New Neighbors

HANK: You know how it usually happens. The moving van pulls up across the street. You peer through the slats of the window blinds. You don't want them to see you checking out the new neighbors. Who are they? In goes a fancy stove--Will you be friends and share gourment dinners? In goes a child-size bike--Will they have a weird kid who will set traps for your cat?

New neighbors are always fascinating. And there are new ones in blog world, too. And since we already know they'll be pals, we invited the Pens Fatales for tea!

Their new Blog launches June 1, and we're delighted to welcome them to town.

Who are the Pens Fatales? Check 'em out--and you dont have to look through the slats. They tell tales of mystery, romance, and supernatural suspense: Left to right in the above photo, meet L.G.C. Smith, Adrienne Miller, Martha Flynn, Juliet Blackwell (aka Hailey Lind), Sophie Littlefield, Lisa Hughey, Gigi Pandian, and Rachael Herron.

And read on below to get to know a bit about them. And if that's not enough? The Pens Fatales will be giving away a free book on Monday to someone who posts a comment below. (Check out their site on Monday to see if you won!)

And because we always want Jungle Red to be educational and informative:

Here are the Top 10 things you didn’t know about the Pens Fatales. And yes, see below. There will be a Quiz!

Adrienne Miller has never had to worry about what to name the heroines of her novels. So far, she has named them all after ice cream parlors she loves.

In elementary school, Gigi Pandian wrote a cartoon series chronicling the adventures of Minnesota Smith, a female Indiana Jones.

Getting an equally early start on her life of murder and mayhem, Juliet Blackwell received her first .22 rifle on her eighth birthday and her first motorcycle (a Honda 70) on her tenth. Both were gifts from her father. And yet her mother never asked for a divorce.

In middle school, Lisa Hughey and friends wrote an anonymous gossip column for their school paper based on the TV show Charlie's Angels, calling themselves Cooper's Angels.

L.G.C. Smith knows all the words to "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Sink the Bismarck." When she was four, she used to don her pearl snap shirt, cowgirl boots and hat, mount up on the ol' spring horse, and sing along with an old Johnny Horton record for hours at a time.

One Pen Fatale strictly bides by the Die Hard Rule--If while surfing channels she comes upon any of the franchise's movies, Martha Flynn stops what she's doing to watch.

Rachael Herron can knit backwards, and sometimes does. When asked if she can do so while playing the ukulele, she replied: "Only while knitting forwards."

During college, Sophie Littlefield entered and won a school writing contest. She used prize money to buy a bikini, and hasn't taken first place for any writing awards since.

BONUS FACTS:
Two Pens Fatales led parallel lives before they met: They went to the same University, dated guys in the same fraternity, lived in the same town in Illinois, then moved to the same town in California, all before ever meeting each other.

One Pen Fatale performed as Wonder Woman on stage at the Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

HANK: We think they're all wonder women--but wonder who fits the description of those bonus facts… can you guess? (I'm off to BEA today..catch you later! Play nice, now....And tomorrow--one of the funniest funniest blogs you've ever read.) But now--I'm thinkin' the Wonder Woman was--Gigi. Think I'm right?