Joanne Lewis - Alchemy and Self-Publishing

Fort Lauderdale writer Joanne Lewis got off to an early start in self-publishing. She wrote her first book at the age of eight, a book about the weather titled, appropriately, The Book of Weather. She hand-printed and illustrated each page on construction paper and fashioned a cover from two pieces of cardboard covered with leftover wallpaper. Then she got her big break – her school librarian placed the book on the library shelf. “Nothing made me prouder,” Lewis says. “I visited the library every day. I don’t recall anyone checking out my book, or if it was listed in the card catalogue or given a Dewey decimal number, but I didn’t care. There it was on the shelves. My book. I was a writer.”

Lewis went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film/Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After spending a discouraging year in Hollywood looking for work in the film industry, she decided to go into something more practical. “My father’s words bounced around my head: You have to have a career so you know what you’re unemployed from,” she says. So she went to law school. Lewis graduated in 1989 and moved to Florida, where she took a job as a prosecutor with the Broward County State Attorney’s office. But her dreams of writing wouldn’t die.

Lewis wrote her first novel, a mystery titled The Forbidden Room, while working felony trials and sex crimes. The book was picked up by a small press. Although she didn’t sell many books, Lewis was invited to speak on panels and did book signings. After hiring an agent, she was approached by an editor at Simon & Schuster to write a series featuring a young female prosecutor. Two months later, the agent presented her proposal to the editor who said that she was no longer interested. Then the agent unexpectedly passed away.  

Lewis was now 29 years old and “feeling like the height of my writing career would be traced back to my elementary school library.” So she stopped writing – for a while. “Somehow I knew I would start writing again when I was in my forties,” she recalls. “Don’t ask me how I knew this - I just did.” What she didn’t foresee was the life-changing event that would kickstart her writing career.

Four days shy of her 41^st birthday, Lewis was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After a radical hysterectomy and six months of chemotherapy, she emerged cancer-free and ready to write. She turned out murder mysteries, historical novels, and Wicked Good, a commercial novel that she co-wrote with her sister, Amy Lewis Faircloth. Wicked Good, the tale of a single mother struggling to raise a teenage son with Asperger’s Syndrome, chronicles the frustrations and joys that characterize the relationship between a parent and a special needs child. It also illustrates the unique, abiding love each has for the other. The book took the sisters three years to complete. They posted it one chapter at a time on a blog where it was discovered by a small publisher. Published as an e-book, Wicked Good reached the rank of Top 100 Special Needs books on Amazon.  A bound copy of the book was set to be published, but the deal fell through.

Lewis was understandably discouraged. But a call to her sister helped her regain her perspective. “One day, as I was trying to decipher the secret to writing a successful query letter, I called Amy and told her I was no longer having fun,” Lewis says. “I was tired of writing letters and hoping someone would consider me worthy. My sister said, ‘If you’re not having fun, don’t do it.’ So I stopped. I decided to self-publish."

Lewis is pleased with that decision. She believes that self-publishing offers new writers many advantages that traditional publishing cannot, including creative control and a say in pricing decisions. She also sees self-publishing becoming more generally accepted than it was in the past. “Do you know who looks down upon those of us who choose to self-publish?” she asks. “People in the publishing industry. Do you know who doesn’t care if we self-publish? The readers. All they ask for, all they deserve, is a good book. What I don’t understand is why self-publishing, which is the same as being self-employed, is given a bad rap. I started my own law practice and was congratulated for being an entrepreneur.  Why is writing the only industry where being self-employed is frowned upon?”

Lewis has some words of advice for aspiring self-publishers. “For the most part, the successful writers have books that are well-written and well-edited, and they work really hard to get noticed. But there’s something else. Alchemy, I call it. Turning metal into gold. Magic. Providence. Good fortune. Covering cardboard with yellow and green wallpaper and placing it on the school library shelf.”  

Lewis has self-published her second novel, a mystery titled Make Your Own Luck. The story centers around a young attorney’s efforts to prove the innocence of a 13-year old accused of murdering her father. Along the way, she learns what really happened the night of the murder and discovers some hard truths about her family and herself.

Lewis’s next book, The Lantern, (scheduled for release this fall) is a historical fiction novel about a modern-day woman's quest to find a girl from 15th century Italy who dared to enter the competition to build the lantern on top of Brunelleschi's dome. Her search interesects with some of the most famous figures of the Renaissance, including members of the Medici family, Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and a young Michelangelo.

In retrospect, Lewis is glad she followed her dad’s advice and went to law school.  She currently works as a family mediator and a guardian ad litem who represents children. “I feel like I am helping people,” she says, “and I make a decent living, which allows me to pursue my passion for writing.” She also tries to remember her sister’s advice: If you’re not having fun, don’t do it. “I don’t sell a lot of books,” Lewis admits, “but I know that will change when I am in my fifties. Don’t ask me how I know this, I just do. Hopefully, this time my life-changing event won’t be so drastic.”

For more about Joanne Lewis, visit her website at www.joannelewiswrites.com.

Next: Joanna Slan - Crafty Cozies

              

Diane Gilbert Madsen: History and Mystery

To some, history is just a dry compilation of names and dates. But for Diane Gilbert Madsen, history is alive with fascinating mysteries just waiting to be solved by the right detective. So Madsen decided to create one: DD McGil, a sassy insurance investigator with a penchant for literature, statistics and anything Scottish and an intense dislike for her real name (Daphne December).  DD is the signature character in the DD McGil Literati Mysteries, a unique series of whodunits. 

Madsen, a Chicago native, has always been a mystery buff. She grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and the works of Agatha Christie and John Dixon Carr. But after earning her master’s degree in English literature, Madsen decided to pursue a career in business.  Even while she served as the Director of Economic Development for the State of Illinois, the desire to write was always in the back of her mind. She wrote a murder mystery about art smuggling, but it was never published. So when she and her husband, Tom, sold their consulting business and moved to Placida, a rural town in Southwest Florida, Madsen decided to write something different. She had always loved researching obscure, interesting incidents in the lives of famous writers, and she decided to use these as the basis for a series of mystery stories. “When I decided I could combine historical incidents with a mystery, I knew I was on to something,” she recalls. 

After Hurricane Charley, Diane helped her husband Tom run their Association Management business in Boca Grande where many structures had been damaged.  She eventually completed A Cadger’s Curse, a novel that merges the life of Robert Burns with present-day counterfeiting and murder. Madsen, a member of the clan Buchanan, has always been fascinated by the iconic Scottish poet.  A Cadger’s Curse is based on a controversial poem Burns etched onto the window of a Scottish inn. He later had to return and break the glass to avoid being accused of treason.  In Madsen’s book, the fragments come into the possession of DD’s eccentric aunt, setting the stage for robbery, intrigue, and murder. A Cadger’s Curse was praised by Publisher’s Weekly as a “promising debut , the first in a new cozy series , (that) introduces DD McGil, a 38-year-old freelance insurance investigator and former English professor who's a whiz at breaking and entering. Well-drawn characters and a suspenseful plot will leave readers looking forward to the next installment.”

 A Cadger’s Curse was soon followed by Hunting for Hemingway which debuted at the Hemingway Museum in the writer’s boyhood home of Oak Park and won an Honorable Mention in the 2011 Fiction Awards at the New York Book Festival.  Hunting for Hemingway centers around an incident that may have ended Hemingway’s first marriage. The writer’s young wife was on her way to meet him in Switzerland, carrying a valise containing the original and carbon copies of his short stories and the beginning of a novel that he’d been working on for over two years. The valise was stolen in a train station, and Hemingway never got over the loss.  In Hunting for Hemingway, the valise turns up in modern-day Chicago. “This book involved a lot of research, which I love doing,” Madsen says. “Everything up to the point where the stories show up is factual. I also had to research the complexities that arise once a lost manuscript is found.”  Library Journal calls Hunting for Hemingway “…humorous … breezy and fast paced.” Booklist said it is “… sexy and fun, a combination of not-too-gritty, hard-boiled detective novel and cozy mystery infused with neat little bits of Hemingway lore.”   And Madsen definitely enjoyed the reviewer in The Hemingway Review who said:   “I suspect Ernest Hemingway’d have gotten a kick out of DD McGil.”  Getting into the real spirit of the story, Madsen even wrote an article on the Corona Number 3 typewriter Hemingway used to write his lost stories. The article was published in Mystery Scene Magazine.

The Conan Doyle Notes: The Secret of Jack the Ripper is the third Literati Mystery.  It is due out shortly and deals with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and what he might have uncovered about the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world’s most famous criminal.  

When Madsen is not watching sports, observing the wildlife from her Twin Ponds home, or helping her husband rebuild his vintage Corvette, she’s hard at work on her fourth Literati mystery, The Cardboard Palace, in which a stolen Jane Austen manuscript at an exclusive Women’s Club leads to murder and the discovery of an explosive revelation.  

             Madsen describes the DD  McGil Literati novels as “fast-paced and witty, combining true incidents in the history of famous authors with modern-day mysteries.”    She hopes her books will not only entertain but will also generate interest in the history of famous authors. “History is people,” she explains, “and I love illuminating a bit of its personality."

            For more about Diane Gilbert Madsen, visit her website at http://www.dianegilbertmadsen.com/

Next: Joanne Lewis - Alchemy and Self-Publishing

RIP Ray Bradbury

One of the brightest lights in the literary world blinked out today. Although Ray Bradbury was not a Florida writer, no one can deny that he was fabulous. He was one of the writers who helped me fall in love with the beauty of the written word. His coming-of-age novel, Dandelion Wine, remains one of my top five favorite books, and his writing possesses an incomparable lushness and humanity. This is a very sad day for readers everywhere. We've lost a true national treasure.

Kristin Harmel - The Lit Chick

Florida writer Kristin Harmel’s seventh novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting, (scheduled for release  Aug. 7 from Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), is a real departure for the Orlando-based novelist, who grew up in St. Petersburg. She wrote her first published book, a laugh-out-loud chick lit novel called How to Sleep with a Movie Star, at age 24, and quickly followed it with three more chick lit tomes from and two young adult novels. Her books have been published in numerous languages and are sold all around the world.

Harmel’s writing career began earlier than most. As a 6-year-old, she penned her first novel, which she describes with a laugh as “a little hand-written, stapled-together Bobbsey Twins book.”  At sixteen, this “obsessive reader” started writing for a local newspaper, and months later, she was covering minor league and high school sports for the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times). After earning her degree in journalism and communications from the University of Florida, she began writing for People magazine, where she’s still a contributor more than a decade later.

At age 23, Harmel spent the summer in France. That summer changed her life. “It taught me to slow down, to appreciate what I had, to look inside myself,” she says. “It gave me the courage to get out of the rat race and attempt a novel, which is something I’d always dreamed of doing. Two months later, I started my first book.” In 2006, How to Sleep with a Movie Star was published. Praised as “hilarious” by Cosmopolitan magazine, it tells the story of a 26-year-old reporter whose life is turned upside-down after an encounter with a movie star. This was followed a year later by The Blonde Theory, the tale of a corporate attorney who goes undercover as a “dumb blonde” to see if her love life improves. Harmel calls her first few books “Bridget Jones-esque, entertaining reads about women striving to be better versions of themselves and trying to find their way in life – set to an amusing backdrop.” The Blonde Theory was followed by The Art of French Kissing (set in Paris), and Italian for Beginners (set in Rome). Harmel also wrote two novels geared toward young adult readers : When You Wish and After.

Now, at the age of 33, Harmel’s writing has grown up with her. The Sweetness of Forgetting moves away from her chick lit roots to tell the story of a 36-year-old bakery owner who discovers that her grandmother, now suffering from Alzheimer’s, has a mysterious past buried in 1940s Paris. “It’s a completely different kind of book for me,” Harmel explains. “It was a transition I’ve been ready to make for a long time. I’m so proud of the depth of the story I was able to tell here, and I’m hoping that readers are as touched by reading it as I was by researching it. I was able to touch on some topics that mean a great deal to me, including Alzheimer’s, the Holocaust and interfaith cooperation.” Already, the buzz both here and abroad has been wonderful, and translation rights for The Sweetness of Forgetting have already sold in a dozen territories overseas. In August, Harmel will set out on a book tour that includes New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago before heading to Italy to promote the release of the Italian language version of her novel. But whatever the language, The Sweetness of Forgetting has a plotline that takes readers deep into a surprising interfaith tale based both in Holocaust-era Europe and modern-day Cape Cod. The novel also includes nine original recipes from the main character’s bakery. Harmel describes the book as “ a story of family, love, honesty…and baked goods.”

While writing is her passion, Harmel, who is now the travel and dating expert for The Daily Buzz, (a  nationally syndicated morning television show) doesn’t find it difficult to set time aside for reading, cooking, and traveling. She’s seldom in her Orlando home for more than a month at a stretch, and she likes spending time with friends. But according to Harmel, what she loves most of all is "being able to tell a story that will hopefully amuse and inspire. It’s a privilege to be able to do that with the written word.”

For more on Kristin Harmel, visit her website at http://www.kristinharmel.com/.

Next: Diane Gilbert Madsen - History and Mystery

Robert Tacoma - Laughter's the Key

What do a Key West cat juggler, the sexy leader of a California cult, a mysterious Everglades hermit, two bumbling criminal brothers on the lam, a womanizing Wal-Mart greeter, and a former possum rancher named Taco Bob have in common? They’re all the comic creations of the delightfully wacky imagination of Gainesville writer Robert Tacoma. Tacoma describes his books as “Florida fiction that’s stranger than fiction.

Tacoma, who grew up in Tampa, didn’t set out to become a writer. A former construction worker, Tacoma was a huge fan of Florida writers like Carl Hiaasen, John D. MacDonald, Randy Wayne White, James W. Hall, and Tim Dorsey. But it was a book by California writer Christopher Moore that changed his life. According to Tacoma, “I’d read a book by Tim Dorsey, and in the back of that book was a list of some books with funny names. I found one of the books and read it. It was by Christopher Moore. I went to his website, and he had a discussion forum. I’d written a few little silly things, and I started putting some of them on there. One day, he wrote back and said, ‘You know, that’s really funny. That’s great.’ He encouraged me, so I can blame it all on Christopher Moore.”

Three years later, Tacoma completed his first novel, Key Weird. “I have no idea where the idea for that book came from,” he says. “The ideas just came to me as I started writing.” It marked the debut of Tacoma’s signature character, Taco Bob—a down-on-his-luck Texas possum rancher who wanders into Key West after a string of bad breaks. “I needed a character that could go through the stories unaware of what’s going on," Tacoma explains. "Even though Taco Bob’s the central character, the action usually takes place all around him but doesn’t directly involve him.” In spite of the similarity in their names, Tacoma says that “there’s not as much of me in Taco Bob as you might think. He’s a lot more laid back.”  The two do, however, share a passion for fishing. “One of the things I like best about living in Florida, besides the climate and the water, is the fishing,” he says. “I’ve been fishing the Hillsborough River for over fifty years. I wanted to write about Florida and have a good excuse to go fishing.”  

Tacoma continued the fishing theme in Key Weird’s sequel, Key Weirder. In it, Taco Bob decides to travel the state searching for the ultimate trout recipe. Unbeknownst to him, he is being pursued by an assortment of unscrupulous characters in search of a golden idol that Bob has been inadvertently using as a doorstop. Tacoma includes several original recipes in this book (including one for a killer smoked fish spread). Key Weirder was followed by Key Witch, a story that includes a little lovestruck space alien whose observations conclude each chapter. Key Manatee, Tacoma’s fourth novel, is “a parody/homage to the Travis McGee series.” It was the hardest book for him to write. “I really enjoy John D. MacDonald’s books,” he says. “I’ve read every one of them twice. I wanted to stay close to Travis McGee while telling my own story. And I wanted the ending to have everybody get what’s coming to them.” Tacoma’s spirit of fun continued with Color Me Weird, a small volume he describes as “a coloring novella for grown-ups.” This was followed by three more novels – Key Lucky, Possum Surprise, and Sheriff Skunk. Tacoma’s latest offering, Key Dali, is the story of a Key West street performer who pairs up with his old friend, Taco Bob, to save an orphanage from an unscrupulous bank (with predictably hilarious results.)

Tacoma really enjoys his writing career, and he doesn’t think he’ll be running out of weird ideas for his stories anytime soon.  The way he explains it, “There’s this sifting thing that happens here in Florida. All the really strange stuff seems to find its way into Florida and the Keys.” He hopes his offbeat stories will bring smiles to his readers’ faces. “My number one job is for my readers to have a good time,” he says. “There are so many bad things going on today. I want to make people laugh and have fun.”

To find out more about Robert Tacoma’s books, you can visit his website at www.tacobob.com

Next: Kristin Harmel - The Lit Chick

Karna Small Bodman - A Look Inside the Beltway

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a Washington insider, pick up a book by Naples writer Karna Small Bodman. After being appointed by President Reagan as Deputy Press Secretary, Bodman spent several years moving in D.C’s inner circles.  It was her job to explain domestic policy initiatives to the national press corps, and she was involved with some of the most important issues of the time. She met almost daily with President Reagan, often travelling with him on Air Force One, and was sent to South America and the Far East to give speeches on the President’s economic priorities. Later, Bodman became a Senior Director and spokesperson for the National Security Council. She attended arms control talks with the Soviets and traveled with the team that briefed the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy, as well as Pope John Paul II.  When Bodman left the White House to become Senior Vice-President of a public affairs firm, she was the highest ranking female on the White House staff.

Her years in the White House gave Bodman an opportunity to observe how the executive branch of the government works and the challenges it faces. Since she had always wanted to write a book, Bodman decided to use her insider knowledge as the basis for a novel. “I’d been writing news scripts, briefings, magazine and newspaper articles my entire career, but the premium was always on brevity,” she explains. “I had to learn how to take ideas and extrapolate.” Her writing was influenced by her favorite authors: Nelson DeMille, Charles McCarry, and Vince Flynn.  Drawing upon her fascination with President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, Bodman came up with the idea for her debut novel, Checkmate. It tells the story of Dr. Cameron Talbot, a brilliant young scientist who devises a computerized system that can take over incoming missiles and send them back to their points of origin. When a group of militants send an agent to Washington to steal the new technology, Dr. Talbot finds her work and her life in imminent danger.

Bodman spent months researching the technical aspects of the novel. “The most difficult part of writing for me is organizing the research,” she says. “I probably over-research.” And it was her research that inspired her main character. According to Bodman, “Cameron Talbot isn’t based on any individual. I started with the technology and molded a character to fit. And I blended in many of the very smart women I knew in Washington.” The result is a novel that seamlessly melds fact and fiction into a political thriller with a strong romantic twist.

Since then, Bodman has written three more novel, each focused on a different threat to our national security. The characters work on the White House staff as well as in and around Washington, DC and in hot spots overseas. While there are international plots and political intrigue in all her books, Bodman also weaves a love story into each one. All her novels have hit #1 in Thrillers on Amazon. 

Bodman is most excited about her newest international thriller, Castle Bravo which will be released on June 1,  in time for her signing at the big publishers’ convention, “Book Expo,” in New York.

The plot of Castle Bravo centers around the White House Director of Homeland Security receiving intelligence about the possibility of a staggering new threat.  What if a hostile country or group was to obtain a small nuclear device, and instead of aiming it at one of our cities, they detonated it high in the atmosphere? The result would be the creation of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse or “EMP” sending shock waves that would fry all electronics on the ground in its line of sight.  There would be no electricity grid, no internet, no communication, transportation, refrigeration, ATMs.  Could it really happen here? Bodman hopes you will read the novel and decide for yourself.

A number of New York Times bestselling authors have already weighed in with their opinions of Castle Bravo. Christopher Reich calls it “Smart, slick, and exciting as hell. Castle Bravo is one great read. Karna Small Bodman has an insider’s feel for the corridors of power.  As you quickly turn the pages, you will find yourself wondering if the book is truth or fiction. A winner!” According to Steve Berry, “Bodman skillfully moves her players around on a global chessboard, presenting a provocative concept that rings all too real. You’re there, in a labyrinth of intrigue, where danger and drama abide. It’s fresh and relevant and makes you clamor for more.”

Bodman hopes readers will enjoy Castle Bravo, as well as her other novels, Checkmate, Gambit, and Final Finesse as she endeavors to make arguments about the importance of national defense.  As George Bernard Shaw said, “The best way to get your point across is to entertain.” Bodman’s books will certainly entertain while taking readers on an unforgettable journey inside the beltway.

To find out more about Bodman’s books, you can visit her website at www.karnabodman.com

Next: Robert Tacoma - Laughter's the Key

Tina Wainscott - Romance with a Thrill

Tina Wainscott was born and raised in South Florida and is a self-described “true cracker,” but the story of her life really begins in Pennsylvania. “I was conceived at a drive-in movie outside of Philadelphia, believe it or not. I guess the movie was pretty boring,” she says. “Then my parents, who were just kids, moved to Florida and discovered they were expecting. They collected shells from the beach to sell to souvenir shops to pay the doctor’s bills, and they managed to get the bills paid days before I arrived. They were the original shell seekers.”

Wainscott’s talent for storytelling developed at an early age. As a child growing up in Naples, she loved to direct make-believe movies with her neighborhood friends and create adventures where characters were caught in dangerous situations. When she was seven years old, she wrote her first story: “Pathways to Death.”  According to Wainscott, “I had a happy childhood and a stable home (as my mom is eager to tell people). But I grew up on Alfred Hitchcock.”  She took business courses after graduating high school because she “wanted to be sensible,” but she also enrolled in creative writing courses at night to satisfy her desire to write. She eventually took a job as a sales support manager for a software company, but she continued to write short stories in her spare time. One of those short stories “got too long” and developed into her first full-length novel. In an ironic twist, she was laid off from her job the very month her first book, On the Way to Heaven, was published. She has been writing ever since.

Wainscott describes her books as “romantic suspense with a paranormal twist.” Of her twenty-three published novels, seven are set in Florida; two of them in Naples. Her favorite, Unforgivable, was inspired by an actual event. “A little girl was giving away kittens in front of the local Publix,” she recalls. “A man came out, took one of the kittens and threw it against the window. Luckily, the kitten survived, but I was so incensed, I sat down and started writing. I imagined what might happen to the girl’s life as a result of that incident, and the whole story came together. I call it my gift book.” Wainscott later got to meet the actual kitten that inspired the story.

Wainscott’s career has taken twists and turns (much like those in her novels) from paranormal romantic suspense to straight suspense with some romance, and now, plunging back into paranormal romantic suspense again as Jaime Rush. "I took a pseudonym because I'd gone away from romance and paranormal and my new publisher wanted to bring me out as a fresh new author," she explains.

Her “Offspring” series, for Avon Books, is about a group of people with extraordinary psychic abilities and a shady government agency out to kill them. "In the first four books, each couple is dealing with being thrown together with strangers and being hunted down,” she says. “They've got to solve the mystery of who's behind it and how their parents were involved, parents who are now dead. I call it X-Files meets Lost. The fifth and sixth books in the series (Beyond Darkness and Darkness Becomes Her) are more stand-alone as far as the plot arc goes. You can pick up any book and jump right on the train, but it's always nice to start a series at the beginning to watch the characters evolve."

Wainscott is also doing some stand-alone novellas in the “Offspring” series so new readers can get a taste of her writing for $1.99. The Darkness Within is available now, and a spin-off story will be out soon.

Wainscott continues to evolve in her writing. "I'm finding that my writing is veering into more traditional paranormal elements. For example, in the “Offspring” series, I discovered there really is a Darkness. Some of the characters in Darkness Becomes Her and the novellas actually possess Darkness … or does it possess them?"

Wainscott is “wildly excited” about a whole new series that's scheduled to come out starting April of 2013, called “The Hidden”. In the series, Crescents (humans who hold the essence of deities) walk the knife’s edge between the glamour of Miami and the “Hidden,” a place filled with dark magic. Dragons, angel hybrids, and sorcerers, Crescents must fight the dissention among their kind and the lure of their darkest nature. "I'm having a ball creating a world, a history, different kinds of beings, and yet all anchored in the quasi-normality of a real city,” Wainscott says. “Playing with magic really opens up the possibilities.” She was inspired by “those mysteries in our everyday lives, like where our socks go, and why things are in a different place than we know we put them.”  Her Crescents can see the dangers in this other world that exists right along with ours. They have to deal with this without revealing it, or their own magic, to regular humans. Wainscott will be writing as Jaime Rush for these books and plans to releasre two related novellas prior to the series’ launch.

While her deadlines keep her writing for more than eight hours a day, she sets aside weekends for “family time” with her husband and daughter. She also enjoys reading, swimming, and watching favorite shows like Supernatural and Once Upon a Time. But being a writer is her true calling, her passion and her obsession. “It’s so exciting when an idea first blooms in my mind,” she says. “I love the writing process, especially when everything’s flowing.  And I love creating people and worlds and drama. But, as I was preparing a talk for the Friends of the Library, I discovered the real reason I write. My characters come to the story with baggage, with hurts and vulnerabilities as well as strengths. And while I put them through hell during the course of the story, they come out on the other end stronger. Not only do they find love, but they love themselves. We all have baggage. Isn't it nice to know there's hope that we can overcome anything?"

For more about Tina Wainscott, visit her website at http://www.jaimerush.com/

Next: Karna Small Bodman - A Look Inside the Beltway