Make-Believe Mondays With Janice Maynard

Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Janice Maynard.

Janice, first tell us a little bit about the manuscript you are working on now.

Janice: I just turned in a book at the end of February that will be out in January 2008 - tentative title "The Perfect Ten". It's about three female cousins who own a shop called "Lotions and Potions". When hunky, wonderful men suddenly start showing up in their lives, the women wonder if a new lotion they have created just might be an aphrodisiac!

Debra: Oh my. Women would swarm to a store that had a lotion like that. ;)

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Janice: My characters walk around in my head like a movie. When I am in the midst of writing a book, it is sometimes hard to sleep at night, because when I close my eyes, I keep writing dialog and scenes in my head...

Debra: I understand that. I'm more likely to get caught up in the writing at night, too. Sometimes it's better to just stay up and get the words out.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Janice: As a child I read anything and everything! I loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys. The entire Little Women series... some nurse books about Cherry Ames. And an older author called Maud Hart Lovelace who wrote the Betsy, Tracy and Tip books. I really enjoyed the Five Little Peppers books...the Borrowers series...

I could go on and on!

Debra: Oh, I had forgotten about the Borrowers. What a fascinating series that was. So imaginative.

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of, what kind of story would that be?

Janice: I truly love writing "plain old" romance. Boy meets girls with really hot scenes and a happy ending! Although I enjoy reading many subgenres such as Erin McCarthy's vampires and Mary Janice Davidson's Betsy books, the stories I most love to write are about that magical journey for a man and a woman who are falling in love! People like you and me. :)

Debra: I agree. There is no better story than that magical journey of falling in love.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Janice: One of the best part of being a writer is finally getting to tell the stories that I've imagined for so many years. That's magic!

Debra: Janice, thank you for joining us here on this Make-Believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Janice: Thanks for including me in Make-Believe Mondays!

Please visit Janice at www.janicemaynard.com and www.vampsandscamps.blogspot.com