Category Archives: Interviews

Interview: Camy Tang, author of Protection for Hire

I thought I’d end the year (or sort of), with an interview with one of my favorite Christian chick lit authors, Camy Tang. I read and loved her latest release, Protection for Hire, and I realized that while I had an interview with her in my old blog for the release of Deadly Intent, I never had the chance to interview her here. So, without further ado, here’s Camy to talk about her latest novel.

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What was your main inspiration in writing Protection for Hire?

I love Stephanie Plum and The Joy Luck Club, and so I wanted to write a book with all the humor of both and with the action/suspense of the Stephanie Plum series.

I also love strong, capable heroines like from the TV shows Alias, Nikita, Covert Affairs, and the movies Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. I wanted to write about a strong woman with a heart for God, so I came up with my character, Tessa.

I wanted to give Tessa a reason to keep being involved in different crimes (so that I could
have more books with her as the heroine) and the idea came to me that if Tessa had a shady past before coming to Christ, that past would provide good spiritual conflict as well as causing external problems in her life. I am a fan of The Sopranos — I don’t care much for the violence, but I liked the more humorous parts of the series, especially those involving the family fiascos. I thought it would be fun if Tessa belonged to the Japanese mafia, and I created a Japanese version of The Sopranos, which makes it both exciting and funny, mirroring the feel of the Stephanie Plum series.

For her hero, I thought up the most unlikely pairing–a straight-laced lawyer from Louisiana–and as I wrote, I let the sparks fly!

What makes Protection for Hire so different from your other works? Was it any difficult writing it?

Protection for Hire is a slight deviation from my other books (but only slight, I promise). The
Sushi series is humorous contemporary romance, so it’s light and fluffy. My Sonoma series is romantic suspense, so it has a lot of tension and danger.

Protection for Hire is a nice mix between the two. It has the humor and family drama of the
Sushi series but a bit of romance and suspense like in my Sonoma series. It’s a lot like the
Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, but for Christian fiction readers.

Tessa is a part of the Japanese yakuza in this Protection for Hire. I don’t think you’re a part of a yakuza (am I right…? LOL.) so I’m curious, how did you do your research for this novel?

There actually isn’t a lot about the Japanese mafia in San Francisco so I had to do a lot of
research about the Japanese mafia in Japan, and then I also based the yakuza in my book off of research on other Asian mafia in the United States.

However, since this is a humorous novel, I also had the yakuza in my book not take themselves too seriously sometimes, and they have the same kinds of family problems as anyone else. I think readers will relate to my character even if they never have mafia family members. :)

Do you think Tessa would be friends with your other heroines too? Why or why not?

I like to think she’d be friends with them! I try to write heroines who are strong and flawed, and I think Tessa would definitely relate to the Sushi girls. She’s also probably relate to their numerous family issues.

If Protection for Hire would be made into a movie, who would you want to play the main characters?

I modeled Tessa to look a bit like Jessica Alba, since I loved how she was so vulnerable and yet so strong in the TV series Dark Angel. I picture Charles as looking like Bradley Cooper, but with a syrupy Southern drawl.

2012 is just around the corner. Do you think Tessa and Charles would make New Year’s resolutions? If yes, what do you think they’d resolve to do next year?

Tessa, being optimistic, would resolve to not argue with her sister and she’d break it within three hours. But she’d still try for the rest of the year just because she can’t stand when she tries to do something and fails in doing it.

Charles would resolve to do something boring like succeed in some milestone at work, but
he’d be distracted by the antics of his mama and his younger brother. He’d probably meet his milestone, but not as efficiently or as quickly as he thinks he would.

What’s in store for Tessa in the next Protection for Hire book? How many books are you planning to write in this series?

The next installment in the Protection for Hire series is A Dangerous Stage which releases in late 2012. In this book, Tessa is hired to protect a rather hunky contestant on the television show Grab the Mic (a singing competition similar to American Idol, The Voice, and The X-Factor) whose life is in danger when his young daughter discovers that the show might be rigged. I’ve had to watch tons of episodes of American Idol for research, don’t you know. ;) There will also hopefully be a third book in the series releasing in 2013!

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Thanks, Camy! :) If you’re not yet convinced to add this book to your TBR, then you can read my review here (and also my reviews for Camy’s other books). Protection for Hire (as well as her other books) is already out under Zondervan, and for my Filipino friends, the book is available in Book Depository, Amazon Kindle Store and B&N Nook Store.

Armchair BEA 2011: Interview with Neri of In the Name of Books

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I totally missed the sign-ups for the round robin interviews for Armchair BEA, but the good thing is, there are also some bloggers who missed it. I was lucky enough to find an interview buddy, who is also my first blogger interview in One More Page! :)

Let’s all give a warm welcome to Neri from In the Name of Books! :)

In The Name of Books

Let’s start this off a bit Twitter style: describe yourself in 140 words or less.

Mom & wife who has an addiction to books, handbags, & shoes. Sometimes I’m way too talkative, loves traveling, music, & photography.

You mentioned in your introduction post that you only started reading again recently. What were you doing before then?

So I have always been a reader but I had kids young , got married, went back to school while working full time. I really didn’t have any extra time to read, so I kind of just stopped reading. My birthday is in February and every year my husband would buy me the new John Grisham book because for whatever reason the book was always released in February, he is still one of my favorite authors.

So last year I watched Twilight for the first time, and realized this was based on a book. I bought all four books in one shot and stayed up till the early hours of the morning reading.

I later spoke to my only friend that actually shares my interest in books and she introduced me to Netgalley, Goodreads, and Shelfari. That’s when I found the Shifter series by Rachel Vincent and the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk.

I’m sure you encourage your girls to read, too? Do they have any favorite books?

My oldest daughter who is 9 loves the Erin Hunter-Warrior Series and she also likes The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. My little one who is 7 going on 17 loves the Junie B. Jones series just because she says “she’s smart, mischievious, and funny.” I do try to encourage them to read and they love to go with me to the book store or library to check out new books.

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Playing Hurt Blog Tour – Interview with Holly Schindler

I just realized that I’ve never done any author interviews in this blog ever since I started it. I remember hosting only one interview with Camy Tang back when my book posts were in my personal blog but I never really did any here. I guess I was really just too busy writing reviews that I never really followed through on my plans on interviewing some authors. Oops, my bad.

But let’s change that. Here’s my first author interview in One More Page! Let’s all give a warm welcome to Holly Schindler, author of A Blue So Dark and recently released Playing Hurt, for this leg of the Playing Hurt Philippine Blog Tour! :)

1. I find it really interesting that you’d write about a female jock. Were you one back in high school?

Not at all! I’m terribly uncoordinated. I swear, I can fall around corners! Just awful…If
you told me a few years ago that my second book would feature a couple of athletes, I
would have laughed in your face…

2. Basketball is a really huge thing here in the Philippines, even if…well, we’re shorter than other basketball players are. It doesn’t stop us from watching or playing, though! Do you play any sport or would you rather watch? Or both?

I’ve really come to have a much greater appreciation for athletes as I’ve gotten older…I
realize, now, how mental sports are! My brother likes baseball, so I wind up watching
more baseball than anything else…

When I was in graduate school, though, I fondly remember our Lady Bears going to the
Final Four—so exciting…

3. What was the hardest part in writing PLAYING HURT? How different was it from writing your debut novel?

My debut, A BLUE SO DARK, wrote EXTREMELY quickly—I wrote the first draft,
edited it, and submitted it in just about two months!

I did have to rewrite the book several times. But every rewrite went every bit as quickly.

PLAYING HURT was a slower write…And it changed the most from the original draft to the final published version.

4. What was the last book you finished? Did you like it?

Some of the last books I’ve read (and loved) are: JUMPSTART THE WORLD and THE
NIGHTMARYS. I also really, really love Brian Katcher (cool work, cool guy—met him
last summer at a teen lit festival). And I’m taking the plunge (finally) into THE GIRL
WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

5. This may sound totally random, but it’s one thing I must always know: what’s your favorite dessert? :)

I’m a HUGE cheesecake fan.

6. I’m one of the Municipal Liaisons for NaNoWriMo Philippines, so in their behalf, I must ask: any message you can give to the aspiring novelists in the Philippines?

First of all—I just want to give everybody who takes part in NaNoWriMo enormous applause! That’s the most important part of all—just planting yourself in the chair and getting the work done. Everybody’s had an idea that would make an incredible book, but actually getting that idea onto paper is excruciatingly hard work.

…Really, though, the best thing you could ever do is just keep going. One foot in front of the other. The thing about writing is there’s always one struggle after another. First, it’s getting the book on the page. Then, it’s finding an agent. Landing a book deal. Getting through book development, finding a readership, learning what promo methods work, growing a readership, changing genres…There’s absolutely no shortage of struggle in writing. Focus on the small triumphs, celebrate them, and tackle the next struggle with fervor!

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Thanks for dropping by, Holly!

I’m only the second leg in the blog tour — make sure you visit the other blogs participating in the next few days! Thanks to my good friend Kai of Amaterasu Reads for hosting the tour. :)