Author of the Week - Nicola Cameron

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This week Nicola Cameron visits the blog. I met Nicola on Mid Week Tease when she seduced me with her sexy M/M romance snippets. She's an Evernight author as well and writes some fantastic science fiction and paranormal M/M romance. Today I asked her one question about what finally gave her the push to publish.

BBTF: You started publishing in 2012. How long have you been writing and what inspired you to get your work out there?

Nicola: I’ve been writing since I was a kid, and I’ve been a professional science fiction writer since 1995. I’ve always loved exploring sex and romance in my work, but there were limits to just how explicit I could get in regular SF which was something of a downer. When ebooks and paranormal erotic romance took off in such a big way I knew I had to get in on it, so in 2012 I sent in “Tied With a Bow” to Evernight Publishing for their Christmas anthology call (“Tied” was also the first non-speculative fiction story I’d written in about 30 years). Much to my delight they bought it for A Vanilla-Free Christmas: Manlove Edition, and that was the start of my erotic romance career. My experience as an SF writer is also why my first erotic romance novel Storm Season has nanotech, bioengineering, battle scenes, and Alan Turing in it as well as a sizzling MMM ménage romance. What can I say — I like to mix and match genres.

You can find out more about Nicola Cameron's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!  

Author of the Week - Kris Norris

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This week Kris Norris visits the blog. I met Kris at Authors After Dark in NOLA in 2012 and immediately fell for her charms. Not only was she funny and smart, but she'd flown helicopters as a Canadian military pilot. My hero! :D I'd actually read her books before I met her and already loved her voice, but she says I shouldn't listen to her sing. Kris writes some magnificent science fiction, fantasy, and shifter romance. All of it is suffused with Kris's attention to the humorous absurd and action/adventure. Today I asked her one question about how much of her own experience goes into her books.

BBTF: You write a lot of action adventure romance, both in the present and in the future. How much of your own personal experiences have you put into your writing?

Kris: Can I just say that I love this question? Mostly because it’s that moment when all that time I spend traipsing through the woods, up mountains and doing other, less typical sports, finally pays off. :)

So yes, there's a reason I love writing action-adventure books. And yes, it’s because I like to walk the walk, not just talk it. I suppose it started with the first book I wrote, which wasn’t the first one I published. Hard Target is actually the first book I ever wrote, though like many first books, it was also the one I revised the most. So it took a while before I actually put it out there.

But the heroine in that book, Taylor Austin, was based on a lot of things I was doing at the time. I was a commercial helicopter pilot, and I’d just climbed Mount Rainier with my brother and his partner, so I had a lot of ideas and energy just whirling around, wanting to escape. That’s when I realized I really wanted to try writing it all down and, well, Hard Target was the result.

I like to base my writing on experiences I’ve had because I feel it makes the writing more genuine and believable. Not that you get to try everything you every write down, but—I just think your scenes jump off the page more if you’ve actually had the opportunity to live what you’re relating. So, I try and experience a lot of the extreme sports if I can before I write about them. My second book published was Checkmate, and it’s about adventure racing. Well, seeing as I’d never done that before, I trained and entered a race once I’d decided it was going to be a central part of the story. And let’s just say I've run a dozen since then, including a seven-day mountain bike race through the Rocky Mountains a couple of years ago. I honestly never would have known about all the tiny ins and outs I got to put in the scenes if I hadn't actually done it. It's just the way I like to operate.

I also spent some time in the military, so yes, I've fired a gun and a rifle. I've been through basic training, done those stupid obstacle courses, had to survive maneuvers and being yelled at twenty-four seven. While it's not quite the same as being a federal agent or a marshal, per se, I do feel it at least gives me an insight to some of the inner workings of these careers—enough that I'm not completely pulling random stuff out of my…In addition, I ride horses and dirt bikes, have worked as a 911 operator and was even a boat captain once upon a time.

Okay, reading this it makes me sound very flighty. And while I do get easily distracted by shiny things—squirrel—I think it's just that before writing, I hadn't found that one career that satisfied me. I was always looking for the next, best thing. But being an author—it allows me to be a pilot and and cop. To climb mountains and kayak down rapids without having to change jobs. And I can go out and physically do these adventures, chalking them all up to research!

So, I think I've finally found my niche. I just hope others enjoy my books as much as I do writing them. Now if I could just find away to be a vampire and a shifter, preferably on another planet ruled by alpha men where it's like living in the old west, things would be perfect.

LOL okay, then, I'll put out the order today, Kris. :D You can find out more about Kris Norris's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading! 

Author of the Week - Ann Mayburn

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This week Ann Mayburn visits the blog. I met Ann in person at Authors After Dark in New Orleans in 2012, and fell in love with her forthright, no-nonsense humor immediately. Ann writes just about everything, but she has a gift for BDSM romance in both contemporary and paranormal settings. Today I asked her one question about how she budgets her time with family.

BBTF: You put out a great deal of work each year. How do you balance your writing time with your family time?

Ann: Not easily. Either the house is dirty and the book gets worked on, or the house is clean yet I got 0 word count in. :P I've found the best I can do is balance between the two, clean when my muse is on strike, write when she won't shut the hell up. There is constant clutter, something always needs to be cleaned, but I manage to play in my worlds and throw video games at my kids so it all works out. ;)

Somehow that sounds a lot like my house, Ann. :D You can find out more about Ann Mayburn's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading! 

Author of the Week - Lila Shaw

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This week Lila Shaw visits the blog. I met almost met in person in Las Vegas when she'd come into town for a work conference. Unfortunately, she wasn't staying long enough for me to come and see her. But we've visited a lot online and we share a love of hairy me (Teddy Bear Thursdays are our favorites). Lila has a couple of pen names, but she writes contemporary and paranormal romances laced with humor. Today I asked her one question about where she gets her inspiration.

BBTF: Many of your books have a deep thread of humor through them. Where do you find the inspiration for those scenes?

Lila: Where do I find inspiration for humor? I feel like I should answer this question with a joke. So, let's start there.

First of all, I don't go looking for Humor, because if I look for it, I never find it. I don't know where it lives or what its favorite color is. I don't know if it loves, has a family or any friends.

Truth is, it finds me, and not always at the best times or places. It waits for me after school on the playground in torn jeans and a tshirt bearing an inappropriate saying. It wears too much eyeliner and garish red lipstick and doesn't care if its bra strap hangs out the sleeve. It has no discipline, no goals or ambitions. It's the sexy siren from the wrong side of the tracks a man will happily get horizontal with but will never marry.

Because marrying Humor means welcoming her family into the mix, inviting the pain, humiliation, impotence and suppressed aggression that birthed her. Humor is a cowardly prostitute. Rather than saying, "Hey! Look at me! I'm [angry] [sad] [depressed] [frustrated] [embarrassed] and I need your attention, your love," she offers you a joke for a laugh, a chuckle, a smile.

Now, I'll answer more seriously or less seriously, depending on your perspective. Where do I find inspiration for humor?

Everywhere.

I grew up silly. I have a silly mother, sister, cousins and husband. I like to hang around silly people. I love the ridiculous and thrive on innuendo. When I was young my cousins and I would covertly pull down the underpants on male underwear mannequins and then run and hide. We drew faces on watermelons in supermarkets.  We threw chicken skins on passing cars at night. I hid SOS messages in the mouths of the dissection-destined frogs in biology. I sweet-talked my male college friends into being my makeup models. (Why they let me remains a mystery.) My mother and I defaced more Sears catalogs than we used for placing orders. I do voiceovers for my dog, trying my darndest to make my husband laugh at "her" wit. I text my son funny selfies when he's been out too long with his friends. He shares them, which gives me hope that one day he'll be just as silly as his mom.

Truth is, I may be growing older--putting my kids through college while biting my nails that I don't lose my job before I can retire--but I refuse to grow up. The world can be a pretty shitty place, but as long as there is something to laugh about, it's not only bearable, but enjoyable.

I don't know about you, but I prefer laughter over tears, though if I have to cry, let the tears be ones of uncontrollable mirth. I'd rather write stories that make readers laugh than cry. I doubt I'll ever write anything like The Fault in Our Stars. Why the hell would I? I'd surely screw it up by having the nurse fart during a chemo session, anything to break up the tension, but in doing so, I'd surely ruin the book.

But real life is a book begging to be "ruined" with laughter, don't you think?

I do.

I do, too, Lila. :) You can find out more about Lila Shaw's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!

Author of the Week: Marla Monroe

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This week Marla Monroe visits the blog. I met Marla in person at Hot Mojave Knights 2013 and had a marvelous time talking to her. Since then, I've visited with her online as we're both authors with Siren Publishing, and I met with her last month for a writing retreat. I think we did more talking than writing, but she's so personable and down-to-earth, she's easy to talk to. Marla writes paranormal and contemporary romance often with menage and BDSM themes. Today I asked her one question about how she balances writing and family.

BBTF: You write a lot of books with BDSM qualities to them. What attracted you to the lifestyle enough to put it into writing?

Marla: I wanted to get across the emphasis on safety and the basic facts and reasoning behind the lifestyle. There are varying degrees of BDSM from teasing bedroom play to a serious, contracted 24/7 relationship defined and agreed on by two or more people. The one thing that most people get wrong about all of it is that the Dom or top doesn’t control the sub, bottom, or slave. It’s a power exchange or it is abuse. The sub, bottom, or slave has to allow the Dom or top the power over them. They put their pleasure, pain, control, and trust in their partner.

Another thing that I wanted to get across is that it’s not all about the Dom exerting control either. It’s about his ability to sense and understand what his partner needs and providing it. He/She will push the boundaries without ever crossing them. They strive to provide the best experience possible and have to be experts on body language and control.

That is something very few people realize, too. If they can’t discipline themselves to be able to go only so far and adhere to the agreed boundaries, then they are not trained or safe to work with. They have to be able to know when the sub/bottom is in trouble. They have to watch for all signs that something might not be quite right. They are vigilant in making sure the person they are responsible for is safe and not so caught up in everything as to not be able to make a safe decision or able to use their safe word or safe gesture.

I wanted to be sure my readers knew the difference between a Dom and an asshole, the difference between safe play and abuse and what to watch out for. It’s dangerous to play around with this and I’m afraid that there are a lot of people out there without a clue are making dangerous decisions. In my own way, I want to help them think and at the same time, provide the knowledge that it’s not all bad. In fact, it can be damn good with the right partner!

You can find out more about Marla Monroe's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading! 

Author of the Week: Moira Keith

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This week Moira Keith visits the blog. I met Moira at my kids' school while she read something on a Kindle. When I asked her what she was reading (hoping to find a new fan), she said she was reading her own work, looking for formatting errors and typos. It was such a delight to find another romance author in town. Today I asked her one question about art and writing.

BBTF: In your bio it says you enjoy drawing. How has art influenced your writing?

Moira: I find myself giving my heroines a hobby that allows me to incorporate art. For example in Blood and Moonlight, me heroine, Kiara, draws it helps her focus her mind while she puzzles out problems, but she also paints, and owns an arts and antiquities business. In Anything but Safe, my heroine, Cheyenne, loved photography and painting until she let the ugliness she'd suffered in her life bleed out onto the canvas. I like being able to take something that I love and apply it to my characters in some way. It helps me feel more connected to them on some level.

You can find out more about Moira Keith's sexy and artsy characters on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!

Siobhan 

Author of the Week: Nichole Severn

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This week Nichole Severn visits the blog. I met Nichole in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Romance Writers. She and I were the youngest members at the meeting and we started talking writing, family, and movies. We became friends over the years we attended the monthly meetings and now she's one of my best critique partners. Today I asked her one question about her choice of heroes in her tales.

BBTF: You often write unusual heroes and heroines, even serial killers and demons. What truly brings them to life in your imagination and makes them loveable for you?

Nichole: I have a soft spot for bad guys. Always have, even as a child watching Disney movies. Maybe it's because I feel bad for them and want to understand what they're going through to make them hate the world so much. I'm always trying to imagine what brought my serial killer or demon to that point in their life, what heartbreaking choices they had to make. Sometimes it's psychological trauma like in Let Me Out, or a choice to give up their future for the greater good to end up as a demon like in my current work in progress. Either way, their stories are often untold and I'm trying to change that.

Janet Reid from Fineprint Literary Management said it best, "Your antagonist has to think he's the hero of the story or your story is boring." I take this to a new level by actually putting what other authors would consider antagonists as heroes in my stories. I realized a long time ago not everything in romance has to be a fairy tale. People have flaws. They make mistakes and sometimes, they even do it for the right reasons. That's what makes my characters loveable for me, the reasons behind their choices, and with that I believe I'm giving readers something new.

You can find out more about Nichole Severn's flawed and original characters on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!

Siobhan

Author of the Week: Bronwyn Green

Welcome back to Buy a Book, Tell a Friend!

This week Bronwyn Green visits the blog. I met Bronwyn in New Orleans at Authors After Dark when Kris Norris invited me to go to dinner with her and some friends. Bronwyn is one of the most generous and kind women I've ever met. She is so kind she made me some hand warmers when my fingers got cold in the (mild) Las Vegas winter. Today I asked her one question about her favorite aspects of paranormal romance.

BBTF: What is your favorite aspects of the paranormal genre and how do you incorporate them into your writing?

Bronwyn: My favorite aspects of writing paranormal fiction isn't necessarily a particular kind of creatures or even sub-genres. What I love best is when the magical crashes headlong into the mundane. I try very hard to blend the supernatural with every day life. When readers finish a book, I want them to look side-eyed at an abandoned school house and wonder if there are ghosts inside. I want them to notice a particularly beautiful grove of trees and imagine just for a moment that there are faeries lurking within -- or notice a super hot guy and wonder if he might be a shifter or a god in human form. That's what I like best. And when readers tell me about these moments, it makes me really happy. But if pressed, I'd have to say that my favorite elements are witches/magic users, faeries and shifters.

You can find out more about Bronwyn Green's magical paranormal romance on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!

Siobhan

Author of the Week: Cara Michaels

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This week Cara Michaels has dropped by. Cara writes heroic science-fiction and paranormal fantasy, and is a #flashfiction host of #RacetheDate flash challenge. No matter the genre, Cara writes a darn good story. I asked Cara one question about world building.

BBTF: What is your favorite thing about building new worlds?

Cara: World building is far tougher than character building. Worlds are all about rules, and breaking those rules breaks faith with readers. It's up to the author to make sure the rules stay constant. I suppose I find research to be the best part of world building. In attempting to create a believable environment, I study and research all sorts of wild things to establish rules that make a crazy sort of sense.

You can find Cara's worlds and her new worlds at her website. And be sure to pick up a book and tell a friend.

Happy reading!

Siobhan

Author of the Week: Jenika Snow

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

What are you reading these days? Need some new books? I have just the author for you. Jenika Snow writes some wonderful paranormal romance and she's also a really nice lady. Here's what's going on in her own words:

"On 8/19 my mother was diagnosed with glioblastoma, which is the most aggressive, malignant brain cancer. With it being inoperative they gave her a life expectancy of 12-18 months, and we knew we would not take one moment with her for granted. Three days after her diagnoses she had a biopsy to confirm if it was indeed cancer and less than 24 hours after her biopsy her physical and mental health declined. Our beautiful mother became non-responsive, and we were told she had days left to live, and that she would most likely not wake up. Miraculously she woke up a day and a half later, with an appetite to rival a full grown man :) she wasn't herself, was confused, but she knew who we were, and we were grateful. For three days she gifted us with hugs, kisses, and her love. But after those three wonderful days, she slipped back into being unresponsive. For the next three weeks she was in and out of consciousness, and even though she could respond to some of our questions, tell us she loved us, and sang, she wasn't the mother I remembered with her spunky, lively personality. She passed away 1 month and 1 day after being diagnosed with her brain cancer in the comfort of her home with her loved ones surrounding her.

My mother's short and very devastating diagnosis taught me a lot about life. In the blink of an eye everything can be taken away, and we have to embrace each and every minute. My mom touched a lot of lives in the 55 years she was alive. She was an RN, a Portuguese immigrant at the age of 18, was in the US Army, and worked harder than anyone I knew."

Loss of a loved one is one of the hardest hurdles to face and it's difficult to find ease with such a huge change. Can help her by taking away some of the financial worries? Just buy a book and tell a friend. That's all you have to do. It's giving and receiving all at once - you get a book and give a smile to someone's face who could really use more of them right now.

Thanks for stopping by. :)