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Author Interviews Featured Authors

An interview with Lexi Blake

What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused and inspired?

I need Spotify because I’ve always got to have something on in the background. I also have tons of sticky notes all over. And I’ve got a notebook to write ideas down in. Other than that I need a cup of coffee and a sleepy pup or two and I’m ready to work. 

You’ve written 80 books in the last 10 years. 80! How is that even possible? More specifically, how do you come up with so many great ideas, and what does your process look like?

I had at least nine of those books ready before I ever started publishing so that makes it sound more impressive than it really is. But I do tend to write at least four full-length books and two novellas a year. I work six days away from roughly 8 to 4 or so. I go into a book with a general idea of how it’s going to go and then let the story and the characters take it from there. I will plot but only loosely. If I get stuck that’s when my assistant and editor and all-around girl Friday Chloe Vale gets a call. We’ll talk it out and I’ll move on. 

How do you celebrate finishing a novel?

Usually by taking a day or two off and getting to sit and watch some movies with my dogs cuddled up on a couch. Sometimes we’ll go out to dinner but that’s usually a release day indulgence. 

Out of the protagonists you’ve written about so far, which one do you feel you relate to the most?

That’s hard. I think I relate to all of them in some way–even the bad guys–or I wouldn’t write them. I think there’s a lot of me in Zoey from Thieves. I also took heavily from my own life as an author with Serena from The Men with the Golden Cuffs. She’s got many of my quirks. There’s a lot of me on those pages. I find the writing process very cathartic. It’s my therapy. 

What’s something you are really good at that few people know about?

I’m actually really good with accents. When I was younger I did a lot of theater work and I always learned dialects quickly. So I’ve got a couple of great accents. I think that shows in my dialogue. I like to study how people from different places talk and have my characters reflect that. 

What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date? 

I’ve got several fun projects coming up. Right now I’m working on a Thieves book. It’s called The Rebel Queen and is kind of a reboot for that whole series. In June, I’ve got the next Sanctum Nights book coming out. It’s called Treasured and it’s going to be a fun play on Romancing the Stone with a kick ass heroine in the Michael Douglas role. I’ve also got another Butterfly Bayou book coming out in August. It’s going to be a fun year!

Author Interviews Featured Authors

An Interview with Tanya Huff

What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused and inspired?

Silence. Yes, I know, not very inspiring, but I get distracted easily by noise. Oh, and tea. I get distracted easily without tea.

Your work as an author has spanned everything from horror to romance, with space opera and fantasy mixed in. How do you determine where your next story will go? 

Like most authors, I have a lot of ideas. They float around, get bits of dialogue, vague plots, and rough outlines of characters attached. Eventually, one of them sticks, things get less vague, an entire scene is suddenly fully realized, and I get excited about it. That’s the next book I write. I figure if it doesn’t interest me, it won’t interest readers. (Sometimes that scene is too on the nose to make it into the final edition, so the contents are spread out over several scenes.)

Now, if you’re talking short stories… I write what someone’s willing to pay me for. 

How do you celebrate finishing a novel?

We go out to dinner, and then I clean my office. Okay, that’s less of a celebration than a necessity at that point, but tossing accumulated debris and scrubbing what’s left allows me to come into the new book fresh.  

Is there a book, or a series of yours that you wish you could live in? Which one and why?

When I think about actually living in one of my books or series my first reaction is, oh dear lord no. My body count is way too high.

If I could be Magdelene, then maybe I wouldn’t mind living in that ‘verse. But it’s not like the most powerful wizard in the world doesn’t have her own problems…

What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? What’s your favorite popular novel?

I love all my children equally. Yes, I know, cop-out. The thing is, most of my books ride along at about the same level of popularity. They don’t make the NYT best seller list (although they have made the Globe and Mail’s long list), nor do they sink without a trace. I’m very lucky that DAW Books, my publisher for the last 32 years, is still willing to set aside the bottom line and give books a chance to find their audience.

But if I HAD to choose…

I feel The Quartered Sea has never gotten the interest it deserves and I love the world building I did.

And Valor’s Choice — Rorke’s drift with space marines and giant lizards — was just so much fun to write.  

What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date? 

I’ve been working on a stand alone, created world, quest fantasy for the last… wow, two and half years. I think. I’ve kind of lost track of time. It’s a book with multiple POVs, a landscape that’s practically another character, two interlaced story lines happening 63 years apart, and an emotional arc that ties the whole thing together. Oh, and a high body count.

It’s complicated, but it isn’t the book’s fault I’ve taken so long.  Even before the dumpster fire of 2020, my brain kind of dribbled out my ears. It seems to have finally returned, but I’m typing with my fingers crossed. 

Because I so irrevocably missed my deadline, it won’t have a release date until I finish it and then, because of the way modern publishing works, it’s likely to be out a year or two after that. 

But I can give you a teaser:

“Do you know who I am?” Ryan yelled up at the two archers on the battlements. “Do you?”

“Said you were the Heir of Marsan,” replied the taller. She turned and added something quietly to her companion, who laughed. 

Ryan stiffened in the saddle, and his horse stepped back two paces, dark ears flat. Forcing himself to relax before Slate scaled up his objection, he scratched at a dapple grey shoulder and reminded himself he was used to laughter. First from his brothers, then while trying to replace his brothers. But these people were laughing at the Heir of Marsan. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

“It’s like they’re not glad to see us.” Keetin moved Thorn, his gelding, in close enough for the two horses to bump haunches, the contact calming Slate so he stopped shifting in place.

“I don’t care how they feel about us,” Ryan muttered. “I just want them to open the flaming gate.”

The gate should have been opened to the Heir of Marsan. 

The gate remained closed.

 He lifted his chin and met the archer’s gaze. “How long do we wait?” 

She glanced to the west and shrugged. “B’in fore dark.”

The sun showed red between the trees. Daylight lingered in midsummer, especially this far north, but dusk had crept closer than expected.

“Before duck?” Keetin muttered. “What’s duck got to do with it?”

“Dark.”

“No, she said duck.”

The local accent made shared words sound like another language. Ryan dragged the reins across Slate’s neck, wheeled the horse around to the left, and charged back toward the wagon. Slate complained about the sudden start and stop by bucking before he settled, but it was a perfunctory protest at best. 

When he became Lord Protector, he’d expand his influence north. Gateway had been a traders’ town, according to the Captain’s Chronicle, a point of contact between the mages and the greater world, with scholars and artisans and merchants gathered together to create a city of unparalleled beauty and advancements. Most of The Five Thousand who went south with Captain Marsan were from Gateway, the survivors of the Mage War who’d had brains enough to realize they couldn’t live in the wreckage.

Those who’d stayed behind, like the ancestors of the archer, had been too stupid to realize their lives had irrevocably changed. And they’d clearly bred that stupidity into their descendants.

(if the whole thing is too long, you can break it here)

Slate danced sideways. Ryan forced himself to relax. 

Lyelee was standing when he reached the wagon, ready to dismount. He’d gotten used to seeing her in regular clothes, but when they’d stopped that afternoon both Scholars had put on full regalia. Robes. Stoles. Even the ridiculous flat hats.  She was no longer family — the two of them closest in age among the cousins so expected to get along in spite of differences — she was a Scholar Noviciate. 

The Scholars answered only to the Lord Protector.

They did not answer to the Heir.

Although in order for the Lord Protector to grant them permission to study the Broken Lands, they’d had to agree the Heir would have the final word. 

Ryan hadn’t yet had to test the strength of the agreement. “Lyelee…” He paused as her brows rose and she twitched a fold out of her robe. “Scholar Noviciate, please remain in the wagon.”

“Why?”

He glanced at the sky. “Because we need to be ready to move when they open the gate.”

“How long do you think it takes me to get back into the wagon?” she demanded. 

Scholars never asked rhetorical questions. Over the last twenty-eight days of travel the non-scholars had learned that nine out of ten times, ignorance could be masked with a return question. “Do you want to have to scramble back on board when the gate opens? With that lot watching?”

Head tipped back to lift the angle of her hat, she glanced past him, up at the archers, and he hoped the need to show a united front to the unknown — she was significantly more politically aware than he was — would outweigh a Scholar’s need to be right every, single time. He breathed a sigh of relief when she sat. 

And demanded, “So what are we waiting for?”

“Possibly a duck.” Keetin reinserted himself at Ryan’s side.

Lyelee glanced between them, frown deepening. “A duck?” 

“A sacrifice perhaps,” Scholar Gearing suggested from the other side of the wagon seat, straightening out of his forward curl. “Some primitive peoples read entrails…”

“There’s no duck!” Ryan snapped. 

“Do you know who I am?” Ryan yelled up at the two archers on the battlements. “Do you?”

“Said you were the Heir of Marsan,” replied the taller. She turned and added something quietly to her companion, who laughed. 

Ryan stiffened in the saddle, and his horse stepped back two paces, dark ears flat. Forcing himself to relax before Slate scaled up his objection, he scratched at a dapple grey shoulder and reminded himself he was used to laughter. First from his brothers, then while trying to replace his brothers. But these people were laughing at the Heir of Marsan. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

“It’s like they’re not glad to see us.” Keetin moved Thorn, his gelding, in close enough for the two horses to bump haunches, the contact calming Slate so he stopped shifting in place.

“I don’t care how they feel about us,” Ryan muttered. “I just want them to open the flaming gate.”

The gate should have been opened to the Heir of Marsan. 

The gate remained closed.

 He lifted his chin and met the archer’s gaze. “How long do we wait?” 

She glanced to the west and shrugged. “B’in fore dark.”

The sun showed red between the trees. Daylight lingered in midsummer, especially this far north, but dusk had crept closer than expected.

“Before duck?” Keetin muttered. “What’s duck got to do with it?”

“Dark.”

“No, she said duck.”

The local accent made shared words sound like another language. Ryan dragged the reins across Slate’s neck, wheeled the horse around to the left, and charged back toward the wagon. Slate complained about the sudden start and stop by bucking before he settled, but it was a perfunctory protest at best. 

When he became Lord Protector, he’d expand his influence north. Gateway had been a traders’ town, according the Captain’s Chronicle, a point of contact between the mages and the greater world, with scholars and artisans and merchants gathered together to create a city of unparalleled beauty and advancements. Most of The Five Thousand who went south with Captain Marsan were from Gateway, the survivors of the Mage War who’d had brains enough to realize they couldn’t live in the wreckage.

Those who’d stayed behind, like the ancestors of the archer, had been too stupid to realize their lives had irrevocably changed. And they’d clearly bred that stupidity into their descendants.

Slate danced sideways. Ryan forced himself to relax. 

Lyelee was standing when he reached the wagon, ready to dismount. He’d gotten used to seeing her in regular clothes, but when they’d stopped that afternoon both Scholars had put on full regalia. Robes. Stoles. Even the ridiculous flat hats.  She was no longer family — the two of them closest in age among the cousins so expected to get along in spite of differences — she was a Scholar Noviciate. 

The Scholars answered only to the Lord Protector.

They did not answer to the Heir.

Although in order for the Lord Protector to grant them permission to study the Broken Lands, they’d had to agree the Heir would have the final word. 

Ryan hadn’t yet had to test the strength of the agreement. “Lyelee…” He paused as her brows rose and she twitched a fold out of her robe. “Scholar Noviciate, please remain in the wagon.”

“Why?”

He glanced at the sky. “Because we need to be ready to move when they open the gate.”

“How long do you think it takes me to get back into the wagon?” she demanded. 

Scholars never asked rhetorical questions. Over the last twenty-eight days of travel the non-scholars had learned that nine out of ten times, ignorance could be masked with a return question. “Do you want to have to scramble back on board when the gate opens? With that lot watching?”

Head tipped back to lift the angle of her hat, she glanced past him, up at the archers, and he hoped the need to show a united front to the unknown — she was significantly more politically aware than he was — would outweigh a Scholar’s need to be right every, single time. He breathed a sigh of relief when she sat. 

And demanded, “So what are we waiting for?”

“Possibly a duck.” Keetin reinserted himself at Ryan’s side.

Lyelee glanced between them, frown deepening. “A duck?” 

“A sacrifice perhaps,” Scholar Gearing suggested from the other side of the wagon seat, straightening out of his forward curl. “Some primitive peoples read entrails…”

“There’s no duck!” Ryan snapped. 

Author Interviews Featured Authors

An Interview with Erin Lyon

What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused and inspired?

My space is usually pretty cluttered with mementos and pictures tacked to my walls so if my mind wanders, I wind up focusing on something meaningful or inspiring. That way, my little side trips typically lead me back to my story. Oh, and a glass of wine. Because I’m a strict follower of Hemingway’s advice to “write drunk and edit sober.”

You’ve been a broadcast journalist AND have a law degree, have you always wanted to write novels? How did you make the leap to becoming an author?

I have wanted to be a writer most of my life, but becoming a writer is a little like catching lightning in a bottle so I figured I better have a way to pay the bills while I chased that dream. And I’m still a full- time attorney, so… waiting on that Netflix mini-series. 

How do you celebrate finishing a novel?

Always with a glass of champagne! My tradition is taking a picture of my glass next to the words “The End.” It’s bliss. 

Who is your favorite fictional couple? What qualities do they have that you love?

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. They really did make each other better people. And I’m a sucker for the whole “landing the unattainable man” story. 

What are your top three favorite books?

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (One of the best endings of all time!)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (If you haven’t read it since slogging through it in high school, give it another read. It’s amazing!)

Sea of Tranquility by  Katja Millay (So that you don’t think I only read stuff written 100 years ago.)

What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date? 

I’m always working on new projects!

 I have one finished and another I’m presently writing (when I’m not lawyering or spending time with my gorgeous husband). I’m super excited about both and hope to have some updates soon! 

Author Interviews

An Interview with Sandra Hill

Who is your favorite fictional couple?

Alexander and Tatiana from the Bronze Horseman series, or Jamie and Claire from Outlander

What three qualities does an irresistible love interest have to have?

Loyalty, sense of humor, an irresistible chemistry of attraction

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Just do it.  Like that saying attributed to Nora Roberts, “You can always fix a bad page.  You can’t fix a blank page.”  Also, I wish I had started writing novels earlier.  I’ve always been a writer, but I probably stayed with journalism longer than I should have.

If you could escape into one of the worlds you’ve created in your books, what character would you become and why?

There’s something to be said for all of them…Vangels, Cajuns, Outer Banks folks, Creole Louisiana, but I think I’d like to know some of the Viking Navy SEALs.  They’re outrageously sexy, and brave, and they know how to laugh at themselves.

How do you treat yourself? 

A good book.  Really.  There is nothing better than discovering a new-to-me author and glomming that author’s backlist.

What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date?

I just finished the second of my Tante Lulu Cajun prequels, Lulu’s Recipe For Cajun Sass.  And now I’ve returned to my Viking Navy SEALs series with The Caged Viking (or Viking in a Cage, not sure yet).  This book should have been done long ago, but what started as a long novella has gotten longer and longer so that it will end up at least a short novel.  
After that, I’d like to do a long Christmas novella in the Vangel series, though who knows how long it will be with my current record. This would be a reunion of the original vangels, plus some new characters.  My working title for this book is Vangels We Have Heard on High or Hark the Herald Vangels Sing.  I’m not happy with either of those.  Any suggestions?

Author Interviews

An Interview with Erin Nicholas

Your books span a wide variety of romance genres (billionaires, cowboys, everyday heroes, etc.), do you have a favorite?

I love small towns–the quirkier and the more fun side characters the better– and then I love to throw characters who are totally out of their element in small towns into one! Lol! I really love blue-collar heroes and those “everyday heroes” like Zach in Completely Yours. The guys who are heroic as just a usual part of their lives without even trying. 

What three qualities does an irresistible love interest have to have?

Ooh, male love interests? Awesome heroes? Well, a sense of humor is number one! For sure! Self-deprecating humor is especially great 🙂 They have to be crazy about the heroine. Even if he’s fighting it or she’s an “enemy” there has to be something that he finds irresistible about her. And he has to be the heroic type– meaning, the guy who will step up and step in when needed. Whether it’s a dog that needs to be rescued, protecting someone in a bar fight, literally saving a life (hello hot EMTs 😉 ), giving someone’s grandma a ride to her book club or repairing the town gazebo! Lol! That kind of stuff. He just steps up and gets stuff done because he’s a good guy and can’t help it.

How do you create chemistry between characters in your books?

I always know one character first. Sometimes it’s the guy, sometimes it’s the woman. And then I get to know them…figure out what situation they are in and why they are the way they are (grumpy, playboy, alphahole, wounded, nerdy, sweet, super confident/ kickass, whatever). 

Then I think about what kind of person does he/ she needs in his/her life to become the best version of themselves. Sometimes it’s someone opposite. Sometimes it’s that person who just “gets them” right away. Sometimes it’s someone who’s known them for years but never really *seen* them…there are so many great combos of this!  🙂 

But the chemistry comes when you put two people together who need each other on some level even if they don’t know it or want it (sometimes that makes the best chemistry of all!), who push each other to be more/ better, who “get” each other (even if they don’t want to) and who is that “other half”.
 

If you could escape into one of the worlds you’ve created in your books, what character would you become and why?

Oh, I definitely want to be Kennedy Landry from Crazy Rich Cajuns, part of my Boys of the Bayou series! She’s just this free spirit with SO much sass, a huge loving family, a don’t-give-a-f*** attitude that I WISH I could have! 😀 Oh, and amazing tattoos and various hair colors 😉 

What did you do to celebrate after you finished writing Completely Yours?

What I do after every book! 🙂 I took a deep breath, I let myself sleep in the next morning, and then I started the next book.  LOL! 

What’s next for you? Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a teaser and/or an expected release date? 

I’m working on the first book in a NEW series!! I’m SO excited about this series and can’t wait to spill ALL the details! That series kicks off in April! 

But I have the last book of my Hot Cakes series coming out on January 19th! I love this series and this book so much, but it’s also the end of this series (at least for now) so it’s a little sad thinking about not spending time with this group of people who’ve been in my life and mind for the past year and a half! 

Here’s a peek at Gimme S’more! 

A hot boss, friends-to-lovers romance…

Piper Barry was in love with an amazing, brilliant, funny, good-looking man.

Who, at least twice a day, she wanted to smother with the stuffed dragon that sat on the corner of his desk.

Okay, maybe not smother. That was extreme.

But duct tape over his mouth? Oh yeah, she thought about that often.

“Is spit better than snot?” Oliver Caprinelli, that man—and her boss—asked her as she crossed his office to refill the water pitcher by the window.

“In every single context, yes.” Piper was also aware that in any other workplace with any other boss, that question would be strange. Here though, not so much.

On her way back past his desk, she set the two folders and the manila envelope she carried in front of him. He was just one of her five bosses and the least likely to open those folders or that envelope. She put them down anyway.

“Grant said that a soda flavor called unicorn piss wouldn’t sell well,” Ollie said, almost as if he was thinking out loud.

He did that a lot. Thought out loud.

That never stopped Piper from chiming in though.

“And you think that calling it unicorn snot would make it sell better?”

This wasn’t even the strangest conversation she’d ever had with Ollie.

“Wouldn’t you assume that unicorn piss or snot tasted good?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Uh, piss and snot.”

“But unicorn,” he insisted.

“I have never, not once, thought about the taste of unicorn… anything.”

“Well, think about it now. Yes, good?”

What she thought was that working for Oliver Caprinelli would be a lot better if he didn’t think out loud.

If he just sat there looking cute, things would be great.

“Why are we talking about unicorns?” she asked. “If you’re adding something new to Warriors, you can do better. Unicorns are overdone.”

The chances that this was about Warriors of Easton, the video game that Oliver and his four best friends had turned into the biggest-selling online game of the decade, was very good. It was nearly all Oliver thought about.

Ever.

Even when she wore her sexiest dresses. And the body oil that all of the other guys said smelled like spicy candy and that made them walk extra close by her desk every time they passed just so they could get a whiff. And when she worked late just so it could be only her and Ollie in the office after dark.

“It’s not for Warriors,” Ollie said. He still sounded distracted.

Honestly, he sounded distracted 90 percent of the time he talked about anything.

The man was a genius and his thoughts were always going in a million directions. It was one of the things that fascinated her most about him.

And that made her think about picking up the dragon on his desk and stuffing it in his mouth. Trying to get Oliver’s attention was hard enough. Keeping it was nearly impossible. 

And if anyone wants to check out the Hot Cakes series, I’ve got a FREE series starter!

You can grab Sugar Rush for free from your favorite retailer here!