Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Presents Jennifer Echols

I was sooo very good yesterday. I didn't get the kitchen cleaned, but I did my radio scripts and got back into The Nagging Idea. It was good to really write again. I think I may need new code names to keep the various projects in progress straight. I don't talk about them by title for several reasons:
1) I often don't come up with a title until I've finished the book
2) the title is likely to change, and talking about it a lot under the working title (if I have one) will make me more emotionally attached to that title
3) if editors are considering a book and research me by looking at my blog, I don't really want them to be able to identify the book they're looking at so they won't be biased by any discussions of the trials and tribulations I went through in writing it
4) I don't want readers to know for sure when a book gets published which books I was talking about when I was writing them, so as to avoid unintentional spoilers or setting expectations
5) I watched way too much of The X-Files and like giving things names like all the bad guy characters -- like Cigarette Smoking Man, etc.

In a tiny news flash, Don't Hex With Texas is a finalist for the Award of Excellence given by the Colorado Romance Writers.

Now, I need to catch up on a Girlfriends Cyber Circuit tour with Going Too Far, the latest book from Jennifer Echols. All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far… and almost doesn’t make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge—and over…



Now, the interview:
You've previously written comedies, but this sounds like a more serious book. How did you make the transition in subject matter and writing style?
The idea for this book started as a romantic comedy about two teens who get in trouble and have to do a ride-along with a cop to scare them straight. As I thought about this story, I realized that the interesting tension would not be between the two teens. It would be between one teen and the cop, especially if the cop were a teenager himself. I did a little research and discovered there are some places where a 19-year-old can be hired as a law enforcement officer. I've always been interested in the drama that unfolds when very young people are pushed into situations meant for more mature adults, so I was hooked on this idea, and I couldn't turn back just because it was no longer a romantic comedy.

It sounds like you're pushing some boundaries with this book. Was there anything about this story that scared you or made you nervous, or are you naturally a rebel?
I naturally have a huge problem with authority, which is why I'm a novelist. The heroine of this book also has an authority problem. She is definitely my dark side.

The only thing that made me nervous in writing this book was going into detail about what made the heroine who she is. Originally that was not part of the book because I thought it would make readers like the heroine less. But my editor wanted me to go there, and I'm glad I did.

What are you working on now?
I'm going over the copyedit of my next romantic comedy, The Ex Games, which will be published on October 6.

For more info, check out Jennifer's blog. Or buy the book from Amazon.