Friday, May 25, 2007

In Touch with Mystery Novelist, ANGELA HENRY



DIVA'S LAST CURTAIN CALL is your third Kendra Clayton mystery - what's at the heart of Kendra's latest escapade?
This time around I'm introducing readers to Kendra's self-absorbed, actress wannabe sister, Allegra. Allegra is in town to interview fading screen star Vivianne DeArmond for the show Hollywood Vibe. But when Allegra discovers Vivianne's lifeless body in her dressing room, stabbed in the back with a letter opener the day after she was picked-up on the actress's property for trespassing, the police peg Allegra as the prime suspect in her murder. Kendra has to clear her sister's name.



Click image above to purchase YOUR copy of DIVA'S LAST CURTAIN CALL today!


Why did you choose to go into mystery writing?
I decided to write the kind of books I enjoy reading. I love mysteries. I love following the clues and solving the puzzle.


How did you come about your series concept and Kendra as a character?
There aren't a lot of African-American mystery writers. There are even fewer featuring a single black woman living in a small town who isn't a private eye or a member of law enforcement. I wanted to create a series character, living in a non urban setting, that I'd yet to see in mystery fiction.


Do you have a standard process to your writing? Are you an outliner or a jump-right-in writer?
I wasn't an outliner with my first book and it took me four years to write it. But then again I also didn't have contract. I was just writing to see if I could actually finish a book. Now that I have deadlines to meet, I'm a big believer in the outlining process. I know some writers are opposed to it but it really works for me. It helps me with my plotting but at the same time I don't feel tied to it. I usually follow about 85% of my outlines and make changes long the way as I see fit.


What's your favorite thing about DIVA'S LAST CURTAIN CALL?
I'm a big fan of pop culture and since the book has a Hollywood theme I got to put in a lot movie and TV references. It was also fun creating the character of Vivianne DeArmond and making up a career for her including the fictional movies she starred in.


Do you have any plans to venture into other genres?
I'd love to write a young adult fantasy novel along the lines of a Harry Potter. I'd also love to write a horror novel one day.


What three adjectives best describe you?
Calm, loyal, cerebral


What inspires you to write?
My love of storytelling


What's the perfect setting for some power writing?
Me, my Mac, and some munchies ; )


What type of music did you listen to while writing DIVA'S LAST CURTAIN CALL?
I love all kinds of music, especially old school soul and eighties music from my college days. I listened to a lot of the Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Chaka Khan, Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, and The System.

Word Association. What comes to mind when you see the following words:
KENDRA CLAYTON
: Cool
WRITING: Passion
MYSTERY: Puzzle
ANGELA HENRY: Me
DIVA'S LAST CURTAIN CALL: Fun


As a published author, what advice might you offer to writers hoping to get published?
Never give up. It may take a long to time get published and you have to really love writing to put up with all the rejection and criticism you get as a writer. Learn the business side of publishing because it will save you a lot of heartache and disappointment when you understand how things work in the publishing biz.


What are you currently working on?
I'm finishing up Kendra book #4 and working on a standalone mystery that my agent is currently shopping.


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANGELA AND HER NOVELS, CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE!

Friday, May 11, 2007

SDgirl Magazine Seeks Summer 2007 Submissions!

**PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CIRCULATE THIS TO ALL GROUPS YOU MAY BELONG TO**

SDgirl Magazine (http://www.sisterdivasmagazine.com/sdg-index.html), a quarterly, multicultural 'zine for teenage girls, is currently looking for submissions for its SUMMER 2007 issue, slated to go LIVE on Monday, July 16, 2007.

DEADLINE for submissions is Monday, July 2, 2007.

Below are the columns SDgirl is currently seeking submissions for: *NOTE: When e-mailing submissions, please let us know which COLUMN your submitting to within your SUBJECT line. Thanks!

q The Look (fashion & beauty)
What we are looking for are articles and commentaries - no longer than 1,500 words - that discuss, showcase, or spotlight teen fashion or beauty. Articles should include pictures (and links if you direct readers to them).

q Love Lines (dating & relationships of all kinds)
This column not only focuses on crushes and girls' relationships with guys; it also showcases pieces that reflect the importance of solid relationships between friends, family, and people in general. Pieces should be no longer than 1,500 words.

q The Scene (music, books, TV, movies, electronics, etc.)
Typically, interviews and short reviews and commentaries will be showcased in this section. If you believe you have a product, such as a book or CD, that teen girls would be interested in, please feel free to e-mail us about your work. We will consider doing something with you. If you are a talented teen, we DEFINITELY want to hear from you!!!

q Write On (poetry & other writings)
Are you a teen writer or are you a writer of teen-related works of poetry, fiction, personal essays, and commentaries? If so, consider submitting your work to us. Works should be no longer than 2,500 words.

q From Within (mind, body, health, and self-esteem)
Articles, essays, and commentaries in this section reflect the positive values, morals, and outlooks that are important to a teen girl's spiritual, mental, physical, emotional well being. Pieces should be no longer than 1,500 words.


TO SUBMIT to any of these columns, e-mail us at sdgirl@intothespotlight-inc.com. In your subject line, please let us know which column you are submitting to. In addition to your submission, please include a picture of yourself (.jpg or .gif), a short bio (about a paragraph), contact info (e-mail, website, blog, myspace, etc.), and a catchy sentence or two to entice someone to read your submission!




AGAIN, the SUMMER 2007 issue of SDgirl will go LIVE on Monday, July 16, 2007.

If you wish to submit to SDgirl's SUMMER 2007 issue, the deadline to do so is Monday, July 2, 2007.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

A MUST SEE TV EVENT: The Starter Wife, miniseries starting May 31!


If having it all in Hollywood means being married to an ambitious movie studio exec, having an adorable daughter, owning a flawlessly decorated McMansion in Brentwood, belonging to the most exclusive clubs and always getting the best table in the hottest restaurants, then Molly Kagan has it all.

Until she gets the one phone call that changes everything.

With that call, not only does Molly's husband Kenny inform her of his intentions to divorce just shy of their ten year anniversary (coincidentally before their pre-nup expires), but also he revokes her status as "Wife Of," instantly transforming her into a "Starter Wife"—a decided step down, if not out—in the Hollywood pecking order.

In L.A., news travels fast—bad news even faster. Within hours, doors are slammed, her formerly packed social calendar is empty, she gets shunned by other Wives Of including one of her best friends, and worst of all, she discovers her ex is dating a pop tartlet who is half his age. All hope seems lost until Molly's friend Joan comes to the rescue with the perfect antidote: an invitation to stay at her beach house for the summer in Malibu Colony, one of the most tony, private playgrounds of Hollywood's elite.

With the help of her friends—some old and some new—Molly discovers that it's up to her to be the architect of her new life and decide what she wants to make of it. Because, after all, Wife Goes On.

USA’s six-hour television event, “The Starter Wife,” is inspired by the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name written by Gigi Levangie Grazer. Grazer has been one of chick lit’s biggest and brightest stars but with “The Starter Wife” she has also conquered mom lit, fiction’s hottest new category. She is the writer who dared to—and succeeded in—nailing Hollywood through her three brilliantly satirical and wickedly funny fictional send-ups. No other novelist has captured the cut-throat yet often sublimely ridiculous world of Hollywood and its caricature-like denizens as Grazer. In all of her novels, she outs this insular society’s undying addiction to attention-seeking and how far they’ll go to uphold their status conscious-based values and superficial social mores. Grazer also has an uncanny talent for creating larger-than-life female characters who embody all of the messy contradictions that are inherent to a town whose main commercial product is celluloid fantasy, while still making her heroines relatable enough for her readers to root for them in the end.

Gigi Levangie Grazer is the author of “The Starter Wife” and also producer of “The Starter Wife” on USA Network. Grazer was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she lived for the majority of her life on the Eastside of Hollywood in an area littered with donut shops, gas stations and graffiti. She later attended U.C.L.A. where she majored in Political Science, with the intention of applying to law school. At the same time, Grazer was working for legendary TV guru, Fred Silverman, who offered her a title and raise to dissuade her from pursuing a higher education. The offer worked. Grazer worked for Fred Silverman for eight years, developing and writing television shows. In the meantime, she married an alluring Indian, Italian, African-American blues musician, though they separated after three years. After her divorce, Grazer wrote a spec feature script that was subsequently optioned.

Grazer went on to write the movie “Stepmom,” starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. Up next, Grazer is set to write the romantic comedy “Prodigal Son” for Universal and Imagine Entertainment.

Her first novel, Rescue Me, was published by Simon & Schuster in June 2000 and optioned by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Her next novel, Maneater, was published by Simon & Schuster in June 2003 and optioned by Mandalay Pictures. The Starter Wife was published in June 2005 and recently, Grazer completed her fourth book, “The Billionairess,” which is set to hit bookshelves in July of this year.

Grazer met her future husband, Brian Grazer, Imagine Entertainment co-owner and Academy® Award-winning producer, by accident at Orlando-Orsini on Pico at a lunch with a Playboy executive. They had their first date a few days later and have been together ever since. Grazer is a proud stepmom to two teenagers and a proud mother of two young boys.

Commercial women’s fiction has always been one of publishing’s most popular genres with readers, but when Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding was published in 1996, it almost single-handedly defined a new sub-category of fiction targeted to young women that soon became known as chick lit. Typically, chick lit books feature single 20-to-30-something city-dwelling professionals who are struggling to figure out their careers and love lives—not necessarily in that order. The usually sassy, clever and plucky heroines have the requisite quirky sidekicks, an arch nemesis in the form of a boss or an ex’s ex and often two love interests: the good guy she should want and the bad boy she does want (and probably already has).

Soon writers were plumbing all aspects of the young urban woman’s life: sex and relationships with Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City, career and the fashion magazine business with Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada and family ties with Jennifer Weiner’s In Her Shoes. It was in this genre that Gigi Levangie Grazer found her opportunity: as a true Hollywood Insider, Grazer was able to corner the market on chick lit—Hollywood Style, with her first two novels, Rescue Me and Maneater. The meteoric rise in popularity of chick lit has recently spurred the creation of a sub-genre called mom lit. Mom lit often features the same kind of spirited young woman who would’ve been—or even literally was in an earlier sequel—a chick lit heroine to see what happens after she gets the guy…and the house, and the career and most importantly, the baby.

To learn more about THE STARTER WIFE, click on the image above!

Friday, May 04, 2007

A Conversation with Paranormal/Fantasy Romance Author, P.C. Cast



The fifth book in your Goddess Summoning Series, GODDESS OF LOVE, is due out in June. In 50 words or less, make readers want to pre-order the novel TODAY!
The idea for GODDESS OF LOVE came from my longtime Berkley editor, Christine Zika. She said, “Hey, how about the next one being about Venus coming to Tulsa and doing a make-over for a likeable dork?” I was all, “Okey-dokey.” Then she added, “Make it funny and HOT HOT HOT!” And that’s exactly what I did. Venus is hilarious, and the book is so hot I made my own self blush...


All of your adult novels venture into fantasy, paranormal, myth. What draws you to this genre?
I’m a big fan of the old adage “write the book you’d want to read” and my favorite reads have long been books that have at least a touch of the paranormal in them. I love the additional layer of excitement and possibility magic adds to a plot. It makes for excellent escapism and entertainment.


In addition to fantasy, romance plays a big role in your novels. Are you a romantic at heart?
That’s a funny question! I call myself a closet romantic. I know I come off as so strong and independent that it would seem like I would be untouched by little romantic gestures, but that’s just not true. When a man gets to know me, he finds out quickly that I go totally mushy when confronted by chivalrous, romantic behavior.


Though fantasy and romance are paramount in your works, are there any themes that you find yourself coming back to in your novels?
Absolutely – the theme of rebirth (as in souls being reborn) reoccurs in my writing, and I also like to delve into the thematic question of what it is that truly loves – the soul or the body. I supposed both things are soul themes, which makes sense because I’m intrigued by the magic of the human spirit.


Tell us a little bit about your journey to publication. How long did it take you to find your agent and receive your first book deal?
Aspiring authors hate me after I tell this story, but here goes: I started working on the manuscript of my first book, GODDESS BY MISTAKE, in late 1999. In the spring of 2000 I decided to take an undergrad creative writing class through OSU-Tulsa because the instructor, Teresa Miller, had an amazing reputation as a teacher. (I graduated from college in 1993 and had been working on my masters.) By the time I’d completed that semester I’d also completed the manuscript that would become GODDESS BY MISTAKE. Teresa introduced me to the owner of a small, local press. Within a month he bought the manuscript. When it was released in August of 2001, GbM thoroughly shocked me by garnering a 4 ½ star top pick review in RT, and then finaling in the Prism, Holt Medallion, Laurel Wreath, and the National Readers Choice Award. It eventually won three of those 4 awards. About that time Sharon Sala appeared on Teresa’s regional television show, Writing Out Loud. After the interview Teresa was telling her about me and Sharon said, “Sounds like she needs a good agent.” Tess agreed and Sharon immediately recommended that I contact her agent, the fabulous Meredith Bernstein. Meredith took me on and within literally 4 days she had an offer from Berkley for the GODDESS BY MISTAKE trilogy. But don’t think everything went that smoothly from then on. The small press refused to sell back my rights to GODDESS BY MISTAKE, summarily killing that trilogy. I thought agent and editor would dump me, but my Berkley editor, Christine Zika, simply asked what else I had up my writing sleeve. We had an excellent brainstorming session and my Goddess Summoning Series was born. From there LUNA picked me up (even though it took almost 5 years to get the rights to GbM back), and eventually St. Martin’s and Nocturne, too. Busy...busy...busy...


Do you have a standard process to your writing?
Are you an outliner or a jump-right-in writer?I like to jump right in, but I sell my books on proposal, so that’s like an outline. I hate writing each proposal, but I have found that they make the writing of the actual manuscript move more easily.


What's your favorite thing about GODDESS OF LOVE?
Venus! Example: she teaches a de-stressing class to Tulsa Firefighters about how to bring a woman to orgasm – complete with vagina diagrams. Plus, I really enjoyed “researching” the martinis Venus drank at my favorite Tulsa restaurant, Lola’s at the Bowery. Work work work work work...



I know that you have ventured into writing young adult novels. I had the PLEASURE of reading your first YA and co-authored novel, MARKED. I absolutely loved it. What made you think about going into this direction?
Two years ago at the RWA National in Reno my agent, Meredith Bernstein, and I were having drinks (as per usual). She said that she had an idea for a series and she was giving it to me. Then she said the three magic words: vampyre finishing school. I immediately thought YA, which I’d been interested in writing since I read the HAWKSONG series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. So I jumped on it! I wrote the proposal and the first three chapters of the first book. Both Berkley and St. Martin’s wanted the series, and St. Martin’s won. (And I’m so glad you liked MARKED!)



(PC and her daughter, Kristin)


You wrote MARKED and are working on the series with your daughter, Kristin. Tell us about that writing partnership - how do you two share the responsibility of churning out a great book?
Writing this YA series with Kristin has been a blast! We work together very well (especially because I can beat her). It works like this: we brainstorm together and get a handle on where the book is going, and then I start writing. As I finish chunks of the ms, I send them to Kristin. Then Kristin goes through it, adding, subtracting, rewriting, changing. Then she sends it back to me and I go through it again for continuity. Often as I write I leave blocks of text out and ask her to fill in thoughts and analogies. Oh, and I’ve learned to listen to her opinion (the child is actually right sometimes!), especially when she says I’m using too much description and too little dialogue, and making our 16-year-old heroine, Zoey, sound like “a 46 year old disgruntled school teacher.”


Now that you have moved into YA, do you think you might venture into other genres?
Well, I already write in the fantasy, paranormal romance (which includes sci-fi in my second Nocturne series), and YA genres. I have an idea for a women’s fiction novel that my agent is excited about but that I don’t have time to write right now, and I’d love to branch out into horror, too. Oh, and erotica – that would be fun to write.


As a published author, what advice might you offer to writers hoping to get published?
Writer’s write. Period. There’s no magic pill or magic muse. You just have to put your butt in the chair and get to work. The romantic fantasies about the job are bullshit. It’s just a job. A good job that can be very fulfilling, but still a job that’s basically a lot of hard work.


What are you currently working on?
Right now Kristin and I are almost finished with the third YA book, CHOSEN. It’ll be out early 2008, and you will NOT believe what’s happening in it...





To learn more about PC and her wonderful books and purchase your copies TODAY, check out her WEBSITE!