Welcome to a very “Sinful” session of Wicked Writer Wednesday! I’m pleased to introduce you all to R.M. Sotera, an awesome author I met this year at RomCon in Denver, Colorado. We really had a great time enjoying the events. R.M. lives and creates her amazing stories in none other than Sin City – Las Vegas! Isn’t that awesome? Welcome, R.M.!
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I would like to start by first saying thanks to Lori for having me on her blog. Lori and I met in June at Rom Con. We had a blast taking part in the convention and sitting after hours with other authors laughing, drinking and causing trouble!
So, let’s hit the questions.
How did you get started writing?
The biting bug bit me in high school. It started with the dreaded diary. I filled up many a diaries wishing for my heartthrob Donny Osmond to step from the pages of Tiger Beat magazine into my dream world. Yes, I’ve always been a die-hard romantic at heart always pretending to be the woman in the bodice ripper types of books. So, since I couldn’t actually be the woman, why not write the woman. And thus my love of writing romance began.
What book are you going to tell us about today? Is it part of a series? If so, what’s the order in which the books should be read?
The books I’d like to share with you today are from my Stiletto Series and are published through Siren Publishing. A few years ago, I watched this awesome documentary on real vampirism. Yep, you heard me right, real vampirism. I couldn’t believe that there were actually people out in the world who drank blood. So of course, the teacher in me (yes I teach high school English by day) had to find out what this belief and practice was about. The more I dove into the lifestyle for research the more I really loved getting to know these people. And the more I got to know them the more I started to think, who am I to say their beliefs are wrong? If drinking other peoples blood (and the people they drink from are donors and people that they trust and have a contract with) is what makes them feel right, and complete, who am I to say they’re wrong?
And the wheels started turning in my head. What if I wrote a book in which the heroine was a good Catholic girl and she met this guy who was a real vampire? How could she morally accept his lifestyle? And what if they were soul mates? And what if he was a player who believed himself beyond redemption? Could they both find a way to be together? Major conflict, baby! And thus Cassadaga Moon was born.
I truly had a ball writing Cassadaga Moon because although I hate to admit it, the heroine is a lot like me. I grew up in a very religious family and religious dogma was all around me. Hell, I thought into my late twenties that masturbation was going to send me to hell in a hand basket. So I did have personal experience to pull from when I designed the character that is Mia. And along with Mia, I designed Cindi Vera Cruz, Mia’s best friend after one of my dear friends. Their relationship was easy to write.
The next book in the series, Vegas Moon, released on July 22, 2012 and is about the relationship between Cindi Vera Cruz and Tristan Dane. These two characters get together in book one and have such a strong connection in the first book that I had to give them their own story. I won’t spill the beans but their scenes are pretty steamy and their not even the main characters. She’s ten years older then him and a firecracker in every sense of the world. This book is probably my most erotic to date. One that my mother will never read. And one of the books I’m giving away today.
What is your favorite part of writing?
My favorite part of writing is the worlds I can create. I also have the job of teaching writing everyday. My day job allows me to share the knowledge I have with others and I am so thankful for that gift.
What is your least favorite part of writing?
I would say when my muse decides to take a hiatus or wakes me in the middle of the night with a great idea. Actually, the waking me in the middle of the night is the one that happens to me most. So, I keep post-it notes and tablets on the nightstand just in case Styxx makes and appearance.
What is your next project and when will it be released?
I have two projects in the works. Both are a paranormal series, however, one is YA. And neither one is erotic, just steamy. I’m hoping to have the first books in each series finished and critiqued by the end of the year. I’d like to enter them in a few contests and see how it goes. Although I’m a bit gun-shy with contests, I figure what the hell; I’ll give it another try.
Do you have critique partners?
I do have critique partners. Actually through the years I’ve had several different ones. Can I say that it is much easier to have only a few critique partners at a time. I think when you have more than four including ones self the work load gets to heavy. One gets boggled down with so many crits, and so many different styles of crits that one’s own writing sometimes becomes non-existent. Of course this is my opinion, and only my opinion. More than four may work like a charm for others, I just haven’t had that experience.
What is your favorite dessert/food?
I LOVE York Peppermint Patties. They are my guilty pleasure!
How likely are people you meet to end up in your next book?
It’s usually a given that at some point in my writing if you are a friend part of you will end up in one of my characters. LOL
Let’s talk about Mia and Jordan! – Book 1 – Cassadaga Moon
http://www.bookstrand.com/cassadaga-moon
What physical aspect does your heroine love most about your hero? Least? Details, please!
Jordan is a sexy man. He is over six-feet tall. He has long blond hair with a patch of black hair running down the side next to his cheek. His eyes are dark grey and his ears are triple pierced and he wears three sets of hoops. His tongue is pierced and his nose is pierced. He changes out the diamond in his nose with a ruby on occasion. He’s medium build and muscular but not burly. His voice is deep with a slight southern drawl, and he has a wicked sense of humor.
Tell us about your heroine. Give us one of her strengths and one of her weaknesses.
Let’s see, Mia’s pretty but not beautiful. Her hair is light brown, long, and she has brown eyes. She’s 5”6 and curvaceous. Her body has always been a source of embarrassment for her so she covers it up, to the point that when she was a young girl she taped her breasts flat so that boys wouldn’t gawk at them. Most of what she does in her life is guided by a moral compass. It’s not until she meets Jordan that her thoughts begin to change. She has an inner strength that helps her in times of need. One of her weaknesses is that she is overly naïve, stemming mostly from her sheltered upbringing.
What does your heroine love most about your hero? Least? Details, please!
First, let’s get this out of the way – Mia loves what Jordan does to her in bed. How he brings out the woman in her that she desperately wants to be. He is her first real lover and a hand-full at that. Jordan’s darker desires peak Mia’s curiosity, and his desire for blood gains the interest of the teacher in her, too. Yes, she’s a drama teacher.
He is all consuming something that Mia isn’t prepared for, but craves the more time she spends with him. With Mia, he finds redemption but it isn’t an easy road for them.
There is a scene in the book where Mia stumbles across her best friend Cindi and her boy-toy Tristan taking part in a BDSM blood play scene, and Mia battles with her desire to have Jordan do the things that Tristan is doing to Cindi with her. Most of Mia’s conflict is internal, and it’s interesting to watch her character evolve into the woman she is at the end of the book. Okay that’s all you get. Read the book if you want to know more!
There are many firsts for Mia and Jordan, and a lot of humor accompanies their encounters. Actually, I think the humor is what drives the book, but I’ve yet to hear a yes or no on that.
How about now we talk about the second book in the Stiletto Series – Vegas Moon.
It’s about Cindi and her boy-toy Tristan. Check it out!
http://www.bookstrand.com/vegas-moon
Vegas Moon Blurb
Siren Allure: Erotic May-December Romance, with F/F and M/F/F elements, voyeurism, exhibitionism, consensual BDSM, whipping, food play, blood play, sex toys, HEA]
Psychic vampire Cindi Vera Cruz has no intention of falling in love with sanguine vampire Tristan Dane. She makes that fact perfectly clear to Tristan every chance she gets. He’s twenty-one years old, ten years her junior, and as she sees it, definitely not in her cards as a forever type of man, only a lover. But when Tristan decides he’s tired of her games and demands she admit her feelings for him, all hell breaks loose.
Situations heat up when Tristan walks into the yearly Stiletto Sanction coven party only to find Cindi feeding on his energy without his consent. His shock turns into anger. And then anger turns into a game of battle of the wills. Tristan calls her bluff by raising the stakes in the blood play room. She has always been a willing participant in bleeding for him in the name of pleasure, but will she bleed to feed his need for pranic energy?
Note: Hero involved in acts of vampirism.
Excerpt
They’d reached the Dessert Erotica house at noon. Cindi pulled the Mustang borrowed from Victoria into the small parking space and shut off the car. Tristan didn’t waste any time in jumping out of the car. When she emerged, he was standing a few feet from the front door of the establishment eyes fixated on the huge fiberglass sundae. In the center of the perfectly shaped and flavor-colored ice-cream scoops was a naked female mannequin.
“Check out the tits on her.” His eyes were glued on the big-busted doll.
Just like a man, eyes to tits and bypass everything between.
“I think they’re fake.” She chuckled.
He gave her an incredulous stare and headed for the front door.
“What is this place?” The way Tristan asked the question, he sounded like a kid in a candy store.
His excitement got the best of her, so she divulged just a tiny bit of information, enough to wet his appetite.
“Well, lover, this is a place where women and men enjoy a little dessert with sex. A little sploshing.”
“Sploshing? Mmm…sounds enticing.” He kissed her cheek. Then licked the tip of her nose. “Let’s go. I can’t wait to try this out.” Tristan pulled her hand into his and pulled her toward the front double doors.
Cindi stopped them halfway to the front doors. “Hey, do you know what sploshing is?”
“Nope. But sex and dessert sounds like a winner. I’m ready to find out. Let’s go.”
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Looks like we’ve come to the end of my post. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know me and a little about my books. You can always find me at the links below. Once again, Lori, thanks for the opportunity to chat on your blog. Oh, and before I go, one more thing I have two books to give away. If you comment on the blog you could be the lucky winner of Cassadaga Moon or Vegas Moon. Your name will be picked randomly and you will be notified by Sunday, August 12th. And the books will be sent along with the notification.
All the best.
RM Sotera
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Great interview, R.M. and I loved the excerpt! Just enough to tempt. Thanks so much for visiting with us today! Readers remember to leave a comment for a chance to win either Cassadaga Moon or Vegas Moon!
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Connect with R.M. Sotera at: www.rmsotera.com
Friend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rmsotera
Follow her on Twitter: @rmsotera
Check out her books on her Author Pages –
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/RMSotera
Siren Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/rmsotera
Evernight Publishing: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/RMSotera
Extasy Books: http://www.extasybooks.com/rmsotera
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/RMSotera
And keep up with her happenings on her Double D Ranch Tales
Blogspot: http://doubledranchtales.blogspot.com/
Vice President – Las Vegas Romance Writers: http://lasvegasrwa.org/
Co-Vice President – Hot Mojave Knights – A Reader Event
Coming to Vegas October 2013 http://hotmojaveknights.weebly.com/
selling her first futuristic/fantasy romance, HeartMate, published in December 2001. Since then she has written eleven books in the series. Her five book Luna series included average American women “Summoned” into another dimension to save a world. Her new “Mystic Circle” series is a mixture of contemporary urban and romantic fantasy set in Denver. She is profoundly thankful to be recipient of the 2004 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year award as well as the 2011 Writer of the Year Award, the Colorado Romance Writers Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2010 Best Paranormal and Best of the Best Daphne Du Maurier Award.
