Bonnie Calhoun, Cooking the Books

Spotlight on Bonnie Calhoun, author of Cooking the Books and lots of other funny things! Win a copy by leaving a comment on this blogpost by Sunday night, April 29th for drawing on April 30.

I am so happy to introduce any of my readers who don't know Bonnie to a very special lady! I met her at an ACFW conference years ago, and like to reconnect with her at conferences and share some laughs. Plus she is one of the most unselfish and knowledgeable ladies I know at helping people who are techno-challenged as I am with cyber-related things and at helping other writers reach their potential which netted her the ACFW "Mentor of the Year" award last year. So, let's learn more about Bonnie, and be prepared to laugh! And be sure to check out the info about some of the zany characters in her book in the blurb below.


Bonnie, please tell us about your favorite book as a child and your favorite book as an adult. Can you see a connection between those books?

Hmmm…not in the least…when I was a little kid my favorite book was the Alice and Jerry series…See Jip. See Jip run. Run Jip run! ROFLOL…and all the books I like now have people running…for their lives. It always starts as ooh’s an ahhh’s but winds up as running and screaming…run woman run!

I grew up on Dick, Jane and Sally myself and it was "Run, Spot, run!" What is your favorite Scripture? Do you also have a favorite Scripture that encourages you in your writing?
That’s an easy one. It’s been my tagline for many years when I need a scripture to uplift. Phil 4:13…I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me! Amen and hallelujah!

Amen! If you could go to any place in the world to research/write a book, what setting would you choose?
Another one that brings on the hmm…I would go to Israel and study the Mosaad. But the way the state of the world is now I wouldn’t want to travel outside the country because the sentiment against us is too hostile…it would just wind up giving me more fodder for an international intrigue story…with running and screaming…and guns!

Bonnie, you know how little I know about computers, but I often wonder if I would write if I had to do it the old-fashioned way without computers and spell-checks and email. Is there anything about technology that you don't like? Or anything about it that you feel enhances your writing?
I love it all…although if I could just figure out a way to add all of my Facebook words to my writing totals I’d be much further along. Modern technology makes it so much easier. I remember the days of typewriters, whiteout, and printing full manuscripts to send out…and all the postage that went along with it. At today’s postal rates you would need a mortgage to send out a manuscript to several publishers.

Ha! As a writer how have you had to grow and stretch out of your comfort zone?
I’m sorta like Odie…my comfort zone is relevant to where I’m standing at the moment, and it changes numerous times a day. I’m not thin-skinned and always willing to learn, and I love editors, especially tough ones!

What advice would you give to a beginning writer that you wish someone had given you?
I was really blessed to learn from seasoned pros, so there weren’t any surprises for me. But the advice I’d give is to keep writing, and keep submitting. My agent Terry Burns loves to say, “Publishing isn’t a selection process, it’s a survival process.”

I love that and agree wholeheartedly. Do you want to add anything about your book such as how to order it?
You can find my book anywhere books are sold, especially Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Books-Sloane-Templeton-Mystery/dp/1426733887

Back Cover Blurb for Cooking the Books:

It's not easy being Sloane Templeton.



After her mother dies from a heart attack, Sloane Templeton goes from Cyber Crimes Unit to bookstore owner before she can blink. She also "inherits" a half-batty store manager named Felicia Tyler, better know as Fefe, bright red, tightly permed hair, wearer of noisy jewelry and ungodly bright spandex. She’s the half-batty manager of mom’s bookstore, and the batty part plays with loaded guns.


Then there’s a strange bunch of little old people from the neighborhood who meet at the store once a week called the Granny Oakleys Book Club who smell like food, but never read books. And Aunt Verline Buford, mom’s younger sister, who fancies herself as the Iron Chef, when in reality you need a cast-iron stomach to partake of her disasters. She had her last husband die of food poisoning, but they swear that she didn’t cause it.


And with a group like this you should never ask, “What else can go wrong?”


Mix in a pair of professors, several gun toting thieves, and a couple books worth a fortune and the outcome could be murder!

Bio:

Bonnie is owner of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, publisher the Christian Fiction Online Magazine, Northeast Zone Director for ACFW, President of Christian Authors Network, Appointment Coordinator for the Colorado Christian Writers Conference and the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, and ACFW ‘Mentor of the Year,’ for 2011.