Wendy, Welcome to The Bookstore! Thanks for coming by to chat with us!
Thank you so much for this opportunity!!
Tell us a bit about yourself. You background, family, etc...
These days, I live in the New York City metro area with my wonderful husband Mark and our two young children, Morgan and Brody. I grew up in a small town near Buffalo in a functional, close-knit family. (It wasn’t until I reached college that I realized writers are supposed to thrive on domestic angst and strife!) My parents were happily married and I have a younger sister and brother. We lived within a 5 block radius of all four of my grandparents, lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, and weekends were spent traveling from one house to another for meals, dessert and coffee, barbecues, pool parties. Of course it was all very dramatic when I fled the nest and moved to NYC alone at 21 to follow my dream of becoming a writer–but my parents were always supportive and encouraged me to fly high and reach far. I lost my mother last year to breast cancer just after her 63rd birthday–her illness and death have had a profound impact on my life and my writing. She is with me every day when I sit down at the keyboard, and I’m forever grateful and conscious that I owe her not just my life, but my dream career.
Do you have any hobbies or collections?
I’m very domestic–I love cooking, baking, entertaining, gardening, crafts. We have an old house that we are slowly remodeling and re-landscaping. Because of the nature of my work, I spend the majority of my time at home and have made sure it’s a cozy haven for all of us.
Tell us about your writing. I know you write under at least two names. Wendy Corsi Staub and Wendy Markham. Do you have any more pen names? If so, please tell us what they are and what kind of books you write under each name.
I had worked for a Manhattan advertising agency for a few years and my husband is an advertising executive, so it was a conscious, strategic marketing decision to brand myself distinctly under different pseudonyms. This way, my readers always know exactly what to expect. Under my real name, Wendy Corsi Staub, I write mainstream psychological suspense novels with a domestic setting. My publisher’s marketing director coined the phrase “Mom-Jep” (Mother in Jeopardy) to describe these books because so many of my heroines are married with children. My thrillers have been compared to Mary Higgins Clark’s because they appeal to a wide audience thanks to a lack of gratuitous sex, language, and violence. As Wendy Markham, I write chick lit and romantic comedy. I’ve got several continuing characters in these novels, most notably my chick lit heroine Tracey Spadolini who stars in my Red Dress Ink “Slightly” books, and the Chickolini family of Queens, who have been featured in some of my Warner romances. I also used to write nonfiction books as Wendy Brody and horror and category romance as Wendy Morgan.
How long have you been writing? Could you tell us how you got started in your writing career? Have you always wanted to be an author?
I decided in third grade that I wanted to be an author and never wavered from that goal. I had written an essay on Abe Lincoln and my third grade teacher praised it highly in front of the whole class. Her encouragement ignited the spark. I went home and told my mother I was going to grow up to write books. From the start, they told me that I could do whatever I wanted to, and to shoot for the top. I had written several mystery “novels” before I even got out of elementary school, and have been at it ever since, nonstop. I still have the Abe Lincoln essay and I’m still in touch with my beloved third grade teacher.
How many books do your have published? What was your first published work and when did it come out? What name is it written under? Approximately how long did it take you to be published?
By the beginning of 2007 I’ll have over 60 books in print. I sold my first at 27: a young adult ghost tale titled Summer Lightning, released in 1993 by Harper under my own name. I had completed two other book length manuscripts at that point, both of which remain unsold (and hopefully will never see the light of day!). It took me about a year from the time I started seriously submitting novel-length fiction to make my first sale. My suspense novel THE LAST TO KNOW was my first breakout USA Today bestseller, and I reached an important long term career goal in 2003 when my thriller SHE LOVES ME NOT transformed me into a New York Times Bestseller!
What was your reaction when you saw your first book on the store shelves? Bet it was exciting!
My parents and sister came to visit my husband and me the weekend it came out–the champagne flowed and we took pictures of everyone sitting in a row on the couch pretending to be engrossed in the book. I still love to look at those photos and remember the thrill. Only when I had my children did I realize that my publishing experience had been similar to giving birth. It takes roughly 9 months from conception to bookstore shelf, it’s a labor-intensive, solitary endeavor, and the end result is thrilling and a joy to share with others.
You have a new suspense book coming out in April 2006, called THE FINAL VICTIM. Please tell us about this book. Is it related to any of your previous titles or does it stand alone?
So far all of my suspense novels stand alone. THE FINAL VICTIM is an old-fashioned thriller set in an isolated plantation house on a coastal island near Savannah, Georgia. When we stayed there en route to Florida on a family road trip in 2004, I was captivated by Savannah’s stately antebellum homes, Spanish-moss draped trees, cobblestones and rich historic atmosphere. I just knew I had to set a novel there–in part because it would be a good excuse to return! I have since made three additional trips to research the setting. This book is particularly special to me because I finally got to use a shocking twist I first conceived a few years ago, based on a real life incident. Readers will recognize plenty of Wendy Corsi Staub trademark elements in this plot: a mom-in-jeopardy as the heroine, a large cast of intriguing characters, a creepy old house, dark family secrets, multiple viewpoints, including that of a teenager, and a villain masquerading as someone the heroine (and reader) would never suspect. Plus there are two major twists nobody will see coming, I hope!
I've read some of your books written as Wendy Markham and enjoyed them, but this is the first of your suspense books I have read. Suspense is the perfect category for it! Sure is keeping my interest and keeping me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happens next!
Thank you, and I hope you’ll tell me I had you fooled when you reach the twists!
What drew you to write suspense books? How many have you written? Are they all set in one general area of the country or all over?
I have loved a good mystery ever since my avid Scooby Doo/Nancy Drew days in elementary school, so this was a natural progression for me! THE FINAL VICTIM is my ninth full-length suspense novel for adults, and I’m currently immersed in my tenth, which will be released next spring from Zebra Books. My settings vary but I tend to favor small towns and suburbia as my heroines are usually moms. Because I have always lived in the northeast, many of my books are set here, with the exception of my latest. This area is diverse in both geography and population, as well as rich in history, with interesting architecture, vast wilderness, and big cities, so there is potential for great plots everywhere I turn.
Your "Slightly" books written as Wendy Markham are considered Chick Lit, but you also write funny contemporary romances under the same name. These books are all lighter and more fun loving that your other books. How many have you written under this name and will there be more to your "Slightly" series? How about your big contemporary romances? Can we look forward to more of those?
I’ve got nine Wendy Markham books in print, with five more under contract including two additional “Slightly” titles with Red Dress Ink. I just finished writing a Christmas romance, IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS, coming this December from Signet, and it features a heroine who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She travels back in time to December 1941, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, where she falls in love with a man she knows is doomed to die in WW II. If she stays in the past with him, her own disease can’t be effectively treated, but how can she leave him behind? I loved writing this book, and despite the somewhat dark premise it was ultimately uplifting, whimsical, and a lot of fun to research. I have always wanted to write a Christmas book. Next up on my writing agenda after the thriller is SLIGHTLY MARRIED, in which Tracey Spadolini is set to march down the aisle at last, with her loony friends and family on hand to complicate matters. Then I’ll be doing another romantic comedy for Warner featuring a single soccer mom who moves in next door to her high school crush.
Do you find it hard to switch from one style of book to another? Which kind of story reflects your true personality? Or are they a combinations of all your personality traits?
I seem to switch genres with surprising ease, but I have to work on only one project at a time in order to consistently capture and preserve the voice and theme. There are certain elements of my life that shine through no matter what I’m writing. The Wendy Markham humor comes naturally. I love to laugh–I come from a funny, wacky family and my husband and children share a very dry sense of humor. With all my colorful relatives and hysterically amusing friends in my past and present, there is comic fodder everywhere I turn. I’m also very interested in pop culture so many of my books have a contemporary feel as a result. As a wife and mother, home and family are the focal point of my life, and all of my novels, whether suspense or chick lit or romance, seem to share that central theme. As for the suspense novels, I have always loved a challenging mystery–tell me there’s a new movie with a big twist (like The Sixth Sense) and I’m the first one in line at the theater! I have been fascinated by the paranormal since childhood and have had a few strange experiences that fueled the interest, so supernatural elements have made their way into many of my books in various genres.
How much research do you do for each book? Is research something you enjoy? Do you have to travel to scope out some of your locations?
The amount of research depends on the genre. My chick lit demands the least because it’s set here in NYC and it’s more character-driven than plot-driven. My thrillers demand extensive research as I go along, to get the details right–forensics and police procedural are always important. I have a team of close friends I rely on who are my experts in various fields: lawyers, doctors, an ex-cop, etc. I do a fair amount of travel to nail the details, and if I’m forced to write about someplace I’ve never visited first-hand, I rely on books and the Internet and keep the scene as brief and functional as possible. The most challenging research I’ve ever done was for IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS, the book I just finished, because of the 1941 setting. I chose it because I love the era and welcomed a chance to immerse myself in it. But it seemed I had to stop every other line to check and see if a phrase was really used back then, or if a household product had been invented yet. Research remains one of my favorite parts of my job.
Approximately how long does it take you to write a book? Does this included editing time? Do you find one type quicker and easier to write than another? Which type of book do you do more research for? Do you have a favorite kind to write?
For the writing itself, I average about 100 pages a week writing 12-14 hours a day, 7 days. At this pace I finish a chick lit in less than a month, and a thriller in about six weeks. In the first half of 2006, I have to write five novels for four different publishers, plus three more before the year is out, so this rigorous pace is absolutely necessary. But I am naturally a high-energy person so I thrive on it. As much as I enjoy the humor and romance in my Wendy Markham books, I find the thrillers the most interesting to write because of the plot twists and turns. It’s like working an intricate puzzle; I welcome the challenge to carefully conceal the killer, plant red herrings, and fool the reader without deliberate manipulation. The oddest thing is that even though I know how it’s going to turn out, there’s a “page-turner” aspect to the writing (as there is in the reading). I can’t wait to get up each morning and see what’s going to happen next, and it gets very breathless and exhilarating for me toward the end.
Give an example of a typical day in your life. Do you have a specific writing schedule you try to adhere to?
Absolutely. I set the alarm for 4:30 a.m., make a pot of coffee, and go straight up to the computer. Just before 8 I come down to spend time with my children before they go off to school at 8:45. Then it’s back to the keyboard. I emerge only to get coffee refills and to make a quick salad, which I eat at my desk while checking email. When the boys come home at 3:30 I spend about ½ hour with them, then while they do their homework and play it’s back to work for me until about 6:30. I make dinner and the four of us sit down together in the dining room every night–very important. We share cleanup and tidy the house before sitting down in the living room for awhile to watch TV together.
After a busy day, how do you unwind? Do you have a favorite comfort food or something that just instantly makes the day better? Do you enjoy watching movies or reading?
Coffee, coffee, coffee! I am a coffee addict; I go to bed at night looking forward to my morning cup and fuel myself with it all day. I love to cook from scratch, and making a good healthy dinner for my family every night is therapeutic for me. Because I work right here at home there is no transition from work to home–no commuting time to decompress. I use my time alone in the kitchen to do that. I do like movies but rarely have time to devote to them, or pleasure reading, anymore. Of course I do read as much as possible–mainly newspapers and work-related or nonfiction research material. Thank God for Tivo! Our family loves to watch television together from 8-9 at night--the boys are into Survivor, Amazing Race, The Apprentice, and Seinfeld reruns. Then I read or my husband and I catch up on one or two programs we enjoy (24, Medium, Cold Case among others) before I collapse into bed around 10.
Do you have a favorite author? I know I have many! Do you think you writing has been influenced by any one in particular?
Some of my favorite authors remain those I discovered as a child and now share with my children; those authors inspired me to follow in their footsteps. I am a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder buff–the books, not the television series–and Mark Twain was also a childhood favorite; my parents drove me all the way to Missouri to visit both authors’ homes as a child. Other favorites were Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, and contemporary authors Mary Rodgers, Judy Blume, Norma Klein, Leonora Mattingly Weber, and Richard Peck. Adult authors I enjoy are Harlan Coben, Mary Higgins Clark, Joy Fielding, and Patricia MacDonald among countless others.
Can you share with us what you are working on now? Any idea when it will be out?
I’m writing my new thriller, which is as-yet untitled but is scheduled for next spring, from Zebra. The heroine, a young married mom, is one of a group of sorority sisters who a decade ago made a pact never to tell a dark secret they all share. Now, as they face their thirtieth birthdays one by one, a serial killer stages a bloody solo surprise party for each of them. Clearly, someone has stumbled across their secret and is bent on revenge. As our heroine’s thirtieth birthday looms, with the killer closing in, she’s desperate to find out who it is. I’m also in the midst of two collaborations. One is MOST LIKELY TO DIE, a romantic suspense anthology with my good friends, fellow NY Times Bestselling authors Lisa Jackson and Beverly Barton. The other is JUST SAY NO, a comedic feature screenplay I’m writing with my husband and a screenwriter friend. It’s great to escape the isolation of my office yet still be involved in something creative–not to mention quite a hoot to collaborate with two guys on a romantic comedy!
Where can our readers learn more about you and your wonderful books?
If you had one piece of advice to give to a new author....what would it be?
If at all possible, get a job in a bookstore, library, or publishing house! I made a conscious decision to learn the book industry behind the scenes before attempting to become an author--the way you would approach any new business endeavor--and it really paid off. I worked in two bookstores and learned the retail end of the business. (i.e., do customers really arbitrarily choose a book for its cover? How important is shelf placement, pub month?) Then I moved to New York City, the center of the publishing industry, and became an acquiring editor of women’s fiction, where I learned what makes a manuscript marketable. I was able to network with industry insiders including several of my current editors, fellow authors, and my beloved Laura Blake Peterson at Curtis Brown Ltd., who remains my devoted agent to this day.
Wendy, thanks so much for coming by to chat with us! We have really enjoyed learning more about you and your wonderful books! Please come back again soon!
Thank you for the wonderfully thought-provoking questions–it’s been a pleasure!
