The BOOK Squad offers authors an exciting promotional tool called an AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

You get a 10 question interview to air on The Book Squad, a special link through your book covers on www.thebooksquad.com, links to both your personal website or homepage, and your audio interview link.

Check out these AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT interviews with Book Sqaud hosts, Wendy Coakley Thompson and Karyn Langhorne.

TEN QUESTIONS with LaConnie Taylor-Jones

2. Your road to getting published – bumpy or smooth?
B-u-m-p-y!! It been long and tedious, but I never gave up on it!!  I started writing When I’m With You in August 2003 and finally completed it in May 2005.  However, getting agents interested in representing me was another challenge.  I submitted the manuscript to sixty-eight agents.  Eleven requested a partial, but afterwards, declined further interest. In November 2005, I gathered the courage to submit the manuscript directly to six publishing houses.  By the spring 2006, three had requested the complete, and finally in October 2006, Genesis Press offered me a contract.

3. In your bio, you said that you were so engrossed in reading your first romance novel that you neglected to study for and subsequently failed an organic chemistry midterm in college.  How do you explain the power of romance novels to hold readers in thrall?
Any story, romance or otherwise, has to have two elements: a good plot and dynamic characters. The plot will have conflicts your characters are faced and it’s the conflict that drives the story and will make readers turn page after page to see what’s going to happen next.  Romance is no different. Readers want to fall in-love with the main characters and root for them through the challenges they face as they move towards the ‘happily ever after’.

4. Tell us about your novel, When I’m With You, in twenty-five words or less.
The damage caused by an abusive relationship, how the person who’s abused suffers, how to trust again, and why one has to FFF: forgive, forget, and move forward.  

5. When I’m With You is set in Oakland. What is it about northern California that made it the ideal setting for your story?
First of all, its home now and I’m intimately acquainted with the culture and surroundings. Therefore, it was easy for me to write my story with a sense of realism.

6. What lessons do you hope your readers will take away from Marcel and Caitlin’s story in When I’m With You?
First, I want readers to understand the beauty and power of the love that exists between the right man and woman, Secondly, know and cherish the importance of family, and finally determine if there are strategies from this story they can apply in their own lives to deal with whatever real-life situation they’re facing.

7. What is the most inspirational thing that a fan has told you about your writing?
You’re not afraid to deal with real stuff and domestic violence is about as real as you can get.

8. When A Man Loves a Woman is your next book, set to come out in April 2008. A hypothetical reader is poised to pre-order it. What would you say to that reader to seal the deal?
At some point in everyone’s lives, they’ve been betrayed by someone they love.  Learn what the ultimate betrayal is in a woman’s life and discover how the man who loves her helps overcome it.   

9. You’re now in the publishing game. Your thoughts thus far…?
Whew!!!! Some days, I can hardly catch my breath the pace is so fast.  I’m learning how to juggle writing, editing, promoting, while trying to maintain the life I had before I put pen to paper.  But I wouldn’t change a thing and would take anything for my journey.

10.  What is the ultimate goal for you, in terms of your writing career?
Hit the New York Times Best Sellers List and have my readers walk away with something from my stories that they’ll remember for a lifetime!!!