JAYNE INTERVIEWS SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS

JAYNE: Big News, friends and neighbors, we've got SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS, one of my all time favorite authors with us today. I love her books so much that when one comes out I am willing to overlook the fact that she wins all sorts of awards for her writing and I don't. I can even ignore the fact that she wore white pants at the annual fiasco known as the Susan & Jayne show at the Romance Writers of America Convention this year and if you know anything about wearing white pants you will realize how dicey that fashion statement can be. On the other hand, I suppose it beats the year she wore the swimsuit top. But that's another story....

Okay, right, the interview. Susan's big hardback bestseller, MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is finally out in paperback this week (Tuesday, Aug. 29th is the official on-sale date). Booklist called it "Deliciously fun romance" and "Dazzling". Publishers Weekly went with "Captivating" and "Delightful". If you haven't figured it out already, this is a great read. Tell us a little about the book, Susan:

SEP: Glad to. In MATCH ME, Annabelle Granger, a young woman with a checkered employment history, inherits her grandmother’s matchmaking business and takes on the client from hell, a super sports agent who expects her to find him the perfect wife. Unfortunately, his idea of perfect isn’t the same as hers. It’s a little like Bridget Jones meets Jerry McGuire.

JAYNE : In MATCH ME, you've returned to the world of the Chicago Stars. Why are you so fascinated by all those sweaty football players?

SEP: Because none of them would look at me twice when I was in high school, and this is my revenge. How pathetic is that? This time around, however, the hero of MATCH ME isn’t a football player, but a sports agent, and he’s only sweaty when he’s--uh… Never mind.

JAYNE: Moving right along, what is it about that world of professional sports that draws you as a writer?

SEP: I stumbled into it accidentally with IT HAD TO BE YOU, which was a fish-out-of-water story. (A woman who knows nothing about sports inherits a professional football team.) After that, the whole thing got away from me. It still cracks me up that I’ve become romance’s go-to girl for professional sports. I truly was the last kid chosen in gym class.

JAYNE: Nobody could ever accuse you of writing the same heroine over and over again. Annabelle Granger, the heroine of MATCH ME IF YOU CAN, couldn't be more different from Sugar Beth Carey, for example, in AIN'T SHE SWEET?"

SEP: True. Sugar Beth was the prototypical spoiled little rich girl, bless her heart. Annabelle, on the other hand, is the lone holdout in a family of overachievers. She’s the funny, smart, good-hearted woman all of us would love to have as our best friend.

JAYNE: You've been writing for about 25 years. Do you ever get tired of romance and think about writing something else?

SEP: Nope. I could write the happily-ever-after love story until I was a hundred and not get tired of it. I am increasingly interested, however, in expanding beyond the core hero-heroine love story to write about female friendships and family relationships, especially if I can put a comic slant to them as I do with Annabelle’s book club. (And Annabelle’s overbearing big brothers. Yikes.)

JAYNE: I've heard you've gotten some interesting reader email about a certain love scene on a balcony in MATCH ME.

SEP: And none of it negative. Imagine that.

JAYNE: Some of the characters in your other Chicago Stars books reappear in MATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Kevin Tucker from THIS HEART OF MINE, for example. How hard is it for you to reconnect with these early characters?

SEP: Not hard at all. I take a year and a half to write a book, so by the time I’m done, the characters are part of me forever. I had a fabulous time checking in on Kevin and Molly, especially because I wanted to see how their little girl, Victoria Phoebe, was coming along. That kid is a pip.

JAYNE: Are you planning any more Stars books?

SEP: THIS HEART OF MINE was supposed to be the last. I truly believed I’d reached the point where I couldn’t bring anything fresh to the characters. Then MATCH ME IF YOU CAN came along, and I started thinking about sports’ agents, and the next thing I knew, I was dealing with Heath Champion, otherwise known as The Python.

JAYNE: Oh, hey, there's a real visual. Guess that's why you win all those awards, huh?

SEP: As if that weren’t challenging enough, a young, egotistical quarterback named Dean Robillard sauntered into MATCH ME --diamond studs flashing in his ears--and I was once again hooked. Dean’s story, NATURAL BORN CHARMER, will come out in hardback on February 6, 2007. There’s a Sneak Peek at Chapter One in the back of the paperback edition of MATCH ME.

JAYNE: Anything else you want to tell us?

SEP: I guess I should let MATCH ME IF YOU CAN do my talking. I’d also like to invite your readers to visit me at www.susanelizabethphillips.com Thanks so much, Jayne, for letting me join you here. You have a fabulous blog.

JAYNE: Thanks, Susan. Great to have you with us. Nice white pants, by the way. Is that a bathing suit top you're wearing with them?

Folks, sartorial quirks aside, MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is a great way to finish off the summer. I highly recommend that you hit a bookstore this week to grab a copy or click on one of the links below.