Connections Clark: Booked

It has been a busy winter between teaching, writing, swimming and lots and lots of cooking. One book is out in the world looking for a home while another is being written. Cooking comes in handy when I just can't deal with the waiting, or when I'm stuck on a plot point or when I want to give my poor eyes a break from staring at a screen. Currently I'm experimenting with crock-pot baking - banana bread? Delish! Cranberry orange walnut bread? OMG. I'm going in for a corn bread later today.

Speaking of food, my dear friend Lisa Harper, who runs this fantastic blog, has just won the River Teeth Nonfiction Prize. Her book "Inside/Out," a beautiful memoir about pregnancy and how it turns you inside/out on so many levels, will be published next year by the esteemed University of Nebraska press. This is doubly exciting because Lisa has been working on and trying to find a home for her book for years and years. Hers is a story of tenacity and patience, with a happy ending, to boot. I am inspired by her perseverance and can't wait to buy the book.

In other good news, Girlfriend Cyber Circuit member Hank Phillippi Ryan has a new novel out. Here's a little Q & A with her:

Tell us about your new book Drive Time.

DRIVE TIME is about secrets. TV reporter Charlie McNally’s working on a story about a dangerous scheme that could absolutely happen…and let me just say, if you own a car, or rent a car, you’ll never look at your vehicle the same way after reading DRIVE TIME. In fact, after writing the book, I now get a bit creeped out when I go into a parking garage. That’s all I‘ll say.

Charlie’s also drawn into another frightening situation—this one at the prep school where her fiancé is an English professor. When Charlie learns a secret that might put her step-daughter-to-be in danger, and might also be an blockbuster investigative story—how does she balance her loyalty to her husband-to-be—with her need to protect the public?

So this is a tough one for Charlie. And she must make many life-changing decisions. Just when she begins to think she might be able to have it all—a terrific career and a new husband and a new life--revenge, extortion and murder may bring it all to a crashing halt.

Which novelist most influenced your own work? And which writer, past or present, would you like to spend some time with?

I love Edith Wharton’s cynical take on the world, and the way she illustrates the social structure even while being dramatic and entertaining. Her stories have such with such depth and texture, and her characters are wonderful. Julia Spencer Fleming. Margaret Maron’s wonderfully authentic dialogue and settings. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for clever plots. Lisa Scottoline for her contemporary and hip take on the world. John Lescroart for story story story. PD James. Who I’d love to spend time with? Shakespeare. I have many, many questions for him. Whoever he was. Oh! And Stephen King. What a genius, on so many levels.

Any mistakes you’ve made along the way, have you learned anything from them?

Hah. That’s another long blog for another day. Mistakes? Ah, on a huge level, people always yell at me for working all the time. ALL the time. Is that a mistake? None of this would have happened without that. Would I change it? I have to say no. So is that a mistake? I'm not sure. On a tiny level, I should have put together a mailing list of bookstores. Still haven’t done that. Wish I had.

What’s next for you?

Exactly what I'm trying to figure out. DRIVE TIME came out February 1, with fantastic blurbs from the much-missed and iconic Robert B. Parker and Suzanne Brockmann and Margaret Maron and Carla Neggers and a rave starred review from Library Journal. So I'm hoping people love it. (And I'll be visiting lots of places across the US--hope some of our readers come visit!) And then...we’ll see. I can't tell you how excited I am.

http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com