Interview with Kat Attalla - Contest news

The winner of The Midas Murders is Shana. I'll be in touch with her later. The next book up is Whispers out of Yesteryear published by DiskUs. This is my first delve into a reincarnation theme.

During the French and Indian War. Willow Wjo Weeps' village is destroyed by a band of hostile braves led by Rene Du Bari. Joined by a British friend, Jonathan Reed she searches for the Frenchman. She is killed but vows to follow Du Bari into the spirit world and beyond and leaves Jonathan to raise their two children.

Awakened by a cry "Not the children." Willow Carey is frightened by the return on a dream that began at Indian's Sorrow, a house she inherited. There is a rift with her twin sister, Brooke. Though Willow doesn't want to return to the house she goes. There she encounters Reid Talbot, a doctor she once loved and lost. He is a widower who has never forgotten her and who also dreams of the far past.. But her sister and her fiance, Barry Dubois arrive. Willow and Reid must learn what their dreams mean before whispers from yesteryear destroy their new found happiness.


Today's interview is with Kat Attalla. We've been critique partners for years and I've seen her blossom as a writer. We've been through lean times and fat times as writers and as friends.


. What's your genre or do you write in more than one?
I write contemporary romance and romantic suspense.

2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?
I did not read as a child. I knew how. I just didn't enjoy it. My sister turned me on to Harlequin Romances when I was nineteen and the rest, as they say, is history.

3. Is there any genre you'd like to try? Or is there one you wouldn't?
I would like to try a time travel some day. But I'm not sure I would try a sci-fi/fantasy. I'm not as good at world building as you are, Janet.

4. What fiction do you read for pleasure?
I read mysteries and spy thrillers for pleasure. I tend to be too critical of my owe genre.

5. Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing,
I began writing when my daughter was born. She's 23 now. My first attempt was a mideival novel that I affectionately refer to as my hysterical historical. I learned a valuable lesson. Stick to contemporary romances.

6. Which of your characters is your favorite?
Kate Costello from Heart and Soul. I wrote her for all us women who, as teenagers, stood in front of the mirror, with a hairbrush in hand and dreamed of the rock-star life. It deals with what happens to a woman who attained fame and fortune but wished for a 'normal' life.

7. Are there villains in your books and how were they created?
I don't write the stereotypical villain. My 'bad guys' have to have some human characteristics. You don't root for them but you do have to be able to understand their motives.

8. What are you working on now?
I am working on revisions for Sex and Key Lime Pie for Wild Rose Press. I don't have a release date but I will let you know when I do.

9. What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?
My last release was Heart and Soul. It was born out of my secret teen fantasy to be a singer. The setting also came from my childhood I guess. I spent a lot of time on a family dairy farm and the memories were among my happiest... and funniest as well. A lot of funny things to suburban kids running wild on the farm.

10. Tell me about your latest book and how it came about. Enclose the opening of the book around 400 words.
The idea for Sex and Key Lime pie came to me while I was having lunch in a Portuguese restaurant in Mystic, Connecticut.


Cheyanne Dupree parked the Corvette in the rest area and stepped out. From the lookout perched high atop the cliffs she glanced at the rocky Rhode Island coastline below. Sea green water stretched across the blue horizon. She inhaled the salty sea air. God, she loved this view. It was the only thing about Mystic Cove she had missed in the last nine years. At least, the only thing she would admit to. From here everything looked the same. But time and circumstance had changed both her and the cove.

Most of the changes were for the better. For one thing, she wouldn’t see Harlan Waitley’s name attached to every building in the town center. In fact, Cheyanne had only returned to clear out the last visible reminder of her stepfather’s existence- the Waitley mansion in Mystic Heights. Her mother, newly remarried and on an extended honeymoon, had sold the house and asked Cheyanne to take care of selling the contents before the buyer took possession. Her first inclination had been to refuse.

After nine years of clinging to the past, she needed to let go. She had a new life, a wonderful job opportunity awaiting her in California at the end of the summer and most important, her son Sam. A feeling of warmth blanketed her. She smiled. Sam was the joy of her life. She still questioned her decision to send him to sleep-away camp at only eight years old, but he’d wanted to go to the Tae Kwon Do camp so badly that he’d saved his allowance for five full months. Only gone one day, and she missed him already. How would she survive two weeks? Especially in Mystic Cove?

Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday. Her nerves had been too raw. She needed to move on, and she would never do that until she let go of the past. With Sam away, she’d returned to this place of so many haunting memories to clear out the ghosts along with the house.

She got back in her car. Not her car, exactly. The classic ‘62 Corvette had belonged to her late husband. As she navigated the vehicle down the winding road to the town below, she tried not to let sentiments overwhelm her. She would be arrogant to believe she’d left as much of an impression on the people here as they had left on her. Hell, most of them had probably forgotten her. She wished she could say the same.

She entered the business district as the clock tower on the bank struck three o’clock. The town center was just as she remembered yet completely different. Many of the stores remained the same, but the names had changed for the better. Waitley Lumber was now Manny’s Lumber. Mario Santori had taken over Waitley’s Department Store. New buildings had gone up. Others had been refinished to keep the quaint feel of the old port town. All in all, the new proprietors reflected the predominately ethnic population better than when Harlan had left his mark on everything and everyone.

Despite her hunger, Cheyanne drove past several restaurants along the waterfront and continued to the outskirts of town. New housing developments and strip malls reveal how much Mystic Cove had changed in the intervening years. At the edge of town the paved streets gave way to a dirt path. Potholes lined the street.

At the end of the road sat a wooden cabin. The last rays of the evening sunset bathed the small structure in a halo. Appropriate, she decided, since she had once considered this place heaven on earth. Back when it had been their place--hers and Luc’s little love shack. Ten years ago to the day, she had lost her head and her heart to Luc Allesandro, right there in that tiny house that had seemed like a mansion to her. Six months later, she had inherited a fortune and lost everything that matter to her.