UNTIL THERE WAS YOU is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller! Kristan sends big thanks to all the readers who bought the book!

Barbara Elness, come on down! You’ve won a signed copy of MY ONE AND ONLY! Send your snail mail addy to k.higgins@snet.net. Thanks to everyone who left a comment and all your lovely warm wishes today!

xox

Kristan

Sara Watts! I’d love to send you a signed copy of UNTIL THERE WAS YOU! Email me your snail mail addy to k.higgins@snet.net. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and once again, thanks to Maxim for taking the time to do this interview. Looks, brains and charm too! Sigh!

Gang, I am very excited to post this blog today, because I’m talking to Maxim Budnick, the incredibly good-looking model on the cover of UNTIL THERE WAS YOU. I admit that when I saw this cover, I got rather…um…excited? Is that okay to say? I got really excited, because Maxim looks so much like my mental version of Liam Murphy, the hero, that it was almost like seeing a character in real life.

KH: Thanks for being interviewed for this, Maxim! Let’s get right to the questions. Do you like older women?

MB: I definitely like older women. They know what they want.

KH: (Oh, my GOD! Somebody, get me…something! Quick!). Huh. That’s interesting. Great. Okay. And you’re a professional model, correct?

MG: Yes. I’m repped with Sutherland models in Canada and Wilhelmina Models in New York, among other agencies around the world.

KH: What is your favorite romance novel? Aside from mine, of course.

MB: To be honest, I have never read one.

KH: Oh. Okay, well, points for being candid, anyway. Maxim, do you think you’re as smokin’ hot as Liam, the hero of UNTIL THERE WAS YOU?

MB: When I get a copy for myself I may come to that conclusion, but for now I won’t be presumptuous.

KH: (He’s modest, too! He looks like THAT and he’s modest!). I see. In UNTIL THERE WAS YOU, Liam’s nicknames are Hottie McSin and God’s Gift. I heard that during the shoot, some of the women were calling you God’s Gift. Do those nicknames apply to you?

MB: (Laughing) Maybe some people might call me that, but I’m not aware of it. However, it’s two very different things for someone else to give you that nickname. I couldn’t take myself seriously if I ever called myself that.

KH: True, so true. (Sigh!) In the book, Liam is a motorcycle mechanic. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?

MB: When I was working in South Africa, I rented one for a while. I’ve been dreaming about riding down through North America to the southern tip of South America.  I met two very inspirational fellow Canadians who were doing it on bicycles when I was traveling through Costa Rica and have wanted to do it ever since.

KH: That is so cool. Um…Liam also wears leather jackets. Do you own a leather jacket?

MB: I own two.

KH: Would you like to come visit me? Sorry, sorry, that was inappropriate.

MB: Of course! It would be a stimulating meeting of the subjective and objective. That is, the subjective vision of the writer’s character and the objective real life person used to embody that vision… You may call that an interest in psychology but I am always up for an experiment.

KH: (He’s too smart for me. Dang it! Well, his punctuation was a little weak. I’ll console myself with that.) Maxim, have you ever done other romance novel covers?

MB: I’ve done around 26 covers; however, romance novels are a small part of what I do.

KH: What kinds of things are you told before a shoot? Do they talk about the book or the vibe they’re looking for?

MB: It’s always different; sometimes it’s very clear what they want; other times, it’s not. I find that in the best shoots, I’m given a general direction of where we want to go with the shot, but there’s still a certain looseness that allows the models to take creative liberties. It comes across much less contrived this way.

KH: Do you watch America’s Next Top Model?

MB: Never have, but I have heard about it and it is nothing remotely like my experience.

KH: No, I’ve never seen it either (cough). So how was the other beautiful boy on the cover? That would be Mumford, the Great Dane? Are you a dog person? Do you own a pet?

MB: Mumford was great! He acted like such a puppy compared to how big he actually was. I am a dog person for sure, though logistically it makes no sense for me to have a dog right now. I work all over the world and it would be way too complicated to have that on the back of my mind. Though when I do settle down I think I would like to get a husky, I love big dogs that I can rough-house with.

KH: We seem perfect for each other, Maxim. Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud? Um, do chicks throw themselves at you? Guys, too?

MB: I don’t mean to be egotistical, but yes, they do.

KH: Really? Wow. That’s so, uh, rude.

MB: But I’ve learned  through my experience and the testimony of women that I can be intimidating, and when someone is intimidated, they will often act aloof and be be much less likely to approach you. So while it’s easy to meet women on one hand, there are other social quirks that need to be recognized to make meaningful connections. This requires me to project myself as approachable. Guys are much more forward than women in general, but I’m straight.

KH: (Thank you, God!) Maxim, were you always this beautiful, or were you a late bloomer?

MB: I’ve always had extra attention, but for some reason I don’t think it got to me.

KH: What does your mom think of your work?

MB: She laughs about it. Modeling is just a stepping-stone to other

things in life, and she fully supports me for it.

KH: Do you just love the Canadian healthcare system?

MB: Yes, of course! Fundamentally it embodies Canadian values and though it’s not perfect, it works.

KH: How do you like New York? Do you have any favorite hangouts where I might stumble innocently upon you if I just happen to be in the city?

MB: I have recently been going to this amazing Thai restaurant called the Topaz that a friend showed me.

KH: Oh, the Topaz. Let me Google that. Not that I would stalk you or anything. That would never happen. But thank you so much for taking time from your very busy schedule, Maxim, and all the best to you in your career and future endeavors!

MB: Thanks a lot!

KH: You are so welcome, young man. So, so welcome!

Okay, I think it’s time for a GIVE-AWAY, don’t you guys? Leave a comment, and I’ll pick one of you to get a signed copy of UNTIL THERE WAS YOU. And a million thanks to Maxim, who was such a good sport to take these questions!

More goodies being given away all this month, so pop over to my mailing list at www.kristanhiggins.com and make sure you’re on the mailing list.

Quilt Lady and Lorelei, you’re also winners of PJ Sharon’s book. Email her at pjsharon64@gmail.com and thanks for stopping by!

Molly, congratulations! You’re the winner of PJ Sharon’s debut novel, HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES. Email your snail mail addy to pjsharon64@gmail.com.

Thank you so much, Kristan et al, for having me today. I’m honored to be here with the Jaunty Quills. I’ll be giving away a free e-book copy of my newly released Contemporary Young Adult Romance, Heaven is for Heroes, to three of your lucky commenters.

Since this is my debut novel, I’m as excited and nervous as a new mother sending her first child off to kindergarten. I’m wondering if I’ve done all I could to make my baby successful and if anyone out there will love it as much as I do. That might be asking too much, but every mother looks forward to those wonderful reviews of what a fabulous child she’s raised. The reality is, just as with children, each book has a personality and not everyone will find it charming, fabulous and wonderful. So I’m following the advice I’ve given to my children—expect the best, but prepare for the worst.

In order for me to tell you about my book, I first need to fill you in on why I, a mother of two grown sons, chose to write for young adults. I’ve been writing romantic fiction for about six years and it took me until I’d written my 500,000 words of practice to discover that my “writer’s voice” was in the young adult genre. People have asked what my inspiration is for my stories and I guess I would say that I follow the old adage and write what I know. My teen life was memorable and anything but ordinary. “My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue”—that’s a line from an old Carol King tune that fits me perfectly. I have had a very colorful life with lots of drama, twists and turns.

My stories are my way of using my life experience to let teens know that no matter what awful things happen in their lives, they aren’t alone and that there is a hopefully ever after if they are willing to fight for it and choose it. It’s also my way of re-writing history a bit. I can create characters that I wish had been there for me, build worlds where my heroes and heroines can win the day, and share with others all the lessons and emotional journeys that have brought me to where I am today—happy, healthy, and hopeful.

In Heaven is for Heroes (HIFH), Jordie Dunn is a seventeen year old girl whose brother, Levi, dies in the war in Iraq. I had a brother who was a Marine. He enlisted when I was eight years old and got out eight years later when I was sixteen. Even though there was ten years between us, and even with all the years we spent apart, I loved my brother dearly. I wrote him letters, anticipated his visits home, and prayed every night that he would not have to go to war. He didn’t die in combat, but his death by suicide affected me profoundly when I was twenty-two.  Levi’s character is modeled after my brother.

In recent years, with the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, much attention has been paid to the tragedies of war and how the losses affect spouses, children, and parents of soldiers who die in combat or return home injured and devastated by their experience. But not much is said about how siblings are affected. I wanted to show that connection and bring to light the brothers and sisters who are suffering as well. We have a whole generation of teenagers who have lost someone they love or have had their world shattered by war. I wanted to give voice to their experience.

Since I also love romance, I gave Jordie a dreamy but challenging guy to test her patience. Alex Cooper was Levi’s best friend and a fellow Marine. The three grew up hanging out together, until Jordie realized in the ninth grade that there was more to Alex than a gangly computer geek hiding behind braces and glasses. When Alex returns home wounded and believes that he’s responsible for Levi’s death, Jordie sets out to prove him wrong and help him in his recovery. What she doesn’t understand is that Alex has more than a guilty conscience or a physical disability to overcome. Her quest for the truth and Alex’s quest for peace, at times put them in direct opposition.

Because the focus of the story is the tenuous romance between childhood sweethearts, Jordie and Alex, with the underlying plot of a family’s search for peace in time of war, I think HIFH will appeal to adult readers as well as older young adults. I’ve added a challenging mother-daughter relationship, and entertaining secondary characters like Brig, Jordie’s grandfather, who is a retired Brigadier general. I personally, think Brig steals the show.

I hope those of you who read the book enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s always hard for us writers/moms to let go of our children, but we have to trust that we’ve done our best and move on to whatever comes next. In my case, it’s my second release, On Thin Ice, coming out in December of this year. Yikes…must get on those revisions.

In ON THIN ICE, Penny Trudeau deals with issues like teen pregnancy, her mother’s cancer, date rape and an eating disorder. I know! Right? Crazy stuff, but all part of my teen age experience. That’s why I write Extraordinary stories of an average teen age life.

If you could re-write your own history, would you have been rich? Married Tom Selleck? Gotten a pony when you were eight? Maybe you would have been an astronaut. With writing, the sky’s the limit. So tell me, if you could re-write your story, what would be different?

Visit www.pjsharon.com for more information on PJ’s books.

I read a statistic the other day that kids who play sports at the high school level have a 0.03 chance of becoming a professional athlete. I myself am not a professional athlete (surprise!). I never have been. I never will be. I exercise grudgingly and sporadically. I have yet to find a form of exercise that I truly love and seek out.

I live in a town where kids are enrolled in soccer while still in utero. You don’t play football by the time you’re six? Sorry, kid, your career is over. Once I went to enroll my daughter in softball, and the guy said, “Who was her coach last year?” I said she hadn’t played last year. “What?” he gasped. “Why not?”

“Um…because she didn’t want to?” I answered

“She’s gonna have a hard time catching up,” he said.

“These kids are eight,” I said. “I have faith.” For the record, she changed her mind and didn’t want to play. I was fine with that. Both kids are the “run and play” variety. We have a pool. They take karate. But sure, team sports teach something important. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of invaluable things to learn as part of a team. “Someday,” I told both my kids, “you will have to spend at least a year on a team sport. If you haven’t found anything you like by seventh grade, it will be cross country running.”

Thank God for cross country. It is, to the best of my observations, the only sport in which no one is going to get blamed for missing the goal, flubbing the pass, committing the error.  Once, when my son played t-ball at the age of four, we witnessed a father screaming at his son for not hitting the ball far enough. The kid. Was. Four. I’ve even heard of coaches saying that if a kid isn’t good enough, he or she should just quit, just go home.

Horrible, isn’t it?

But in cross country, the kids simply run. Some are fast. Some are not. And for an inexplicable, wonderful reason, no one seems to care that much.

Last week, my son had a meet in a nearby town. Immediately, the tone was set: as my son’s team approached the course, the home team stood up and applauded, calling out the name of our school, our town. Wow. Welcome? Welcome to our home field?

The home team was far better than our school, but our faster runners did well enough. Everyone on my son’s team did respectably. In cross country, “respectably “means “finishing.” But here’s what I want to tell you about. The last few runners probably take three times as long as the fastest kids. The very last boy of this race was rather chubby, probably running because he or his parents knew he should get some physical activity, and there he was, trotting slowly along, his expression angelic and serene, his thighs chafing, his pace a crawl.

“Here he comes!” bellowed the home team coach. “Come on, everyone, here he comes!” Everyone else—our team, his team, all the coaches, all the parents—everyone gathered along the home stretch and cheered that kid home. His trot turned into a run, and a smile came over his pink, round, adorable face. He was welcomed at the finish line like an Olympic champion. Not like a slow kid. Not like a kid who should go home.

For that home stretch, he was a hero.

So here’s to those of us who won’t be the next Derek Jeter, the next Kobe Bryant, the next Mia Hamm. And here’s to the coaches who understand what really matters. Determination, sportsmanship, effort, and, for one or two shining moments, the chance to feel like a star.

One of the questions I’m often asked in an interview is, “Tell us something readers may not know about you.” I tend to fudge this question. “I have a sixth toe on my left foot” (I don’t) or “My parole officer says not to answer that.” (He didn’t.)

It’s actually one of the hardest questions for me. As my fellow JQ sisters know, I am hardly a mystery wrapped in an enigma. My parents loved me, I had friends in school, I married a wonderful man, and we were blessed with two beautiful children. Are you asleep yet? I know. That’s the thing about happiness. It’s not terribly interesting to read about.

At any rate, having had to answer this question recently, I came up with a list of Things You Might Not Know About Kristan. Here they are.

1. I once played tennis with E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. He won.
2. I knew all the words to “Folsom Prison Blues” when I was five years old. My kindergarten teacher sent a note to my parents, asking them to speak to me about song choice. It remains one of my favorites.
3. I decided to be a doctor after my first visit to the ER. The doctor told me I had beautiful eyes, and I was smitten, even at the age of four.
4. I decided to be a romance writer when I was 36 years old.
5. When I was 16, Anthony Quinn kissed me on the cheek.
6. I once tasted 54 different cheesecakes when I served as a baking judge at the Connecticut State Fair.
7. I exchanged insults with Stephen King at a Red Sox game (he started it!).
8. I punched a would-be mugger in the face and broke his nose.
9. Jeesh…running out of steam here…um…I can imitate almost any accent pretty respectably.
10.  My cat sleeps with me every night. The dog sleeps with me only when McIrish is at the firehouse.

Okay, okay, so 9 and 10 are a little lame. But I gave it my best shot! So how about you? Tell me three things that most people would be surprised to hear about you.

There’s a term in romance, especially romantic comedy, called the meet-cute…or is it cute-meet? At any rate, it’s the moment in a book or movie when the hero and heroine first make significant contact. But first, a few real life meet-cutes from folks I myself know.

Story #1: A&S: They were fixed up by friends. Hated each other. Really, really instant dislike. Spent the hour staring at other people in the restaurant. Raced each other for the door, hoped never to see each other. When those mutual friends got married, they found themselves together again at the same table. Admitted the fact that they couldn’t stand each other. A mutual respect grew from such bald-faced honesty. Two years later, they were married.

Story #2: J&L: They met at a river raft race; he asked if he could call her. She rattled off her number lightning fast, saying if he could remember it, he could call her, and she might go out with him. He remembered that number, all right. When he proposed, he wanted it to be on a mountaintop. Got all the way up there and realized he left the ring in the car. He left her there, tromped back down, got the dang thing from the glove compartment and hiked all the way back up. She said yes (imagine if she hadn’t, right?). They have four kids now. Two of them are my godchildren.

Story #3: K&M: Wanting to cut to the chase and meet a decent guy, she registered on a dating website. Slogged through the lengthy questionaire, yadda yadda. Exchanged emails with a few guys, agreed to meet one. He walked into the restaurant on their first date and smiled at her, and kablammy! She fell in love, just like that. When the day came to propose, he took her back to that same restaurant and asked her family to come, too, so he could pop the question in front of everyone she loved. They got married this year and are now expecting their first baby. Happy? Oh, my goodness, yes. And how fitting, since she works in the romance novel industry!

The meeting of the hero and heroine is one of the most important elements of a romance novel. Apparently, there are certain “don’ts” for the meeting—car accidents are out, someone told me. Clumsy meetings seem to be out. No more spilling of coffee or  beer on the heroine or hero. No more “Whoops, I tripped, but thankfully you caught me!” moments. No more “Heck, I just stepped out of the shower, what are YOU doing here!” Or so they say, whoever they are who make these rules. 

I loved the meet-cute in the movie Bridesmaids, in which the hero, a cop, pulls the herione over for driving erratically, and she demonstrates her sobriety by dancing, not just walking, in a straight line. The reason it works is because her driving (and the conidtion of her car) is a recurring theme throughout the movie, and it symbolizes something about the hero. It’s not just cute.

I also love the issue of first impressions made during the meet-cute. Often, they don’t like each other (Elizabeth and Darcy, Scarlett and Rhett, Dean Robillard and the chick in the beaver suit). Sometimes, though, the first impression turns out to be true…despite future evidence. Look for that theme in UNTIL THERE WAS YOU. What Posey wants to believe about Liam doesn’t seem like it’s actually true; he’s a bad boy hero, and though she wants to believe there’s honor and decency in there, he’s doing his best to disprove that. But maybe Posey knows more about him than he does himself

In my own books, the first meeting of hero and heroine that most stands out is that of Grace and Callahan in TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, when she mistakes him for a burglar and whacks him on the head with a field hockey stick. It’s not clumsy, mind you. It’s a perfectly placed blow. But I also love when Maggie runs into Malone in CATCH OF THE DAY, and Callie’s meltdown in front of Ian at the Department of Motor Vehicles in ALL I EVER WANTED.

So I’d love to hear a story from you of a notable meet cute. Maybe you’ll see a version of it in a book someday! And tell me what you like to see when the hero and heroine first lay eyes on each other.