And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Our Mystery Author this round is Vivian Arend.

This interesting lady lives in western Canada but has travelled the world extensively. Now she is bringing us adventure through her writing. Below, Vivian tells us about her travels and her writing.

When you are done, visit her at her website.

http://vivianarend.com/

Thank you, Vivian!

1. Tell us about your family.

Typical things? 2.5 children (the dog, you know) Hubby and I have now been together for more of our lives than we were apart. We’ve lived eleven places during our marriage, and we’re not a military family. Wanderlust is in our blood. We’ve also home schooled our children from the beginning, so holidays happen whenever we want, and moving isn’t as traumatic when school comes with you. There are times that having the kids around 24/7 is a little daunting, but mostly it’s been wonderful.

2. How did you meet your husband?

He was my boss. :blush: We both grew up in Calgary, Alberta and took summer jobs in a tiny community two hours away. It was my first time living away from home and talk about finding a place filled with excitement—there was a pizza parlour, a corner store and an outdoor swimming pool not much larger than they have in most hotels. My hubby managed the pool, I was senior guard. We fell in love while getting the best tans of our lives.

3. Your bio at the Samhain Publishing website says you have "a job experience list only slightly smaller than the average phone book." What are some of the more unusual jobs you've had? The least pleasant? And which weren't so bad?

Alphabetically now: Accountant, Baker, Coach, Dishwasher… ….Actually the one job that leaps to mind was the time I worked as a chef’s assistant at a summer camp. It was so exhausting. Whoever decided that lunch needed to come so close to breakfast was clearly not thinking. We’d get up at six am to start making up fruit trays—I still know how to cut a cantaloupe into bite-sized pieces in under a minute—and cook for 200 campers, then turn around and start lunch right away. By the time supper was done, and we’d prepared a late night snack, I was ready to crawl into bed.

Ickiest job? Cleaning up nasty things. Best job? Hands down winner—being a writer.

4. It also says you've "hiked, biked, canoed, kayaked and camped throughout Canada, Europe, Great Britain and the States, including Hawaii and Alaska."  Not too many people can say they've had that pleasure.  Any particularly memorable trips you could share with us?  What is the strangest experience you've had doing this?

Awe inspiring moments: visiting Mesa Verde, watching the Atlantic Ocean crash at the base of the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse. Driving Cape Breton Island. Driving the Alaskan Highway and stopping at glaciers that nearly reach the road. Sleeping out under the stars in a high alpine meadow in the Rocky Mountains. Taking the ferry from Valdez, Alaska to Whittier.

Heart thrilling: Kayaking on the Pacific Ocean in the Broken Island group (off Vancouver Island) and having a blinding fog move in and cover us. Canoeing in the ocean bay of Dyea, Alaska—one of the trailheads for the Chilkoot trail, route to the Gold Rush—and having a pod of Orcas surround us. Hiking along the Napali Coast on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to a massive waterfall and sleeping on the beach.

Life has been an adventure.

The strangest experience was when my hubby and I got stuck in downtown Amsterdam after the trams and trains had stopped running for the night and had to pop on a night bus to get home. The driver had been given his notice- it was his last day and he seemed a little peeved. We raced through the narrow streets at speeds you’d expect in an action thriller movie and all the time he laughed his head off like a manic.

5. At this point you have been releasing ebooks but will have a book in print this summer.  Are there any differences between writing one to the other?

Both of my print books for 2010 are ebooks that are now going to be released in print, so other than having to take what was already a finished product and do the final physical steps needed for print, my creative process hasn’t changed.

I plan on writing a full-length novel in the future with the intention of submitting it for print first, but I enjoy being published in ebooks as well. The actual writing will stay the same—I want to put my best efforts forward, and whether readers access it via their Kindle, or a print book or read it on their laptop—a good story is a good story.

The biggest difference I hear has to do with the timeframes between ebooks and print. I can write, submit, and see an ebook published in less than a year. Print books take longer—there are more physical steps to deal with.

6. Tell us about your newest ebook, TURN IT ON?

TURN IT ON celebrates families and how they drive us crazy make us whole. While Maxine and Ryan deal with the usual glitches of a new love affair, there’s more than one external force bent on wreaking havoc in their lives. It’s going to take all their combined skills to come out on top, and together.

What I love is that the characters don’t even understand at first what they have to give each other. Maxine comes from a large extended family and is now taking her first steps of independence. Ryan has perhaps been too much alone, and learning to accept help is a struggle.

The story is more about their relationship and personal growth than about the outside circumstances. It’s also a very hot and sensual read—one of the areas Maxine is turning on is her sexual freedom and Ryan is a wonderful man to teach her. Yet, it’s only as their emotional connection deepens that their sexual interaction becomes more intense.

I really enjoyed writing TURN IT ON, and look forward to completing one more book in this duo.

7. And what's coming up? Can you tell us what we'll be seeing from you in the summer?

That’s a loaded question. I have ten books on the coming soon list, in all kinds of genre and heat levels. My paranormal Granite Lake Wolf series is erotic but they aren’t flamethrower hot. Book 3, WOLF GAMES, is out March 23. There’s the second book of my the red-hot contemporary western series, ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAVEN, coming in June. A blazing hot futuristic ménage titled CLAIMING DERRYN, Feb 10.

And something rather fun—a pair of ‘twinned’ stories. These urban legends begin and end in the same place, but each story is told from the other heroine’s POV as the middle of the stories veer madly apart. Peerless and Faetful: twin sisters who are destined to take over rulership of Fae, unless they are the first to find their true love. For more information you can check my website. This summer I am looking forward to the release of my first print book. It’s an anthology of the first two Granite Lake books, WOLF SIGNS and WOLF FLIGHT. UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS will be available August 3, 2010.