Sara Rosett GETTING AWAY IS DEADLY

Getting Away is Deadly is author Sara Rosett's third book about a military wife who specialises in whodunits while dealing with military moves and life on the base. I'm delighted to welcome Sara as my guest this week. Here's a little bit about her book.

With swollen feet, pregnant Ellie joins the nation’s tourists in seeing the sights in Washington D.C. But a fatal incident at the Metro station convinces Ellie that something is rotten in the capital city. Should she do the safe thing and pack her bags? Not likely. Ellie Avery is just the right woman to clean up the murders—even if she has to brave the most dangerous byways in the corridors of power . . .

I had some questions for Sara...

It sounds as though you've been through more than one military move. Friends of mine who've experienced the same thing over here tell me there is nothing more terrifying than having someone come to check you've cleaned your oven properly. Do you have any scary anecdotes to share?

I’ve never been able to live in base housing. (Many people tell me this is a good thing.) Every base we moved to had a waiting list for base housing and by the time we’d moved up the list, we were already settled out in the community and didn’t want to move. When you move out of base housing, the house is inspected before you’re cleared to move and I don’t think I could handle the pressure! There are professional cleaners who specialize in giving houses a “military clean” and I think I might have to use one of those to keep my sanity. I do have friends who lived in base housing. Their grass had to be cut and yards edged. If it snowed, sidewalks had to be shoveled by a certain time, or they’d get a kind of ticket and the military member would get talked to at the squadron. I realize the bases are trying to keep everything looking nice (and, in the case of snow removal, safe) but overall, I’m glad to say I haven’t had to deal with that type of oversight of my life!

How have you managed to combine writing with the military, family life [and other work]?

I started writing when my kids were small. I’d write a few hours during naptime each week. At that point, I wasn’t even writing everyday. I just snatched a little time and made the most of it. Even though my kids are older now, my strategy is still the same. I don’t think anyone ever really hits a perfect point to write a book. You have to jump in and work it into your schedule or you’ll never get it done. I’m as busy now—maybe busier—than I ever was. Now I try to write every weekday and I do a lot of promotion on the weekends. It’s still crazy in our house, especially when a deadline is looming, but I find it fairly easy to ignore spring cleaning in favor of writing. J

What are you working on at the moment?

I just turned in the fourth book in the Mom Zone series, Starting Over is Lethal. A military move takes Ellie and Mitch to Georgia. Ellie’s organizing business drops off after the move and she becomes interested in a missing persons case. It’ll be out next April. I’m focusing on promotion for Getting Away is Deadly during April and May, then in the summer I’ll start on the fifth Mom Zone.

Thank you, Sara!

Buy Getting Away is Deadly.

Guten Tag, Deutschland

April saw the publication of Weil du mich liebst (Because you love me), the German version of Playing with the Moon.

The German edition has been marketed in a much more obviously romantic vein than its British counterpart, which is sometimes classed as crime. The cover is quite different: gone are the sepia tones and moody look of the UK edition. There's a girl in a white dress at the end of a pier somewhere very sunny (so probably not anywhere in Britain last summer then). When I looked on amazon.de I noticed that blue skies and white clouds are where it's at for this type of book in Germany. So I hope it does well.

There are 62,000 copies in print which need selling. That thought had me awake in the wee small hours. Gulp.

The Girlfriend Cyber Circuit

The Girlfriend Cyber Circuit, a virtual tour for female authors, currently has openings. If you're a published author with a blog you might be eligible. Here's the link with more information:

http://www.karingillespie.com/page0014.html

Gerrards Cross Bookshop

On Saturday I signed books for customers of Gerrards Cross Bookshop.

Thanks for Sue and Carlotta for their hospitality. It was nice sitting and chatting to customers about books (and parking, bringing up children and other important issues). c

Wendy Tokunaga MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT

My guest author this week is Wendy Tokunaga, author of MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT. This time we're off to San Francisco! When Midori Saito's fiance dumps her at their engagement party in favor of his blond, ex-fiancée, Midori is not only on her own—with just a smattering of fractured English in her repertoire—she’s entered the U.S. on a fiancée visa that will expire in sixty days. Unable to face the humiliation of telling her parents she’s been dumped, and not wanting to give up on her American dream, she stays on in San Francisco, prepared to do almost anything to turn round her life. I had some questions for Wendy... I work with Japanese colleagues in my day job and find them a delight--courteous, meticulous and patient. We do, however, have some comic moments when I'm trying to edit their work. Sometimes the languages seem completely incompatible. Do you have your own favourite examples of similar linguistic or cultural faux pas? ~Yes, it’s little wonder that there are often many mix-ups—Japanese and English seem to be mirror opposites with things like sentence word order (the verb always comes at the end in Japanese) and the specificity of needing a subject in English (often it is implied in Japanese). My protagonist, Midori Saito, has a hard time with English and that is one of the running themes in the book. I can think of a couple of real-life things I’ve run into. Often Japanese will say, “I was very exciting” instead of “I was very excited.” Another time, someone wrote me an email and said she hoped the timing of our appointment would not be “too incontinent.” On a similar theme, which parts of Japanese culture would you most like to see taken into American society and which would you prefer stayed across the Pacific? ~ I like the part of Japanese culture where people tend to anticipate someone’s needs ahead of time, referred to as “ki ga tsuku,” and can be defined as a high degree of consideration, putting the other person before yourself. On the other hand, I feel that even today strict gender roles are alive and well in Japan and I wouldn’t be able to cope with that. Your novel is in a veritable line of novels which have looked at the American Dream. Explain to us ignorant Brits what the American Dream means for you. ~ The term “American Dream” can mean different things to different people. I guess I like to think of it in the very idealistic way of being able to be whomever you would like to be, with free individual choice. Of course this is not always the case in the U.S., but for people from countries where family and societal roles are more restrictive, America can seem like a dream place. What are you working on at the moment? ~ I have recently turned in my second book to the publisher. Here is a brief description: After receiving a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysteries, 33-year-old fledgling singer Celeste Duncan is off to Japan to search for a long, lost relative who could hold the key to the identity of the father she never knew. Lost in translation, she stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems; a land of gaijin worshippers, karaoke boxes, sushi fortune tellers, and unbearably perky TV stars. But when she learns to sing a Japanese song called “The Wishing Star” Celeste finds herself on a path to finding real love, understanding the true meaning of family and, most of all, discovering her own voice. ~~~~ Thank you, Wendy! Find out more about MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT at: Wendy's blog Wendy's website Midori by Moonlight "You'll muse for days about the characters you've left behind and why they matter so much to you."—San Francisco Chronicle