And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Our Mystery Author this round is Kathryn Shay. She is a school teacher turned romance novelist and has been since 1994.

Enjoy our interview and then visit her at her website:

http://www.kathrynshay.com/

When you are done with all of that, go out and get her new release, TAKING THE HEAT.

1. Your website bio says you wrote your first short story at 15. It was "a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists". Sounds pretty intense for a teenager - not the usual cheerleader/football player romance you would expect. Were you the typical teenager or just ahead of your time?

I was a typical teenager in two ways. I actually was a cheerleader and had football player boyfriends. I was also in a sorority, church youth group and went to the cool dances and events. It all worked for me for a while. Then I started to date the “wrong” boys and rebelled against the cliques in school and my parents. In this way, I was also typical because there are many kids in that situation, too. However, when I graduated from high school and went to a small women’s college, I buckled down, became a good student and serious about becoming a writer, taking all the creative writing classes I could. (I was also a cheerleader then for the boys’ school down the road. Picture this: six girls cheering in front of two thousand boys. Was that fun!) Along with writing courses, I took teacher education with no intention of going into the profession. That changed the first day of my practice teaching when I walked in front of a class and, quite simply, fell in love with the job. The dichotomy in my early life helped me to understand and be able to reach all levels of students.

I think the story I wrote at fifteen about the female reporter came from an early and inherent recognition of the chauvinism in life. I hated that women were discriminated against even then. I was very active in the feminist movement in the seventies and I taught a course for years called Women in Society, studying the gender biases. I loved teaching it to all those girls, and yes, boys enrolled, too.

2. Until just a few years ago, you were a teacher in the New York state school system. What did you teach?

I taught high school English and different Language Arts electives such as Creative Writing, Science Fiction, Women in Society and Humanities. I also taught AP and Honors English. But the most satisfying were the reluctant learners I had as ninth graders. For years, I worked on getting them to read and write, and cherished their successes..

What did your colleagues have to say about having an author in their midst?

My colleagues were amazed and proud. They all came to the publishing party we had at our house. My principal read my first book in manuscript form because he couldn’t wait until it was released. Teachers attended my book signings. Support staff consistently brought in my books for me to autograph. The kids thought I was a star. And their parents, too. It was so much fun and I was lucky to have that kind of support. Of course, I grew up in that building, having started at when I was twenty one years old and teaching for over three decades!

What is one of the more memorable experiences you've had as a teacher?

A few things. Seeing the light in the eyes of kids who never, ever thought they could succeed at school. Developing an appreciation of art, music and literature in my Humanities students. Having students come back year after year to tell me how much I influenced their lives. These are precious gifts I received in my teaching career.

3. Personally, I feel that teaching is one of the most important but unappreciated occupations out there. What is your opinion on the challenges facing teachers today?

I think the most important challenge today is the same as it’s always been: we have to motivate kids to want to learn. We have to instill in them a sense of self-esteem and interest in what we’re teaching them. I’ve said for years that if it’s not relevant to their lives, we shouldn’t be teaching it.

4. Tell us about your family?

I’m the youngest of four girls, with a baby brother. I grew up in Corning, New York, went to Nazareth College, met my sweetheart, married him a week after I graduated and we’re still very much in love. I have two children: my daughter, 27, is a reading teacher in kindergarten and first grade. My son, 24, majored in Creative Writing in college and is a singer/songwriter/waiter at the moment. They are wonderful, generous people. My husband and my kids are the most important things in my life.

5. What do you like to do in your free time? Any hobbies?

I try to walk every day and now have a new little Yorkshire terrier to accompany me. I take yoga class twice a week (yesterday I was doing head and shoulder stands.) I love to read. One of my favorite things to do is spend time is my best friend since college, Mary Jane. I also belong to a church where I worship and do volunteer work at a community soup kitchen and a battered women’s shelter.

6. You started out writing series romance and moved onto single title romances. I think I would have a hard time writing the shorter style but, once getting used to that, would perhaps find it a challenge to lengthen the story and vice versa. Was it a difficult transition.

Not at all. I can write in any length necessary just as I can finish a book in the time frame I give myself. The shorter books are challenging in developing the characters and the plot succinctly. In longer ones, I can go into more detail, have more subplots and secondary characters.

7. Tell us what you are working on now and your new release, TAKING THE HEAT.

TAKING THE HEAT is about widower Liam O’Neil who lost his wife three years ago to cancer and is ready to date again. He meets Sophie Tyler, rough and tumble female firefighter from the FDNY, and is attracted to her. But his sons are still suffering over the loss of their mother and Liam feels he can’t risk getting involved with someone in a dangerous profession. Too bad, though, because they can’t help themselves and sparks fly, emotionally, physically and on the line.

I have two SuperRomances in the works which will be out in January and August of 2009. The first is completed, tentatively titled A TWIST OF FATE. It’s the story of a woman who has a car accident and wakes up without her memory. There are two men in her life, the one she dates and her best friend. But as the story unfolds, it becomes unclear who she’s really in love with.

Right now, I’m writing AFTER THE FALL, the story of an architect who’s responsible for the collapse of part of a building, and goes to the small town of Carson City to spend time with her college roommate and his family who loves her. There she meets a contractor who, quite frankly, wants to run her out of town.

My Harlequin editor and I are also planning a trilogy for 2010.

I’m waiting to hear what my next Single Title will be. I’m hoping to do the fourth in the O’Neil series for Berkley, and I’m shopping around a few new things that you’ll have to wait to hear about.