Wicked Writer Wednesday Guest – R.M. Sotera!

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/

Favorite Friday – Paranormalize!!!

Happy Friday to everyone!

I’m really happy this Friday for a lot of reasons. I mean for one – it’s Friday, my favorite day of the week. Two – the 1,400 brave men and women that are here to fight the High Park wildfire are making progress in containment! Now if Mother Nature would lend her hand and drop some much needed rain, they could get good handle on it.

image for Destiny's AwakeningAnd there’s even more good new added to that! I’ve just heard from my publisher, 5 Prince Publishing, that they’ve set a June 28th release date for my paranormal romance, “Destiny’s Awakening!” I’m really excited for this, the first book in the “Tales of The Fey” trilogy. Isn’t the cover amazing? My friend and CRW chapter-mate, the amazingly talented Viola Estrella designed the artwork.

The story may be a bit familiar for many of you. It’s a rewrite — let’s call it a “Author’s Cut” (ala Director’s Cut in movies) of my novella, “Evelyn” which was published last fall in the “Finding Ms. Wright” anthology from 5 Prince Publishing. I’ve added almost 15,000 words and expanded the story to include some new content and characters. It’s the book I wanted to write, but couldn’t because of time and word count restraints. I hope you consider checking it out! Stay tuned for purchasing details!

Also, RomCon is in a week, Friday, June 22nd through Sunday, June 24th. I went last year as a reader and had A BLAST!!! See – good things happen on Fridays! I’m telling you all – if you’re in Denver next week – buy a ticket and get there! It’s a great time with some amazing authors including fabulous local authors Karen Docter, Helen Hardt, Bernadette Marie, Marie Sexton, Jenn LeBlanc, Melissa Mayhue, Jessica Aspen, M.L. Guida, Elizabeth Haysmont, Hillary Seidl, Jeanne Stein, Lizzie T. Leaf, Cynthia Woolf, Donnell Ann Bell, and Rebecca Grace! Also attending are best selling and award winning authors Holly Jacobs,  Kat Martin, Jade Lee, Alexandra Ivy, Heather Snow, Deeanne Gist, Tiffany A. SnowKimberly Killion, and Delilah Marvelle. Click here for a complete listing! You can’t go wrong with that many amazing authors…and more!

This will be my first conference as an AUTHOR! I can’t tell you how exciting that is for me. I’ve gathered up a bunch of swag and am creating neat-o bundles to give away to readers.

If I survive all the excesses of fun and lack of sleep, be looking for me to kick off my Destiny’s Awakening blog tour the following week on June 25th. I’ll be visiting new paranormal author Elizabeth Haysmont to chat about DA, (my pet name for Destiny’s Awakening!) On the 26th, I’ll be blogging at the ever fabulous Lia Slater’s website. Check back here on the 27th where I’ll be talking about all the wicked-good things Destiny’s Awakening on my revamped Wicked Writer Wednesday!

The first week of July, I’ll be visiting a bevy of fabulous authors including paranormal author M.L. Guida. I’ll be visiting them to talk about DA, RomCon, writing, and what’s coming next for me.

I’ll be giving away some swag here, including free eBook and print copies of DA. So be sure to follow me on my blog hop and comment for your chance to win!

OK – time to get busy. You all have a wonderful Friday and we’ll see you back here soon!

Ciao!

Lori

 

Manic Monday – Muses

Welcome to my first ever posting for Manic Monday! Today I’m going to talk about a new manic trend – one that I find pretty amazing.

Male Models + Romance Authors = A New Muse Frontier!

Is it just me, or is there a fabulous new muse(ical) relationship forming between romance authors and male cover models?

Now, I personally need to see a visual of my characters before I can write about them. I comb magazines for snapshots and ads. Yeah, I actually subscribe to People and Star, but I only read them for the pictures…

If a face, or a dress, or a pose strikes my fancy – I tear out that page and add it to my ever growing pile of “character” clippings. I do the same thing if a story appeals to me in some way. It’s a great way of finding characters and ideas.

But needing to have a picture to look at before I can access my muse and effectively write is just me. I’m a very visual person – as are most writers.  For me, looking at something inspires my writing – making it much more detailed and expressive. It’s my muse kicking in. If I’m writing about a knight, I need to see a man outfitted in armor, astride a horse. If I’m writing about a Regency lady, I need to see her decked out in a ball gown, waltzing with a handsome Lord. So I’ll look for pictures of a strong man, an ingenue heroine, a suit of armor, a ballroom awash in candlelight, and a horse.

These pictures help me to describe to my readers what I’m seeing. It’s me working my muse. I think that’s probably true for most writers.

Now, can you imagine having that inspiration be alive and standing right in front of you? You could talk to him. You could have him pose with a lovely lady in a ball gown. You could have him holding a sword and showing a fierce look. You won’t have to go chasing your muse. Instead, you could have him standing in front of you, his ruffled shirt open to the waist showing his 6-pack abs.

Whew! I don’t know about you, but having that available would absolutely take my inspiration to a whole new level!!!

Jenn LeBlanc, photographer extraordinaire and author of the illustrated time travel romance, “The Rake and the Recluse” seems to do just that with her muse, Derek Hutchins. Derek, btw, is the model for Lord Peregrine Trumbull, Viscount Roxleigh and is featured in the recently reduxed 6-part eBook series of “The Rake and the Recluse.”

I’ve seen Jenn and Derek in action twice, once at the Denver Lady Jane Salon just a few days ago on February 7th, and once at RomCon in August of 2011. I also followed their amazing photo shoot that occurred in California this last summer.

When you’re in the same room with them, you can see their special relationship. They feed off each other in such a positive way. I can see how he inspires Jenn. He’s such an entrancing chameleon, becoming just what she needs at that moment. The costumes. The poses. The look. And he’s such an amazing guy. He and I talked for quite awhile at the Salon, about California, acting, modeling, and other things too… *wink*

BTW – don’t forget to check back here in two days on the 15th of February for my first Wicked Wednesday entry when Jenn will be blogging about…wicked good things!

Another exceptionally creative team with this same type of relationship is Kimberly Killion and her muse, Brooks Johnson. Kim writes about highlanders – very hot highlanders! One of her latest “Caribbean Scot” features Brooks on the cover. He’s a very convincing highlander. BTW – he looks amazing in a kilt, with or without a ruffled shirt open to the waist! I had the pleasure of meeting up with these two at RomCon in August of 2011, so I definitely know what I’m talking about! I look forward to seeing them again in Denver when my RWA chapter, Colorado Romance Writers, hosts them for a workshop in August of 2012.

Kim designs amazing book covers (as well as websites, banners, book marks, etc.) and she’s worked with Brooks on a good many of them. In fact, Brooks is the famous “Torso Man” on the front cover of my anthology, “Finding Ms. Wright – Three Tales of Extraordinary Love” with M.L. Guida and Hillary Seidl, published by 5 Prince Publishing.  So when you see my book cover, you’re witnessing Kim’s expertise and Brooks’ pecs and abs in action. Nice combination, yes? See, the art that these two create together makes the covers for romantic fiction a much more magical place to be.  *grin*

Meeting these ladies and their gentlemen is an amazing experience. The air is thick with creativity. I’m thinking Jenn and Derek and Kim and Brooks have really tapped into to something – they found their muse in another person. Together, they each can go to levels and find successes they likely couldn’t have accomplished without the other. It’s like a romance complete with a happily ever after – only with platonic love.

All my best!

Lori Corsentino
02/13/12

About Jenn LeBlanc’s The Rake and The Recluse:

You can purchase the eBook for the first five in the series right now at Amazon and Barnes & Nobel. The fifth eBook in the series will be officially released and available for download on Tuesday, February 14th, and the sixth and final eBook in the series on Tuesday, February 28th.

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