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Dear Reader Letter

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(Forever ~ November 2007)

St. John’s playful tale of love and money will appeal to readers who enjoy the sexy, sassy stories of Lori Foster and Sandra Hill. — Shelley Mosley, Booklist (http://www.ala.org/ala/booklist/booklist.htm)

This is great fun and I whole-heartedly recommend this sexy, terrific story. Better than other Chick Lit. Enjoy! — Donna Doyle, Romance Reviews Magazine (www.romancereviewsmag.com)

Readers will root for the heroine to finally catch her cheat. — Harriet Klausner, Book Crossing (www.bookcrossing.com)

Q  How did you decide on the cheating theme for your newest book?
A  At some point in everyone’s life, they’ve been cheated on. Most people know what it feels like to be the cheatee, and everyone would love to see a cheatee deliver payback. I’m hoping readers will enjoy watching Marissa Kincaid, the ultimate cheatee, go for revenge.

Q  How would you describe Marissa Kincaid?
A  Marissa Kincaid is a smart, sassy thirty-two year old who has everything going for her as far as career and friends. She’s a computer programmer who has started an up-and-coming webzine, has two great friends who are part of her new adventure and has nothing to complain about...except the fact that every guy she’s ever dated has ending up cheating on her.

Q  How does Marissa deal with her problem with cheaters?
A  When Marissa discovers her latest potential forever fellow has a thing for another guy, she has had enough and decides to fight back, creating a website to oust cheaters——but her plans go astray when she lists Trent Jackson on her site.

Q  And why is listing Trent Jackson a problem?
A  Because Trent Jackson is a savvy businessman who knows he’s never cheated on anyone. Plus, Trent Jackson recognizes a business opportunity when he sees one, and he realizes that a world wide web war with sexy Marissa “Rissi” Kincaid will give his new company the advertising boost he’s been craving...and will also give him a chance to reconnect with the feisty brunette.

Q  What did you write for NASA? Where does this book fit in?
A  At the time I graduated college, NASA was actively recruiting individuals with degree concentrations in Computer Science and English, my two fields of study. My position involved writing technical manuals utilized to obtain elevation data of the earth's terrain. I worked with cartographers, engineers and programmers on a daily basis and truly enjoyed the enormous learning curve involved with the position, as well as the endless amount of information. Writers love information; that position was a goldmine for plotting ideas. While I have written books that involve my NASA experience, To Catch A Cheat is a sassy, sexy contemporary romance.

Q  Describe your typical writing day.
A  I'm an early bird, awake by 5:00. I finish my first cup of coffee by 5:15. By 5:30, I'm on cup 2 and halfway through emails. At 7:30, my teen boys head out for school and the sexy Cajun heads for the office (nothing like a sexy Cajun to get you in the right frame of mind for writing romance—I highly recommend every aspiring romance writer to marry a sexy Cajun. Trust me—it works). With an empty house, I write. No more email until the day's chapter is complete. I strive to write one chapter or one nice scene per day.

Q  Are there really websites called TheGuyCheats.com and TheGirlLies.com?
A  Oh, yes. Marissa’s site, TheGuyCheats, and Trent’s site, TheGirlLies, are up and running. In fact, these sites not only offer more information about To Catch A Cheat, but they also allow site visitors to enter my latest contest, specifically for cheatees.

Q  Speaking of contests, you’ve given away several really nice vacations on your www.kelleystjohn.com website. And now, you’re having a contest specifically for cheatees? Can you provide more information for that one?
A  Sure! My newest contest for To Catch A Cheat is for individuals who have been cheated on, or “cheatees.”

Beginning August 13, cheatees can enter their best heartbreak stories at www.KelleyStJohn.com, www.TheGuyCheats.com, or www.TheGirlLies.com to win a $500 Spa Getaway from SpaFinder.com.

Each Monday through December 31, I’ll post that week’s winning cheatee story to the site. By December 31, there will be twenty heartbreak stories for site visitors to view and vote to determine which cheatee most deserves the $500 Spa Getaway to help them recover from their heartbreak.

Voting begins January 1, 2008 through February 14. Then, on Valentine’s Day, the cheatee with the most votes will win a Spa Getaway. Register to win, because every cheatee deserves to be pampered. Just ask Marissa!

Marissa reached for the cordless phone and started toward the door with Petie, who only paused long enough to let her hook his leash to his collar. On the third ring, she hit the Talk button. “Morning, Mom,” she said sleepily, opening the door and letting Petie lead the way. She hadn’t even checked the caller id. She’d known it was Mona.

But she was wrong.

“You know, of all the things I’ve been called, I don’t believe ‘Mom’ has ever entered the picture.”

At the sound of that masculine, confident tone, Marissa’s hands involuntarily tightened, along with a few other parts of her anatomy, and Petie yelped when the reaction caused a tiny jerk on his leash. “Sorry, Petie,” she mumbled apologetically.

“Petie?” sexy voice asked, while Marissa dashed a peek at the caller id. Sure enough, there was the proof.

Jackson, Trenton J.

“My dog,” she said, kneeling to rub Petie’s soft coat in an effort to formally apologize...and because her knees had turned to jelly.

“Ah, so you’re expecting phone calls from your mother at the crack of dawn, and you’re hanging out with your dog at the same time. Exciting life you live, Rissi.”

Marissa’s jaw tensed, eyes narrowed. “Obviously, yours is equally exciting, since you spend your time running stupid contests about comic strip quotes—for my picture—and spend your mornings calling women who don’t want to talk to you.”

“The first part may be true,” he said, and she could actually hear the smile in his words, “But the last part, well, I wouldn’t be so sure. You do want to talk to me, don’t you, Rissi?” he asked, then added huskily, “As much as I want to talk to you.”

Okay. That stopped her cold. How was she supposed to argue with a guy who looked like Trent Jackson, intrigued the hell out of her and admitted he wanted to talk to her? She tried to formulate a sassy response, but he didn’t give her time before forging on.

“Saw the winning quote, did you?” he asked.

“I did,” she admitted, having viewed the winning entry last night before going to bed. It was amazing she slept, given how mad she’d been. A tinge of that fury for his crazy antics rippled down her spine as she recalled the words in that cartoon bubble.

“I imagine you won’t have any trouble getting dates, with all of the males in Atlanta wanting to know if it’s true.”

“If what’s true?” she asked, before really thinking through her question. Obviously, he was talking about the quote, so obviously, he was talking about...

“Whether liars really have talented tongues,” he said, with no hint of a smile filtering through any of the words, but jumpstarting her libido just the same.

I’d love to tell you every reason that I wrote TO CATCH A CHEAT, such as my desire to examine how events—even those that seem insignificant—are all linked to one another, or my desire to explore the concept of "revenge" and whether or not it can ever be justified, or my wish to expose how our perception of a situation can be skewed. But the main reason is that Marissa Kincaid demanded her story be told. She’s that way, you know. Or rather, she wants to be that way. She wants to be a take-charge kind of girl, one who’ll do whatever it takes to make her cheaters (past and present) pay. Marissa wants to be the type of person who would force me to give her control of this letter and let her have her say. But the truth is, she asked me...nicely. Marissa simply isn’t the type to demand her way, no matter how hard she tries. She’s a true friend, a loving daughter and a faithful girlfriend. Or she was. She has no desire to be any kind of girlfriend to anyone anymore. And that is the truth, sort of. In any case, Marissa did ask to write this letter, and being the good author that I am, I’ll let her.

From Marissa: Isn’t it amazing how an event (or several events, in my case) in your past can affect every part of our future? At the time, the circumstance may not seem such a big deal, then later on you realize that it was the pivotal moment that changed everything. For example, say you’d been cheated on by EVERY GUY YOU EVER DATED. And okay, maybe “cheated” is too strong a word, since some of them didn’t necessarily cheat with another person, but they still put things before you. WAY before you. And by things, you mean a career, or a mother (the term “mama’s boy” comes to mind), or a tuba. Do not ask about the tuba. And say the only means that you see for rectifying this situation is by…retribution. At the time, creating a cheater database seems a terrific idea. But that decision may also come back to bite you in the—well, you get the picture. Because if you do create that database, and then you happen to put one guy on it who may not be guilty as charged, and then that guy happens to retaliate by creating a site about liars, and his site happens to feature YOU...

Like I said, isn’t it amazing how an event in your past (or now, my present) can affect every part of your future? And doesn't it make you wonder...is that really such a bad thing?

Marissa Kincaid, creator of TheGuyCheats.com
& Kelley St. John, creator of Marissa Kincaid