Beyond Forbidden Nights and Wicked Seasons

[click the question to see answer] Your first book was published in 1984 and the zebra site says you have 18 historical romances, 3 short stories, and 1 novella. I so thought I counted more on your site. In your over 20 years in publishing you have stayed with Zebra. That seems amazing, especially when you add in the fact you are still writing historicals. (THANK you) {Jo Goodman} Someone probably needs to update the Zebra site. I think I have about 25 historicals. Don’t make me count. What are your views on where romance is today? How is it different than when you started? Do you think the historical is dead? Or did you get the memo *g* although I think they are now saying the historical is making a come back. At least that is some of the buzz from RWA. Can I get an oath in blood you won't stop writing historicals or do a paranormal? please *g* {Jo Goodman} I don’t have any plans to stop writing historicals. I still write for myself. I’m pretty sure I would write even if I didn’t have a contract - although I hope you understand I don’t want to put that to the test. I haven’t given much thought to where romance is today. I assume you’re talking about romance publishing. It’s not much of a consideration for me. Wait, it’s not a consideration at all. I’m guessing that’s a good and bad thing. I’m not particularly aware of trends which I suppose works for and against me. Probably the only area outside of traditional historicals that interests me is time travel, but if I did something like that it would be as much about the “science” as it would be about the romance. I’d probably veer more toward sci-fi. I wrote a contemporary a few years back that’s fairly different from my historicals. We’ll see. I don’t know enough to say whether the historical is dead. It seems to have a loyal base. What do you think of the 'hot' trends right now with paranormals and erotic romance? {Jo Goodman} Trends? What trends? Oh, wait, I see vampires everywhere. I don’t get it, but I’m obviously in the minority. I generally skip the 'usual' question that have been answered in 20 different interviews but since I can't find any interviews with you.... What do you enjoy reading? {Jo Goodman} I’m generally an adventure, espionage, mystery person. I think Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series is just terrific. I’m a Jeffrey Deaver fan. Gabaldon, of course. Mary Balogh. Jennifer Cruisie’s Bet Me was to die for. SEP - especially listening to them on tape. Classics that I love are The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. The book that means the most to me for a lot of different reasons is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. What is the last book you finished? Or do you even have time to crack open a book? {Jo Goodman} Because I just finished a manuscript, I finally got around to reading Harlan Coben’s latest, Promise Me. I can’t read books while I’m writing one. What one book of yours would you want everyone to read? {Jo Goodman} I just want everyone to read one of my books. That’d be nice. I’m going to fudge this answer and say the Compass Club series. That’s because it was such hard work because of the intertwining story lines. Sometimes I imagine pulling the 4 stories together into one massive book. Do you have a book you wish you hadn't written or would change if you had the chance? {Jo Goodman} I have things I wish I had done differently, but no book that I’m not satisfied with. It’s no good second guessing books that were written 20 years ago. Actually, it was longer ago than that. My first book was published in 1984, but it was written 5 years earlier. I was 26. What did I know? What advice would you give to a newbie writer? {Jo Goodman} Write that story that’s in your head that you just can’t shake. Write it for yourself so that no matter what happens, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it from beginning to end. Stop going to lectures about how-to and start writing. Keep writing. Write. What's next? {Jo Goodman} That’s so far off, let’s just wait a bit longer, shall we?