I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!
Originally published July 27, 2012 for EReading on the Cheap
Thanks for having me here today!
Tell us a little bit about your book and have you published before?
Black Diamond Jinn is about government witch Amaia Jones, who discovers the world is ending—in four hours. Worse, no one believes her. Except Rafe, the imaginary guardian angel who has comforted Amaia since her parents died. She turns to him for help.
But Rafe is a jinni, one of the most powerful magic users in the world. Jinn take their pound of flesh for magical help. Amaia is strictly warned off jinn by her boss.
Rafe is trying to remember his humanity. Touching Amaia helps him do that. And as they work together to uncover the mystery of who’s trying to end the world, and to stop it from happening, he learns even more about being human. The question is, will it be enough?
There’s explicit sex and T-shirt lines in the novella, like my Biting Love series of red-hot vampire romances for Samhain Publishing.
Will this be the only book in the series?
I’d love to explore the universe more fully, so there will be more books. Now I just have to get the plot fairy to cooperate :)
Are you currently working on anything else?
Biting Oz, Book Five in the Biting Love series is releasing August 14. I’m in the polishing phase of a witch/werewolf book called Alphas Don’t Wear Bows—Witch princess. Alpha wolf shifter. Meddling magical aunt. What could possibly go wrong? I’m working on the first draft of Beauty Bites, Biting Love Book Six. I’m planning to serialize the contemporary romance Hot Chips and Sand on my website—for free. It’s the first book I wrote, so I’m also planning to feature the reworking I’m doing to bring it into publishable form. Edit choices I make and why. It’s messy guts stuff but I hope that will help new and unpublished authors see what goes into a draft.
Do you have any advice for authors wanting to publish? (Why did you choose to go indie? If this applies - If not why traditional)
Advice: write the story that excites you. Learn to edit your writing. When writing blurbs/ads pretend you don’t already love your book—that you’re a stranger who needs to be sucked in.
Traditional publishing has a lot going for it. Professional covers, and the biggest plus for me—professional editors. Editors are goddesses.
But I have a friend who’s indie published and she’s been pushing me to try it. I did, and I have to say having responsibility for the complete creative process is incredibly scary, incredibly thrilling, and deeply rewarding.
What is your favorite writing snack?
Oh, wow. Everything :) I try to limit myself to the lighter stuff—freeze pops and popcorn. Sometimes yogurt or protein bars. Lots of coffee. Those powdered drinks in a stick just rock.
What gets you in the mood to write?
Reading my writing from the day before. Thinking of an exciting plot twist or scene in the shower. Sometimes just sitting my butt in chair and hitting myself with “write or starve” :) Staring out the window. Driving, believe it or not. I tend to think I have to put lots of words on the page, even if I haven’t thought of what I’ll say. Sometimes that works but driving makes me stew about it a bit beforehand. Then the words come pouring out.
Who is your favorite character and why?
Right now Sherlock Holmes, from the BBC’s Sherlock, because of Benedict Cumberbatch and Steven Moffat (because the writer is important, even in television). Of my own books, I always love the hero in the book I’m on. My all time favorite is the hero of a book I haven’t even tried publishing; but the Ancient One in the Biting Love books is modeled on him. He’s mega alpha, demanding and commanding, yet protective and deeply caring.
Favorite book of all time?
So many. I reread David Eddings’s Belgariad series every few years. Romance—Johanna Lindsey’s Savage Thunder and the Lymond Chronicals because nobody can beat Dorothy Dunnett for writing, period. Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries are rereaders too.
I think breakfast says a lot about a person, what is your perfect breakfast?
On vacation, someplace warm with a breeze, sitting on a veranda with two eggs, hashed browns and a side of pancakes dripping butter and syrup.
In reality, a protein bar and coffee. :)
Do you have a favorite period of time that you like to write about or would like to live?
Alternate nows. I think we’re living in a very exciting time, and tend to see the magic in reality. Add in a strong hero and stronger heroine and I’m happy.
Please tell us in one sentence why we should read your book!
Sexy jinni, loose pants barely covering him, riding low on taut hips, nothing at all covering his granite chest, a flawless bare canvas for the flame tattoo licking one pec.
