Lisa Hendrix is the author of Razzle Dazzle, an amusing and refreshing addition to the "Magical Love" line from Penguin Putnam.   It is a pleasure to welcome her here and to find out more about this talented author and her work.
 

LB    Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself as an introduction to the visitors to the Magical Romance Website?

LH    I always hate this part.  When I have to write a bio for a conference brochure, mine is consistently half the length of anyone else's.

I'm a late bloomer.  Having told my mom when I was eight that I wanted to write books, I didn't actually start until I was in my late thirties (other than a Star Trek pastiche in middle school).   In the intervening years I married and divorced, moved from Colorado to California, Alaska, Japan, Oregon, and Washington, worked a variety of jobs from secretary to art-school model and from rear chainman on a survey crew to research assistant on a gray whale feeding dynamics project (on a boat in the Bering Sea!).  Then I remarried and started a family, and finally got busy writing those books.
 

LB    Your first novel Razzle Dazzle hit the shelves last month.  For those who have not read it yet can you tell us a little about the novel?

LH    Actually, RAZZLE DAZZLE wasn't my first novel, or even my first published novel.

My first two attempts at romance are incomplete and dreadful and will never see the light of day.  The next two, however, were immensely better and were published in the Diamond "Wildflower" line in 1994 & 1995.  After that, I took some time off to have my second child, the red-headed little girl of my childhood imaginings.  It took me a while to get back into the publishing loop.

Those first two books, but the way, were HOSTAGE HEART and DRIFTER'S MOON, both historicals set in the American West.  HOSTAGE HEART was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Western Historical Romance of 1994.

LB    I stand corrected on this - my only excuse is that I only discovered the romance genre in late '96 and am completely out of the loop here in the UK.  Don't know quite how I managed to miss it on your website though.  I do apologise most sincerely for the mistake.
 

LB    One dominant storyline in Razzle Dazzle is the Feng Shui aspect.  Is this an interest of yours and if so could you tell us about how you acquired this interest and what it entails?

LH    Can you believe this book started out as a Regency-set historical,  with my heroine the lady's maid to the woman the hero intended to marry for money?

The feng-shui came about when I had moved the story to the present, invented the real-estate development sub-plot, and needed some reason for Raine to be fighting Mason's building.  I also needed some other reason for Mason to resist his feelings for Raine, and making her just a tad "flaky" in his mind, like mom and sis, seemed right to me.  I had heard of feng shui several years earlier, and it seemed to be just the right touch--something  New Age-ish, but on the edge of respectability.  My feelings about feng shui are very much like Mason's.  It almost makes sense. I *want* it to make sense. But there are aspects that just don't quite seem logical, and there's no body of scientific evidence to support the claims, so I have to remain skeptical.

Truth be told, Mason and I are intellectual twins on all the New Age/magic issues, which is why I left the interpretation of the ending on the ambiguous side.  In fact, the magic is so ambiguous that I call this a "barely paranormal."
 

LB    What have you found to be the most challenging aspect of writing so far?

LH    Keeping my bottom on the chair when there are so many interesting things going on out in the world.
 

LB    Do you plan on sticking to the "magical" romance novels or do you intend to move to other genres, ghosts, time travel, historical or contemporary?

LH    I do love historicals, especially medievals and westerns and stories set in Georgian England and in Colonial America, so eventually I intend to get around to some (more) of those.  However, my next book is TO MARRY AN IRISH ROGUE, another contemporary romantic comedy. This one, however, is set in a village in County Clare, Ireland.

The women of Kilbooly realize that they have an abundance of bachelors refusing to marry and decide the best way of convincing them of the error of their ways is a good old-fashioned boycott.  To succeed, however, they need to take out the leader, Brian Hanrahan, the village playboy.  It just so happens that there's a television reporter in town to do a story on Brian--a very pretty, red-headed reporter named Tara O'Connell.  They're perfect for each other, if you ignore the fact that Tara loathes everything Brian stands for, and Brian hates reporters.  But with Brian's gran and a whole village of women determined to see them married off, they don't stand a chance.
 

LB    What type of novels do you like to read for inspiration and who are your favourite authors?

LH    I don't read novels for inspiration.  Inspiration comes from non-fiction and odd news stories.  For example, the development fight in RAZZLE DAZZLE is loosely based very loosely on an incident that actually took place in Fremont,  a neighborhood of Seattle.

DRIFTER'S MOON opens with an incident drawn from an account of pioneer life in Kansas and also contain a key scene with the grasshopper plague that occurred in Kansas in 1874.

HOSTAGE HEART is Robin Hood Goes West, so I guess that one came from fiction, but only via the movies.

I do love to read, though.  Favorite romance authors include Laura Kinsale, Susan Wiggs, Nora Roberts, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  Other favorites:  Robert Parker (the Spenser novels), Wilbur Smith (especially The Burning Shore), Ayn Rand, and Robert Ludlum.

You'll notice there's no literary fiction on this list.  <g>  I had enough of that at university.
 

LB    Do you have any tips for all the hopeful romance writers out there?

LH    Write. Study. Persist.
 

LB    What do you believe has been the highlight of your career so far and which aspect gives you the most enjoyment?

LH    It's hard to come up with a career highlight based on only three books, but getting that first phone call has to be on my list of lifetime highlights.
 

LB    Could you tell us what you are working on at the present time, and what can we expect to see on the shelves in the coming months?

LH    TO MARRY AN IRISH ROGUE will be on the shelves in April of 2000.

It's the second book in Berkley Jove's new "Irish Eyes" line, and as part of the three book launch, it's getting a bit of special treatment:  the cover has green foil trim and embossing.  Very pretty.  I'll get the cover and an excerpt posted on my web site sometime in the next couple of months.

I'm awaiting word on the next sale, but hoping to bring you a romp tentatively titled RUNAWAY BAY.  Anyone who's been to Jamaica will probably recognize the name and all it implies -- fun, sun, and romance with a twist of adventure.
 

LB    And finally, do you have a message for all your readers out there?

LH    Write me!

It makes my day to get a message like, "I hate you. I started Razzle Dazzle last night and ended up staying awake until 3 am!" or to hear from someone in Bulgaria who has visited my web site and is now trying to get her hands on my book.

And I love the internet.  I've already received more fan mail on RAZZLE DAZZLE, in the form of e-mails and messages posted to my web site guest book, than I got for both earlier books combined.  I think the speed and ease of contact and the fast turnaround makes readers more willing to reach out.  From this end, it's much more fun to answer back when I don't have to worry about printing up an envelope or buying stamps or any of that nonsense.  And there's the added fun of reader mailing lists.  I zip around to several, visiting as I can, and always stumble into the most interesting conversations.  I've met some fascinating people thanks to this wonderful technology.

People can reach me through the e-mail link on my website but since anyone reading this is a special friend of Louisa's,  here's my direct e-mail:  lisa@lisahendrix.com

I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you.  And I do answer back.

(Oh.  And there's this niggly little voice in the back of my skull that wants me to say, if you love RAZZLE DAZZLE,  please pass the word on to a friend.  Word of mouth is the stuff of life for writers with no promotional budget....)

Thanks for letting me talk.

Lisa

And a great thank you to Lisa for talking with us, especially in view of this interviewer's dreadful error.  I do hope that you won't hold it against me and will come back to visit us all some time.
 

Links to  Online Stores

Books by Lisa Hendrix:  Razzle Dazzle