An interview with the fabulous Chloe Blaque

It’s my honor to interview Loose Id writer Chloe Blaque. Ms. Blaque is the author of Survival of the Fiercest and Doing London.

Chloe doesn’t bother with timid virgins. Her books revolve around passionate, career-driven women who are every bit the alphas their male lovers are.

The New York based writer leads a double life, writing non-fiction pieces by day and contemporary, spicy romances by night. She is a traveler, a student of human nature, an observer of the literary scene.

Chloe, what led you to write in the romance genre?

A few years ago I got really frustrated with a non-fiction project I was working on, to the point where I was creatively blocked. My mentor suggested I switch gears and write something fun. I’ve always read romance so it seemed like a no brainer. I didn’t think it would go anywhere, but I had the first three chapters of Survival of the Fiercest in a few days.

Why do you label your romances “exotic” rather than erotic?

Mostly because my stories are set in exotic locations. I get a lot of inspiration from travelling. I just got back from Hokkaido, Japan and found it so visually stunning that I’ve been working on a romance set in those snow covered mountains.

Maybe it’s just me but I think meeting and falling for someone totally different than you, in a foreign land no less, is the ultimate romance. It also seemed fitting since I’m straying from erotic romance to pen a steamy contemporary romance. It’s till high heat, but more subtle.

What romance writers do you read?

I have so many that I pick up and love, I’m still getting through the pile I got from RWA last year. I’ll say that Kresley Cole is a favorite and someone just recommended Beverly Jenkins’s Forbidden so I plan on picking that up. In general, I read everybody, but I stick to contemporary romances with a high heat level.

What other literary genres have caught your eye?
I’d love to write a mystery/ thriller one day.

I finished Night Film by Marisha Pessl last year—it blew my mind.

Have you ever considered writing less steamy romances or in another direction?

No, I like a steamy sex scene and my books will always have them. There seems to be a fine line between what is considered erotic and not, but I don’t think about it when I write. I pen a sexual encounter based on the story and the characters, it never really feels like a conscious decisions to go one way versus the other.

Please tell us out your newest work.

My current work in progress is a contemporary romance with multi-cultural characters set in the wine region of Brazil. It’s a little adventurous, very sexy, and the hero is a broken bad boy with a good heart. My heroine is smart, successful, and thinks she has it all figured out. Spoiler alert, she doesn’t. I’d love to say more but the manuscript isn’t final yet. Soon!

What direction do you see the romance genre taking in the future??

Your guess is as good as mine. This market is changing so fast! One day new adult is hot, the next day no one is acquiring it. It makes your head spin. Self-publishing is growing tremendously, which is great for an author’s autonomy. And it’s great for readers who now have access to anything and everything they ever wanted in a book. If you want African American unicorn shape-shifting heroes, you can find them. Or you can write it yourself and publish it.

I think the future includes more diverse romance within all genre’s-and when I say diverse I mean LGBTQ and Multi-cultural. Also, I predict an increase in BBW and mature heroines. The latter will be a slow climb, but it’s already happening in the indie world. The question is when will the traditional world catch on?

I know what I’d like to see, and that’s diverse romance getting as much marketing and shelf space that Caucasian M/F romance’s do. Period.
What locales most interest you to write about?

Any place that has its own romance. I endeavor to take my reader from her couch to the water falls of Costa Rica and the cobble stone streets of Paris. Look for Italy, Tokyo, and of course Brazil, from me within the next 12 months.

What do you think about the future of multi-cultural romances?

Well, as long as there are readers and writers of multi-cultural, then there is a future. Multi-cultural isn’t going anywhere, actually it seems to be growing. But defining multi-cultural is the issue because every book that has a non-Caucasian heroine is labeled multi-cultural. And then it’s slapped in a different section of the retail store-whether online or brick & mortar. Why is this label necessary? It’s not. If white people can enjoy the TV show Empire, then they can enjoy my book.

RWA made a point to hold a discussion regarding diverse romance at the 2015 conference. I wasn’t there, but I’m glad they dedicated space and time for it.

However, I was at the Pocket books Spotlight when a white author stood up and challenged the Pocket panel on adding more diverse authors to their roster. When Pocket said, “There is a separate line for those books” shit hit the fan. Seriously, in that moment, the twitter-verse exploded. RWA has since written an open letter to Pocket scolding them. The point is, people are talking, and I think that’s a good thing for all diverse romance.