Let’s welcome Stacy Juba to our June Book Brew event.

CTR: Please tell us a bit about the work you are featuring today. The ISBN and buy link is always good and maybe some background or “story behind the story’ to pique our readers’ interest. Many readers would like to know any what special people or events may have inspired you to write this particular story. You can provide a blurb here also!

SJ: I’m featuring my mystery/romantic suspense novel Sink or Swim, which is available in trade paperback and multiple bargain e-book editions for Kindle, Nook, Sony and other e-readers. The paperback ISBN is 978-0-9827952-2-4. This is the Amazon buy link: http://amzn.to/etOZtL and this is the B&N buy link: http://bit.ly/fgF26g .

Sink or Swim is a fun summer beach read which combines elements of romance, suspense, and cozy mystery. It starts out with my character, Cassidy, walking the plank, and many readers assume by the opening page that it is a historical romance set aboard a pirate ship. However, when you read further, you see that Cassidy is actually participating in a reality TV game show in which losers must “walk the plank.” You don’t need to be a reality show fan to enjoy the book, as the show’s season has ended by Chapter Two, but I wanted to explore what might motivate someone to appear on a reality show and how a brush with fame affects that person’s life.

Here’s the blurb: Personal trainer Cassidy Novak has gained fame for starring on a hit reality show. Not only does she lose and have to walk the plank, but upon returning home, Cassidy discovers she is being stalked. As her former competitors get killed off, Cassidy refuses to play by the stalker’s bizarre rules. She’s also being shadowed by photographer Zach Gallagher, who has been assigned to capture her personal moments for the local newspaper. She wants to trust Zach, but fears he may not be as nice as he seems. When the stalker forces a showdown, Cassidy must walk the plank again ““ this time for her life.

CTR: “Bad boy” heroes have been a staple of the romance genre for a long time. What do you think is the special appeal of a lead character who lives outside the law or the normal constraints of our culture? What is your favorite take on this theme? Goodness knows it can appear in any sub-genre from the Regency to the Western, and also works well in paranormal tales and futuristics as well!

SJ: Bad boys are always fun to read and write about! They live a little dangerously, on the edge, and it’s especially fun when opposites attract and they wind up with a love interest who is much more cautious. I think readers enjoy seeing how the right woman can tame these bad boys just enough to make them settle down a bit.

CTR: Looking back over your lifetime of reading do you have a special book or two along these lines that sticks in your mind and maybe inspired your work to a degree? How about a real life character either historical or contemporary that you admired even if they were not quite “politically correct’ or within the letter of the law?

SJ: I started reading about bad boys early as I got hooked on The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when I was in high school. This was a coming of age novel about two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs. I rooted for the Greasers in the book, in particular the main character Ponyboy and his brothers Sodapop and Darry. I read this book at least a dozen times, at a time when I was becoming serious about writing novels myself, so I’m sure that it influenced me. Another bad boy character that comes to mind is Brad Pitt’s character in the movie A River Runs Through it, based on A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, a semi-autobiographical collection of stories by author Norman Maclean. Brad Pitt played the rowdy younger brother, a rebellious journalist who turned to gambling and liquor. If you’ve seen the movie, you know it ends tragically, and I watched it a few times, wishing it had ended differently as he played that character in a charming way that made the audience care about his fate. In a romance novel, we would’ve been rooting for a heroine to tame that character enough to keep him alive and perhaps he would have taught her a thing or two about how sometimes you have to take risks in life.

CTR: Recently as we have more kick-butt heroines and “tough ladies’ featured in romance and other genres, we’re seeing more bad girls as well as the perennial bad boys. Do you like this? What would you think of a switch and the usual good girl and bad boy theme with a bad lady and a very straight and narrow sort of guy? I have a weakness for the women in all eras who dared to stand up and fight for what they believed in. History is full of them if you look. Some were more outlandish than others but I could visualize a whole series of stories taking the old hero-to-the-rescue and reform-of-the-rake notions and turning them around! Would you consider writing such a book?

SJ: I do like seeing tougher female characters in novels. In fact, my character Cassidy from Sink or Swim is on the tougher side. She’s a strong and athletic type who has an impulsive streak and is very independent. Cassidy takes a firearms class and gets a gun as self-protection from her stalker. I recently met with a book club and they spent a half hour discussing whether she was stupid for rushing out to confront her stalker in an attempt to save someone she loved, and it was concluded that maybe she was a little stupid but that being pro-active and determined fit her character. Those were the qualities that served her well on the reality show and helped her to last until the finals. Her love interest, Zach, is a cute cowboy who is more on a straight and narrow path, and that’s actually what attracts her to him as deep down, she doesn’t want to be so tough all the time. It would be nice to have someone take care of her for a change – or rather, they could take care of each other.

CTR: Before you leave us today, please tell us where we can learn more about you and your books, how to find your blog, website, twitter or Facebook pages, etc.

SJ: Please visit me on my web site, http://stacyjuba.com/ and my blog, http://stacyjuba.com/blog/blog/ . You can also find my Coffee Corner at http://coffeetimeromance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=1705 , and you can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stacyjuba , and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stacy-Juba/100155471301 .

CTR: Thanks so much for sharing our event today and giving readers an inside look at you and your work! Live well and prosper (many sales)!