Welcome to WordPress!

Well, it’s been coming for quite awhile, my break-up with LiveJournal.  However, I’m very pleased to be moving over here to WordPress, where I blog monthly with Magical Words, and to have as my very first post here an interview with Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit sister, Jennifer Echols, whose new YA novel, Love Story, released this month from Gallery Books.  A writing major, a stable boy…what more could you want?

Blurb:

From Jennifer Echols, the award-winning author of Going Too Far and Forget You, comes LOVE STORY(Gallery Books; July 19, 2011; $11.00), a provocative and powerful story of teen romance, set against the bustling world of a New York City university.

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions – it’s her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family’s racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin’s college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a local coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter… so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she’s sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He’s joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin’s heart with longing. Now she’s not just imagining what might have been. She’s writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter… except this story could come true.

“A tremendously talented writer with a real gift for developing relationships.”

– Romantic Times Magazine

What is your writing process like?  Are you a plotter or a pantser?  Do you schedule time to write each day or are you a spree writer?

I think of myself as a plotter and a plodder, writing every day, but I’m really not. Though I’m a very organized and methodical person, my writing tends to be pantsy and spree-ish. It won’t behave.

 
What is the hardest part about the publishing process for you and how do you get through it? (For me, it’s copyediting and sour cream and onion chips.)

Publicity! I’m a private person and I don’t like talking about myself. I wish I could just put my book out there and everyone could pretend it materialized from nowhere and enjoy it.

 
We drop your hero or heroine on a deserted island.  Quick, what are the three things he or she can’t live without?

Erin would need a pen and paper and her face cream, so her looks don’t go, just in case she gets rescued.

 
If your story were a film, who would you cast?

I get this question a lot, and it’s so hard for me! I don’t watch enough TV, and my characters are so real for me that it’s hard for me to think of someone to play them. It would be like casting yourself.

 
Are there any contests or upcoming appearances/interviews/etc. you’d like to plug?

There are lots of giveaways of Love Story and other prizes all over the web. You can find the links on my blog at http://jenniferechols.livejournal.com.

 
Congratulations on your fabulous new release!

Thank you so much Lucienne!