A conversation with Liza Palmer and Megan Crane!

Internationally bestselling Liza Palmer and USA Today bestseller Megan Crane were my first-ever writer friends. They let me tag along with their group when I didn't know anybody at RWA 4 years ago, and when I moved from New York to California, it was right into the lion's den and hanging out became a regular thing. (Liza even made me a "welcome to CA" CD. She's old school.) We recently sat down in front of our computers and talked about snow, our love of Supernatural, and all things writing… Er, once we figured out how to open a group chat, that is.


 


 

Be warned: as evidenced by the completely unprofessional candid photo above, we we get together, we are very silly. (Liza's the one getting bunny ears, I'm the one giving them. Megan stands by, appalled.)


 

Liza Palmer: THERE YOU ARE!

Megan Crane: My god. How many writers does it take to open a chat?

Kate Noble: Getting 3 people on one chat was a lot harder than I thought it would be. How do the teenagers do it?

LP: They're smarter than any of us. Well, smarter than you two at least.

MC: Eh. They have less going on. They can monitor more stuff. I'm still mulling over 1991.

LP: Srsly. That's how the kids say SERIOUSLY.

KN: Just because you have teenage nieces, you think you know everything that's cool.

MC: She totally does. Like there's teen osmosis at work.

LP: I'm down, ya'll. DOWN.

KN: You're down? I thought you were at a Starbucks in the San Fernando Valley somewhere. Is there snow?

LP: Beautiful snow topped mountains.

KN: That is a sign of the apocalypse, right? Snow in the valley?

MC: I heard it snowed in San Francisco. TOTALLY the end times!

LP: Dean Winchester started the apocalypse, so…

MC: Dean is mine!

LP: You can't have Angel AND Dean?!?!?!

KN: Dibs on Castiel!

LP: I'm not getting stuck with Sam. You bastards. I'll take Tim Riggins. TIM RIGGINS.

KN: Ok, reign in the Tim Riggins love. Let's get down to the chat, shall we?

MC: CHAT US UP, KATE!

LP: I WANT TO SHOW PEOPLE MY BRILLIANCE!

KN: Question #1: Tell me how you guys met and got started in the writing deal. Which came first, knowing each other or being published?

LP: Aw, I feel like those couples in When Harry Met Sally.

MC: Well, we met to do promo for the new 5 Spot line at what was then Warner Books.

LP: It was a little Italian place in Westwood. One day was lunch with the independent bookstores and the next day with the big chains.

MC: Liza's debut (Conversations with the Fat Girl) was the lead title. I'd had a book out the previous summer, so was going 5 Spot for my second. We hid in the Borders after each and talked for hours about everything…

LP: We drank terrible coffee and just drooled on ourselves.

MC: I don't know about that. I feel certain it was tea and chat, no drool.

LP: I'll just speak for myself then.

KN: And you've been joined at the hip ever since?

MC: I don't know what you mean, Kate. I hardly know Liza. (snerk)

LP: It's all a facade (pronounced fa-kade)

KN: Don't destroy my image of the two of you in my head…

LP: What exactly IS the image of us you have in your head, Kate? Are we making out?

KN: One day, fifty years from now, the two of you will be sitting on a southern veranda, sipping tea and snarking at each other. This, is my dream.

LP: I think in this business — biz, if you will — having someone to talk about writing with is the difference between staying in it, staying sane and just giving up and going back to the daily grind.

Finding Megan and then you, Kate, Michelle Rowen and Jane Porter has been my saving grace.

MC: Hey, I like all those people too!

KN: Liza found me wandering around the Harlequin party at the San Fransisco RWA, friendless and alone.

LP: Oh yes…. in the buffet line, I believe. As I find most friends.

KN: I have to admit, it was my first RWA, and I was surprised to find women's fiction represented there. (Now I'm not at all surprised, but at the time I sort of thought RWA was a bodices and heroes kind of place.)

MC: There's now a WF chapter of RWA. It's new, and pretty cool. They're having a mini conference in NYC this summer.

LP: I love them. Being surrounded by writers…it's like camp. You don't feel crazy for those few days.

KN: How do you think women's fiction is perceived by the romance industry, the publishing industry, etc?

MC: I've always thought of chick lit and women's fiction as offshoots of romance, because romance is my foundation, so for me, they're all connected.

LP: I feel the same. Relationships should be a symptom/embodiment of the success or failure of your hero's journey.

MC: It's hard to think of how others might see them. But I think there is and always will be a place for stories about women, women's lives, etc. If the focus is on the romance, it's a romance. If it's on the woman's "journey," it's a women's fiction.

LP: Of course we're silly sentimental women – so our take on the lives of women isn't as meaningful.

MC: I think of it as choosing different lenses. Narrow focus: a romance. Wider focus: the woman and her wider sweep of life. Etc.

KN: Megan — you mentioned your foundation is romance. Or should I say… CAITLIN CREWS.

MC: Yes. I have two names. I love romance novels. I found them in roughly the seventh grade and I never looked back. I read them voraciously, and now I write them, too!

KN: You write category for Harlequin Presents, and always have very pretty covers.

MC: I've really loved the majority of my Presents covers! I know some readers are embarrassed by the "clinch" covers, but not me. Either on my own books or on the books I'm reading. I love them!

KN: The perception is that since its shorter, writing category is easier. True/false?

MC: Ha! I wish! Categories are much, much harder. The very things that people criticize (i.e. the short length, the "formula") are what make them so hard.

LP: I can attest to them being harder to write. Not that I write them, but Megan looks like she's really working on them, you know? When I'm, like, asking her if she wants to see a movie. She growls at me.

MC: Because how do you keep to the short length, and utilize the expected formula, while also telling a fresh, hopefully exciting and intense story? How do you make the book seem like it's 5 times its size?

KN: And then write 5 of them in a year…

MC: It's so hard. But so rewarding. I'm in awe of the authors who have been writing 4 or 5 books a year for the line for twenty, thirty years. They amaze me.

KN: Liza, it's your turn. Tell us what you're working on. Give us a little preview.

LP: I just got my page proofs for book four – which has yet to be titled or is going through last minute title difficulties.

KN: What are your title choices?

LP: One is White Picket Fences: And Other Crimes Against Humanity. It's about how we, as women, can only be Rosie the Riveter or the Happy Homemaker and never the twains shall meet. And that if they do meet – that we'll do anything to keep up appearances. Anything.

MC: Are twains plural? I thought there was only one twain, which never met.

LP: I thought it was between twains. You have to know that I am the queen of getting that stuff wrong.

Here are some of my doozies:

I'm going to take the bull by the horns and run with it.

Like a fly to a light.

I have a new leash on life.

You can't win for trying.

KN: One of those should be your title: Take the bull by the horns and run with it.

LP: So, the book takes place in a school and the Headmistress is this totally Mrs. Perfect…and all hell breaks loose when her husband walks in and shoots her. And our hero has to unpack why this woman would rather die than admit that her life was less than perfect. I think the theme of book four is that we're only as sick as our secrets.

KN: So I'm assuming you've never been a headmistress of a school or been shot by your husband…

MC: I offered to shoot her, but she declined. Ours is a giving relationship.

KN: But I do know that your writing has a lot of yourself in it — what's your research process like?

LP: I did work in a school for several years and I certainly used that…just the comings and goings. The layout of a school, a day in the life kind of stuff. But research is key. Because it's those offhanded comments that can pop one out of the story if they're not spot on. I did a ton of it for Seeing Me Naked, learning about the life of a pastry chef. And I'm going to have to do a ton for North Star – book five, which takes place in a prison. I know more about the death penalty than I should at this point.

KN: What about the hero of book 4?

LP: Tortured. I love dealing with heroes who only want to be normal and it's the one thing they can't be.

MC: Kate, you've done some amazing tortured heroes. The one in The Summer of You was DELICIOUS.

KN: Thank you.

MC: I expect no less in Follow My Lead!

KN: Um… I wouldn't say Jason's tortured. But he does spend an awful lot of time trying to do the right thing, and getting it spectacularly wrong.

MC: That's okay. Your writing is so lush and good that you could publish a grocery list and I would sink into it like a warm bath.

LP: MEGAN WANTS TO SINK INTO YOU LIKE A WARM BATH, KATE.

KN: Well, Megan knows a thing or two about seriously rockstar heroes.

MC: I do, since I have I have TWO books coming out in March! To wit: Katrakis's Sweet Prize, a Presents with a very yummy hero and an awesome heroine.

KN: is the guy royalty or a billionaire? Those are your options.

MC: He's a self-made Greek tycoon. Obviously. Although there are other options for Presents heroes, silly. I'm thinking of making one an MMA fighter. And the other is I Love the 80s, featuring an ACTUAL rock star hero!

KN: I Love the 80s has the world's most fabulous premise: time travel nostalgia awesomeness. How did you come up with it?

LP: It's such a good book…

MC: I was procrastinating, as I do, and found myself watching all these YouTube videos of 80s music I used to love. And I started thinking, what if you could go back to like 1987 and be a grown women interacting with, say, Simon LeBon at the height of his 80s fame–instead of a 12 year old girl?

LP: Dude.

MC: What if you were the only one who knew he was going to die in a few months? What if he didn't fall in love with you as you always thought he would–AT FIRST SIGHT?

KN: Um, I would like to read this book now please.

MC: You can read it in a few short weeks! It's coming out in England, but everyone everywhere else can order it with free worldwide shipping through Book Depository.

KN: Will it be e-reader available? Because I'm all up on my iPad now, dontcha know.

MC: I believe so…

KN: Ok, obligatory The Summer of You question: What do you do in summer that officially makes it summer?

MC: Summer? It's always summer in LA. I just go outside.

LP: Despite thinking that I hate summer, it's actually the time when I'm most productive and the most at ease. I love the cold, but something about the heat and freedom of the season must do something.

My family has a house up the coast a bit and we go through for weeks on end and just languish. It's beyond anything. And there are brown butter cookies…so…

MC: People not in LA please note: when Liza says "cold," she means "LA cold." Like, 40 degrees.

KN: there's snow in the San Fernando Valley, Megan!

LP: SNOW!!! …ish…

MC: I think real summer is a perfect day in Cape Cod. Breezy, blue, beautiful.

KN: Are you going to get to Cape Cod this summer? What the rest of 2011 look like for you ladies?

LP: The rest of 2011 is going to be about finishing Book Five and getting started on some pretty amazing super secret projects that I can't wait to get started on.

MC: I have four books to write between now and next March or so. I'm hoping I might make it up to the Cape after RWA this year.

LP: Ooh, that's a plan. I'm invited, right? RIGHT?!?!?

<< crickets>>

Well, I know one thing we'll be doing in 2011: we'll be seeing the new Jane Eyre….right?!?! Michael Fassbender? Mr. Rochester?!?!?!

KN: RIGHT

MC: DEFINITELY.

Thank you so much to both Megan Crane and Liza Palmer for visiting with me today, and making me giggle. In celebration of the reissue of The Summer of You, Liza and Megan are giving away a book a piece! Just leave a comment below, telling us how you like your heroes (Tortured? Greek Billionaire?) and we'll chose a winner on Sunday, March 6th!

(please note, due to spam issues, all comments have to be approved, meaning they may not show up in feed immediately. But do not fear, they have been received, and will be shown ASAP)