Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I began my career as a novelist with seven novels in the Once Upon a Wedding historical romance series featuring the unconventional Victorian Fenster siblings. Each of these series has a loose fairytale or myth theme (The Fairy Tale Bride has a Cinderella-ish theme, The Star-Crossed Bride is a nod to “Rapunzel”, The Unintended Bride has an Arthurian connection, The Infamous Bride takes aim at Romeo and Juliet, The Next Best Bride was inspired by “The Robber Bridegroom,” The Impetuous Bride explores the wagon train tales, and The Twelfth-Night Bride finishes the series with my take on “Faithful Johannes” by the Brothers Grimm.
I then moved on to YA, and wrote three novels in the Salem Witch series, plus two YA romances. The Salem trilogy, beginning with The Salem Witch Tryouts was highly inspired by my love of Bewitched and Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. It always fascinated me that even witchcraft doesn’t make life any easier for people.
I then self-published a dark contemporary fanstay YA that I, and my former agent, loved, but could not sell to a publisher, BLOOD ANGEL.
I’m currently tackling cozy mystery with my Mystery Shopper Mom series about a mystery shopping mom who just happens to stumble over crimes and help solve them with her shopping-honed observation skills.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
On March 30, I will be releasing License to Shop, the second book in my Mystery Shopper Mom series. This book was dually inspired by my true adventures in mystery shopping, as well as my concern about identity theft, and how it is growing by leaps and bounds with no seeming way for us to protect ourselves from it. The series was inspired by my experience trying to juggle writing, work, and raising my children — one of whom needed a lot of extra attention because he is on the autism spectrum.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. All of Dickens and Shakespeare. Fred Pohl. Jane Austen. Charlotte and Emily Bronte. I was an English major, so there are too many books to name that helped me shape my love of stories told authentically in all genres. I continue to be open to new authors and new storytelling styles. In Salmon Fishing in the Yemen I admired how much storytelling occurred in short email exchanges and business memoranda.
What are you working on now?
Besides my cozy mystery series, I am working on a YA serialization centered around — what else — fairytales. The series started with the question, “What if pillows could talk?” But it has moved on to encompass the larger question, “What if fairytales are actually true stories, and we’ve lost an important truth by consigning them to the realm of far-fetched fiction.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
A BookBub ad is best, at the current time. Having the first book in my historical romance series permafree on all retailers is the second best.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Spend more time on the writing than the marketing, but when you market, make sure to measure and analyze your results. It is better to do one well-measured marketing effort at a time, than to scattershot marketing and promotion across the world without knowing what is effective, or how effective it is.
Consensus seems to be that real engagement with your readers (newsletter exclusives, Facebook/Twitter conversations with readers, etc.) is the gold standard.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you write one page a day, you will have 365 pages at the end of a year. That’s anywhere from one long novel to a short novel and a novella, so…do it!
What are you reading now?
The Girl on the Train. Just finished Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and loved it.
What’s next for you as a writer?
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Bullfinch’s Mythology. The Hero’s Journey by Campbell. The Game of Thrones novel George R. R. Martin is working on now.
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