INTERVIEW WITH JOE COSENTINO author of PORCELAIN DOLL, a Jana Lane mystery, published by Wild Rose Press

Welcome back to the blog, Joe.

I’m thrilled to be back. I love your blog. And my grandnieces loved your mouse books!

 Aw! Thank you. Last time you told us about your acting career, including starring with Holland Taylor in the ABC-TV movie, My Mother Was Never a Kid, and working with other stars like Bruce Willis, Nathan Lane, Rosie O’Donnell, Charles Keating, and Jason Robards. You also discussed PAPER DOLL, the first Jana Lane mystery. Why did you write the second novel?

As a child I loved child stars like Shirley Temple, Hayley Mills, and Patty Duke, seeing their movies over and over. So I created a heroine who was the biggest child star ever until she was attacked on the studio lot at eighteen years old. In PAPER DOLL the secret behind that attack is exposed. The reviews were raves. Here are a few of the quotes:

 “Paper Doll is a superbly crafted mystery with an eclectic cast of characters that will engage you and elicit some very emotional responses as you are completely caught up in the events that unfold in these pages. Everyone has secrets and the people in Paper Doll have them in spades!” Fresh Fiction

“Joe Cosentino knows how to keep his readers’ interest with every page.” Universal Creativity Digital Magazine

“Mr. Cosentino has produced a masterpiece of mystery” “The story gripped me from the start and there were enough twists and turns, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure, to keep hold of me until the end of the book.” “Great book, can’t wait for book 2.” Readers’ Favorite

PorcelaincoverSo I wrote another Jana Lane mystery. In PORCELAIN DOLL (The Wild Rose Press), it is 1982 and Jana is thirty-nine years old, living in a mansion in Hyde Park, New York. Jana makes a comeback film and uncovers who is being murdered on the set and why. Her heart is set aflutter by her incredibly gorgeous co-star, America’s heartthrob Jason Apollo. The other suspects include Jana’s James Dean type young co-star, her older John Wayne type co-star, her children’s Eve Harrington type nanny, the film’s gossipy makeup and hair artist, a local reverend trying to stop the film’s production, and Jason’s agent.

Did you use your background as an actor to write PORCELAIN DOLL?

Definitely! As one reviewer of PAPER DOLL wrote, I used my knowledge of show business to devilish ends. Actually, I used my background in each of the Jana Lane novels, since I know the ins and outs on a movie set. Thankfully nobody was murdered on my sets.

Who is your favorite character in PORCELAIN DOLL? And why?

Jana’s agent, Simon, is my favorite character for five reasons. He is amazingly resilient, old world Hollywood, incredibly funny, loyal to Jana, and most importantly, I want to play him in the movie version!

Which character was the most fun to write?

Jana’s James Dean type young co-star is a sexy rebel without a cause.

Is it difficult writing a series?

It’s like visiting with old friends. I love Jana and all the characters. I do need to keep a notebook with copious details on the characters and environments—especially every room in Jana’s mansion.

How have the reviews been for PORCELAIN DOLL?

Amazing. Here are two examples:

Porcelain Doll is Joe Cosentino at his finest. We are drawn back to the fashions and attitudes of the 1980’s in a character-driven story full of intrigue and passion.” Kirsty Vizard, Divine Magazine

“Beautifully written and intensely detailed, Porcelain Doll is one not to be missed. Flirtatiously decadent with a strong moral undertone, set in a decade of extraordinary social change this is a story of its period that is as poignant today as it was then. Joe Cosentino controlled the emotions that the book encouraged with a deft but delicate touch. Suspenseful and mysterious, Porcelain Doll is a masterful creation, one that was impossible not to be affected by.” Carol Fenton, BooksLaidBare Reviews

 

Why did you set the books in the 1980’s?

I love the music, hair styles, clothing, and decadence of that era. I had great fun writing about Jana’s mansion, wardrobe, makeup, and hairstyles. I was also able to incorporate some of the music, films, television shows, Broadway shows, and political and social events of the era.

 

Will more Jana Lane mystery novels follow?

Yes, in SATIN DOLL (not yet released from The Wild Rose Press), Jana and family head to Washington, DC, where Jana plays a US senator in a new film, and becomes embroiled in a murder and corruption at the senate chamber. She also embarks on a romance with Chris Bruno, the ex-professional football player detective. In CHINA DOLL (not yet released from The Wild Rose Press), Jana heads to New York City to star in a Broadway play, enchanted by her gorgeous co-star Peter Stevens, and faced with murder on stage and off. I am currently writing RAGDOLL, where Jana stars in a murder mystery TV series and again life imitates art. Through the course of the books, Jana not only solves the mysteries, but also reclaims the courage and fortitude she had as a child. This is an important message for all of us. As one reviewer wrote, she starts out as a wounded bird, and ends as tiger.

Do you have another mystery series besides the Jana Lane mysteries?

Yes, the Nicky and Noah comedy mysteries published by Lethe Press. Each novel is loaded with wacky humor and romance in a fast-paced whodunit. Since I am a college theatre professor/department head, and theatre departments are havens of mystery, secrets, romance, and high humor; the series takes place at an Edwardian style New England college. In DRAMA QUEEN (Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015 winner for Best Mystery, Best Humor, Best Crime, Best Contemporary) theatre college professors are dropping like stage curtains. With the inept local detectives, it is up to Directing professor, Nicky Abbondanza to use his theatre skills (including playing other people) to solve the murders, while he directs a murder mystery onstage. Complicating matters is Nicky’s intense crush on Assistant Professor of Acting, handsome Noah Oliver, the prime suspect in the murder (whose tenure application was not supported by the first victim). In DRAMA MUSCLE Nicky and Noah have to use their theatre skills to find out why musclemen are dropping like weights in the Physical Education department while Nicky directs the Student Bodybuilding Competition. In DRAMA CRUISE (not released yet), Nicky and Noah go on a cruise to Alaska, and discover why college theatre professors are going overboard like lifeboats while Nicky directs a murder mystery dinner theatre show onboard ship.

As a college professor/department head, how do you have the time to write?

I write at night after my spouse has gone to bed. I have a beautiful cherry wood study with a fireplace, huge desk, bookcases, and window seat. My mother asked me, “Don’t you have anything better to do than write at night?” I wonder if Stephen King’s mother asked him that? Hah.

How can your readers contact you?

I love hearing from readers. They can contact me at http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com.B&N2

 

Excerpt

1982.

Jana Lane, America’s most famous ex-child star, ran on the grounds of her estate. The forty-year-old kept up a quick pace as someone, or something, followed closely in the woods just out of sight. Her heart pounded, and sweat dropped down her neck, arms, and legs. As she turned to avoid falling into the lake, Jana raced past a large oak tree. A hand reached out from a branch. Jana screamed.

Waking with a gasp, Jana rested her head on her silver satin pillow, and took in some deep breaths. Then, she sat up in bed and tried to shake away the nightmare.

Keep it together, girl. Don’t go off the deep end like before.

Thinking that music might help, she flipped on the radio, perched on her white and gold French provincial night table.

As Diana Ross crooned “Mirror Mirror,” Jana rose then stood in front of her floor-length oval mirror. Staring back between the white and gold molding was a forty-year-old woman with porcelain skin, sky-blue eyes, a button nose, deep dimples, ruby red lips, and velvety strawberry-blonde hair. (Yet all Jana could focus on were her newly acquired crow’s feet, laugh lines, frown lines, and three gray hairs. After giving birth to three children, the figure underneath her pink satin nightgown was still shapely and petite, but Jana only noticed the tiny belly and unwelcome stirrings of cellulite.) Moving to the red satin canopy bed with its gold circular headboard, Jana slipped on her silver satin robe and fluffy pink slippers. Feeling a man’s strong hands around her, she screamed.

 

PORCELAIN DOLL, a Jana Lane mystery

by Joe Cosentino

published by The Wild Rose Press

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6684

 

Porcelaincover

Is art imitating life in 1982? Jana Lane, ex-child star, is doing a comeback film about murder. When a crew member is killed on the set, it looks like Jana could be next. Thickening the plot is Jana’s breathtakingly handsome and muscular leading man, Jason Apollo, whose boyish, southern charms have aroused Jana’s interest on screen and off. Will Jana and Jason stop the murderer before the final reel, or end up on the cutting room floor in this fast-paced whodunit with a shocking ending?

BUY LINKS:

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6684myBook.to/PorcelainDoll

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/porcelain-doll-joe-Cosentino/1123368757?ean=2940157711948

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-porcelaindoll-1979755-367.html

 

Praise for PORCELAIN DOLL, a Jana Lane mystery:

Porcelain Doll is Joe Cosentino at his finest. We are drawn back to the fashions and attitudes of the 1980’s in a character-driven story full of intrigue and passion.” Kirsty Vizard, Divine Magazine

“Beautifully written and intensely detailed, Porcelain Doll is one not to be missed. Flirtatiously decadent with a strong moral undertone, set in a decade of extraordinary social change this is a story of its period that is as poignant today as it was then. Joe Cosentino controlled the emotions that the book encouraged with a deft but delicate touch. Suspenseful and mysterious, Porcelain Doll is a masterful creation, one that was impossible not to be affected by.” Carol Fenton, BooksLaidBare Reviews

 

Praises for PAPER DOLL, the first Jana Lane mystery:

Paper Doll is a superbly crafted mystery with an eclectic cast of characters that will engage you and elicit some very emotional responses as you are completely caught up in the events that unfold in these pages. Everyone has secrets and the people in Paper Doll have them in spades!” Fresh Fiction

“If you like novels that are filled with new and old Hollywood, and a range of sub-plots, you are going to love this!” Saguaro Moon Reviews

“I liked that there was enough evidence for each of the suspects to keep me guessing until the very end.” Molly Lolly Reviews

“Joe Cosentino knows how to keep his readers’ interest with every page.”                           Universal Creativity Digital Magazine

“The setting, the characterization and the plot keep you turning the pages.”                             The Book Mistress

“Joe Cosentino has crafted an engaging tale of secrets, lies and deceit set in that crazy, ego driven scene called Hollywood.” Deb Sanders

“Mr. Cosentino has produced a masterpiece of mystery” “The story gripped me from the start and there were enough twists and turns, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure, to keep hold of me until the end of the book.” “Great book, can’t wait for book 2.” Readers’ Favorite

 

ASIN: B01BA2705Y

Released: March 16, 2016

Pages: 260

Cover Artist: Debbie Taylor

Paperback: 978-1-5092-0603-2

Digital: 978-1-5092-0604-9

Heat Level: Sensual, PG-13

Amazon Bestselling author Joe Cosentino wrote Paper Doll the first Jana Lane mystery (Whiskey Creek Press), Porcelain Doll the second Jana Lane mystery (The Wild Rose Press), Drama Queen the first Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), Drama Muscle the second Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), An Infatuation & A Shooting Star & A Home for the Holidays & The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland (Dreamspinner Press), Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back (NineStar Press), and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Eldridge Plays and Musicals). He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. His one-act plays, Infatuation and Neighbor, were performed in New York City. He wrote The Perils of Pauline educational film (Prentice Hall Publishers). Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. His upcoming novels are Satin Doll the third Jana Lane mystery (The Wild Rose Press), China Doll the fourth Jana Lane mystery (The Wild Rose Press), Drama Cruise the third Nicky and Noah mystery (Lethe Press), and Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward (NineStar Press). Joe was voted 2nd Place for Best MM Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015.

 

Web site: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JoeCosentinoauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeCosen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4071647.Joe_Cosentino

Amazon: Author.to/JoeCosentino

 

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February 17, 2013 – Author Interview With Joe Pranaitis

Today my guest author is Joe Pranaitis. Please give Joe a big round of applause (clap – clap, woo hoo !)  Thanks everyone for stopping by my blog. As you know, now and again I have been hosting guest authors, as I wanted to bring various authors and genres to my followers. With every interview – I ask authors to do a giveaway.  Joe has graciously said he will be giving away four of his books and (1) $25 Amazon gift card to commenters. I’m thrilled with his generous offer. Please enjoy the interview, and stop by Joe’s social media sites now and again to give him a shout-out.  Don’t forget to comment at the end of this interview for your chance of winning one of Joe’s gifts he is giving away.
On with the interview…

-Virginia Wright


Joe Pranaitis

I was born in East Chicago Indiana, I graduated from Calumet College of St. Joseph with a degree in business management, which helps since I am a co-founder of Shareef Entertainment LLC a company which will produce movies and TV shows. And all of this is because I began writing the concepts for my first book in 1996 when my art teacher at EC Central gave me the assignment to create a comic book but during the summer between the time that I graduated high school and started college I adapted those stories into a trilogy and now that first story is the first chapter of my first book.

How long have you been writing? I’ve been writing since I was a kid but everything did’t come together until my junior and senior years in high school when my art teacher assigned me to create my own comic book, I ended up writing and drawing two comic books the first was a sequel to a story that I had yet to write and the second was the last in a trilogy that when I adapted both stories into a full blown short story trilogy in summer of 1996 everything began to spark brighter than it had with the other stories that had I written.
Probably your art teacher saw the potential in you…and gave you that assignment on purpose!
Where does the inspiration come from for your stories? My inspiration for most of my stories come from ideas that I would like to try or settings that I can’t stop thinking about.
I love the ideas that come from waking up at night after dreaming!
Are you a fiction or non-fiction writer? I am a fiction writer, and now I can include screenwriter into that as well since I just co-wrote my first screenplay.
That is wonderful to hear that you just co-wrote your first screenplay–I wish you all the best with it!
Could you tell us about your latest writing project? My latest writing project was a screenplay that I co-wrote but I can’t give out any details yet because a couple of studio’s are currently looking at it.
I won’t pry. However, when it is okay for you talk about it, I’d love to have you come back with an update!
When writing do you prefer silence or do you like listening to music? I like listening to music because it keeps me focused on the project whether it’s a short story or a chapter or a screenplay I have to have music to focus my thoughts.
I definitely like to listen to music when I am working on illustrations, however, sometimes music is not my best friend when I try to concentrate on a particular thought for my stories. :-)
Where online can viewers find you e.g., web, blog, social media sites?
Viewers can find me on facebook, twitter,  goodreads, and I am posting new short stories on figment.com. To purchase books go to Amazon.com.
Thank you for stopping by Joe, I wish you all the best with your screenplay, as well as Infinite Possibilities!

 

Comments are now open…

Seven Weeks To Christmas Author Interviews & Giveaways

Virginia Wright BlogHello Everyone! Beginning the first Sunday in November, (November 4th) through December 16th, I am hosting “Seven Weeks to Christmas Author Interviews and Giveaways.” This will be a chance to learn about authors you have not read and at the same time learn a little bit more about those who you have.

Giveaways

If you comment on the authors post the day of their interview, it enters you into a drawing for a chance to win their giveaway.  If you shout out about the event–such as on Facebook, Google+, Tweet, Pin, etc. each post counts towards an entry. You must return back to the author interview and post the URL where you broadcast the event. It’s that easy!

Each week I will be interviewing various authors who have so graciously agreed to visit my blog as Guest Author. I’m very excited to be hosting this event. I have met some wonderful authors online, and some of these in person, and what better way to get in the holiday spirit than to enter giveaways and win gifts everything from ebooks, to paperbacks, and other surprises!

Grand Prize Giveaway

On the last week of this event…I’m going to be giving away two copies of my latest book, The Christmas Secret, in paperback, as well as a few other goodies! (Not revealing what that is now. But it will be a fitting giveaway for Christmas). :-)

List of authors participating:

November 4th – Sherry Ellis

November 11th – Catherine Wolffe

November 18th – Sarah L, Bowman

November 25th – Launa McNeilly

November 25th – 

November 28th – Mario Joseph Cardarelli

December 2nd – Lisa Winkler

December 2nd – Jeremy Hawkins

December 9th – Dennis Higgins

December 9th – Joe Landers

December 16th – Virginia Wright (Me) Release Party Online for – “The Christmas Secret” – Nice swag giveaway!