. It’s about coming to terms with failure and disappointment. It’s about devoting years of your life to something that may remain forever in a computer file or a drawer. It’s about recognizing that no matter how passionate and curious you are, not everyone will sense that passion and wonder when they read your work. In fact, some people will hate your work. They’ll think it’s a slog! And they’ll so say publicly. It’s about coming to terms with all of these things and still picking up the pen or turning on the computer—because you need to, because you’re a writer. And you’re damn lucky to be one!

AuthorScoop: Momentum being what it is, your life as a writer has probably changed in many ways. But what’s been the same for you?

Christina: My life has changed a great deal since I first published MADAPPLE, but that has less to do with writing and more to do with life. I’ve endured some very profound losses in my life over the course of the past few years, and while I’m not inclined to talk about those losses publicly, I can say that they have changed me—and changed me as a writer. So what’s the same? Nothing, really. And everything. On a day-to-day basis, my life is very much the same. Publishing MADAPPLE and selling my second and third novels have allowed me to write fulltime—that is, when I’m not mothering my boys and chasing my dogs! My daily schedule is not much different than it was three years ago. But me? I’m different. And because of that, writing feels totally different to me. It’s a bit hard to explain, but writing to me is about vulnerability. It’s about allowing oneself to step into those places that are scary and awkward. It’s about asking the uncomfortable questions. It’s about allowing oneself to feel deeply, to experience passion and hatred, fear and love. But I’m a little more protective of myself at the moment. I’m a little less willing to wander into those scary places. So writing has become challenging in a different way. My hope is that I’ll come out on the other side of this experience a stronger and better person and a richer and wiser writer. But it may take some time.

AuthorScoop: And with the accomplishment of two well-received novels notched in, what new advice would you offer to aspiring novelists?

Christina: See the miracles in life. See the inexplicable. Feel the wonder and explore it. Share with the world what you need to share—because it needs to be shared, because it matters. Believe that your unique place in the world gives you unique insight—and unique strength. Write from your place of unique strength.

AuthorScoop: What’s next for Christina Meldrum?

Christina: The easy answer to that question is another book for Knopf. I’ve sold a third novel to Knopf and I’m currently writing it. The tough answer? I honestly don’t know. I will write the book, of course, but in the process of doing so I have to venture into that place of vulnerability again. It’s going to be challenging for me. I need to take my own advice and believe in and write from my place of unique strength.

***

AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY has just been released, so look for it in your local bookstore, or hit the keyboard and mouse for home or electronic delivery from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

A debut thriller and the start of a new trilogy from Mira Books is a fine reason to break out a new feature column. Author, Leslie Tentler arrives on the scene with, MIDNIGHT CALLER, the first of three in her ‘Chasing Evil’ series.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Leslie: MIDNIGHT CALLER is my first published novel. However, prior to writing it I worked as a PR writer and editor for many years, and as part of that I ghostwrote countless business and technology magazine articles for executives. I think my first actual publication credit (one that carried my name instead of someone else’s) was in an IBM-oriented magazine in the early to mid-nineties.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Leslie: MIDNIGHT CALLER is a romantic thriller set in New Orleans. The story centers around serial murders connected to the city’s Goth community and the federal agent who is sent there to investigate them.

Although my lead male character, FBI agent Trevor Rivette, lives in Washington, D.C., he’s actually a native of New Orleans. He still has family there that he’s been estranged from for years, and returning home reopens a lot of old wounds. In fact, learning what happened to tear the Rivette family apart years earlier is as much a part of the story as the serial murder investigation.

Trevor’s counterpart is a radio show psychologist named Rain Sommers, who bears her own dark, New Orleans legacy: Her mother was a famous singer murdered thirty years earlier when Rain was just a child. Rain’s a lookalike for her late mother, who has become an icon among the Goths. She gets entangled in the serial murder investigation when a mysterious man obsessed with her mother’s death begins calling into her show – and Trevor becomes convinced the caller and the killer he’s looking for are one and the same.

MIDNIGHT CALLER is the first in the Chasing Evil trilogy I’m writing for MIRA Books. All three stories are based around a fictional unit of the FBI, and each covers a different investigation.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Leslie: My mother was a great storyteller and avid reader, and I picked up a love of books from her at an early age. She really liked southern historical romances. Also, spending years working as a business writer helped me to learn how to write tightly and conduct research to make myself a quick “expert” on various topics.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Leslie: All the time, I hear writers talking about working at crazy hours, like two in the morning, or getting up at four a.m. while the house is still quiet. As a writer, I really need to keep a regular daytime schedule. I’m at my best in the morning from about eight a.m. on, and then start to fade as the day moves closer to evening.

When I have had to write at night, I find it takes me much more effort and I usually end up rewriting whatever I’ve done the next morning.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Leslie: The revision process is crucial. Fight the urge to send your manuscript out to agents until you are absolutely sure it’s the best it can be. I think a lot of writers have manuscripts with potential but they get excited and rush it out there before it’s polished and ready. I’m a big proponent of contests for getting objective feedback on your work.

Also, I see a lot of new writers who start a project and then dump it a few chapters in for a “better idea” or when they hit a rough spot in the story. There’s nothing like the excitement of starting a brand new project, but that thrill quickly wanes. It’s important to see a story through and not give up on it. Writing is hard work, and if you abandon ship every time you hit a stumbling block, you’ll never finish anything. I know this because early on I fell into the same trap – getting a great story idea, writing a few chapters and then moving over to something else at the first lull in my enthusiasm.

***

MIDNIGHT CALLER is available for delivery and Kindle pre-order from Amazon.com and take a moment get to know Leslie and her work at www.leslietentler.com.

Most all books have only two ingredients: a story and the words chosen to tell that story. For sniffing out a narrative to mine for interest, anyone with the time and inclination for the research would find a barrel for a shooting gallery and big fat fish for targets in the life story of the most famous striptease artist of all time, Gypsy Rose Lee.

So all that’s left to distinguish a writer in the telling of Gypsy’s tale are the words.

And this is where Karen Abbott soars.

AMERICAN ROSE: A NATION LAID BARE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GYPSY ROSE LEE takes a story that was always going to be fascinating and bawdy and fraught, and makes it lyrical. To bolster Gypsy’s nimble sidestepping of her own quantifiability, Ms. Abbott nails in place a richly textured backdrop of the wane of vaudeville, the rise and fall of burlesque, The Great Depression, and the American home front in and after World War II. With her excellent words, facts become patterns and the feel of an era is transformed into the color we recognize in our own lives, but seem to relegate to sepia whenever we dial back the time machine. The effect is that, from here on out, no pale dry history of this time in America will cut it.

No, I take it back. The times of Gypsy are not nailed in this book, they’re pinned, as surely and elegantly as one of Gypsy’s skirts. And as in a striptease, what’s revealed in the folds of this vibrant garment, are the reasons behind what we know of Gypsy Rose Lee and the whys of what we cannot know.

In choosing a non-linear format, Ms. Abbott offers a natural feel to the way we learn about Gypsy: a personal, intimate conversation; the organic way we discover a friend or a rival, or sometimes even an enemy - a story here, a rumor there, one anecdote crossing decades to a related point that explains what came before or where it all wound up.

The combination of Karen Abbott’s skills as a writer and the endlessly riveting trials and triumphs of a national icon, makes AMERICAN ROSE: A NATION LAID BARE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GYPSY ROSE LEE, a easy addition to the must-read list.

Author Frances Lefkowitz turns an introspective pen to a memoir of her early life and the insights it left on both her own journey and on human nature in general.  TO HAVE NOT has launched to a warm reception and AuthorScoop is delighted to snag Ms. Lefkowitz’s sleeve for a quick peek behind-the-scenes at a brewing success.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Frances: Believe it or not, my first author credit, outside of school newspapers and magazines, was in an obscure scientific journal with a long pompous name…Annals of Paleobotany and Palynology or something like that. I studied anthropology and human evolution in college, and my first job after graduating was as a research assistant in a geology lab that studied fossil pollen, of all things. In my off hours, I was writing fiction, however, and publishing it in equally obscure literary journals.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Frances: TO HAVE NOT is a memoir about growing up poor in 1970s San Francisco, getting a scholarship to an Ivy League college, and discovering the downside of upward mobility. It’s about discovering the subtle but rigid class lines in America, a country that likes to think of itself as fluid and unconstrained. And it’s about the universal human sense of yearning for more. What astounds me the most about this book is that I thought I was writing my story; but readers from all races, genders, classes, and walks of life keep telling me I’ve written their story.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Frances: Never underestimate the power of the small compliment. Over the years, often just when I needed it most, someone would tell me how much my writing affected them. A little comment like that could be enough to make me overcome my doubts and feel a renewed sense of purpose and commitment.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Frances:I once heard a songwriter say that mornings and evenings produced good work, but any writing he did in the afternoon just ended up in the trash. I agree with him. I also think that the times when we are falling into and out of sleep can produce, not great writing, but great thoughts and images. I keep a journal by my bed to jot down these thoughts, which often work themselves into my writing.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Frances: Keep writing, and keep sharing and submitting your work. There’s no way to get those small but encouraging comments if you don’t enter your work into the world. And there’s no way to get better at your craft if you don’t practice it regularly. Plus, when you finally get a book deal, the first thing the publishers ask is, “Do you have anything else?” If you’ve been writing away, you can say “yes” and hand them another manuscript!

***

TO HAVE NOT is just a click away for both bound delivery or Kindle download, and keep up with Frances Lefkowitz at her official website and on Twitter.

For the first time, AuthorScoop welcomes a collaborative team online to preview, A SEASON OF DARKNESS, an upcoming release from Berkley True Crime.  Authors Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbell chronicle one of Nashville’s most notorious murders and the three decade hunt for the abductor and killer of nine year old, Marcia Trimble.  An ordeal for two families and an entire community, Jones and Gobbell follow the thread of an investigation that trailed the wrong man for thirty-three years.

We’d like to thank them for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Douglas: I have written two other books: one historical fiction about the civil war in Maury County, Tennessee, “Silas Jones of Rock Springs” and a creative nonfiction novel about a prison escape and murder, “Long Line # 3″.  The escape and murders made national news. I represented the family of the farmer that was murdered by the escapees.We sued the Tennessee Department of Corrections for negligence and won the case.

Phyllis: I had a six-poem spread, published in a magazine called Home Life - very sentimental little verses about motherhood because I was a new mother. But I got to know the editor and began to write short stories and articles that the magazine published, and my work there led to other publication opportunities.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Douglas: A SEASON OF DARKNESS is the account of “The murder mystery of Nashville, Tennessee”; the abduction and murder of nine year old Marcia Trimble in February of 1975.

Phyllis: A Season of Darkness is a true crime book about Marcia Trimble, a nine-year-old girl who went across the street to deliver Girl Scout cookies in Nashville on February 25, 1975, and never returned. Her body was found thirty-three days later after a massive search, unlike anything Nashville had ever known. Thirty-three years later, in 2008, charges were finally brought against the man who was eventually tried and convicted of her murder.

The book is about the complicated and convoluted investigation that spanned three decades, but it’s also about what the murder of the nine-year-old girl meant to her neighborhood, how it affected the police department, how the lives of innocent people were changed - and how Nashville lost its innocence, too.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Douglas: I have an ability to tell stories.   My stories are  interesting and compelling.

Phyllis: I’ve been in a writers group for a long time. We meet every Tuesday night - yes, that’s a lot of meetings! People have come and gone, but with each “wave,” I’ve felt I had the best blend of criticism and support that a writer could experience. These are people at various places on the writing/publishing journey. These are people I trust to give good advice and to care about what I’m writing. I learn from providing feedback for their writing, too. I’d have to say that the Nashville Writers Alliance has been the single most important influence in my growth as a writer.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Douglas: I am a partner in a law firm in Nashville, Tennessee. I also have a farm and so I am constantly pressed for time . I write during my lunch hour, in the evenings at home and on weekends.

Phyllis: Since I teach college English, I have responsibilities that I have to juggle along with my personal writing. It’s a constant struggle. But when I’m working on a project like A SEASON OF DARKNESS, I generally manage to write late in the afternoon until bedtime. If I don’t have to leave the house in the morning, I love to get up at my leisure, grab a cup of coffee, and work for a few hours before my mind gets too cluttered.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Douglas: Read the classics, not what is necessarily popular in today’s culture. Read the works of famous authors, including Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Hemingway and try to get a sense of their style; how they create scenes and develop characters. You do not read them for the purpose of copying but so you can develop your own style. Finally, be honest and true in evaluating whether you have a genuine story. There are many fine writers that are unable to comprehend or understand that they have weak stories.

Phyllis: I teach creative writing, so I give a lot of advice to new, unpublished writers. Much of my advice is based on my belief that a writer must be patient. A real writer has to be willing to go through many drafts to get it right and to keep writing when rejections are coming in. We all enjoy getting work published, but a real writer also finds joy in the act of writing. I agree with Marge Piercy, who says, “Work is its own cure.” She has the best advice I know about writing: “You have to like it better than being loved.”

***

A SEASON OF DARKNESS is out this week and is available in bookstores and online for delivery and eReader download from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

Debut author, Hilary Wagner, arrives on the scene with a wonderful new fantasy for mid-grade readers. NIGHTSHADE CITY has been praised by critics and peers alike, and opened to accolades from Kirkus Reviews and author Rick Riordan of ‘Percy Jackson’ and ‘The Red Pyramid’ fame.  The launch has pulled Hilary this way and that, so we’re fortunate to snag her sleeve for a look behind the curtain at how it all came to be.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Hilary: NIGHTSHADE CITY, Holiday House Books, October 2010

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Hilary: Well, my latest release is my first release, NIGHTSHADE CITY. It’s about an underground colony of super-intelligent rats, you could call it a classic good versus evil tale, but mostly the book is about never letting a few decide the fate of many. Sometimes, in life, you have to stand up for what’s right and this book is about one of those times.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Hilary: My husband for sure. He read several early drafts of the manuscript and was wonderful to bounce ideas off of. When he read the first draft, he said his biggest fear was needing to tell me he didn’t’ like the story or he didn’t like my writing, luckily that didn’t happen!

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Hilary: I have my best breakthroughs very early in the morning. I think that’s when my brain is at its peak, although the pot of coffee I’m inhaling at that time doesn’t hurt either. I also write well late at night. At that time, I don’t have to think about anything but my manuscript and things just seem to flow. Believe it or not, I sometimes think being overtired is helpful too. When I’m lacking in the sleep department, my brain comes up with the best, if not the craziest ideas!

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Hilary: Gosh, that’s always a tough one. I would have to say, don’t ever put yourself in the mindset that you’re not good enough. Finding an agent and/or getting published is incredibly hard. Don’t let even a hundred rejections take away your end goal. Many of today’s bestselling authors received scores of rejections from both agents and editors. Now, they sit back and laugh about it! You have to remind yourself, it only takes one YES!

***

NIGHTSHADE CITY is available now in bookstores and for delivery from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com - and just in time for the holiday gift season.  I’ve got mine!

Author, CJ Lyons, is wrapping up one nationally bestselling and well-received series to turn around to start another promising venture with a co-author whose name we think you’ll recognize. While the buzz builds for CRITICAL CONDITION, the last in Ms. Lyon’s set of medical thrillers, we get to chat with her again about her work and how she views the art and business of publishing fiction.

We’d like to thank her for returning to another installment of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: Your medical mystery series is winding (and sizzling) to a close.  Tell us about this last installment, CRITICAL CONDITION.

CJ: CRITICAL CONDITION is the finale of the Angels of Mercy series, so it wraps up all four characters’ storylines in a whiz-bang of a thriller ride…think Die Hard in a hospital. The action takes place in real time, everything happens in less than five hours, which made it so tightly plotted (with four main characters and stories to tell) that I literally wrote the book backwards, starting with who was left alive at the end.

Followers of the series will be amply rewarded but newcomers should also enjoy the thrills and twists…can you tell, I had a great time writing this one?

AuthorScoop: Has the ride of a career novelist, so far, been what you’d dreamed it would be?

CJ: Leaving medicine to become a full-time writer was a huge leap of faith, so I was basically ready for anything and everything. That being said, it is an absolute pleasure to be able to wake up everyday smiling because I’m doing exactly what I want. It truly is a dream come true.

It’s still work–in fact, I probably work longer hours than when I was a doctor–but it’s also tons of fun, so it doesn’t feel like work.

AuthorScoop: Momentum being what it is, your life as a writer has probably changed in many ways.  But what’s been the same for you?

CJ: The one thing that hasn’t changed (and I hope never will) is the thrill of getting fan letters–I can not describe the sense of awe that fills me every time I hear from a reader who has enjoyed my books or been inspired or empowered by my characters.

AuthorScoop: And with the accomplishment of these successes secured, what new advice would you offer to aspiring novelists?

CJ: Last time I was here, I think I said: Never surrender, never give up.  Now I have a new mantra, courtesy of the great thriller author, Jeffery Deaver. He once told me: the Reader IS God.

I try to keep that in mind with every decision I make–what will give my readers the most satisfaction and enjoyment? It’s really served me well, especially now that I have tighter deadlines and need to get things right the first time around.

AuthorScoop: What’s next for CJ Lyons?

CJ: CRITICAL CONDITION is out November 30th, followed by the first in my new series co-written with Erin Brockovich, ROCK BOTTOM, due out March 1, 2011. I’m hard at work on the second in that series.

I’ve also released electronic versions of several works that I’ve gotten my rights back to, available on Kindle, Sony, and Nook. The latest of these is a women’s fiction/thriller blend called BLIND FAITH.

My writing students have asked me to arrange my lectures into books, so I’m also working on those as well….in my spare time, lol!

***

CJ Lyons has more to share on her website, where you’ll also be able order any and all of her books (including securing your pre-order copy of CRITICAL CONDITION) right from the front page.

It’s always a pleasure to see a good thing keep going and so AuthorScoop is proud and pleased to welcome back Dr. Christopher Johnson.  At the top of his field in pediatric intensive care, Dr. Johnson has employed his expertise in hospitals around the country, but also now in three books that bring parents, or really anyone with an interest in digging a little deeper, into the science and philosophy of medicine.  His latest release, HOW YOUR CHILD HEALS, has already earned accolades here, so we’re doubly pleased to get more insight into the book.

We’d like to thank him for returning to another installment of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: Three times now, you’ve laid out your expertise in layman’s terms to bridge medicine and parenting. Tell us about your latest, HOW YOUR CHILD HEALS.

Chris: This is a different sort of book than my last ones. First, a little background on how I came to write it. After I completed my medical training I spent a couple of decades both practicing medicine and doing basic biomedical research, splitting my time more or less fifty-fifty between my lab and the pediatric intensive care unit. What I did was cellular and molecular biology: I grew in plastic dishes specialized cells from the heart and from blood vessels, lining cells called endothelial cells, and then studied how they responded to and recovered from various kinds of stresses and injuries. It was exciting and rewarding, particularly because I began my research career during the earliest days of our current era of molecular genetics and gene cloning. They were exciting times. I ultimately found, though, that instead of two part-time jobs – the lab and the PICU – I really had two full-time jobs. One of them had to go. So fourteen years ago I gave up the lab work.

I still miss the lab sometimes. You could turn off your beeper, refuse to answer the phone, and just spend the day at the lab bench. It had intellectual satisfaction. Plus, it let you do stuff with your hands, which was also satisfying for those like me who enjoy tinkering. It was before today’s internet existed, so if you wanted to look something up in a scientific paper you had to go to the library. And nobody could find you there, holed up for an afternoon in a corner.

I found cellular biology to be more than satisfying; it is mysterious in wonderful ways. You look down at the cells through your microscope, even watch them move a little, and know they are talking to one another – conversing using both touch and secretion of various signal substances. The basis of my research was figuring out what these heart and blood vessel cells were saying to one another. We still only know small bits of their language because it can take years to identify just a single word or grammatical principle. And, of course, the whole time I’m looking at them their relatives, that is, the equivalent cells inside me, are going about their ordinary and unsung business of keeping me alive minute to minute. The cellular drama inside us is enormously complex, with billions of cells meeting, greeting, and interacting with each other. It’s an alternative universe.

So, what is the book about? The book is constructed as a series of imagined journeys deep within the body to watch the body at work. The reader resembles an anthropologist studying a strange, yet familiar society. I use the conceit of a magical combination submarine and ATV that carries the reader, for example, on swims in the bloodstream, crawls between the body cells, and reconnaissance missions inside the intestines. Most chapters comprise several visits: the first one is to normal tissues, the second revisits the same place when something has happened, such as an asthma attack, an ear infection, or a broken bone, and the last is a return trip after things are back to normal. In this way you watch how cells and tissues heal.

Although there are no journeys in it, one of my favorite parts of the book is the last chapter. In it you read about how healing, on the cellular level, goes back to the dawn of life itself, billions of years ago. You read, for example, how a random event, most likely in a single germ cell in a single primeval shark hundreds of millions of years ago, allowed the miracle of our present immune system to happen.

I suppose the best way to describe the book is that it is my personal valentine to an old and dear lover – the astonishing internal world of the human body we take for granted, and to which I devoted a good chunk of my professional life.

AuthorScoop: How has writing these books affected the way you practice medicine and view your career?

Chris: I told you about the fascination I have for the science of medicine. But it is clear that the more we know about how the body works the more we are mystified; each small answer asks many more questions. A philosopher might say that, actually, we know nothing: the amount to learn is infinite, so any fraction of that infinite quantity is statistically indistinguishable from zero – nothing. I began my medical career as a medical scientist; I think writing the books has made me more and more into a medical humanist.

AuthorScoop: Have the rigors of writing changed the way you read?

Chris: I don’t think significantly so, although I think I appreciate particularly skillful writing more than I did in the past. Now I am more likely to pause to admire a well-constructed auctorial building than I would have in the past.

AuthorScoop: With the accomplishment of these three books, what new advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

Chris: Since I ostensibly write nonfiction, I can’t speak much to fiction writers. I say ostensibly because my latest book really is a kind of detective fiction, masquerading as nonfiction: there are heroes, villains, victims, innocent bystanders. I would like to write a little fiction now and then, and now I have in a way. So my advice to nonfiction writers is to think about what kind of book you want to write and then devise a way to do it. All the how-to books about writing nonfiction proposals tell you to study the market, identify a niche, and then write a book that fills it. That always seemed boring to me; you’re letting the market tell you what to write. Since the odds of getting published are generally dreadful (sorry about that, but they are), I think it’s better to write a book you enjoy. It’s the journey that’s important, after all.

AuthorScoop: What’s next for Christopher Johnson, MD?

Chris: Another book, of course. It’s too early to say just what it will be about, but likely it will be more along the prescriptive nature of my second one, How To Talk To Your Child’s Doctor. Maybe it will be about how to keep your kid out of the emergency department, or, if you can’t manage that, how to understand and negotiate that particular and baffling subculture of medicine.

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Learn more about Dr. Johnson’s work and books, and follow his excellent blog, here.  If you’re in a hurry, though, please feel free to use this shortcut to get to your copy, in hardbound or Kindle format, of HOW YOUR CHILD HEALS.

Alice Eve Cohen racked up accolades and and awards in 2009 for her memoir on an unexpected later-in-life pregnancy, WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW.  With it gaining new fans in paperback, Ms. Cohen has another book in the works and a film option on WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW to occupy her writerly facet.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Alice: In 1994, an excerpt from my play, Philomela’s Tapestry, was published in ‘Monologues for Women, by Women’, a very cool book of scenes by women playwrights, which is still widely used for acting classes and auditions. A college student once told me, “My acting teacher advised the class not to do the Philomela’s Tapestry monologue in auditions, because everybody does that one!” I told her I was honored to find out that my monologue was done too frequently!

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Alice: I’m writing a new book now; the working title is MY LEFT EYE. Only my muse knows when I’ll finish it. (Muse? Can you hear me, Muse?) WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW came out in paperback (Penguin) this summer.

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Alice: Everyone in my family—my wise husband and my two amazing daughters—is supportive of each others’ creative endeavors, whether or not those endeavors are successful. I grew up in a family that valued the arts, so my unconventional career path always felt like a natural choice. At The New School MFA Program, I studied with brilliant authors who really influenced my writing—especially Abigail Thomas, Francine Prose, Ben Taylor, and David Gates. And I’m continually inspired by my students (I teach solo theatre and playwriting at The New School). When they take creative risks, it emboldens me to do the same.

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Alice: I’m a morning person. Generally, 8am to 1pm are my best writing hours.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Alice: Find a writing class that interests you. Having the structure of a weekly class motivates you to write on a regular basis; it’s great to get feedback from peers on your work; and participating in discussions of other students’ work is a great learning opportunity. I continue to take writing workshops. It exposes me to new ideas and deepens my practice, both as a writer and as a teacher.

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WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW is available in bookstores and Amazon.com has got an electronic copy for your eReader (or you can always order a hardcopy for delivery.) Find Alice Eve Cohen on Facebook and Twitter to find out even more.

Tasha Alexander is becoming a staple on the bookstore shelves and bestseller lists for top-tier historical suspense.  Her well-researched catalog is refreshed this month with her latest, DANGEROUS TO KNOW, and Ms. Alexander is back from globe-trotting for research just in time to go globe-trotting for readings and signings.

We’d like to thank her for taking the time to be part of our “5 Minutes Alone” interview series.

AuthorScoop: What was your very first publication credit?

Tasha: AND ONLY TO DECEIVE.

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Tasha: DANGEROUS TO KNOW is the fifth book in my Lady Emily series. Emily has come to the lush Norman countryside in search of respite. Instead, she finds a brutally murdered woman, a ghostly child, and a family being destroyed by hereditary madness. Not to mention a disapproving mother-in-law…

AuthorScoop: Aside from your own hard work, who (or what) else do you feel has contributed to your success?

Tasha: My parents brought me up to love books, and without them, I could never have become a novelist. Writing is an isolating endeavor, and it’s also a consuming one. If my husband weren’t so fantastic, it would be much harder to do. He’s also an author, so understands what the job requires and couldn’t be more supportive. He even provides an endless supply of tea and cheese sandwiches when I’m working…

AuthorScoop: At what time of day or night do you do your best writing?

Tasha: I go for extremes—early in the morning or else late into the night. It tends to switch from book to book. DANGEROUS TO KNOW was middle-of-the-night, but the manuscript I just finished was early morning (due partly to excessive jet lag!). The main thing for me is to work every single day. You can’t sit around waiting for a muse if you want to be a writer–muses are notoriously unreliable.

AuthorScoop: Finally, what advice would you give to new or unpublished writers?

Tasha: READ! There is no better way to hone your craft than to read widely, across genres.

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DANGEROUS TO KNOW is in bookstores now and you can find an electronic copy for your eReader (or order a hardcopy for delivery) by following the links from Macmillan to your favorite online retailer. Find Tasha Alexander on Facebook and Twitter to stay in the know about what’s cool in historical fiction.