I am delighted to be speaking with J.B. Skully today. Thanks for chatting with me today J.B. and welcome to FAR!

First I must point out that you also write under the pseudonyms Jasmine Haynes and Jennifer Skully. What made you decide to use pseudonyms?

The problem is I have multiple personalities! Just kidding. I like to write different types of things, erotic romance, comedy, and of course, the darker paranormal. I like the freedom having the three pseudonyms gives me to indulge myself in different romance genres. J.B. Skully writes with a much darker tone, and of course, Jennifer Skully is on the opposite end of the spectrum, being very light and funny. Having the three pseudonyms also identifies for readers that they should expect something different. I wouldn’t want to shock my Jennifer Skully readers with a Jasmine Haynes erotic romance without preparing them first!

Could you tell us more about your current release Sheer Dynamite as Jennifer Skully?

Sheer Dynamite is my first “light” paranormal for HQN. I had a lot of fun writing it, especially my heroine’s Grandma Blue. I patterned her after the grandmother of a close friend of mine. I found her to be totally hilarious and had to put her in a book. Here’s a brief synopsis for you.

In a family of bona fide psychics, Opal Smith feels very much like a misfit, wanting just to belong. So she’s more than thrilled when she has her first honest-to-goodness vision! But she needs Jack Davis’s help to prove her vision is real and to prevent it from becoming reality. To Jack—who has had too much “crazy” in his life already—Opal is one more crazy that he doesn’t need. Yet he never bargained on Opal’s matchmaking grandmother, who swears he’s the reincarnation of Dynamite Davis—her all-time favorite race car driver! Before he knows it, Jack is more determined than ever to save Opal from her zany family...and herself! With Grandma Blue involved, their relationship has to be Sheer Dynamite.

You also have It Must Be Magic due out in June. Could you tell us more about it?

It Must Be Magic has a very simple premise. What does a woman who can telepathically communicate with animals do when her neighbor’s cat tells her it saw a murder? Here’s a brief synopsis on that for your readers.

Everyone believes in carpe diem...don’t they?

For flower shop clerk Lili Goodweather that’s what life is supposed to be all about--savoring life’s precious moments and all the beauty the world has to offer. So it saddens her when 12-year-old Erika Rutland can’t see the magic in everyday moments anymore. Worse yet--it’s her widowed father, Tanner Rutland’s doing. A firm believer in all things practical, Tanner doesn’t want his daughter’s mind filled with Lili’s nonsense--especially her claims that she can communicate with cats, of all things! Yet there’s something about Lili that Tanner just can’t ignore. But can this single-minded career man give up everything he believes for a little touch of magic?

What is the biggest misconception about being an author?

That once you sell a book, you get rich! Hah! Sorry, I’m laughing hysterically. I didn’t get rich, but I wouldn’t give up the writing life for anything.

When did you decide to take "pen in hand" and write with the intent to publish?

I decided in 1995. I’d written several books, most of which should never EVER see the light of day, and I realized I needed to hone my writing craft. I knew I could complete a book and come up with a good story, but I couldn’t execute the story well. So, I joined the Romance Writers of America, found a great critique group, and did just that. RWA is a great place to learn the craft of writing. It still took me another 8 years to publish though!

Open Invitation came out last month from Jasmine Haynes; could you give us a peak at it?

Open Invitation is a trilogy of stories about three best friends who take a walk on the wild side. It’s my sexiest work to date, a Berkley HEAT release, but reviews call it tasteful and emotional. I like writing the trilogies because they allow me to explore several different characters’ stories. I think Open Invitation is special because it’s about older men and women. All the characters are in their forties, and the book exemplifies that passion isn’t just for the young, but for the young at heart. And here’s a peek at the stories.

Three best friends take a trip to The Sex Club—where a deliciously heart-pounding time is had by all…

A bachelorette party at a place called The Sex Club is the last place Debbie Carter expects to find the man of her fantasies. But in “Invitation to Seduction,” Stephen wants to be that and so much more—if only Debbie will let him…

The fourth time’s the charm? So thinks Virginia Hansen, whose fourth walk down the aisle is with Mr. Nice Guy—without the sparks. That is, until she considers offering her new husband, Brett, an “Invitation to Pleasure”—and he more than happily accepts…

In “Invitation to Passion,” fortysomething Stacy Parrish is used to surrounding herself with young studs who worship her beautiful body. But when an older man named Judson McCord turns up the heat, she wonders if the secret to eternal youth might be standing right in front of her…

And coming in January 2008, my Jasmine Haynes’ release will The Fortune Hunter.

Do you have any bad writing habits?

Yes! I procrastinate when I have to revise. I love writing the first draft of a book but hate revising. So I do my laundry and go shopping and have lunch with friends and...the list of avoidance techniques goes on and on.

How do you know what to name your books or the characters?

I collect names I hear and like, keeping them in a file. Funnily enough, spam is great for names. When I’m ready to start naming characters, I read through the file until I find a name that jumps out at me. Sometimes, a character tells me his or her name. Don’t quite know how that happens, but oddly, it does. For example, in the book I’m working on currently for HQN, Your Heart Or Mine my hero told me his name is Colton Amory, but he goes by Cole for short. He’s a musician, so I wonder if Colton comes from the piano maker, but who really knows. Sometimes writing is a mystery! As for titles, I usually start with a title and a premise and the book grows out of it. In my first HQN, Sex and the Serial Killer, the premise was about a man who everyone in town had decided was a serial killer, simply because they didn’t like him. And my heroine wants to prove she’s still desirable, after being dumped by her husband, by hooking the serial killer. So the title and the premise came together, the title defining that it’s a light comedy by the reference to Sex and the City.

Do you have any special rituals to help you get in the mood to write?

I treat writing like a job, at least are far as sitting down to write. You don’t get in the mood to write, you just write. If I waited for the mood to strike me, I don’t think I’d ever finish anything! It’s very special, however, when you suddenly realize that everything is flowing and really, it’s not work at all!

You have the Max series under J.B. Skully. Could you tell us more about the Max books?

There are 5 books in all as of right now, but who knows what the future holds! Here’s a brief description of the series concept.

Thirty-something, down on her luck accountant Max Starr has the unfortunate gift of being psychic, a newly-discovered wrinkle in her already messed up life. Her husband, Cameron, is dead, killed in a botched 7-11 robbery almost two years ago. She’s cut herself off from friends, moved out of her San Francisco home in favor of a studio apartment, and dumped her flourishing career as a CPA to do temp work.

Yet Cameron never left Max. He’s stayed in ghostly form to help her move on with her life. Without him. And with DeWitt (Witt) Quentin Long, the Columbo-style homicide detective. Witt’s a bulldog. Once he’s got the bone of a clue between his teeth, he won’t let go until he fits it to the puzzle.

And Max is going to need both her heroes when she finds herself possessed by the spirit of a murdered woman and has to solve the crime to exorcise her demon!

Did you start Dead to the Max with the intentions of making it a series?

I really had only one book in mind, but halfway through that first book, I realized that my heroine Max was not going to “heal” in just one book. I also fell in love with my detective Witt Long and I wanted to make sure Max had time to fall in love with him, too. Okay, I was matchmaking for them, crossing my fingers that I could get her to see that he was really a great guy and perfect for her in a lot of ways. So I knew it would take more than one book to get Max to “see the light,” so to speak. In case you haven’t guessed, the characters took me over and MADE me write more.

If you could be invisible for one hour, what would you do and where would you go?

Okay, an hour probably wouldn’t be enough for this, but I’d sneak into that secure facility where they have all the secret hidden records on Kennedy’s assassination and find out who really did it! I love a good mystery, but I also like to have it solved. I want to know what really happened! It’s the same thing as figuring out who Jack the Ripper was. Drives me nuts not knowing. But it drives a lot of other people nuts, too, if you look at the number of books written on both those subjects.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?

Thanks so much for talking with me today! I love to hear from readers. They can email me at skully@skullybuzz.com. I also have an e-newsletter for updates on upcoming releases. Readers can subscribe by sending an email to skullybuzz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Thank you for taking time to speak with me today J.B. Readers be sure to check out J.B.’s website.

Interviewed by: Tammy