And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Photo christiekelley.com

Our Mystery Author this round is Christie Kelley. Read below as she tells about her family and her writing.

And when you are done, visit her at her website: http://christiekelley.com/

1. I've interviewed many authors from large families but yours, by far, is the largest. Five brothers and three sisters? That's huge! What was it like growing up? Where do you fall within the nine children? And how in the world did your mom do it? Just thinking about the laundry involved makes my head spin!

The world was a different place back then. It was actually really nice growing up in such a big family. There was always someone around to play with or talk with. Until I was 13 we lived in a very large house so most of the time, I had my own room. And having some sense of privacy is important when there are always people around.

In the child lineup, I am the 8th. Thankfully, the boys all came first so my sisters are the closest to me in age. I’m still closest to my sisters.

I have no idea how my mother did it. She’s now almost 83 and still has more energy than people half her age. She went back to work when I was young but again, with all those kids, there was always someone home with you.

I had to laugh about the laundry. Having done 3 loads today and there’s still more to do, I have no idea how she kept up with it all. She did teach us all to do the laundry, but she never expected us to do our own. I don’t think she wanted to waste the water and electricity with the kids doing smaller loads. The strangest thing of all is my mother still enjoys folding the clean laundry. (Don’t tell her about the two unfolded baskets of clothes in my family room right now.).

2. Tell us about your own, considerably smaller, family—your “husband and two future romance heroes.” (I love how you phrased that, by the way *smile*).

My dh and I have been married almost 26 years. My oldest son graduates high school this year. It’s very odd to have another adult in the house. He’ll be in college in the fall but he’s going to the community college and living here. So I’ll still have my boy for another two years until he transfers. My youngest will be 13 in just a few days. I have one boy almost done with adolescence, another is just starting. I hope I can survive this a second time!

3. You are obviously mom to two sons. What do they think about mom being a romance author?

They both think it’s kind of cool but don’t really talk about it much (yeah, they’re boys!). The thing I love about it is the practical life lessons they’ve learned. They have watched me go from struggling unpublished writer to multi-published author. It’s been a great opportunity to show them that they can achieve their goals too.

4. What are you doing when you aren’t writing?.

Laundry. Really! I’m also a part-time Realtor so that keeps me busy sometimes and not busy other times. Other than that, I’m just trying to keep up with my younger son’s activities and the never-ending housecleaning.

5. Your bio states that once you decided to write a book, it was seven years before you were published. Tell us about that. What did you learn during that time? What advice do you have for others who are thinking about writing a book?

I wasn’t an English major so those seven years were really a time of great learning. I had to study everything from point of view to plotting. I entered a ton of contests to get feedback, joined RWA, and took classes and workshops.

The best piece of advice I can give is keep reading. Read in and outside of the genre you want to write. And keep at it. Don’t finish one book and believe it’s the best thing ever and editors will love it. That might happen. But chances are you are going to have to write a few books before you get noticed by an editor. I wrote five stories before selling.

6. Your books are set in historical time periods. What made you choose historicals? Any plans to venture into a different time period/contemorary?

When I started writing I never even considered contemporary novels. I read historical books. The first three books I wrote were actually set in the US. One western romance and two set in Victorian times in NY. I moved to regency when I received some contest feedback from an editor who said she loved my voice but couldn’t sell something set in the US. It got me thinking about what I read, and I noticed the majority of what I read is regency.

The moral of the story here is write what you love and know!

7. Tell us about your newest release, SOMETHNG SCANDALOUS?

Elizabeth discovers her father, the duke is not her real father and begins a search for a secret dairy her mother kept. She is hoping that she will find her real father’s name, not to confront the man, but just for her own knowledge. As she starts her search in the London townhome, the new duke and his seven siblings arrive. Believing she is about to be evicted, she has to come up with a plan that will allow her to stay until she can find the diary.

8. What is next? Any work in progress you can tell us about?

There are two more books left in the Spinster Club series. SCANDAL OF THE SEASON will be an October release and the last in the series will be out in June 2011. I don’t have a title for it yet. But once I do, I’ll post it on my website.