Interview with Marjorie M. Liu

Coming up!

Putting out a call for questions. If you read Marjorie's work and have questions, your chance to ask them is coming up.

If you have one that you'd like me to use in the interview, email them to me @
shilohwalker@gmail.com and put QUESTIONS for MARJORIE in the subject line.

I will say this, that lady has had some of the best covers I've ever seen.


:o)

Interview with Dionne Galace...aka Bam...

Maybe I should say The Infamous Bam. If you've been in romance blogland for long, you've probably seen her around. Seen and run in fear... just kidding, just kidding. ;o)



Dionne, aka Bam, has a book coming out from Samhain here soon, Skin to Skin and besides doing an interview for us, she's also give away prizes. Three of them...downloads of Skin to Skin and $15 gift certificate to My Bookstore and More and the winner of that GC can buy Dionne's book on Friday, as well as mine...just kidding (although I think that sounds like a bang up list)



How do you win? That's easy. Just comment... BUT your name is only going into the drawing once and by name, I mean one person per ISP~I am keeping track. Only way to be fair to everybody.



Dionne will swing by during the day so feel free to ask questions!



And on to the interview...



Vamps and Scamps Blog Interview with Dionne Galace:


**All of the questions in this interview were suggested by readers at Dionne aka Bam’s blog. Thank you!


V&S: I’m curious, what’s the one thing you would never write? It can cover anything from a sexual situation to a plot too done to just something you wouldn’t want to tackle.


Dionne Galace: Oh damn. I don't really like to say "never". I do enjoy taking the so-called "tired" plots and putting my own twist on it. In fact, I was just wondering the other day what I could do with a "secret baby" or an "amnesia" story. That might be kind of fun.




V&S: How do you get Bam from Dionne Galace?


Dionne Galace: Ha-ha. You don’t. When I was a kid, I used to drive my poor grandmother crazy 'cause I would go around hitting and destroying things with a stick. She said I reminded her of Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones, so it just kind of stuck. My friends and family still call me Bam. It's just easier to pronounce than "dee-OHN".




V&S: Is there a subgenre you’re dying to write in - witches, vampires, Urban Fantasy etc - and if so, what is it and are you going to try it?


Dionne Galace: I’m actually working on an urban fantasy series right now featuring a woman

with a "strange" gift and her elf sidekick. They own a detective agency. I've got the first four books plotted and outlined. Now I just have to write them.




V&S: If you could be any romance book female lead who would it be and which book (if it’s a series)?


Dionne Galace: I always really liked Esme from Eloisa James' books. She was just a secondary character, but I really liked how spunky and fun she was. I believe she shows up in Duchess in Love, Fool for Love, and A Wild Pursuit. Her lover Sebastian, the Marquess of Bonnington, is still my favorite romance hero to this day.




V&S: It’s 50 years in the future and the only thing you regret in life is an unfortunate tattoo on your ass. What does the tattoo say and why?


Dionne Galace: Well, damn. It's a playboy bunny. It's purely red and right on my tailbone. It looks like it was branded onto my skin. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But I don't even want to be thinking of myself as an 80 year old grandmother with a playboy bunny on my tailbone.



* * * * *

Thanks, Dionne. I'm ready to read Skin to Skin now.

Interview with Meljean Brook...

V&S: Other than paranormal, do you see yourself writing for other genres? Do you enjoy reading other genres?

Meljean: I don’t think that I could write anything that didn’t have an element of the weird in it. The closest I could come in romance is -- maybe -- a gothic historical romance; straight contemporary isn’t for me, but I think the tone of a gothic might be fun. And I’ve been dying to try my hand a steampunk-flavored romance for a while.

And I’m a huge reader in and outside of romance -- and I’ll go for any kind of sub-genre in romance, from suspense to a fluffy historical. It all depends on my mood.


V&S: When did your fascination for superheroes begin?

Meljean: Oh, wow -- when I was three or four, easily. I blame Saturday morning cartoons, and shows like Superfriends, Spider-man and friends, He-Man and Voltron. It’s always been there -- so I think it was natural that I lean toward writing and reading stories containing characters with super-human powers, from vampires to witches to angels.

And what has always interested me in those stories is the human core of it -- not necessarily the “super” part (which is great fun), but the part that anchors them and makes them relatable to a reader, and someone that we want to cheer on. Whatever it is that, despite the superpowers, still makes them human at the core ... and that plays really well in romance.


V&S: What won't we see in a Meljean Brook story?

Meljean: This is a tough one -- I’m willing to do just about anything if it fits the story. I probably won’t ever have the hero/heroine sleep with another character during the course of the book. I probably won’t have many big misunderstandings, just because my characters seem to talk a lot. I won’t ever NOT have a happily-ever-after (happy endings are just wired into me, like superheroes.)


V&S: Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?

Meljean: Oh, wow. I wish I had time to read. I have a huge to-be-read pile on my shelves right now, and it’s full of names like J.D. Robb, Marjorie Liu (superheroes!), Linnea Sinclair, Lora Leigh, your Hunters: Heart and Soul. Lots of historicals, from Kleypas to Carla Kelly. Other names that I really love are Anne Bishop and Jacqueline Carey, Neil Gaiman ... okay, this is becoming a huge paragraph.

If it’s dark and sexy, I probably want to read it.


V&S: Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

Meljean: I have a set schedule, but my brain doesn’t always follow it. There are times in the day when I sit down to write and not much comes out; then I’ll be trying to fix dinner or something, and I’m like: oh my gosh, that’s what I was going for! and then have a few pages come out smooth.

I burn dinner a lot.


V&S: What was the inspiration behind the Guardian series?

Meljean: There were a couple of different inspirations that led directly into the Guardians -- one was Batman and Wonder Woman. I’d been writing fanfiction about them, but was growing tired of using other characters, so I was thinking of writing an alternate-universe fic where I flipped their roles around.

I’d also read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman to death; I love that book, but my favorite part was the interaction between the demon and the angel. It wasn’t a romance, but it was a strange sort of friendship that really intrigued me.

And I was also taking classes on Milton, and so that just got really deep in my head. Taken all together, it just kind of mixed with some ideas that I’d been playing with for a while, and came out as a really fun, kick-ass demon heroine, and kind of a long-suffering fallen angel hero who just can’t help himself around her. But the world was bigger than they were, and gave me lots of stuff to play with -- I’ll be playing for a while, I hope. I’m just having way too much fun.


V&S: Who is your favorite superhero?

Meljean: Wonder Woman -- it’s the lasso.


V&S: Thanks for joining us, Meljean.
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You can visit Meljean's site here. I can tell you from experience, she's got some yummy Guardians.

If you have other questions for Meljean, please ask away... she'll drop by the blog when she can!

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Updated to add....

Meljean has offered to do a book giveaway. All you need to do to win is drop a comment below. You can comment as much as you want, HOWEVER your name(s) will only be entered once into the drawing for the prize.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

UPDATED again to add... the contest part of the comments has closed. A winner's name to be posted shortly. Feel free to continue asking or commenting... Meljean will come answer questions, promise.

Author Interview...Rachelle Chase & a contest!

V&S: What did you think of your first RT?

Rachelle Chase: It was an awesome experience! I got to hang out with a lot of great authors, including one of my favorites, Robin Schone, as well as fellow SECRETS author, Calista Fox. Plus I met lots of wonderful readers, new authors, and got some great photos with the cover models.

And speaking of the models, I’ve just launched the SEX LOUNGE Finding Derek CONTEST (www.FindingDerek.com), which seeks the American male who most resembles the hero in my new erotic romance, SEX LOUNGE. So I’m hoping some of the models I met, as well as other hunky guys, will participate. So if you know any sexy guys, please send them over – or stop by, yourself, to enter to be a judge!

I needed a week to recover from RT when I got back home but I can’t wait for the next one …


V&S: Can you tell me about the Dreams & Desires anthology from Freya’s Bower?

Rachelle Chase: Dreams & Desires is an awesome anthology featuring short stories by Jenna Bayley-Burke, Faith Bicknell-Brown, Amanda Brice, Sela Carsen, Gemma Halliday, Candace Havens, Zinnia Hope, Jackie Kessler, Susan Lyons, Richelle Mead, Debbie Mumford, Rhonda Stapleton, Bebe Thomas, Emily Veinglory, Sasha White, Lois Winston, Shaunna Wolf, Kit Wylde, and myself.

The stories range from sweet to spicy. My story, “Romance For One,” about a woman dining alone at a restaurant who gets a pleasant – but unexpected – surprise, is in the spicy category. But here’s the best part: None of us, including the publisher, profit from the book. All proceeds from the book go to a battered women’s shelter in Florida!

V&S: I saw on your site that you’re going to be a guest author at the online Romance Writing Book Group @ BN.com. What’s this group about…who can come?

Rachelle Chase: Author Leigh Michaels hosts the book club. In her words, here are the details:

“The BN romance writing bookclub is open to everyone with an interest in romance novels – writers and readers. You can visit the site to get the gist of what’s going on, then register (all you need is an email address and a password, and it takes about 60 seconds to sign up) and then you can post and ask questions. Since the previous discussions remain on the site, new people can jump right in where we are, or go back through the previous discussions in whatever order they like. We encourage posting writing assignments and/or very short sections of a manuscript for reader feedback.

The book club has been operating since January, and every two weeks we focus on a different subject (but previous discussions remain on the site). So far we’ve talked about heroes and heroines, secondary characters, conflict, plotting, point of view, and dialogue. Right now we’re spending a couple of weeks with author Jenny Haddon, the president of the Romantic Novelists Association (the UK equivalent of RWA). She writes romance as Sophie Weston and has also written a new guide to punctuation, so we’re talking about mechanics right now.”

May 15, 2007 – May 28, 2007, I’ll be the guest and the subject will be love scenes and sensual tension. It should be great fun, so I hope everyone will join us!

V&S: If you could be any one of your characters, which one would you choose?

Rachelle Chase: Hmmm. I don’t think I’d actually want to be any of my characters, as they are all so very different from me but I think one of the ones I had a lot of fun creating was Nichole Simms in SEX LOUNGE. To take her from passively recording her sexual fantasies in a notebook about a sexy client named Derek to actively acting them out with him, once he finds the notebook, all the while keeping it believable and emotional and, eventually, leading to love … well, that was a challenge for me. One I totally enjoyed.


V&S: Can you give the readers an idea of what kind of stories you write?

Rachelle Chase: I was joking with a fellow writer the other day and said “I write Inspirational Erotic Romance” because, while my stories have very explicit sex and are very hot, I think they are tame in comparison to others out there. Meaning, I do not use exotic sexual positions, ménages, BDSM, polyamory, etc. There are many authors who can do this well, but I am not one of them.

Instead, I take everyday people who somehow find themselves in erotic situations. Like, Bobbie, in SIN CLUB, who thinks she’s doing a striptease for her boyfriend, only to discover it’s her neighbor she’s beckoned to her bed. Or Sharice, also in SIN CLUB, who thinks she’s called a guy she met outside a club, only to discover much later she’d misdialed.

Then, I mix in control issues and lots of internal conflict over what my characters thought they wanted vs. what they got, and weave in the external plot, all the while keeping the sexual tension high and consistent throughout the book.

That’s what I think a reader can expect when they pick up a Rachelle Chase book.

Shiloh, Vamps & Scamps, thanks so much for having me on your blog!

Thank YOU Rachelle!

FYI...Rachelle will be giving away a copy of Sex Lounge to somebody in the comments... so if you have questions or comments, post away. I'll draw a winner sometime in the next few days.

And we have winners....

Thanks to everybody who came and played yesterday!

Lynn graciously offered three prizes~she's giving away three sets of the Darkyn series, signed. I've drawn the winners and it looks like one or two of the names are new to her books (goodie, more converts). Congrats to the winners and I hope you enjoy!

The winners are....

Lisa F. who said...

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I have not read your books.

Stacy who said...

Not to give her any more credit *g* but I "discovered" you because of Shi

and last but not least...

Lis who said...

Enjoyed the interview. What's the most gratifying thing about writing for you?

Ladies, if you can email me, (shilohwalker@gmail.com) I'll get you in touch with Lynn about your prize. Thanks again to everybody who dropped by. Some excellent questions and thanks to Lynn for doing the interview and hanging out with us!

Author Interview.... Lynn Viehl

Just so you all know, Lynn Viehl/PBW is going to try to stop by the blog today, so if you have questions, shout them out. I do believe the word contest was even mentioned. So if you all stay quiet, maybe I can get the prize... *G* Okay, okay. Ask away, I'll make the sacrafice and not try to steal the prize.

Going to be hard though.

For those who don't know, I'm a total PBW junkie, whether it's her blog, the Stardoc books that she writes under her pen name SL Viehl or the Darkyn vampires she writes as Lynn Viehl or the romantic suspenses of Jessica Hall or Gena Hale. So not be able to win one of the prizes she's giving away is going to be so hard on me. Sniff.

Onto the interview.... ;o) As always, readers from the Scamps and Vamps yahoo list sent in the questions and I picked out the most interesting. If you have other questions, feel free to ask! Contest winners are selected from those participating in the discussions...

V&S: Is there any story that you wish you hadn’t written? Is there any story that someone else wrote that you wish you’d thought of first?

Lynn Viehl: I’ve learned something from every story I’ve written, even the ones that are so lame they need crutches, so I’m pretty happy with my inventory. I wish I’d written the Bible; just imagine the royalties.

V&S: In your stardoc series which shiloh turned me on to btw what is your most unusual alien? Describe it to everyone just in case they've not read this fabulous series.

Lynn Viehl: I think the most unusual aliens from the StarDoc novels are the Jxin. They were humanoid shape-shifters who evolved into energy-based lifeforms. At this point in StarDoc’s timeline, the Jxin no longer exist in corporeal form or occupy reality. The Jxin can still communicate through the cerebral subliminal implants they left behind in Cherijo and certain other individuals from species they helped found. Maggie, Cherijo’s surrogate mother, was a Jxin.

V&S: What first made you blog? Why have you continued to do it for so many years?

Lynn Viehl: I’ve been keeping handwritten daily journals since 1974, and blogging immediately appealed to me as a way to cope with the growing handicaps brought on by my arthritis (I have to use voice recognition software to write now.) I’ve also been teaching writing to children in public schools for many years, and I thought I might be able to do something similar for writers of all ages via the Internet. I’m able to give something back to the writing community by blogging, which is the main reason I think I keep doing it – to pay it forward.

V&S: What is one thing that your readers would be surprised to hear about you?

Lynn Viehl: Actor Johnny Depp and I grew up about four blocks away from each other in south Florida, and we went to the same high school. I eventually married his next door neighbor’s brother. You should have seen my face the first time I watched 21 Jump Street.

V&S: Who are your fave Sci - fi Authors and have you met any of them?

Lynn Viehl: A.M. Lightner, who wrote YA science fiction back in the sixties and seventies. She passed away quite a few years ago, so I never had the privilege to meet her.

V&S: If you where given the chance would you travel into SPACE?

Lynn Viehl: Only if NASA didn’t build, launch or guide the vehicle involved.

V&S: Where do you get your ideas from?

Lynn Viehl: There’s a great little writing idea shop in town . . . I’m kidding. All sorts of things inspire me: music, art, life, history, dreams, nature and general curiosity about all of it.

V&S: How difficult is it for you to write Sci- fi books?

Lynn Viehl: SF is probably the easiest genre for me to write in because my stories take place in a universe of my own creation. I’m able to build almost everything in the novels from scratch. That gives me a huge amount of creative freedom, which is wonderful.

Thanks so much for doing the interview, Lynn. If anybody has any questions or comments... now's the time!

Interview with Lynn Viehl will be Tuesday!

April 24th. I'll be posting the answers to the questions that readers in the group asked. Also, Lynn Viehl will be dropping in to answer questions and as I mentioned before, she's going to have contests. ;o) We like contests, right?

Well, I'd like them more if I could win them.

Ah well. Make sure you drop by!

Interview with Lynn Viehl coming up!

Folks, I'm trying really hard not to do a fan-girl squee here. I don't do fan-girl, and I certainly don't squee. However, there are two authors who could bring me to such actions...and one of them is Lynn Viehl. Oh, what's the point... let's get it over with.... SSSSQQQUUUUUEEEEE!!! There. It's out of my system. I'm better now.

Ahem. As I was saying, one of the authors is Lynn Viehl, aka SL Viehl, aka PBW. I've only mentioned PBW on the blog in, oh say.... ten, maybe twenty, no more than thirty posts, I promise. SQE--oops. Sorry. I can't help it. I just love her books.

Again...as I was saying, I've mentioned her here before and I finally decided to ask if she'd do an interview. She said Yes. (Color me happy, here) Annnnndddd.... she's doing contests. We'll be doing it one day next week so for those who aren't hitting RT, don't worry. There's going to be something going on here, cuz I'm not going. It's hard to juggle a weeklong trip when you have an infant and two young kids. Too expensive for all of us, and I won't leave my family for that long.

Then there was also the issue of I didn't know if I'd meet my deadline. (I did, yes! Hey, I think I deserve a prize for not just meeting, but beating the deadline) Stop laughing. Those of you who know me know that there's little I won't use to try and weasle my way into getting books early.

I'll post ahead of time when we'll be doing the interview, but it will be next week. For paranormal and romance readers, she's got an excellent vampire series, the Darkyn books. Sci fi readers, (and yes, romance readers would love it too) she has the Stardoc books. And for aspiring authors, she's got excellent advice.

Congrats to PBW, by the way. (and me, cuz I get more books) She just sold two more Stardoc books. Making me, okay, so she didn't write them for me, but still... making me and others very very happy.