Jane Graves returns to the Lair!

interview with Suzanne

Jane Graves is the author of eighteen contemporary romance novels. She is a seven-time finalist for Romance Writers of America's Rita Award, the industry's highest honor, and is the recipient of two National Readers' Choice Awards, the Booksellers' Best Award, and the Golden Quill, among others. And I'm honored to call her my friend.

Suz: Welcome back to the Bandit Lair, Jane. Pull up a barstool and have a glass of wine while we catch up. It's been a while since you visited us here. What have you been up to?

Jane: Thanks for the wine, Suz. I'll have this glass of Cabernet while you sip your White Zinfandel. We do know each other well, don't we?

For personal reasons, I took a break from writing for a few years. Fortunately, when I was ready to get back in the game, my editor was very excited and wanted to buy more books. Black Ties and Lullabies will be out on June 28, and Heartstrings and Diamond Rings will hit the shelves on September 27.

Suz: Black Ties and Lullabies is your third Romantic Comedy for Grand Central Publishing and it's once again set in Plano, Texas. This time your hero is billionaire businessman, Jeremy Bridges. Many of your readers will remember meeting him in Hot Wheels and High Heels. How did he come to be the hero of this book?

Jane: I got more mail from readers wanting his story than any other character's I've ever written. He was actually somewhat of a villain in Hot Wheels, but there was a scene at the end of the book that hinted that there was more to the womanizing multimillionaire than met the eye, and I think that was what readers picked up on. I'm so happy they did, because I wanted very much to write his story.

Suz: I fell in love with your heroine of Black Ties and Lullabies, Bernadette Hogan, on page one. She is a very unusual heroine and has a unique relationship with Jeremy at the beginning of the book. I'll let you tell the Banditas and friends about "Bernie".

Jane: Bernadette Hogan is a bodyguard, ex-military, who never met a firearm she didn't like. It's rumored that she once killed a man with a Popsicle stick, but she insists that's absolutely untrue. It was a Q-Tip. She's been Jeremy's bodyguard for two years, and he aggravates her so much that if it weren't for the outrageous amount of money he pays her, she would have quit a long time ago. If you read chapter one at http://janegraves.com/blacktiespage.html, you can get a sense of their rather unusual relationship.

Suz: Throughout this book, you had me chuckling frequently at both the internal thoughts of the characters and their dialogue with each other. Do you find it easy or hard to write the witty/snarky banter between the characters? Does internal dialogue come easy for you?

Jane: Writing snarky banter is second nature to me, because I'm a pretty snarky person. But in real life, even I have to draw the line somewhere. I can't always say what I think. But my characters can, and oh, man, is that ever fun. It's a blast to let them say things I couldn't say in real life without getting slapped silly or arrested.

Suz: Since we're on the subject of writing, you have a rather unique approach on writing a book. I know of only one other writer who does the same process as you. Care to let everyone in on the Jane Graves way to write a romance novel?

Jane: Okay, but I feel obligated to issue a disclaimer up front. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. It'll make you certifiably crazy.

I begin writing a book by tossing down a whole bunch of dialogue, bits of scenes, exposition, whatever, that I can see possibly being part of the book somewhere in the 400 or so pages I'll eventually end up with. Then I expand on those pieces at random until the characters start talking and the story comes to life. Then I try to zero in on page one, because I can't sell the book until I can get proposal chapters written. Or if I've already sold the book, I can't get paid for the proposal until those chapters are done. I like to get paid. But getting three consecutive chapters down in the very beginning? It just about kills me. Fortunately, the more I get to know the characters, the easier the writing becomes. Still, when I finally write The End, I invariably have at least fifty pages of excess stuff that ends up on the cutting room floor.

I hear other writers say they see the story in their head and just write it down. Consecutively. One chapter after another. I'm so jealous of people who can do that. It would make my life SO much easier. Then some of them go on to say that one of the reasons they can write so many books is that they type fast. Well, I type over 100 words per minute, but when I spend an hour working on a three-sentence paragraph until my eyeballs bleed, typing speed doesn't really come into play.

I've been told many, many times that my writing seems smooth and effortless. That's hilarious. If those people had any idea of how much I consider every freakin' word that goes onto the page, they'd think twice about saying that. I'm actually not a very good writer. What I am is a pretty good rewriter. I just have the persistence to hit it over and over and over again until I get it right.

Suz: (Boy just hearing about that process exhausts me!) The next book in your future is Heartstrings and Diamond Rings. Can we have a little peek into that story?

Jane: The heroine is Alison Carter, Heather Montgomery's best friend from Tall Tales and Wedding Veils. In that book, Alison's dating disasters were well documented. In her own story, she's still determined to find her Mr. Right, but she's losing confidence in her own ability to find him. So she hires a matchmaker. But when it turns out that the matchmaker isn't the kindly old lady she expects but her sexy young grandson, the fun begins. Heartstrings and Diamond Rings will hit the shelves on September 27.

Oh-I also want to let everyone know about a promotion my publisher is running for the month of June. They're discounting the price of the e-book versions of Hot Wheels and High Heels and Tall Tales and Wedding Veils to only $1.99! That's 75% off the cover price, so if you haven't read those books yet, I hope you'll consider picking them up! Check out the deal at http://www.janegraves.com/

And now a question for you. The original cover of Black Ties and Lullabies (the blue one shown here) was much more cartoonish in nature, a follow up to my two previous covers that were the same style. Then my publisher decided to go with a different look. They did a photo shoot and came up with the cover with the red dress.

Which one do you like better, and why? Also, there are a whole bunch of covers these days with headless characters. How do you feel about that? If you see hero's and heroine's faces on the cover, does it screw up your ability to imagine them for yourself? Personally, I feel a little sorry for the models-I wonder if their contracts include the fact that they're going to be decapitated?

Those who comment will be eligible to win one of two copies I'm giving away. I have two sets of advance reading copies-one set for each cover-so the winners can specify which cover they'd like on the autographed copy I send!

First Look at The Wild Irish Sea

posted by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy

Today is June 18th, which means in 18 more days, my third book The Wild Irish Sea is scheduled to hit bookshelves. Less than three weeks?!?! The reality hasn't quite sunk in yet.

It doesn't feel like that long ago when my editor asked me for "another Irish book," and I was happy to oblige. I had recently watched the beautiful movie The Secret of Roan Inish which was filmed on location on the rugged northern coast of Ireland and I decided I would set my new story there also.

So now I had a setting, the rugged coast of Donegal. But what kind of people would be there? And wouldn't it be more interesting if my main characters were strangers instead of natives? Then all the things they saw and did would be new and fresh. Like those high-prowed row boats I'd read about and seen a few times -- curraghs. How would an American like me handle one of those? An image of a man in a big coat rowing in a rain storm popped into my mind. I knew he wasn't the hero, but who was he?

Ten years ago, my niece gave birth to fraternal twin boys, the first (and so far only) twins in our immediate family. Watching my grandnephews interact with each other (even as infants) sparked my interest in twins and their relationships. After reading a lot about twins, I thought it would be fun to write about them. Oh good, now I knew the man in the boat was the heroine's twin brother, and their names were Amber and Parker O'Neill.

But these two weren't just twins, they were twins with a special secret... all their lives, they had been able to communicate telepathically with each other! Amber and Parker can speak to each other mentally, send each other images, and feel what the other is feeling.

So what if one of them witnesses a murder and now the killers are after him? Because that man in the boat in the rainstorm? He's rowing like crazy, and I'm pretty sure that was a gun shot behind him! YIKES!!! And what are those dark shapes swimming around his boat?!?!

When Amber receives her brother's mental distress call, she rushes to the rocky shores of Donegal to rescue him. But first, she has to find him, and to do that, she'll need help...
Kevin Hennessey held out his hand toward the smoldering turf fire and listened to the wind rattling through the eaves and down the chimney. Rain pinged on the tin roof as the third squall in a week, and by far the strongest, buffeted the lone cottage.

But what did he expect during summer in Donegal, especially in these parts? His old man had lived here nearly ten years when he’d died this spring, and the entire time, he groused to anyone who visited that Malin Head possessed only three kinds of weather--barely tolerable, foul, and more foul
.
A rapping noise interrupted Kevin’s reverie. Had one of the shutters on the front window blown loose? Jaysus but he hoped not. He most decidedly did not want to go outside in the dark and the rain to fix the bloody thing.

The noise came again, louder and unmistakable, and thoroughly improbable. Someone was pounding on the front door. Kevin turned in slack-jawed surprise at the realization.

The house stood at the end of a perpetually muddy lane, an isolated sentinel on the ragged bluff, more than three kilometers from its nearest neighbor. No one ventured out here without an express invitation. ‘Twas the way Declan Hennessey had liked it, and Kevin preferred it the same.

What feckin neddy would be out in a storm like this, then?

He snatched the battery-powered lamp off the end table and strode to the front door to find out. Gripping the light in his left hand, he threw the bolt and eased open the heavy wooden door.

A dripping figure in a yellow rain slicker stumbled forward. Nearly dropping the lamp, he stuck out an arm and the woman steadied herself. He knew the stranger was a woman the moment her slender fingers gripped him, a Yank judging from her muddy jeans and trainers.

She jerked away from him as if burned, her dark eyes enormous in her pale face, wet hair plastered against her head.

“Are you a policeman?” she asked, her accent confirming his assumption that she was indeed American. “They told me at the pub that a policeman lived at the end of this road.”

...“My father was constable of our village in County Derry,” Kevin answered gruffly. “But he’s been dead these past three months.”

“I’m sorry, but are you Mr. Hennessey’s son? They told me you were a policeman too.” The woman’s voice crackled with tension, and deep shadows purpled the skin beneath her eyes. “I need your help. My brother’s in trouble and I have to find him!”

Will Kevin help Amber find her missing brother Parker? And what other adventures await them? I'm afraid you'll have to wait 18 more days to find out.

Do you know what the "secret" is in The Secret of Roan Inish? Have you read other books with twins? Please let your Aunty know if you liked them or not. And while we are on the subject of books, what is lurking near the top of your TBR pile?