Author of the Week - Deborah Coonts

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This week Deborah Coonts visits the blog. I met Deborah in person at an RWA meeting in Las Vegas in 2010 and I haven't laughed quite that hard in a writing meeting. This woman writes fantastic romantic suspense that takes place in Las Vegas, and she makes you laugh so hard, don't drink while reading. Deborah is so great to talk to with her dry, laid-back humor, although she'll tell you she's anything but laid-back. Today I asked her one question about what in her real life inspires hilarity in her books.

BBTF: Humor is a huge theme throughout your books along with the suspense. What is your funniest (recent) real life experience?

Deborah: The funniest thing that has happened to me lately?  Moving, but not quite in the way you might think. Moving is horrible, for sure. Each time I do it I swear the next time I’m just going to sell everything and start over in the new locale. Of course, I never do. So, like every move before I sold the old place, bought a new one. Moved the furniture. Relicensed the car as well as myself. After a few short but interminable weeks, the move was complete. Sort of. While it’s painful, changing one’s permanent address is relatively easy. Changing one’s perspective is not.

After so much time in Vegas, apparently I had absorbed its … sensibilities. Reentry into the real world came with some bumps and bruises. 

For instance, the other day I went to my new doctor for that whole annual thing we all so look forward to. The nurse practitioner came in the room to take my vitals and ask some questions. As she got settled, clipboard on her lap, I cut to the chase ticking off the questions I knew by rote from my time in Vegas on my fingers as I worked through them. “In the last year, I’ve not shared any needles with anyone. I’ve not taken any sort of mind-altering anything, unless you count riding on the Slingshot on the top of the Stratosphere—that gave me nightmares for months. Oh, and there was that night where I decided sampling all the inventory at that new whiskey bar was a good idea—all that alcohol probably killed any pesky germs I had floating around, right?” I paused for her nod then forged ahead completely missing the rising incredulity in her eyes. “I’ve slept with one man, zero women, zero transgenders, zero transsexuals, and zero gender non-specific.” Yes, the State of Nevada is very interested in its citizen’s sex lives.

When I finished the nurse was very quiet, her eyes as big as saucers. “I’m almost afraid to ask,” she finally said. “But gender non-specific?”

I shrugged as I felt the color rising in my cheeks. “I’m not really sure. My former doctor never specified. Best I can figure those would be men who are pussies.”

She rewarded me with a laugh.

“You don’t have any of those in Texas?”

She blew at a lock of hair across her forehead. “Honey, we got more of those here than we can say grace over.”

I’m not sure this is a good thing, but at least I’ll feel at home.

 LOL Uh, yeah, not sure about that designation, but I'd offer them blessings, too. You can find out more about Deborah Coonts's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading!

Author of the Week - Cat Johnson

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This week Cat Johnson visits the blog. I met Cat in person at Authors After Dark in 2012 and I fangirled all over her. This woman not only writes awesome military romantic suspense, but she also writes sexy bull riders, and in the land of Frontier Days, this is a great thing. Cat is a self-styled promo-whore, but she loves talking with readers and other authors even more. Today I asked her one question about what in her real life inspires the heroes she writes.

BBTF: You write both bull riders and military men. Has anything in real life inspired you to write these heroes?

Cat: Definitely! In the course of my writing I find I get to 'talk', either online or in real life, with a lot of real life heroes in the professions I'm researching and writing. Whether it's a soldier deployed to Afghanistan, or a bull rider who invited me behind the chutes for an event, this one-on-one time with these men is enough to make them and their stories very real to me. That inspires me to use all of my writing ability and any information and details I can to make them feel real to my readers, as well.

Can I say I'm envious, Cat? You can find out more about Cat Johnson's books on her website. Be sure to buy a book and tell a friend. Happy reading! 

Author of the Week - Cheryl Dragon

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This week Cheryl Dragon visits the blog. I met Cheryl in person at Authors After Dark in 2014 and she won my heart when she gave me a stress moose and told me about her Men of Alaska series. Cheryl writes some wonderful paranormal and menage romance. She also wrote M/M. Today I asked her one question about what she likes best about menage romance.

BBTF: You write tales often filled with ménage. What attracts you about the multiple partners aspect of romance?

Cheryl: Mmmmmm….lots of hot guys making a woman happy! That’s the short answer J I love writing gay romances as well and two men who love each other and a woman in common is hot! I started writing M/M/F erotic romances back in 2007.

But what’s better than two men and a woman?

Well, three men who love each other and a woman!! Or 4 men.

Ménage was almost blasé after a while so big ménage became the hotter thing. I wasn’t sure I could pull that off. That’s a lot of arms, legs, and other appendages to keep track of. But I gave it a try and found it worked.

Some people think ménage is tricky to write and for some reason, it’s always felt natural. Wish I had three hot guy to juggle in bed for real! But that’d be a lot of laundry, cooking. But more guys to do chores.

I can never decide if I’d like ménage in real life but I definitely love writing it!

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

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!