K.M. Daughters is the penname for team writers and sisters, Pat Casiello and Kathie Clare nee Lynch.  The author name is dedicated to the memory of their parents, Katherine and Michael, the “K” and “M” in K.M. Daughters.  Inspired by their father who wrote children’s books for them when they were small and their mother’s love of romance novels, K.M. Daughters was “born” a little under five years ago at a Romance Writers of American national conference when the sisters plotted their first manuscript, now published in E-book by Sapphire Blue Publishing: Past, Present and Forever.

Since that conference, K.M. Daughters has written five additional award-winning novels, all contracted to The Wild Rose Press and its new subsidiary, White Rose Publishing.  Most recently the 1^st book in The Sullivan Boys Romantic Suspense series was distinguished in The Lories published contest; Past, Present and Forever received the Coffee Time Romance and More Reviewer’s award and their upcoming release, Beyond The Code of Conduct was rated 4-stars, “compelling”, page turner, in the June 2009 issue of RT Book Review.

K.M. Daughters resides in Illinois and New Jersey with husbands Nick and Tom, a total of five children and two grandchildren between them. 

Welcome to Beyond the Books, K.M.  Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published?  Can you give us the title(s) of your book(s)? 

Thank you so much for inviting us.  We’re multi-published in three romance genres with three publishers.  The Wild Rose Press publishes our romantic suspense Sullivan Boys Series:  Book 1, AGAINST DOCTORS ORDERS, released October 2008, and our new release is Book 2, BEYOND THE CODE OF CONDUCT.  White Rose Publishing is a new company affiliated with TWRP.  White Rose publishes our inspirational romances.  JEWEL OF THE ADRIATIC, our debut novel, released in August 2008.  The sequel, ROSE OF THE ADRIATIC, releases 7/31/09.  Our first manuscript, a contemporary romance, released in E-book from Sapphire Blue Publishing in February 2009.

 What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why? 

Our first book was entitled REUNION FOR THE FIRST TIME.  We came up with the title and thought it was catchy and built a story around it.  Yes, Sapphire Blue Publishing acquired and released it with the new title, Past, Present and Forever in E-book. Ironically the title didn’t survive. 

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it? 

Actually, it was never rejected.  We submitted the completed manuscript to The Wild Rose Press because we wanted to write for them and found their philosophy appealing. But we’re not sure TWRP would be categorized as “mainstream”.  The Wild Rose Press is an independent publisher producing books in digital formats.  Paperback books are printed on demand, available through all major distribution outlets.  So we’re not “self” or “vanity” published, either. 

 How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

 After we published our first two books we submitted our contemporary and it was rejected by one of The Wild Rose Press imprints.  The rejection letter was detailed and offered the opportunity to rewrite and resubmit the manuscript.  We accepted the opportunity and received a second rejection.  Ever resilient, we learned that a brand new publisher, Sapphire Blue, called for submissions, “Dust off those manuscripts in your drawer.”  So we dusted it and sent it off.  We had the pleasure of working with one of the owners, Maria Clayton, during the extensive editing process.  Since it was the first manuscript we’d written as a team, we’ll emphasize the word “extensive”.  Maria’s patience and experience guided us to transform it. 

 When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them? 

The Wild Rose Press published our first book.  We chose them for both personal and professional reasons.  The book features Marian apparitions and the rose is associated with the mother of God.  Personally, we thought the book was destined for The Wild ROSE Press.  The professional consideration was knowledge that the owners Rhonda Penders and R.J. Morris had established the house “by authors, for authors”.  They’ve kept their commitment to that philosophy.  Every stage of the submission process involved timely communication.  The query was acknowledged with a promise to respond within two weeks.  Within a week Nicola Martinez, Sr. Editor for the inspirational line asked for a partial.  Upon receipt it was acknowledged and a response was promised within thirty days.  A couple weeks later a full manuscript was requested.  The contract offer was presented in less than half the estimated ninety-day response time.  

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate? 

We’re writers, we should be able to capture that feeling in words for you!  Thrilled and ecstatic are the best adjectives that come to mind.  We were on a “sister trip” to Universal Studios, Orlando.  January 26, 2008.  We wandered into an attraction called The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad and took seats in the back of the small amphitheatre.  Pat was checking email and hung over her phone reading.  She glanced up at Kathie and whispered, “We sold our book.”  At that precise time a canon blasted on stage. After a flurry of breathless, screechy telephone calls home to husbands and children, later that evening we had a tropical cocktail in the bustling downtown area and toasted K.M. Daughters.

 What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time? 

We asked our web designer if she could do bookmarks for us, and she did. 

 If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published? 

The ideal route is the way that leads to your goal.  We can’t imagine rerouting. 

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author? 

Yes, we have.  In 2008 we contracted on five novels, everything we had ever written together up until then.  This year a contract has just been approved for the 3^rd book in The Sullivan Boys series, acquired by our amazing Wild Rose Press Editor, Joelle Walker.  Our cheerleader, our friend, we count on Joelle for her honesty and expertise.  We have grown enormously as authors.  Joelle remarked that the 3^rd book in the series (Capturing Karma), “…will give Against Doctors Orders and Beyond The Code of Conduct a run for their money.”  And she really loved the first two books.

 Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up?  What kind of mistakes could you have avoided? 

It took about four years from the time we became serious about aspiring to be published authors until we achieved that dream.  We attended workshops and classes.  We talked to authors, agents and editors.  We entered our manuscripts in contests and poured over judges’ critiques and utilized the constructive criticism.  It took us that long and we think it takes as long as it takes.  This author couldn’t have sped things up or learned from mistakes any faster. 

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published? 

Pre-release, RT Book Reviews rated Beyond The Code of Conduct 4-stars in the June 2009 issue.  Included in the romantic suspense section of reviews for that issue were NYT Bestselling authors.  We couldn’t believe the company we were keeping. 

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be? 

We’re currently engaged in other professions running small businesses.  We choose the writing profession! 

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds? 

We would do the reverse and give up our day jobs for full-time writing.  But right now we are blessed with the best of both worlds. 

How do you see yourself in ten years?

Full-time authors releasing two books a year to fans, similar to us for the treasured authors we follow, who can’t wait to get the books in their hands (or on their E-readers). 

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day? 

The sentiment in the movie Field of Dreams pertains, build it and they will come. 

A diverse writer of columns, feature stores, short fiction, novels,
screenplays and stage plays, Maryann Miller has won numerous awards including being a semi-finalist at the Sundance Institute for her screenplay, “A Question of Honor”. More recently she placed in the top 15 percent of entries in the Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship with the adaptation of her mystery, “Open Season”

Publishing credits include work for regional and national newspapers and magazines: Lady’s Circle, Woman’s World, Marriage and Family Living, Plano Magazine, The Children’s World, Byline, The Texas Catholic Newspaper. She has published nine non-fiction books for teens, including the award-winning Coping With Weapons and Violence : In Your School and on Your Streets released by The Rosen Publishing Group in New York. She
has a short story in the All About Muse anthology, The Holiday Mixer. Her novel, One Small Victory, was a hardback release from Five Star Publishing in June 2008, and Play it Again, Sam, is a July 2008 release from Uncial Press in e-book formats.

She is currently the Managing Editor and writer for an online community magazine, WinnsboroToday.com, and does book reviews for ForeWord Magazine and two online review sites, BloggerNews.net and Curled Up With a Good Book. She also does freelance editing. Other experience includes extensive work as a PR consultant, a script doctor, and a freelance
editor. She has been writing all her life and plans to die at her computer.

Until then, Miller stays active in a number of organizations including Sisters In Crime, The Trails Country Centre For The Arts in Winnsboro, Texas, and was a founder of The Greater Dallas Writers’ Association.

She makes her home in the beautiful Piney Woods of East Texas where she happily plays farmer. She has a horse, two goats, three cats, and two dogs. She shares these critters and five acres with her husband and an armadillo that visits frequently. You can visit her website at www.maryannwrites.com.

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Maryann! Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?

Thanks for the opportunity to be here. It has been so much fun visiting a number of sites and meeting all kinds of interesting people.

I have been published quite a bit as a journalist, as well as having a number of nonfiction books published with The Rosen Publishing Group. A small publisher also published my mystery, Doubletake, and a romance, Play it again, Sam, which has been re-released this summer by Uncial Press. One Small Victory, however, is my first foray into major publication and distribution.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

My very first book was a Y/A novel, Friends Forever, which was well liked by a number of editors in NY, but never loved, if you know what I mean. At the time I wrote the book, I was busy with my freelance work, so after a while I stopped trying to market it. Then about fifteen years ago, it had a short life as an e-book from New Concepts Publishing. It sold moderately well, but after a couple of years they gave me the rights back. It is now available through the Amazon Kindle program.

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

My first published book was nonfiction and I sold it on a proposal to Rosen. Of course it helped that the publisher was looking for someone to write about destructive cults and I found out about the need. My background in journalism also helped because I didn’t know a thing about destructive cults, but I knew how to do research. That book was Coping With Cults, and I went on to write eight more books for them, including Coping With Weapons And Violence In School And on Your Streets, which was named a notable book for teens by the New York Public Library.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

While I didn’t experience rejections with that first book, I had plenty for other books and for short stories. The first short story I had published received over 40 rejections before Lady’s Circle Magazine bought it. At first the rejections could put me in a dark hole for weeks, but after a while I learned to separate the work from me personally – as much as any author is able to do that. (grin) So I tried to focus on “the work” and look for reasons why it was rejected. If it came down to the right place at the wrong time and the writing was not weak, I would send it out again. I once read a tip in a writers’ magazine to always have a long list of places to send a piece, then get it out there again, so that’s what I did.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

Even though I had had a lot of articles, columns and stories published, I was thrilled to hold my first book. It was such a wonderful sense of accomplishment. At the time, I belonged to a writer’s group that always celebrated a member’s first book. We had a wonderful party where I felt like the most special person alive.

What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

That first book was widely marketed to libraries – as is One Small Victory – so I set up an event at our local library. I gave a talk about destructive cults and had books there to sign. Most of the proceeds went to the library because the reference librarians there had been a tremendous help during the research.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

I don’t think so. Looking back on my career, I can see that the growth has been small compared to other authors, but it has been steady, and one thing built on another. It has also been a wonderful and interesting journey. If you are not enjoying the trip, get off the train. (grin)

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

I’m certainly a better writer today than I was 30years ago when I first started a professional career. I’ve learned how to meet deadlines; how to accept editing; and how to discipline myself to write every day. Since we writers set our own schedules, discipline can often be a challenge.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

I suppose if I had put as much time and energy into building the writing career as I did into my family, the career could have grown faster. But I don’t regret it for a moment. My family is still the most important thing in my life. Had I never published, I would be disappointed, but had I never had children and been part of their growing into such fine adults, I would be devastated.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

One of the greatest thrills of my writing career was the opportunity I had to mount a production of one of my plays at a community theatre here in East Texas. I was honored to direct a talented cast, and humbled beyond words on opening night when the audience honored the cast with a standing ovation.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

As a good friend once said, writing is not just what I do, it is part of who I am. So even if I worked at another profession, I would still be a writer. That was true for most of my adult life when I was a homemaker first and a writer second. I also had a ten year period when I was enrolled in a Clinical Pastoral Education program and then worked as a hospital chaplain. I still wrote when I could find time and actually finished the first draft of One Small Victory then. My play, There is a Time was also written during that time. It was based on some of my experiences in a cancer support group I facilitated, as well as some dynamics of the dying process that I learned in classes.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

I am no longer working full time as a chaplain, so now the writing is full time and the ministry is part time. They both seem to feed each other and I find great joy in both.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years I hope to still be here on my little farm in East Texas taking care of my animals and my husband. As far as writing is concerned, I hope to be working on book five or six in a mystery series. Five Star is considering the first book now, and I am halfway through the second. I have five more plotted out, so I would like nothing more than to hang out with those characters for a few years.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Don’t give up. The difference between success and failure is hanging in there despite the obstacles and roadblocks. Quitting can’t be an option if you really want to see your book published.

Lisa Jackson can’t keep away from murderers, especially serial killers. She’s been killing people everywhere from Savannah , New Orleans and Baton Rouge to San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest —and it’s been worth it. Her readers come back again and andanagain, and again, and her novels are fixtures on national bestseller lists. In fact, her book Fatal Burn was a number one New York Times paperback bestseller, and the first two of her novels to be published in hardcover, Shiver and Absolute Fear, were in the top five on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Next, readers will be looking for LOST SOULS, just published in hardcover by Kensington Books to go on sale March 25th.

Having made serial killing her business—sort of—she has put her characters through the wringer. They have been up to their necks in danger and stared death, usually a pretty gory one, right in the face. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional and the downright twisted. As she creates the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must conversely confront the fear and terror faced by her victims, and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, horror and madness touch far too many lives and families.

Lisa began writing at the urging of her sister, novelist Nancy Bush. Inspired by the success of authors she admired and the burgeoning market for romance fiction at the time, Nancy was convinced they could work together and succeed. They sat down, determined to write and to be published.

They did and they were.

Initially they wrote together. Later, they moved in different directions. Lisa brought more and more suspense to her work and began writing much darker stories. Nancy ’s writing expanded to include not just her own novels, including her highly praised Jane Kelly Mysteries, such as the recently published Ultraviolet, Electric Blue and Candy Apple Red, but she also spent several years writing for one of television’s leading soap operas, even transplanting herself for a time from the sisters’ Pacific Northwest roots to Manhattan . This year, they plan to work together again on a thriller set for publication in 2009.

Meanwhile, for Lisa the killing goes on as this mother, daughter, workaholic and amazing writer pursues her habit of making the hair stand up on the back of readers’ necks, and landing her books on The New York Times, the USA Today, and the Publishers Weekly national best seller lists.

Lisa Jackson’s novels include the upcoming LOST SOULS and the best sellers Absolute Fear, which will be published in paperback for the first time in March, Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, The Night Before, The Morning After, Deep Freeze, Fatal Burn, and Almost Dead. Last year, Most Likely to Die, written by Lisa, Beverly Barton and Wendy Corsi Staub was published and became a number three New York Times paperback bestseller. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers and the Romance Writers of America.

You can visit Lisa’s website at www.lisajackson.com.  

Welcome to Beyond the Books, Lisa. Can you tell us whether you are published for the first time or multi-published? Multi-published., Can you give us the title(s) of your book(s)?

Well, there are a lot. The most recent are ABSOLUTE FEAR in paperback and LOST SOULS, in hardcover from Kensington Publishing.

What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?

I wrote my first novel with two other women, one being my sister, author Nancy Bush. That book was never sold, probably because it was a first novel and wasn’t all that good. Who knows? It was 1981. I do remember there were rejection letters saying it had too much suspense in it. Ironic, I think, considering the path my career has taken.

For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?

I just sent it to one publisher and they bought it.

How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?

Rejection is a part of the business. I knew that from the get-go. I just picked myself up, complained to my sister, dusted myself off and got back to it. Rejections aren’t fun. They hurt. But if you use them as a tool and don’t let them dig too deep, you can learn from them. I did.

When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

A TWIST OF FATE was published by Silhouette Books. I chose them because they were expanding and didn’t have a lot of authors who wrote the “new longer” romance novels. I figured it might just be my “in” and it was.

How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

I was elated—over the moon!! It was great. I can’t remember how I celebrated but I do remember I actually paid off some bills.

What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?

I didn’t promote my first novel. It was a category book; I didn’t know anything about promotion in 1981. I just went to work on the second book.

If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?

Absolutely not. It was great. But if it were today, things might be different. I don’t know. I did learn a lot writing category romance novels.

Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?

Well, I’ve written lots of different kinds of books, everything from historical and contemporaryromance to the suspense novels like LOST SOULS that I write today.

Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?

I doubt I could have changed things. Times were different. Today there are computers and the Internet, more information shared, but back then I would have done things just as I did, though I might have gotten an agent earlier.

What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?

For my writing, I guess it’s becoming a #1 New York Times best-selling author; personally it’s raising my sons.

If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?

Wow…that’s tough. I wanted to be a writer. If I had been more inclined maybe a veterinarian, I guess. But that probably wouldn’t have worked as I hate to see animals in pain.

Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?

No way, and believe me all the dogs and cats in the world are thankful.

How do you see yourself in ten years?

Older, of course. Still writing, I hope. But I really don’t think in terms of 10 years. I look to a max of three.

Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Keep at it. Read and learn. My sister taught me this: It’s easy to find out what you don’t like about a book. But somewhere an editor bought it. It can only help you as a writer to try to understand waht it was about the book that compelled that editor to go to bat for it?

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