And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Our Mystery Author this round is Cheryl Brooks. I think you'll agree that this is a lady of many talents. Read on and find out why. After you have finished, I know you will want to visit her at her website to learn even more about her and her books.

http://cherylbrooksonline.com/index.html

Thanks, Cheryl!

1. Checking out your website, I see you enjoy some of the best hobbies ever. First, tell us about your horses! You have four? Five? How long have you been riding? Do you compete with them? Western or English?

I've been riding since I was eight or nine years old and currently have four horses. Kira, a gray thoroughbred/Shire cross mare, is the oldest, and is the mother of Jadzia, a chestnut mare, who is by a Quarter horse, and Damar, a chestnut gelding by a thoroughbred. Kes is a bay breeding stock Paint mare, and the only one that I ride western. Kira and Jadzia are ridden English, and both have some dressage training. Damar is going to a dressage trainer this spring. The only time I've competed was on Jadzia at a couple of dressage schooling shows,but I had a bad fall right after that, which messed up my knee and my confidence. It's been several years since that happened, and though I'm more confident again, I find that I ride less and less all the time, mainly because I'm always writing!

2. And you play guitar. How long have you been playing? What is your musical preference?

Over the forty years I've played guitar, I've gone from folk to rock to country and back to rock. I played a lot of John Denver's songs back when I started, and I still do, though lately I've gone from acoustic to electric and play a much wider variety of music than I ever have before. It's one of the best stress relievers there is!

3. You've been a critical care nurse for 30+ years. It takes a special kind of person to take on a job like that, in my opinion. Can you tell us about it? What it's like?

Nursing has its rewards, but it can be very frustrating, often exhausting, and, believe it or not, occasionally quite boring. I work nights, and some of them can be very, very s-l-o-w, while others are extremely hectic, depending on the census and patient acuity. You meet a lot of people as a nurse, and none of them are ever at their best, but because I work in critical care, I see a slice of life at its least healthy and most tragic. The patients I care for are often in the end stages of life, and you have to find a way to deal with that in order to keep going. Nurses are a different breed with a unique sense of humor, and we find humor in places most people never go, but we have to in order to cope. My best friends have always been nurses, but that's changing as I meet and get to know more writers.

4. Your books are 'erotic romance'. A lot of people may not know what that means exactly. What is the difference between an erotic romance and a regular romance novel? Is there a difference between 'erotic romance' and 'erotica'?

There's a very fine line between all of these, and it's getting a little blurry because “regular” romances are becoming more erotic all the time. The way I see it, erotic romance is romance with more explicit detail in the love scenes, while erotica is explicit sex without the romance. The use of language is different, too; there are certain words that abound in erotica that you will not read in a straight romance, but erotic romance can vary from gently worded to some very strong language. I take a more moderate approach to the language use compared to some, but if you're not used to that sort of book, they may seem shocking. It depends on the reader; some will consider what I write to be scorching hot, while others may consider it tame.

5. Tell us about The Cat Star Chronicles.

The Cat Star Chronicles follow the lives of six men who were captured at the end of the war against the planet Zetith and sold into slavery. In the course of that war, the entire planet was destroyed, and the reasons for the war are explored throughout the series, and the one who is ultimate responsible for it is discovered in book six. The men possess some remarkable sexual traits, which may or may not be the reason for the war against their species. Each man is found by a woman whom he will not only share a great love, but whose talents he will compliment with his own.

6. All of these book go together but do they need to be read in order?

I've tried very hard to make them stand alone so that a reader picking any of them up won't be completely lost. However, the later books include some characters from the earlier books, so it's probably best to read them in order.

7. What can reader expect after the Chronicles? Any ideas for the next book? Do you think you will write another series?

The current plan is for six books in this series, but I've signed for two more books with Sourcebooks after that. Right now, I have no plans for a new series, but those two books will probably determine what I do next, whether it's a new series, two unrelated books, or a continuation of current one.