The Next Big Thing for Me is Blessing or Curse

I received three tag requests to participate in The Next Big Thing -- one from Jenny Milchman, who is posting today at http//www.kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com, another from Shonell Bacon at http://shonellbacon.com, who posted on Oct. 22, and yet another from Susan Furlong-Bolliger, at http://booksgoneviral.blogspot.com, who will do her post on Nov. 19, so I had to give in, sit down and do one of my own.  My duties today are to answer ten burning questions, provide a link to the person(s) who tagged me, and also tag off to five other bloggers. So far, I've only found two, so I may need to tag three more victims later. The main thing is to keep The Next Big Thing going! And the questions and answers are:  What is your working title of your book? Blessing or Curse  Where did the idea come from for the book? Forever Young: Blessing or Curse When I began writing Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, my object was to lay the groundwork about the young pill which could revert a taker from that person’s present age to a previous one. So many characters begged for attention, I realized I couldn’t cover them all in one book. I had to yank some of them out of the manuscript and plop them into a separate book. Hence, Blessing or Curse, began. The first novel, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse,  concentrates on the heroine, as well as the villains. The second, Blessing or Curse, today's subject of The Next Big Thing, focuses on test market participants, as well as a bit about the bad guys. The third, Always Young, concludes the trilogy by taking readers back to the original main character  and someone she holds dear.  What genre does your book fall under? Good question. This one has mixed parentage. Paranormal, since no one has invented a pill yet to take anyone back in age and hold that person there.  It's also a Romance, because most of the stories revolve around love and relationships.  And a Thriller, because the pill has a wide reaching affect for good or bad, and also because there are nefarious villains around. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie edition? Ezekiel – Will Smith Sherri - Nicole Kidman Mike Walinski – Kevin James Not sure yet about the rest of the cast What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Blessing or Curse focuses on five characters from differing walks of life, nationalities, and circumstances, yet with one thing in common: they are all test market subjects of the experimental pill, Forever Young, designed to revert the user's age back to an earlier choice. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Definitely self-published, but with the help of my editor, Helen Ginger, plus my book designer,  Stephen Walker. How long did it take you to write the first draft of this manuscript? This has been going on for too long.(g) Actually, I started this sequel at least three or four years ago, but since much of it was part of the first book, I had to finish that one first. I’ve just about wrapped this second one up and hope to have it ready sometime in December, 2012, fingers crossed. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre? Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, the first book in my trilogy. Also, the original Forever Young book and movie. More movies: 17 Again, Young Again. I know there's more, but I can't remember them all. Who or what inspired you to write this book? Getting old was a big inspiration, thinking how nice it would be to be young again and stay at a younger age. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I made a concerted effort to include different sorts of characters, with a range of nationalities and physical characteristics, to appeal to a wide audience.  Here's something about their stories: Desperation forces Consuela to order the Forever Young pill to cure her debilitated husband, Diego, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease; but will the cure become a curse? Ezekiel, an African-American male with  E.D. difficulties, sends in for the young pill to prevent his lady love, Luana, from discovering he can’t get it up. Will the pill draw her closer or drive her away? Strawberry blonde model, Sherri’s popularity is fading with her looks. The pill can bring her fame and fortune, but what about love? Overweight Chicago Police Officer Walinski must pass a new physical or lose his job, along with his canine partner. Will the young pill provide security, when danger lurks in the line of duty? Downtrodden going-on-sixty housewife, Dee Dee Marshall, suspects her husband of infidelity, and will do anything to keep him, even take an experimental pill. What she really needs is self-confidence. Now you know something about The Next Big Thing of Morgan Mandel, which I hope you'll be reading soon!!! I'm tagging Debra St. John, who will be posting about her Next Big Thing at my blog, http://morganmandel.blogspot.com on Nov.19. And Helen Ginger, is posting today at http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com.            Thanks, Morgan Mandel http://www.morganmandel.com Twitter at @MorganMandel Amazon Central Page: http://amazon.com/author/morganmandel Excerpt & Buy Links Blog: http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com