I am delighted to be speaking with Kally Jo Surbeck today. Thanks for chatting with us today and welcome to FAR!

Thank you very much for having me here. FAR is one of my favorite places to hang out, get the dirt, and find some good reads!

To start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I suppose people have heard all sorts of things. Some probably more than they want to know. I write action/adventure, High Fantasy, with romantic elements. Meaning I have a lot of other things going on besides the love story - but not the love story cannot come out or no book. I have served my local and national chapters and still do my best to give back to a community that has helped me so greatly.

What is your favorite part of a book to write?

My name on a contract :-) No Wait - my name on a deposit slip. All playing aside I like writing the beginning. The middle I start to get nervous because I know it's close to the end and I will have to say goodbye to the characters. The end is good for accomplishing something, but it's also hard to say goodbye.

What is the hardest part of bringing out a book? Surviving the editor? The last chapter?

Waiting to hear if anyone bought it, read it, what they think.

The sales from Bound By Hope were donated to the United Through Reading program. Can you tell us more about this program and what brought you to donate to them?

I have always been active in one way or another in supporting our troops. I have a family that's served. I have had boyfriends who served. So my connection is only natural. UNITED THROUGH READING®

An underway quality of life program for military families that helps keep parents and children connected during long deployments through the medium of reading aloud on video tape or DVD.

Is it hard for you to balance your life as a writer? How do you manage it?

I do what I can. Some might not say it's real balanced. I try to make time for my family and friends. It's hard when you are on a deadline, but there is always time for what means the most to you.

If you could switch places with a heroine from one of your books, who would you chose and why?

This is really tough. Most of my heroines have some serious ordeals. Of the books currently in print (e or print) I would say that I would most like to KNOW Mac (FOR THE LOVE OF Book I Luck Of the Irish) but trade places with...That is a tough call for me between Isobel (NO NEUTRAL GROUND Book Such As These) and Tannah from WHISPERED PROMISE Book II Yadderwal balance. It's a matter of control, their men, their power in society and who they know.

Tempting Fate is currently out from Phaze, can you tell us more about this story and where the inspiration for it came from?

Tempting Fate is a fun anthology with Rena Marks, Kara Fey, Melissa Schroeder and myself. We all got to pick one of the sisters of Fate and kind of give it our spin. Foreword: From time before time, there are tales that have reached out through history, marking our past and illuminating our present. These stories have been passed down from one generation to the next since before there was written word. Then came the symbols and the phrasings and many of these stories lost their power. They fell from truth to myth to fable.

Tragic. Yet the truth of them remains.

The fables of yester-year are the reality of this universe. The binding agent that is and always will be. Every myth that has been uttered has some grain of truth behind its inception.

Now, at a culmination of a new age, we come to tell you a truth. Not all of them, for each man, woman, and child must seek the truth themselves, but we, the bards, the scholars, the mystics, we will tell you a little something about The Fates.

The Fates are real.

The Fates have feelings, too.

And if you, our friend, are wise, you will not tempt the Fates, for as you know it is never advisable to interfere with cornered women on a mission.

"The threads which the Fates spin are so unchangeable, that, even if they decreed to someone a kingdom which at the moment belonged to another, and even if that other slew the man of destiny, to save himself from ever being deprived by him of his throne, nevertheless the dead man would come to life again in order to fulfill the decree of the Fates ... He who is destined to become a carpenter, will become one even if his hands have been cut off: and he who has been destined to carry off the prize for running in the Olympic games, will not fail to win even if he broke his leg: and a man to whom the Fates have decreed that he shall be an eminent archer, will not miss the mark, even though he lost his eyesight."

[Flavius Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 8.7]

Where would you say that you get your most creative ideas?

In the water. Bathtub, hot tub, swimming pool, shower, brushing my teeth, drinking water.

Could you tell us what your currently working on?

I am currently working on 3 more proposals in the Yadderwal Balance Series. I am working on the Purgatory series that Melissa Schroeder and I are doing and I have a Mainstream romantic comedy I am working on.

You have 3 wishes, what are they? 3 more wishes?

I would ask to always have enough money. Like every time I wrote a check or used my credit card or went for the cash in my wallet, there was always enough money. I would wish for my family's health to be restored. And I would wish that the world could chill out. I know the temp is rising, but we have to find a way to settle back and work together.

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

We'll see you at RT! Thanks for playing.

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

Interviewed by: Tammy