I stumbled across a story I’d read ages ago and I’m so happy I rediscovered it. It’s called Hello You by Laura Motta. The heroine shares a creative writing class with the hero, and rereading it actually made me so happy I hugged myself. (Eee @ “Cold hands” “Hot everywhere else.”). It reminds me of one of my most favorite compliments, and spring and potential and the magic of both being honest and never entirely certain who’s lurking in the love shadows.

-LZ.

LZ: How did you come up with the idea for “Nebula’s Music”?

AD: First of all, thank you for interviewing me!

Two things inspired me to write Nebula’s Music. The first is the character Data, the android, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched TNG for all seven seasons growing up. It was on at 7 and 7:30 every night and Data was my favorite character. There was one scene with him playing the violin like a virtuoso and I always thought of that scene and how androids could probably play music perfectly, but lacked the emotion behind it. Data always dreamed of being human, and I thought about what it would be like to be made from a human and not synthetics. Would they feel more human than synthetic androids? And what if they somehow retained the previous human’s memories?

The second is the genre of space operas. I loved Serenity, Star Wars, Star Trek and the whole idea of a soap opera in space. I wanted to try writing one of my own with romance, action, drama and adventure.

LZ: Is there a message in the story you want readers to grasp?

AD: To treat everyone equally and respect their feelings. Nebula is prejudiced against because she is a cyborg and they view her as a lower life form. But Radian loves her as who she is.

LZ: Your writing often leans toward fantasy/science fiction with elements of romance. What about the genre appeals to you?

AD: Reading and writing are an escape for me and if the subject is real life-oriented, then there’s no escape, really. I want fantasy lands with super heroes and sorceresses. Just because it’s fantasy doesn’t mean it can’t be deep with morals and intellectual thoughts.

LZ: You mention why you lean toward the sci fi/fantasy genre, but is there any particular reason why romance crops up in your stories?

AD: Romance always seems to pop up because, for me, it gives the story more depth and adds some spice. Stories with romance are always more interesting for me to read than stories without it.

LZ: What of your works, published or not, have you had most fun writing, or found to be the most personally satisfying?

AD: I love writing short stories, whether it be for magazines, anthologies, or just on my own. Gypsy Shadow Publishing has published a lot of my short stories, and I also have stories in Silver Blade and Niteblade magazines. If I could write anything I wanted without thinking about the cares or concerns of publishers, agents and readers, I’d write about unicorns. Maybe someday I’ll actually sit down and go crazy with my unicorns? I don’t know.

LZ: How do you challenge or plan to challenge yourself as a writer?

AD: I’m trying to write darker, edgy stories. I grew up in a perfect pink bubble watching My Little Pony, The Gummy Bears, The Last Unicorn, etc. My parents were great, I had no trouble in school, and I got a full scholarship to study flute at the university. After that, I got two of the highest flute teaching jobs in the state. So my life’s been pretty nice, all wrapped up in shiny paper. And that’s what comes out in my writing. I have a very positive personality and outlook on life, and I need to be able to write characters that are jaded.

LZ: Ee! @ you referencing The Last Unicorn. Mia Farrow made a surprisingly foxy unicorn, y/n?

AD: Yes, Mia Farrow was a foxy unicorn! I love her personality (and could use some of it myself!) My favorite character was Smendrick the magician. I had such a crush on him growing up.

LZ : You have your review blog — Book Reviews by Aubrie. Do you take requests for that, or how can an author go about being reviewed by you? If you don’t like a book, do you post an honest review?

AD: As for my review blog, anyone can e-mail me with a request to review a book. I’m not a picky reader. I love reading and I’ll read the milk carton if there’s nothing else available. This means there is a good probability that I’ll like someone’s book. I don’t like graphic violence, excessive bad language or really dark books with no light at the end. If I don’t like a book, I won’t post a review. This has happened a few times, and I’m so sorry to those authors that I’ve had to turn down after looking at their books. A lot of times the books were very well written, but the story or the subject material just wasn’t for me.

LZ: What’s next for Aubrie Dionne?

AD: Well, I’ll definitely continue to write. I’d like to get some of my short fantasy stories in pro magazines and I’d like to get an agent someday to get widespread distribution of my writing, but if I don’t, that’s okay too. I love my ebook companies and I’m very happy with where I am. I’m currently working on another, longer space opera and intend to finish it within 2010.

* * * *

To purchase Nebula’s Music from its publisher, Lyrical Press, visit www.lyricalpress.com/nebulas_music.

For more information on Aubrie Dionne, visit her Web site, www.authoraubrie.com, or her blog, authoraubrie.blogspot.com.

• http://completeheart.blogspot.com/2010/03/lux-zakari-book-trailers.html
• http://completeheart.blogspot.com/2010/01/contemporary-trailers.html
• www.youtube.com/user/CoffeeTimeRomanceMor

::doing the happy dance, a la Baseketball (Am I the only girl who’s seen and loved that movie?::

-LZ.

SS: Thanks for having me here!

LZ: A pleasure! What prompted the idea behind the Holiday Magic series?

SS: I’ve always been fond of writing around the holidays. Add to that a fascination with magic and mythical beings of all kinds. Put them both together and this is what I came up with: a series of short stories that blend the specialness of the holidays plus magic and the very great question of “what if?” If you believe hard enough, you might just see life from a different point of view.

LZ: Is there a scene you’re particularly proud of in Five-Leaf Clover?

SS: I really like the part when Jinx teases Conor and tells him she’ll be glad to grant him a first wish, which is a new car. Instead of giving him the actual car he’s expecting, she gives him instead a brand new toy car. I gave myself a good laugh when I wrote that, thinking I was pretty darned clever.

LZ: The Holiday Magic series has covered Christmas, Valentine’s Day and now St. Patrick’s Day. What other holidays are you planning on covering and why?

SS: In 2011, books four and five will be released. No Such Thing will cover May Day and Midsummer Night’s Steve will deal with the beginning of summer. Little known holidays, but important nonetheless. Once I write book six, the last of the series, it will take place during Halloween.

LZ: As a resident of Indiana, is there something you find particularly inspiring about the location to make it the setting of choice for many of your stories?

SS: LOL. Well, I really like my state. Living in Indianapolis is great because of the history of the city. I base a lot of my books here because it’s off the “normal” track, let’s say. I mean, come on! Everything doesn’t have to be set in New York, London or Chicago, right? LOL. And besides, using Indiana as a backdrop lends beautiful scenes to the stories and let’s the reader know about my state. Just for the record, Crystal Falls is a totally fictional town.

LZ: Though Crystal Falls is a fictional town, is any part of it, such as the diner Peg’s Place, inspired by your life in Indiana?

SS: Unfortunately, no.  Even though the town I live in is pretty small, there’s no cool diner or uber awesome bakery.  LOL.  These are strictly products of my imagination (oh, and watching the Food Network). LOL.

LZ: Is there anything important you feel readers should know about the book, or your writing or you as a writer in general?

SS: Writing’s hard work. Period. It might just be the most difficult thing I’ve undertaken in my life. That being said, it’s also the most rewarding thing when a reviewer or reader takes the time out to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed a book. I’m a hard worker and it makes me excited that the more I practice and learn about the craft, the better I get at it.

LZ: You mention writing is one of the most difficult things you’ve ever done — what about the process is the most difficult for you?

SS: Trying to make a new project as good as the last, trying not to worry about sales (because this seriously messes with the writing mojo) or wondering how to connect with readers.  This also takes away from writing time and is something a writer is never aware of when embarking on a career in writing.  It’s never just writing, LOL.

LZ: What can we look forward to from Sandra Sookoo in 2010?

SS: More historical novels and a contemporary book or two. This time, I’m turning up the heat and getting sexy which the love scenes. The Holiday Magic series is tame, I know, but 2010 is a different game altogether.

LZ: Lastly, do you believe in magic?

SS: Absolutely yes.  I think in this day and age, you almost have to.  Maybe I’ve never grown up.  If that’s the case, yay for me!

* * * *

To purchase Five-Leaf Clover from its publisher, Lyrical Press, visit www.lyricalpress.com/five_leaf_clover.

For more information on recent releases for this year plus what’s coming up,  visit Sandra Sookoo’s Web site,  www.sandrasookoo.com.

LZ: How did you come up with the idea for Mantis Nights?

JS: I’ve been meditating for many years.  I’m also fond of long walks.  One day, I decided to mix the two hobbies.  Once I got used to walking with my eyes closed, it became a very soothing experience.  I did it away from major roads and other obstructions of course.

While doing what I dubbed “mediwalking,” I was able to produce very crisp images under my eyelids.  I could feel like I was floating in the clouds or riding a roller coaster.  I decided to lend the practice to a short-story character named Mantis Shed, except I made him much better at it.  He can actually enter visions and become an interactive character.  He enjoys this ability, until he finds himself trapped within an alternate world.  I got the scene for the first world one night while at a gas station.  It had one of those outside bathrooms, and I had the thought, “What if people kept going in there without coming out.”

After finishing the story, I realized I had something I could keep going with.  Ideas for other visions came from various places, including a couple of dreams friends told me about.  Halfway finished with the book, I realized I’d started a series.  I don’t know where this thing will end, but I hope Mantis is with me for a long time.

LZ: As per your Lyrical Press author page — and judging by the list of your published short stories on your site — you “publish short fiction on a near-weekly basis.” Where do you find time to be so prolific with your writing, and how does it help you as a writer?

JS: Ideas have always been the easy part of writing for me.  Delivery is what I work the hardest on.  So much of writing is done away from my laptop and without a pen in my hand.  The themes, the plot, even the words come to me while I’m doing something else, whether that’s washing dishes, working out or even riding a jet ski.  I go through these phases where I do nothing but write stories.  I’ve finished as many as thirty in a month.  Now, being more focused on editing novels from two series, I have a cache of shorter works I can take stories from here or there.

Writing short fiction gives me something I don’t have to be patient with.  I can sit down and be finished in an hour or sometimes less.  On the flipside, shorter works allow me to build up a sort of hunger for something more.  I develop a need to sit with something for days.  I guess it’s analogous to a person who dates many people for a while, because that feels right at the time, then begins to long for something longer and more stable.

LZ:  What elements do you find yourself most utilizing or avoiding in your stories?

JS: I’m usually classified as a horror, fantasy or science fiction writer, but I love mystery and suspense.  I like to keep the reader guessing right up to the end.  I try to avoid being too much like any other writer.  I love it when I read a review from an editor or reader saying my story is like nothing they’ve ever seen.

LZ: What lessons have you learned about the world of publishing/marketing? What lesson has been the most valuable to you?

JS: Always be willing to improve.  Being a published writer, you only want to hear praise, but you have to be willing to listen to editors and critics.  Pay attention to those repetitive themes in rejection letters.  My work is much better than it was ten years ago.  I hope I’ll being saying the same thing after another ten years.

LZ: What is something you want readers to understand about you and/or your writing?

JS: I write because I have to.  I’ve heard people say your job is what you do, not who you are.  I don’t feel that way at all.  Anytime I’ve gotten away from this, I’ve felt it pull me back.  Characters scream to have their stories told.  Old books I’ve tried to forget demand I come back and revise them. Writing is who I am.

LZ: What are your writing goals for 2010?

JS: I have two series out.  One is Mantis.  I’m working with an editor on the second book, Mantis Coma.  I’d like to write the third book sometime this year.

The other series is Beyond Reception.  Shadow Line Press is publishing the first book in that one.  It’s called Rogue Demon and comes out in October of 2010.  I’m currently preparing the second book, Soul Tripping, to send to the publisher.  I have three previously published novels that I’d like to get back out, but maybe not this year.  Other than that, I want to keep sending out the short pieces and writing more of them as they come to me.

* * * *

To purchase Mantis Nights from its publisher, Lyrical Press, visit www.lyricalpress.com/mantis_nights.

For details on or to contact Joshua Scribner, visit joshuascribner.com.

LZ: How did you come up with the idea for Spark of Desire?

CM: The idea for Spark came directly out of writing Three Alarm Tenant. As I was finishing it, I wondered how Jack’s best friend Kevin was going to handle Jack’s transition from freewheeling bachelor to married man considering that Kevin was a confirmed bachelor himself.

While researching Three Alarm Tenant, I’d also come across a few mentions of the difficulties women face in getting into the department and staying in. Not necessarily sexist issues, but things like if you’re at a fire for 12 hours, how do you go to the bathroom? That’s the stuff that fiction is made of for me.

LZ: The burning question, no pun intended (okay, it’s a little intended): What was the answer to “If you’re at a fire for 12 hours, how do you go to the bathroom?”

CM: Well, apparently you either hold it or you start asking around for a place to squat. Did you know that a lot of firemen have mustaches because their noses run while they’re working and they don’t want them running into their mouths. Yeah, um, not so appealing, is it?

LZ: What kind of research did you undergo to write Three Alarm Tenant and Spark of Desire?

CM: I read a ton of books and watched a lot of movies. I also have a friend whose brother is in the Rochester Fire Department. Rochester FD has no idea how helpful they were.

LZ: Spark of Desire is the second of your Lyrical Press-published books to feature a foxy firefighting hero, the other being Three Alarm Tenant. For you, what about firemen makes them such great romantic heroes?

CM: Firefighters (and cops) are the perfect beta heroes for me — good under pressure and ready to throw themselves into danger if there’s a chance they can save somebody. They’re the ultimate caretakers. Plus, firefighters usually know how to cook and clean.

LZ: What part of the writing process is most difficult for you? How do you overcome the difficulty?

CM: Finishing. I’m a pantser, meaning that I don’t know what the story is before I start. I know the characters and maybe a few conversations (which may never make it into the final story anyway), but I don’t know exactly how things are going to proceed. Sometimes the story leaves me high and dry. These characters who I thought were fated for one another, aren’t. I’ve even had instances where one or more of my characters was keeping a big secret from me and the other characters were causing things to get stuck. In that case, I just set the story aside for a few days or weeks (or months) and go back to it later. Then I can usually see what’s wrong and move forward.

I’ve also had life interfere. I was in the middle of writing a menage that has since been published by another publisher when I went to Korea to teach preschool. Ever spend all day with little kids and then try to go home and write smut? Not easy. In that case, I set the story aside for the year I was in Korea and focused on other projects that weren’t so steamy.

LZ: Does your real life ever sneak into your fiction? In what ways?

CM: I believe in the adage “write what you know.” My life is all over my fiction. Three Alarm Tenant was set in my house. The bookstore in Spark Of Desire is the store I worked in. My old apartment is Jessica’s apartment. I even appear as a secondary character. I once took a subway station in Seoul and made it a space station in a sci fi story I wrote. It doesn’t so much sneak as walk in and unpack its bags.

LZ: What lessons have you learned regarding book publishing? What lesson has been the most valuable to you?

CM: Pick your battles with your editor. My editors have all been great, but there have been times whey they wanted me to change something that was near and dear to my heart. Sometimes they were right. Sometimes they weren’t seeing what I was doing. Only negotiation will figure that out. Editors are professionals, but they are also fallible, overworked humans. I try to go by the one-in-10 rule for battle picking. Take nine out of 10 of the changes the editor asks for and only fight for one. To be honest, eight of 10 are usually things that have me smacking my forehead and saying, “Why didn’t I see that?” Then there’s those two that I whine and cry over until I decide one is not worth fighting about. If you fight have every comma, you’ll end up with a reputation of being difficult to deal with. If you fight over nothing, you lose control of your project and may end up with something you’re not proud of. I have gotten notes back on some of my battle points that said along the lines of “Oh, I didn’t see that. I think you need make a bigger deal of it so the reader won’t miss it.”

LZ: What are your writing goals for the rest of 2010?

CM: I have goals and I have hopes. Goals are actionable. I have control of them. Hopes are things I’d like to see, but I can’t control the outcome. For hopes, I hope to publish five titles this year. Spark Of Desire just came out in January, another story is contracted to another publisher and I have a few titles submitted already. I’d also like to land that elusive NY contract. And I want to get my Web site up and running.

Among my goals are finishing three projects. I’m nearly finished with the first one so I’m in good shape for that. I’d also like to be more consistent about blogging. And I plan to test out some new marketing avenues.

LZ: What new marketing avenues are you looking to explore?

CM: I’d like to do more free reads and reading trails. I did one last summer and it was surprising the response I got. I think more consistently and more often would be more better. Plus, I’m always on the look out for opportunities. The best marketing is putting out a new title and I’m hard at work on new books for my current publishers while expanding to one or two new-to-me publishers this year.

* * * *

To purchase Spark of Desire from its publisher, Lyrical Press, visit www.lyricalpress.com/spark_of_desire.

For details on or to contact Charlotte McClain, visit charlottemcclain.wordpress.com.

In random news, I tried to be hip and abbreviate the story — “LotSofNJT” — but was shocked by how now abbreviated that seemed. Why must I be so verbose? Another mystery for another day.

-LZ.

LZ: How did you come up with the premise for TimeSplash?

GS: First off, let me just say thank you for inviting me over and for giving me the chance to talk about myself and my book. It is much appreciated.

The idea for TimeSplash came to me in a flash, right in the middle of a conversation. Unfortunately, it was a conversation with a publisher, while I was supposed to be pitching another book. I was explaining the model of time travel I had used in the manuscript she had just read, and how there are all kinds of different models of time travel I could have picked. I said the word “timestream” and suddenly I had a vision of a brick being lobbed into a broad, smooth river. “Hey, wouldn’t it be great,” I blurted out, “if…” and then the premise for TimeSplash came tumbling out. The really bad thing about this was that I could see she liked the new idea better than the one in the book she’d just read!

LZ: What became of the book you pitched to the publisher the day TimeSplash dawned on you?

GS: The book is called Time and Tyde. It’s a psychological thriller set in the present day about a man who has his life invaded by a visitor from the future who is strangely obsessed with him. It’s sci-fi, I suppose, and time travel, but definitely not the usual genre novel. And that seemed to be the big problem the publisher I spoke to had with the book. She liked it, she was very flattering about the writing, but she couldn’t see quite what market to sell it into. If you’ve ever read the K-PAX novels, you’ll know the kind of not-quite-full-on-sci-fi book I have on my hands with Time & Tyde (although it is nowhere as ambiguous as that!) I’ve spent nearly two years refining and improving the manuscript since then. I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever written. So, when the TimeSplash launch is over, I think I’ll go back to it and make a concerted effort to find it a publisher.

As an interesting aside, I wrote to Gene Brewer, who wrote K-PAX, and asked him how on Earth you find an agent for a book like that. It turns out he didn’t. He sent it straight to publishers and collected 48 rejections before someone had the good sense to buy it. Forty-eight rejections, for a book that good! He — quite rightly, I believe — insists that K-PAX is not sci-fi.

LZ: As per your web site’s bio page, you write “hard sci-fi.” Can you define what that is for readers?

GS: Hard sci-fi is just science fiction where you try to keep your story within the realms of what the various sciences say is actually possible, or what serious scientists speculate might be possible. If you write hard sci-fi, you really need to understand physics or genetics or whatever science is relevant to your story, so that you don’t write anything unrealistic. “Softer” sci-fi will allow unrealistic things into the plot – like faster-than-light travel, or “beings of pure energy.” Some sci-fi is so soft that it actually includes magical elements too – like telepathy and other “mental powers,” undead creatures and so on.

LZ: What do you find most appealing about writing science fiction?

GS: Personally, I really love the challenge of “keeping it real.” After all, it’s all about the story. It’s about how people deal with difficulties, with each other, and with their own limitations. I think sci-fi is the perfect way to explore issues about the human condition and the world we live in. The more unrealistic you make the “world” of your story, the harder it is to keep the characters behaving like real people.

LZ: What books or authors have influenced your work the most?

GS: That is a tough one. There are authors I love – J.G. Ballard, Michael Frayn, Daphne du Maurier, Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen, Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells, Ursula K. le Guin… I could go on and on. Some of them I love for the poetry of their writing, some for the brilliance of their minds. I’m pretty sure they have all influenced me in one way or another. At least, I hope they have.

There is one writer who may have had a much more direct influence though. This is a sci-fi writer I loved in my teens but whom I haven’t read since. I picked up one of his books last year and re-read it and I was astonished at how much my writing style is like his. The writer is John Wyndham.

LZ: Why do you think John Wyndham’s style resonated with you all these years?

GS: I like writers who write clearly and simply, who don’t let their enthusiasm for the language get in the way of a good story. Wyndham is a great ideal to aspire to as a writer. He never lapses into obscure or poetic language. His style is elegant, precise and lean. He can describe deftly and sparsely, without the clipped hardness of Hemingway, and I really love that.

I tried to read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville recently and couldn’t. The language is beautiful, no doubt about it, but the descriptions are long, verbose and elaborate. I got about 250 pages into it (it’s over 700 pages long!) and thought he could easily have finished the story by that point if he hadn’t spent most of the book describing everything at such extraordinary length. Wyndham’s books are extremely short by modern standards yet so cleverly and delicately written that not a word seems wasted. That isn’t to say I don’t like other, more rhapsodic writers (I adore J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury) but the crispness and cleanness of Wyndham’s writing is always refreshing.

Author Graham Storrs

LZ: As an author, what marketing advice do you have for writers just starting out? What works? What doesn’t?

GS: This is a potentially huge topic, so I’ll give a very broad response.

The thing that works, above all else, is networking with other writers. Join a crit group. Go to writers festivals. Join the social networking sites. But meet other writers and spend time with them. You will learn so much, not just about the craft and the process of writing, not just about the convoluted weirdness of the publishing industry, but about the opportunities you need to advance your career. I’m a wannabe troglodyte and social interaction for me is like rolling naked in nettles, but I would not be published if I hadn’t networked.

The other thing you have to do is to write. You have to keep producing the work. You have to keep improving your skills. Then, when your networking finally turns up the opportunity, you have the novel or short story you need, finished, critiqued, revised and polished, and all ready to go.

What doesn’t work is the opposite—keeping your ambitions to yourself and not even writing much.

LZ: What was the most memorable feedback—positive or negative—regarding your writing you’ve ever received? Why did it resonate strongly with you?

GS: Someone wrote in their blog not long ago that my stories have the same place in her heart as those of Ray Bradbury. It’s a wildly flattering comment, of course, but it hit me like a blow to the chest when I read it. I’ve got that place in my heart too, that place of wonder and magic that Ray Bradbury fills like no other writer. I know exactly what she means, and it would be incredible if it were true. If one person felt that about my writing – just one! – I would need no other success, ever.

The most striking negative feedback I ever got was a sci-fi magazine that rejected a story of mine once. If you submit to magazines you will know they can take anything from a few days to a few months to reply with a rejection – and it’s usually at the few months end of the range. With this particular magazine, it took just over four hours from sending it to getting the rejection email! I guess they really, really didn’t want it and could tell at a glance! I sold the story later to another mag, but it was a salutary reminder that what I write just isn’t to everybody’s taste.

LZ: According to your Lyrical Press author page, you’re “someone who thinks a lot about the future.” That being said, what’re your writing plans for the rest of 2010?

GS: I have another book almost finished at the moment. It’s a fast-paced, sci-fi thriller, like TimeSplash (but, unlike my last two books, nothing to do with time travel). I’m enjoying it, but it will be over soon.

I have a few other projects I could go back to (the second part of a two-book sci-fi comedy, the third part of a three-book space opera, a couple of other standalone novels) but I can feel something else building inside me, something bigger and more grandiose. I don’t know what it is yet but I’ve got the feel of it and, from time to time, mental images of scenes from the story pop up. It might amount to nothing but, if I can tease it to the surface, that’s the one I want to do next.

Of course, I will be spending a big chunk of 2010 promoting TimeSplash. Books don’t sell themselves (unless you’re Dan Brown) and they need publicizing. I’ve got two months of guest blogging planned for March and April as part of a post-launch blog tour, and a 24-hour round-the-world Twitter tour planned for the day of the release. After that, there will be competitions and other online promotions. It is going to be a very busy year.

* * * *

To purchase TimeSplash, visit www.lyricalpress.com/timesplash.

For a more in-depth look at TimeSplash or to contact Graham Storrs, visit http://timesplash.co.uk/.

My short story, Love on the Side of the NJ Turnpike, is also still available via PBP at http://www.paper-bag-press.com/ebook/love-side-nj-turnpike.

For a second opinion on this short tale full of sexy road trip antics — and a plethora of exhibitionism and voyeurism — visit Aubrie Dionne’s Book Reviews by Aubrie site and read the full review at http://bookreviewsbyaubrie.blogspot.com/2009/11/love-on-side-of-nj-turnpike-by-lux.html.

Or view the trailer:

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone — and happy birthday, PBP!

-LZ.

LZ: Where did you get your inspiration for The Phoenix Agency series—Freeze Frame in particular?

JR: The first book, Always On My Mind, was inspired by an old Townes Van Zandt country song, If I Needed You. I started to think about a couple who could communicate telepathically who had an emotional connection, and what would happen if one of them was in trouble and this was the only means of communication.

I have always been in love with alpha males in the military, black ops, covert work, etc. And I needed Faith, my heroine in Always On My Mind, to have a place she could go for real help when every other door slammed in her face. The book was so well received that my readers kept asking for stories about the other men of Phoenix.

When I was researching different kinds of psychic ability, I discovered that remote viewing has been used by the government for years as a means of trying to gather more intelligence information. And of course, the drug cartels are all over the headlines these days, especially with the number of kidnappings going on.

LZ: Did you intend to write a series when you wrote the first book? Will there be a fifth?

JR: Oh, yes. Troy Arsenault’s story has yet to be told and I’m outlining it right now.

LZ: Do you have a favorite character from the series? Why or why not?

JR: You’ll think I’m crazy but it’s the dog from Scent of Danger. After all, how many psychic dogs have you ever met? And the Caucasian Ovcharka is truly considered to have certain psychic traits.

LZ: Is there anything you think is important for readers to understand about this series or your work in general, something you most want everyone to know about your writing?

JR: This goes for everything I write. I spend a lot of time developing my characters, although my books are plot-driven. But I want my readers to fall in love with my characters and remember them for a long time. The very first book I wrote was in an effort to create a hero as memorable in one in Linda Howard’s Cry No More.

LZ: What was it about the hero in Cry No More that you found so memorable?

JR: He was dark, mysterious, a true alpha male, but when the chips were down, he was all about the heroine. He went above and beyond when she was in crisis and I loved that about him.

LZ: As an author, what marketing advice do you have for writers just starting out? What works? What doesn’t?

JR: Sometimes it’s just hit or miss. There are a number of great Yahoo loops out there that hold chats and have promo days where you can get your name out. I’ve learned by trial and error which ones work the best and try to stick to them. I also use a PR agent to hit the cyberwaves whenever I have a new release.

But just starting out, I’d ask people which Yahoo groups would be the best to join and spend some time commenting on other people’s posts until your name becomes familiar. Also, blogging is great. If you have a blog, you can reach out to people and promote the link on Yahoo. Also, you can exchange guest blogs with other people, thereby expanding your audience. And, of course, Twitter and Facebook. You’d be surprised how many new readers I’ve picked up using social networks.

LZ: What was the most memorable feedback—positive or negative—regarding your writing you’ve ever received? Why did it resonate strongly with you?

JR: When On The Run came out — it’s a romantic suspense that deals with domestic violence — I had a reader who had herself gotten out of an abusive relationship email and tell me I’d really nailed it. To know that I was able to communicate about something that serious as honestly as I’d hoped made everything worthwhile.

LZ: Do you have any writing goals for 2010?

JR: Always. I have two series I hope to complete. Also, I have an agent who is working on selling a four-book series that she really believes in, so I hope in 2010 she finds a publisher for it. And of course, to increase my reader base and continue to write books that people love.

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To purchase Freeze Frame from its publisher, Cerridwen Press, visit www.jasminejade.com/p-7782-freeze-frame.aspx.

For details on or to contact Judith Rochelle, visit www.judithrochelle.com.