Okay, well, almost….but honestly, that’s the only way I can describe the rush you feel having your first book sold, published, and now, ta-da!, getting fanmail! When I began to write LIFELINES I knew it would be a challenge to find our target audience. Afterall, we were breaking all the rules—combining thriller pacing with a women’s fiction feeling, a medical suspense told solely from the point of view of the women of Angels of Mercy’s ER, and finally, combining romantic elements in an on-going, multi-character series. Before the release, I worried. Would the mystery/suspense reviewers like it or would they find it too much like women’s fiction? Would the romance reviewers think there wasn’t enough romance? Would the “big name” reviewers pay any attention at all? Turns out the worry was for nothing. Publishers Weekly and the Baltimore Sun both loved LIFELINES, with Publishers Weekly calling it a “breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller”. Romantic Times Book Reviews made it a Top Pick and Romance Reviews Today gave LIFELINES a coveted Perfect 10! But us writers aren’t known for our neurotic tendencies for nothing, lol! Despite all this, I still worried about readers finding LIFELINES—and liking it. LIFELINES is shelved in general…

No, I’m not going to ask you to buy my book—you couldn’t even if you wanted since it doesn’t come out until March. I need a different kind of help—the kind of help only readers can give. First, let me introduce myself. I’m CJ Lyons and I’m a pediatric ER doc turned medical suspense author. My first novel, LIFELINES, will be published by Berkley on March 4, 2008. I love my new job as a writer—not only can I go to work in my pj’s, I also get the chance to meet lots of interesting people and ask questions that no one else would dare. I mean, how many 9-5er’s get to visit the FBI academy at Quantico or talk to crime scene experts about the “best” way to kill someone and get away with it? And no beepers, trauma alerts, or 3am calls to deal with—for the first time in 17 years, I’m finally getting some sleep! But there is one thing about being a writer that I’m not too happy about. It’s ruined me as a reader! All my life I’ve been a voracious reader, following my favorite authors blissfully into the worlds they created for me. But…