#Interview w/ #GuestAuthor Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese: Romance without the Rules!

Interview with Guest Author

Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese
Romance without the Rules!

Thank you for stopping over to visit, Erin and Racheline. In case my lovely readers don’t know who are—though I’m certain they all do… right guys?—I thought I’d do a little sit-down visit with you and help us all get to know you a little better.

 

What makes your stories different from other authors out there?

Everything we’ve written to date is in the present tense, and there’s always a reason for it, whether that’s because we want our books to have an energy similar to reading a screen play (Love in Los Angeles) or because our heroes have tragedies in their pasts and can only be happy in the present (Love’s Labours).

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do to get past it?

Raise the stakes! If we’re stuck, it’s usually because the stakes aren’t high enough.

I was asked this recently and would love to find out your take on it… If your writing was translated, which would be your preference: TV, movie, play, or Broadway?

Those are all spaces that at least one of us has written for to some degree. We have TV and film projects together and Racheline has written plays and books for musicals. This story probably lends itself best to TV. It’s a bit Slings and Arrows with a mysterious love story under it.

Does your family know what you write, and if so, how did they react when you first told them what and how explicit your writing would be?

We both write under our real names. Racheline’s parents don’t read her work, either in or out of the romance and erotica space, by long-standing agreement. Erin’s parents have been enthusiastic about many of our titles. Her mom sends her concerned emails about the Love in Los Angeles characters.

Have you ever met someone in real life, or a stranger, that you turned into a MC?

Everyone is a potential character. Everyone.

Who is your favorite author and why?

Erin: Neal Stephenson hits a glorious sweet spot of cyberpunk, history geekery, kickass heroines, and epic narrative.

Racheline: Ellen Kushner does a huge amount with dialogue and is really great at stories where drama uses farce as an engine.

Boxers, briefs, commando? What’s your favorite way to “dress” your man?

Depends on the man! Paul (from Love in Los Angeles) is a boxers guy. Alex (Also from LILA) would really prefer not to talk about it. And Michael (from Love’s Labours) thinks the less clothes he has on in general, the better the world is.

We already know you love to write/read in different genres, but why do you feel you share your voice best when writing amongst the different genres?

We don’t really pick stories to write according to their genre. Rather, we just end up in the place the story wants to go. We write a lot of contemporary, because we like writing about the film and TV industry, and also about the cities in which we live. We write a lot of magical realism because we like writing about death and witches. But we’ve also done some paranormal and adore ourselves some historical.

And just because I love to tease