Interview with Jodi Lynn Copeland

Jen: This week we're excited to have Jodi Lynn Copeland as our guest. Jodi, welcome to Book Talk with J & J. Will you please share a short bio with us?
Jodi: Thanks so much for having me, Jen! A short bio, huh? How’s this? Jodi Lynn Copeland lives on Michigan’s farmland with her husband, children, and various pets. She spends her days as a technical and marketing specialist for a national engineering firm and her nights, when her children actually sleep, spinning tales of love, life, and often mystery.

Jen: Tell us about Sweet and Sinful and where it's available.
Jodi: Sweet and Sinful marks my fifth release with Kensington’s Aphrodisia imprint. While to date my stories have been mostly set in locations far removed from my daily life, S&S happens right in my own backyard and features two heroines shaped a great deal around myself and a colleague. For this one, I actually ventured inside the engineering firm, drawing much of the technical aspects from my daily experiences at the office. While the setting is familiar to me, the events that happen to the two sets of heroines and their hottie heroes is far removed from my daily life. After all, they wouldn’t be very exciting stories otherwise!

The two stories within are set in contemporary times and both are the length of the short category romance lines you would find at Harlequin or a similar publisher. In the beginning the heroines are very different, but by the end they share similar outlooks on life and love.

S&S is freshly out in bookstores across the Country (U.S.). It is also available through such online vendors as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Or you can order it in eformat at the KensingtonBooks.com website.

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Jodi: Early on, neither writing nor reading were my things. I came into reading following extensive back surgery as a teenager. I could not get out of bed for several weeks and with nothing else to do, I turned to reading. My mother shared her historical romances and I fell in love with the foreign settings and far away eras. I started writing my junior year in college. My first book took over a year to write and was well longer than a traditional single title. It was also definitely a learning experience. Roughly seven years later, in 2003, I sold my first novel to Ellora’s Cave. That call came via an email acceptance. My first true call came from Kensington in July of 2005. In October of 2006 I received the call from Harlequin. Kensington and Harlequin were two publishers I’d long dreamed of writing for, so reaching these milestones was truly a dream come true.

Jen: What 3 words would you use to describe your writing?
Jodi: Passion. Humor. Romance.

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write?
Jodi: Not really. I tend to write whatever genre appeals to me, and have written them all, with plans to continue to do so. I am more published in contemporary romance, but that is more a matter of where my publishers place me than where my heart might be at any given moment in time.

Jen: Where do you draw your inspiration?
Jodi: Honestly, I am struggling with this one as of late. For years my inspiration came from the desire to live the dream, get the call, write for my dream publishers, etc. But lately I find a huge time crunch with the day job, young kids, and endless other demands. These days I find myself writing more based on need than inspiration, which is not really something I prefer to do. I am now trying to reorganize my life a bit in order to get back to writing because I am inspired and not simply because of the need to do so.

Jen: Do you have a favorite character or one that you identify most with?
Jodi: Kelsey Stuart from One Wild Weekend (Inner Urges print) has always been among my favorite heroines. She is the most like me in an all around way. Her story is also one that most matches my true style, in that it meshes equally the romance, laughter, and passion.

Jen: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Jodi: I was doing really good at catching up on my reading, but the last weeks I have fallen off the ladder again. The last book I read was High-Risk Affair by RaeAnne Thayne. She was a new author to me, but I really enjoyed the story. Prior to that I read Sara's Son by Tara Taylor Quinn, which I devoured every word of! I’d only read one prior book of Ms. Quinn’s and didn’t really connect with it, so was unsure of giving another a try. But I heard good things, and I am so glad I picked up this book! I have purchased several more SuperRomances by Ms. Quinn and will be reading those next.

I used to have several favorite authors, but they have moved away from their starting genres likely in respond to industry demands. With most of these authors, I find I don’t enjoy their voice in the new genre as much, probably just because I fell in love with their old one, so I am not reading them much at the moment. But they all still hold a near and dear spot in my heart. There is one exception to this whom I have found I love regardless of her voice.

Mostly I am finding new authors and reading their backlist as time allows.

Jen: What's next for you?
Jodi: Staring in the next few weeks, I will be working on a novella for inclusion in a late 2009 firefighter anthology out of Kensington Aphrodisia. I have written several firefighter heroes lately for Harlequin’s Spice imprint, but this hero is going to be much different. Still an alpha male, but his outlook on the profession and his goals will be far removed from what readers may have seen in past releases.

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Jodi: My website is at: http://www.jodilynncopeland.com/. I also post every other Friday at: http://www.thebradfordbunch.com/, and then the 11th of every month on the Aphrodisia Author’s Blog. Our location is changing, so I won’t share a link to that just yet. In addition, I maintain an author-post only newsletter group, which hosts regular newsletter-subscriber-only contests in addition to sharing excerpts, new releases, cover art, and the like. To join, send a blank email to: PassionPress-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com. All who join receive a free “hot” short story in .pdf format.

Jen: Do you have any questions for our readers?
Jodi: What is your favorite genre and why? Do you enjoy sub-genres mixed within your primary genre (such as paranormal elements in your historical romance)?

Do you also find your favorite authors changing the genres they write in response to industry demand, and do you enjoy their new work as much as, or perhaps more than, their old?

Jen: Jodi is graciously offering up a copy of Sweet and Sinfulto a commenter this week. So, answer one of Jodi's questions, or ask her a question to be entered. I'll pick a name on Friday night.