My friend and fellow writer, Joelle Charbonneau’s debut book is released today! Last May, when I was celebrating my release with the other members of The Debutante Ball, I pulled an old switcheroo on them all and instead of posting about my book on my day, I interviewed Joelle…after all, the topic was “Joelle’s Book.”

To help Joelle celebrate her book birthday, I am going to post the interview here today. Congratulations Joelle! Enjoy your day!

Please join me in welcoming debut author, Joelle Charbonneau to my website. Joelle is a storyteller at heart.  She has performed in a variety of operas, musical theatre and children’s theatre productions across the Chicagoland area.  In addition to her stage work, Joelle has also performed with several bands and worked as a solo performer. While Joelle is happy to perform for an audience, she is equally delighted to teach private voice lessons and use her experience from the stage to create compelling characters in her mysteries.  Her first comic mystery, Skating Around The Law, will hit shelves under the St. Martin’s Minotaur imprint on Sept. 28^th, 2010.

Skating Around the Law is a comedic mystery about a woman who has to go to back to her rural home town in order to sell the roller rink she inherited.  Only she finds a dead body head-first in the rink toilet. Now she is stuck in a small town where her former neighbors think she’s a city slicker who doesn’t belong, relying on a police department that’s better at gardening than solving crimes.  With the help of a handsome veterinarian, a former circus camel and her scarily frisky grandfather, she must discover the identity of the murderer before she becomes the next victim.

I recently got a sneak peek at Joelle’s book and let me tell you, you are going to want to read it! It’s funny and surprising and there’s definitely something good in the water because it’s also very sexy! Joelle’s book comes out today, so run out and get it at your favourite indie. Joelle is also on tour all over, so you should check out her schedule. She’s done a lot of interviews, but this is one of her first author interviews.

Joelle A: Do you skate yourself? What’s the fanciest trick you can do? Have you ever broken anything while skating?

Joelle C: Yes, I do skate, although don’t make me do too many fancy tricks or I might end up smack on my butt. I can skate backwards…that’s about as fancy as I get.  My mother is the real skater.  She’s a former World Champion Artistic Roller Skater.  I grew up going to the rink with her when she was teaching.

My lack of fancy footwork means I haven’t broken any bones while skating, but my mother is another story.  Back when I was in middle school, she was still teaching and decided to show off for her class with a spin called an Illusion.  The idea is that the skater drops her head down to the floor and one of her legs straight up in the air while spinning on the other leg – the illusion is that she looks like she is going under her own leg.  Mom did it once – success.  Twice – more cheering.  The third landed her in the emergency room with a broken ankle.  Ouch!

Joelle A: Without spoiling the plot, what’s the fascination with camels?

Joelle C: You just made me laugh!  I think I’m going to have to expect this question in the future.  Okay – here’s the story.  I teach singing and have a wide age range of students.  One of my adult students owns and jumps horses.  Just about the time I was mulling over story ideas for this book, she mentioned that she wasn’t going to make her next lesson because she had to take her horse to the University of Illinois.  (I know, smart horse, right?)  They have a fabulous large animal vet clinic and she always takes her horse there.  In fact, the last time she was there she met a farmer who had brought in his camel.  That got me thinking – why would an Illinois farmer have a camel?  Two days later I started writing Skating Around the Law and Elwood the ex-circus camel was born.

Joelle A: What are you finding the most exciting thing about being a debut author? The scariest? The hardest? The funnest (yes, I said funnest)?

Joelle C: See – as a debut author, you get that scary enters into the equation.  (BTW- I can’t wait to read Restoring Harmony!  I ordered months ago and should get it by the time this interview is up.  Yeah!) (She did!)

The most exciting part is knowing a book I wrote will actually be on the shelves.  I have always been a huge reader.  I never wanted to be a writer until a few years ago.  And even, then I found the idea of being a published author to be a distant dream.  Of course, being a soon-to-be-published author brings with it lots of fear.  The most terrifying part is waiting for people’s reactions to the book.  I hope people like it and I’m scared they won’t. Which brings us to the hardest part – the waiting!  The publishing industry works at a much slower pace than I was used to as a performer.  We used to open a show after two weeks of rehearsal so 15 months of waiting is a long time.

And the FUNNEST part?  Meeting really great new authors, like you!  Who knew that being an author was a great way to meet fun Joelle friends?

Joelle A: Where did you get your fabulous name?

Joelle C: I borrowed it from you, J.  You don’t believe me?  Okay, the real story is that I was named after my mother’s friend who was also the French National Artistic Skating Champion. I finally got to meet her a month ago when she came to visit.  I’m one of the only Joelle’s in the US.  I think I need to move to Canada or France so I don’t feel so alone.

Joelle A: Thanks, Joelle for stopping by and talking about Joelle’s Book! You really helped me out here, and I’m sure everyone is now excited to get their hands on Skating Around the Law. For those of you wondering how we met, I’ll tell you. Long before my ARCs were out, I did have a google alert on my name and one day it brought up Joelle’s website. Curious about this other “writer Joelle” I checked out her site and found out that we were both actors as well as writers. I emailed her, and the rest is history. Interestingly enough, we’ve discovered that we have even more in common. We both grew up on skates, neither of us can do anything much fancier than skating backward (although, I can “shoot the duck.” Can you do that, Joelle?), and we both read very quickly. I even used to have red hair, although mine was out of a bottle.

By the way, Joelle is doing a great promotion and you could get a free Skating Around the Law t-shirt! Check it out.