Gem Sivad
Erotic Romance
Readers, it's an honor to have this week's sexy, erotic western author with us! I hope you enjoy the interview and her books! We're going to be taking a walk around Eclipse, Texas, the town in her latest book so keep your eyes open for her cowboys roaming around. Gem, thanks for inviting us to your little town so we can get a taste of life in the books. I think there might be a saloon over there. Let's get started!
Naughty Reader’s: Tell us a bit about yourself that readers may not know.
Gem: I love going to
horse races and am looking forward to the Kentucky Derby this year.
Naughty Reader’s: What made you want to become a writer?
Gem: I must be
genetically predisposed since I’ve always written stories. It was very hard to
start sharing them publicly since self-doubt dogged my steps. @_@ But… after
the first book published and I received my first reader response, I was hooked.
Good, bad or indifferent, it was the moment I became an author, craving an
audience for the stories that kept pinging around in my head but were yet to be
written.
Naughty Reader’s: Please share a bit about your new release
Wolf’s Tender without giving away any spoilers.
Gem: Before I wrote Wolf’s Tender, I researched the
setting and historical elements and then created my characters--Charlie Wolf
McCallister and Naomi Parker-- two lonely people who find love (and hot sex)
together.
Naomi, my
heroine in Wolf’s Tender, illustrates my belief that women of by-gone days embraced
sensual pleasure much as we do. And Charlie Wolf is the quintessential,
hard-hearted hero who melts into a puddle of love when he finds the woman of
his dreams.
Blurb for Wolf's Tender - A book in the Eclipse Heat Series
Charlie Wolf is half Kiowa, all
bounty hunter and a no-nonsense man—until he meets a schoolteacher
with cornflower-blue eyes. After marauding outlaws attack Naomi’s school and kidnap
her students, she’s desperate and will do anything to rescue them, even seduce
the best tracker in Texas to secure his help.
Naomi offers one night of sexual
favors, underestimating the power of Charlie’s predatory charm and his
determination to claim her as his mate. She’s impatient with his decisions,
questions his authority and generally ignores his warnings. But she melts in
Charlie’s arms when he makes love to her.
Blood is spilled, past murder avenged, desperadoes captured
and lust assuaged as the two set out to rescue Naomi’s young ladies.
A Romantica® historical Western erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
Excerpt:
“There’s a catch basin of water down below.
Bathe.” He handed her linen and a bar of soap.
Grateful for the chance to soak,
she left comment about his dictatorial behavior for another time and hurried to
the water.
“Watch out for snakes,” he advised.
Naomi didn’t like snakes or other
slithering critters but she did like being clean, so she watched her step, shed
Charlie’s clothes and plunged in the water, wallowing like a kid in the semi-warm
pool. Her hair hung in rough strands that would become snarled balls when dry.
She worked ineffectually at one tangle until she felt his gaze on her.
“I wish my hair was straight like yours,” she
muttered.
He held out his hand, indicating it
was time for her to quit the water.
“Just gawk at something else besides me,” she
told him, exasperated at his boldness when he didn’t look away. She covered her
breasts with one arm, her triangle of lower curls with the other and grimaced
at him as she emerged.
He snorted at her attempt at
modesty and wrapped the blanket around her, rubbing the drying cloth across her
hair. Then he handed her a tin.
“Work that into the snarls, then
rinse it out of your hair.”
“What’s in it?” she asked
suspiciously, sniffing the mixture. It smelled like him, or at least the spicy
wood scent she associated with him.
“Bear grease.” He grunted
impatiently. “Now rub it on your hair.”
It was odd how right away her hair
felt different. It hung in soft wet strands that felt like silk when she rinsed
his concoction from her head.
“It feels like when I was a child
and rinsed my hair in rain water.” She let her hands play down the silken
length and looked at him doubtfully. “Bear grease?”
“No. My mother makes it for me to use on my
hair,” he growled.
She’d noticed how shiny his hair
was. “It’s indecent for a man to have hair that hangs down his back and is
prettier than a woman’s.” The tart words escaped her before she could stop
them. Then she fastened on the important part of his sentence, excusing her own
rude comment.
“You have a mother?” She was
surprised. He didn’t look like a man with a mother, let alone one who made him
beauty products for his hair.
“Did you think I was born in a cave with
wolves?” He capped the tin and stuck it in his pocket.
“Does your mother live with the
Kiowa tribe?” she asked politely, ignoring his sarcasm because frankly, she
could picture him in a cave with wolves.
“My mother is Rachel McCallister of
the MC3 Ranch. She’s a white woman, like you.” While she digested that
information, he did one of his silent maneuvers, moving much closer, leaving
Naomi very conscious of his nearness.
“Sun ointment—should make your face
quit burning.” She could feel the heat from his body as he rubbed a different
salve on her cheeks.
His nearness and gentle application
of the medicine flustered her. No one had taken care of her since her sister
had left. Naomi had grown up taking care of others. Now this man leaned over
her and squinted as he dabbed another kind of cream on her cheeks.
“It does soothe the burn.” She couldn’t resist
touching his hand as he carefully applied the balm to her burned cheeks. “Why
are you being nice to me?”
She suspected that Charlie Wolf
never made a move that didn’t benefit him, but at this moment she didn’t care.
It was wonderful that he was showing her kindness during the day.
“Your skin’s too chapped. I want it soft under
my lips when I taste you,” he drawled.
“It’s daylight. We need to travel now that
I’ve rested.” Naomi blinked at him, confused.
“We’re hidden here and it’s a good
place to hole up until dusk. My horse will let me know if anyone or anything
gets close.”
“It was dark last night. How did you find me?”
Naomi asked.
“Old Mossy took a fancy to the
buckskin mare you pilfered.” Charlie’s eyes crinkled at the corners just the
slightest when he answered. “She’s in heat. He followed her scent.” The almost
smile changed to a frown and he asked, “Where the hell did you think you were
going?”
“The buckskin mare belonged to one of the
criminals you captured and I felt certain she was returning to familiar
horses,” Naomi answered smugly.
“And even if that blockheaded idea
was sound, you thought you’d just ride into an outlaw camp and do what?”
Naomi blushed and squirmed under
his gaze. Her plan had been more an impulse.
“Woman, you have no sense.” He shook his head.
Shrugging, he leaned close to her, his nostrils flaring as if testing the air.
“What are you doing?” she asked
nervously.
“Fixin’ your scent in my mind for if I have to
go chasing after you again,” Charlie growled.
His words brought a flush of
arousal flooding her body. She could smell him too and she liked his spicy male
scent. She was reminded that only a blanket separated her nakedness from
Charlie and her skin pebbled with awareness as her womb clenched. Thankfully he
didn’t notice her unseemly response and continued explaining his plan.
“The stars ‘ll be out tonight and
it’ll be clear enough to see.” He turned her toward the camp and her bed under
the tree. “Meanwhile, you can tender the next installment of your payment to me.”
“What?” Her voice sharpened, her
disappointment a twist of pain. He didn’t need to remind her that she’d traded
him liberties for his care. The hair and face creams seemed less special and
her momentary pleasure at being tended disappeared.
“How many such installments will it
take to close this account?” she snapped.
“Depends on the amount of danger I incur in
the course of the rescue,” he murmured, leaning over her to claim her lips. And
then his shoulders blotted out the sun and he laid her to the ground, coming
down on top of her.
Naughty Reader’s: That sounds like a yummy premise for a great beginning! Do you write under a pen name?
Gem: Gem Sivad is my
pen name.
Naughty Reader’s: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?
Gem: I like a sexy beast for the man…gruff,
frequently arrogant, intelligent, responsible, not necessarily handsome to all,
but with such masculine gravitas that he is immediately a presence in any room.
I like
heroines who display ingenuity and independence. You can be sure if my damsel
is in distress, she’s already working toward resolving her crisis when the hero
arrives to help in her rescue (and warm up the sheets).
Naughty Reader’s: We know you're extremely busy writing all those books. Tell us about a typical day in your life
as a writer.
Gem: I have a regular
schedule:
6:00 a.m. Grab a cup of coffee (auto brewed & ready)and
check my stats. (I’m totally addicted to watching ratings, rankings, and
reviews.)
6:30-8:00 Answer email, visit FB, twitter, and develop promo material for blogs.
8:00-12:30 Write. Break for lunch and watch midday news (am
a political junkie).
2:00-5:00 Write. I try not to let writing take over my
personal life, but in the evening with hubs, my mind is always playing with plot
ideas.
Naughty Reader’s: Do your books have a common theme or are
they all different?
Gem: If I have any
common theme it would be female empowerment. (see heroine question above.
Naughty Reader’s: How long does it take you to write
and then edit a story?
Gem: I normally work on
more than one WIP at a time in varying stages of completion so in a six week
period I expect to finish a novella and a novel.
Naughty Reader’s: Do you have to be alone to write?
Gem: YES!
Naughty Reader’s: How do you go about naming characters?
Gem: I try to choose
names that fit the character image in my head. When I’m writing books set in
the 19th century, birth records from the period are a great source.
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?
Gem: I write then
find pictures. Sometimes my first choice changes as the story evolves and the
character becomes more known to me. If I’m casting Wolf’s Tender—The Movie,
*BG* Adam Beach will play Charlie Wolf McCallister and Keri Russell with curly
hair, is Naomi.
Naughty Reader’s: How do you pick locations for your stories?
Gem: For my town of
Eclipse, Texas, I chose a setting in the northwestern part of Texas that bordered
19th century Indian Territory. It’s a diverse geographical area with both
deserts and mountains. I located my mythical town in a place close enough to
Wichita Falls, Sweetwater and Abilene to travel by horseback. (Yes, I visited
the area.)
