AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA DODD by, er, Christina Dodd …
Q. Where did you get the idea for TROUBLE IN HIGH HEELS?
A. Wal-mart.
Q. No, really.
A. Sure! Didn’t you know? “Ideas for sale.” They’re on the aisle right between the dog food and the service desk. Check it out.
Actually, TROUBLE IN HIGH HEELS had a rough beginning. I was starting a romantic suspense series, the Fortune Hunters. I had gotten approval for a book set in New Orleans and had written about a hundred pages, and in fact was going to fly for research on the day Hurricane Katrina hit the city. I knew I had to wait to write that story, but I had a deadline I needed to meet and I had no back-up plot. So I went to Wal-mart and browsed the book section, looking for a deep, intellectual, meaningful read that would elevate the tenor of my mind. Of course, I headed right for the Harlequin Presents which are my favorite books of all time.
Q. Wait. They’re short, basic books featuring a rich, domineering hero and a poor, dumb heroine whose deadbeat brother steals from said hero, then blackmails the heroine into becoming his mistress for a week and of course they have great sex, then she has a secret baby, then they have to get married, then they struggle against their love for each other before finally giving in and having great sex forever.
A. I know. Harlequin Presents are romance boiled down to its most basic form. Love them. Anyway—I picked up a book titled something like THE VIRGIN’S ONE NIGHT STAND WITH A TYCOON, and read the back. Her fiancé dumped her and her tycoon boss thoughtfully offered to help her out with a one night stand. What a guy. I flipped through the first few pages. The heroine was whiny and guilty, which I hated. She should have been in a magnificent towering rage. Next I hit the romantic suspense, picked up STAB ME THROUGH MY TENDER HEART (fake title, I have no idea what it really was) and read the back. This woman slept with the wrong guy. He hid his cocaine (or some nefarious thing) in her house, and now someone was trying to kill her and she had to depend on the help of a noble policeman/private detective/FBI agent to get her out of this mess.
But I liked the bad guy! What if her fiancé dumped her, she picked out a guy to sleep with and it was a bad guy—and she couldn’t get rid of him? She would have just stepped in a huge pile of doo! As soon as I thought that one phrase — She would have just stepped in a huge pile of doo!—I knew I had a plot. Because that’s what I look for in a plot—a big pile of doo for the characters to step in. So TROUBLE IN HIGH HEELSinvolves two ideas mushed together.
Q. That’s all? You knew the whole plot from that?
A. Okay, no. Plotting the actual moment-to-moment action is difficult for me. But I didn’t have time to fool around, so I took what I knew about the story and wrote as much of the synopsis as quickly as I could. When I got stuck, I called author friends and begged them to help me brainstorm, I woke up at night and sweated as I tried to figure out how to stage a jewel robbery, I plotted with my husband, I sent the synopsis to my editor and brainstormed with her. And I started writing even though I didn’t know exactly where I was going. Despite all that uncertainty and panic, the book went together like a dream. To me it’s a rare and wonderful treat, a gift book blessed by the gods of creativity.
TROUBLE IN HIGH HEELS is so good it’s been repackaged as part of DANGEROUS LADIES, the trade (large-sized) paperback. DANGEROUS LADIES also includes the second book of the Fortune Hunter series, TONGUE IN CHIC. So if you haven’t tried my romantic suspense titles, now is the time! (For a complete listing of my series, here’s a printable book list. http://christinadodd.com/booklist_print.pdf Here’s a list of my excerpts! http://www.christinadodd.com/excerpts.php And in case you haven’t read through my Frequently Asked Questions, there’s a lot of information there including my upcoming pub schedule! http://christinadodd.com/faqs.html )
Order DANGEROUS LADIES from Barnes and Noble! http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dangerous-Ladies/Christina-Dodd/e/9780451228826/?itm=1&usri=DANGEROUS+LADIES
Order DANGEROUS LADIES from Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Ladies-Christina-Dodd/dp/0451228820/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254607323&sr=1-1
Order DANGEROUS LADIES from Borders! http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0451228820
A side note: Do you know someone who reads my books but isn’t on my mailing list, doesn’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook? Would you please pass this info on? I know darn good and well someone’s going to buy DANGEROUS LADIES, realize they already own the books and they’ll be mad at me when we all know this is why you’re on my list, so you can find this stuff out and spend your hard-earned dollars on other wonderful romances! Thank you in advance. I appreciate your help!
Warmly,
Christina Dodd
http://www.christinadodd.com
For the wild at heart!
It’s a good thing beauty is only skin deep or I’d be rotten to the core — Phyllis Diller