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What makes your favorite writer tick, and how does his or her imagination find its way to the page and into stores and then into your hands and your hearts? Whether you’re a reader or a writer or an uber fan of one of publishing’s top stars, you’ll find something juicy to sate your curiosity, the first and third Wednesday of every month at I Write THOSE Books.

I’m a writer. Have been my whole life. My childhood was about writing in secret—because when you’re a kid you hide your dreams in your journal and your teenage angst in the poetry that no one sees, and you pretend you’re normal like everyone else. As an adult, I morphed from a computer programmer into a Senior Tech Writer, after inheriting the end-user and technical documentation responsibilities on every IT job I worked. And that might have been enough, even though I still yearned to be free and creative and writing outside the box. Until the day a tech writer friend asked, “Have you ever thought about writing fiction?”

Fast forward ten years from that watershed moment, and I’m still a working writer. Only now I’m chasing a different kind of paycheck, because I make my living writing romantic suspense and paranormal thrillers. You know, THOSE books. I get to dream for a living and send those fantasies out into the world. What could be better than that!

I’ll grant you, it’s totally different life than climbing a corporate ladder. It’s surreal existence, when I meet fans and readers and hear their enthusiasm. It can be painful, too, when bad reviews or cranky reader comments trickle in for a favorite project. And the life of a commercial fiction writer is often a solitary reality. One that many readers crave a peak at…

After all, what drives someone to create alternative worlds filled with imaginary characters? Why would someone paint stories onto paper and, through the machine of modern publishing, invite strangers along for the ride? How does all this really work, anyway: the insatiable creativity that refuses to be silenced; the drive to write alone for hours, days, months, even years with no guarantee that you’ll ever publish; the vision and the discipline that it takes to create; and all the more practical parts of the business that come to bare once a writer has a contract in hand and she has to promote her work to a flooded market?

Basically, what makes your favorite writer tick, and how does his or her imagination find its way to the page and into stores and then into your hands and your hearts?

I Write THOSE Books will be answering your publishing must knows. We’ll delve into - and shatter some of the - popular myths about fiction writers and publishing. Through my industry contacts and my own experiences as a nationally bestselling author working for multiple publishers, I’ll give equal time to both the creative and business sides of common questions and trendy topics. And I’ll share glimpses of the excitement and spectacle and hard work and business models that define a writer’s corner of the entertainment industry.

So, whether you’re a reader or a writer or an uber fan of one of publishing’s top stars, you’ll find something juicy here to sate your curiosity, the first and third Wednesday of every month—starting November 4th, where I’ll be delving into something other-wordly-sounding called NANOWRIMO ;O)

See you then!

Anna DeStefano is a nationally best selling, award-winning author of classic romance and paranormal thrillers. Her debut paranormal romantic suspense, Dark Legacy, is available now, while she’s hard at work writing its sequel, Secret Legacy, due on shelves Fall, 2010.