Hi Amy! Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thank you for stopping by and chatting with us.

Your book, Persuading Suzanne, was just released in January by eXtasy Books. Can you tell us a little about this story?

It’s about a fairly naïve journalist who decides to write a series of articles on sex and its various, well… kinks. She figures it’s a great way to find out exactly what she’s been missing out on. She’s not expecting the editor to send his son along as her personal security team, and she’s definitely not expecting to fall in instant lust with the guy! He’s into D/s and things just… move along from there!

You also recently released All I Want. How did you come up with the idea for Erik’s story?

This one was a bit different to normal for me, in that I know exactly where I got the idea from. I was watching as all the Christmas-themed stories were released, and I noticed that by far the majority of them were nice. Sweet, even, despite the erotica! Well, I’ve never been a big fan of schmaltzy Christmas stuff, so I started wondering, “What if?” and trying to think of the weirdest ‘opposites’ to what I was seeing. The fact that Erik was Santa Clauses son became fairly incidental to the story after the first few pages, so it has the long title, All I Want For Christmas is…A Viking?, and also the shorter non-Christmas-y version, All I Want. Besides which, the whole title wouldn’t fit neatly on the cover!

Anyway, what I ended up with was a cranky Santa who hated kids (who’d only taken on the job because it was either that or scrubbing toilets in Valhalla), and a total hunk for his son who just happened to be an immortal Viking warrior. Erik became a very over-the-top alpha hero, and the heroine refused to just give up her career and walk off into the sunset with him at the end. That’s not to say that there isn’t a happily-ever-after, I’m just not telling exactly what it is! Suffice to say, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are involved…

These two works are seemingly very different. How do you derive your ideas for a story?

That’s one of those scary questions I don’t really know the answer to. I usually start with a scene just popping into my head. Sometimes it’s really vivid, like watching a scene in a movie, sometimes not so. I don’t usually know who the characters are, what they’re doing, or what the beginning and ending of the story are. That’s when I start sort-of mulling over all the possibilities and the story just grows… How I get that first bright flash of inspiration however, I have no idea!

How does a character come to life for you?

If I can’t see them clearly in my head, then I’m not going to be able to write them clearly either. It’s a fairly bad habit, but I tend not to write until I know exactly how I want the scene – and the characters – to appear. I guess the short answer is that I do an awful lot of advance planning, but it’s all in my head. I rarely have a written plan of the plot, and I never use character templates.

How long have you been writing?

Pretty well all my life. The first story I remember was in the first grade – I wrote about traveling to the moon in a rocket-ship for a day trip. That was probably also the last time I wrote science fiction! I more-or-less stopped when I went to uni, then got back to it again as a sanity saver when I had a high stress / ridiculously long hours job a few years ago. I figure you can’t get any further away from the real world than you can in your own imagination.

How did you feel when your work was published?

It was pretty cool! (Okay, so, actually, I bounced around the house like a mad Tigger until my children decided I’d gone totally insane.)

To date, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your writing?

It sounds a bit silly, but I just enjoy writing. I’d still be writing whether I was published or not, but it’s a wonderful bonus to know that people are actually reading what I write. It’s also a total buzz when I get an email out of the blue from someone I’ve never heard of who’s read a book and wanted to tell me they enjoyed it. Honestly, I just enjoy sitting at my desk, disappearing off into some fantasy world for hours at a time, then later looking back at what I’ve achieved in that few hours. If I don’t write, I’m not happy.

Your work, Katie and the Ghost will be available April 2005 from Heatwave. Can you give us a hint on this work?

The cover is absolutely divine! So, of course, the ghost is equally yummy. (Modest, aren’t I??) Okay, okay, the story…

It’s a short-ish paranormal and Kate, my heroine, absolutely does NOT believe in ghosts. She actually enjoys debunking ghost stories. The Earl of Heatheringham (murdered in an English coaching inn in 1807), however, forces her to rethink her beliefs. She’s determined that he’s an actor, he’s equally determined that he isn’t. How does a ghost go about proving that he’s real? He seduces her, of course! (Well, it IS erotica!)

You also have Moon Illusion – The Moore Werewolves in the work. When can fans expect to see this new story?

I don’t have a release date yet, but I’d guess about springtime. There’s also a vampire one coming out a few months after that.

You writing encompasses more than one genre. Do you like to read this level of variety as well?

Definitely! I love writing erotica because it’s just so much fun when the ‘boundaries’ are sooo much broader, and so far I’ve managed ghosts, werewolves, vampires, immortal Viking warriors and, just for variety, BDSM. I also write non-erotic romance and suspense.

So, what do I read? Lots of romance – anything from Harlequin to Georgette Heyer. I love good historical romances (especially Restoration and Mediaeval) but I’d never have the patience to do the research properly and write them myself. I read lots of paranormals, and a bit of fantasy. I don’t tend to read much literary fiction – did enough of that when I was getting my degree! – but I still like quite a lot of the classics too. So, yes, I read a huge variety, though most of what I choose now will have some element of romance in it. I do like a happy ending!

Thank you so much for stopping by Amy.

Feel free to stop by Amy’s site. She offers readers a quick look at all these stories and more. You’ll be glad you stopped by.



Interviewed by:
Amanda