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  Big­time Series Book #1

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  Big­time Series Book #2

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  Big­time Series Book #3

Big­time Fre­quently Asked Questions

Ques­tion: What are the Big­time books about?

Answer: The Big­time books are set in Big­time, New York – a city full of super­heroes, ubervil­lains, and other larger-than-life char­ac­ters. The books are clas­si­fied as para­nor­mal romance, and they’re basi­cally female-centered comic books with­out the art.

Ques­tion: Why does each Big­time book focus on a dif­fer­ent heroine?

Answer: Writ­ing about a dif­fer­ent hero­ine every time lets me explore dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on super­heroes and ubervil­lains. Some of the hero­ines are super­heroes; some aren’t. Some have super­pow­ers; some don’t.

For exam­ple, in the first book Karma Girl, the hero­ine is Car­men Cole – who finds her super­hero fiancé cheat­ing on her with her best friend, who turns out to be an ubervil­lain. Car­men is a woman scorned. She has quite a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on super­heroes than Fiona Fine, the hero­ine of the sec­ond book Hot Mama, who moon­lights as Fiera, a mem­ber of the Fear­less Five. To Fiona, being a super­hero is some­thing she’s honor-bound to do.

Bella Bul­luci, the hero­ine of the third book, Jinx, hates super­heroes and ubervil­lains because of the nights she spent wait­ing up and wor­ry­ing about her super­hero father. Plus, there’s her super­power – luck, which can either be good or bad.

Writ­ing about dif­fer­ent hero­ines also lets me expand my world, add new char­ac­ters (includ­ing more sexy super­heroes), and take read­ers to new places in Big­time. Over­all, I think hav­ing dif­fer­ent hero­ines keeps my writ­ing and the Big­time books fresh and inter­est­ing. I hope read­ers agree.

Ques­tion: Why write the books in first per­son? I like third-person books better.

Answer: Because I’m the writer, that’s why. Seri­ously, the first-person style of writ­ing is the one that comes the eas­i­est to me. It just feels nat­ural, and the words just flow.

Plus, I love the inti­macy you get with first per­son – you can really get inside the main character’s head and dis­cover what makes her tick, her hopes, her dreams, and her deep­est, dark­est fears and desires. And it’s eas­ier for me to be funny in first per­son. I’m a big fan of self-deprecating humor.

Admit­tedly, you don’t get to see as much of the hero’s point of view when you’re writ­ing in first per­son, but my books are really about a woman’s jour­ney and her dis­cov­er­ing what makes her strong, spe­cial, and unique. I think the first-person point of view helps me do that bet­ter than third person.

I may write books in third per­son some­day, but for right now, I’m stick­ing with first person.

Ques­tion: Why are the super­heroes’ and ubervil­lains’ real iden­ti­ties so easy to fig­ure out? Do you make them that way on purpose?

Answer: I make the iden­ti­ties extremely easy to fig­ure out on pur­pose. The trans­par­ent iden­ti­ties are one of the many wink-wink-nudge-nudge ways that I lov­ingly spoof the comic book genre, along with the allit­er­a­tive names, campy atmos­phere, and over-the-top schemes and action. Which are all the things I love about the comic book genre.

If you think the iden­ti­ties are too easy to fig­ure out and bor­der on the ridicu­lous, well, they do. But I have two words for you – Lois Lane. This woman is sup­posed to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning jour­nal­ist – one smart cookie, in other words. But she just can’t seem to fig­ure out Clark Kent is Super­man, even though his big dis­guise is a pair of black glasses. Is the woman blind? Can she not see?

And it’s not just Lois. Lots of peo­ple (Com­mis­sioner Gor­don, the Bat­man love inter­ests, Mary Jane Wat­son, etc.) never fig­ure out the heroes’ and vil­lains’ real iden­ti­ties in var­i­ous sto­ry­lines, movies, tele­vi­sion shows, etc.

Ques­tion: Why don’t you write more seri­ous books about superheroes?

Answer: Because I like mak­ing peo­ple laugh. I like romance, dan­ger, and drama. One reader described Karma Girl as book candy, and I think that’s the per­fect descrip­tion for the Big­time series in gen­eral – a sweet treat that you just can’t wait to gob­ble up.

Don’t get me wrong. I like dark, gritty books as much as the next reader (which is why I’m also writ­ing my Ele­men­tal Assas­sin urban fan­tasy series). But some­times, I think we take books and our­selves way too seri­ously. To me, books have always been about enter­tain­ment. If I learn some­thing along the way, that’s great, but I want to be enter­tained first and foremost.

Then, there’s the whole angst thing. I know Bat­man and other super­heroes have issues, but isn’t it exhaust­ing to be so dark and brood­ing all the time? Where’s the joy? Where’s the fun? What good are hav­ing super­pow­ers if you don’t really like using them?

That feel­ing, that fun, that cool fac­tor, is what I want to cap­ture in the Big­time books. Hope­fully, read­ers will agree and think my books are time and money well spent.

Ques­tion: Will there be more books in the Big­time series beyond the third one, Jinx?

Answer: Unfor­tu­nately, not at this time. I loved writ­ing the books, but my pub­lisher decided not to pick up my option and to not con­tinue the Big­time series after Jinx.

How­ever, I have writ­ten a fourth Big­time book, Nightin­gale, and hope to pub­lish it some­day, per­haps as an e-book, but I don’t have a set timetable for when that might hap­pen, since I’m so busy with other projects right now. In the mean­time, if you like the Big­time series, I hope you’ll tell your friends about it and encour­age them to try the books.

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A Big­time World

There’s more to Big­time, New York, than just super­heroes and ubervil­lains. Here’s a look at some of the city’s major land­marks and attractions:

Big­time Bay: The Atlantic Ocean cuts into the mid­dle of Big­time, form­ing this bay. The bay’s waters are calm and shal­low for the most part, mak­ing it the per­fect place to come for a swim or a day of sail­ing. Some of the city’s rich cit­i­zens have vaca­tion homes on the islands in the mid­dle of the bay. Oth­ers just like to fish off the enor­mous dock or visit the mar­itime museum housed on the shore.

Big­time Ceme­tery: It’s the major ceme­tery in the city, located next to Par­adise Park. Many fallen heroes and vil­lains are buried in its hal­lowed ground.

Big­time Con­ven­tion Cen­ter and Orches­tra Hall: Home to the city’s sym­phony and the site of many a soci­ety gath­er­ing. It’s also where the out-of-towners come for a vari­ety of con­ven­tions, meet­ings, etc.

Big­time Museum of Mod­ern Art: The museum is the crown­ing jewel of art and cul­ture in Big­time. More than a few ubervil­lains have tried to break into the museum to steal some of its price­less works of art, but none have been suc­cess­ful. So far.

Big­time Obser­va­tory: Located on the out­skirts of Big­time, it’s the high­est point in the city. This museum ded­i­cated to all things star-related and sits on top of a hill, along with the domed build­ing that houses the observatory’s pow­er­ful tele­scope and other sen­si­tive, sci­en­tific equip­ment. The obser­va­tory is also con­nected to a nature cen­ter and park, where folks can get up close and per­sonal with smaller, woodsy ani­mals, like owls, otters, and foxes. A man­made river flows along­side the obser­va­tory, form­ing a water­fall and small lake before mak­ing its way towards Big­time Bay.

Big­time Pub­lic Library: The infor­ma­tion cen­ter of Big­time, the library takes up its own square city block in the heart of down­town. The mar­ble build­ing houses hun­dreds of thou­sands of books, mag­a­zines, news­pa­pers, and more.

Big­time Police Sta­tion: The cen­ter of police oper­a­tions in Big­time. Super­heroes like Granny Cane often bring in mug­gers, bur­glars, and other crim­i­nals to the station.

Bril­liance: The home of whiskey bil­lion­aire Berkley Brighton, this enor­mous man­sion sits on a hill and offers a spec­tac­u­lar view of Big­time Bay. It fea­tures an Olympic-sized hot tub, three ten­nis courts, and two heli­copter pads. And that’s just on the roof.

Bryn’s Bak­ery: This sweets shop is the place to go if you’re in the mood for dough­nuts, cin­na­mon buns, or other yummy pastries.

The Chron­i­cle and The Exposé: The city’s two com­pet­ing news­pa­pers. Both daily pub­li­ca­tions are housed in gleam­ing sky­scrap­ers down­town, and their respec­tive staffs are always try­ing to out-scoop each other.

Fiona Fine Fash­ions: This store houses the cou­ture cre­ations and design lines of fash­ion designer Fiona Fine. The store fea­tures slick white mar­ble falls and floors – all the bet­ter to show off Fiona’s col­or­ful cou­ture clothes.

Good Inten­tions Lane: Don’t let the name fool you. Good Inten­tions Lane is about ten miles past the wrong side of the tracks. It’s one of the most crime-ridden streets in Big­time, and the city’s super­heroes con­stantly strug­gle to clean out the gangs and other riffraff who pop­u­late the area.

Jewel’s Jewel Empo­rium: As its name sug­gests, Jewel’s is the pre­mier jew­elry store in the city. If you want some­thing that sparkles, you go to Jewel’s to get it.

Lau­rel Park: A rel­a­tively small area, Lau­rel Park caters to fam­i­lies and senior cit­i­zens who like walk the trails and feed the pigeons that pop­u­late the grassy lawns.

Oodles o’ Stuff: The city’s shop­ping cen­ter. The mall of malls. The store of stores. You can find any­thing you want in the mutli-storied build­ing, from shoes to clothes to makeup to con­sumer elec­tron­ics. Super­heroes, in par­tic­u­lar, love the store because of the deep dis­counts it offers them. In return, the super­heroes try to keep their building-leveling fights away from the his­toric struc­ture. Ubervil­lains also shop at the store, which is one of the few places in the city con­sid­ered to be neu­tral territory.

Par­adise Park: With a zoo, carousel, car­ni­val rides, and con­ces­sion stands galore, Par­adise Park is one of Bigtime’s major tourist attrac­tions. Thou­sands of peo­ple visit it each day, and the park never closes, not even on Christ­mas. It’s also the site of fan events where reg­u­lar folks can meet and greet their favorite superheroes.

Quicke’s: You’ll almost always find a few heroes and vil­lains din­ing at this restau­rant, which is neu­tral ter­ri­tory and a shrine to all things super­hero and ubervil­lain. Posters, action fig­ures, and plush toys of heroes and vil­lains dec­o­rate the inside of the restau­rant, which also has some of the best food in the city.

The Sky­line Bridge: This mas­sive bridge spans Big­time Bay and con­nects one side of the city to the other. Con­structed from solid­ium cables, the bridge has with­stood many a superhero-ubervillain bat­tle over the years.

Sub­lime: Sub­lime, owned by bil­lion­aire Sam Sloane, is the largest home in Big­time. It has a cou­ple hun­dred spa­cious rooms full of pricey antiques, art col­lec­tions, and more. The manor could house an army of peo­ple and has been the scene of sev­eral soci­ety benefits.

Super­hero News Net­work: The round-the-clock TV sta­tion is ded­i­cated to, you guessed it, all things super­hero. From in-depth pro­files to the lat­est action-figure and video-game releases, the sta­tion cov­ers every­thing that has any­thing to do with super­heroes. Some­times, they even read the lat­est dia­tribes and demands from ubervil­lains like Mad Maria, Nox­ious, or Cave­man Stan. But the sta­tion gets its biggest rat­ings from its live cov­er­age. At least once a day, the anchor goes out to star reporter Kelly Caleb live on the scene of an ongo­ing superhero/ubervillain battle.

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