VISITING DIGNITARY SAHARA KELLY (APPLAUSE)


Welcometo the blog.  Sahara Kelly is a well known (and much loved)author of erotic fiction.  A friend of Cie's from "TheFairie Court" it is a great pleasure to have her here for avisit.  Please give her a warm welcome. 
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Thanksso much for inviting me over, Cie. It's lovely spending some timewith you again – we had a lot of fun flitting around in our wings,didn't we? LOL

Iunderstand you have a fairly significant backlist.  Could yougive us a list (or link) of titles? 

Yes,somehow – over the last decade or so – I've managed to amassnearly sixty books with my name on 'em. About 30 or so in print. Notsure how that happened, and I'm not going to list them all (sigh ofrelief, right?) but there's a complete list on my website. I've triedto sort most of them by genre, but it's a bit daunting. LOL [image error]

Whenwere you first published?
I'malways surprised to realize it's been over 25 years sinceKensington/Zebra published my first book. It was a sweet Regency andcame out two months before my son was born. After that, my nextsubmissions were rejected and motherhood sort of took over my life.LOL I didn't get back to serious writing until around 2000.

Iunderstand you're originally from England.  Do you think thatinfluences your writing?  If so, how?

Iabsolutely believe that being born and raised in England hasinfluenced my work. My schooling emphasized literature and writingfrom the get-go, and I remember having to produce several essays aweek. Shakespeare was a staple and we digested Dickens, Thackeray,Defoe, Hardy, the Brontes and of course Miss Austen with regularity.That sort of education gave me a foundation and a love of words, andI think it's helped me an enormous amount when it comes to putting myown words on paper. (Or the monitor as the case may be. LOL)
Iunderstand you're dipping your toes into self-publishing.  Whatmade you decide to do that? 
Ithink it was time. When I got into ePublishing, it was a decade ago –a geological era in Internet time - and there was a "pioneering"spirit surrounding us. Editors were open to anything and everything,readers devoured whatever we wrote and genres could be taken out andshaken, or twisted into something new, at will. That environment haschanged…metamorphosed into today's climate of big business. Nowit's more about what sellsthan what wewant to write.


Iran out of patience, I guess. I've always been about writing what'sin my head and my heart, not what makes an impact on the bottom line.Conflict was inevitable and it drove me out of the pack and into thelone wolf mentality. Honestly? I love it. I feel as if I got my soulback. LOL I still have ties to ePublishing, and haven't walked awaycompletely. But overall it's working very well for me. My first threenovellas based around a fictitious Boston steampunk club continue todo well and are now in print as an anthology (Steampunk Seductions).
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Whatare some of the ups (and downs) of self-publishing versus traditionalpublishing?

Thereare both, that's for sure. The downs? Editing is a worry for many ofus. I'm lucky, since I have not only the Brit school system, but manyyears of working in an environment where I needed to write and editeffectively. (Not books, but scientific materials.) Cover art has tobe created – again I'm okay since I do freelance art when I'm notwriting. Biggest headache can be formatting for the various salesvenues, but with patience, even that can be accomplished.
Theups? The freedom to let the characters take shape as I wish. Toimagine a story and write it as I see it. To know that the finalproduct will reach my readers asI intendedit to be, not re-shaped or revised by others for purely fiscalreasons or because of someone else's opinions. I can write what I seein my imagination, which is what writing should be, IMHO. My booksare mineagain. It's a wonderful feeling.
Whattitles do you have coming out in 2012?  Would you mind if I addthem to my "Big list of 2012 books" on myindividual website?
I'dbe thrilled, Cie. Thank you! I have quite a few books on the drawingboard for 2012. I hope to get the final story out in my series ofromances based around Renaissance Faires – tentative title for Book3 is ROUGH KNIGHT and that is on sale right this minute. LOL. Thefirst two, ONE KNIGHT ONLY and KNIGHTS OF PLEASURE are alreadyavailable. They'll be bundled into the print anthology MYRENAISSANCE ROMANCE sometime late spring, I hope.
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ThenI'll switch gears and follow that with a rather decadently elegantnovel set in a palatial estate tucked away in the Italian Alps. Ilove the classy sensuality of the 1930s and am having so much funwith an insanely bizarre cast of characters. I like to think of thisone as a "Merchant and Ivory remake of Debbie Does Dallas, with ascript by Noel Coward and Hugh Hefner". LOL See why I'm having funputting out my own books? No publisher would touch that one! (grin) Title is tentatively VILLA D'AMORE. After that…well I'll have tosee who screams the loudest in my head.


Whatis one bit of advice you would give an aspiring writer?  (Andwould you mind if I add this to the "Craft Corner" advicespot on the website I share with my co-author, Cathy L. Clamp?)

I'dlove to be anywhere with you and Cathy! That's an enormous honor andcompliment!!!  There are two things I tell people when they ask for advice. First,read, read and read more. I'm a firm believer that the more books youread, regardless of topic, the better writer you become. You absorbthe "feel" of a story and the way it should flow, alongwith pacing, and it becomes second nature when it's your turn towrite your own novel.
Second…writeyour book.LOL Don't tell me you're thinkingabout it, or half way through your notes for it or have thiswonderful idea for a novel. Just write the damn book. Once it's real,thenyou can start messing with it. Sounds harsh, but you'd be surprisedhow many aspiring writers blink, look stunned and then say… "hey,yeah. Maybe I should do that." Duh. LOL
Solet me wrap up by thanking you, Cie, for the chance to chat with yourreaders andtalk a little about self-publishing, which is still in the mildlycontroversial phase. If anyone is curious, I welcome visitors to mypublishing website – www.skprivatelabel.com - and of course my writing website – www.saharakelly.com . I put out a newsletter on an irregular basis, which has book andcontest information, if I'm hosting one. If anyone would like to geton my list, they can subscribe here . For instant updates on my world, I have an app for iPhones andiPads – available at the App Store under "Sahara Kelly –Writer". Oh, and it's free.  Cool stuff. LOL

(I'dlove to giveaway a download of the three SteampunkSeduction novels…Letting Off Steam,Stripping Her Gearsand Winding HerUp. I'll letyou tell me how that will work because I SOOOO suck at this wholeblog process. I can offer all these stories in pdf format and acouple of others, ePub and so on.. I think. Gotta check that.LOLLOL)

Thanksso much for popping by.  Please stay in touch. 

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Published on February 01, 2012 17:02
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