Flesh Tones
A Novel
by M.J. Rose

List Price: $13.95
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0345451058
Publisher: Ballantine

M.J. Rose's novels (Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones) have been hailed as "sexy" by Cosmopolitan and called "compelling" by Booklist, and "smart" by January Magazine -- diverse praise that attests to Rose's unique place in popular fiction.

She has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Lehrer NewsHour and other networks and programs and has been the subject of individual profiles in such journals as Forbes, New York Times, and Business 2.0, Rose is considered a ground breaker in the world of using creative marketing techniques to reach her audience.

In addition to her three novels (her fourth, Sheet Music, is about to be released), Rose co-authored How to Publish and Promote Online and Buzz Your Book.

She has written a weekly column for Wired.com, and she has also written forOprah, Writer's Digest, Poets and Writers, Book Magazine and Salon.com. M.J. Rose resides in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a musician and composer and Winka, the pooch.

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Q: Let's get right down it, shall we? Flesh Tones has been called erotica, mainstream fiction, and suspense even mystery. Where do you see this novel, in terms of genre? And d o you find that the "erotic" label is an asset or a detriment to the marketing of this novel?

MJR: I don't think about any of those questions or worry about the labels. I simply write the books that I want to read and trust that I'm not that different from my readers.

I think labels are a detriment, no matter what they are.

My books have a certain amount of sensuality and sexuality in them because I think that we are sexual creatures and if you can no sooner leave out that part of who someone is than you can leave out what they do for a living or what they aspire to in life. A reviewer once said I write about the "Human heart in conflict" I like that description and think if that is your terrain, you will have to touch on not only the romantic but the sexual and erotic.

Q: When you write, how does the story develop? In other words, do you outline every scene and then follow that outline, have some idea of where you want to go and let the words flow?

MJR: I don't even try to start a new novel until I've spent about six to twelve weeks doing the research for it, outlining it and making a scrapbook for my main character. Or in other words procrastinating. I actually teach an online class called How to Procrastinate Your Way into Writing a Novel based on how I do it.

I believe that you need to live with a story and its main characters for a long time and discover as much as you can about them and their world before you actually put pen to paper - or in my case - and to answer you other question - fingers to the keyboard.

Once I've done a good amount of gathering scrapbook items, making notes, reading non fiction research, etc. I start to write and work about four to six hours a day about six days a week.

I swim every morning for an hour and while I am doing my laps I'm thinking about what I am going to write that day. Then I do some errands and usually settle down to write in the late morning or early afternoon. I have a quota of five pages a day. And usually I stick to it. Occasionally I write more, but I try not to. I'm concerned about destroying my wrists and missing out on too much of the world.

Q: Your descriptions of the gallery and the world of artists is so vivid. Is this from first-hand experience?

MJR: Yes. I was an art student and have a degree in Fine Arts from Syracuse University. Art is still my passion though now I write about the arts through my characters instead of holding the brush or chisel myself. And I still go to museums and art galleries as often as I go to book stores and libraries.

Q: Genny is such a vibrant character. Do you identify with her?

MJR: I know her, I see her, I can hear her, but she's not me. I spend about three to six months making a scrapbook of my main characters life before I write a word of a novel. So by the time I do start working on the book, I know my characters in a magical and mystical way.

Q: What sparked your interest in writing?

MJR: Reading.

I was eight years old, sitting at my grandfather's typewriter pecking out a short story about a man who wore five hats and very large green shoes. My mother asked me what I was doing and I told her I was practicing writing for when I grew up.

She loved that and at dinner that night announced to the family that I had decided to be a writer.

I took a detour away from writing when I was 17 and studied art in college. But I didn't stay away long and was back to writing fiction by the time I was 25.

Q: Where the ideas for characters or particular scenes came from?

MJR: My novels always start off with a "What if" that just seems to occur to me. I don't know how or why. I've never sat down to find the "what if" - its just there.

In Flesh Tones, the "what if" is: What if a man asked the woman who loved him to help him die. Can you love someone enough to kill them?

Then I just sort of carry the "what if" around in my head for a while and if it has "legs" the story seems to tell itself to me. The characters and the scenes reveal themselves as I think about them.

I literally see it all in my head, like a movie and just write down what I see.

Q: Of course, the name M.J. Rose has become synonymous with book marketing. Will you tell us something about How to Publish and Promote Online and Buzz Your Book?

MJR: I believe that while writing is an art, publishing is indeed a business and in this crowed environment when there are so many books published every year, authors have to get involved in their own careers in a new way: we need to become marketing partners with our publishers and help to get the word out about our work. To that end, I write non fiction books to help authors learn how to do that and I also teach an online class with Doug Clegg at www.writersweekly.com/wwu on how to get buzz for your book.

Q: What advice do you have for emerging writers?

MJR: Don't expect it to be easy and only write if there is nothing else you want to do. There are so many obstacles in the path to getting published, that you have to be totally committed in order to get through the tough times.

Q: Could you tell us about your new book? Sheet Music will be in stores as of May 1, 2003.

MJR: As I have done before, I've explore the sensual and the suspenseful in SHEET MUSIC and have tried to weave a romance and a mystery with the powerful stories of a mother-daughter relationship and a young woman's search for her identity. The story starts in Paris, travels to Connecticut and goes inside the worlds of fine cuisine and classical music.

Mourning her mother, journalist Justine Pagett hoped an ocean would stand between herself and her grief, so she exiled herself in Paris for six years. But Justine's past returns to demand her attention when a scandal forces her back to the US to try to repair her professional reputation. As Justine takes on an intriguing new assignment, profiling the renowned and eccentric classical composer and conductor Sophie DeLyon, she also struggles to come to terms with her mother's death and make peace with her father and sister. Then Sophie disappears and Justine finds herself following a completely different story than she expected to write-a tale of dark notes and hidden verses whose enigmatic victim and sharp twists will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Excerpted from Flesh Tones © Copyright 2008 by M.J. Rose. Reprinted with permission by Ballantine. All rights reserved.

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