Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Yeah, we’re a little behind. There was a metric ton of deals this month so we’re just highlighting the most interesting/quirky/absurd. If your book’s not here, it’s because your blurb didn’t stick out (for better or for worse).

Guillermo del Toro has a bizarre imagination if we judge by his film credits (Hellboy, The Orphanage, Pan’s Labyrinth) but I question if he’ll actually be writing these or if Mr. Hogan will be doing the brunt of the heavy lifting.
Director Guillermo del Toro trilogy of vampire thrillers, written with Chuck Hogan, beginning with THE STRAIN, about an invasion of New York by a vampiric virus, for publication in summer 2009, to David Highfill at William Morrow, by Richard Abate at Endeavor, with manager Gary Ungar of Exile Entertainment and attorney George Hayum (world).

A 15-year old? Is this for the new Harlequin YA line?
Michelle Gagnon’s TIGER GAME, in which the fifteen year-old daughter of a Dept. of Defense research scientist is kidnapped and held for ransom, and an FBI agent must find and save the girl, or risk dangering the lives of thousands of Americans, to Valerie Gray at Mira, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in November …

Dear Ms. McCarty:

You’ve been a long time member of the romance blogosphere and I’ve wanted to read one of your books for quite some time. Your fan base is deep and devoted and you clearly write work that resonates strongly with them. Unfortunately, I never really connected with the stories in this collection until the end.

Running Wild is a collection of stories featuring three male werewolves and their mates who are conveniently all sisters gathered in the small Montana town of Haven. The first one features Donovan, a Protector (with a capital P) and middle sister, Lisa. The second features the youngest sister, Robin, and Donovan’s twin, Kelon (also a capital P Protector) and the last is Wyatt’s and the eldest sister, Heather.

The first novella, Donovan, plot is more about convincing Lisa that there are werewolves than anything else. Robin and Kelon’s story has a small suspense plot with a villain who could make a great serial killer for a full length book. Wyatt and Heather’s story is about the changes Wyatt wants to bring to the Pack as the new alpha, including doing away with the law …

In an amicable separation, pro EC author, Sarah McCarty, told Sybil at The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that she will no longer writing for EC. While McCarty states that it was a very civil parting of the ways and the door remains open, I feel sad for the fans who won’t be getting the Zach’s Obsession AND Promises Redeem.

In a USAToday story, Bush hopes her story has an impact like the Diary of Anne Frank. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
Jenna Bush’s ANA’S STORY: A Journey of Hope, based on her experiences working with UNICEF in Central America, focusing on a seventeen-year-old single mother who was orphaned at a young age and is living with HIV, with photographs by Mia Baxter, to Kate Jackson at Harper Children’s, for publication in fall 2007 (Harper says they’ll print about 500,000 copies), by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly (world). Her proceeds will go to UNICEF, where she is working as an intern.

Let’s hope Ms. Scott is a former lawyer or knows one because legal thrillers, while popular, take great license with the practice of law and that is better done when you know the rules first
Kimberly Scott’s first novel, UNDERTOW, a legal thriller set in Boston, and the first in a series, originally published in Australia by Pan Macmillan under the pseudonym Sydney Bauer, to Carole Baron at Madison Park Press (for an exclusive six-month window) and to Natalee Rosenstein at Berkley, by Harvey Klinger at Harvey Klinger (NA).

Must be for the Nocturne line.
Rhyannon Byrd’s WHEN …