Q. What types of books do you enjoy reading?

I'm an avid reader with a huge, ever-growing TBR pile. I read lots of nonfiction because I'm a firm believer in the power of the mind-body connection. I enjoy positive, healing, motivational and inspirational books. I also love to read cookbooks and dream about feeding my face with sumptuous but grossly fattening recipes and never gaining an ounce. As for fiction, while I love reading great romance (especially romantic comedy, time-travels, and paranormal), I'm also a big fan of women's fiction, mainstream, mystery, horror, mainstream and some fantasy and SF.

Q. Who are your favorite authors?

Far too many to list them all. Some of them include the late Olivia Goldsmith, Susan Elizabeth Philips, Jennifer Crusie, Jane Heller, Susan Andersen, Sandra Hill, Constance O'Day-Flannery, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Anthony Bourdain.

Q. What are your favorite movies? TV shows?

My taste in movies is fairly eclectic. I love Arsenic and Old Lace; Pillow Talk; Blues Brothers; Shaun of the Dead; King Fu Hustle; It's a Wonderful Life; Notorious; Evil Dead; Army of Darkness; Grease; The Court Jester; All the Fred & Ginger movies; Philadelphia Story; The Ten Commandments; Our Man Flint; The Lord of the Rings Trilogy; Alien; Predator; Kill Bill; and dozens more. As for TV, I enjoy Whose Line is it Anyway? (funniest improv show ever, now in reruns); Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations; Biggest Loser; Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives; Quantum Leap reruns; I Love Lucy reruns, and way too many reality shows.

Q. Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what kind?

I love music and play it often--all kinds, depending on my mood. When I'm writing it's usually instrumentals because vocals can interrupt my thought process. I enjoy are jazz; blues; classic rock; classical; Broadway show tunes; and some rap music. Some favorite performers are The Manhattan Transfer; Kurt Elling; Ella Fitzgerald; Dean Martin; Tony Bennett; The Beatles; The Black Eyed Peas; Louis Armstrong; Bobby Darin; John Coltrane; Miles Davis; Gilbert &; Sullivan; Fred Astaire; Aretha Franklin, and many others.

Q. Have you always wanted to be a writer and artist?

Yes, since my earliest recollection. I was constantly composing elaborate stories for my family and friends even before I'd learned to write. But those colorful crayon scribbles made perfect sense to me. Each story was lavishly illustrated, too. As a kid I thrived on creating my own worlds populated with uniquely quirky characters. I still do!

Q. Is Daisy Dexter Dobbs your real name? If not, how did you select it and why do you use a penname?

No, it's a pseudonym that I've been using for years. My real name is Susan (Dobski) Bodendorfer. Daisy was the first name of my delightfully funny grandmother--the one with the thick Irish brogue, wicked sense of humor and endless supply of fascinating tales. (That's her skipping rope when she was in her sixties.) Dexter comes from Cary Grant's character, C.K. Dexter Haven, in Philadelphia Story. For me, Grant embodied charm, humor and sex appeal--a difficult combination to pull off. Dobbs is a shortened version of my maiden name. I've been Daisy so long that "she's" truly a part of me and I'm quite comfortable answering to the name. I use a pseudonym for various reasons, including privacy, and the fact that my real name is too clunky and complicated for the cover of a romance novel.

Q. Are you married? Any kids? Where do you live?

I'm married to my high school sweetheart. I met him while dating his cousin, actually. We've been very happily married for thirty-plus years and have one daughter. You can see a few photos on my Bio page. We moved from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest several years ago to escape the bone-chilling cold, ice and snow (I've done more than my share of 360s while driving on ice!). While we still love Chicago and always will, we thoroughly enjoy the lush green surroundings and mild temps out here. They also have great Thai food here, which helps to make up for the Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style pizza, Vienna Beef hot dogs and other local Chicago foods I miss that never made it out here to the Pacific Northwest for some reason.

Q. Why is a lot of your fiction humorous?

Aside from the pure delicious enjoyment of a good laugh, I find laughter to be incredibly positive and healing. It's helped me keep a serious health condition in check, so I've experienced its amazing power firsthand. I don't read books that are downers and I don't like to watch TV shows or movies that make me feel depressed when they're over. If I want that I'll pick up the newspaper or turn on the news. I'm all for the joys of escapism--that's what I do best as a writer. If my stories add an unexpected zing of laughter to a reader's day, perhaps brightening their spirits when they most need it, then I feel that I've contributed something positive to society in my own small way. The positive effects of laughter really are that important to me.

Q. Why is your blog lighthearted and comical when there are so many serious matters of real importance to blog about? Why not blog about politics and world affairs? Why don't you do angry rants, gossip, snarkiness or bitchery?

Personal choice. My mission is to spread laughter and offer a bit of escapism from daily stress. Sure, I have strong views and opinions on numerous subjects but, honestly, who really cares what I think? I'm just a writer. It's like celebrity entertainers who blab endlessly about their political views. I don't care what they think. All I want is to be entertained--and that's what I try to do with my blog, entertain. As for bitchy, snarky blogs, that's just not me. Since I spend a great deal of my life at the keyboard writing, I'd much rather that time and energy be spent focusing on upbeat, positive, constructive thoughts.

Q. Do you find it difficult to combine humor with hot sex in your erotic romance books?

Not at all. Sex is fun…and sometimes it's even funny. I'm a big fan of classic romantic comedy movies--the ones with the unlikely screwball comedy plots--that paired teams like Doris Day and Rock Hudson; Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn; Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; William Powell and Myrna Loy, and so on. We all know what was really going on with those bantering, love struck couples behind closed doors, right? The erotic romance stories I pen simply forgo the impossibly virginal themes of classic romantic comedy, replacing them with the natural lusty progression of the relationship, instead. In other words…SEX. And lots of it.

Q. Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

Ideas will often pop into my head for no apparent reason, flooding my tiny brain with thoughts, images and characters that battle for space. That's when I get down to the serious business of creating. The turmoil in my head doesn't let up until I've completed my project. In other instances I can recall a distinct spark of inspiration whizzing across my mind. Like when I'm people watching, for instance. Observing body language and overhearing snippets of strangers' conversations in restaurants, stores, on the street, etc., gets my mind reeling with a fabulous array of what-ifs. Also, I've always had vivid, fascinating dreams and many of my story ideas and artwork have evolved from them. More than anything I probably get inspired by people and events in my daily life. My world is far from being dull and in fact has always veered toward the slightly whacky. To get an idea of what I mean, just read my blog post titled The Locked Up Naked Sex Toys Incident. You can better believe the incident will make it into one of my upcoming stories.

Q. Are the characters in your books patterned after people you know?

My characters often incorporate inflections, habits, physical characteristics, etc., of individuals I've observed, but each character I create is imaginary. I think it's unwise to base characters on real people because that can lead to problems. While family, friends or neighbors are often convinced that one of my characters is really them, I can assure you that's never the case. Besides, it's so much more fun to whip up imaginary characters and then have them take on a life and characteristics all their own as the manuscript progresses.

Q. Do you write an outline and stick to it when writing your books?

Many writers swear by the wisdom of creating in depth outlines and following them religiously--and I applaud them for their orderly minds and sensible habits--however, it just doesn't work for me. I write by the seat of my pants. Those pesky characters I create often wake me at 3 a.m. nagging and demanding that I change something in the storyline or insisting that they would never do this-or-that the way I've written it. My stories and characters go through so many changes as I write that trying to stick to a preconceived plan would be futile. Laughable, in fact. My minimal organizational skills include jotting down stray bits and pieces of story ideas when they pop into my head (no more than a paragraph) and then briefly referring to my notes before I start writing. The finished book usually ends up quite different from my original idea.

Q. Do you work on just one manuscript at a time?

No, usually two or three. Sometimes I'll get frustrated because a story just isn't flowing right and nothing I do seems to help. That's when I switch to another manuscript with a totally different plot and characters and work on that for awhile. After a break of a day or so from the original story I'm ready to go back to it with a fresh perspective and the words flow easily again. Each morning I ask myself which story I feel I can best advance that day and then work on that one. The next day it may be a different one. And then there are times when I find myself effortlessly staying with one manuscript for weeks on end with nary a switch.

Q. Why do many of your romances feature women who wear a size ten or bigger, or who are over the age of thirty?

I write the types of stories that I like to read. One of the things that irks me when I search for a new romance to read is that it's really difficult to find books about average-sized women who are past thirty. I personally don't want to read about itsy-bitsy size zero-to-six young things of anywhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Any woman past her twenties knows darn well that notions of romance, romantic feelings and sex don't all dry up when she reaches middle-age. On the contrary, that's when women are just entering the best years of their lives. And the size thing? The emphasis placed on being thin in our society is so detrimental to women, as well as young girls who start on the dieting bandwagon before the age of ten. Trying to fit the ideal image of being as skinny as a lollipop stick with cantaloupe sized breasts is just plain unreal. That can only be achieved through starvation and plastic surgery. That's insane. There's nothing wrong with women having some meat and padding on their bones. And there are plenty of men out there who would rather clasp soft round curves than bony protrusions. Angel, the journalist heroine in Just Like a Dame, has strong feelings on this subject.

Q. Do you plan to write sequels or any spin-off books featuring supporting characters?

Yes. I didn't intend to do this when I first wrote the novels but when readers and reviewers ask often enough for sequels or spin-offs I listen. Accidental Foursome is the stand-alone sequel (you don't have to read the original book to follow the story) to Polly's Perilous Pleasures. This is the "George's story," the tale of George Kokoris and Helen Krasilkowski. I've also had a number of requests for books featuring the other Kokoris brothers, as well as for books featuring Angel's hunky brothers from Just Like a Dame. And even after the books have gone out of print (currently being rewritten) readers are always asking me about the supporting characters in Jezebel and the Egghead, Shipping Sharon, and Pinch Me. Eventually I'd like to do new stories for all of these characters. UPDATE: Shipping Sharon has been rewritten and released by Ellora's Cave as Absolutely Not.

Q. Will you read my manuscript or maybe just a few chapters and tell me what you think? Perhaps offer a critique?

No, sorry. If I did this for everyone who asked I'd never get any writing done.

Q. I have a great idea for a story. Can we work together on it? Or, if I tell you my idea and you write it, can we split the income?

No. I don't work that way, sorry. I have so many ideas floating around inside my head that it will keep me busy writing for years. I don't need any storyline ideas from anyone else. If you have a super idea for a story, I encourage you to write it yourself and submit it to an agent or publisher for consideration.

Q. I'm an aspiring writer. What advice can you give me?

First of all, read. There's no better schooling for a writer than reading, especially within your chosen genre. Write the best story you can and then polish it until it absolutely shines. This involves brushing up on grammar; learning about proper use of punctuation and dialogue tags; POV; etc. Read your dialogue aloud to see if it sounds real or if it's stilted. Proof your manuscript twice and then let it go--send it off to an editor or agent. Don't give anyone the power to snuff out your dream. Steer clear of toxic people--those who are negative, envious, cruel, etc. Don't let rejection or (later) bad reviews define you as a person. Believe in yourself and never give up. Be nice to the people you meet on the way up because you'll probably meet the same people on the way down again.