SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER Blog Party--Leis Pederson tells us 5 Quirky Things

My other special guest for today is Leis Pederson, my editor at Berkley, a division of Penguin, USA. Leis acquires romance, young adult and women's fiction as well as mysteries and thrillers.

Leis, thank you for joining us! First of all, can you tell us what drew you to SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER? And yes, I am begging for compliments!

SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER is a great new historical romance that no reader should miss. I was drawn to Christine's fresh voice and the way she creates characters. This is a novel full of friendly banter, sexual tension, and a romance guaranteed to make you swoon.

Thanks for that glowing recommendation, Leis! Now, let's talk about you. What are five quirky or unusual things about you that our readers might not know?

Let's see, I am sure there are a ton of unusual things about me, but here are a just a few that I came up with.

*I have nine brothers and sisters.

*I like mustard on my popcorn.

*I love really cheesy movies.

*My educational background is in clinical psychology --- comes in handy when working with authors (hahaha!)

*My roommate and I adopted two kittens from a local shelter - a black/white girl named Pippi (as in Longstocking) and an orange male, Milo, who thinks he's a dog.

Mustard on popcorn? Sounds just awful enough to be tasty! And I'll let that comment about the clinical psychology pass!

You work with Cindy Hwang as well as editing your own list. Sometimes I wonder when you sleep! Can you give us a run-down of a typical day?

A typical day generally involves all sorts of things but I’m most likely to spend my day in the office taking care of the various administrative tasks that come my way, dealing with endless amounts of paperwork and talking with agents and authors. Most of my editing and reading gets done in the evening.

So, let’s start with the submissions that come to you. What excites you about a manuscript? Do you have any automatic turn-offs?

Getting new submissions is always exciting but I would have to say I am always looking for that one that I just can’t put down. Something that would automatically turn me off would be a poorly put together proposal. When submissions come in with lots of typos, missing pages, etc. it definitely gives a bad impression.

Once you decide you would like to buy a manuscript, what process do you have to go through before you can make the author an offer?

This process can vary somewhat but generally it involves getting secondary reads and presenting it to our editorial team. We of course also consider where the book would fit into our list and how we would be able to package it.

What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

I love all aspects of my job but I guess the best part about it is getting to work with the authors. I’m a people person and getting to know the people behind the books I love to read makes them that much more special to me.

With so much reading in your day job, do you still read for pleasure? What (non-Berkley) book did you most recently read and enjoy?

I do read for pleasure as often as I can. Most recently I read the new Harry Potter and I absolutely loved it.

I must be the only person in the world who hasn't read the latest HP yet. But I've been writing! (she says, polishing halo)

Lately, there have been rumours that historical romance is making a comeback. Do you think this is true?

Every genre goes through its ups and downs. Historical romance has always been a favorite for our readers and I don’t think it ever really goes out of style.

Amen to that! Thank you, Leis, for a fun interview!


Leis will pop in during the day to chat, if she can fight her way through the submission pile to get to her computer. *g* Once again, there's a WONDERFUL prize for one lucky reader who comments on this post. A signed copy of Scandal's Daughter and other assorted goodies from Bandita Christine Wells

And don't forget to check out Jessica Faust's post (below) Jessica will swing by to answer questions and comments today.