Featured Author: Anna DeStefano

I'm thrilled to chat with our newest feature author here on Armchair Heroines! She has a new release that just hits shelves yesterday. Please welcome romance author Anna DeStefano.

You have a new release out this month, Dark Legacy. Tell us about it!


Dark Legacy's an exciting paranormal romantic suspense (more of a thriller, really), about psychic twins who are battling their centuries-old legacy and the government scientists who are trying to exploit their powers. When the idea of writing about the family dynamic between feuding twins came to me, I first thought of writing it into one of my more classic romances. But I've been in love with dream theory for a while, and I wanted the drama between my twins to be about more than sibling rivarly. I wanted a story line where the future of the world itself was at stake... So, I decided to weaponinze day dreams and turn them into direct strike global weapons. Bwahahaha... Maddie Temple needs her sexy psychiatrist's help. Without Jarred, she'll be overwhelmed by her pyschotic twin's nightmares. Both Maddie's and Jarred's lives hang in the balance once Sarah escapes from the scientists manipulating her powers, and the race is on to stop Sarah from unleashing her psychic dream control on the world.

Wow! My spine is tingling already! :0)I believe Dark Legacy is part of a series...would you like to tell us more about it?

I'm working on the sequel now--Secret Legacy (Sarah's love story, and an even more "thrilling" race to uncover even more secrets). The Legacy Series is an open ended concept, based on there being other families with latent abilities that must be guarded from falling into evil hands. The overriding story arc is based on a brotherhood of "watchers" who track and protect these special families--and, at all costs, stop their abilities from being warped and unleashed on the world.

Ooh, I love open ended concepts. It keeps me from that sense of loss as I finish each book. Eleven of your novels have been published since 2004. Congratulations! Do you have a favorite in there?

I love all the classic romances I've written for Harlequin and Silhouette up 'til now ;o) If I had to chose a favorite, it would have to be my author-driven series, Atlanta Heroes, that I'm currently writing for Superromance. They've allowed me to specialize in romantic supsense--in a line that's typically more about home and family than anything else. With my Heroes books, I explore the emotional richness of community and relationships, then I layer on the fast-paced, suspenseful ride that's inspired my creative ideas the last few years. I think creating Atlanta Heroes prepared me to take on something as ambitious as my Legacy series. Readers and reviewers are definitely responding to my Harlequin suspenses. Last years To Protect the Child won a 2008 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. And I'm putting the finishing touches on my April The Firefighter's Secret Baby (the heroine in this one is on the run in witness protection, a-la In Plain Sight). I can't wait for another Hero to hit the shelves ;o)

Sounds great, and congrats on the RT nod. I'm putting your Heros on my TBR list right now. You are doing some special contests to celebrate the release of Dark Legacy. Care to share?

A local jewelry designer created a line of necklaces called Dream Flutters, based on the
dream images on Dark Legacy's cover. One was spotlighted in my "Dream On" article in the September Romantic Times. I'll be giving away these one-of-a-kind pieces in September on my blog, to celebrate Dark Legacy's release. And I've been giving away designer purses on my blog for years--look for signature XOXO and COACH butterfly purse giveaways in September, too. Butterflies are a symbol of new beginnings, and I've claimed that for myself from the start ;o) Don't miss any of the fun at www.annawrites.com/blog !






You write in several different genres. As an author, was it hard to make the switch?

Actually, I think all my books have a similar theme--community, family, emotional growth and killer pacing. I always delve into the psychological side of things, because I think the changes going on inside us can be just as fascinating to watch as what the world sees on the outside. With my more classic romances for Harlequin and Silhouette, I have a category reader's expectations to meet, and it's wonderful to write for that anticipation of a happily ever after ending that wraps everything up in a safe place. The fun thing with my new paranormal series with Dorchester has been to do the same thing (a happy ever after for the hero and heroine) while not having to wrap up everything in such a tidy bow. Writing more mainstream fiction allows for a more realistic edge to my books that I'm in love with.

Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing those differences myself. Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?

I have very eclectic reading tastes, so my faves are all over the place. I've been a Bronte girl all my life--I still re-read Wuthering Heights at least once a year, and I LOVE Jayne Eyre. And fantasy/sci fi was a big part of my early reading--T. H. White's The Once and Future King was an 8th grade book report, all 1100 pages of it. And I read the early Start Treck novels, back when authors like A. C. Crispin were writing them (if you're a Spock fan, read Yesterday's Son and The Entropy Effect). I discovered authors like Elizabeth Lowell when she was still writing historicals like Untamed, Enchanted and Forbidden. And then there is Susan Elizabeth Phillips, whom I discovered with Dream a Little Dream (though Ain't She Sweet is my fav. SEP to date) and Linda Howard--the first I read of hers was Shades of Twilight. At the moment, I'm swinging back and forth between gobbling up Lisa Gardner's backlist and Janet Evonavich's. Oh, and I just picked up Pat Conroy's South of Broad. See...It's impossible for me to stick to one genre...

That's great - keeps your reading fresh. I just read my first Susan Elizabeth Phillips book myself. I was crying, "Where have you been all my life, SEP!" It was Natural Born Charmer. I'm preparing to tear through her back list. :0) Besides writing, what do you like to do for fun?

Oh, shopping. Purses and bags are my current obsession. And exercise--either tennis or running at the gym or yoga or Pilate's. Whatever it takes to clear the cobwebs from my mind and get the blood moving. I feel so much more creative after a work out. I know it sounds cliche, but I totally believe in the mind-body connection. And art--looking at art and listening to amazing music and reading my favorite classics. And more than anything else, spending time staying in the moment with my family. My son and husband are my life.

Nice, and I completely agree. I do my best work after a jaunt around the neighborhood. How do you juggle your busy life teaching, writing, promoting?

I keep a lot of lists and try not to drive myself crazy with them. And I've become pretty aggressive about scheduling in down time. Time when I'm not online and not available by email or phone--even if it's just an hour or two a day, I need time where I'm not responsible to anyone outside my immediate family. All this helps me when I come back to the work, because it keeps me loving what I do. Teaching is such a source of inspiration for me, being around other writers and sharing their dreams and their process. Writing has to stay a passion, or the creativity will dry up and then where will I be? So I protect a writing above all else and try to maintain a calm, safe writing space. Promoting is a part of the job where you have to pretty much stay constantly on your toes. But I'm promoting my books, that people are buying and reading and telling me how much they like. How can that be a bad thing, no matter how much time it takes to keep the buzz going? When I keep my priorities in mind and make sure to stay focused on the positive side of all that I do every day, it's impossible not to feel like a very lucky girl ;o)

No kidding! I learned the hard way about scheduling down time. Nothing like being sick for a week to clarify one's priorities!Where can readers find you (facebook, website, etc)?

My website (www.annawrites.com) is good for those who've never read me before and want to discover my books and backlist and reviews and workshop descriptions and events and stuff like that. My more interactive content (both for writers and readers) is on my blog (www.annawrites.com/blog )--and my running contests! And I've jumped into social media this year, with an active presence on Facebook and Twitter (look for Anna DeStefano in both). I'm really excited about the extended writing community I've found on Twitter--the #writegoal tag I created is a place writers visit every day to set goals and report progress and to support one another while we all work toward finishing our next projects. Come friend, tweet, comment and chat with me when you get the chance!

Thanks for being here today, Anna. Looking forward to reading Dark Legacy and watching the series unfold.

AH readers: Anna is kicking off a full on blog tour! Be sure to check out the schedule on the calender at Anna's website. And visit her blog to get into those contests!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Word Wizard: Jennifer Morey

Current Read: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

I am pleased to welcome Jennifer Morey, debut Sihouette Romantic Suspense author! Jennie's first book, The Secret Soldier, is selling like hot cakes. On Saturday, she did a book signing and sold 60 books in an hour and a half!

Thanks for joining us today, Jennie. Congratulations on your first sale and your fast and furious booksigning! Tell us a little about The Secret Soldier.

Thank you, Tiffany. And thank you for thinking of me to do this interview!

The Secret Soldier has a soft spot in my heart because I was inspired by real events. A few years ago (2004?) there were reports of several contractors beheadings in Iraq. The stories upset me so much that I decided to write my own happy ending to a similar situation. Sabine O’Clery is an American contractor who is kidnapped in Afghanistan. Her father runs a private military company and asks Cullen McQueen to rescue her. Cullen runs a secret counter-terror organization for the US government and owes Sabine’s father a favor. He reluctantly agrees to carryout the mission. A plane crash on a Greek island and a farewell kiss spark huge public interest. Cullen is careful to stay out of the limelight, but when Sabine is attacked in the United States, he can’t resist risking exposure by going to her.

This is the first book in your series called All McQueen's Men. What is next for the series?

Yes. All the stories for All McQueen’s Men will feature characters who work for Cullen’s secret counter-terror organization. Readers will see Cullen in all the books, but only in the background. Book 2 (working title: Moving into Crosshairs - but it will likely be changed) is about a talkative electrical engineer who inherits a staggering fortune and an unpaid debt that has terrorists threatening her life. Farren Gage travels to the Marmaris International Yacht Festival in Marmaris, Turkey in search of answers. On the way, she crosses paths with Elam Rhule, an operative for Cullen’s organization, Tactical Executive Security (TES). While Elam protects Farren from the terrorists threatening her, a prominent congressman’s connection to her estranged mother leads to an unexpected twist.

What do you know now about writing that you wish you'd have learned earlier?

It’s all about storytelling. You can spew all the garbage you want about the rules of grammar, but that is a small piece of the craft. That’s not to say you can write bad grammar and get away with it. All I’m saying is grammar is the easy part to learn. You don’t have to be able to toss around fancy terms and textbook definitions to do it well. Storytelling is different. It’s harder. Anybody can memorize the definition of a transitive verb, but what teaches you to tell a good story? Sure, there’s how-to books on it, but even the most detailed instruction can’t tell a writer how to write a good story. It’s too passion-driven. I think learning how to get in the character’s head as deep as you can is a good place to start. Show don’t tell. You hear it all the time. It’s the heart of good writing and not something easily taught. If I could have focused more on that early on, I might have learned to show rather than tell a lot sooner than I did.

Excellent advice! What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

I think I just answered that (smiling huge). For me, it’s staying deep in a character’s head. It’s too easy to slip out of it. Pretty soon I’m perched in a tree and my character is a cardboard cutout down in the yard.

I love that visual. How do you make time to write? Do you have a special routine?

Before my divorce, I would write every free moment I had, which was every moment I wasn’t at my day job or asleep. It wasn’t something I had to force myself to do. I love writing. That’s how I wanted to spend all my time. But now things have changed and I have to be more disciplined. Instead of playing with my newfound freedom every available moment I have, I have to decide ahead of time how much I want to get done each week. Once I decide, I sit down Saturday and Sunday mornings and do it. I also take “writing days” as often as possible. I am fortunate to have a supportive boss who lets me take as much time off as I can. I try to write after work, too, but sometimes it is too hard to switch gears from a busy day at an aerospace/imagery corporation to writing romantic fiction. The two are very different.

Can you tell us a little about your road to becoming a published author?

It was ten years long. When I first started writing in 1997, I didn’t know how to write. My grammar was bad, and I was a horrible teller. I wrote 5 or 6 books before I really started to see a change. The more you get into your characters’ heads, the better your characterization becomes. The two go together. If you think about it you can see why. I was so excited the first time I realized that concept. Suddenly, the meaning of “character driven” plots was totally clear to me. I think The Secret Soldier was the first manuscript that really showed my progress. I didn’t see it until my critique partners pointed it out in spring of 2005. The writing was so much different than my earlier works. This was around the time when I began to final in several contests. I wrote a pirate paranormal that landed me an agent, too. He wasn’t my dream agent, but he was hungry and I liked and respected him. While he wasn’t able to sell the paranormal, his interest represented another milestone on my way to publication. I could feel myself on the brink, but I never quit spilled over to the other side. It was a frustrating couple of years.

The Secret Soldier finaled in more contests than any of my other manuscripts. I almost gave up on it because it never won or sold. I decided to give it one more shot, and that shot was Oklahoma-Romance Writers’ 2006 Finally a Bride contest. In this contest, every entry has to have finaled but not won any other contest, which not only makes the competition tough, it gets a lot of attention from final round judges. I noticed the final round judge in the suspense category was Natashya Wilson from Silhouette Romantic Suspense. I wasn’t targeting category, but I didn’t figure I had much to lose with this manuscript. So I entered, and the impossible happened. Natashya loved it and after asking me to reduce the word count, bought it.

Congratulations! Here is a “just for fun”, random question for you: If you could wake up tomorrow with one special ability, what would it be and why?

I’d wish for the ability to quit my day job, or at least reduce it to half time. Then it wouldn’t be so hard to find time to write.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I feel very fortunate to belong to a group like CRW (Colorado Romance Writers). I’ve never felt more welcome anywhere else.

Thank you so much for taking some time out to chat with us, Jennie. Best of luck with The Secret Soldier and with your upcoming projects! You can visit Jennie’s website at http://www.jennifermorey.com/.

Be sure to share your thoughts with us via comments because we have a signed copy of The Secret Soldier to give away! Be sure to post by Friday!