Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Presents Linda Gerber

I am actually ahead of schedule! I had planned to send the partial of the current project to my agent for a sanity check tomorrow, but it's pretty much ready to go now. I'll still wait to send tomorrow because that's when I told her I would, and that gives me a chance to give it one more look. I'm kind of eager to get started on the next thing, so I'm wavering between letting myself have a minor celebration and jumping right in. I think I can do a little of both by doing a mini "retreat" to shift mental gears and get revved up. That means finding a movie that makes me think of this story and then doing a little reference reading.

Meanwhile, I have another Girlfriends Cyber Circuit guest, Linda Gerber, whose new novel Death by Denim will be released May 14. This is the third "Death By" young adult mystery novel.

Aphra Connolly is being chased by some very dangerous people. She knows her survival depends upon staying far away from love interest Seth, and listening to her mom’s lectures on the finer points of anonymity and survival. But how is a girl supposed to live under the radar and not think about her boyfriend when she’s in Paris—the most romantic city in the world? When her mom’s contact in Paris is found floating in the Seine with a deadly message stuffed in his mouth, Aphra realizes that she will never be able to stop running unless she confronts the situation head-on. Sneaking away from her mom, Aphra tracks down the criminal mastermind in Italy, only to unwittingly reveal Seth’s location. And her mistake has just put them both in mortal danger. . . .



Now the interview:
Was there any particular inspiration behind this story?
Since Death by Denim is the third in the series, the inspiration was drawn mostly from the first two books. By book three, my character Aphra had a few issues to settle - her relationship with her mom, her relationship with Seth, and the constant threat of the Mole on her tail. Those things led the story as it evolved.

When you were a teen, how might you have coped with international intrigue?
I've always loved suspense and thriller novels and movies, so I think I might have enthusiastically embraced the adventure. I mean, I grew up in a relatively small town - a college town in a place we used to call Happy Valley - so we seldom saw much in the way of intrigue. I think I would rushed headlong into any escapade - just to shake things up a little.

Who was your favorite "girl sleuth" to read about when you were a kid/teen?
I had a complete set of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books. I also loved spy/sleuth stories like Harriet the Spy and From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

(Hmm, sounds like we were reading the same things!)

What are you working on now?
I'm switching gears with a YA paranormal about trance writing sisters.

Is there anything else you'd like to say about this book or the process of writing it?
I've had a lot of fun working on the entire series, but I have to say, Death by Denim is probably my favorite to write because I got to go international with it and to throw things at Aphra that she hadn't faced before. And as a bonus, by the time I was hammering through revisions on this one, Death by Bikini had been released and I was starting to get letters from enthusiastic readers who were looking forward to reading more. It gave me a real boost of confidence - which I needed during some of the more intense scenes. So, THANK YOU, readers, for your support!

For more info, check out Linda's web site. She'll be hosting a blog book launch party May 14-16. You can also pre-order the book from Amazon.