Michelle talks with award-amassing author Annette Blair on bestseller lists, sexy beasts, and rubbing literary elbows with Stephen King. Read on ...

MB: What or who inspired your novel?

AB: As a fundraiser in a school in Rhode Island that's produced more than its share of National Hockey League players, "My Favorite Witch" was definitely a case of writing what I know. Kira is a coordinator of special events in Newport. I do a lot of special events, and Jason is an NHL player who's been benched -- temporarily, he hopes -- because he was injured in a car accident.

Not that I've ever wielded a wand, found a hidden staircase, searched for ghosts, or met a friendly fortune-telling crow, but as a teen, I witnessed the scene I recreated in the first chapter between the hero and a precocious orphan named Travis.

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

AB: The characters, every one of them, and the way they interact, the humor that's intrinsic to who they are and to the situations in which they find themselves.

MB: Who is the most heroic person you know?

AB: My friend Chris, the woman to whom I dedicated "My Favorite Witch." She's a heroine in every sense of the word, though she would never agree.

MB: Who's your romance hero: dark, brooding bad boy or white knight in shining armor?

AB: My favorite romance hero is a bad boy who turns into a white knight, like Jason in "My Favorite Witch." Though to be truthful, in "Beauty and the Beast." I like the hero better as a beast. And in the first "Star Wars" release, way back when, I thought Darth Vader was sexy.

MB: Answer the question you wish an interviewer would ask.

AB: Has writing your "Witch" novels, your first contemporaries, I understand, impacted your career?

Yes, they won me a wonderful new agent and a wonderful new editor and publisher. The print runs and publisher support have been wonderful, and the books have gone back to print several times. With "My Favorite Witch," I hit some amazing milestones. For weeks, it stayed at the top of the Nielsen BookScan Romance Bestseller list and the Barnes & Noble Mass Market Romance Bestseller List. It became a Bookmarked Breakout Bestseller at Target Stores across the country, where it was placed prominently beside Steven King's "Wolves of the Calla." I took pictures. You can see one here.