With us today is Laurie Breton, Bestselling Author of Final Exit from MIRA Books. Thank you Mrs. Breton for being here today.

Thank you for inviting me, Mary!

Could you tell us what prompted you into writing...

As a child, I always had stories rolling around in my head. Once I was old enough to pick up a pencil, I started writing them down, and I've been doing it ever since.

Your newest release, Lethal Lies sounds intriguing. Can you tell us more about it?

Faith Pelletier comes home to the fading mill town of Serenity, Maine, after her newspaper reporter cousin Chelsea dies in an automobile accident. The authorities believe that Chelsea committed suicide, but Faith knows her cousin would never have deliberately orphaned her fifteen-year-old daughter. Suspecting murder, Faith begins poking into Chelsea's life and the news stories she'd been working on. Her digging unearths a hornet's nest of racism, violence, and drug trafficking that places her own life in jeopardy. Can her childhood friend Ty Savage, now Serenity's sexy police chief, save Faith before she becomes the next victim?

What prompted the story idea?

It all started with an image that kept haunting me, the image of a car being pulled from a river in front of a grim-faced group of spectators. I asked myself who was the driver and how she ended up in the river, and the story just evolved from there.

How did it feel to be on the USA Today Bestseller List with Final Exit?

It was a bit of a shock. My agent called me up and said, "Congratulations, your book is number 106 on the USA Today bestseller list." It was totally unexpected. What a rush! I went to the USA Today web site and printed out the page, and it's taped to the wall beside my desk.

Did you ever think when you set out to be a writer, that you would come this far in such a short period of time?

I think I've been incredibly lucky to be picked up by Mira as a relative unknown (after three small-press books). I just signed my second multi-book contract, and Mira has given me excellent print runs, good publicity, and worldwide distribution. One of my books (Final Exit) was even translated into Italian! So I guess the answer to that question is no, I didn't expect it. I've truly been blessed.

How does your family feel about it?

They're my biggest supporters.

What did you do when you sold your first book?

I e-mailed my critique partner, who immediately called me and we did the happy dance together over the phone.

How did you celebrate?

You know...I don't remember! But I do always make a point, whenever I sign a new contract or receive a royalty check, to buy myself some little luxury that I've been wanting. So I give myself little mini-celebrations on a regular basis.

Tell us more about "Drive Bye Book Signings"...

I'm a major introvert, and "real" book signings, where I have to sit and smile at strangers and try to hawk my books for two or three hours at a stretch, is so painful that I'd rather stay home. I got the idea for the "drive-by" variety from another author on the Mira loop. I just make up a list of bookstores in semi-geographical order, get in the car, and hit as many as I can in a single day. I introduce myself to the staff and ask if I can sign what they have in stock. The response is always enthusiastic. I sign the books, the staff slaps "autographed copy" stickers on them, I thank them and go on my merry way. Autographed books usually get face-out placement and stay on the shelves longer, and those shiny stickers attract readers who might not even notice the book without them. That's very important when you're not a big name and trying to build an audience. You have to get your book into people's hands, then it has to sell itself. But it won't get the chance to sell itself if nobody ever notices it. And I really enjoy meeting the bookstore people. They're almost always there because they love books, which is something I can relate to!

Is it difficult to balance family, The Dreaded Day Job, and writing?

Oh, yes…its difficult finding and maintaining that balance between all those competing priorities. Fortunately, my kids are grown, so I'm not facing child-rearing responsibilities, but of course I still make lots of time in my life for hubby, my two grown kids and their significant others, and my beautiful new granddaughter. I've been at my day job for nearly twenty years, and my fondest dream is to someday quit and write full-time. But that day hasn't yet come. The hardest part for me, juggling all those responsibilities, is that I have chronic illnesses -- sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, and Type 2 diabetes among others -- which sap my energy. I can't do as much as I used to, I'm just so tired all the time. I've found that what works best for me is to do my writing first thing in the morning, before work. Hubby goes to work at 6 a.m., and now that I no longer have to ferry my daughter to high school, I have a couple hours of free time in the mornings. This works well for me because by the end of the work day, my brain is generally fried to the point where doing any kind of creative work is nearly impossible. I wrote Lethal Lies almost entirely between 5 and 7 a.m. because that was when my brain was engaged enough to write. Evenings are dedicated to spending time with hubby, watching The Young and the Restless, which we tape every weekday and watch while we eat supper (yes, I admit, I'm a hopeless addict...but hubby's the one who got me hooked on it...he used to watch it on his lunch hour, and his watching turned into an addiction!).

Do you have a special place that you write?

Now that my daughter has been out of the house for over a year and we're pretty sure she's not coming back, we recently cleared out her old room, which we'd been using for storage, freshened it up with new paint (green, my favorite color!) and area rugs, and I've taken it over as an office. I love it! It's twice the size of the room I was using before (which will be a guest room once we've painted and papered), and I've decorated it to my taste (lots of bright colors and a semi-tropical theme). I have my writing area, my bookshelves, my two lovebirds, Max and Pumpkin, my art table and my exercise bike. This is my hideaway, and so cozy that even my husband comes up there and just sits sometimes. He made me a desk out of two wooden file cabinets and a six-foot length of kitchen countertop. Now I have room to spread out, and everything I need is right at my fingertips!

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Yes, ever since I first picked up a pencil around the age of eight and wrote down my first story. As a child, when my parents would take me to a department store, I invariably gravitated to the stationery department. Forget toys. There was just something so magical about all that blank paper, waiting to have words written on it, and all those pens that were tools for my imagination. To this day, I still have a tendency to buy notebooks, bound journals, and pens just because I can't resist the stuff.

What advice can you give to any of us aspiring Authors out there?

Be persistent. Write, write, write, and submit, submit, submit. That's the deep, dark secret that separates unpublished writers from published ones. The published writers are the ones who didn't give up.

And finally, can you tell us what's coming next from the fantastic imagination of Laurie Breton?

In Criminal Intent (due out in 2006), Robin Spinney stumbles across evidence that her deputy sheriff husband was murdered to silence him after he uncovered the truth about a crime and cover-up in the sheriff's department. Robin and her teenage daughter flee for their lives, starting over in a new place under assumed names. When her past catches up to her, Robin must find the courage to face her enemy and to trust the one man who can help her.

Thank you very much Mrs. Breton for your time today. If you'd like to visit Laurie's site, you may do so here, http://www.lauriebreton.com

Thank you, Mary!

Interviewed by: Mary