And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Madeline Baker began her career writing historical romance. Over the years, she gained a huge following of loyal readers. Later, she switched to paranormal romance writing as Amanda Ashley. Her fanbase has grown even more. Readers, old and new alike, look forward to each book Amanda puts out because of her unique and addictive style.

Read below for the answers to the questions put to Madeline/Amanda. Then go to her websites. You can find out about her historicals at http://www.whittierca.com/mbaker.htm and about her paranormals at http://amandaashley.com/

Thanks, Amanda!

1. After visiting both of your author sites, I was wondering - Has Madeline retired from writing for the moment?

Unfortunately, yes. The publisher that published my historicals decided my books weren't selling well enough and so they didn't renew my contract. My last historical was DAKOTA DREAMS, published by Signet Books.

2. I just finished reading DEAD SEXY and loved it. With all of the paranormal/vamp books out there, it was refreshing to find one that wasn't the same old story. How did you come up with the idea of having Vampires confined to a concentrated area? Vampires openly living in the human world?

I have to thank my Muse for that one! It was a fun idea, and I had a wonderful time writing it. One thing I love about writing vampire books is that you can pick and choose which myths you want to explore and use and which don't fit with the story you want to tell.

3. Also, I love that it is obviously set in the future, but perhaps not that far. If you had to pick a year or decade it is set in, what would it be?

Hmm, I never really gave it any thought. If I had to pick a year, I'd say 2050.

4. This sort of touches on the first question, but... When the whole vampire craze ebbs, and it is bound to sooner or later, do you see yourself going back to historical romance or is there another sub-genre you would like to try out?

At the moment, I can't imagine not writing about vampires or at least something with paranormal elements. I'd love to write historicals again, if I can find a new publisher. I have a time travel book written; unfortunately, no one seems to want it. With the new Dresden Files and Blood Ties series being popular right now, I'm hoping vampire interest will remain high for a long, long, time.

5. My youngest and I were checking out Teddi's (Mandy's pomeranian) page and agree he is just the cutest thing. It seems like everyone who has a toy-sized dog dress them up. Does Teddi ever have to wear the outfits and such? And how are things going with the turtle and Tigger?

Teddi isn't fashion-conscious :) I've never been one to dress up my pets. The only thing I've ever put on Teddi is a hat, and she didn't like it. Tigger is into everything and constantly breaking things. My husband says that cat has broken more things than all our kids put together! My tortoise is growing. He's now about 5 inches long. He's really cute, and sort of a family tortoise, since my son has the mother and father.

6. Checked out your myspace page. How in the world did you get started collecting Rubber Ducks? LOL How many do you have?

LOL... I don't know how I started collecting rubber ducks. I just think they're really cute. My fav is a vampire duck that Christine Feehan gave me. Altogether, I have 23.

7. Can you tell us about your family? Have your kids gotten used to hearing, "That's your mom? I love her books!" ?

My boys are grown. To my knowledge, none of them has ever read one of my books. A couple of my daughters-in-law read my books. One of them said that while she and my son were in the car, she was reading aloud from one of my books. When she got to a love scene, my son said, "Stop! I don't even want to know what she was thinking". I always thought that was funny. My best friend also reads my books. She said she was reading one and she laughed out loud. Her son asked her why she was laughing and she said it was something she'd read in my book, and her son replied, "If Mandy wrote it, how funny can it be?" It's things like that that keep you humble.

8. From your bio, it took some time before getting published. What were you doing in the meantime?

Just writing and raising my kids. I had a list of publishers who published historical romances. I would send out a query letter to the top name on the list, and then go back to writing and mothering. When I got a rejection, I went to the next publisher, etc. I think I'd written 3 or 4 books and received 31 rejections before I finally sold one.

9. Tell us about your July release, "NIGHT'S TOUCH".

Oh, I love this book. It's a sequel to NIGHT'S KISS. If you've read NIGHT'S KISS, you'll remember that Brenna and Roshan adopted a baby at the end of the story. NIGHT'S TOUCH is Cara's story, and one of my favorites. I've never been good at summarizing my books, so I'll just include the cover copy:

Cara DeLongpre wandered into the mysterious Nocturne club looking for a fleeting diversion from her sheltered life. Instead, she found a dark, seductive stranger whose touch entices her beyond the safety she's always known and into a heady carnal bliss...

A year ago, Vincent Cordova believed that vampires existed only in bad movies and bogeyman stories. That was before a chance encounter left him with unimaginable powers, a hellish thirst, and an aching loneliness he's sure will never end—until the night he meets Cara DeLongpre. Cara's beauty and bewitching innocence call to his mind, his heart—his blood. For Vincent senses the Dark Gift shared by Cara's parents, and the lurking threat from an ancient and powerful foe. And he knows that the only thing more dangerous than the enemy waiting to seek its vengeance is the secret carried by those Cara trusts the most.

I've also written a sequel to NIGHT'S TOUCH (untitled at the moment) and I think it's one of my best. It will be published in October of 2008. I also have a book coming out in February of 2008 titled DEAD PERFECT, which sounds like a sequel to DEAD SEXY, but it isn't.

10. Can you tell us about what you are working on now?

I've just barely started my second sequel to NIGHT'S TOUCH. I'm not really far enough into the book to tell you what it's about, since at this point, even I'm not sure where it's going.