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Animal Crackers |
Elle Druskin, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. Let's talk about
your book, Animal Crackers.
Genre: Contemporary romance, romantic comedy, small town romance
(Book 1 of The Liberty Heights series)
Buy links: Direct from publisher: Now at half price! http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=422&category_id=44&keyword=elle+druskin&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B008231P92/
Barnes and Noble: http://barnesandnoble.com/w/animal-crackers-elle-druskin/1111939207?ean=2940033297757
Publisher: MuseItUpPublishing
Cover artist: Lex Valentine
Length: 309K, 169 pages, 57,175 words
Heat rating: Sweet to sensual.
Tagline: Was that lap or laptop dancer? Stressed out Hayley Weaver
is out of work and out of luck. Stuck in Liberty Heights,
stuck with baby-sitting an exotic menagerie and pretty soon, stuck on cutie veterinarian
Jake Marx.
Blurb:
You’re fired. Karma really slammed Manhattan workaholic Hayley Weaver. Out of work,
out of money and out of luck. In desperation, she grabs the first job offered, house-sitting
a movie star’s home. How tough could it be? Water the plants, take in the mail.
Oops! Nobody told Hayley the house is in New
Jersey and loaded with more critters than the Beverly
Hillbillies. Local cutie and veterinarian Jake Marx is dying to meet a woman he
hasn’t known since kindergarten. With Jake on animal phobic Hayley’s speed dial,
the whole town is in cohoots to give Jake and Hayley their happily ever after.
What are your main characters' names, ages, and occupations?
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Life of the Party |
Twenty eight year old Hayley Weaver (“Hayley’s Comet”) is a New York workaholic public
relations expert. Make that former expert. She’s just been fired and evicted, all
in one day.
Jake Marx is a thirty two year old small town veterinarian who
desperately wants to meet a woman he hasn’t known since kindergarten.
Excerpt:
Hayley gritted her teeth. Darn that lady cop who had the build
of a Sherman tank.
How was she supposed to know the stupid rooster was hers? To top it off, that bulldozer
of a woman was the Chief of Police, too. The way she carried on, it was pure luck
the cop hadn’t shoved her in the local slammer.
After the police station fiasco, Hayley marched across the train
tracks to Animal Crackers to confront the veterinarian who thought everything was
so funny last night, because even if he was hot, she was hot, too. Burning up she
was so livid.
Some old lady peered through bifocals at her and tsked. What
a nerve. Who was she to be judging anyone? First that cop, now a woman who looked
like Sophia on The Golden Girls making a sour puss.
“Where’s Jake?”
“Are you the house sitter?” the old lady asked.
Hayley nodded.
“You’ll pardon my saying so, but you could do with a visit to
Andre.”
Andre. Maybe that was a goat. Or a horse. Wasn’t there a movie
about a seal with that name? God knew what else was running around. The whole town
was Animal Crackers as far as Hayley was concerned. As for Andre, with that French
name, for all she knew, he could be a cousin of that foul-mouthed parrot, Antoine.
Just that second, Jake poked his head out of a room. A huge smile
brightened his freshly shaved cheeks. Hayley staggered. Why did he have to be so
cute? She didn’t like him; he’d laughed at her, and he thought she was a neurotic
idiot after last night. Plus, she hadn't forgotten her sneaking suspicion he had
something going on with that bimbo actress Paulette Stone.
He was dressed in worn jeans and a T-shirt that said, “Have You
Kissed Your Vet Today?”
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To Catch a Cop |
No matter how she tried, Hayley couldn’t seem to avoid studying
his lips. Kiss A Vet. In his dreams before she’d kiss him. Never mind that she’d
dreamed about exactly that, and he’d been dynamite. She had more pressing problems,
and the last thing she needed to do was kiss a veterinarian.
“Henry is loose. I don’t know how he got out of the yard. I got
a ticket for him leaving, uh, deposits.”
Jake ducked his head to hide a smile.
“There must be a gap in the fence. I’ll ask Ed to have a look,
but Henry wanders. He has a fairly regular routine and usually heads to the same
place. He’s safe there. If Henry can’t get out, he might become distressed.”
“He’s right behind me.”
Hayley turned around and stared. No Henry. He was gone. The monster
beast had been right behind her, dogging her steps like a lovesick teenager only
two minutes ago.
“I lost him! I can’t wait to get out of here, and now I’ve lost
him!”
Jake shot a glance at the older woman who kept staring at her.
The vet had a funny look on his face, as if he was trying not to laugh. What the
hell was so hilarious?
“Um, not that it looks bad, but your hair is different. Kind
of shorter on one side.”
Hayley fumed. As much as she detested the mess she was in, she
was doing her best to be responsible, warning him that a deaf dog was lost, and
all he could talk about was her hair. Wise guy.
Her hair.
Shorter on one side. The nail scissors on the floor. Pansy. Please,
please, not that!
Hayley let out a screech that would have rivaled Wilbur’s decibels
and sunk down into a plastic chair. Her fingers threaded through her hair, and she
began to hyperventilate, gasping for air.
Pansy had scalped her. No wonder the old lady was staring.
“Calm down, or you’re going to faint. Nice, slow deep breaths.
I’ll get you some water.”
Jake handed her a plastic cup of cold water. Hayley gulped it
down. “I guess you’d rather have another drink, but we don’t keep alcohol around
the clinic.”
“A mirror.” She barely managed to rasp the words.
“You sure?”
Dread rose in her heart. It sounded as if he didn’t want her
to see the damage. It must be awful, and she’d walked around town without even knowing.
People had stared at her, but she thought it was because of Henry trailing her everywhere.
That hardware guy, Ed, had offered her one of those dumb Lemur baseball caps, and
she brushed it off like an annoying fly. His snickers made a lot more sense now.
God Almighty.
"Aunt Tilly, have you got a mirror for Ms. uh, what is your
name?”
“Weaver. Hayley Weaver.”
Tilly handed Hayley a tiny mirror from her handbag. Despite its
miniscule size, it was big enough to get an idea of the damage Pansy had inflicted.
Hayley gasped and snapped the compact shut. She couldn’t bear to look at it again.
“My hair! That no good Pansy scalped me!”
No more. She couldn’t take anymore. She’d put up with a nasty
French parrot, a deaf dog, and now a chimp who thought she was Phillippe, the snobby
Manhattan stylist.
Hayley burst into tears. Yesterday had been the worst day of
her life. Nothing could have been worse, and then today happened.
Jake crouched down in front of her and held her hands.
“Hey, it’s not so bad. Hair grows back.”
She sniffed and blinked at him.
“I paid a fortune to get it exactly right. I can’t go on job
interviews like this!”
“It’s not terrible, just a little uneven with those ends sticking
up like a Mohawk on one side. It’s asymmetric, but that could be trendy,” the old
lady said as if that helped and handed her a tissue.
Asymmetric? Whole chunks were gone. It looked like a blind man
had savaged her hair.
Interview
What websites do you visit
daily?
Hmm. I have limited time but I do regularly get on Twitter, Facebook,
my own website and blog (I don’t say I write something daily but I try to get there
as often as I can), Books and Writers Community--a fabulous online hangout for anyone
who loves books, reading, writing, etc. Anything and everything is discussed and
I would recommend that site to anyone interested in writing. I try to check in on
Amazon and Barnes and Noble to see what’s going on there too and occasionally get
on Pininterest. I’m not really conversant with that site. I visit Savvy Authors
and She Writes but not daily. I do trawl some other sites but certainly not with
regularity or every day.
What do you enjoy most
about life?
More and more, I’m grateful for the things I have rather than
thinking about what I don’t have. I’m grateful for family, friends, my dog, my health.
Money can’t buy those things and we need to really appreciate them. I’m also grateful
I live near the beach—I love the beach! You’re either a beach person or you aren’t
and I’m definitely a beach person.
If you could give the
younger version of yourself advice what would it be?
Take notes! I’ve had a lot of adventures and traveled extensively.
I do remember some of these things but not all of them.
Do you have a muse? Describe
this person, please.
I don’t know if you could call her my muse, but certainly the
writer I most admire is Diana Gabaldon. She’s a brilliant writer but also very accessible
and generous in her support for other writers.
Do things your family
or friends do ever end up in a book?
Not so much family and friends, but real incidents, yes. The
incident with the Japanese flag signifying the town’s lake has frozen and safe for
skating in Hanky Panky (Book 3 of The Liberty Heights series coming in December)
is true. It really did happen in my hometown. (Yes, it was New
Jersey, so it seemed kind of natural for Liberty Heights).
What are some jobs you've
done before (or while) you were a writer?
I started out as a nurse and I’m still a nurse but my work is
in academia so I’m a professor today. I also have a PhD in history. I’ve done a
fair amount of publishing academic work; journal articles and book chapters. It
all just kind of evolved. Writing fiction is a big leap from academic writing but
it’s still writing and any writing helps strengthen ability.
Which of your books would
you recommend to someone who doesn't normally read your genre, and why?
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Going to the Dogs |
It’s a good question and really depends on taste. Right now,
I would recommend Animal Crackers. It’s a fun read and the start of a series. People
that have been reading the books seem to fall in love with them. They love Liberty Heights and all the quirky characters, some
of whom get their own stories as the series progresses. That’s fun because it enables
all of us to get to know these characters with more depth. I know these books are
fiction, readers know they’re fiction, but to us, they’re real. That’s the consistent
message I get from readers--they totally accept this is fiction but believe it must
be real at some level. They consistently laugh (that’s good, they’re supposed to!)
and want to know more about the people, the town and the quirky things that happen.
This is kind of funny; I had an email from a reader asking for driving directions
to Liberty Heights. She was certain this must be a real
place. I was kind of sorry to disappoint her but it was nice that the town seemed
so real to her.
What kind of books do
you read when taking a break from your own writing?
Anything and everything. I’m a voracious reader. Normally, I
read 4 books a week, depending on the type of book. I read non-fiction, especially
history. Just love that! But I also read fiction in every genre. I’m a bookworm!
I learned to read when I was about 3 and just kept reading. I was also fortunate
to grow up in a home where reading and owning books was encouraged. The first step
in being a writer is being a reader. You have to be a good reader to be a good writer.
Whatever else you might have to give up to write, you can’t give up reading.
What is your favorite
holiday and why?
Thanksgiving, because it’s a great opportunity to sit down and
remember all the good things we have. Having lived outside the US for many years,
I really appreciate the American-ness of the holiday that has nothing to do with
religion, but a day to be grateful.
What good book have you
read recently?
I read voraciously, everything and anything. In fiction, I enjoyed
A Discovery of Witches. I didn’t think I would, but there you go. Not always a good
idea to pre-judge. I especially enjoyed the scenes set in Oxford because I was a guest there a number of
years ago and very familiar with the colleges and library.
In non-fiction, I just finished Rebecca Fraser’s A History of
Britain. I love history and I’ve read a fair amount on this subject before but I
still like re-acquainting myself with topics and possibly, learning something new
or remembering things I might have forgotten.
Where were you at midnight,
on December 31st when the new century started?
Honolulu.
What do you like to do
when you're bored?
No idea. I’m never bored because I’m overloaded with things that
have to be done and things I want to do.
If your life became a
movie, who would you want to play you?
Hah! We actually played this game at a high school reunion and
the consensus was I should be played by a young, I stress young, Lauren Bacall.
I was so flattered, I can’t tell you!
If you were a color, what
color would you be?
Pink. Hot pink!
Please Fill in the Blanks
I love pizza with cheese, and lots of it. I’m a purist!
I'm always ready for dancing.
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Elle Druskin |
When I'm alone, I read, write, watch tv, walk my dog, surf
the net, catch up with email.
You'd never be able to tell, but I try to be really organized.
(Here’s the but) I don’t appear organized because I’m always looking for things
that I’ve lost. So I end up most of the time looking for something else and finding
the original lost item.
If I had a halo it would be I
don’t really understand this question but I kind of doubt I’d be getting a halo
anyway.
If I could master surfing (“I’m working on it!) I'd live
at the beach.
I can never believe people think I’ve had a really interesting
life because it just seems normal to me. I’ve traveled a lot and lived in
other countries and I think this fascinates some people.
Previous Books
The Liberty
Heights series:
Animal Crackers (Book 1)
The Life of the Party (Book 2)
To Catch series:
To Catch A Cop
To Catch A Crook
Outback Hero
Going To The Dogs
Books Coming Soon
Hanky Panky (Book 3, The Liberty Heights series) coming in December
2012 from MuseItUpPublishing
Find Me Here
Website: http://elledruskin.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ElleDruskin
Blog: http://elledruskin.com