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Today critic Angela Wilson chats it up with this week’s featured author, Morgan Mandel.

Who is Morgan Mandel?

I’m a Chicago area author with a light and dark side. I’m just as apt to write a romantic comedy, as I am to write a mystery or thriller. My new release is the romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams. Prior to that, my mystery, Two Wrongs, was released. The themes and moods are worlds apart. I’m also a dog lover and hope to one day get a book published about Rascal, my part Amstaff, part Dalmatian, who is very mischievous and totally cute. At one time I freelanced, writing human interest stories for the Daily Herald newspaper.

When did you start writing?

I began writing about 13 years ago, after attending a Chicago-North RWA program at the local library. That’s when I figured out that authors were real people. If I worked hard enough, maybe I could be an author too. I joined their group, but had lots to learn before I got published. It took 10 years to get a contract.

What is your muse?

My muse is a fickle pest that attacks me at the most inconvenient times, like when I’m in church and an idea pops into my head. That’s when I try to concentrate on the service without losing my story inspiration. Also, the muse strikes when I’m trying to fall asleep. Another time is when I’m walking to my day job in Downtown Chicago and I overhear a conversation.  Still, the most favorite time for my muse to strike is when I’m concentrating on a work-in-progress. It does its best to try and lure me away, but I fight it.  Tons of ideas flash through my mind, but the trick is to follow through first with the one at hand. That’s the hard part. 

Tell us about your latest, Girl of My Dreams.

In Girl of My Dreams, the heroine is a temporary assistant for a producer at a dying TV studio.  Food poisoning strikes the set of her boss’s creation, a new reality show called Girl of My Dreams, leaving the set one contestant short. To save the producer and the studio, instead of following her assignment to round up another contestant, she underhandedly steps in herself.  After the Makeup, Hair and Wardrobe Departments are through with her, she’s transformed from staid assistant to vamp. The prize is a handsome millionaire. Instead of getting eliminated in the first round as she’d expected, she advances further. It looks like she may even win the millionaire, but the catch is she doesn’t want him. She loves the producer who’s not happy she’s turned into a hot dish like his screen star mother whom he despises.  Will money change her mind, or will she change the producer’s mind?

Do you ever find it difficult to balance the writing life with the real world?
It’s almost impossible to balance my writing world and the real world, but I do my best. I don’t have enough time to do everything and always feel like I’m playing catch-up. One reason is the more I know, the more I learn. On the one hand, I’m promoting my published books. On the other, I’m trying to finish my works-in-progress.  I work four days a week as an administrative assistant, but wish I could afford to work as an author every day. I spend my commuting time on the train reading and replying to e-mail, marketing or working on my new books. When I get home, I’m usually at the computer again, glancing at the TV occasionally. My husband’s used to it by now. He does his own thing and watches wrestling, football, baseball, depending on the season. He’s great at promoting my books, bringing them up in conversations and reminding me to hand out bookmarks at places I wouldn’t think of. If I didn’t absolutely love writing, I wouldn’t do it.

How much of yourself is in your characters?
In Two Wrongs, the main character attended my alma mater, DePaul University. I also make reference to a childhood memory of one of the characters who ate an ice cream-coconut creation called a snowman at Marshall Field’s Walnut Room. I remember doing the same thing. In Girl of My Dreams, I also include personal details about myself.  My heroine can’t see without her glasses and wears size AA shoes. I’m guilty of both.

What is your FAV writing conference?
Hands down, Love is Murder is my favorite conference. I’ve been to every one of them. Each year’s conference gets better. One of the many things that’s great is everyone is treated equally, whether you’re published or not, with a small press or large. At Love is Murder 2008, I sat next to Tess Gerritsen at a book signing, had lunch at the same table as Lee Child, appeared on a panel with Barry Eisler and J. A. Konrath, and also pitched to editors and agents.  I couldn’t ask for more.

Who are you reading?
I just finished Ordinary Me by June Sproat, a refreshing novel about how a young woman’s life changes from ordinary to extraordinary. The author’s voice is so strong and charming I had no trouble bonding with the character, though she’s much younger. In my To Be Read pile are: A Hotel in Paris by Margot Justes, State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy, Body Double by Tess Gerritsen, Saving Destiny by Pat White, and way too many more to mention. I don’t have as much time to read as I’d like.

Who is your greatest champion?
I don’t have any particular champion. I admire everyday people who do their best to get by in life, follow their dreams and not hurt anyone in the process.

What is the No. 1 question you get from readers?
People always ask me how long it takes to write my books. The answer is deceptive. I wrote Two Wrongs 10 years before it was published. That’s because I put the book aside and worked on others in the meantime, then went back and polished it up. What I’d learned in the interim made the difference between being unpublished and published. There was only a two year interval between the publication of Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams.  It took me only a little over a year to write Girl of My Dreams, but it took a while before I got the okay for publication.

What inspires you?
Anything and everything inspires me.  Newspaper articles, my own frustrations, people’s attitudes, conversations, places, television. I never know when an idea will pop into my head.

Where can we find you on the Web?
Everywhere!!
Seriously, my main website is www.morganmandel.com
I’m also at:
http://www.myspace.com/morganmandel
http://bookplace.ning.com
http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com
www.juniorscave.com/morganmandel.html
www.hardshell.com
www.amazon.com
http://chicagonorthrwa.org

Not to mention, Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, almost anywhere else you can think of, along with many popular Yahoo romance and mystery listservs, as well as Ning networks.