Interview with a.c. Mason – Chocolate Damsel Release and Contest

I have to tell you that interviewing Mason for Chocolate Damsel is a real special treat. One, because I was fortunate enough to read this story as a beta reader and two, because it is simply a great story. So seeing as I have had exposure to this story *rubbing hands together mischievously*, here goes…

Help! Save me. Psst, visit my site Wednesday for your Paranormal-Scope.

Okay, I'm fine I've regained most of my mental faculties. I really appreciate you taking time away from your own schedule to interview me. I meant it. Cross my heart and hope to have great sex. She was a wonderful critique partner on this book and isn't giving herself enough credit for helping me push the emotional side of the story.

We'll start with an easy one.

Don't believe that. She's trying to put me in the hot seat. I can tell by the spark in those eyes of hers. She's up to something.

You don't often see WWII mixed with paranormal romance and interracial relationships (welcome to the complex mind of Mason). What inspired this work and made you want to tackle such a complex combination of settings, characters and plot?

See!!

 I told you she wasn't going to start off easy. I write books that are reflective of me. Growing up not many characters (heroines) in books looked like me. I write books with women of diverse cultural backgrounds so that we may see ourselves reflected in fiction.

I'd been wanting to write a shapeshifter story for some time.

Let me give you the time line to connect it for you.

2006-I travel to Belgium to visit the country my mother's family spoke so much about and visited where they lived during the occupation.

2007- Harlequin is running a contest where they give you the first line of a book and you build a story from there. During research for a possible story for the contest, I discover Lake Baikal , the indigenous people of the area and their belief system including the  Shunu.   Put the research away to focus on other writing.

2008- Working on other projects but revisit and think of world building around the Shunu mythology.

2009 I'm mentoring someone who's taking an English class and is reading a book about the invasion of Paris France.  I also came across a historical time line for African American singers in Paris pre civil rights movement. 

Are you starting to see where I'm going with this? I see possibilities of how I can weave in parts of my family history with the subject matter. My great grandfather fought in the Belgian underground and his sister hid Jewish people in the walls of her house. If I had shapeshifters what would they be doing in France. It snowballed from there. Voila. The Wolf-Spirit Series is born.

I write the novella in a weekend. Toni loves the story. I spend some time tweaking.

Feb 2010 it's offered a contract by Lyrical Press Inc.

I've read several works of yours now and have to admit that I am a complete glutton for your male characters. In Chocolate Damsel, you have two that really stand out, Cathen and VanWolf. How do these characters form for you and how do you work to keep their personalities so distinct?

Again with an "easy" question. For those that may not have read my last interview I'm a panster and proud of it. I do some plotting type activities but it's all in my head.

Einstein would be most disappointed. I create a personality key in my head.  When they do something, I check it against the personality profile. If the character doesn't have the something in their background for a characteristic to work I'll decide to add it in or not. If I add it in, I now have to go through everything and taint the scenes with the new part of the character's personality. Toni has laughed once or twice when I've said, "Well you know how such and such is" and I'm talking about a character. It's like they are people I know. I use traits from people I know, friends of friends and people I meet on the street.  No one is safe. 

What about your female characters? One of the characteristics of your writing that I truly enjoy is that you have dynamic characters. Alexia, for instance, seems to go through a growth and transition throughout this work. Is there a reason you choose to have your characters evolve?

Change is the one constant that I know. My parents moved me around from placed to place. I learned a lot by opening myself up to the new places. One of those things was that much of my beliefs were influenced by where I had lived. There are negatives and positives to that. When I'm told people don't change, I know that the person isn't open to change. I'll give you an example from my own life. I grew up in the Francophone province in Canada. Nearly all my beliefs have been influenced by the French culture. I didn't particularly want to learn English. Don't hate me yet. Let me finish the story. I learned English in my early teens and move to a bilingual part of the country, the capital region. I sounded like Inspector Clouseau. I developed a stutter when reading aloud in English. Eventually the accent went away, but not the stutter or the anxiousness I get from reading English in front of others. I now live in an area where I am a linguistic minority and so are my children. I've dealt with more prejudice from being a linguistic minority than I have for the color of my skin. It's hard to even understand for me and I'm aware of the history. I believe the right circumstances/necessity changes people. I hope it evolves us as humans. I want to write about those things that leave us better as humans than before we experienced them. I'll take my characters on a journey through hell if that's the only way I can force them to evolve. I sometime give them characteristics I struggle to accept in others so that I can learn tolerance. I wonder what event in life could have grown them to be more self-aware. That is why I write the characters I do.

You've got an incredible amount of tension that you sustain throughout this work (even in scenes that aren't sexual in nature). Any recommendations for our writers as to how they can infuse even the simplest of scenes with tension? Any examples of this from Chocolate Damsel?

Read Donald Maass. If possible, attend his workshops. I went to RWA National's in 2009 and attended the Fire in Fiction Part One workshop. The room was packed. I was taking notes veraciously and I started to draw what I felt he was explaining (see the links below).

Simple_Plotting

Complex_Plotting

I created a visual for my mind by drawing the images you see above. It just clicked for me on how I was going to create tension. I'm sure you are all on the same page too.

Part of the short Excerpt from Chocolate Damsel:

Hadn't he just rescued her? (POV character believes he's done something noble)

"You're a monster." Stepping on uneven stone, Alexia flopped to one side. (The reaction of the other character puts the previous internal monologue in question.)

"How true your words are." VanWolf lifted her. "So don't make this anymore difficult on yourself." (Maybe the POV character hadn't been noble and he's inserting doubt into the other characters mind.)

Where had the werewolf vanished to? Did he pick up the scent of another predator and go for reinforcements, or was it only his job to watch? (Insertion of the danger. POV character further admits not being noble by referring to himself as a predator.)

Each line is raising the stakes until I provide the reader with an answer as to if he is good or bad. You can't go to quickly back and forth otherwise it reads untrue false like an as though you are simply miss leading the reader. You build an idea in the readers head, check it against more information and then even additional proof. But it's different for each type of tension you are attempting to create.

I hope that gives you an example of tension building.

Okay, so I've made you work pretty hard with these last few questions. Any parting thoughts for your readers as to what you hope they take from Chocolate Damsel?

Parting thoughts? Are you putting me out to pasture? It's never goodbye only safe journeys.

I'd like each reader to take away what affects them from the story. I can't define that journey for them. I hope they will join the Wolf-Spirits on their adventures.

Thank you Mason for your time. 

Thank you for the brain drain, Toni. But this is going into the red file.

Before you go, would you mind sharing a blurb and excerpt from Chocolate Damsel with us?

I'd be honored.

Blurb:

Will her love break through his armor so he can be whole again?

In June of 1940, Nazis march into Paris, France. Brutality haunts the streets.

 Engel VanWolf, the Alpha of a Shunu pack – immortals, who shift into wolf-spirit – has a painful past and the patch on his eyes serves as a reminder of human cruelty. No stranger to injustice, he poses as a Nazi officer to smuggle Jewish orphans from the city. Drawn to a seductive fragrance, chocolate skin, and velvet voice, VanWolf comes upon a human beauty, Alexia, in danger. A hunger long forgotten burns anew inside him.

 Alexia Pane is taken in by the shunu pack, and finds communal living isn't the only thing they share. When danger comes knocking, she's sent to warn VanWolf, who has been discovered but needs rescuing of her own. As he whisks her to safety, he awakens her dormant passion. It's not the flames of the city she fears, but the fire he invokes inside her. The closer she gets, the more he pushes her away. And then, she falls into enemy hands.

 Can VanWolf save the woman he loves from a ruthless enemy and mend the pain he has caused?

 Warning; This book contains a hot Alpha with an eye patch. A chocolate damsel in need of saving. A pack that shares more than communal living. F/M/F/M. A pack with no lack of hot betas to follow.

 Excerpt

 Alexia's stomach twisted. Soldiers marched up the pathway to the chateau. Her legs hurt from the pace Griselda kept directing her to the river's edge. She couldn't remember the last hour. Griselda had put her to sleep to hide a message for her brother that no one but he could retrieve on her body.

  A large wolf with white fur, the hairs black tipped, watched from a distance. Cathen.

 "Where are you going?" Griselda probed her for the fourth time.

 "The core of Paris to see Engel VanWolf on rue Saint Antoine." Over the past few days, the pack had become family to her. Any one of them would lay down their life for her. Now this was her chance to show them she too would do the same for them. Being caught meant death and failure. Not an option.

"Good. Do your best to stay out of sight. Cathen will watch over you as long as he can." Griselda hugged her tight, nearly crushing her.

 A kiss to each cheek was all Alexia would allow before she turned. "Your brother and I will meet up with you shortly." She said those words as much for Griselda as herself, then took off jogging.

 Dusk fell. At least the night would provide her cover. Water splashed on her boots, but she wouldn't leave the banks of the riverbed. Down there, she could mask her scent from the werewolves the pack had warned her about.

 She sensed Cathen stop. A howl carried on the breeze as though he told her to stay low and out of sight. His strong energy moved away, paused.

 "I'll be fine," she whispered under her breath, in hopes it would ease his conscience and act as a silent prayer for her.

 The male presence vanished.

 Dark puffs of smoke rose into the sky. Red from the explosions reflected off the grayish clouds. The world had gone insane, and she was trapped deep in the belly of madness.

 If she died tonight, she'd fail the pack. She refused to.

 Male voices above her startled her. She pressed her body to the dirt and rock, trying to remain out of sight. An engine rumbled. Please God, spare her so she could help the pack. The vehicle slowed down. Thunder pounded inside her chest. Her hands trembled and breathing grew labored.

 They sped off, casting dirt. She tucked in close to avoid the spray.

 As she drew closer to the city, she picked up her pace. Daylight faded in the distance. A few stars managed to shine through the thick covering of smoke in the sky.

 At this very moment, she'd have made a deal with the devil himself to make it through the night, but it seemed he had no interest in her. Would she die? If she did, would her life be considered a waste? Her accomplishments were little to nothing. She needed to make a difference in the world.

 At least the darkness provided her a veil.

 The outer streets of the city were vacant but for the patrolling soldiers. Back home, most would be barely old enough to vote, or enlist. Children fought at the front lines of wars.

 How she longed for the suffering to end. Somehow, this only felt like the beginning. Death driven by the desire for a pure race. She was the furthest thing from being untainted. If caught, she too would be cleansed from the earth.

Now for the Contest:  One lucky commenter will win an ecopy of Chocolate Damsel. Answer in the comment box with what your favorite classic Jazz musician is? The contest ends on Wednesday May 4, 2011 at Midnight EST. Contest is worldwide and void where prohibited by law.

Good luck!

Mason

Filed under: a.c. Mason, CHOCOLATE DAMSEL, romance, Toni Kelly, Writing Topics