Interview with Laura Kaye

I would like to welcome author, Laura Kaye to my blog and thank her for being the first interviewee on my blog.  We are talking about her ebook, Hearts In Darkness, that was released by The Wild Rose Press on  April 20, 2011.

1.Your hero in Hearts in Darkness, Caden Grays
n, is scrum-deli-ishous.  He has an awesome tatt of a dragon that made me swoon. Also, his head is shaved, he has some piercings, and he made my girly bits tingle.  Are these physical traits that you find appealing personally? If not, describe your perfect Alpha Male.

I find Caden Grayson fantastically appealing. I particularly love tattoos. But what really makes Caden attractive to me is the combination of the seemingly rough exterior with the vulnerable, nice guy interior. Perfect Alpha Male? Geez, that’s hard! But I think it would have less to do with the particular set of physical traits,( as delicious as those can be!) than it has to do with the way he loves his woman. What I love about reading and writing alpha males is how despite their toughness, their woman is everything to them and their world is oriented around making her feel safe and loved. I’ll take that in any physical package I can get it!

2. HID is your first published read. How did this story come about?  What is your process like when your write?  Do you heavily outline, already know the ending of the story, or are you more of a 'pantser' (write as it comes and cross your fingers that it works out)?

Hearts in Darkness came about as an enormous exercise in procrastination. I was working on a women’s fiction manuscript, now finished, that was not cooperating, and my brain’s favorite form of procrastination is unleashing new plot bunnies. Once the idea of two people trapped together in an elevator popped into my head, there was no turning back.  Within a month the story was written and submitted to my editor at The Wild Rose Press.

In terms of process, I generally am a pantser, but usually that’s because story ideas tend to come to me fairly well formed.  I may not know all the specifics that will get me from the beginning to the end, but the initial set of ideas gives me a general roadmap, anyway. For novel-length works, I usually do take the time to write out character and setting sketches, and I keep a running chronology of the book’s events so I can keep when things happened straight in my head, but, since my first book (Forever Freed), I don’t usually write out a full-blown outline.

3. Describe a typical day of writing for you?  Early morning? Late at night? Music on or total quiet? Describe to us your writing cave?  

For most of the year, I don’t have a typical writing day.  I work a full-time job as a college professor and have a husband and two young kids, so I write whenever I can rather than in any set schedule.  I do trend towards a nighttime writing schedule, though, frequently writing from 9 p.m. til whenever I crash—I claimed a desk in our home office, it’s my oasis of writing sanity in the midst of domestic chaos.  In the summer, I have more flexibility and tend to write at least a few hours everyday.  When I can, I write with my best friend, a YA paranormal author, at our local Panera—we go there so often the workers all know us by name!  While I love making playlists for my stories, I rarely listen to music while writing.  But I love to listen to my playlists while driving; I find that does help generate ideas.

Laura's writing cave!

4. What I LOVED about HID was the sexual tension between Makenna and Caden while trapped in the elevator. And when they finally got horizontal, the smexin' was phenomenal.  SMOKIN'! There was such an emotional connection between these two that went much deeper than the physical act. I love it when the author gets the sex scene right in a book, and its not just dirty words and actions...you made it beautiful, touching, AND hot!  Do you have any favorite authors that you think get it right in the bedroom with their characters? 

Why, thank you! It’s really important to me to combine the hot and heartfelt elements! In terms of other authors, I am completely, head-over-heels in love with J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series and think she does a phenomenal job of combining hot scenes with heartfelt emotions. In part, she’s so effective because her worldbuilding includes an in-born drive on the part of her males to take care of their females, and that plays out in the bedroom fantastically.  Total. Epic. Love!

5. If you could meet one author, who would it be, and why?

Aw, jeez, how am I supposed to pick just one???  Hmm…maybe Stephen King.  As a teenager, he was the first author I came to read religiously, seeking out another book after I’d finished the last.  He was the first author through whom I really pursued my supernatural and paranormal reading interests.  King and Anne Rice are probably my two greatest writing influences.

6. Tell us about your TBR (To Be Read books) pile? Do you have one? Is it HUGE and overwhelming?  Mine is. I have over 200 books that I have to read and I still manage to buy books.  LOL!

I couldn’t begin to estimate how big my TBR pile is!  And it’s always growing.  If it’s paranormal romance, it’s probably on my TBR list.  If it’s urban fantasy, or YA paranormal, or paranormal mystery, it’s probably on my TBR list.  I also like to read contemporary, some historical, and erotic, too.  Honestly, there’s not much I won’t give a try.  My bedside table has over 40 books on it, so that tells you something right there, plus I have a Nook and my new iPhone has a kindle on it, and they’re both loaded with books, too!  One way my TBR list has transformed of late is through adding my new author friends’ titles to it, whatever the genre. The community of authors has been wonderful to discover, and I like to try to support other authors however I can.

7.  What is your favorite thing about writing?  The thing you hate the most?

I love the creativity of it. Writing makes me feel alive and vibrant. I love that moment of writing “The End” on the last page of a draft—it’s completely thrilling!  And I love hearing people’s response to my writing—granted, the negative reviews can be hard to hear, but more often than not people respond with enthusiasm and excitement, and it’s like eating the finest chocolate! LOL.  I probably least like that I don’t have as much time to devote to writing as I’d like.  Oh, and I hate writing synopses! *grins* 

8. Who is your all-time favorite fictional hero and what makes him so damn irresistible to you?

Ack! Just one???  What makes a fictional hero so memorable to me is the emotions he evokes, and to that end, characters like Edward Cullen (Twilight series) and Zsadist (Black Dagger Brotherhood series-two of dozens of examples I could give!) are especially memorable to me because of the way I sympathized and rooted for them as characters.

9.  What book are you most looking forward to releasing this year?

The next books in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fallen Angels series, for sure!

10.  Can you tell us about your new release, Forever Freed?  BTW-It comes out May 20, 2011...:

Forever Freed is the story of a reclusive empathic vampire who falls in love with a woman he was planning to kill and her younger daughter. It was the first novel I wrote and sold, and I have a real fondness for it!

Here’s the blurb:

My heart may not beat, but that doesn’t mean it’s not broken.

After an isolated century mourning the murder of my long-ago family, I crave the irresistible scents of joy and love that radiate from my new neighbors, a single mother and her young daughter. I’m starved for their blood, and for the healing respite from my ancient grief that will accompany drinking down their life-giving emotions. Now to lure them in.

But they surprise me. Little Olivia accepts me without fear or reservation—talking, smiling, offering innocent affection that tugs at my long-lost humanity. Her mother, Samantha, seeks me out when she should stay away, offering sweet friendship, and calling to the forgotten man in me. They lure me in.

Aw, Dio, Lucien, run and spare them while you can…

Thanks for an awesome first-time interview, Laura!  And I can't wait to read 'Forever Freed'. 


Laura was so nice to give us an  excerpt from both of her books---

The first is from 'Hearts in Darkness'....

“What color are your hair and eyes?” She shifted while she spoke and her voice got a little closer.

Caden itched to reach a hand out and measure just how close she was. His senses told him she was within reach. The thought made his arm ache for the feel of her. “Both brown, although I don’t have much hair to speak of.”

“Wh…why?”

Laughter spilled out of him. It broke the quiet between them, but not the intensity. “I keep my head shaved.”

“Why?”

“I like it that way.” He wasn’t ready to reveal all his oddities to her just yet, because he didn’t want to scare her away. He was half contemplating taking out his facial piercings before she could see them, but decided, somehow, that felt dishonest.

“Like buzz-cut shaved or like baby’s bottom-soft bald?”

“Give me your hand,” Caden offered. “You can feel for yourself.”

Makenna gulped down her excitement at finally getting to do what she’d been dying to do most of the night. Her sight gone, she longed for another way to make a more tangible connection to Caden….

And now, 'Forever Freed'....

I stepped out of the shower and dried off, then flushed the toilet for the show of it. When soft knocks landed on the bathroom door, I secured the towel around my waist and opened it.

Samantha leaned on the jamb, her eyes widening as they locked on my bare torso. She reached up and caught a droplet of water running from my hair down my shoulder. Then she placed her hands on my chest, and the fingers on her right hand caught another stray droplet. When she brushed against my Blood Mark, I sucked in a breath. Her lips fell open as she watched a third droplet slide around the base of my neck to my chest.  

She leaned forward and kissed my skin over the stray droplet and let her tongue just meet my flesh as she drank the water into her mouth. I closed my eyes at the sensation. Her drinking off  me was too fucking close to the fantasy of her drinking from me, and all at once the blood turned molten in my veins.

Oblivious to the seismic activity building under my skin, she continued to kiss across my chest. I wrapped an arm around her waist, the heat of her lust searing me. I burned from the inside and out. 

Ah, Cristo. I wanted her so damn bad.

Between kisses, she taunted, "So, I was just wondering if I could get you to growl again."

I gripped her more firmly against me, wanting her to feel exactly what she was doing to me. I ground the thick column between my legs into the soft flesh of her belly. She moaned appreciately. Her heart thundered between our chests. And then she was successful in her quest. She bit me. She flicked her tongue out against my nipple and sucked in into her mouth. Her teeth closed around the taut peak in a series of playful nips.

 And I growled.

She couldn't know the significance of her actions-for vampires, biting was very much a part of sex. And she also couldn't know how wild her bites made me feel.

Instinctively, I grabbed her roughly with both arms and spun her around so her back pressed against the wall next to the bathroom door. She gasped, but I distracted her with my mouth on her lips, jaw, ear, and neck. I pinned her hands next to her on the wall. Her chest heaved against me. The scent of her arousal was thick and sweet in the air, making me want her worse than I already did.

She rubbed her thighs together as I ran wet open-mouthed kisses down in the V-neck of her shirt. I rolled my hips into her. She moaned. My teeth tingled and I had just enough awareness to keep my fangs retracted. But I wanted to sink myself into her-my fangs and my sex-more than I'd wanted almost anything ever before.

"Lucien."

My name on her lips was an increadible invitation, so filled with need and longing. "God, I want to touch you."

"Please."

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You can find Laura Kaye at the following links:

Her website is http://LauraKayeAuthor.com

Blog: http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/laurakayeauthor

Twitter: @laurakayeauthor

Publisher Website: http://thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=800

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3703867

YouTube book trailers: http://www.youtube.com/user/LauraKayeAuthor?feature=mhum