Does mainstream fiction fill our yearnings for love?

In some cases yes. Like the writing of Terry Odell. A fellow Floridian and great friend, Terry hit the scene with Cerridwen Press like a rocket and has been going strong, producing one great read after the other.

One of my favorites is What's in a Name? A woman on the run who runs right into mystery and danger? My kind of book. Since it's my trademark not to reveal too much, I'll only give you a blurb about the book, then none of it will be spoiled during the read.

What's in a Name?

What happens when you're running for the wrong reason? Kelli Carpenter is afraid someone will connect her to the self-defense killing of a former lover. She's changed her identity, found a new career and thinks she's safe, but prefers to keep distance between herself and everyone else.

When handsome stranger Blake Windsor shows up purporting to be a handyman doing much needed repairs at the wilderness jobsite where Kelli is working, a site to give inner city kids temporary respite from their lives dominated by concrete and drive-bys, Kelli's instincts tell her to leave, but the man has her boss's approval, and without him, the project won't be completed on time.

Blake, corporate executive who accepted his boss's request to find out if Kelli Carpenter is really Casey Wallace, begrudgingly returns to the blue-collar construction lifestyle he vowed to leave behind. The woman he meets bears little resemblance to the woman he's supposed to find, but something about her mystifies him, and he decides to continue with his deception to learn more about her.

When someone comes after Kelli, she runs—but she takes Blake with her. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer is her philosophy. And Kelli is convinced Blake knows something that will link her to her lover's death, ending her life as she knows it.

Now aren't you ready to rush over to Cerridwen and get a copy of this book?? And I bet you're curious about the mind that created this tale, so let me share a little info with you about Terry, in her own words:

From Terry:

First, let me thank you for inviting me to share some of your blogspace. I've noticed that a common question is some variant of, "how did you start writing/how long have you been writing/when did you know you wanted to be a writer?"

Well – I got into this by mistake. Yep. Never really thought I'd actually put words to paper (or screen, depending on how you look at it.) I always made up stories—usually because I thought I could "fix" something someone else had written, or more likely, a better ending for a television episode, or a better scene in a movie. But actually write? No way. I tried it once—sat at the keyboard and after one page of having to type all those commas and quotation marks for dialogue (and, boy, do I love to set my characters loose and let them talk!), I said, "too much work" and went back to writing in my head.

Then, one day my son was home for a visit. As young men are wont to do, he was watching television, which meant he was clicking the remote. He stopped at one show and said, "Have you watched Highlander? It's all about these Immortals who can't die unless you cut off their heads, and then you get all their power."

Being a cool mom, I started watching the show, figuring I'd be able to talk about it with him. After all, hadn't I read a slew of Larry Niven so I could converse with my nuclear-physicist son-in-law on some sort of common ground? Well, after one episode, I figured this was going to be EASY. Who could not like watching Adrian Paul?

I was hooked, and started wondering about the 'rules' of Immortality. I'd never seen the movie, so my world was limited to television episodes. I had questions. I discovered Compuserve forums (this was a while ago!) and from there, found fanfiction. I hooked up with a few authors whose style I admired, and offered to edit (beta read, in their jargon) because I had a decent eye for technique and grammar. One weekend, I was home alone and decided to write a story that had been playing around in my head. What if there was some kind of virus that evolved on the home world of Immortals? I toiled over a short story and sent it to the author I was reading for. She kindly took me under her wing and pointed out all the things I needed to learn. I picked up the gauntlet and started learning a new craft.

Time passed, and I branched out into original fiction. Found a critique group. Starting writing a novel. I thought it was a mystery, but my daughters told me it was obviously a romance, but that's another story. One day, I talked to my son, and being cool, of course, told him I thought it sucked that Tessa had died. He said, "Huh?" I said, "Highlander. You know, Tessa. Duncan's girlfriend/fiancé. They killed her off."

To which he replied, "Oh, I've never actually watched the show. I just thought it was a neat concept."

Not that it was a total waste. I now have 3 novels with Cerridwen (two in print) and several short stories with The Wild Rose Press. And one of those original Highlander short stories evolved into What's in a Name?, the second of my books to be published by Cerridwen. The other two are Finding Sarah, and it sequel, Starting Over, just released – with a fantastic Syneca cover!

Thanks, Terry - for the interesting insight into your writing and for the praise (you know we cover artists get all mushy when we get praise!) And a big thank you for being our featured must read author! We'll be looking forward to more books, and encourage all our readers to head on over to Cerridwen to check out Terry's books, and also to visit her site and learn more about her.

From The Hussies, here's wishing you a fantastic weekend and a reminder that letting your inner Hussy out to play can be a VERY good thing :)

Ciana and Sally, The Hussies