Note: the giveaway is now closed.  Winner will be posted on Saturday.

Admittedly I might be a little biased, but I think that Berkley has some fabulous authors. And one of the great things about being a Berkley author is getting the opportunity to get to know other Berkley authors.

I had the pleasure of meeting the delightful Wendy Wax at the Berkley signing and cocktail party at RWA.  Wendy’s most recent release The Accidental Bestseller, has been getting all sorts of great buzz.

Who knew the truth would make such great fiction?

Once upon a time four aspiring authors met at a writers’ conference. Ten years later they’re still friends, veterans of the dog-eat-dog New York publishing world.

Mallory St. James is a workaholic whose novels support her and her husband’s lavish lifestyle. Tanya Mason juggles two jobs, two kids, and a difficult mother. Faye Truett is the wife of a famous televangelist and the author of bestselling inspirational romances; no one would ever guess her explosive secret. Kendall Aims’s once-promising career is on the skids—as is her marriage. Her sales have fallen, her new editor can barely feign interest in her work—and her husband is cheating.

Under pressure to meet her next deadline, Kendall holes up in a mountain cabin to confront a blank page and a blanker future. But her friends won’t let her face this struggle alone. They collaborate on a novel none of them could write by herself, using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will discover the truth behind their words.

No one is more surprised than they are when the book becomes a runaway bestseller. But with success comes scrutiny and scandal. Now all bets are off….as these four best friends suddenly realize how little they’ve truly known each other.

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I love books and movies with author heroines and heroes.  (Romancing the Stone, anyone?  How about Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets?)  And while I haven’t read The Accidental Bestseller–yet– I heard about it through my girl Rowena at The Book Binge who called it a keeper and an “emotional story about friendship and courage.”  (And you know my girl Rowena has great taste in books.)

I have The Accidental Bestseller in my TBR pile and can’t wait to get to it.  And I also have a signed copy for one of you.  When I told Wendy about the giveaway, she very graciously agreed to do a little Q&A.  Here’s it is:

JJ: When did you first realize you wanted to write, and how did you get started?

WW:  I was a journalism major in college and had always written during my years working in radio, TV and film. Although I was voracious reader, it didn’t really occur to me to try fiction until I was at home with a two year old and a newborn. I chalk this up to post-pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep, but nonetheless I suddenly had a burning desire to write a book and see it published.

I did sell the first book I wrote and only realized later how unusual and lucky this was. However, it didn’t happen quickly. Given my life and responsibilities at the time, it took several years to complete the first manuscript, another year to find an agent, and another year after that to sell. It was only after my youngest went to kindergarten that I was able to write regularly and for long periods of time.

JJ: What is it about writing romance that appeals to you?

WW: I don’t actually write romance anymore although that’s where I started. I write what would be labeled ‘women’s fiction’ and my books are generally an interweaving of several women’s journeys. I like to write women discovering who they are and what they’re made of with real emotional growth and a heavy dollop of humor. But that’s not to say that there isn’t romance in my books; all the women I write have relationships and/or significant others.

JJ: What advice would you give an aspiring writer?

WW: Give yourself time to learn what you’re doing and to hone your craft. And then, although it’s very hard, you have to have patience. Being an author and writing for a living is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. You have to be in it for the long haul.

In The Accidental Bestseller, which is about four writers, friends for a decade, who help each other survive the publishing industry, I begin each chapter with a quote about writing. They all resonate with me, but one of my favorites is from James Baldwin who said, “Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck–but most of all, endurance.”

JJ: What do you do on those writing days when you’re stressed, worn out, or distracted?

WW: I sit down in front of my computer and try to lose myself in the scene I’m writing. If I can ‘go there’ and be in my characters’ heads, all will be well.

JJ: What can you tell us about your current (or next) release?

WW: The Accidental Bestseller, which came out in June, is probably the most personal of all the books I’ve written. I’d wanted to write about writer friends for a long time–I can’t imagine being in this business without them–but it wasn’t until I encountered some unexpected turbulence in my own career about three years ago that I knew the time had come.

A writer named Tappani Bagge said, “Everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And later you can use it in some story.”  And that’s what I did. I used bits and pieces of the things that didn’t kill me and those that didn’t kill other writers I know to create a story about what it is to be an author in today’s publishing environment.

Most of all, it’s a story about friendship and how far we’re willing to go for our friends. But it’s also as true a story about being a writer as I could write without having to label it non-fiction.

JJ: Fun questions.  What are you watching on TV these days?  (Or what are you reading?)

WW: I’m not a huge television watcher, but I really love the HBO series Entourage and I’ve watched a number of episodes of True Blood because I liked Charlaine Harris’s books so much, but I like the books better than the series.

At the moment I’m reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, which is wonderful. She wrote The House at Riverton, which I also enjoyed.  I really liked Bound South by Susan Rebecca White, too.

JJ: Complete this sentence:  One fun thing about me that people might not know is…

WW: I hosted a live radio show called ‘Desperate & Dateless’ in Tampa, when I was both!

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Thanks, Wendy!  Desperate and Dateless– I love it.

So now for the giveaway– one lucky person who comments below will win a copy of The Accidental Bestseller.  The contest will run until 10pm CST on Friday.

Happy reading everyone!

And the winner of The Rest Falls Away giveaway is…

AYMLESS!!

Congratulations, Aymless!  Please email me at info@juliejamesbooks.com with your snail-mail address, and I’ll get the copy of The Rest Falls Away right out to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and an extra-special thanks to Colleen for coming by and answering our questions.  Can’t wait for everything she has in store for us with all these great books coming out…

And be sure to stay tuned– I’ll be posting the fifth book giveaway tomorrow, with a Q&A from another lovely author I met at RWA…

**Note: the giveaway is now closed.  Winner will be posted on Wednesday.

Psst– for those of you who haven’t heard, I won a Major Award yesterday.  (Yes, that’s a Christmas Story reference.)   More info here.

Okay, now for today’s chapter in the Six-Book giveaway, which I’m very excited about… As I’ve mentioned before, I’m relatively new to the romance genre–both as a reader and a writer.  I’ve joked that I first realized I’d written a romance novel after Berkley bought my first book and told me that’s what I had written.  (I’d originally written Just the Sexiest Man Alive as a screenplay, thus I called it a “romantic comedy.”)

The great thing about being new to the genre is that I now have all these new-to-me authors to discover.  Up until a few months ago, I hadn’t read any paranormal romances. (I know–what had I been waiting for, right?)  Determine to rectify that, I began asking others where I should start with the paranormal sub-genre.  The two most common responses I got were that I should read Nalini Singh’s books (which I’m really enjoying) and Colleen Gleason’s Gardella Vampire Chronicles, the first of which is…

Beneath the glitter of dazzling 19th-century London Society lurks a bloodthirsty evil… .

Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long taken over the world.

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake.

But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria’s heart is torn between London’s most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget.

And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.

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I met Colleen at RWA (introduced by Kati and Katiebabs— thanks girls!), and I had a blast hanging out with her.  Anyone who sneaks a bottle of wine into the RITAs–and two glasses–and then two more glasses for the Amazon.com guys sitting behind us (who we needed to open the bottle because apparently neither Colleen nor I are handy with a regular corkscrew)–is just fabulous in my book.  And she shares my long-ago love of the Trixie Belden books.  (Anyone else remember those?)

People described the Gardella Vampire Chronicles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the Regency Era.  As soon as I heard that, I thought one thing: Sold.  As a huge Buffy fan, I can’t wait to check these books out.  I’ve got one copy of The Rest Falls Away sitting at the top of my TBR pile–and another copy for one of you.

I asked Colleen if she had a moment to answer a few questions as part of the giveaway, and she very kindly replied.  Here goes:

JJ:  When did you first realize you wanted to write, and how did you get started?

CG:  I’ve been writing since I was a wee gipper. Or nipper. Whatever they called little girls back then. I even remember my first story–called “The Old House,” which I think I wrote in second grade.

Anyway, I’ve been writing stories ever since I can remember, and even while I was in college and then grad school, I wrote. I finished my graduate degree and started working in the business world (and sales and marketing), but I worked at night on my books. I got married, had three children, worked full-time, and kept writing.

To this day, I find it very difficult to write except between the hours of 7-11 at night, which is when I wrote when the kids were little and I was still working.

I collected more than 95 rejections before my agent (whom I’d had for two years) sold my first book to NAL in late 2005. That first published book was THE REST FALLS AWAY, although it was the ninth book I had written.

Since 2007, I’ve had the five books in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles published (the series is now complete), three “seduced” (read: erotic) classics published as Colette Gale, and I am launching a new series with Avon in January with three books being released in 2010.

Whew. 🙂

JJ:  What is it about writing romance and erotica that appeals to you?

CG:  I wrote my “seduced” or dirty version of the Phantom of the Opera (titled UNMASQUED) because I was always mad that Christine didn’t stay with the Phantom at the end of the Webber play/movie. (I confess, I’m not a purist; I prefer Webber’s version to the original Leroux version–because I’m such a romantic, and I have a soft spot for tortured heroes. Erik is about as tortured as they come.)

Also, being a big fan of the POTO movie/play, I was always trying to imagine what actually went on in the Phantom’s lair and during the Music of the Night scene. So I put that together with my love of erotica (Pauline Réage, A.N. Roquelaire, even Bertrice Small) and BANG! Out came UNMASQUED.

The Gardella Vampire Chronicles aren’t really erotic (although there is some eroticism), and they aren’t strictly, technically romance because there isn’t a happy ever after until the fifth and final book. It’s really the story of one woman trying to do everything and be everything everyone expects her to be. (Just like many of us women/mothers/wives try to do.)

JJ:  Fun questions.  What are you watching on TV these days?

CG:  I love 30 Rock (can’t wait for the new season), and I’ve become addicted to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I also like Friday Night Lights, but I’m behind on the show because I love it so much that when I start to watch it, I glom and then nothing gets done for a week. So *no spoilers*!

But…ohhhh…Tim Riggins.

JJ:  What is your biggest weakness (shoes, chocolate, purses, etc.)?

CG:  Books, chocolate, eating out at nice places.

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Thanks, Colleen!  An erotic version of Phantom of the Opera— I love it.

Colleen mentioned that she’d pop in if anyone had any questions, so feel free to ask away!  Ooh– I’ve actually got one.  I’ll post in it the comments…

So now for the giveaway– one lucky person who comments below will win a copy of The Rest Falls Away.  The contest will run until 10pm CST on Tuesday.

Happy reading everyone!

Sunday was quite a day, let me tell you.

First, I had a blast at the book signing I did with fellow Chicago author Beth Kery at Best Sellers book store in Palos Heights, IL.  The ladies there were all so fun and welcoming–I can’t believe how fast those two hours flew by!  I took a few pictures:

Thanks, ladies–for hosting Beth and I at such a great signing, and thanks to everyone who came by!  And I should mention: the store has several signed copies of both Practice Makes Perfect and Beth’s Sweet Restraint— so contact the store if you’re looking for one.

And then my day went from good to better…

I’ve mentioned before that I began my writing career with screenwriting.  For the past two years, I’ve focused on writing novels, but at the beginning of the year I heard about the Midwest Screenwriting Contest.  On a whim, I dusted off an old script of mine and submitted it to the contest.  The script, titled In the Dark, is a dark and twisty psychological thriller–very different from my contemporary romances.  And you’re not going to believe what happened.  (Okay, you probably guessed it from the title of this post.)

I won!!

First I found out I’d won in my genre–thriller/sci-fi/horror–and then they announced little ol’ me as the Grand Prize winner.  Wow!  I can’t tell you how shocked, and thrilled, I was.  Apparently, people kind of like the dark and twisty side of me.  Now let’s see if Hollywood agrees.  😉  Here are some pictures:

Accepting the award for Best Thriller (can you tell how excited I am from that grin?)

Accepting the Grand Prize

The four genre winners (comedy, thriller, drama & action)

The winners with the board members of the Chicago Screenwriters Network

Thank you, Chicago Screenwriters Network, for hosting the contest and for the awards.  Honestly, I’m blown away and honored.

All in all, a pretty darn good day, I’d say.

And the winner of the Double Play giveaway is…

sashasheep!!

Congratulations, sashasheep!  Please email me at info@juliejamesbooks.com with your snail-mail address, and I’ll get Double Play right out to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and a special thanks to Jill Shalvis for the signed book!

Be sure to stay tuned, because I’ll be posting the fourth book giveaway on Monday, yet another fabulous read you won’t want to miss.  And I’ve got a fun Q&A from the author, too!