A big thank you to my friend, Carol Berg, for inviting me to participate in this blog round-robin. This is a chance for y’all to find out a little more about me and my work. (If you’re looking for this week’s market news, simply scroll down.)

1) What is the working title of your next book?
                                   Which book will be my “next” book is still up in the air, so I’m going to talk about the one that came out last week — The View From Here.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
I wanted to write a series set in my favorite place in the world — Ouray County, Colorado. I was also thinking about transitions and transformations in our lives — what would happen if a woman who was at a real crossroads came to this place that was so different from everything she’d ever known, and really explored her past and her future? I also really wanted to spend some time in a town full of interesting people I’d created — I sort of envisioned this as “Northern Exposure comes to the Colorado Rockies.”
3) What genre does your book fall under?
The spine says “fiction.” It’s women’s fiction with some romance. Contemporary
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
This is a really tough one. I think Maggie Glyllenhaal would make a great Maggie. As for Jameso, maybe Henry Cavill.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
It takes a small town to heal a broken heart.
Before I answer the rest of the questions, I wanted to take a little bit to make a shout-out to the other autors who’ve agreed to blog next week for The Next Big Thing. They are, in no particular order:
Katriena Knights is an amazinginly prolific and talented author who is also a good friend. She and I sing in church choir together, and she edited by last romantic comedy, The Santini Sisters Survive Sex and Dating. Katriena writes contemporary romance, urban fantasy, erotic romance and all kinds of other things. Her most recent release is Necromancing Nim, a funny, sexy urban fantasy.
Pamela Nowak has been a WILLA and Holt Medallion and a Booklist finalist and was the 2010 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Writer of the Year. She writes compelling romantic fiction set in the American West, particularly Colorado. Seriously, if you love westery romance, you must read her books,  including Chances.
Mary Gilgannon is another author who blows me away with the variety and depth of her writing. She writes historical romance and romantic fantasy full of emotion and compelling conflict. If you love sexy vikings or witty Regencies, you must try Mary’s books. She’s making her backlist and new material available in ebook form, so there are many great books to discover, including one of my favorites, Earl of Scandal.
Colleen Collins writes romance, mystery, nonfiction and has a wicked sense of humor and a talent for telling engaging stories. Colleen has worked as a stand-up comedienne, Hollywood script girl and private investigator, and is both smart and witty. I was lucky enough to read a draft of The Zen Man and I can’t wait to read more from this detective couple.
 Okay, on to the rest of the questions.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I sold it on my own to Kensington Books.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It took me about six months.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Maybe Robin Carr’s Virgin River series.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Ouray County, Colorado.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
This is the first in a series. The second book comes out next October. The book has humor, romance, a little bit of mystery, a beautiful setting and characters I hope readers will want to know better.
Thank you all for reading this, and be sure to check out my fellow author’s blogs and books!  Cindi