RTR Reviewer Tina Burns talks to Beth Ciotta

Hi Beth and welcome back to The Road to Romance! 

First off, tell us a little bit about Beth Ciotta the person. 

TB:  How did you get into writing? 

BETH:  I dabbled with writing when I was in grade school and then again in high school, but I never wrote seriously, with the intention of being published, until about ten years ago.  I remember the exact moment of inspiration.  On a whim I picked up a romance novel (I hadn’t read one in years).  I devoured the book in a few hours and when I got to the end I thought, “I want to do this.  I want to write romance novels so that I can make people feel the way I feel right now.  Happy and hopeful.”  The next day I started writing my first manuscript and I haven’t looked back. Of course, at the time, I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing technically.  Thank goodness for writer’s workshops, organizations, and an incredible support network of fellow writers.       

TB:  Do you have your own love story and if so, does it inspire your writing in anyway? 

BETH:  My husband, Steve and I have been together for almost twenty-five years.  For me it was a genuine case of love at first sight.  I remember the sensation of ‘walking on air.’  After all this time I still experience that thrill time and again.  I suppose it does inspire my writing as I truly believe there is nothing more exciting and fulfilling than the adventure of falling in love and living happily-ever-after.  It’s something I wish for everyone.              

TB:  For your personal reading, what type of genres do you enjoy? 

BETH:  I enjoy just about every sub-genre of romance.  Historical (all periods), contemporary, paranormal.  Favorites just now are romantic comedy and romantic suspense.  I am also a great fan of Robert B. Parker.  His Spencer stories rock!   

Let’s talk about JINXED…           

TB:  JINXED is the first book you’ve written by yourself.  You’ve written with a partner before under the name CB Scott -- how different was this? 

BETH: Writing with a partner has definite advantages.  You’re always there in the thick of the story cheering each other on. When you’re blocked, more often than not, something the other writer contributes inspires you to move in a direction that had not yet occurred to you.  There’s a definite rush in living and creating the story with someone who is as jazzed about the project as you are.  If you’re very lucky your partner challenges your brain and compliments your style.  I consider myself very fortunate to have written three novels and a short story with Cynthia Klimback (C of CB Scott). 

All of our CB Scott books received wonderful reviews, so there was a certain fear factor in writing alone. A fear that I wouldn’t be good enough, that people wouldn’t enjoy my offbeat stories.  I can’t tell you what a confidence boost it is every time a favorable review rolls in on JINXED.  Even better the enthusiastic response of readers who identified with my characters as greatly as I did.  I’m learning to trust my heart and voice and to simply go with my gut.  I have critique partners whose opinions I trust implicitly, and who cheer me on when I have the occasional panic attack.  The thrill of writing solo is that it is pure you—your ideas, your passion, your voice.  It’s extremely satisfying.         

TB:  Your previous books have all had a fantasy or paranormal theme, why the switch to romantic comedy?  

BETH: It wasn’t a conscious choice.  It just so happened that several story ideas flowed out of me at the same time, and all of them were straight ahead contemporary comedies. Actually, I wasn’t surprised.  One of my greatest loves is watching romantic comedy movies.  I’m a sucker for the classics. Doris Day/Rock Hudson, Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy.  I’m a huge fan of any Cary Grant or Meg Ryan romantic comedy.  As far as reading, I’m particularly drawn to suspense.  So I guess it makes sense that my solo stories, though comedic, include a dash of danger.  My next book CHARMED is a follow up to JINXED, and it looks as though there will be a third book in the series—all romantic comedies with a twist of suspense.  

I also have a western romance coming soon from Medallion Press.  Although LASSO THE MOON is a historical, the tone is the same—light-hearted romantic comedy.  I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if I end up writing another paranormal!      

TB:  You signed with Medallion Press, a fairly new publisher, for your current work – how does an author decide who to sign with and why Medallion? 

BETH: I think the answer varies depending on where you are in your career.  Although I had three novels published as CB Scott (with writing partner, Cynthia Klimback), as a solo author I was unknown and unproven.  Medallion expressed an interest in me and I was only too happy to submit a story.  The result was this writer’s dream come true.  They didn’t just love the story, they loved my style, my voice.  They wanted more.  They wanted to advance my career.  And they’ve done just that.  Their advertising and promotional efforts on my behalf have been astonishing.  Very rare for a new author.  Lastly, the powers-that-be at Medallion Press are highly motivated and passionate about their books.  That’s very appealing to me.        

TB:  Jack Leeds is a really strong Alpha male, and they’re so much fun to read.  Are they as much fun to write?  Do Alpha men give their authors orders the way they try to give their women orders? 

BETH:  Jake was a blast to write.  In real life I can only hope that I’d be able to deal with a man like that as well as Afia.  It took her awhile, but she saw through the toughness, understood how and why he ticked, and loved him for it.  And yes, he bossed me around quite a few times as I wrote.  What a control freak.      

TB:  Afia St. John is pretty flighty at the beginning of the book.  How hard was it to take a character like that and believably change her into the competent woman at the end of the book? 

BETH:  I worried when I first wrote Afia, those opening chapters, that she was too flighty. But that’s how she came out, that’s how I envisioned her.  I hung with it because I just knew there was more to her.  I knew that she was emotionally on-the-edge and that there were multiple reasons for her actions.  Because I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer, as I continued on I learned that she was a product of her mother.  I hurt for Afia because I knew she wanted to be so much more than she was.  I knew she was strong.  I knew she was bright.  She wasn’t hard to write at all. She naturally evolved (with Jake’s help) with the story.     

TB:  Next up for you is CHARMED –- tell us about that.  Can you give us a little excerpt? 

BETH:  CHARMED is scheduled for release December 2004.  This book is a lot of fun because I am drawing from real life experiences.  My background is in entertainment.  I’m a professional singer, but I also work in the Atlantic City casinos as a character actress.  Some of my best friends are strolling entertainers: jugglers, magicians, stilt-walkers, clowns . . .  In the past I have also combined my acting skills with my writing abilities.  I developed interactive fairytales and performed them at children’s parties.  Bits of all these past adventures show up in CHARMED.  The heroine, Lulu (aka Princess Charming) is a children’s storyteller.  To make ends meet she also works part time at the Carnevale Casino as a juggler.  She’s an optimistic goody-two-shoes who champions non-violence.  Imagine her distress when world-weary, professional bodyguard Colin Murphy shows up on her doorstep claiming she’s the fantasy target of a mobster's fixation! 

CHARMED is jammed packed with colorful characters.  The feisty, Disney-ized heroine, Lulu, her kick-butt, action-star-wanna-be sister, Sofie, protection specialist (and Alpha-hero), Colin Murphy, and his best friend, FBI special agent, Joe Bogart.  Also returning from JINXED, Jake, Afia, Rudy, Jean-Pierre, and some unscrupulous others. 

In coming together to save Lulu, some of the cast, including the hero, are forced to face their own personal crisis.  CHARMED showcases the absurdity of life and the best and the worst in mankind.      

Here’s a short excerpt: 

Even with his sunglasses on, her smile was as bright as her neon pink lipstick.  Her dimpled cheeks shimmered.  Her brown eyes sparkled.  Her pixie face, decorated with artfully applied glitter and rhinestones, radiated pure joy and whimsy.  A crystal tiara winked at him through an upswept mass of wild, golden curls.  She wore a pale pink, floor-length gown—corseted bodice, the skirt a voluminous mass of stiff crinoline.  A gown befitting a Princess.  A fairytale version anyway.

“Hello,” Murphy said, hoping to hell she didn’t expect him to add Your Highness.    

“I’ll be with you in a minute.”  She waved him inside the foyer and then turned and limped to the far side of what he assumed to be the living room.  The only hints—a couch and a nineteen-inch television.

He moved into the obscenely cluttered room, sliding his sunglasses to the top of his head for a clearer look.  Scattered stuffed animals.  Piles of books, videos and dog-eared magazines.  A Hula Hoop.  Pink-wheeled roller skates and a Twister game.  Walls of theater posters and cartoon art.  Broadway meets Nickelodeon.

To top things off, the place reeked of lemons and bubble gum.  Could a man O.D. on sunshine and lollipops?

He focused on the princess who was in obvious search of something.  Considering the disorganized state of the room, she could be looking forever.

“Where is it?” she mumbled to the underside of a chair, its style and color indistinguishable as it was heaped with bolts of multi-colored, multi-textured fabrics.  All of them accentuated with glitter or sequins or some sort of metallic trim.

He sidestepped an overflowing sewing basket.  “Can I help?”

She straightened, red-faced and winded, her tiara askew.  “That would be great.”  Lips pursed, her gaze darted from one pile to another, searching.

She’d yet to focus on Murphy.  Yet to ask him who he was or what he was doing here.  He could be a murderer or a rapist and yet she’d invited him in without hesitation.  No peep hole. No chain lock.  No “who’s there?”  Just opened the door and invited him in.

If Bogie was right, if she was in danger, she was oblivious.  For the moment, he allowed her the fantasy.  “What are we looking for?”

“A glass slipper.”

“You’re joking.”

“Well, it’s not really glass.  More like acrylic or plastic.  Whatever, it’s see-through.”  She hiked the hem of her gown.  “Pretty, huh?”

Pretty sexy.  Murphy admired her naked foot through the transparent pump.  She stood lopsided, one shoe on, one shoe lost, her left heel elevated a good three inches above her right. Her toenails painted a frosty shade of pink.  Cotton candy came to mind.  “Where’s your bedroom?” 

TB:  What are you going to do with Jean-Pierre and Rudy?  Give us a hint…! 

BETH:  Ah, Jean-Pierre and Rudy.  I was astonished by the enthusiastic feedback on these two men.  Everyone, including my publisher, wanted their story to continue.  I was more than happy to comply.  When we last saw them in JINXED, Jean-Pierre, the younger though more self-confidant of the two, had finally convinced Rudy that he was serious about settling into a ‘relationship.’  When CHARMED opens we are four months into their relationship and Rudy is still fighting the notion that the union is doomed.  In his mind, it’s only a matter of time before JP leaves him for a younger man, or before Rudy, himself, is tempted to stray.  A self-help book enthusiast, Rudy successfully guides his friends’ love lives.  How sad that he is unable to practice what he preaches.  

In his determination to push their relationship to the next level, Jean-Pierre unwittingly involves the romantically shaky couple with the mob.  Will they survive the fall-out?  Will Rudy overcome his insecurities or will he sabotage the relationship?   

Let’s just say it’s not an open and shut case.  

TB:  If fans want to contact you, how to they go about doing that? 

BETH:  Do please visit my website.  www.bethciotta.com  Feel free to email me at beth@bethciotta.com  

TB:  Now we come to the end of our interview but before we say goodbye, let’s go… 

“Inside the Author’s Mind”           

TB:  What is your favorite word? 

BETH:  Peace 

TB:  What is your least favorite word?

BETH:  War 

TB:  What turns you on? 

BETH:  Acceptance.  Laughter.  

TB:  What turns you off?

BETH:  Prejudice 

TB:  What genre would you most like to write? 

BETH:  Fantasy    

TB:  What genre would you least like to write? 

BETH:  Horror 

TB:  If you could meet anyone, real or fiction, past or present, who would it be and why?   BETH:  William Shakespeare.  He wrote it all.  Comedy, tragedy, history.  Plays, sonnets.  He wrote beautifully, magically.  Romeo and Juliet?  The Twelfth Night? I am in awe of his imagination and word choice.  He wouldn’t even have to talk to me. I’d be happy shadowing him for a day and basking in his brilliance and passion.  Shakespeare has been touching people for centuries and will continue to do so for eternity. 

TB:  Thanks for joining us today, Beth.  We look forward to more from you in the future! 

Interviewed by Tina Burns for The Road to Romance.