Jan Bowles's Blog, page 11
December 19, 2012
Guest Blogger: Nya Rawlyns ~ Erotic Romance Author
My guest blogger today is erotic romance author
Nya Rawlyns
. To my knowledge she has 10 books published with various publishers, including XOXO Publishing. Please read on and give a warm welcome to this highly creative writer.
Q. Where did you get the idea for Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts)?
I love stories about conflicted male characters, men with, shall we say … flexible moral codes who manage to do the right thing, sometimes in spite of themselves. They exist on the fringes of society, playing by their own rules. Combine that with the endless options of a paranormal ‘Verse and you have a recipe for high action, intense encounters and the kind of gritty, raw realism I dearly love.
Q. Tell us a bit about the hero and heroine in Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts).
Actually, what we have is hero and hero(ine). Let me explain. Travis McKenzie is a man with an uncertain lineage, adept at hunting the demons infesting Camden’s mean streets and protecting the only thing he cares about. That would be RayLee, the chief performer and owner of a club frequented by a clientele of whom nightmares are made.
Travis and RayLee have a history, one that extends back to their time in the military, when RayLee was Ray, and Travis was the one who saved his only friend’s life. Fate and karma have a peculiar sense of humor, especially when Ray took those fateful steps to realize his true nature. In mid-transformation, the tranny that was Ray morphing to Raylee was turned by the Governor, the south’s biggest, baddest vampire King.
For Travis, the journey toward reconciling his feeling for Ray, his best and only friend, and RayLee, the woman he craves, must be tempered by his commitment to protect Ray/Lee from the irate Governor who cannot abide the embarrassment of siring a travesty—neither man, nor woman … but both.
It makes for some interesting dilemmas and emotional choices.
Q. What are you working on right now, and what can we expect from you next?
Right now I’m working on a paranormal series: Blood Haven. Book One: Micah is out with Book Two: Cajun Gothic on deck. Both are with XOXO Publishing. Find out more here: http://blood-haven.weebly.com/ The website has excerpts, teaser chapters and other stuff for your reading pleasure. I’ll be ready to dive into Book Three as soon as I finish Saints and Sinners: Roman. I’m writing this one on-the-fly as a serial with 26 chapters completed. You can follow the adventure here: http://saints-and-sinners.weebly.com/
Q. Do you prefer stand-alone books or series (As a reader or a writer)?
If it’s paranormal, I do prefer a series because it allows time to fully develop the ‘Verse, to flesh out all the characters, to explore mythologies (and to push boundaries), and to give me something to look forward to.
For some reason, reaching The End can be such a depressing experience, especially when I’ve become thoroughly invested in one or more characters. While I don’t write fanfic, I do understand that drive to continue with characters and situations, to explore all the what if’s and to delve deeper into all the intriguing minor characters who bring so much to the total experience.
Q. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Today that would be Nalini Singh and her Psy-Changeling series, as well as her Guild Hunter series. Both are stunning in their detail, the strength of the characters and the overarching mythology that has such logical consistency and absurdly gripping premises that you get drawn in, obsessively so (well, me at least). Plus, her characters feel flesh-and-blood, with real motivations, genuine feelings and the path before them is never a done deal.
If you ask me tomorrow … well, I’m expecting book 5 of Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles, an urban fantasy that’s a mash-up of every myth known to man and a hero with a rather unusual dog and an acolyte who might just curl our hero’s toes.
Q. Name three of your favorite things.
Chocolate: Godiva chocolate, specifically truffles
Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby: if you think you are sensing a trend, you wouldn’t be wrong
My life: yep, I am blessed with a wonderful son, horses, chickens, cats, parakeets and a home in the country, good friends and much to be thankful for.
Q. What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Obviously, taking care of the farmette ranks high on my list of things-I-do-without-a-computer. I like movies, a lot. I follow screenwriters with the same slavish devotion as I do with regular authors. I am obsessively gaga over The Vampire Diaries and Sherlock and Dr. Who. If Dancing with the Stars is on, nothing else in the universe matters. I adore Dragon Con and NYC’s ComicCon and attend most every year (and in costume: a very saucy corset and satin skirt combo). And I like to cook. My son: Do you smell something burning? Me: Ah, yes, dinner must be ready.
Q. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? (Some write with a glass of wine, or others listen to music, what do you do?)
I often choreograph action sequences to music my son bundles into ‘rowdy mixes’, using groups I’ve never heard of (Cage the Elephant), but inevitably tunes that have me jigging around the kitchen table. When the writing actually starts, the cover goes over the parakeet cage, the radio’s off, and silence reigns. I then go to that inter-dimensional space where nothing and no one but my characters exist.
Q. How do we find out about you and your books?
Aside from the website devoted to those titles, you can find me at:
Website: http://www.romancingwords.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/NyaRawlyns
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nya_rawlyns @Nya_Rawlyns
Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004Y80YQ4
About Me: http://about.me/nyarawlyns
Q. How may readers contact you?
I love to hear from readers. If you like, leave a comment (Contact Me) on my website or a tweet/follow or join me on Face Book.
I want to thank you, Jan, for having me today. It’s been a real pleasure.
You're welcome, Nya, and thank you. I'm always amazed by the wonderful diversity of talent I get to see on my blog. I love the excerpt by the way. It shows your wonderful skill as a writer. That you can get so much depth of feeling into your characters, in just a few paragraphs, is truly awesome.
Excerpt from Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts):
Hands the size of pie-plates cradled my head, a lover’s caress, his voice deepening and the rhythm of the words changing to a lush, sibilant sound. I was intimate with spells and didn’t understand how he could possibly cast anything given his new speech impediment. Mine were hit or miss on a good day, stone cold sober.
I was going to need to read up on countermeasures because my body was having way too much fun responding to whatever suggestions Dozer was murmuring in my ear. He was grinding my hips into the rough wall, and I knew in that instant my initiation into the Cult of Dozer would not be the pleasant interlude my painful erection anticipated.
When he withdrew without warning, I felt relieved and not a little disappointed. The muted sounds of footsteps, laughter—high girlish followed by a coarse grunt—and the steady beat from whatever canned musak Ray was gyrating to filtered back to us, spreading out and around the mountain of a man blocking my escape.
I eased back from the brick, rubbing my palms on my jeans, and risked an intake of the fetid air. Demon guts, sex, and rotting trash warred with the part of me having the good sense to be afraid, layering thin veneers of terror intermingled with lust in a powerful eau de stupidity.
Ray was going to be all Yoda on me if he found out. I might be immune to his glamour but I sure as hell was susceptible to all manner of naughty suggestions from his clientele. And most times spells weren’t required. We’d been working on that for years. In my youth, trolling for trailer trash, there hadn’t been much of a downside … or consequences. Now I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Unfortunately, celibacy never worked for me.
Dozer licked his lips in that slow seductive way you’d expect some hot babe would do it, corner to corner, top first, then the lower with teeth taking hold in nips and tugs. The air around me buzzed and sizzled, setting up a vibration in my belly that wasn’t stretching my comfort zone at all. I couldn’t see his eyes, they were downcast, staring at my crotch where I was stroking myself, palm curved to receive the denim and sharp zipper swaddling my cock. It hurt, metal to flesh, pain in that good kind of way that makes you feel alive and in control.
Something glinted in the weak light. Odd I hadn’t noticed before. He had a tongue stud, a silver ball he was nestling along his upper lip, and I thought about how that might feel if he took me in his mouth and nothing mattered more at that moment than finding out. The subvocals rattled in my chest, Dozer’s mouth moving now in rapid cadence, drawing me close, closer.
I barely registered the click, so intent on the unholy wash of need coursing through my system, setting nerves afire, skin crawling with sensation as the waves of energy ate through the last of my defenses. He was going to fuck me ’til I bled and I’d beg for more.
“I said, back off, bitch.”
Ray? What the hell was he doing out here?
Links to Acid Jazz Singer:
Kindle US: http://amzn.to/n2AIh4
Print: http://amzn.to/ouo7jv
B & N: http://bit.ly/pggiuy
OmniLit: http://bit.ly/qeypt6
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/NlUPFA
Q. Where did you get the idea for Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts)?
I love stories about conflicted male characters, men with, shall we say … flexible moral codes who manage to do the right thing, sometimes in spite of themselves. They exist on the fringes of society, playing by their own rules. Combine that with the endless options of a paranormal ‘Verse and you have a recipe for high action, intense encounters and the kind of gritty, raw realism I dearly love.Q. Tell us a bit about the hero and heroine in Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts).
Actually, what we have is hero and hero(ine). Let me explain. Travis McKenzie is a man with an uncertain lineage, adept at hunting the demons infesting Camden’s mean streets and protecting the only thing he cares about. That would be RayLee, the chief performer and owner of a club frequented by a clientele of whom nightmares are made.
Travis and RayLee have a history, one that extends back to their time in the military, when RayLee was Ray, and Travis was the one who saved his only friend’s life. Fate and karma have a peculiar sense of humor, especially when Ray took those fateful steps to realize his true nature. In mid-transformation, the tranny that was Ray morphing to Raylee was turned by the Governor, the south’s biggest, baddest vampire King.
For Travis, the journey toward reconciling his feeling for Ray, his best and only friend, and RayLee, the woman he craves, must be tempered by his commitment to protect Ray/Lee from the irate Governor who cannot abide the embarrassment of siring a travesty—neither man, nor woman … but both.
It makes for some interesting dilemmas and emotional choices.
Q. What are you working on right now, and what can we expect from you next?
Right now I’m working on a paranormal series: Blood Haven. Book One: Micah is out with Book Two: Cajun Gothic on deck. Both are with XOXO Publishing. Find out more here: http://blood-haven.weebly.com/ The website has excerpts, teaser chapters and other stuff for your reading pleasure. I’ll be ready to dive into Book Three as soon as I finish Saints and Sinners: Roman. I’m writing this one on-the-fly as a serial with 26 chapters completed. You can follow the adventure here: http://saints-and-sinners.weebly.com/
Q. Do you prefer stand-alone books or series (As a reader or a writer)?
If it’s paranormal, I do prefer a series because it allows time to fully develop the ‘Verse, to flesh out all the characters, to explore mythologies (and to push boundaries), and to give me something to look forward to.
For some reason, reaching The End can be such a depressing experience, especially when I’ve become thoroughly invested in one or more characters. While I don’t write fanfic, I do understand that drive to continue with characters and situations, to explore all the what if’s and to delve deeper into all the intriguing minor characters who bring so much to the total experience.
Q. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Today that would be Nalini Singh and her Psy-Changeling series, as well as her Guild Hunter series. Both are stunning in their detail, the strength of the characters and the overarching mythology that has such logical consistency and absurdly gripping premises that you get drawn in, obsessively so (well, me at least). Plus, her characters feel flesh-and-blood, with real motivations, genuine feelings and the path before them is never a done deal.
If you ask me tomorrow … well, I’m expecting book 5 of Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles, an urban fantasy that’s a mash-up of every myth known to man and a hero with a rather unusual dog and an acolyte who might just curl our hero’s toes.
Q. Name three of your favorite things.
Chocolate: Godiva chocolate, specifically truffles
Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby: if you think you are sensing a trend, you wouldn’t be wrong
My life: yep, I am blessed with a wonderful son, horses, chickens, cats, parakeets and a home in the country, good friends and much to be thankful for.
Q. What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Obviously, taking care of the farmette ranks high on my list of things-I-do-without-a-computer. I like movies, a lot. I follow screenwriters with the same slavish devotion as I do with regular authors. I am obsessively gaga over The Vampire Diaries and Sherlock and Dr. Who. If Dancing with the Stars is on, nothing else in the universe matters. I adore Dragon Con and NYC’s ComicCon and attend most every year (and in costume: a very saucy corset and satin skirt combo). And I like to cook. My son: Do you smell something burning? Me: Ah, yes, dinner must be ready.
Q. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? (Some write with a glass of wine, or others listen to music, what do you do?)
I often choreograph action sequences to music my son bundles into ‘rowdy mixes’, using groups I’ve never heard of (Cage the Elephant), but inevitably tunes that have me jigging around the kitchen table. When the writing actually starts, the cover goes over the parakeet cage, the radio’s off, and silence reigns. I then go to that inter-dimensional space where nothing and no one but my characters exist.
Q. How do we find out about you and your books?
Aside from the website devoted to those titles, you can find me at:
Website: http://www.romancingwords.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/NyaRawlyns
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nya_rawlyns @Nya_Rawlyns
Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004Y80YQ4
About Me: http://about.me/nyarawlyns
Q. How may readers contact you?
I love to hear from readers. If you like, leave a comment (Contact Me) on my website or a tweet/follow or join me on Face Book.
I want to thank you, Jan, for having me today. It’s been a real pleasure.
You're welcome, Nya, and thank you. I'm always amazed by the wonderful diversity of talent I get to see on my blog. I love the excerpt by the way. It shows your wonderful skill as a writer. That you can get so much depth of feeling into your characters, in just a few paragraphs, is truly awesome.
Excerpt from Acid Jazz Singer (Hunger Hurts):
Hands the size of pie-plates cradled my head, a lover’s caress, his voice deepening and the rhythm of the words changing to a lush, sibilant sound. I was intimate with spells and didn’t understand how he could possibly cast anything given his new speech impediment. Mine were hit or miss on a good day, stone cold sober.
I was going to need to read up on countermeasures because my body was having way too much fun responding to whatever suggestions Dozer was murmuring in my ear. He was grinding my hips into the rough wall, and I knew in that instant my initiation into the Cult of Dozer would not be the pleasant interlude my painful erection anticipated.
When he withdrew without warning, I felt relieved and not a little disappointed. The muted sounds of footsteps, laughter—high girlish followed by a coarse grunt—and the steady beat from whatever canned musak Ray was gyrating to filtered back to us, spreading out and around the mountain of a man blocking my escape.
I eased back from the brick, rubbing my palms on my jeans, and risked an intake of the fetid air. Demon guts, sex, and rotting trash warred with the part of me having the good sense to be afraid, layering thin veneers of terror intermingled with lust in a powerful eau de stupidity.
Ray was going to be all Yoda on me if he found out. I might be immune to his glamour but I sure as hell was susceptible to all manner of naughty suggestions from his clientele. And most times spells weren’t required. We’d been working on that for years. In my youth, trolling for trailer trash, there hadn’t been much of a downside … or consequences. Now I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Unfortunately, celibacy never worked for me.
Dozer licked his lips in that slow seductive way you’d expect some hot babe would do it, corner to corner, top first, then the lower with teeth taking hold in nips and tugs. The air around me buzzed and sizzled, setting up a vibration in my belly that wasn’t stretching my comfort zone at all. I couldn’t see his eyes, they were downcast, staring at my crotch where I was stroking myself, palm curved to receive the denim and sharp zipper swaddling my cock. It hurt, metal to flesh, pain in that good kind of way that makes you feel alive and in control.
Something glinted in the weak light. Odd I hadn’t noticed before. He had a tongue stud, a silver ball he was nestling along his upper lip, and I thought about how that might feel if he took me in his mouth and nothing mattered more at that moment than finding out. The subvocals rattled in my chest, Dozer’s mouth moving now in rapid cadence, drawing me close, closer.
I barely registered the click, so intent on the unholy wash of need coursing through my system, setting nerves afire, skin crawling with sensation as the waves of energy ate through the last of my defenses. He was going to fuck me ’til I bled and I’d beg for more.
“I said, back off, bitch.”
Ray? What the hell was he doing out here?
Links to Acid Jazz Singer:
Kindle US: http://amzn.to/n2AIh4
Print: http://amzn.to/ouo7jv
B & N: http://bit.ly/pggiuy
OmniLit: http://bit.ly/qeypt6
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/NlUPFA
December 18, 2012
Read the 1st Chapter of Master and Inquisitor Free
Here is the 1st Chapter of Master and Inquisitor in its entirety. I hope you enjoy it.
Master and Inquisitor is available from Bookstrand HERE
MASTER AND INQUISITORMasters of Submission 4JAN BOWLESCopyright © 2013
Chapter One
Beth Beaumont curiously surveyed the imposing brick façade of the large building directly across the street. A pair of huge bronze ravens guarded the impressive entrance to the club. According to the whispers circulating Boston, Club Submission was the place to come for all shades of kink. Beth took a lungful of the early-morning air, savoring the moment as the wind rustled pleasantly through her long, blonde hair. It had been a while since she’d last explored and enjoyed the fetish scene. Now, her self-appointed three-year exile was about to come to an end, albeit on a partial basis, because she was here in a strictly professional capacity.
Three years ago, she could never have imagined wanting to return to the hedonistic delights of the BDSM world, but time was a great healer, and now the draw was proving too strong. When she’d heard of a vacancy for a bar attendant in the exclusive private club, she’d been unable to resist the lure.
Truth be known, financially she didn’t need this job. She already worked from nine to five as a clerk for a national bank in downtown Boston. No, the position being offered by Club Submission was simply a way of reconnecting with people heavily into the lifestyle. She still didn’t know if she could entirely let go of the past. Antonio, her first and only Master, had been her entire world. She was convinced that no other Dom could ever take his place, but she desperately needed to rekindle some of the old magic. Christ, she was just twenty-seven years old. She wasn’t about to give up on life just yet.
Beth tentatively pressed the gargoyle doorbell, then waited as patiently as her nerves would allow. After a short while, she heard the unmistakable sound of a series of heavy bolts being drawn back. Unsure what to expect, she took a deep breath as the large doors slowly swung open. Feeling relieved, Beth released the air from her lungs as a woman in her early thirties, with a froth of short blonde curls greeted her with a warm smile. “Hi, honey. You’re here about the job, right?”
“That’s right. My name’s Beth Beaumont. I believe we may have spoken on the telephone. I have an interview with the owners of the club.”
The woman smiled again, a genuine smile, and she hoped they could become good friends. “You’re right on time. Come on in, honey, the wind’s getting up outside.” She welcomed her through the door, and then bolted it behind her. “I’m Andrea. I work on reception most of the time, but when Ethan and Matthew need help elsewhere in the club, I always try to accommodate them. They may be my bosses, but they’re great guys, too.”
Beth surveyed the surprisingly small reception area. It consisted of a welcome desk, complete with computer screen. Another door opened out into an annex showing numerous rows of empty coatracks. Apart from a silver bowl containing glossy black match booklets with the words “Club Submission” emblazoned in gold lettering, there was little that gave away the true nature of the club.
“Follow me, and I’ll take you through, Beth.” She patted her hand. “No need to be nervous.”
She followed the receptionist’s rhythmically swaying ass through a set of double doors and along a short corridor. Andrea turned to her and smiled again. “If I remember correctly from our telephone conversation, you’re originally from Chicago and familiar with the fetish scene back there?”
“That’s right,” Beth replied, knowing full well that probing questions were inevitable when applying for a job in a BDSM club. She didn’t want to dwell on certain elements of her unhappy past, so she already had several preplanned answers at hand. “I had a long-term relationship with a top. We’ve been finished for a while now.”
Her response seemed to satisfy Andrea, because the pretty blonde lady nodded her approval. “Well, we’re not gonna shock you here at Club Submission then, are we, honey. Matthew and Ethan always prefer to hire people who are into the scene themselves. That way staff turnover is kept to a minimum.”
The slim blonde pushed open another set of double doors, and they entered a large, spacious room. The ceiling was double height, with subdued lighting casting shadows into the small enclaves and intimate seating areas. She figured the layout had been specifically designed to give the best possible views of the revolving stage, complete with an iron fretwork slave cage.
A surge of adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her pussy moisten. How many times had her Master, Antonio, locked her in a cage exactly like that one? In the beginning of their power exchange relationship, he’d shown immense patience with her. Her parents had divorced when she was barely twelve years old. From that day on, she’d slowly become an out-of-control teenager, dabbling far too much with alcohol and drugs for her own good. Seven years later, and at the age of nineteen, Antonio had gathered up the shattered pieces, bringing much-needed guidance, stability, and self-respect back into her chaotic life.
I miss him so much.
Realizing a job interview was no place for introspection, Beth pushed her sad longing for Antonio back down. That was why she was here. She needed to see if she still wanted to be part of the lifestyle.
A series of murals hung from the walls, depicting sexual scenes that she was familiar with. Beth sensed a quickening of her breathing as she stared fascinated at the erotic images.
Two powerfully built men, who she guessed were in their mid thirties, sat at a glossy black S-shaped bar. They were both extremely good-looking guys, and she figured they were Club Submission joint owners, Matthew and Ethan Strong.
Andrea introduced her to them. “Hi, guys, this lady is Beth Beaumont. She’s come about the bar job.”
They both stood as she approached, and she had to admit she kind of liked the respect they showed. The one wearing hip-hugging jeans and a black T-shirt clinging to his muscular chest held out his hand. “Good to meet you, Beth. I’m Matthew Strong and this is my brother Ethan.” Beth shook their outstretched hands, noticing they both had firm grips. The similarities continued with short dark hair and rugged, manly features. They both had mesmerizing green eyes, although Ethan’s were a paler shade than his brother’s, and appeared even more gorgeous and intense as he scrutinized her every move.
Beth had enough experience of the fetish scene to instinctively know these guys were alpha males of the highest order. A fact she found extremely arousing.
Matthew’s deep, confident voice broke through her private thoughts. “Some pressing club business demands my attention, so I’m gonna leave you in Ethan’s capable care.” He shook her hand again. “I hope to see more of you, Beth. That’s if Ethan here thinks you’re suitable for the job.” Without further need for words he strode purposefully from the room.
“Take a seat, Beth.” The way Ethan spoke, she knew saying, “I’m just fine standing, thank you,” wouldn’t be acceptable to him. Instead, she rested her ass on Matthew’s still-warm barstool.
“Are you familiar with our club, Beth?” Wearing black leather pants and vest, Ethan relaxed back in his chair, totally at ease with himself and his surroundings. He idly rested a cowboy boot across his knee and gripped his ankle.
“I’ve never been here before, but I’ve taken the opportunity to check out your website. I know all about the separate zones, cool, warm, and hot.”
“Excellent, that shows initiative, I like that.” He seemed to stare at her for a long time, his beautiful green eyes holding hers, before finally saying, “So tell me, Beth, what experience do you have of the scene, and do you play yourself? Andrea tells me you originally come from Chicago and are familiar with the scene there.” Ethan spread his arms wide by way of explanation. “I’m aware my line of questioning may seem personal, and have little to do with working behind the bar at Club Submission, but as you’ll be spending your evenings right in the heart of a highly charged sexual environment, I make it my business to know. The last thing I need is a woman freaked out by what she sees. Are you that woman, Beth? Are you easily shocked?”
Beth swallowed hard, fully aware of just how fast the blood pumped around her body, filling and engorging her clit. Just being so close to a drop-dead-gorgeous alpha dominant for the first time in three years sent her arousal levels through the fucking roof. Ethan Strong was scary and sexually predatory, reminding her so much of Antonio. His beautiful pale green eyes held a hint of sadism, something she liked as they closed in on her. She figured he was thinking about what he’d like to do to her.
So why was she putting herself through this? Why not just content herself like millions of other Americans with her soul-destroying daytime job? That way she could leave work at five in the afternoon, cook herself a microwave meal, and chill out in front of the TV, on her own.
Beth realized she wanted far more from her short time on earth. The life-enforcing excitement provided by the BDSM scene was in her blood. She craved the attention that only a dominant man could give her. In return she’d willingly hand over the prize of her complete submission. Only—she still wasn’t sure if she could move on from Antonio. His towering influence had played a huge part in her life. When he’d died right there in front of her some three years ago, it had shattered her cozy, protected world into pieces.
Feeling slightly annoyed with herself for dwelling on the past again, she dragged herself back to the present. A job at Club Submission could be the perfect solution to her dilemma. It would give her the time to explore her emotions and find out once and for all if this lifestyle still held an appeal for her.
You can find out more at Bookstrand HERE
December 16, 2012
2012 Achievements
Erotic Romance Author Jan Bowles, reflects on 2012. As the year draws to an end it is time for some quiet contemplation.
This year has been good for me. I received a 'Top Earner' award from Siren-Publishing in recognition for being one of their top 25 authors of 2012.
I'm also pleased to announce that as an author I've now sold over 100,000 books with Siren in the past 2 years. I also occasionally write under the pen name of Kayla Knight, so check out my books.
http://www.bookstrand.com/jan-bowles
http://www.bookstrand.com/kayla-knight
May I take this opportunity to thank all my readers and wish them a
HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
This year has been good for me. I received a 'Top Earner' award from Siren-Publishing in recognition for being one of their top 25 authors of 2012. I'm also pleased to announce that as an author I've now sold over 100,000 books with Siren in the past 2 years. I also occasionally write under the pen name of Kayla Knight, so check out my books.
http://www.bookstrand.com/jan-bowles
http://www.bookstrand.com/kayla-knight
May I take this opportunity to thank all my readers and wish them a
HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
December 14, 2012
Release Day ~ Master and Inquisitor
It's release day for Master and Inquisitor the 4th installment in my Masters of Submission series
Hi, Everyone
My latest BDSM book ~ Master and Inquisitor is released. It's the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series, and in celebration I'm holding a release party on Facebook, and giving away some prizes. All my Facebook friends have been invited, so check your messages if you want to come along.
Party HERE
1st prize is a signed paperback of Master of Submission, the book that kicked off the series, plus a key charm that looks exactly like Ethan's key to the Inquisitor's Chamber.
I'm really pleased that the keys look just like Ethan's on the cover of the book. Check it out.
2nd prize is a necklace with a Tibetan silver key charm and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is set on a 16 inch silver plated chain, with an extension chain and a Swarovski crystal end.
3rd prize is a key or bag/purse charm and is made from Tibetan silver, silver plated beads and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is finished with a silver plated lobster clasp.
It is due to start at 4.pm US time (Texas) As I live in the UK, someone will have to tell me when that is. :-) I'll be asking some questions, and the correct answers will be put into a virtual hat and a random number generator will pick the winners. Now I will have to devise some wicked questions. :-)
If you're not a friend on Facebook, just request to join me, and I'll send you an invite.
Friend me on Facebook HERE
Check out Master and Inquisitor HERE
Hi, Everyone
My latest BDSM book ~ Master and Inquisitor is released. It's the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series, and in celebration I'm holding a release party on Facebook, and giving away some prizes. All my Facebook friends have been invited, so check your messages if you want to come along. Party HERE
1st prize is a signed paperback of Master of Submission, the book that kicked off the series, plus a key charm that looks exactly like Ethan's key to the Inquisitor's Chamber.
I'm really pleased that the keys look just like Ethan's on the cover of the book. Check it out.
I6TBPwSEMp4w!~~60_12.JPG)
2nd prize is a necklace with a Tibetan silver key charm and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is set on a 16 inch silver plated chain, with an extension chain and a Swarovski crystal end.3rd prize is a key or bag/purse charm and is made from Tibetan silver, silver plated beads and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is finished with a silver plated lobster clasp.
It is due to start at 4.pm US time (Texas) As I live in the UK, someone will have to tell me when that is. :-) I'll be asking some questions, and the correct answers will be put into a virtual hat and a random number generator will pick the winners. Now I will have to devise some wicked questions. :-)If you're not a friend on Facebook, just request to join me, and I'll send you an invite.
Friend me on Facebook HERE
Check out Master and Inquisitor HERE
December 12, 2012
Guest Blogger: Joey James Hook ~ Erotic Romance Author
Today we have erotic romance writer
Joey James Hook
. He writes gritty m/m romance novels that are already causing quite a stir. One Two Three, Shatter, which is published with Silver Publishing, has just received a Top Pick award from The Romance Reviews! So read on to find out more from this highly talented author.
Q. Where did you get the idea for One Two Three, Shatter?
I got the idea for One Two Three, Shatter... actually, I'm not quite sure where I got the idea for that novel from. Kaleb just came to me as such a complete being, with a solid but tragic backstory, and as a muse, he just kept pressing me to write his story until I finished it.
Q. Tell us a bit about the hero and heroine in One Two Three, Shatter.
Well, Kaleb's a tortured guy. He grew up in an abusive home and he's sort of more like an anti-hero. He does things he doesn't understand out of a fear he can't quite comprehend, and to be candid, he screws up royally, but there's just something about him that you just can't quite hate. Knowing what he's been through, you sort of empathize with him. At least, I do. You just want to see him have his happy ending, which I promise you, he does end up getting.
As far as the heroine, there really isn't one unless you count his lifetime friend Sid, but there's another hero in Trent. He's sort of the unsung hero, especially from Kaleb's point of view. He's a sweet guy, eager and dedicated, and he's exactly what Kaleb needs to find stability. He's never-wavering and stays by Kaleb's side through everything even when Kaleb tries to push him away and even when things get rough with his addiction and his trust issues. He's the epitome of devotion, and that's something Kaleb needs.
Q. What are you working on right now, and what can we expect from you next?
Currently I'm working on the fourth and fifth installments in the Xander Series, about Kaleb's adopted son, Kay and a character you'll meet in Kaleb's story, Jer, as well as a M/M zombie apocalypse novella. What should be up next for me publishing-wise is the second in the Xander Series, which my acquisitions editor is looking over right now, as well as a crime noir M/M romance novel featuring an assassin. I'm always working on so much!
Q. Do you prefer stand-alone books or series (As a reader or a writer) ?
As a writer, I prefer series because there's always something more to write about in a story. As a reader, I also enjoy series, because with my favorite stories, I always want more!
Q. If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
This is a hard one! I can't just choose one. I'd have to say it's a tie between J.K. Rowling, J.R. Ward and Friedrich Nietzsche, the former two because I love their stories and would love to hear their thoughts on everything writing and pick their brains for series-building, and the latter because his work is just so fascinating. I'd love to see how he was as a person.
Q. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I knew when I was in the eighth grade. Well, I knew before then, but that was the first time someone encouraged me, told me I had talent, and entered me into a competition. I didn't win it, but it had successfully spurred me on to continue to write.
Q. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? (Some write with a glass of wine, or others listen to music, what do you do?)
I can't write without listening to music. I just can't do it. I also tend to write through the entire draft without going back and editing, and there are a lot of errors because I rarely go back and fix them, aside from glaring typos and such! It probably drives my editors insane. :)
Q. Tell us a little about your writing day?
A typical writing day-- right now, anyway-- is just keeping my word processor open and pulling it up five to ten times a day, writing a anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand words each time, until it ends up totaling up to at least four thousand words a day.
Conversely, I just sit down and write consistently for most of the evening, depending on what else I'm doing that day. When I'm by myself, I write consistently all day, but when my girlfriend's here, we either write together, or we set aside times to write when we aren't watching TV together or running errands or working/studying for classes.
Q. How do we find out about you and your books?
The best place to find anything out about my writing is my Facebook author page (https://www.facebook.com/JoeyJamesHook) or my Twitter (handle @JoeyJamesH). I also have a website at http://joeyjameshook.webs.com and a blog at http://jjhook.blogspot.com and the buy links to my books are on the right hand side. Just click on the covers and they'll take you to their respective buy sites.
Q. How may readers contact you?
You can either contact me via my Facebook or Twitter above, via email at joey.jade.fox (at) gmail (dot) com or through my blog :)
Excerpt from One Two Three, Shatter:
"Don't apologize, man. It's not a bad thing really, not many people do it's all," the bouncer explained, and Kaleb just shrugged, pushing up off the bar to straighten his spine.
"I guess it's just how I am, then," Kaleb said, licking over his bottom lip before glancing at the time and groaning, letting his hands cover his face for a moment in frustration. "I hate that I can't close this place down 'til five. It's three and it is dead, but Jeff would kill me if I closed two hours early."
"I can stick around if you want," Trent offered, and Kaleb gave him a tight smile as he lowered his hands with a slight sigh.
"If you're willing, sure, but it's gonna be boring as fuck," he lamented, and Trent chuckled huskily, making Kaleb look at him with a lifted eyebrow.
"Not with you around it's not," the bouncer said, and he cocked his head, his tongue passing over his bottom lip again. For some reason, the way he'd said that sent a slight flutter through Kaleb's stomach that wasn't foreign to him… he'd just never felt it for anyone but Anna.
"Thanks, but I'm really not that amusing," Kaleb dismissed both the words and the flutter, shaking his head with an amused little smile playing at the corner of his lips.
"I think you are," Trent pointed out right when Kaleb was going to turn away to straighten the alcohol again, and he turned on his heel to face the man.
"What are you saying exactly?"
"Just that I like you," Trent replied, and Kaleb's eyebrow rose more, somehow feeling like this conversation held a lot more weight than he'd initially thought it would. He shifted as a shiver tried to creep its way up his spine.
"Well, thanks," he replied, his voice revealing the confusion that he didn't even bother to keep back. He blinked twice before shaking his head and turning to re-organize the bottles on the wall behind him, putting all the tequila in one area, the vodka in another. One of the other bartenders seemed to like the bottles wherever they could stick them, and it drove him nuts. He liked the order the job offered, and when it was out of whack like that, he couldn't stand it.
He took a deep breath after he put the Yukon Jack next to the Jack Daniels, turning to face a curious Trent and he lit up a cigarette.
"How exactly do you like me?" he asked through the filter that hung between his lips, looking up through his lashes as his brows rose. He pulled the lighter out and flicked it, the flame coming to life and burning brightly in front of him. For a moment he let his mind idle on the different colors of the flame and how they represented the different temperatures of the fire.
"Just about any way," Trent's voice cut through his musings.
Thanks for being my guest today, Joey . I love your writing, it gives a real insight into the emotions of the characters.
Q. Where did you get the idea for One Two Three, Shatter?
I got the idea for One Two Three, Shatter... actually, I'm not quite sure where I got the idea for that novel from. Kaleb just came to me as such a complete being, with a solid but tragic backstory, and as a muse, he just kept pressing me to write his story until I finished it.
Q. Tell us a bit about the hero and heroine in One Two Three, Shatter.
Well, Kaleb's a tortured guy. He grew up in an abusive home and he's sort of more like an anti-hero. He does things he doesn't understand out of a fear he can't quite comprehend, and to be candid, he screws up royally, but there's just something about him that you just can't quite hate. Knowing what he's been through, you sort of empathize with him. At least, I do. You just want to see him have his happy ending, which I promise you, he does end up getting.
As far as the heroine, there really isn't one unless you count his lifetime friend Sid, but there's another hero in Trent. He's sort of the unsung hero, especially from Kaleb's point of view. He's a sweet guy, eager and dedicated, and he's exactly what Kaleb needs to find stability. He's never-wavering and stays by Kaleb's side through everything even when Kaleb tries to push him away and even when things get rough with his addiction and his trust issues. He's the epitome of devotion, and that's something Kaleb needs.
Q. What are you working on right now, and what can we expect from you next?
Currently I'm working on the fourth and fifth installments in the Xander Series, about Kaleb's adopted son, Kay and a character you'll meet in Kaleb's story, Jer, as well as a M/M zombie apocalypse novella. What should be up next for me publishing-wise is the second in the Xander Series, which my acquisitions editor is looking over right now, as well as a crime noir M/M romance novel featuring an assassin. I'm always working on so much!
Q. Do you prefer stand-alone books or series (As a reader or a writer) ?
As a writer, I prefer series because there's always something more to write about in a story. As a reader, I also enjoy series, because with my favorite stories, I always want more!
Q. If you could have dinner with any one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
This is a hard one! I can't just choose one. I'd have to say it's a tie between J.K. Rowling, J.R. Ward and Friedrich Nietzsche, the former two because I love their stories and would love to hear their thoughts on everything writing and pick their brains for series-building, and the latter because his work is just so fascinating. I'd love to see how he was as a person.
Q. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I knew when I was in the eighth grade. Well, I knew before then, but that was the first time someone encouraged me, told me I had talent, and entered me into a competition. I didn't win it, but it had successfully spurred me on to continue to write.
Q. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk? (Some write with a glass of wine, or others listen to music, what do you do?)
I can't write without listening to music. I just can't do it. I also tend to write through the entire draft without going back and editing, and there are a lot of errors because I rarely go back and fix them, aside from glaring typos and such! It probably drives my editors insane. :)
Q. Tell us a little about your writing day?
A typical writing day-- right now, anyway-- is just keeping my word processor open and pulling it up five to ten times a day, writing a anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand words each time, until it ends up totaling up to at least four thousand words a day.
Conversely, I just sit down and write consistently for most of the evening, depending on what else I'm doing that day. When I'm by myself, I write consistently all day, but when my girlfriend's here, we either write together, or we set aside times to write when we aren't watching TV together or running errands or working/studying for classes.
Q. How do we find out about you and your books?
The best place to find anything out about my writing is my Facebook author page (https://www.facebook.com/JoeyJamesHook) or my Twitter (handle @JoeyJamesH). I also have a website at http://joeyjameshook.webs.com and a blog at http://jjhook.blogspot.com and the buy links to my books are on the right hand side. Just click on the covers and they'll take you to their respective buy sites.
Q. How may readers contact you?
You can either contact me via my Facebook or Twitter above, via email at joey.jade.fox (at) gmail (dot) com or through my blog :)
Excerpt from One Two Three, Shatter:
"Don't apologize, man. It's not a bad thing really, not many people do it's all," the bouncer explained, and Kaleb just shrugged, pushing up off the bar to straighten his spine.
"I guess it's just how I am, then," Kaleb said, licking over his bottom lip before glancing at the time and groaning, letting his hands cover his face for a moment in frustration. "I hate that I can't close this place down 'til five. It's three and it is dead, but Jeff would kill me if I closed two hours early."
"I can stick around if you want," Trent offered, and Kaleb gave him a tight smile as he lowered his hands with a slight sigh.
"If you're willing, sure, but it's gonna be boring as fuck," he lamented, and Trent chuckled huskily, making Kaleb look at him with a lifted eyebrow.
"Not with you around it's not," the bouncer said, and he cocked his head, his tongue passing over his bottom lip again. For some reason, the way he'd said that sent a slight flutter through Kaleb's stomach that wasn't foreign to him… he'd just never felt it for anyone but Anna.
"Thanks, but I'm really not that amusing," Kaleb dismissed both the words and the flutter, shaking his head with an amused little smile playing at the corner of his lips.
"I think you are," Trent pointed out right when Kaleb was going to turn away to straighten the alcohol again, and he turned on his heel to face the man.
"What are you saying exactly?"
"Just that I like you," Trent replied, and Kaleb's eyebrow rose more, somehow feeling like this conversation held a lot more weight than he'd initially thought it would. He shifted as a shiver tried to creep its way up his spine.
"Well, thanks," he replied, his voice revealing the confusion that he didn't even bother to keep back. He blinked twice before shaking his head and turning to re-organize the bottles on the wall behind him, putting all the tequila in one area, the vodka in another. One of the other bartenders seemed to like the bottles wherever they could stick them, and it drove him nuts. He liked the order the job offered, and when it was out of whack like that, he couldn't stand it.
He took a deep breath after he put the Yukon Jack next to the Jack Daniels, turning to face a curious Trent and he lit up a cigarette.
"How exactly do you like me?" he asked through the filter that hung between his lips, looking up through his lashes as his brows rose. He pulled the lighter out and flicked it, the flame coming to life and burning brightly in front of him. For a moment he let his mind idle on the different colors of the flame and how they represented the different temperatures of the fire.
"Just about any way," Trent's voice cut through his musings.
Thanks for being my guest today, Joey . I love your writing, it gives a real insight into the emotions of the characters.
December 11, 2012
Master and Inquisitor Release Day Prizes
Hi, Everyone
On Friday 14th December, my latest BDSM book ~ Master and Inquisitor is released. It's the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series, and in celebration I'm holding a release party on Facebook, and giving away some prizes. All my Facebook friends have been invited, so check your messages if you want to come along.
Party HERE
1st prize is a signed paperback of Master of Submission, the book that kicked off the series, plus a key charm that looks exactly like Ethan's key to the Inquisitor's Chamber.
I'm really pleased that the keys look just like Ethan's on the cover of the book. Check it out.
2nd prize is a necklace with a Tibetan silver key charm and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is set on a 16 inch silver plated chain, with an extension chain and a Swarovski crystal end.
3rd prize is a key or bag/purse charm and is made from Tibetan silver, silver plated beads and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is finished with a silver plated lobster clasp.
It is due to start at 4.pm US time (Texas) As I live in the UK, someone will have to tell me when that is. :-) I'll be asking some questions, and the correct answers will be put into a virtual hat and a random number generator will pick the winners. Now I will have to devise some wicked questions. :-)
If you're not a friend on Facebook, just request to join me, and I'll send you an invite.
Friend me on Facebook HERE
Check out Master and Inquisitor HERE
On Friday 14th December, my latest BDSM book ~ Master and Inquisitor is released. It's the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series, and in celebration I'm holding a release party on Facebook, and giving away some prizes. All my Facebook friends have been invited, so check your messages if you want to come along. Party HERE
1st prize is a signed paperback of Master of Submission, the book that kicked off the series, plus a key charm that looks exactly like Ethan's key to the Inquisitor's Chamber.
I'm really pleased that the keys look just like Ethan's on the cover of the book. Check it out.
2nd prize is a necklace with a Tibetan silver key charm and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is set on a 16 inch silver plated chain, with an extension chain and a Swarovski crystal end.3rd prize is a key or bag/purse charm and is made from Tibetan silver, silver plated beads and a genuine 4mm Swarovski crystal. It is finished with a silver plated lobster clasp.
It is due to start at 4.pm US time (Texas) As I live in the UK, someone will have to tell me when that is. :-) I'll be asking some questions, and the correct answers will be put into a virtual hat and a random number generator will pick the winners. Now I will have to devise some wicked questions. :-)If you're not a friend on Facebook, just request to join me, and I'll send you an invite.
Friend me on Facebook HERE
Check out Master and Inquisitor HERE
December 7, 2012
Special Guest Blogger: Erin O'Quinn ~ Erotic Romance Author
Today I have a special guest blogger
Erin O'Quinn
.
Erin
has just released her latest m/m novel Noble, Nevada with Amber Allure, and today describes the setting for her contemporary work. I just love the way
Erin
pens conversation. She certainly has a talent for bringing characters to life as you will see in the small excerpt below. So read on to find out more.
Noble, Nevada is both a town and a contemporary MM novel.
Hello. My name is Erin O’Quinn, and I confess to being hopelessly in love with two men. Trouble is, the men are in love with someone else ... each other! I’ve created some interesting homoerotic couples, but none more interesting than the two who come together in the tiny canyon-nestled town of Noble, Nevada.
Tony Grazzo is a smart-ass recent college grad who comes to town only for the funeral of his mom. He’s ducking a manipulative girlfriend and wondering what to do with the rest of his life. His major was pre-law, but now he finds that his father Carl, an old world Italian owner of a small gas station, seems lost without him.
When Tony had stood awkwardly at the bus depot on his way to college that first year, Dad had looked almost hurt, as though the family dog had run away and there was no longer a need to put out the kibble dish. It was Mom who had hugged him firmly and told him he’d do fine, while Dad had turned away, almost angry at his departure, helpless to show his feeling of loss.
Rick Hendrickson is a drifter, a 24-year-old drop-dead-handsome migrant worker who is running from the memory of his abusive father. He’s spent ten years working along California’s long agricultural backbone. He could stay in California, but he’s reluctant to reunite with his mother and have to admit his gayness to her. So starting in Las Vegas, he’s worked his way north and has found himself in the rough town of Noble. He begins to tell his new acquaintance a little about himself.
What he did not mention was the reason he had run away, and was maybe still running. It was rare he allowed himself even to think about his abusive father. And his own mother, now living alone, far from her ex-old man’s rough hands and foul mouth. It was time to go see her, and he’d been putting it off.
These two men with troubles on their mind meet one night in a downtown bar, and a spark courses between them. An offered drink, an engaging conversation, quick smiles and a sense of camaraderie end up in Rick’s roadside motel room.
Neither man is ready for a physical exploration--especially Tony, who has never been attracted to a man. And yet he has to admit to himself that there’s something about this engaging stranger that is deeply compelling to him. Rick was drawn from the beginning, and now, in this seedy motel room, his new acquaintance is slowly warming to him as a desirable man:
“Fuck-shit. I’m drunk, Rick.”
“Hey, me, too. Don’t worry about it.”
“Rick, I like your face.”
“I like yours, too, man.”
“A lot.”
Rick felt his cock rise and strain against the stiff crotch of his Levi’s. “That’s good.” He felt his own voice catch in his throat and heard it come out a little fuzzy.
“Will you lay me down, just for a minute?”
“Sure. Just put your arm around my shoulder. Okay, now up. That’s it. Come on, Tone. You’ll be all right in the morning.”
He walked Tone to the bed and laid him on its surface. He stood for a few minutes looking down at him, seeing his head loll to the side.
Whatever strong undercurrent is at play, Tony shrugs it off, and Rick is willing to wait. But the next day, both men find themselves back in that motel room, relaxing on the bed after lunch and a few beers.
Tony drained his beer can. “That was good. Yeah, for a generic, pretty good.”
Rick was closer to him than when he had first crawled to the head of the bed. His face seemed to be only inches from his own.
“How ’bout one more?”
“Um, later.” Tony was beginning to feel buzzed and his groin was starting to stir in his jeans. What the hell? Rick’s mouth was somehow very close to his own.
“I like your mustache.”
Tony giggled. “I grew it because someone else didn’t like it.”
“Tell me.”
“My girl Lotte. We haven’t slept together in forever. Maybe because I put up this mustache as a barrier. Like a border wall between Mexico and Texas.” He began to laugh again, wondering why he was telling Rick things he didn’t even want to think about.
“Well, Tone, I think it’s sexy as hell.” Rick’s voice was very low, and Tony leaned forward a little to hear him.
When he leaned, he was surprised to find Rick’s mouth right there, right next to his. Then he felt a most curious sensation from his balls to the tip of his cock as Rick’s tongue flicked out and traced his upper lip, all along the mustache.
“Mmmnn, I like it.” He licked again. “A lot.”
His cock engorged so fast his denims couldn’t hold him, throbbing and beating against the too-tight riveted crotch. Tony knew this was either the beginning or the end of something. He could succumb right now to this heady feeling of arousal. Or he could jump up immediately and move away from Rick as if nothing had happened. His choice. The rest of his life sat on the fulcrum of this lumpy little bed.
And thus begins the friendship of Tony and Rick. It’s not long before they allow themselves to succumb to their raging hormones, and the relationship goes from tentative to all-out, balls-out lovemaking.
There is more at play in this book, however. There is the relationship that begins to build between the drifter Rick and his lover’s dad Carlo Grazzo—a kind of closeness with a father figure that Rick has been unconsciously seeking all his life. There is the awkward and loveless pairing of Tony and his girl Lotte, one who has kept him in an emotional stranglehold. And there is a slow but steady building of a deep-felt love between Tony and Rick.
Of course, there is a strong conflict that ends with Tony sitting behind bars and Rick running again. And that conflict is the test of whether two unlikely men can ever find their way back to each other, and to a happy future.
I hope you’ll decide to read Noble, Nevada. It’s available at a new-release price from AmberAllure, the M/M wing of Amber Quill Press. Here is a buy link to follow:
http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/NobleNevada.html
I also hope you’ll check out some of my other titles, both mainstream and erotica, and visit my three blogsites (Gaelic spirit, The Man in Romance, and Hugz Book Reviews).
OQ Erin O’Quinn’s Gaelic blog: http://bit.ly/Jgz6tU
Book reviews: http://hugzreviews.wordpress.com
Erin O’Quinn’s Manlove blog: http://romancemanlove.wordpress.com/
Mainstream Romance:
Storm Maker: http://amzn.to/O218y7
The Wakening Fire : http://amzn.to/N1Gc6C
Captive Heart: http://amzn.to/Qm8b1X
Fire & Silk: http://amzn.to/P6jZtn
What Molly Wanted: m/f short coming Dec.5 from Silver Pub. Pre-order @
https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/products_id/1314/
Erin’s Erotic MM Romance:
Warrior, Ride Hard: http://amzn.to/P2eRDO
Warrior, Stand Tall: http://amzn.to/WoDkGS
Noble, Nevada: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/NobleNevada.html
The Chase: Coming January 26 from Amber Allure
Erin O’Quinn’s Manlove blog: http://romancemanlove.wordpress.com
More erotica: http://behind-closed-doors-erotica.weebly.com/
Bio:
Erin O’Quinn is my pen name as a writer of mainstream and erotica romance. My DAWN OF IRELAND trilogy explores the world of Ireland at the time when St. Patrick arrived there in 432AD. The others are set in that time frame also and move among Ireland, Wales and Britannia as the characters find love and adventure.
The Noble, Nevada novel is the first of a series called NOBLE DIMENSIONS. The second novel (same setting, different characters) is titled The Chase and will be published January 26.
I live in Central Texas with my soulmate Bil and four snotty cats—moggies, as some call them. After a college career (Univ. of So Calif.) and several unusual vocations—teacher, car salesperson, gardener, newspaper marketer—I settled down to write a few years ago. After almost two million words, I fear I’m just getting started.
Thanks, Jan Bowles, for inviting me to be here as your guest. I am honored.
You're always welcome, Erin. Thank you for being here.
Erin has kindly donated a prize. Read on to find out how to enter and win this sizzling Holiday Read.
Everyone who comments is eligible for a great prize. All names will be put in a drawing, and the winner will receive Erin's very latest work, a funny and down-to-earth holiday read titled WHAT MOLLY WANTED. Molly , finding herself alone on Christmas Eve, promises her soul to the devil for a great piece of ass. Be careful what you wish for...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Noble, Nevada is both a town and a contemporary MM novel.
Hello. My name is Erin O’Quinn, and I confess to being hopelessly in love with two men. Trouble is, the men are in love with someone else ... each other! I’ve created some interesting homoerotic couples, but none more interesting than the two who come together in the tiny canyon-nestled town of Noble, Nevada.
Tony Grazzo is a smart-ass recent college grad who comes to town only for the funeral of his mom. He’s ducking a manipulative girlfriend and wondering what to do with the rest of his life. His major was pre-law, but now he finds that his father Carl, an old world Italian owner of a small gas station, seems lost without him.
When Tony had stood awkwardly at the bus depot on his way to college that first year, Dad had looked almost hurt, as though the family dog had run away and there was no longer a need to put out the kibble dish. It was Mom who had hugged him firmly and told him he’d do fine, while Dad had turned away, almost angry at his departure, helpless to show his feeling of loss.
Rick Hendrickson is a drifter, a 24-year-old drop-dead-handsome migrant worker who is running from the memory of his abusive father. He’s spent ten years working along California’s long agricultural backbone. He could stay in California, but he’s reluctant to reunite with his mother and have to admit his gayness to her. So starting in Las Vegas, he’s worked his way north and has found himself in the rough town of Noble. He begins to tell his new acquaintance a little about himself.
What he did not mention was the reason he had run away, and was maybe still running. It was rare he allowed himself even to think about his abusive father. And his own mother, now living alone, far from her ex-old man’s rough hands and foul mouth. It was time to go see her, and he’d been putting it off.
These two men with troubles on their mind meet one night in a downtown bar, and a spark courses between them. An offered drink, an engaging conversation, quick smiles and a sense of camaraderie end up in Rick’s roadside motel room.
Neither man is ready for a physical exploration--especially Tony, who has never been attracted to a man. And yet he has to admit to himself that there’s something about this engaging stranger that is deeply compelling to him. Rick was drawn from the beginning, and now, in this seedy motel room, his new acquaintance is slowly warming to him as a desirable man:
“Fuck-shit. I’m drunk, Rick.”
“Hey, me, too. Don’t worry about it.”
“Rick, I like your face.”
“I like yours, too, man.”
“A lot.”
Rick felt his cock rise and strain against the stiff crotch of his Levi’s. “That’s good.” He felt his own voice catch in his throat and heard it come out a little fuzzy.
“Will you lay me down, just for a minute?”
“Sure. Just put your arm around my shoulder. Okay, now up. That’s it. Come on, Tone. You’ll be all right in the morning.”
He walked Tone to the bed and laid him on its surface. He stood for a few minutes looking down at him, seeing his head loll to the side.
Whatever strong undercurrent is at play, Tony shrugs it off, and Rick is willing to wait. But the next day, both men find themselves back in that motel room, relaxing on the bed after lunch and a few beers.
Tony drained his beer can. “That was good. Yeah, for a generic, pretty good.”
Rick was closer to him than when he had first crawled to the head of the bed. His face seemed to be only inches from his own.
“How ’bout one more?”
“Um, later.” Tony was beginning to feel buzzed and his groin was starting to stir in his jeans. What the hell? Rick’s mouth was somehow very close to his own.
“I like your mustache.”
Tony giggled. “I grew it because someone else didn’t like it.”
“Tell me.”
“My girl Lotte. We haven’t slept together in forever. Maybe because I put up this mustache as a barrier. Like a border wall between Mexico and Texas.” He began to laugh again, wondering why he was telling Rick things he didn’t even want to think about.
“Well, Tone, I think it’s sexy as hell.” Rick’s voice was very low, and Tony leaned forward a little to hear him.
When he leaned, he was surprised to find Rick’s mouth right there, right next to his. Then he felt a most curious sensation from his balls to the tip of his cock as Rick’s tongue flicked out and traced his upper lip, all along the mustache.
“Mmmnn, I like it.” He licked again. “A lot.”
His cock engorged so fast his denims couldn’t hold him, throbbing and beating against the too-tight riveted crotch. Tony knew this was either the beginning or the end of something. He could succumb right now to this heady feeling of arousal. Or he could jump up immediately and move away from Rick as if nothing had happened. His choice. The rest of his life sat on the fulcrum of this lumpy little bed.
And thus begins the friendship of Tony and Rick. It’s not long before they allow themselves to succumb to their raging hormones, and the relationship goes from tentative to all-out, balls-out lovemaking.
There is more at play in this book, however. There is the relationship that begins to build between the drifter Rick and his lover’s dad Carlo Grazzo—a kind of closeness with a father figure that Rick has been unconsciously seeking all his life. There is the awkward and loveless pairing of Tony and his girl Lotte, one who has kept him in an emotional stranglehold. And there is a slow but steady building of a deep-felt love between Tony and Rick.
Of course, there is a strong conflict that ends with Tony sitting behind bars and Rick running again. And that conflict is the test of whether two unlikely men can ever find their way back to each other, and to a happy future.
I hope you’ll decide to read Noble, Nevada. It’s available at a new-release price from AmberAllure, the M/M wing of Amber Quill Press. Here is a buy link to follow:
http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/NobleNevada.html
I also hope you’ll check out some of my other titles, both mainstream and erotica, and visit my three blogsites (Gaelic spirit, The Man in Romance, and Hugz Book Reviews).
OQ Erin O’Quinn’s Gaelic blog: http://bit.ly/Jgz6tU
Book reviews: http://hugzreviews.wordpress.com
Erin O’Quinn’s Manlove blog: http://romancemanlove.wordpress.com/
Mainstream Romance:
Storm Maker: http://amzn.to/O218y7
The Wakening Fire : http://amzn.to/N1Gc6C
Captive Heart: http://amzn.to/Qm8b1X
Fire & Silk: http://amzn.to/P6jZtn
What Molly Wanted: m/f short coming Dec.5 from Silver Pub. Pre-order @
https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/products_id/1314/
Erin’s Erotic MM Romance:
Warrior, Ride Hard: http://amzn.to/P2eRDO
Warrior, Stand Tall: http://amzn.to/WoDkGS
Noble, Nevada: http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/NobleNevada.html
The Chase: Coming January 26 from Amber Allure
Erin O’Quinn’s Manlove blog: http://romancemanlove.wordpress.com
More erotica: http://behind-closed-doors-erotica.weebly.com/
Bio:
Erin O’Quinn is my pen name as a writer of mainstream and erotica romance. My DAWN OF IRELAND trilogy explores the world of Ireland at the time when St. Patrick arrived there in 432AD. The others are set in that time frame also and move among Ireland, Wales and Britannia as the characters find love and adventure.
The Noble, Nevada novel is the first of a series called NOBLE DIMENSIONS. The second novel (same setting, different characters) is titled The Chase and will be published January 26.
I live in Central Texas with my soulmate Bil and four snotty cats—moggies, as some call them. After a college career (Univ. of So Calif.) and several unusual vocations—teacher, car salesperson, gardener, newspaper marketer—I settled down to write a few years ago. After almost two million words, I fear I’m just getting started.
Thanks, Jan Bowles, for inviting me to be here as your guest. I am honored.
You're always welcome, Erin. Thank you for being here.
Erin has kindly donated a prize. Read on to find out how to enter and win this sizzling Holiday Read.
Everyone who comments is eligible for a great prize. All names will be put in a drawing, and the winner will receive Erin's very latest work, a funny and down-to-earth holiday read titled WHAT MOLLY WANTED. Molly , finding herself alone on Christmas Eve, promises her soul to the devil for a great piece of ass. Be careful what you wish for...a Rafflecopter giveaway
December 6, 2012
Master and Inquisitor Tasty Teaser Day 13
Day 13: Ethan visits Beth's Place for the first time
Ethan scanned the compact entrance hall, which had several doors leading from it.
“Which one’s the bedroom?”
She pointed a shaking finger. “That one.”
He took hold of her hand and led her into the darkened room. Ethan flicked on the bedside light, which threw a warming orange glow over the internal area. It was a small room, and her double bed took up most of the limited space. There was barely enough room for a wardrobe and dressing table with mirror. A large assortment of cushions sat atop her bed, an eclectic mix of colors and materials, and a source of great comfort. Late at night, when all alone, she’d cradle them in her arms, dreaming of a better life—a life where she felt whole and safe again.
When she heard Ethan close the door, she turned to face him.
His uncompromising gaze held her captive. “Take off your clothes, and then to show respect for your new Master, I’ll permit you to undress me.”
“Yes, Sir.” Beth nodded her acceptance of his conditions, and slowly started to remove her sexy Club Submission uniform. “Like this, Sir?”
“Look at me while you take them off.”
“Yes, Sir.”
More coming soon.....
Now available on pre-order at Bookstrand HERE
Ethan scanned the compact entrance hall, which had several doors leading from it.
“Which one’s the bedroom?”She pointed a shaking finger. “That one.”
He took hold of her hand and led her into the darkened room. Ethan flicked on the bedside light, which threw a warming orange glow over the internal area. It was a small room, and her double bed took up most of the limited space. There was barely enough room for a wardrobe and dressing table with mirror. A large assortment of cushions sat atop her bed, an eclectic mix of colors and materials, and a source of great comfort. Late at night, when all alone, she’d cradle them in her arms, dreaming of a better life—a life where she felt whole and safe again.
When she heard Ethan close the door, she turned to face him.
His uncompromising gaze held her captive. “Take off your clothes, and then to show respect for your new Master, I’ll permit you to undress me.”
“Yes, Sir.” Beth nodded her acceptance of his conditions, and slowly started to remove her sexy Club Submission uniform. “Like this, Sir?”
“Look at me while you take them off.”
“Yes, Sir.”
More coming soon.....
Now available on pre-order at Bookstrand HERE
My Next Big Thing
Last week Jennifer Denys invited me to take part in The Next Big Thing blog hop, I said yes. It will give me the perfect vehicle to tell you about my soon to be released book ~ Master and Inquisitor. I have some questions to answer so here goes....
Q. What is the working title of your book?
Master and Inquisitor
Q. Where did the idea come from for the book?
This is the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series.
When thirty-four-year-old Club Submission owner Ethan Strong hires the enigmatic and beautiful young woman to work behind the bar, he’s instantly drawn to the submissive with the sad blue eyes. Twenty-seven-year-old Beth Beaumont’s previous Master died three years ago, yet only now does she feel ready to embrace the lifestyle again. Ethan is instantly attracted to his mysterious new employee, and they soon embark on a D/s relationship that breaks all the rules.
Beth’s past holds a chilling secret that she dares not divulge—even to her new Master. Her life depends on maintaining her silence.
However, Ethan’s inbuilt lie detector never lets him down, and he instinctively knows Beth isn't telling the truth. As a respected Dom, he will not tolerate a sub who repeatedly tries to deceive him. To break her resolve, he calls upon the services of the Inquisitor—a darker, less benevolent side of himself, who never shows any mercy.
Will Beth be forced to yield such deadly secrets to her Master and Inquisitor?
Q. What genre does your book fall under?
Erotic BDSM romance
Q. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Ethan discovers that Beth has been lying to him, the Inquisitor—a darker side to his personality, may be the only way to get to the truth.
Q. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
An agency. Siren-publishing are releasing it on 14th December. This is the link at Bookstrand, HERE
Q. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
5 weeks.
Q. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Ethan I think Johnny Depp would be the perfect actor, while Scarlett Johansson would make the perfect Beth.
Q. Who or What inspired you to write this story?
Truth and lies. What if you want to tell the truth, but can't? And what if you're in a relationship that demands truth from the outset? I decided to follow that thread throughout my book, Master and Inquisitor.
Q. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
It takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
Q. What is the working title of your book?
Master and Inquisitor
Q. Where did the idea come from for the book?
This is the 4th book in the Masters of Submission series.
When thirty-four-year-old Club Submission owner Ethan Strong hires the enigmatic and beautiful young woman to work behind the bar, he’s instantly drawn to the submissive with the sad blue eyes. Twenty-seven-year-old Beth Beaumont’s previous Master died three years ago, yet only now does she feel ready to embrace the lifestyle again. Ethan is instantly attracted to his mysterious new employee, and they soon embark on a D/s relationship that breaks all the rules.Beth’s past holds a chilling secret that she dares not divulge—even to her new Master. Her life depends on maintaining her silence.
However, Ethan’s inbuilt lie detector never lets him down, and he instinctively knows Beth isn't telling the truth. As a respected Dom, he will not tolerate a sub who repeatedly tries to deceive him. To break her resolve, he calls upon the services of the Inquisitor—a darker, less benevolent side of himself, who never shows any mercy.
Will Beth be forced to yield such deadly secrets to her Master and Inquisitor?
Q. What genre does your book fall under?
Erotic BDSM romance
Q. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Ethan discovers that Beth has been lying to him, the Inquisitor—a darker side to his personality, may be the only way to get to the truth.
Q. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
An agency. Siren-publishing are releasing it on 14th December. This is the link at Bookstrand, HERE
Q. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
5 weeks.
Q. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Ethan I think Johnny Depp would be the perfect actor, while Scarlett Johansson would make the perfect Beth.
Q. Who or What inspired you to write this story?
Truth and lies. What if you want to tell the truth, but can't? And what if you're in a relationship that demands truth from the outset? I decided to follow that thread throughout my book, Master and Inquisitor.
Q. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
It takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
December 5, 2012
Guest Blogger: Rose Anderson ~ Erotic Romance Author
My guest blogger today is
Rose Anderson
. All her books have been very well received, especially her book Hermes Online, which won the 2011 Sensual Reads Reviewer's Choice Award. So read on for an insight into this highly talented author!
Q. What inspired you to write The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo?
Several years ago while taking a much touted artists tour not too far from my home, I wandered into a barn converted into an artist studio and found a new author sitting beside a stack of books. This curious book with its B-movie cover was all about the Wisconsin werewolf. At the time, I was less fascinated by werewolves than I was by anyone who’d actually managed to get published. In the days before email submissions, eBook publishers, Indy publishers, and self-publishing, I’d spent a considerable sum printing manuscripts to mail in their entirety to the major NY Publishers, and tasted confidence-shattering disappointment as rejection letters came in.
Needless to say, I saw opportunity to learn so I stood and talked to this author. Of course, after picking her brain as best I could, I bought the book. It seemed only right that I do. While my husband drove us from art studio to art studio, I read passages to him. The story was pretty farfetched but entertaining. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a wolf walking like a man. We well knew the areas mentioned in the book, and some of the sightings of this weird creature had supposedly taken place over decades. Back home, I went digging for more. Apparently the Ojibwe legends in the Great Lakes region mention a magical wolf or dog that guards burials.
That caught my attention. Legends of grave guardians around the world often take the form of wolves or dogs. There’s that jackal-headed Anubis from ancient Egypt for example. Wasn’t he the Lord of the Dead? Beyond that, Wisconsin was covered in ancient Native American burial and effigy mounds. Coincidentally, one of the accounts in that book went back to the 1930’s and took place on top of a burial mound. Needing more information, we took the Great Mound Tour across Wisconsin into Iowa. I saw these effigies and burials for myself, what was left of them. And my imagination went wild!
Q. Which is your favorite scene in Loving Leonardo?
I’d have to say it’s the moment where the spark of attraction catches Nicolas unawares. Here’s a small bit of it:
When in the presence of true beauty, my mind often imagines the person unclothed as the artists of the ages might have seen him. Sitting at my table was a statue carved in marble by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; an artist known for his remarkable ability to capture the essence of a narrative moment. And I found Luca Franco to be exactly that — a moment indelibly captured in time — a moment of meeting the mind could revisit in its entirety.
From every angle, he was beautifully made: black-haired, of medium build, and physically fit. He possessed a warm hue to his skin, his lineage no doubt stamped centuries past by the darker Moors or Turks. In startling contrast, and quite handsomely framed by black lashes, he had striking eyes the color one might see in a shadow falling across snow — not quite sky blue nor exactly steel gray, but a blending of the two in gradated rings.
I rose to shake his hand and felt the unmistakable current of compatibility. If this man weren’t forward in his mutual attraction, it was there nonetheless.
Q. Which of your characters is your favorite and why?
Of all the characters in my books to date, Nicolas Halstead from Loving Leonardo is by far my favorite as he’s the most complex and human of all my fictional people. I found a surprising depth of character to him. He’s a Victorian man of means forced by society to wear a disguise because he’s gay and that’s a criminal offense. His experiences in this story come to redefine how he’s always thought himself to be. I think anyone would fall in love with Nicolas, especially his perceptions. It’s through his perspective that we see and feel his world. An art historian by profession, Nicolas can’t help but compare life to art. Because of this, he leaves many references to artists and artworks scattered throughout the pages of his book. I carefully wrote the story so readers could see what he saw if they cared to look up the artworks.
Q. Where and when do you like to write? What is your writing day like?
Since I work off a laptop now, the whole house is my office. Most days I work at the kitchen table. Last year for Christmas, my son gave me a back massaging office chair…for the kitchen! It’s a little uh…out of place… but I can’t deny the love behind the gift. I get up, make coffee, drink coffee, walk dogs, feed dogs, play with dogs (if I don’t then I’m hounded with squeaky toys until I do). Then I see to the details of being an author. Any given day I might have 60 or more emails or when yahoo is having one of its fits a few hundred repeats. Occasionally I’ll have a guest post to write or an interview to complete. I’ll try to get to my own blog if there’s time. Whew. By ten o’clock I’m writing my work in progress. If the Muse is on my side that day, I might get several chapters completed. I’ve recently added a stint on the treadmill to my daily repertoire because sitting all day is turning my muscle to mush and a recent study says that is seriously unhealthy for my kidneys and my heart. If I could figure out how to duct tape my laptop and coffee cup holder to my treadmill, and have the dogs in tow behind me, I’d be all set!
Q. What advice do you have for someone just starting out?
I’d say they need to keep in mind that not all of their books will be a good fit with every reader out there and not to take it too hard when the inevitable poor or snarky review pops up. Books are no less works of art than masterpieces in oil or stone. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I’d say new writers, please remember that reviews are simply opinions. How many people do you know with opinions different than your own? Revel in the good ones. They feel great! Consider the bad ones. If you’re lucky, they’ll come with constructive criticism and that’s not a bad thing because sometimes authors are just too close to the story to see gaffs and gaps. And above all, ignore the nasty reviews. If they have nothing of value to impart and are simply mean-spirited, consider them to be the power plays they are, and then move on. I got a confusing review recently and got to thinking…I’ve been doing this for nearly two years now. I have four novels out now and two more waiting on covers and just days away from publishing. What do reviews look like for some of my favorite authors? I checked on Diana Gabaldon, Michael Crichton, and even Stephan King. They have bad reviews too! New authors, check your favorite authors for yourself. You’re in good company.
Q. What is the hardest part about writing romance stories?
Stopping in the middle of a scene to see to the mundane has to be the hardest part of writing anything. I mean really, who needs dinner? I’m a perfect candidate for the secluded writer’s cabin in the woods, because when I write, I fall into stream of consciousness mode.
Definition: Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense‐perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue.
Yep, that’s me.
Q. Which are your favorite authors and why?
I do have favorites but not many. I’m an informational reader for the most part. Oddball that I am, I read encyclopedias like other people read magazines. Once a year I’ll binge on fiction, and I mean really Binge with a capital B. Romance mostly, but I’ve been known to do a run of historical fiction too. To me a favorite author writes the book you read so many times the pages fall out. I would read anything that Diana Gabaldon wrote and yes, I’ve read Harry Potter at least five times from start to finish. I’ve had to replace books in both series because I’ve read them to death!
Sadly last summer, a long time love affair ended for me. I’ve been faithfully reading an author for nearly 25 years. I couldn’t wait for the new releases and I’d reread the old ones (until the pages fell out!). I jumped on the new novel last year, but three chapters in I realized I’d read it before. Then it occurred to me that the last several books had been exactly like this one. I couldn’t finish. Don’t get me wrong, formula stories can be fun reads. It’s just that we had something special in our long reader/writer relationship – I was given heart fluttering romance and unique storylines that I’d think about for days after the stories ended. I’m sad it’s over. So that being said, I have an empty shelf waiting for a new favorite author. Now if I only had time to read…
Q. Name three of your favorite things.
I still have a very good sense of child-like wonder. Lots of things flip my switches! For this question, I’ve given a nod to gifts from the universe.
1. After a blanketing snowfall when the sky is still overcast and all the shadows are blue.
2. A sunset so vibrantly colored with reds, oranges, and purples you have to remember to breathe.
3. Those HUGE orange full moons
Q. If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Hands down it would have to be Leonardo Da Vinci. I steeped myself into his life and times to write Loving Leonardo. He was what’s referred to as a polymath – a person of great and varied learning, and this despite the fact Leonardo was denied traditional education because of his bastardy. What that man went through to become the genius he was. Can you just imagine how fabulous that conversation would be? I think I’d serve a Mongolian Hot Pot — hot stock and small bits of food to cook in it — or perhaps a fondue. Slow meals are great for keeping a dinner conversation going. :)
Q. Are you a panster or a plotter?
Oh definitely a fly by the seat of my pants gal. An interesting idea will pop into my head and before I know it I have a character or two and they’ll start talking to themselves and each other. When they walk forward in their world, for one reason or another conflict comes in from the sides and they must react to it. The strange thing here is, I really don’t know how the story will end until they end it. They take over my brain until they’re done with me. I’ve heard other authors refer to this state of mind as a form of possession.
Q. Which comes first? The character's or the idea for the story?
My characters tend to write their stories themselves. I just help with coloring their world. I’ve had this work both ways, I think wouldn’t it be interesting to write a story with a story hidden inside it? The next thing I know, there’s an old derelict house. Then someone wants to buy that house. I discover she wants it and this desire goes back to her childhood. Wouldn’t you know she has larger plans. Suddenly she’s a doctor transforming the mansion into a free clinic. The next I know, there’s a ghost living there and he was a doctor too 100 years before. It didn’t take much for him to fall in love with his new houseguest. But wait a minute…he’s dead, that’ll go nowhere. How can they have real interaction? He spends most of his time just silently watching her, even when she sleeps. Ah ha! As pure spirit energy, he plies her sleeping mind and follows her dreams. But why is she dreaming about the days before he was murdered 100 years ago? Now that the story has written itself, it needs a name – Dreamscape.
Q. Where can we find out more about your books?
My books are just about everywhere books are sold. Online, Amazon has all four in ebook and paperback, while Barnes & Noble has just two.
http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson/e/B004XDGWL6
And my book trailers are on Amazon
http://www.youtube.com/user/MusesWritingTablet/videos?view=0
Q. Where can we contact you?
And like my books, I’m just about everywhere too! I frequent these the most and welcome one and all to come say hi.
My Blog:
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/
Twitter:
@RoseAnderson_ (notice that _ )
Facebook (I’m still trying to figure this site out):
http://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
Thanks for being my guest today Rose . I think I'm a bit of a panster myself, and your dinner of Mongolian Hot Pot with Leonardo Da Vinci sounds wonderful.
Q. What inspired you to write The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo?
Several years ago while taking a much touted artists tour not too far from my home, I wandered into a barn converted into an artist studio and found a new author sitting beside a stack of books. This curious book with its B-movie cover was all about the Wisconsin werewolf. At the time, I was less fascinated by werewolves than I was by anyone who’d actually managed to get published. In the days before email submissions, eBook publishers, Indy publishers, and self-publishing, I’d spent a considerable sum printing manuscripts to mail in their entirety to the major NY Publishers, and tasted confidence-shattering disappointment as rejection letters came in.
Needless to say, I saw opportunity to learn so I stood and talked to this author. Of course, after picking her brain as best I could, I bought the book. It seemed only right that I do. While my husband drove us from art studio to art studio, I read passages to him. The story was pretty farfetched but entertaining. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a wolf walking like a man. We well knew the areas mentioned in the book, and some of the sightings of this weird creature had supposedly taken place over decades. Back home, I went digging for more. Apparently the Ojibwe legends in the Great Lakes region mention a magical wolf or dog that guards burials.
That caught my attention. Legends of grave guardians around the world often take the form of wolves or dogs. There’s that jackal-headed Anubis from ancient Egypt for example. Wasn’t he the Lord of the Dead? Beyond that, Wisconsin was covered in ancient Native American burial and effigy mounds. Coincidentally, one of the accounts in that book went back to the 1930’s and took place on top of a burial mound. Needing more information, we took the Great Mound Tour across Wisconsin into Iowa. I saw these effigies and burials for myself, what was left of them. And my imagination went wild!
Q. Which is your favorite scene in Loving Leonardo?
I’d have to say it’s the moment where the spark of attraction catches Nicolas unawares. Here’s a small bit of it:
When in the presence of true beauty, my mind often imagines the person unclothed as the artists of the ages might have seen him. Sitting at my table was a statue carved in marble by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; an artist known for his remarkable ability to capture the essence of a narrative moment. And I found Luca Franco to be exactly that — a moment indelibly captured in time — a moment of meeting the mind could revisit in its entirety.
From every angle, he was beautifully made: black-haired, of medium build, and physically fit. He possessed a warm hue to his skin, his lineage no doubt stamped centuries past by the darker Moors or Turks. In startling contrast, and quite handsomely framed by black lashes, he had striking eyes the color one might see in a shadow falling across snow — not quite sky blue nor exactly steel gray, but a blending of the two in gradated rings.
I rose to shake his hand and felt the unmistakable current of compatibility. If this man weren’t forward in his mutual attraction, it was there nonetheless.
Q. Which of your characters is your favorite and why?
Of all the characters in my books to date, Nicolas Halstead from Loving Leonardo is by far my favorite as he’s the most complex and human of all my fictional people. I found a surprising depth of character to him. He’s a Victorian man of means forced by society to wear a disguise because he’s gay and that’s a criminal offense. His experiences in this story come to redefine how he’s always thought himself to be. I think anyone would fall in love with Nicolas, especially his perceptions. It’s through his perspective that we see and feel his world. An art historian by profession, Nicolas can’t help but compare life to art. Because of this, he leaves many references to artists and artworks scattered throughout the pages of his book. I carefully wrote the story so readers could see what he saw if they cared to look up the artworks.
Q. Where and when do you like to write? What is your writing day like?
Since I work off a laptop now, the whole house is my office. Most days I work at the kitchen table. Last year for Christmas, my son gave me a back massaging office chair…for the kitchen! It’s a little uh…out of place… but I can’t deny the love behind the gift. I get up, make coffee, drink coffee, walk dogs, feed dogs, play with dogs (if I don’t then I’m hounded with squeaky toys until I do). Then I see to the details of being an author. Any given day I might have 60 or more emails or when yahoo is having one of its fits a few hundred repeats. Occasionally I’ll have a guest post to write or an interview to complete. I’ll try to get to my own blog if there’s time. Whew. By ten o’clock I’m writing my work in progress. If the Muse is on my side that day, I might get several chapters completed. I’ve recently added a stint on the treadmill to my daily repertoire because sitting all day is turning my muscle to mush and a recent study says that is seriously unhealthy for my kidneys and my heart. If I could figure out how to duct tape my laptop and coffee cup holder to my treadmill, and have the dogs in tow behind me, I’d be all set!
Q. What advice do you have for someone just starting out?
I’d say they need to keep in mind that not all of their books will be a good fit with every reader out there and not to take it too hard when the inevitable poor or snarky review pops up. Books are no less works of art than masterpieces in oil or stone. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I’d say new writers, please remember that reviews are simply opinions. How many people do you know with opinions different than your own? Revel in the good ones. They feel great! Consider the bad ones. If you’re lucky, they’ll come with constructive criticism and that’s not a bad thing because sometimes authors are just too close to the story to see gaffs and gaps. And above all, ignore the nasty reviews. If they have nothing of value to impart and are simply mean-spirited, consider them to be the power plays they are, and then move on. I got a confusing review recently and got to thinking…I’ve been doing this for nearly two years now. I have four novels out now and two more waiting on covers and just days away from publishing. What do reviews look like for some of my favorite authors? I checked on Diana Gabaldon, Michael Crichton, and even Stephan King. They have bad reviews too! New authors, check your favorite authors for yourself. You’re in good company.
Q. What is the hardest part about writing romance stories?
Stopping in the middle of a scene to see to the mundane has to be the hardest part of writing anything. I mean really, who needs dinner? I’m a perfect candidate for the secluded writer’s cabin in the woods, because when I write, I fall into stream of consciousness mode.
Definition: Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense‐perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue.
Yep, that’s me.
Q. Which are your favorite authors and why?
I do have favorites but not many. I’m an informational reader for the most part. Oddball that I am, I read encyclopedias like other people read magazines. Once a year I’ll binge on fiction, and I mean really Binge with a capital B. Romance mostly, but I’ve been known to do a run of historical fiction too. To me a favorite author writes the book you read so many times the pages fall out. I would read anything that Diana Gabaldon wrote and yes, I’ve read Harry Potter at least five times from start to finish. I’ve had to replace books in both series because I’ve read them to death!
Sadly last summer, a long time love affair ended for me. I’ve been faithfully reading an author for nearly 25 years. I couldn’t wait for the new releases and I’d reread the old ones (until the pages fell out!). I jumped on the new novel last year, but three chapters in I realized I’d read it before. Then it occurred to me that the last several books had been exactly like this one. I couldn’t finish. Don’t get me wrong, formula stories can be fun reads. It’s just that we had something special in our long reader/writer relationship – I was given heart fluttering romance and unique storylines that I’d think about for days after the stories ended. I’m sad it’s over. So that being said, I have an empty shelf waiting for a new favorite author. Now if I only had time to read…
Q. Name three of your favorite things.
I still have a very good sense of child-like wonder. Lots of things flip my switches! For this question, I’ve given a nod to gifts from the universe.
1. After a blanketing snowfall when the sky is still overcast and all the shadows are blue.
2. A sunset so vibrantly colored with reds, oranges, and purples you have to remember to breathe.
3. Those HUGE orange full moons
Q. If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Hands down it would have to be Leonardo Da Vinci. I steeped myself into his life and times to write Loving Leonardo. He was what’s referred to as a polymath – a person of great and varied learning, and this despite the fact Leonardo was denied traditional education because of his bastardy. What that man went through to become the genius he was. Can you just imagine how fabulous that conversation would be? I think I’d serve a Mongolian Hot Pot — hot stock and small bits of food to cook in it — or perhaps a fondue. Slow meals are great for keeping a dinner conversation going. :)
Q. Are you a panster or a plotter?
Oh definitely a fly by the seat of my pants gal. An interesting idea will pop into my head and before I know it I have a character or two and they’ll start talking to themselves and each other. When they walk forward in their world, for one reason or another conflict comes in from the sides and they must react to it. The strange thing here is, I really don’t know how the story will end until they end it. They take over my brain until they’re done with me. I’ve heard other authors refer to this state of mind as a form of possession.
Q. Which comes first? The character's or the idea for the story?
My characters tend to write their stories themselves. I just help with coloring their world. I’ve had this work both ways, I think wouldn’t it be interesting to write a story with a story hidden inside it? The next thing I know, there’s an old derelict house. Then someone wants to buy that house. I discover she wants it and this desire goes back to her childhood. Wouldn’t you know she has larger plans. Suddenly she’s a doctor transforming the mansion into a free clinic. The next I know, there’s a ghost living there and he was a doctor too 100 years before. It didn’t take much for him to fall in love with his new houseguest. But wait a minute…he’s dead, that’ll go nowhere. How can they have real interaction? He spends most of his time just silently watching her, even when she sleeps. Ah ha! As pure spirit energy, he plies her sleeping mind and follows her dreams. But why is she dreaming about the days before he was murdered 100 years ago? Now that the story has written itself, it needs a name – Dreamscape.
Q. Where can we find out more about your books?
My books are just about everywhere books are sold. Online, Amazon has all four in ebook and paperback, while Barnes & Noble has just two.
http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson/e/B004XDGWL6
And my book trailers are on Amazon
http://www.youtube.com/user/MusesWritingTablet/videos?view=0
Q. Where can we contact you?
And like my books, I’m just about everywhere too! I frequent these the most and welcome one and all to come say hi.
My Blog:
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/
Twitter:
@RoseAnderson_ (notice that _ )
Facebook (I’m still trying to figure this site out):
http://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
Thanks for being my guest today Rose . I think I'm a bit of a panster myself, and your dinner of Mongolian Hot Pot with Leonardo Da Vinci sounds wonderful.
