Category Archive

“If there is one thing worse than being an ugly duckling in a house of swans, it’s having the swans pretend there’s no difference.”

Teena Booth, Falling From Fire 

A good book review can tell you what there is to like (or not) about a book. A great review illuminates the theme of the book and places it in the canon of literature where it belongs. I love a truly great review of my books, because they tell me what my theme was. While writing, I don’t usually know what the theme is. The most thoughtful of readers will do this, tell me what meaning they’ve taken away from the book. That’s why I love this review of The Charm School.  It’s a discussion of the book’s meaning to this reader. When I wrote the book, I was aiming for a rollicking romantic adventure, but this reviewer mentioned the deeper meaning of Isadora’s storyline, and its relation to the darker theme of the book–bondage (institutionalized, and emotional) and the terrible toll it takes, and the joys and rewards of throwing it off. When I read this bit:

Isadora’s plight and flight are plausible due to deft handling of the hero and heroine and to Wiggs’s creation of secondary characters who exist in other types of restrictive societies. Journey’s wife, Delilah, and others are shackled by the institution of slavery. They, no less than Isadora, are freed emotionally and physically while Wiggs delivers a powerful message with great moral effectiveness.

 …I realized, finally, months after finishing it, what my book was really about. So thank you, Sue Klock! You really nailed it with this one.  It celebrates everything I love to write about, including my pet theme, the power of love to transform a person’s life. 

I often tell people this is one of my “money-back guarantee” books, meaning if you don’t like it, please take it back to the store and ask for a refund (most bookstores will comply). Because honestly, it’s one of the most “likeable” books I’ve ever written, even with that naughty, naughty rain forest love scene with the funny cigars. (The review cited above offers readers a warning about that….) When you’re writing about a young woman’s sexual awakening, you find yourself thinking up stuff like this.

The Charm School, first published in 1999, is a USA Today Bestseller again. It was the first of my books to appear on this list–I still have the printout from April 1999. Here we go again. So happy for Isadora, Ryan and the motley gang aboard the Swan. And very grateful to the readers who are embracing this book.

One of the most-asked questions of a writer: Where do you get your ideas?

I rarely know; my novels are stitched together with bits and pieces like a crazy quilt. By the time I finish, the inciting idea has morphed and changed so much that it’s virtually disappeared into the fabric of the story.

Not so Isadora. She appeared full-fledged before me, demanded her story be told and refused to morph. I don’t recall why I was paging through an ancient book about Boston, but I came across this illustration:

And…voila! Isadora was born. I knew she was miserable and smart and repressed, and had a fine story to tell. When I finished writing The Charm School, I sent a copy of this portrait to the publisher because in their art questionnaire, they wanted to know what the main character looked like. >>sound of art director howling with laughter<<

Here is Isadora in the illustrator’s imagination, along with a toothsome Ryan. It’s a before-and-after Extreme Makeover. Also note the butterfly, mentioned in yesterday’s post. It’s visible through the die-cut window.

And finally, in stores now, is the 2008 Isadora. She’s looking very fit indeed, Ryan is as flamboyant as ever, and I kind of like that their facees are left up to the imagination.

 What about you? Which cover do you prefer?

     The Charm School has gone through a few iterations in its lifetime. I thought you’d like to see the genesis of this book from the outside in. The concept for the original cover came from me. I can’t tell you how rare this is for me or any author. We’re writers, not art directors, and we generally do better when we stick with what we know.

A little background–my two covers prior to The Charm School didn’t catch readers’ eyes. So I was extremely motivated to help find the right look. Which I did in (surprise!) a book of Dover Clip Art. It was a little snippet (literally) which I sent to my editor (see above).

Here’s the sketch they came up with. It was faxed to me. Back in the dark ages of the 1990s, this is the way people transmitted images. The minute I saw this, I knew they cover was going to turn out great:

The addition of the butterfly was genius. Perfect for the theme of the book–a tightly-bound young woman finally bursting out of her cocoon. And when I saw the words “die-cut” I thought: Be still my heart. Why? Because a die-cut window in a book cover is a very expensive proposition, production-wise, so I knew this art was turning into a lavish affair. Here’s the final rendering:

 The “window” in the page is a peek at the inside art. I’ll post that tomorrow, and also show you the “real” Isadora, compared to the artist’s rendering.

Today you can get a brand-spankin’-new edition of The Charm School, complete with a special preview of Just Breathe.

More about Isadora tomorrow!

Here’s a rainbow over Blake Island, which I can see from my beach: 

Here it is, zoomed in:

And finally, here it is, reflected in the water. I love Rainbow Season, which also happens to be the name of one of my favorite romance novels.

…and killing two birds with one stone. Sorry for the cliches, but they apply. I mean, where else can you round up all these authors and get their autographs and raise much-needed money to support literacy programs?

C’mon, people, if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of Natick, Massachusetts this coming Saturday, come to the booksigning! Here’s the scoop:

I get a lot of e-mail via my web site. My readers are so funny, genuine, sincere and romantic. Like this one, from K.:

…I am a widow and my boyfriend (age 73) is also widowed..we both live in ______…we have been seeing each other for the past few months and just got back from Hawaii where every night he read to me from your books…how wonderful…he is now reading (to himself because we don’t live together) your new novel.  Hope one of your stories will get him to marry me!! 

How much do I love this woman? He should marry her immediately.

So here’s what I was doing just before the phone rang:

…and here’s what I did the rest of the day.

I did a salsa dance, too, but no way I’m showing you the photo.

Win a trip to Willow Lake! I’m not kidding. Check it out here: http://www.eharlequin.com/swinvitation.html?swid=100006

Today is the official release of Snowfall at Willow Lake. Enjoy!

Aaaand…First-time author Patry Francis also has a new book out today. It’s on my TBR. Check it out:

“The new questions and revelations just keep coming…Readers will be heartily rewarded.”—Ladies’ Home Journal

When new music teacher Ali Mather enters Jeanne Cross’s quiet suburban life, she brings a jolt of energy that Jeanne never expected. Ali has a magnetic personality and looks to match, drawing attention from all quarters. Nonetheless, Jeanne and Ali develop a friendship based on their mutual vulnerabilities THE LIAR’S DIARY (Plume / February 2008 / ISBN 978-0-452-28915-4 / $14.00) is the story of Ali and Jeanne’s friendship, and the secrets they both keep.

Jeanne’s secrets are kept to herself; like her son’s poor report card and husband’s lack of interest in their marriage. Ali’s secrets are kept in her diary, which holds the key to something dark: her fear that someone has been entering her house when she is not at home. While their secrets bring Jeanne and Ali together, it is this secret that will drive them apart. Jeanne finds herself torn between her family and her dear friend in order to protect the people she loves.

A chilling tour of troubled minds, THE LIAR’S DIARY questions just how far you’ll go for your family and what dark truths you’d be willing to admit—even to yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patry Francis is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize whose work has appeared in the Tampa Review, Colorado Review, Ontario Review, and the American Poetry Review. She is also the author of the popular blogs, simplywait.blogspot.com and waitresspoems.blogspot.com. This is her first novel. Please visit her website at www.patryfrancis.com.

THE LIAR’S DIARY
By Patry Francis
Plume Paperbacks / February 2008 / $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-452-28915-4
Readers Guide available at www.penguin.com
For more information or to schedule an interview with Patry Francis, please contact Laurie Connors, Plume Publicity
212-366-2222 / laurie.connors@us.penguingroup.com

Talk talk talk. I can’t believe I said that (”seriously big stuff”), but I did, among other things, on the Amazon podcast. Chatting on the phone with Anne Bartholomew, of Amazon.com, was way too fun. Have a listen as we discuss series books, lazy writers, the Betsy-Tacy books, hate mail, stealing your sister’s boyfriend and other Seriously Big Stuff here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKO94ZV15K9IGR. Thanks to Amazon for this opportunity!

Oh, fun! The Winter Lodge is up for a Reviewers Choice Award from RT Book Reviews. It’s up against some of the best books of 2007. I am in good company–every single author in this category is one I regularly read and love, so there’s really no down side to this. Here’s the whole list:  

• • SIZZLING
    Susan Mallery     HQN (January 2007)
  • NOT ANOTHER NEW YEAR’S
    Christie Ridgway     Avon (January 2007)
  • THE WINTER LODGE
    Susan Wiggs     Mira (February 2007)
  • JUST LIKE HEAVEN
    Barbara Bretton     Jove (March 2007)
  • SUGAR DADDY
    Lisa Kleypas     St. Martin’s (March 2007)
  • VIRGIN RIVER
    Robyn Carr     Mira (April 2007)
  • ALL ABOUT EVIE
    Beth Ciotta     HQN (May 2007)TANGLED UP IN YOU
    Rachel Gibson     Avon (August 2007)

    A TOUCH OF MINX
    Suzanne Enoch     Avon (October 2007)

    THE PERFECT MATCH
    Kimberly Cates     HQN (December 2007)

Best of luck to us all!

Well, in the same week, anyway. The Winter Lodge was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Then Amazon listed it at #1 on the Best of Romance list.

This is a particular honor because The Winter Lodge was a “monster” book–one that drove me nuts, writing it. (For those of you who’ve read it, I’m talking about Jenny’s romantic history.) The emotions were hard in that book, and the deadline was insane. But I’m not complaining. Garrison Keillor reminds us that writing, as a job, is the opposite of hard:

“The truth, young people, is that writing is no more difficult than building a house, and the only good reason to complain is to discourage younger and more talented writers from climbing on the gravy train and pushing you off.”

All’s well that ends well. Thanks to PW and Amazon!

No trick, just a treat. A new book by one of my most favorite romance authors, Lois Faye Dyer, is just hitting the stores.  The Princess and the Cowboy is the kind of sweep-you-away romance that is not only calorie-free, but it lasts longer and is more satisfying than chocolate. What’s better than that? Here’s a blurb to entice you:

Idaho rancher Justin Hunt has loved only one woman, Lily Spencer. When he learns the Seattle lingerie designer has a daughter who bears an amazing resemblance to him, he’ll stop at nothing to claim them both.  But Lily doesn’t trust the cowboy who once broke her heart and before she’ll let him into her life, Justin will have to prove that this time, he’s going to stay.   

And a bit of publishing trivia–this line of books, Silhouette Special Edition, is where the bestselling author on the planet, Nora Roberts, got her start. And her editor was the ever-entertaining Isabel Swift.

Not only that, the heroine of this book and I have something in common. See page 126–we both have the same favorite romance author.

There’s a delightful note from Lois here. What are you waiting for? Spend the weekend with a cowboy.

So much of writing feels like play, or maybe like doing a craft–knitting, perhaps, or quilting. Something with color and pattern. My favorite stage of writing a book happens before I’ve ever written a word. Mulling ideas over in my head, sketching out characters, endlessly what-iffing to myself and to anyone who will listen.

Currently, I’m pulled in four different directions. I need to work on Bo’s story for the Lakeshore Chronicles, because he is so damaged and sexy and compelling. I still love the mother/daughter novel I’ve had in progress for a long time, but I never get a chance to work on due to other obligations. I’m noodling around with the next hardcover (after Just Breathe), and I’m especially excited after an impromptu brainstorming session with Isabel Swift. And finally…drumroll…I want to write another historical romance.

There. I’ve said it. I want to do another historical romance.

I’ve had the idea for years, but it’s been on the back burner while I explore the endlessly fertile ground of contemporary fiction. But it won’t go away. And recently, when I was hanging out with my publisher’s director of sales, he happened to mention The Charm School and how it’s been such a reader favorite through the years. It made me remember the fun of the genre.

[Speaking of historicals, what do you think of this new cover art for The Charm School? (click the link and you'll see it)]

This new idea–working title, American Princess–started nudging at me again. It’s like nothing I’ve done before or seen anyone do, but it has all the fairytale hallmarks of historical romance at its most fun.

Not that I have time to write it, not now. This would be a good “play” project–a book written purely for the fun of it. I might give myself a writing vacation of a week, and see what develops.

I love having company. Especially when it’s Isabel Swift, one of Harlequin’s top executives. She was in Seattle so we got to hang out for a while, talking business and books. We brainstormed some ideas, had an amazing meal and caught up. She’s definitely on the fun side of publishing.

 Go read her blog. You’ll learn a lot.

…And the same week, Deeanne Gist, a Christy-award-winning author and friend from waaaay back took a break from her book-research trip to stop by. I first met Dee a hundred years ago when I was new and she was just getting started. I knew she would publish her novels one day. How? Commitment. She had four small children, but she went to the RWA conference in New York, bringing peanut butter and crackers in her luggage in order to make the trip affordable. Would you do it? Leave your family and subsist on peanut butter in order to meet the people who will help you get published? Sometimes, that’s what it takes. Now Dee has published numerous books, won a major award and the kids are in high school and college, one of them about to be married. A writer knows how to make her own happy ending.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

–Ernest Hemingway

I nearly forgot a career milestone this month. It’s the tenth anniversary of my first book with Mira Books, my current publisher. The Lightkeeper was a seaswept, Beauty-and-the-Beast-style romantic epic that takes place on the Washington coast in the 1870s. The setting is literally the ends of the earth, on the Long Beach peninsula at the mouth of the Columbia River, an area notorious for raging seas and terrible shipwrecks. The original title of this book was The Edge of Forever, a title I still love (and a tribute to the Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever”), but The Lightkeeper is probably stronger and definitely more straightforward.

The Cape Disappointment lighthouse still stands. When we visit this area, we love to stay at the dog-friendly Lighthouse (where else?) or the Klipsan Beach Cottages. A walk through Oysterville is a trip back through time. Every time I go there, I feel like writing stories misted in spindrift. It’s a place where I find myself writing better than I can.

This book has one blooper that I know of–there’s no way the characters can be drinking marionberry cordial, since marionberries weren’t introduced until the 1950s. Thanks to alert readers, that will be corrected in future reprints.

Happy 10-year anniversary to me and Mira Books!

News flash! Some of my books are now available for download as e-books. There are two Calhoun Chronicles “bundles” with multiple books in each download. The Calhoun Chronicles include The Charm School, The Horsemaster’s Daughter, Halfway to Heaven, Enchanted Afternoon and A Summer Affair. They are historical romances tied together by the fact that they’re about Calhouns. And hey–it’s been ages since I’ve had a cover that looks like this:

Be still my heart! <<fanning self>>

A first for me–this is a video review of my novel. Can such things be?

…Make LEMONADE CAKE.*

I put two recipes on my web site this summer, along with the promo for my August book, Dockside:

The small Catskills town of Avalon, New York, on the shores of Willow Lake, is what I think of as a “Velveteen Rabbit” of a place. It has become real because we love it there. Thanks to everyone who has visited my fictional town in the Lakeshore Chronicles. Dockside is a story for everyone who’s ever dreamed of making a life at an idyllic lakeside inn. Researching this book, I met so many innkeepers who shared not only their passion for hospitality, but some pretty amazing innkeeping secrets as well.

Each section of the book is introduced by a snippet about the Inn at Willow Lake, followed by a hospitality hint from a working innkeeper. They’re little grace notes, the sort that make a guest’s stay just a little sweeter. But the real sweetness comes from the unexpected romance of single dad Greg Bellamy, and the town’s former mayor, Nina Romano. In fact, expecting the unexpected is a major theme in this book.

News

• Thanks to all for asking about Just Breathe, originally scheduled to be published in 2006. It is now tentatively slated for September 2008, and I promise, it is worth the wait!
• By popular request, I’ve added a link to the recipes from my books. Finally! Click here: http://www.susanwiggs.com/recipes.shtml
• As always, you’re invited to join in at the message board. If you have a question, ask it there, and I promise to respond right away. Since it’s a public forum, pride compels me to be prompt so I don’t look like a slacker.
• Also, please check out “The View From Here” (Themed photo shows, including   Barkis the Wonder Puppy, at www.susanwiggs.shutterfly.com).
• My local bookstore, Eagle Harbor Book Company, will send autographed copies of my books anywhere you want, personalized however you like. Check it out here: Eagle Harbor Book Company.
• You can get a Printable List of my books, which includes related books and series by clicking this link: Printable List.
• You can also subscribe to my occasional newsletter by sending a blank e-mail to Words4Women-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
• Check out the most mysterious site on the Web at www.purpleamoeba.com.
• And below, the promised recipes. Enjoy!

Happy Reading,

Susan Wiggs

*Note: I couldn’t make up my mind which recipe to post here, so I’m giving you two. Please, try them both. They’re unbelievably delicious:

LEMONADE CAKE

• 6 oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1 pkg. lemon cake mix, without pudding
• 3/4 c. sugar
• Small package lemon-flavored instant pudding
• 3/4 c. water
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 c. cooking oil

Mix lemonade concentrate with sugar and stir well. Mix the remaining ingredients and beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes. Bake in greased and floured 9×13 pan for about 35 minutes or until done when tested. While cake is still hot poke holes all over cake with large fork and pour lemonade glaze (1T lemon juice + 1 cup powdered sugar) over top. Leave in pan until cool. Dust with powdered sugar. If you’re feeling artistic, lay a stencil on the cake and then dust with the sugar to make a pattern.

ICEBOX LEMONADE CAKE

• 1 prepared angel food cake
• 1 quart vanilla ice cream
• 1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade (keep this semi-frozen–slushy)
• 1 small carton Cool Whip, flavored with ½ tsp. lemon extract
• grated lemon peel, for garnish

Slice cake cross-ways into three even layers. Soften ice cream just enough to thoroughly fold in the lemonade. Spread the bottom layer of the cake with ice cream. Add the second layer, spread with the remaining ice cream. Add third layer and spread entire cake with the Cool Whip. Freeze cake in the freezer. Take cake out of the freezer about half an hour before serving time. Garnish with grated lemon peel.

“Wiggs’s uncomplicated stories are rich with life lessons, nod-along moments and characters with whom readers can easily relate. Delightful and wise, Wiggs’s latest shines.”

–Publishers Weekly review of Dockside

Today’s the day! The wonderful folks at Bookreporter.com are giving away another crop of brand new, hot-off-the-presses books, and Dockside is one of them. You can’t beat that!

Some of my favorite authors are featured in this contest–Lisa Tucker, Lisa Jackson, Marian Keyes, Meg Cabot–and others that look fantastic, and I’ll surely be trying them. This week, Dockside is the featured title. Enter to win this book and a sack full of other great reads by submitting your name here. Good luck!

Publishers Weekly weighs in on Dockside:

“Wiggs returns to the town of Avalon, N.Y., and the shores of picturesque Willow Lake with the fourth* installment of her popular Lakeshore Chronicles (after The Winter Lodge)….Wiggs’s uncomplicated stories are rich with life lessons, nod-along moments and characters with whom readers can easily relate. Delightful and wise, Wiggs’s latest shines. (Aug.)”

[*This is one vigilant reviewer! It's the fourth Lakeshore Chronicles title. Technically, the second was "Homecoming Season," a novella in the anthology More Than Words 3. I'm very flattered that the reviewer noted that.]

Aaaannd…a propos of nothing, what do the following places have in common?

1. Surprise, AZ
2. Maple Grove, MN
3. Fort Myers, FL
4. Edina, MN
5. Rochester, NY

Answer? They are the top 5 cities for selling Wiggs books at Barnes & Noble. I’m now on a mission to visit each one of these cities!

Tonight the RITA Awards were given out in Dallas. Summer at Willow Lake was a finalist. It would have been my fourth RITA and I cannot tell a lie, I would have been thrilled to win. However, I told myself that if I don’t get the statue, I can get a new pair of Camper Twins (cutest shoes ever) to wear on the plane to New York next week. How’s this for a consolation prize?

Congratulations to the winners! My feet are doing the happy dance for you–honest!

Ask almost any avid romance reader which book got her hooked on the genre, and she’ll likely name a title by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. For me, it was Shanna, which held me mesmerized behind my college math and poly sci textbooks and was a revelation to the budding writer in me.

Millions of readers were saddened by Kathleen’s passing. I was privileged to know her, having met her when she opened her amazing antebellum home to a group of writers who had come to Alexandria, Louisiana for a workshop. She was soft-spoken and gracious. You’d never know, to meet her, how vast her influence was on our industry. She was incredibly humble. To meet her, you’d never know she’d taken the publishing world by storm. My favorite room in her home? The Shanna master bath. It featured the original painting from the book cover and was done in the same lush color scheme.

I gave her a copy of one of my books, which she read and later told me she enjoyed it a lot. (I still have that letter in a special place, tucked into a signed copy of The Flame and the Flower.) Later, I’d get the occasional e-mail from her, letting me know she’d read my latest and giving me glimpses of her journey from Minnesota homemaker to blockbuster author, the likes of which publishing hadn’t seen since Grace Metalious or Jacqueline Susann. According to Kathleen, there were few expectations attached to her first book. She told me the initial print run target was about 30,000 but the actual number was a great deal higher–600,000. Although the book was not an immediate blockbuster, her next one, The Wolf and the Dove, hit #2 on the New York Times list, and a phenomenon was born.

Here’s a snippet of the opening of Shanna, the book that started it all for me and so many others. The writing speaks for itself. Even now, decades later, she takes me away, to another time and place. She was a true original.

“Surely, madam, you jest. To propose marriage to a man about to hang? Upon my word, I cannot see the logic in it.”

” ‘Tis a matter of some delicacy.” Shanna presented her back to him as if embarrassed and paused before continuing. She spoke demurely over her shoulder. “My father, Orlan Trahern, gave me one year to find a husband, and failure shall find me betrothed to whom he wills. He sees me a spinster and wants heirs for his fortunes. The man must be of a family privy to King George. I have not yet found the one I would choose as my own, though the year is almost gone. You are my one last hope to avoid a marriage arranged by my father.” Now came the hardest part. She had to plead with this filthy, ragged colonial. She kept her face averted to hide her distaste. “I have heard,’ she said carefully, “that a man may marry a woman to take her debts to the gallows in re turn for an easing of his final days. I can give you much, Ruark–food, wines, suitable clothing and warm blankets. And surely my cause–”

At his continued silence, Shanna turned toward him and tried to see his features in the gloom, but he had carefully maneuvered their positions until she now was presented full to the light when she faced him. The wily beggar had moved so stealthily that she had not been aware of it.

Ruark’s voice was somewhat strained as he finally said, “Milady, you test me sorely. A gentleman my mother tried to teach me to be, with good respect for womanhood.” Shanna’s breath caught as he stepped nearer. “But my father, a man of considerable wisdom, taught me early in my youth a rule I’ve long abided.”

He walked slowly around her, much as she had done with him a few moments before, then halted when he stood at her back. Scarcely breathing, Shanna waited, feeling his nearness yet not daring to move.

“Never–” Ruark’s whisper came close to her ear, stirring awake a tingling of fear in her. “Never buy a mare with a blanket on.”

Shanna could not suppress a flinch as his hands came over her shoulders and hovered above the fasteners of her cloak.

“May I?’ he asked and his voice, though soft, seemed to fill the very corners of the cell. Ruark accepted her silence as consent, and Shanna braced herself while his lean fingers undid the velvet frogs. He drew the cloak from her, and though lacking splendorous trimming and fancy laces, her deep red velvet gown enhanced her beauty divinely. She was the gem, the jewel of rare beauty which made the dress more than a garment but rather a work of art. Above the hooped panniers which expanded her skirt on the sides, the tightly laced bodice showed the narrowness of her waist while it cupped her bosom to a most daring display above the square decolletage. In the golden glow of the tallow lantern, her skin gleamed like rich, warm satin.

Ruark stood close, his breath falling softly against her hair, his head filled with the delicious scent of woman.

I have a banner ad! Go look–it’s a first for me. Thanks to my publisher and to Authorbuzz for this very cool gizmo on my web site.

Writing is a solitary pursuit, so it’s important to remember to take time to celebrate. I’m blessed with the best writing buddies in the world, and we’re really good at recognizing the good things when they come along–a first sale, an award, a placement on the bestseller list. Here’s a slide show of the fun side of writing and publishing.

And here’s one of my favorite cakes–an olive oil cake, also known as Ladi Tourta. Bon appetit!

What are the things you celebrate? What cements the good memories in your heart? Chocolate, flowers, champagne, wearing funny clothes, a spa day, shopping for new books, calling your friends and screaming, doing the Snoopy Dance with your sister? I’m always open to new ideas in this department.

So I promised the folks on my message board that when the registered members there reached 300, I would post something special, just for them. We hit the magic number on my birthday, so here it is–everything you need to have a fabulous summer: a beach (or a lawn chair will do), a drink, a snack, and my can’t-miss, something-for-everyone list of suggested beach reads, old and new, fiction, nonfiction and food. Enjoy!  

Greetings from the Island

 If once you have slept on an island, you’ll never be quite the same;

You may look as you looked and go by the same old nameYou may hustle about in street and shop you may sit at home and sew,But you’ll see blue water and wheeling gulls wherever your feet may go,You may chat with neighbors of this and that and close to the fire keep,

But you’ll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell and tides beat through your sleep,

And you won’t know why and you can’t say how such a change upon you came,

But once you have slept on an island you’ll never be quite the same!

–Rachel Field

www.susanwiggs.com

Jayne Ann Krentz once lived every reader’s nightmare. “I grew up in a small town — so small that it didn’t have a public library. There wasn’t a library at school, either,” said the writer in a recent interview. “But we by golly had a twice-monthly bookmobile and I was probably its most faithful patron. To this day I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for bookmobiles. Whenever I see one I still get that same little rush of anticipation that I felt when I was a kid on Fridays when the van pulled into the school parking lot.”

That “rush” had a lasting effect on Jayne Ann Krentz, now the author of more than thirty New York Times bestsellers. Her latest is The River Knows, which PW calls “an alluring combination of foggy nights and steamy afternoons.” With over 30 million books in print, she has been gathering loyal readers for years with her unique blend of humor, sex and romantic suspense. Whether she is romancing the past as Amanda Quick, the present as Jayne Ann Krentz, or the future Jayne Castle, she writes compelling stories of love between strong, intelligent men and women.

In addition to her work in contemporary and historical romance fiction, Krentz is the editor and contributing author of an acclaimed critical volume, Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, which won her the Susan Koppelman Award for feminist studies from the Women’s Caucus of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association.

The latest in Jayne’s “supremely addictive tales” (Booklist) is White Lies, in the Arcane Society series. Jayne hopes her novels will appeal to people who love romantic-suspense with a touch of the psychic thing. “It’s certainly my favorite genre,” she adds, “both as a reader and as a writer.”

Jayne and her husband have lived in downtown Seattle for about twenty years. “I’m within walking distance of the Pike Place Market and Nordstrom’s. It doesn’t get any better for a mostly vegetarian person who loves to shop.” A typical day for the writer is fairly routine. “I’m a morning person. That means that whatever raw, creative work I’m going to do that day usually gets done by noon or it doesn’t get done at all. The afternoons are devoted to research, shopping and cooking (not necessarily in that order). But writing a book is an all-consuming job for me. Even when I’m away from the computer, I can’t get away from the book. It’s always there in my head, nagging at me. At night I frequently dream about plot problems — when I’m not lying awake staring at the ceiling and thinking about them, that is.”

Something about that early bookmobile experience must have left its mark, because Jayne maintains a lifelong personal connection to libraries. After getting a degree in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz, she went on to San Jose State University and earned a masters in library science. She worked mostly in academic and corporate libraries. “I also spent one memorable year as an elementary school librarian, an experience that I can only describe as an unmitigated career disaster,” she confesses.

However, her support of libraries has been unstinting. In 1997, she contributed a generous endowment to found the Castle Humanities Fund at UCSC. Interest from the fund, established in Krentz’s maiden name, enables the library to acquire books in the humanities that it would not be able to purchase otherwise.

“For me libraries are the quintessential attribute of civilization,” says Jayne. “They connect us to our past, present and future as no other human institution can.”

Samplings From Jayne’s Favorite Genre–ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Elizabeth Lowell: RUNNING SCARED. We’re talking eerie Druid gold and the dark glamour of Las Vegas.

Stella Cameron: COLD DAY IN JULY. Murder and steamy old secrets in a small Louisiana bayou town. Another Northwest author.

Jennifer Crusie: FAKING IT. A very clever, very funny, very modern take on the To-Catch-A-Thief style story.

Laura Joh Rowland: THE PILLOW BOOK OF LADY WISTERIA. The latest in her terrific series set in 17th century Japan featuring a Samurai detective and his lady wife.

Lynda S. Robinson: DRINKER OF BLOOD. The most recent in her intriguing Lord Meren series set in ancient Egypt.

I made a donation to Brenda’s auction. The winning bidder gets a weekend stay in my guest house, where you’ll see I’m not exaggerating about “The View From Here.” I’ll even make you cranberry-orange muffins for breakfast and take you for a boat ride, weather permitting. You can hide away and work on your novel, take a walk on the beach to the day spa or just hang out and do nothing, which is way underrated, if you ask me. So take a look at Brenda’s auction and make a bid on this or other fabulous items. Why? Because she’s raising money to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. I learned quite a bit about Type 2 diabetes (the auction is for Type 1 but everyone can benefit) while writing Lakes