Guest post by Pam Stucky

Thanks so much for having me here today, Suzy!
Its my pleasure, Pam! Great to have you here :)

I am the author of the Wishing Rock series, which so far consists of Letters from Wishing Rock, The Wishing Rock Theory of Life, and The Tides of Wishing Rock. The novels take place in a tiny little town I made up, Wishing Rock, on fictional Dogwinkle Island, which is located outside Seattle, maybe somewhere around the San Juan Islands.
Wishing Rock is unique in that everyone in town lives in the same building - it's inspired by the town of Whittier, Alaska, where almost everyone in town lives in an old Navy building. I heard about Whittier years and years ago, and started to wonder, what would that be like? So, I populated my town with people I wanted to get to know, and then I set them about their business! The Wishing Rock books are written in the form of letters back and forth amongst the characters, as well as some emails and texts, so we get a somewhat voyeuristic view into what they're all really thinking! The feel of the Wishing Rock books is sort of Northern-Exposure-esque, I'd say, with interwoven character-driven stories about relationships, hopes, fears, life, and love.
And these books are more than just novels - they're novels with recipes! As it turns out, in a town of about a hundred people where everyone lives together, there are a lot of potlucks. Somehow as I was writing, without my planning it, my characters started having lots of potlucks and dinner parties. True to any community, they gather together over food! As I was describing the various dishes I suddenly thought, why not include some of the recipes? And thus the Wishing Rock novels became "novels with recipes."
Which is somewhat ironic, considering I'm far from the world's best chef. I'm not bad, but when I cook, if a recipe says it'll take an hour, I have to plan on three! What that means is that the recipes in my books are, for the most part, recipes that almost anyone can make. (When I do readings and signings, I sometimes make the Chocolate Oat Bars from page 19 in Letters from Wishing Rock. They're delicious - I've sold books just for that recipe alone!)
What I'm most proud of with Wishing Rock is that I've managed, I hope, to create a vivid world peopled with wonderful characters that readers want to get to know and spend time with. I have a fabulous group of readers on my facebook "fan page" (http://www.facebook.com/pamstuckyauthor), and one day I was talking about Harry Potter - how I so envy J.K. Rowling for having been able to create a whole world that others can get lost in. One of my wonderful readers commented that she felt the same way about Wishing Rock. Several people have said similar things to me, actually - that when they step away from my books it's like they've been lost in the people and places of Wishing Rock and they have to reorient themselves to the real world. To me, that's the best possible compliment.
At this point there are only three books in the series. I have had many requests for more books, but my characters need to live their lives a little more before they tell me what they're up to. I definitely want to revisit them one day; I miss them! I'm not done with Dogwinkle Island and Wishing Rock just yet! In the meantime, I just launched a new travelogue series, Pam on the Map, in which I travel the world and share my adventures. I'm driven by curiosity and a desire to connect with stories in everything I do, whether those stories are already true (non-fiction) or could be true (fiction)!
Come on by and find me online!
http://www.pamstucky.com
http://www.twitter.com/pamstucky
http://www.facebook.com/pamstuckyauthor
http://www.pinterest.com/pamstucky