Kellie Kamryn - Erotic Romance Author

Congratulations to Jamallah for winning a copy of Rebound!!

Kellie Kamryn

Erotic Romance Author

Welcome to the interview with Kellie Kamryn! We're on location at the training gym our main characters spend so much time. Come join us on the bleachers as we chat with Kellie to find out what makes her tick!

Naughty Reader’s:  Tell us a bit about yourself  that our readers might not know.

Kellie:  I’m the mother of four active children, owner of a messy house, writer of contemporary and erotic romance, occasional poet, blogger for the Naughty Romance Writers and the Ass Cheek Angels as well as my own blog, and all around nice gal!

Naughty Reader’s:  Whew! That’s a lot of blogs to keep up with besides everything else you’re doing. What made you want to become a writer?

Kellie:  I’ve always loved writing, but when I went through a health scare a few years ago, I began writing more poetry. I published a family-oriented collection of poetry, and thought I’d go for my dream of writing a novel. I figured that now was as good a time as any to try these things in my life and I didn’t want to have any regrets later on down the road for not giving it a shot.

Naughty Reader’s:  Taking the initiative to make things happen is what it takes though. Please share a bit about your new release Rebound without giving away any spoilers.

Kellie:  Here’s the blurb: An award-winning choreographer must face the only man she's ever loved then lost when they are teamed up to work together at a gymnastics camp for Olympic hopefuls.

Claire LeMay is at the top of her game - she's head of a prominent gymnastics facility with her gymnasts winning awards for her outstanding choreography. Now her biggest challenge is to coach alongside the man she's avoided for three years after he demanded she live in his shadow instead of forging her own path.

After sinking every penny of his inheritance into his state-of-the-art gymnastics facility, Justin Black has achieved his dream. Oblivious as to why she walked out on him three years ago, he attempts to call a truce. As their old passion tumbles out faster than a gymnast sprinting down the vault runway, Justin knows he can’t let her walk out of his life this time.

Are they destined to repeat the same old routine or will they be able to choreograph a new one?

Excerpt:

Of all the things Claire could have asked about, he wished she hadn’t chosen his mother. He had never been close to Minnie Black, and had always thought his father, Roman, had only married her so Justin wouldn’t be an illegitimate child. While his mother had been indifferent to him, his father had been wonderful, always encouraging him to dream big and telling him time and again that he could do anything he wanted with his life. Thank God for small miracles.

“How are your parents?” he asked.

“They’re good,” she replied. “They’ve retired to Arizona now, and they’re constantly scoping out gyms for me. They want me to move there.”

A slight panic bubbled in his gut. He hadn’t wanted anything to do with her for the last three years, but never seeing her again? That didn’t feel right either. Even though he had avoided speaking to her at competitions unless absolutely necessary, her presence in the gymnastics community was a constant in his life he didn’t want to be rid of.

With a casualness that belied his anxiety, he asked, “And you don’t want to?”

She paused in her massage and shrugged. “I don’t know. The move doesn’t feel right for me. I like where I am, and despite what they think, I have a life in Manitoba. Winnipeg is my home. Over the Christmas break I went to visit them, and the place they have is beautiful. It’s warm there, but following them to Arizona isn’t exactly the kind of life I want.”

“I know how you hate being cold,” he said, for lack of something better to say.

“Well, I’m not fond of frigid temperatures in the winter,” she went on, “but I can always go visit for a break. During my stay, they gave me a file of brochures for various gymnastics facilities where they thought I might want to work, not to mention introducing me to every eligible bachelor on the street.” She laughed lightly. “Ugh. For that reason alone, I’m not moving. You have no idea how embarrassing that was.”

He bristled at the thought of her parents trying to marry her off like she needed someone to take care of her. Once upon a time, he had thought he wanted to take care of her, but Claire could take care of herself. She was an only child too, and he understood how it felt to be the oldest and the youngest all at the same time. She had confided in him once that she found it particularly hard because her parents doted on her, encouraging her to take chances at the same time they held her so close, she often felt smothered.

Gently caressing his shoulder, she asked, “How’s that?”

Her fingertips drifted over the contour of his muscles. She traced his back, making her way over to the tattoo of the Olympic rings on the back of his good shoulder. She was supposed to have a matching one, but because she didn’t make the team, she had a small maple leaf inked near her groin instead.

Her fingers stilled, as if she wanted to keep touching him. And damned if he didn’t want her to. He wanted her hands on him, and he wanted his on her. There was a time when he had wanted that every damn day for the rest of his life. Could he get it back? Or was it too late?

Sorrow for all they’d lost filled him. “Great. Thanks,” he said, surprised to hear that his already deep voice had dropped even lower. He looked over his shoulder at her.

Her hands trembled against his skin. He remembered making her tremble in other ways, and that didn’t help matters where his cock was concerned.

He wanted nothing more than to kiss her until neither one of them could breathe, until there was no past, no future—only this moment. Clenching his jaw, he resisted the urge to lay her flat on the carpet and take her sweet mouth with his.

She patted his shoulders. “There. That ought to do it.”

When her hands left his body, he jerked back to take her hand in his. Pulling her around to face him, he said, “There’s something I need to ask you. Did you ever train gymnastics with Marco?”

Holy fuck, where had that come from? He must be a masochist, torturing himself like this. Marco had been her colleague and her lover. It wouldn’t have been unlikely for the two of them to have shared the gym for more than coaching purposes. Why did he have this burning need to know?

Slowly, she lowered herself to one hip, with her knees tucked under her. Their thighs touched, and she cupped his face with her other hand, and he closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of her soft palm on his cheek. His fingertips brushed her upper leg, and he wished she didn’t have tights on, so he could feel her silky smooth skin beneath his hand. He squeezed lightly, and he didn’t miss the way her breathing quickened.

“No, I never trained with him,” she answered. “I never trusted him.”

Naughty Reader’s:  What a teasing excerpt and great setting for a story, Kellie! Do you write under a pen name?

Kellie:  Kellie Kamryn is my pen name but she is also who I am.

Naughty Reader’s:  How true for so many! What types of hero or heroine do you like best?

Kellie:  I love the kinds of characters who are big enough to admit they’re wrong! I love to see characters change and grow throughout the story. To me, nothing says romance like two people willing to make things work!

Naughty Reader’s:  Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

Kellie:  I get up early to get my kids off to school. Some mornings, I go to the pool for some exercise because my body needs to move and not sit in a chair all day. I do some promotion and talking to readers and colleagues on Facebook or Twitter, then I write, do blog posts, anything writing related, stopping occasionally to eat, before my kids get home from school. Then it’s after school activities and dinner. On the week-ends I work or I force myself to go out and see my friends – you know, face to face interaction with live people and not just those in cyberspace, LOL (somewhere in all of this I wash clothes and clean, although my house is just a perpetual mess)

Naughty Reader’s:  Writing can be a lonely life if we don’t realize we need other ‘live’ people around us. As much as we love our cyber friends, we also need to interact with others outside the house to keep our mind working on character-interactions. Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?

Kellie:  If I had to choose, I would say that my theme is two people growing as people during the story to make a relationship work. Personal growth is important to me. I think when we continue to operate on old belief systems we can become stagnant, settled in our ways. I feel that it’s my duty to learn and keep growing throughout life as I get older, so I want my characters to do the same.

Naughty Reader’s:  How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?

Kellie:  Depends on how much time I have to write! Before I got published, all I used to do was write, and I could get a novel written in a month. I still can if I’m focused but promotion now takes up some of my time, as well as editing, galley proofing, etc., so I just keep plugging along until I’m done.

Naughty Reader’s:  Do you have to be alone to write?

Kellie:  I’m rarely ever alone! I write mainly on my PC in the living room across the room from the kids computer with the TV on. I’m a mother – I’m great at blocking out noise I don’t want to hear, and focusing my attention on the task at hand. My mantra to the kids – if it’s not bleeding or broken, I don’t want to hear about it. I’m joking, mostly… But I try to do the majority of my writing when they’re all at school when it is quiet, and then I can focus on them when they get home.

Naughty Reader’s:  How do you go about naming characters?

Kellie:  The names just come to me. It’s kind of like picking out baby names – when it feels like the right one, it just is.

Naughty Reader’s:  Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?

Kellie:  I have a pretty good visual of a character in my head and that’s what I go with. Sometimes a character will come to me in a dream, or I’ll see someone on the street and think “Wow – who is that?” Then I begin imagining a life for the person and take it from there. One of my characters’ physical description is based on a teacher I met, but in my story he’s a lawyer. The physical appearance of this person was so striking, it sparked a story idea.

Naughty Reader’s:  How do you pick locations for your stories?

Kellie:  Right now, I’ve written stories in the location close to me or places I’ve visited so it’s easier to describe. But I have Googled locations and gone with that too! Readers can find me at: 

 My Website

My Blog

My FaceBook Pg

Twitter @KellieKamryn

Buy Links: 

Secret Cravings Publishing

Amazon

ARe

Bookstrand

Barnes and Noble

Contest: I’d like to give away a PDF copy of Rebound to a lucky commenter who also leaves their email addy in the comment (I want to be able to reach you easily). Thank you for stopping in to chat with me!

We're in New York City this week visiting with Adriana Kraft - Author Interview Feb 19 - 24

Congratulations Dawne Prochilo! 

You won a copy of Sapphic Planet.

Brrrrr it's cold here! But do we have a treat for you! Adriana Kraft is with us this week. Be sure to bundle up as we'll wait outside for everyone to arrive. Tonya is inside the hotel making sure the staff has prepared a fire in the fireplace and an open bar in the private room we've reserved.

We are so excited Adri & Anna agreed to do an interview with us. Oh, here they come now! *waving them over to the group* Hi you two! Let's all go inside, get a drink and warm up by the fire.

There's Tonya! Readers, you can lay your coats across the beds in the other room. We have coffee, hot chocolate, plenty of baileys and various liqueurs to help you warm up on the inside. Come sit on the sofas and chairs in front of the fire. And readers, there is a giveaway, Adriana explains this at the end of the questions.

Naughty Reader’s: Everyone have a drink and comfy? Good. Tell us a bit about yourselves that our readers might not know.

Adriana:  We hope by now readers know that we’re a happily married pair of baby boomers who’ve been together over twenty five years. And readers have probably figured out that we like sex ~ one of our mantras is hot sex over fifty and beyond. We’re social activists, at present supporting marriage equality and proud to live in Iowa, where it’s recognized. We’ve lived a lot of places – East Coast, Midwest and Intermountain West – and we keep wondering what we want to be when we grow up.

Naughty Reader’s: What made you two want to become writers?

Adriana: We’ve both wanted to write since childhood. When I read Gone with the Wind in high school I wanted to re-write the ending, so I guess I’m a romantic at heart. Hubs also, lots of Zane Grey, Willa Cather, John Updike. Our lives took different turns in college and we landed in the social sciences (where we met, after our degrees, as professors J). We still both do some work in that field, but sometimes there’s not a lot of sizzle and spice in that world. A few years ago we had a serious discussion about what was missing in our lives and reached back to those childhood dreams. The result? We started writing what we love and haven’t looked back!

Naughty Reader’s: Please share a bit about your new release “Accidental Contact” without giving away any spoilers.

Adriana:  Our latest is an erotic lesbian short story in a steamy collection assembled by the member of Sapphic Planet and titled simply Sapphic Planet. 
It’s releasing in Ebook Monday February 20, to be followed by a print release on March 1st. We’ve loved working with this group of authors ~ this is our third project with them, and we couldn’t be happier. Here’s the book blurb, followed by a blurb for our story (no spoilers, I promise!)

BLURB

Welcome to the Sapphic Planet, a literary realm where women are free to love one another without fear of prejudice or reprisal. Inside these pages you'll discover nineteen stories written specifically to tease and titillate your senses. 

From a frolic in the rain with a Bathing Beauty, to a concerned sibling showing his sister some Brotherly Love, and everything in between – whether you're in the mood for steamy romance or unrequited lust, we've got a story guaranteed to satisfy your cravings.

This anthology showcases just a fraction of the talent from the writers of Sapphic Planet, a group specifically created for authors and aspiring authors of quality lesbian literature. Now sit back, relax and enter our world. Afterwards, while waiting to catch your breath, take a moment to visit us online at www.sapphicplanet.com 

Our short story, “Accidental Contact,” is a lesbian cougar story. Natalie and the much younger Bridgette are real estate agents who’ve often traveled together for business seminars. Now they’re snowbound in New York City in a hotel room with only one bed. Will Natalie dare to make her move?

Naughty Reader’s: Do you write under another pen name?

Adriana:  No, it’s hard enough being our real selves and just one pen name! Sometimes I nearly slip up and forget who I’m impersonating when I leave a comment or respond to something I’ve seen – especially if I want to post a link to FaceBook!

Naughty Reader’s: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?

Adriana: Funny thing, we both like lean, buff bodies, but looks aren’t the most important thing, for either gender. We don’t write many alpha males. Our men are handsome and tough, but they can be counted on to be sensitive and deeply caring, to know how to give a woman what she wants. Our females? We both want someone we can connect with. We almost never write drop-dead-gorgeous, but we do want her to care what she looks like, to feel good about herself (or learn to do so during our story), to have passion. I guess that’s the bottom line – if the characters have passion, many other flaws can be forgiven and often serve to spice up the story. Sometimes we even grace characters with flaws of our own.

Naughty Reader’s: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

Adriana:  That’s a tough one, and I’ll have to answer for two of us.  I work at a day job three days a week. On those days, any spare evening time I have is devoted to keeping up with promotions and social networking. I’ll only work on manuscripts in that tight time frame if we’re desperately up against a deadline. Hubs (or “Adri,” as he’s been dubbed) does some part time consulting but has much more time available for the writing. He typically spends mornings writing, and when I’m home, we both devote mornings to our fiction. We do read everything out loud to each other before moving on. We find that helps a lot with dialogue, cadence, and especially erotic scenes, as well as general accuracy.

We both work out daily to stay healthy, so that’s usually mid afternoon, though sometimes instead in the evening we turn on the XBox 360 and put the moves on to Dance Central. Sometimes I cook, sometimes he does (especially on my work days). He does dishes and vacuuming, I do laundry and grocery shopping. More than you wanted to know?

So many readers assume the life an author (especially an erotica author) is glamorous and filled with mind-bending hot sex every minute. We do make time for some of that in our life as well but mostly we’re just ordinary peeps, doing something we love!

Naughty Reader’s: Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?

Adriana: Another tough question! Different enough to have variety, an author always hopes! But definitely a common theme. We write a lot of bisexual and lesbian heroines – both of us have a soft spot for tender (well, or sizzling!) scenes between two women, so it’s rare to find a story of ours without any f/f scenes. That being said, we have a wide range of characters and plots – urban professionals, north woods canoe guides, teachers, massage therapists, detectives, shop owners, carpenters, exotic dancers, authors, rodeo riders, house painters, ranchers…Sometimes we pick an occupation because we’re curious about it and want to study it, sometimes something we know more personally. We like to mix in a little suspense sometimes, and a dash of paranormal, including ghosts and time travel. Always, though, the central story line is about characters reaching inside, claiming who they are and taking action for what they want and what they care about.

Naughty Reader’s: How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?

Adriana:  We can polish off a short story in a few days or at most a week. Novellas, at about 35,000 words, might take two or three weeks and full length novels more than that. We focus first on getting the whole story on the page. Sometimes another story beckons and it’s a while before we get back to the editing task on an earlier manuscript, so total project time is hard to gauge. We’re pretty clean writers (and I’m a tough grammarian *smiles*) so the editing isn’t as daunting as it might be for some.

Naughty Reader’s: Do you have to be alone to write?(either of you?)

Adriana:  Both of us LOL! My office is in our basement (a finished, pleasant basement, not your average BDSM dungeon) and his is on the second floor, so the writing is still solitary. Plotting and reading out loud tends to happen in the living room on our main floor, often with our laptops open, so actually only part of the process is solitary. Or we might read out loud in the bedroom, with the laptops not open…

Naughty Reader’s: How do you go about naming characters?

Adriana:  Sometimes the names have a purpose or come from an ethnicity we’ve chosen, sometimes they leap out at us, sometimes we draft an entire story with what turn out to be the wrong names and we have to go through and change them. Which, btw, can be dangerous – if you’ve picked a name that can be a part of a word, don’t ever just use “search and replace” to change a name in a manuscript without checking out every change! If there’s a villain in the piece, it’s likely to be a name we don’t like very much.

Naughty Reader’s: Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?

Adriana:  Definitely pictures! We do scour the internet for photos that fit our mental image of the characters we’d like to work with, and then the photos stay up in front of us while we write.  Not quite story-boarding format, but close. Having several poses or expressions on a character helps, too. But usually we have a concept before we settle on the photos.

Naughty Reader’s: How do you pick locations for your stories?

Adriana:  We pretty much stick to places at least one of us has visited or lived in. I think it’s hard to give accurate detail of settings an author isn’t familiar with, although these days there’s a wealth of internet resources to fill in the blanks. But we like to try to give readers a feel not just for the physical location, but also for the culture, and that’s hard to convey for someone unfamiliar. At least I think it is. We do lean toward some favorites. Our new short story is set in New York City, where one of our kids lives now and where I’ve spent some time. We’ve probably set five or six stories there, total (of our published work). Another favorite is the north woods of the upper Midwest, again with several stories. But Paris and Stratford Upon Avon show up, as well. We love to travel!

Naughty Reader's: Thank Adri & Ana for inviting us to this wonderful city and chatting with us this week!

Adriana: Thank you so much for having us! I love what you’re doing here at Naughty Readers Boudoir and plan to visit often! I’ll put my web links here, with a caveat – right now my website is being overhauled by Lucy Felthouse (who I highly recommend, btw), so my website urls I’m posting today are for the version that’s currently active. Lucy will be finished any day this week and I’ll come back to update with the new links as soon as we go live!

Giveaway: One download of my newest release, the anthology Sapphic Planet, to a lucky commenter. Drawing will be held at the end of the week, Sunday, February 26. Can’t wait to hear from you – I love talking with readers, and I hope you’ll ask me some questions. Good luck!

Accidental Contact Excerpt:

For three months, Natalie had eagerly anticipated this trip. She'd bought a pair of pink silk pajamas wanting to feel a little more presentable and desirable. Pink had always gone well with her dark hair. And she'd come to believe that Bridgette's choice of silk pajamas was perfect—not too seductive, not two revealing—but classy. Not tacky, like her old sleepwear that resembled sweatpants and gym clothes. On top of that, the feel of silk against flesh was incredibly sensuous.

At least she didn't have to guess whether Bridgette was into women. She'd never tried to hide that fact. She'd even bemoaned not having found a partner with whom she really wanted to share a lot of time.

Natalie balled her fingers into fists and swallowed hard. She'd made the effort to tidy up her pubic hairs just in case. She couldn't risk rejection. There was nothing more to do—it was up to destiny now. What had Bridgette said? Everything happens for a reason. Maybe the blizzard was heaven sent just for her—just for her and Bridgette.

Natalie blinked back tears. Even a blizzard wouldn't be enough to fuel her courage. She dozed. Morning couldn't come too quickly.

Groggily, Natalie peeked at the red numerals on the hotel clock. Midnight—they'd only been in bed for an hour.

Her eyes blinked wide open. There was a hand on her breast. She wiggled her fingers. The hand definitely wasn’t hers. She held her breath, taking stock of her situation.

Steady breathing warmed her neck. She was in danger of becoming intoxicated with Bridgette's scent. She squirmed her bottom only to discover something solid—Bridgette's torso, curved around hers. Fortunately, they were about the same height.

She couldn't discern if Bridgette was awake or maybe acting out a dream. Natalie rechecked the clock. It had taken her nearly five minutes to assess her situation, and she still wasn't sure what was happening. Her breathing faltered. She did know her nipples were growing incredibly aroused.

Shutting her eyelids, she withdrew into her body to concentrate on one particular nipple. The one Bridgette's thumb lay within an inch of.

 Sapphic Planet buy links:
Amazon
All Romance

Adriana on the Web:

Website

Blog

FaceBook 

Twitter 

GoodReads 

Midnight Seductions 

Sapphic Planet

Adriana’s Author Pages at Amazon.com and All Romance Ebooks

BDSM requires people to be really honest about their feelings and what they do, and don’t want - Trillium chats with us on Naughty Reader's Feb 12 - 17

 Congratulations Cynthia Arsuaga!

Cynthia won an eBook copy of Touch of Love from Trillium!

Trillium is visiting with us this week to share her new release "Ali's Choice" in the Touch of Love Anthology by Silver Publishing. 

Our virtual location is a seductive dungeon. Listen while we enter, you can hear the snaps of whips, the cries of pain and the screams of a good orgasm!

About Trillium in her words:

I believe the BDSM, when practiced in a safe, sane and consensual manner is okay.  And I love writing about women and men who discover who they really are and what’s important to them through intricate “play.”

I don’t enjoy wannabes, posers or those people who don’t know enough about themselves to be good in any relationship, much less BDSM.

Whether you’re in a full-blown, hard-core D/s relationship, or limit your experience to occasional play in a local dungeon, I hope you’ll enjoy my stories about people as they experience some aspect of the lifestyle.

Naughty Reader’s: Tell us a bit about yourself  that our readers might not know.

Trillium:  Since I’m a relatively new writer in the erotic arena, my readers probably don’t know much! Hmmm….what to tell…I had a dalliance with a famous actor a long time ago at a New England theater. Several months later I was riding a subway in Brooklyn and he was on the same car as I was. He came on to me again, having totally forgotten who I was.  A blow to my tender ego, but you can’t make this stuff up!

Naughty Reader’s: What made you want to become a writer?

Trillium: I didn’t have a choice.  I’ve been writing stories since I was about five. For a long time my imagination was far better than reality.

Naughty Reader’s: Please share a bit about your new release "Ali's Choice" without giving away any spoilers.

Trillium:  My short story, “Ali’s Choice,” is part of the Touch of Love anthology published by Silver Publishing. In the story’s opening, Ali’s dominant husband has just been killed in war. She bottles all her emotions inside her to get by. But her husband had made arrangements in case the worse happened.  The question is, will his plans work for Ali?

  
Book Excerpt from “Ali’s Choice”

It had been two months since Jake was killed. Two long, fucking... or not-fucking... months.

And she still hadn't cried.

Ali played with her nipple rings, pulling on them hard until they stung.

"Shit!" she yelled.

No tears.

She hadn't cried when the two soldiers had showed up on her doorstep. They'd looked her up and down over their long noses until she felt naked in her silky blouse and short skirt. Even after they'd delivered the news that her husband was gone she'd held her tears back. She wasn't going to let the damn bastards see her break down. She'd cry on her own time--when she was good and ready.

Two months later, she still hadn't shed a tear.

Now Valentine's Day was only a month away and she didn't have the energy to get out of bed in the morning. She glanced at the picture of her husband on her nightstand. Valentine's Day had always been their favorite holiday. Maybe she'd cry then. She had to let her emotions out... the lump in her chest was killing her.

The doorbell rang and she pulled herself out of bed. She glanced at her mirror. A too-thin face magnified her green eyes. She really needed to eat more. Throwing on a silk robe, she walked to the door and peeked through the peephole.

Another damn soldier.

This one was a lot better looking than the last two had been. Younger, too. She opened the door as he was about to knock on the doorjamb. A cold blast of January air made her shiver.

"Oh, I didn't know if your doorbell was working," he said.

Nice voice, too.

"My name is Brian. I was a friend of Jake's. I..."

She thrust the screen door open. "Come in."

Once he entered, she shut the door on the cold Pennsylvania winter, aware that her nipples had turned to hard nubs and her rings were visible under the thin silk robe.

Brian stared at her. "You're thinner than your picture. Do you have enough to eat? If you need anything..." He reached for his back pocket.

She gestured for him to sit down; shamed he thought Jake hadn't taken care of her. "I'm okay. Life insurance. And I have a job I can work from home."

Jake had made sure she had a job she could work from home. He wanted her accessible and dressed the way he wanted. She loved the freedom of living a submissive life without having to explain her attire to anyone, especially her mother, who fortunately lived in Wisconsin.

Brian took an envelope out of his pocket. "Jake wanted me to give this to you if... if anything happened to him. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but I only returned home last week."

Her hand shook a little as she took the paper from him, laid it in her lap and stroked it. A lump of sorrow filled her chest. Maybe when she read Jake's letter the tears would fall.

"Look," he said, leaning forward. "I know you don't know me, but I feel like I know you. Jake talked about you every chance he got. He really loved you."

She nodded. Jake had been the love of her life, her master, everything to her.

"I don't know how to say this, but you look like you're in a bad way. When's the last time you left the apartment?"

She glared at him, her fists clenched and shoulders pushed back, causing her nipples to push against the thin fabric even more.

"You don't know me," she said. "How dare you talk to me like that? Leave. Now."

He didn't move or say anything.

God, he was just like Jake, not making an argument, he was simply waiting for her to figure out what he wanted her to do. No wonder they'd gotten along.

The envelope crinkled in her hand. "Can you excuse me?"

He nodded.

She went back to the bedroom and took a hard look in the mirror. Not only was her face too thin, it was practically gaunt. She hadn't bothered with make-up in days and there were deep circles under her brown eyes. Her hair was stringy, along with being a mess. She couldn't remember the last time she'd taken a shower.

She didn't look good.

All right then, if he was going to sit there, uninvited, she'd make him wait.

She placed the letter on her dresser, not ready to deal with it, especially not with Brian in the living room. She wasn't going to cry with Mr Strong-and-Silent around.

She stepped into the shower and turned the hot water on full blast. The strong flow stung her skin, poking her alive, sluicing off a few days' worth of grime.

Naked except for the towel on her head she headed for her closet. No noise came from the living room. What was he doing out there?

Naughty Reader’s: Nice excerpt to whet the reader's curiosity! Do you write under a pen name?

Trillium:  Oh, yeah…

Naughty Reader’s: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?

Trillium:  I like heroes and heroines who have to change over the course of a story. They have enough guts to face the truth about themselves.

Naughty Reader’s: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

Trillium:  In addition to writing, I have my own business.  That occupies a lot of my time.  I write first thing in the morning, watching the sun rise over the Rocky Mountains where I live.  If I’m lucky, a bald eagle or heron will drop by to say “hello” as I write.  Then I work my day job as well as do some marketing for my books. Thursdays I meet with one of my two critique groups. Weekends are catch-up times for writing, household chores and time with my husband.

Naughty Reader’s: Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?

Trillium:  Both my non-erotic books (unpublished) and erotic romances really focus on a woman accepting parts of themselves and getting the love they deserve and want by loving themselves first.

Naughty Reader’s: How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?

Trillium:  It depends on the length.  My current work in progress, “The Awakening,” took me about one month to write and I’ve been editing for a month with another month to go in that process. It’s about 30,000 words.

Naughty Reader’s: Do you have to be alone to write?

Trillium:  Generally, yes.  Although sometimes being in a group of strangers works, too.

Naughty Reader’s: How do you go about naming characters?

Trillium:  So far they’ve been naming themselves.  In my non-erotic work, I have some Italian names, so I did research on common names for the part of Italy I was reviewing.  The Internet comes in handy that way.

Naughty Reader’s: Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?

Trillium:  I imagine the character in my head.  I don’t search for pictures.

Naughty Reader’s: How do you pick locations for your stories?

Trillium:  I’ve lived in a lot of places around the US:  NJ, MA, MI, MT, NYC, PA, CA….lots of locations to choose from!

Naughty Reader’s: Why do you use BDSM in your stories?

Trillium: BDSM requires people to be really honest about their feelings and what they do and don’t want—something that can be sadly lacking in “ordinary” relationships.  It also adds a little spice!

Naughty Reader's: Trillium, thank you for visiting with us this week. We think you have an announcement for the readers?

Trillium: Thank you again and yes I do. I'll give away a copy of Touch of Love, eBook format to one lucky commenter. We'll hold the drawing on February 18.

Readers you can follow Trillium on Twitter. Visit her web site and blog. She has some very interesting posts and other pages to explore! Trillium on Goodreads.

Other books by Trillium:
Toni's Dilemma

Her books on:
Amazon Toni's Dilemma
Amazon Touch of Love Anthology

Author Interview - Rae McCartney Feb 5 - 10

We have a special treat for you Readers! Rae McCartney is visiting with us this week. Rae's debut novel Lovers Undercover: Impassioned will release February 14, Valentine's Day! Our virtual location is at the beautiful Wyoming/Montana border in a log cabin.

Rae's been hard work on her web site, blog and deciding on the final cover before release date. Before we start with the Q&As here a little bit about Rae.

I'm a writer/author, photographer. I write erotic romance. I have been a model, worked in the entertainment business and even been an extra in a couple of films. My photography skills have allowed me the honor to work with some great photographers
I'm highly motivated, ambitious, laid back...

  

Rae has a giveaway to announce after the interview too!

We're excited for Rae and her new book! Help us give her a warm welcome.

Naughty Reader’s: Tell us a bit about yourself  that our readers might not know.

Rae: I have always had a bit of a wander lust to my persona. I get the itch to go, to see new things. When that happens I have to fight the urge to do just that. And even though I’m “citified” I love nothing better than getting away to somewhere totally cut off from civilization (at least for a few days). It allows me to think and recharge my inner self.

Naughty Reader’s: What made you want to become a writer?

Rae: I can’t think of what made me want to become a writer, it is something I knew I wanted to do from childhood. It is something I always wanted to do professionally but never had the time to devote to it. I am fortunate that I can devote 100% of my time now to my writing career (of course I have other projects that need tending in order to pay the bills)

Naughty Reader’s: Please share a bit about your new release Lovers Undercover: Impassioned without giving away any spoilers.

Rae: In a nutshell it is an erotic romance with some mystery/adventure thrown in. A wealthy  woman, Scarlett is left  grappling with cleaning up the professional and financial messes her late husband left her with. Trying to save the entertainment agency he left behind she is relying on Zachariah, their hugely successful star to draw clients back to the agency. Together she and Logan (aka Zachariah) endure and overcome twists and turns and fall madly in love with each other. *Laughing* There is a, how shall we say, a sub plot and/or possible plot for future installments. It is barely touched on in this book because it is irrelevant to either of the characters. See if you can find it! *wink*

 Naughty Reader’s: Do you write under a pen name?

Rae:  *wicked laugh!* Perhaps. . .

Naughty Reader’s: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?

Rae: For a heroine – confident, comfortable in their own skin, real. For a hero – real first off. He’d have to be something the reader could connect with. In fact that’s the case with both heroine and hero. Back to a hero, he’d also have to be comfortable with a strong woman.

Naughty Reader’s: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

Rae:  I usually get up quite early, go through emails and answer anything important right then. I check Facebook and Twitter, respond and tweet. Once that is finished I check my planner to see if I need to update my blog, web page, etc. and if I’ve got a book just coming out look to see what I need to be doing in regards to promotion. I try to spend the afternoons writing (and any time left in the mornings), editing/re-edits. In the evening I like to kick back for a couple of hours away from the computer and then it starts all over again. I have been known to get up several times during the night to write, especially if I’m working on a project.

Naughty Reader’s: Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?

Rae: I am known to write with common themes and then something else will click and it’ll go in a different direction. I guess the themes come from life experiences in a way.

Naughty Reader’s: How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?

Rae:  It all depends on the book. Anywhere from 2-6 months is not unusual. Lovers Undercover: Impassioned will end up being about a six month project once it is released.

Naughty Reader’s: Do you have to be alone to write?

Rae:  Yes! I cannot tolerate the TV on or a lot of commotion when I’m writing. I prefer solitude. Sometimes I will put music on but mostly I keep it quiet so I can think.

Naughty Reader’s: How do you go about naming characters?

Rae:  It’s not easy sometimes. Some characters are actually named from people in real life, some are made up and sometimes a character may go through four or five names before I am satisfied that the name fits the character. I have to watch myself that I don’t get stuck on names I personally like.

Naughty Reader’s: Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?

Rae:  Usually I write the character from what I perceive them to look like in my minds eye first. Once I get started I’ll find or put together my concept of a cover, etc. and/or find the character pictures.

Naughty Reader’s: How do you pick locations for your stories?

Rae:  They are usually places I’ve visited, lived, places I’m familiar with.

Naughty Reader's: Rae, thanks again for visiting with us this week!

Rae: Thank you again! I'll do a Contest giveaway:  Two $15.00 gift cards to Amazon, Nook, etc. to two of the commenter’s!

Readers can find me online at the links and follow me on Twitter via @RaeMacca

Web site

Facebook

Blog

Readers can contact me with an email at   rae_macca@yahoo.com