Good morning! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. Okay, let's dive right in shall we?


Could you tell us a bit about yourself? I see that you have named yourself a nymphomaniac. Recovering or reveling?

LOL! I wondered when someone would actually ask about that. Reveling, of course!

How do you write? Outlines and post-its, or sitting and typing?

When I have a project to do, a lot of it gets done in my head before I ever sit down to type. I usually know the entire plotline before I every type the first word. Of course, the story often changes as I work on it, but the basic outline is there in my head (I DON’T write it down. Something about outlines seems to stifle my creativity!) So the actual writing process is mostly sitting and writing. But I do get hit by ideas for stories, or sometimes with a couple of pages of story, totally unrelated to what I’m currently working on at all times of the day and night. ANY time this happens, I write it down. It all goes into an expandable file in my office. When I start a new novel, I’ll look through it to see if anything can be used in the novel. If so, great, if not, then I just start writing. The good part is, if I ever DO experience writer’s block, I’ll go to that file and voila! - ideas, even whole pages to get me started again!

Do you have a secret ritual you'd be willing to share? You know, like candles, music, chants?

For my paranormals, I like to listen to the soundtrack from Phantom of the Opera (the original production, not the movie) - it gets me in the right, dark-fantasy-ish mood. Other than that, I prefer quiet. I’m one of those sociable, easily distracted creatures who really has to shut out the world or I won’t get any actual work done!

What made you choose romance/erotica as your genre?

It was kind of a fluke. I started out writing straight fantasy/science fiction, but I read romance heavily when I was younger and remember being frustrated by the lack of physical intimacy portrayed. I’m a very sexual creature (it’s nothing to be ashamed of!), and I wanted something MORE! But I still wanted STORY, too. Still, I had not discovered Erotic Romance until 2003, when I went to a writer’s conference that was heavily weighted toward romance writers/editors/publishers, all of whom were talking about how well erotic romance was selling. I had a fantasy I was working on based on the Phantom of the Opera, and pitched it to someone as an erotic romance and was strongly encouraged to write it. I came home with a list of erotic romance publishers, read some of their titles and discovered what I’d been missing! I jumped in and wrote SYMPHONY IN RAPTURE, and two months later, it was sold, and I’ve been happily writing ever since.

I've read almost all of your books, the ones I haven't read I own and am getting to. I've seen that you write a number of different subgenres. SciFi, Fantasy, Contemporary. Why?

Well, I started out my fiction career in the straight science fiction/fantasy arena. My first fiction sale was actually a (non-erotic!) fantasy short story for Leading Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine. Before that, I wrote non-fiction general interest articles for a large newspaper, and I’ve also won several awards for my children’s titles, and have even sold to Chicken Soup. What it boils down to, though, is that I just want to write. I don’t care what it is - give me a topic, I can write about it. I just LOVE to write, and I have fortunately been blessed with a busy mind and lots of imagination!

What's your favorite subgenre to write?

Science Fiction and Fantasy are tied for first. Then it’s mystery.

I've been seeing a number of discussions on the Yahoo groups about Happily-Ever-After. Do you feel that HEA is necessary to a romance novel?

This one’s a hard one. Yes ... and no. I think, as happens in all genres at times, the romance venue is experiencing a bit of flux right now. A lot of women read romance as an escape - they don’t want harsh reality, they want a world different from reality, where everything turns out all right in the end. However, there also seems to be a growing demographic that prefers to read about REAL PEOPLE, a desire for “something that could actually happen to ME”. In order to deliver that, we as writers have to make our heroes/heroines more believable, which means giving them physical, mental, and emotional flaws just like the ones we have. Also, I think technological advances have created a much better-educated public for which it is harder to obtain the traditional “suspension of disbelief”, which is required even for a straight contemporary romance - if you don’t believe this could somehow happen to YOU, then the fiction isn’t as rewarding, at least for me. I think that might be part of the reason paranormal, science fiction, and fantasy romances are doing well now, because it’s easier to suspend disbelief when you go into a book knowing it’s based on something EXTRAordinary, rather than going into a traditional romance scenario and snorting every time the hero/heroine does something you KNOW they wouldn’t do in real life. That said, I DO think there has to be some kind of emotional payoff for the reader, which makes non-HEA books very difficult to do WELL.

In your book Enigma you explore the relationship between a humanoid and a human. You do the same in your Guardians series. How different is it to write cross species love scenes?

I find it immensely satisfying - you’re no longer constrained by human anatomy, you can invent wonderfully devilish forms for your characters that satisfy that search for something NEW, something DIFFERENT ... something UNEXPECTED!

Your newest book, Wolf-Bound: Beast in the Labyrinth, explores a more 'mainstream' shifter. What made you chose werewolves?

I’m deeply into mythologies of all kinds, but what I also try to do is challenge myself to do something beyond the norm. I had noticed that in a lot of weyr fiction, the tendency is to limit sexual contact to when both (or all) characters are in human form, or all in shifted form. That urge in me for realism came into play - is it realistic to expect that, if a person is truly in love with a weyrwolf, they will never have sex with a weyr if he/she is in partially shifted or fully shifted form, while they’re still in human form? In my opinion, no. So I set out to write what I felt would be a more realistic portrayal of sexual relations between a human and weyr or part-weyr. I went into this knowing that I was likely to offend some people, but in truth, I don’t believe bestiality applies, because we KNOW these people are human - but I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with anyone who believes that kind of story isn’t for them!

What other books do you have in the works? Can you give us a sneak peek?

Book 2 in the GUARDIANS series will be out shortly from Changeling Press. In this book, I’m going back to the beginning - showing you the creation of the first Guardian, and developing a rivalry between Guardians and Vampires which also includes a new mythology for vampires, and brings in a bit of witchery, and even the devil!

I’m also working on the first full-length novel in the WOLF-BOUND series for Loose Id - Damien, Devlin, and Jenny from TWICE BLESSED, and Jacob, Johnathan, and Tara from BEASTS IN THE LABYRINTH all make an appearance, and I think it’s the beginning of a really fantastic series.

Also, I’ll have a romance involving the Green Man coming up in an anthology from Ellora’s Cave ... and Book 2 in the Enigma series ... and Book 3 in the Guardians series ... and possibly a 4th book in the SIN series ... and much, much more!

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Just that I’m truly humbled by the notion that other folks really want to read my stuff, and very grateful to all the people - fans, editors, publishers, and my supportive family and friends - who have made all of this possible!

Thanks so much for letting us peek into your part of the world. If you're interested in reading more about Rachel Bo, take a look at her website: http://webpages.charter.net/rachelbo/authorbio.html. To purchase her titles, take a look at: http://webpages.charter.net/rachelbo/releases.html

Thanks again!

Interviewed by: Serena