Daphne Grab: ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NEW YORK

Title:  ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NEW YORK
Author:  Daphne Grab
Publisher: HarperTeen
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0061256707

1.  First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

It’s about a girl whose dad has Parkinson’s Disease. The family has just moved from NYC to a small town in upstate New York, and Matisse is trying to come to terms with her dad’s illness at the same time that she’s adjusting to a whole new social scene. Boys and evil cheerleaders are involved.

2.  Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

I got an MFA in creative writing for children at the New School. In our second year our teacher had us do a mock submission- we each sent five pages of our manuscripts along with a cover letter to her editor, the lovely Jill Santopolo of HarperCollins/Laura Geringer Books. Jill came in a few weeks later and told us what she thought of each of them. She said that she’d have asked to see my full manuscript had it been a true submission, so after I graduated I officially queried her and in the end she wanted the book. The day she called to tell me was beyond thrilling! I scrambled to find an agent and she finalized the deal.

3.  Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

I just finished revising a MG novel that my agent is going over (she’s an editing agent so we are rewriting together). When she green lights it, which I am hoping will be soon, we’ll be sending it out. I am also working on a new teen novel and hope to be done with that sometime this year.

4.  What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I have two delightful and energetic 3.5 year olds so they kind of dictate my writing schedule. I write in the mornings when they are in preschool and then again after I put them down for an afternoon nap. I write best in the morning but I’ll take writing time whenever I get it.

5.  There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

This is the question that made me fall in love with your blog! Yes, I have two amazing cats, one of whom (Bongo) is in my lap as I type. He is always on or around my desk when I work and I feel that he is a muse, though he also many other wonderful things and he has a set of stunning white paws. I also have a black kitty named Lilypad- she is very fussy and likes things just so, and she is so fabulous that she always gets what she wants. To tell the truth I kind of worship my cats.

Thanks so much for having me on your blog!

CJ Lyons: LIFELINES

Title: LIFELINES
Author: CJ Lyons
Publisher: Berkley
Mass Market Paperback: 406 pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-22082-5

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

LIFELINES starts on the most dangerous day of the year, July 1st—Transition Day. The day new staff at Pittsburgh’s Angels of Mercy Hospital start their jobs, including L.A.-transplant Dr. Lydia Fiore, the new ER attending physician. Not a good day to lose a patient—especially not the Chief of Surgery’s son. To save her career, Lydia must discover the truth behind her patient’s death, even if it leads her into unfamiliar—and risky—territory.

Publishers Weekly called LIFELINES a “spot-on debut….a breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller” while Romantic Times Book Reviews made it a Top Pick and Romance Reviews Today gave it a coveted Perfect 10.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

My “The Call” story is a bit unusual. I was just doing my normal thing, sitting in my office, cat sleeping on the keyboard as I typed around her, working on a story, when the phone rang. It was my agent and her first words were: You aren’t going to believe this….

Now that I have you hooked, let me give you a little backstory. I’m a physician trained in pediatric emergency medicine and after 17 years of practicing medicine I left to pursue a second dream come true of becoming a writer.

Needless to say, becoming unemployed for the first time since I was 15 and daring to believe in my dream required a bit of a gut-check. But I was determined to make it happen. And then came that call from my agent saying….You’re not going to believe this.

Then she says: Strangest thing–this has never happened, not in all my years in the business, not to an unknown like you.

I’m thinking that these are not very encouraging words coming from someone at an A-list NYC agency…

She continues: Berkley just called. They want you to create a new series for them. Actually it’s more like creating a new genre. Something that hasn’t been done before, women’s fiction/medical thriller/romance with an on-going cast of characters. Kind of Grey’s Anatomy meets ER meets Sex in the City.

Long pause as I process this. I know Berkley–they publish some of the best women’s fiction, medical thriller, and romance writers out there.

“Are you sure they want me?” I ask. How stupid is that? Giving them time to think and change their minds?

“They’ve read your stuff, love your voice. What do you think?”

“Hell yeah!” This woke the cat up. Well, maybe it wasn’t the yelling, it could have been the jumping up and down.

And the rest is history….

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS. It will be released February, 2009 and follows the medical student, Amanda, as she investigates a mysterious illness killing patients. And then she begins to experience the same deadly symptoms herself….

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I’m a terribly undisciplined, seat of the pants writer. No schedule, no set page or word goal, no outlines. I just sit down and write—I call myself a ABC writer: Apply Butt to Chair.

I used to think I was unique but have since learned that people like Nora Roberts and Stephen King also write this way, so I guess I’m in good company.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

Yes, her name is Annie (short for Orphan Annie—she’s a rescue cat, not quite sure if I rescued her or her me….) and she’s a rather bossy calico cat.

She’s still not quite sure about this whole writing thing—it’s hard to get comfortable with the laptop in the way—but seems to enjoy my being home most of the time instead of working crazy hours in the hospital.

I can’t say that she’s inspiring but she certainly motivates me by getting me out of bed in the morning (to feed her) and making sure my priorities are straight (must sell more books to get money to buy cat food)….

Josh Emmons: The Loss of Leon Meed

 

Title: The Loss of Leon Meed
Author: Josh Emmons
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 978-0743267199

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

It’s about what happens when a man inexplicably starts disappearing and appearing all over the small town in northern California where he lives, Eureka. Ten unrelated people see him do it and have to make sense of what seems to be a miracle. Some think it’s a sign from God, others that they’re hallucinating, others that they’re dreaming, others that it’s the result of environmental catastrophe…

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

I wrote a few books in my twenties and went through the motions of trying to get them published-querying agents, rubbing talismans-without any luck, so I went to grad school and figured out that I wasn’t spending enough time revising my work, that I’d gotten into the habit of submitting it before it was ready for the world. So I spent two years writing The Loss of Leon Meed and got a smart, demanding agent who made me spend even more time revising-another year-and then finally sold it on an overcast day in New Orleans as I sat in a beautiful old coffee shop on Carrollton Avenue, watching street cars roll along under the oaks.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

My second book, Prescription for a Superior Existence, comes out on June 10. It’s a half-satirical, half-serious novel about a pleasure-addicted guy who gets caught up in an anti-desire religion; basically it’s a look at the war that goes on inside of people between instant gratification and eternal salvation. Right now I’m in the middle of writing a new book called The Romantics, about a marriage on the fritz.

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I write best in the morning when I’ve had massive doses of caffeine and sugar. Since by nature I’m pretty sleepy-calm is the nice way to put it-I need stimulants to get me going, after which I have about three hours of good productivity in me before I falter and fall off. Then I spend as much time as possible reading, for inspiration and information’s sake.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

At present I don’t own a cat, though my family had several when I was growing up: Chablis, Sander, Petey, Gus, etc. My roommate in grad school had two, Fern and Maisie, whom I’ll always love more than I love most people. I have a dachshund now, Bill, who is catlike in that he loves the sun and unconsciousness.