If Oprah invited you on her show to talk about your book, what would the theme of that show be?
How becoming your “Best Self” can require many long years of soul searching and endless hours of listening to sappily sentimental ‘80s tunes.

What was the most fun scene in your book to write?
One scene I had a lot of fun with was the bar scene in the first chapter where my main character runs into her ex-high-school boyfriend for the first time in four years. It was a situation I had never experienced personally, but I could imagine the comical possibilities so clearly and feel and the frustration of my heroine as if I’d been the one standing there, facing the jerk and his latest girlfriend, while Jane Austen ranted about how “insufferable” he was.

Do you have a muse, good luck charm, writing vice?
Before I sold According to Jane, the manuscript was a Golden Heart finalist and my son, an avid coin collector who was 8 at the time, gave me one of his “special quarters” for good luck. I won the award and now keep his quarter on my desk for good luck and inspiration. As for writing vices–I have a terrible tendency to “quote” things (not just in dialogue, but in narrative). Oh, and I also use too many ellipses…

What do you write on (type of computer, or notebook, etc.) and where do you write?
I use every possible type of writing tool, and I use them everywhere. I have a desktop HP for my home office (I’m there most of the time), a Compaq laptop for coffee shop visits and I actually still draft a lot of scenes by hand on notebook paper. I’ve been known to use the occasional carryout menu or paper towel when necessary, too.

Have you had a “rock star” moment regarding your writing career? If so, what was it?
I’m a debut author, so I don’t expect name or sight recognition yet (and I happen to love anonymity, so I’m not rushing it!). But, right after my photo and book cover were printed in the library newsletter, I did get a flurry of phone calls and people stopping me at the local Piggly Wiggly to tell me they’d seen it… That I was famous (!!) and that everyone was going to be coming to my Author Talk. While I’m fairly certain not “everyone” will actually be at that talk, I look forward to assuring those who are that I’m really, seriously NOT famous.

What do you do to celebrate your writing successes?
I’m a huge fan of Thai spring rolls and English chocolate bars.

Describe your personality with five adjectives that would make your 5th grade English teacher proud.
Curious. Persistent. Observant. Analytical. Creative.

According to Jane by Marilyn Brant

In Marilyn Brant’s smart, wildly inventive debut, one woman in search of herself receives advice from the ultimate expert in matters of the heart. . .
It begins one day in sophomore English class, just as Ellie Barnett’s teacher is assigning Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. From nowhere comes a quiet “tsk” of displeasure. The target: Sam Blaine, the cute bad boy who’s teasing Ellie mercilessly, just as he has since kindergarten. Entirely unbidden, as Jane might say, the author’s ghost has taken up residence in Ellie’s mind, and seems determined to stay there.
Jane’s wise and witty advice guides Ellie through the hell of adolescence and beyond, serving as the voice she trusts, usually far more than her own. Years and boyfriends come and go–sometimes a little too quickly, sometimes not nearly fast enough. But Jane’s counsel is constant, and on the subject of Sam, quite insistent. Stay away, Jane demands. He is your Mr. Wickham.
Still, everyone has something to learn about love–perhaps even Jane herself. And lately, the voice in Ellie’s head is being drowned out by another, urging her to look beyond everything she thought she knew and seek out her very own, very unexpected, happy ending. . .

Praise for ACCORDING TO JANE:
“A warm, witty and charmingly original story.” –Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Tell us, dear readers, what’s the BEST ADVICE you’ve ever been given regarding love?

First line: “Henna was thirteen when she was gleefully married off to the eldest son of one of the best families in Calcutta, and her marriage was achieved by an audacious network of lies as brazen as the golden embroidery on her scarlet wedding sari.”

From the publisher: 

“With this spellbinding first novel about the destructive lies three immigrant generations of a Pakistani/Bangladeshi family tell each other, Roopa Farooki adds a fresh new voice to the company of Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arudhati Roy.

Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose wheeler-dealer father never misses a business opportunity and whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. Ricky will learn the truth about his seductive bride, but the way is already paved for a future of double lives and deception–family traits that will filter naturally through the generations, forming an instinctive and unspoken tradition. Even as a child, their daughter Shona, herself conceived on a lie and born in a liar’s house, finds telling fibs as easy as ABC. But years later, living above a sweatshop in South London’s Tooting Bec, it is Shona who is forced to discover unspeakable truths about her loved ones and come to terms with what superficially holds her family together–and also keeps them apart–across geographical, emotional and cultural distance. 

Roopa Farooki has crafted an intelligent, engrossing and emotionally powerful Indian family saga that will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page.”

Buy it at Amazon.

The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri by David Bajo

First line: “Irma Arcuri bequeathed her book collection, all 351 hardcovers, to Philip Masryk.”

Few premises are as original as the one in THE 351 BOOKS OF IRMA ARCURI, the debut novel by David Bajo. In it, a twice-divorced, unemployed mathematician named Philip is willed the titular library of his former lover and the one he probably should have married, if only he had asked. But she’s not dead — she’s merely dropped out of life, and clues to her whereabouts are hidden within her volumes, which become the subject of much decoding. Unfortunately, the novel is more metaphorical than mystery. It’s one of those literary affairs that’s longer on dialogue than plot, where the characters say a lot, yet don’t say anything at all — in other words, a book that sips espressos with pinky extended on a sidewalk café, brooding. The first third is pretty decent and mildly engaging, but at some point, I just stopped caring, and the drama wears all too dreary — not to mention the missed opportunity with the mysterious messages. What he lacks in follow-through, Bajo makes up for in descriptions. Witness his near-pornographic explanation of why books aren’t just for reading: “They bind and revive friendships. Their spines cupped for coolness or warmth. Their covers lingered over. I still love to slip my fingers between cool pages, like finding the fresh creases of bedsheets with your bare legs. They are portable, the most efficient of vessels. You can carry an entire country or civilization in the crook of your wrist. Hold open a life or the expanse of a relationship with the gentle crimp of your thumb. They are incredibly light and manageable for what they contain, what they can induce.”

For: A unique late summer literary read.—Rod Lott

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Watch it here, on YouTube, and it’s permanent home on our A/B TV page. Good luck with UNDONE, Brooke! Total Running Time: 4:50

Where Did I Leave My Glasses: The What, When, and Why of Normal Memory Loss by Martha Weinman Lear

Undone, a debut YA novel, by Brooke Taylor

The Summoning, a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong

The Gargoyle, a novel by Andrew Davidson

The Opposite of Love, Julie Buxbaum

First Line: “Last night, I dreamt that I chopped Andrew up into a hundred little pieces, like a Benihana chef, and ate them, one by one.”

The loved, lost, love again plotline is a personal favorite of mine, and its done in pitch-perfect prose in this debut novel about an attorney who ends a happy relationship and plummets into the hole she’s dug for herself.

For: Loveaholics and pessimists alike. –Malena Lott

Buy it at Amazon!