Please welcome back Elizabeth Jennings for her second day on the island!
Hello all, and thanks for stopping by. SHADOWS AT MIDNIGHT, my Berkley Sensation, came out on August 3. If you read it, I hope you enjoy it.
A lot of people ask my why I write romantic suspense and it’s a legitimate question and I try very very hard not to roll my eyes and not to answer: well, because it’s romantic and suspenseful. Two fabulous qualities. Duh. I guess if the genre is not to your taste the charm of it goes right over your head, but honestly, I can’t imagine anything more exciting than a story where two strong and attractive people fall in love, escape from danger and vanquish the bad guys.
You’ve got life, right there, in a nutshell, don’t you? Life rendered down to basics, to the really important stuff, is finding someone to love and conquering difficulties. In romantic suspense, of course, the someone to love is of the opposite sex and incredibly attractive. The difficulties are usually of the type that requires firepower or explosives. But still.
But, really, the essence of it, the heart of it, is loving and overcoming. The core of the emotions can cover a mother’s love for her child, love of a best friend, parents, siblings…because love is love. The emotion that binds us together, that makes us human. A commitment your heart makes to someone, to care for them, always. Through good times and bad, sickness and health. That marriage vow applies to all the strong relations in our lives. The love in a romance novel encompasses all this and more, even. It is ennobling, puts our soul up in a higher realm.
And the danger we writers put your characters through? The hero and the heroine must be strong of mind and body to prevail, unswerving, smart, uncorruptible. But again—it is merely an echo of real life. Where the heroine is on the run from a bad guy, like my heroine, Claire Day, in Shadows at Midnight, rendered down to a shadow of her former self by his machinations, she and the hero, Dan Weston, turn the situation around by their courage. But really, that courage is a sharpened and clearer variation of the courage we all need to face the vicissitudes of life. The illness of a child, the death of a loved one, economic difficulties…they all need courage, they all need for a couple to pull together to overcome the odds.
So really, romantic suspense is just Life, writ large.
Happy reading, Elizabeth Jennings
Thanks again for another wonderful blog, Elizabeth. You just explained exactly why I love this genre so much! Tomorrow is Elizabeth’s last day so you still have time to leave a comment and be entered to win a copy of one of her books (Pursuit, Grand Central Publishing, paperback copy). Tomorrow she’s sharing an excerpt from her recent release from Berkley and a ‘Dear Reader’ letter from one of Berkley’s newsletters. The excerpt and letter are wonderful so I hope you come back tomorrow!
Please welcome the fabulous Elizabeth Jennings to the island! She writes for Berkley Sensation and Grand Central Publishing. And under her pseudonym (Lisa Marie Rice) she writes for Avon Red and Ellora's Cave.
Elizabeth Jennings has been a wordsmith all her life, as a simultaneous interpreter, a translator, and now as a romance writer. She writes romance because she loves it. Passion, adventure, danger, heartbreak, joy—what’s not to love? There’s no better profession than writing. And writing romance? Icing on the cake. She wouldn’t swap places with anyone in the world. She just hopes there are books in heaven, otherwise she’s not going.
1. Okay, let’s start with the obvious. Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself?
As I said before, I’ve been a wordsmith all my life, starting as an avid reader. I was the one in class with an exciting novel open in her lap while the teacher droned on about quadratic equations, which I do not understand to this day. One summer I read so much I lost a dioptre of sight, but what can you expect when you live across the street from the county library? It’s like an addict having a building chock full of crack cocaine. It’s right there across the street, the doors are wide open and all you need is a card.
Though I always knew I’d end up writing, the road there was long and fairly tortuous, as there was this tedious business of earning a living that had to come first. I’m not a starving-in-the-garret kind of person.
I moved to Florence, Italy from a small, provincial town in Central Oregon in my late teens and it took me years to get over the culture shock. I think everything about me, down to the molecular level, changed, definitely for the better. I learned that I loved language and languages, which led to interpreter’s school. Being an interpreter is just about the best preparation I know of for becoming a writer, besides being a lawyer. More fun, too.
So, for more years than I care to tell, I travelled and interpreted. Simultaneous interpretation requires very close and careful listening to what the speaker is saying, to the choice of vocabulary, to the register of language, to the hidden meanings. It’s intensely stressful and it burns language into your brain. Couple this with constant travel to sometimes interesting places (and sometimes not-interesting places—to wit, eight long damp years in Brussels), and with thousands of pages of translation work and you have a viable path to becoming a writer.
After travelling the world, another culture shock—marriage at a late age and residence in a small, provincial town in southern Italy, a little like circling back to square one. Matera, the unknown beauty of Italy, with its spectacular Sassi and incredible isolation from the mainstream of Italian life, became my new home. It’s been an enormous privilege watching the city open up to the world like a blossoming flower.
At the age of forty, it was time to finally try to achieve that lifelong dream of writing. I knew I wanted to write mainly genre fiction—romantic suspense and mysteries. I like to read exciting fiction and it’s what I like to write. With a lot of help from my friends along the way, I’ve published 8 novels and now have a two-book contract with Berkley Publishing (Penguin USA). The first book, Shadows at Midnight, comes out on August 3. Part of that help with becoming a writer was attending writers’ conferences in the States. It was such an overwhelming experience that—again—with the help of friends, I established a literary festival and spectacular international writers’ conference in Matera, the International Women’s Fiction Festival —www.womensfictionfestival.com— where members of our tribe of writers meet, bond, talk shop, listen to top editors and agents, sell novels, overeat and get drunk on the finest food and wine this side of heaven. Visit me at www.elizabeth-jennings.com I can be contacted ate.jennings@tin.it.
2. What publishing houses do you write for?
A great one. Berkley Sensation.
3. What would you say has been your most significant accomplishment as a writer?
Hmmm. I think marrying depth of character to suspense. I try very hard to make my characters very well rounded and to give the reader an idea of who they are even outside the relationship. I hope I succeed.
4. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? And how long have you been writing?
Forever. I’ve wanted to be a writer forever, ever since I taught myself to read at the age of five. It was always there—the ultimate dream. Every time I move (which is often) I uncover and discover tons of notebooks from my teens and twenties and thirties, filled with half-baked ideas and musings and terrible first chapters. It wasn’t until my forties though that I got serious.
5. Tell us something about yourself that we might not know.
Wow. I’m a really good cook and a bit of a foodie (read: food snob). I like pop and rock songs of the 80s. I actually enjoy reading soldiers’ memoirs.
I'm not a foodie but I feel ya on the 80s!
6. Who are your favorite authors?
Romance: Shannon McKenna and Nora Roberts (the Divine Nora). Thrillers: Lee Child, Michael Connolly, Thomas Perry, Richard Marcinko, Stuart McBride. The list changes but these are staples.
7. Tell us about your latest/upcoming release, SHADOWS AT MIDNIGHT. (Berkley Sensation, out August 3).
I was so happy to sign the contract with Berkley because SHADOWS AT MIDNIGHT is a story that’s been with me for a long time. I felt I not only knew the characters but that they existed outside me and were waiting, arms crossed, tapping a foot, for me to tell their story. It’s a suspense story, with danger and a puzzle to figure out, but it’s basically a story of two people who suffered a devastating attack and put their lives back together. They were both caught in a bombing of the Embassy in a West African country. Claire Day was an up and coming intelligence analyst, at the peak of her powers. After the bombing, she is a shadow of her former self, with memory holes and panic attacks and nightmares. The hero, Daniel Weston, had been the Marine Security Guard at the Embassy, and had to retire on disability, when being a Marine was all he had ever wanted to be. These two brave, smart people put their lives back together piece by piece, and fall in love doing it.
My Barnes and Noble order of Shadows hasn't arrived yet but it should sometime this week! Call me biased since I'm married to one but I'm so glad you've written about a hot Marine :)
8. Anything you’d like to add for your readers and/or aspiring writers?
For my readers—above all I like to make my characters appealing and I hope they appeal to you. Note I say appealing, not perfect. They have their flaws but they are never small-minded or mean. To aspiring writers, wherever they are on that spectrum from wanting to be a writer to being published—never give up. If that’s what you want to do, do it. Join a writers’ organization, form a writers’ group in your home town or join one. Write. Every day. Study writers you admire and discover what it is that they do that you admire so much. Never give up.
9. Please let readers know where they can find you.
I’m late to the website party (the website is going live in a couple of days) for very complicated reasons, but I look forward to having it and to blogging on the writing life and on life in Italy.
Thank you so much for answering all my questions and for hanging out with us today! Elizabeth is offering a giveaway of one of her books, Pursuit (in paperback format only). All you have to do is leave a comment over the next three days and be entered to win. I’ll announce the winner on Sunday! Don't forget to come back tomorrow because she's talking about romantic suspense, my favorite genre!
Welcome back to our third day of fun and sun at DIK Devyn!
I have to say, that was an awesome luau last night and I noticed a couple of mermaids swam up on shore and joined in after they found.. um some clothing!! lol
So, without further adieu I’m turning the mic over to Devyn, who is going to talk about her 5 favorite DIK books she has brought along to the island.
DQ: Here’s what I’ve got for my 5 selections:
Marilyn by Normal Mailer
One of the best early biographies on Marilyn Monroe and bursting with awesome photographs.
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The original story of the Phantom and Christine.
The Phantom of the Opera belongs to the category of Literature, which combines equals parts of horror and romance. Set in the Paris Grand Opera house, which exists to this day, it is a most unusual plot and quite unique from that of any other story. The author Gastonia Leroy has made optimum use of his in-depth knowledge of the Opera house in Paris and has concocted a truly fascinating tale, which is both horrific and pathetic at the same time. The Opera House at Paris is a true marvel of art constructed in the 17th. Century. It has seven stories and has more than two thousand rooms in addition to innumerable secret cellars, passages and even an underground lake. Leroux uses his intimate knowledge of the Opera house exquisitely to create an atmosphere of mystery, horror and romance and has the reader guessing for the greater part of the story as to who or what the Opera Ghost actually is.
The fantastic first book of a hot new series featuring demons
Since time began, the Earth has served as a balance between the world of darkness that is the Abyss, and the paradise known as Eden. Now the battle between good and evil has reached a tipping point, and survival depends on one fallen demon-- and the woman he can't resist...
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
Simply awesome example of King at his finest.
Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot (1975)--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
A heartfelt and touching book.
"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty and frequent death and illness and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings for a compelling memoir.
Question for readers: What 5 books would you bring to the Island?
Thanks Devyn! Wonderful choices…
A big thank you to Devyn for spending the past 3 days here on the island and for her generous giveaway! Siren's Call, the first book in the Dark Tides trilogy is now available and please visit Devyn's website for more information!
Contest Is Now Closed
Devyn Quinn lives in the scenic Southwest, though she has called several other states home. She is a huge fan of dark gothic music & shoot-’em-up action movies. But reading is her first love and Devyn spends too much time with history books, as well as feeding her addiction for celebrity biographies. She especially enjoys reading books on Hollywood before the 1960′s and is crazy about Marilyn Monroe, her legend and her myth.
Devyn lives with her cats, ferrets, and one little single Shih Tzu doggie, Tess.
As a writer, waiting for the reviews on a book to come in is excruciating. Once the book has gone through the publishing process, there is that tiny window after actual print publication and before the release date when the book is sent out to reviewers. It is at this time that I begin to intensely bite my knuckles, make small sacrifices and generally melt down as I wonder what the very first review of my forthcoming release will say. Will the book get decent reviews, or will it be stomped into the ground by the reader, who will then put their .02 cents into print–thus crushing my confidence (and a piece of my soul) or sending me off into a spasm of joy that can last for days?
Having been through this time and time again, you would think I would learn to roll with the punches, to take the good reviews with a smile and the bad reviews with a grain of salt (along with several malt coolers). The truth is, I worry each any every time a book comes up for release. Why? I think it is because I’m so attached to the characters I have created. Yes, I know. These people do not exist, except in the creator’s mind. Yet for months, sometimes years, a writer labors to commit what is in their head to the more tangible medium of print, thereby giving their characters a “life” that can be shared by readers. It’s a daunting task, making the unreal come to fruition in a way that (to me) is logical and meaningful. After all, if I don’t buy into the circumstances I am setting down on the page, how can the reader? So, yes, I tend to become emotionally attached to that piece of literature. After all, an inspiration that belonged to me alone has granted it an existence in this world, however impermanent. As long as the book is in print and survives, it is a part of what once brewed inside my skull.
My next book is Siren's Call which releases today! The first reviews have begun to come in. Here's a sampling of a few:
“The author fully pulled me into her world that she created in her mind and put down on paper. I wasn’t left confused or needing to backtrack some pages to figure out what she was talking about, everything flowed smoothly. This story quickly drew me in and was overall fun. It is the first book in a new series called Dark Tides. I am definitely interested in reading the next book in this series. 4.5 Stars. ” – Night Owl Romance
“Siren’s Call quickly serves up a main course of interesting characters with a side dish of archeological and historical intrigue. The novel does not delay the inevitable, nor does it retread the oft-trod predictable lines of many paranormal romances. Instead, as the story develops so do intriguing questions about privacy, relationships and what the world may have a right to know.” – Fresh Fiction
”Siren’s Call is a faced paced, thrilling story, that was laced with dark wit and plot twists that made for a great read.” – Closetreader blog
OMG. They're good! I was surprised, considering Siren's Call was the book I began with no plot, no characters and no clue where it would go. All I know is that it came. From where, I do not know to this day. And I am mightily relieved that the first reviews are terrific. I had feared I would get the first zero star review in history and read that the book was so awful the reviewer has to be put in the hospital with bouts of gagging and heaving (yeah, I really thought that). It gives me hope that the next ones coming in will be just as good.
My question to readers today: Do you let negative reviews affect your decision to read a book?
Between desire and love there are some things that can’t stay buried, even in the deep of the ocean.
As a woman with a secret, lighthouse keeper Tessa Lonike savors her solitude on the island of Little Mer, off the coast of Maine. During a violent storm, Tessa spots a man thrashing in the ice cold waters and dives in to save him, using her ability as a mermaid to easily pull him to shore.
When Kenneth Randall awakens on the beach he is alone, left with the haunting memory of his beautiful, flame-haired savior. But a year later, when Kenneth meets her again, he’s determined not to let Tessa slip away. Just as the desire between them begins to burn, Tessa’s archaeologist ex-lover comes back to town with a tantalizing clue to her murky heritage.
The trio travel to the Mediterranean in search of answers, and when Tessa inadvertently opens an underwater portal they find a lost mermaid city. But in the deep, not everything is as it seems, and Tessa must decide if she wants to take her place as the royal heir, or follow the call of her heart…
Remember Everyone! Devyn has very kindly offered a copy of "Siren's Call" to be won by one lucky commenter each day while she is here on the island. So that is potentially 3 chances to win if you visit each day, (yesterday, today and tomorrow) and answer Devyn’s question!
The contest will close Satuday at midnight and the lucky winner will be posted here at DIK Sunday morning.
The winners will be chosen randomly by numbered entry.
Only one entry per day please!
Contest open internationally!
Good Luck to all who enter!
Devyn is back for her final day on the island tomorrow to talk about her favorite DIK books she has brought along! (She picked some interesting ones.. *g*)
It is my great pleasure to introduce and welcome talented, Award Winning Author Devyn Quinn to the Island!
::Big round of applause - raising drinks::
I was delighted and honored when Devyn agreed to guest here at DIK because I’ve been a fan since I read her book “Flesh and the Devil” in 2008. I have read very nearly all of her publications since and I can tell you she pens dark erotic paranormal romance novels that will curl your toes and raise the hair on the back of your neck! Devyn’s newest publication represents a change for her in that it is the first in a series called “Dark Tides”, and is about Mermaids! “Siren’s Call”, and will be published tomorrow August 3, 2010!
Welcome to DIK Devyn!
DQ: Thanks, Lea. I’m delighted to be at DIK for the next three days.
Lea: Are you ready for the rapid-fire induction DIK “About Me”, questions?
Bring them on!
Favorite Reading Position?
Sitting in bed with my snacks and books.
How old is your inside voice?
I can safely say several centuries, LOL. I’m an old, old soul!
If you could be a hero who would you be?
Hmm. I think I would like to be Batman. He’s dark and broody, like me. And he’s rich. I could handle that!
What heroine is most like you?
LOL, is there a heroine who sits behind the computer all day, slamming back Red Bull to meet her deadlines? If so, then she is just like me.
LOL!
What heroine would you like to be?
Lara Croft. Definitely the coolest out there. Barring that I would be Angelina Jolie.
Cool heroine!
Boxers, Briefs, boxer briefs, kilt (I say we add commando)?
Boxer briefs. The best of both worlds.
Favorite book set on a tropical island?
Hmm, I don’t recall the name of the book or even the author, but the book was set on a tropical island. It involved 4 rich women and their captain being stranded after their husband were the victims of an assassination attempt. Anyway, these rich pampered women were stranded and had to learn how to survive on this wild island. Wish I could recall who wrote it!
I think that would be "Savages" by Shirley Conran. Excellent novel about survival. I loved that book too.
If you were stuck on a desert island what 3 things would you bring?
Non-perishable food, tanning lotion and fresh water!
Favorite drink to bring to the DIK party?
Strawberry margarita.
Yummy!
You recently won a 2009 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for your book “Possession”, which is a stellar novel about a demon which has an interesting plot twist with respect to the heroine of the novel. I have to admit I didn’t see that one coming Devyn. Do you have a particular favorite of the many books you’ve written?
My all time favorite is Echoes of Angels, which features my maniac depressive alcoholic Irish assassin Morgan Saint-Evanston. I am pleased to announce that the book will be re-released later this year. Until then, readers can get a taste of Morgan in Sins of the Night.
“Siren’s Call”, is a paranormal romance about ‘Tessa Lonike”, a reclusive lighthouse keeper who along with her sisters Gwen and Addison are mermaids. You created a unique biology for your mermaids and introduced a very hostile mermaid world in the depths of the ocean. I really enjoyed this story and found it a change from the “Devyn” narratives I’ve read historically. Was this a tough one for you to pen?
Tough does not begin to describe this book. Not only was the mermaid genre new to me, but so was sea-lore in general. I went in knowing nothing. I also could not used established lore, like Poseidon or Atlantis as a basis for my world building (as other authors use those themes already). So I have to literally build my Mers from the ground up, so to speak.
I thought you incorporated an interesting juxtaposition between “Kenneth”, the human hero of the story and “Jake”, Tessa’s former lover and a really nasty, conniving narcissist. Are we going to see more of Jake in books II & III?
Oh, I love writing nasties and Jake surely is one. A few reviewers have commented on his almost comical evil, which is kind of what I wanted. Smarmy and charming, but always out for himself and his own interests.
Gwen’s story “Siren’s Surrender”, is the next book in the “Dark Tides” trilogy to be released in 2011. Gwen owns a little hotel on the mainland and has tried really hard to integrate with humans. Can you give readers a hint as to where you will be taking Gwen and the Lonike sisters in book II?
Gwen and her family are going to enter the shadowy world of the A51-ASD, a covert branch of our government that investigates alien and paranormal activity. When I was thinking about book 2, it occurred to me how our government might react if the hostile Mers emerged and killed a few innocent humans. I mean, an entire new world and species have emerged from the depth of the ocean. How would people deal with that?
Do you have a question you would like to ask folks who stop by and say Hi today?
Sure! So here's a question for readers: What is your favorite bit of sea lore and why do you find it fascinating? Are you crazy for Poseidon, or do you really believe that Atlantis existed?
Thanks Devyn, great answers!
Devyn has very kindly offered a copy of "Siren's Call" to be won by one lucky commenter each day while she is here on the island. So that is potentially 3 chances to win if you visit each day, and answer Devyn’s question!
The winners will be chosen randomly by numbered entry.
The contest will close Satuday at midnight and the lucky winner will be posted here at DIK Sunday morning.
Only one entry per day please!
Contest open internationally!
Good Luck to all who enter!
We’ve planned a rockin luau tonight with da DIK menz and Ladies. Devyn is going to be back on the island with us tomorrow with a special post to celebrate the release of "Siren's Call".
Please welcome back Elizabeth Jennings for her second day on the island!
