Laura Kaye
Romance Author
Congratulations!!
Winner - Amanda!!
Congratulations!!
Thank you for stopping in to meet our author of the week! I'm honored to have with me the multi-genre romance author, Laura Kaye. A multi-published romance author in paranormal, contemporary and erotic romance, Laura Kaye’s hot, heartfelt stories are all about the universal desire for a place to belong. Laura is the author of the bestselling contemporary romance Hearts in Darkness and the bestselling and award-nominated paranormal romance Forever Freed. Just Gotta Say is Laura’s third published book, and her fourth, North of Need (Book 1 in the Hearts of the Anemoi Series) releases on November 1. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.
Please make yourself comfy and let's get started so we can learn more about this hot, talented author!
Tonya: Tell us a bit about yourself. Do you have a day job?
Laura: Hi Tonya! Thanks for having me here! I write erotic, paranormal and contemporary romance and am celebrating my third of four book releases in 2011 this week! I do also have a day job—I teach American history at the college level. Plus I’m a mom to two small girls. Ack! It’s a bit crazy juggling it all sometimes! LOL
Tonya: Wow! I thought I was busy! Congratulations on the new release! Tell us about your new story.
Laura: Thanks! Just Gotta Say is my debut erotic romance, and it releases this Friday, September 30. It’s a ménage a quatres story (yep, that’s means foursome!) and has a bit of male-male sexiness to spice things even more.
Here’s the blurb:
Callie Davis stumbles upon two of her three male roommates in a surprising, molten-hot midnight tryst and discovers a side of herself she never knew existed. Desire to play with them grips her, and she can’t stop fantasizing about having multiple men, particularly her three long-time best friends. Callie is thrilled when a guys’ night out gives her the perfect opportunity to recreate her fantasy, with the help of a threesome porn video and a bag of sex toys. That is, until Lucas, Jack and Noah return early and catch her in the act. More than anything, the guys want to make her fantasy come true. But Callie has a secret, and she can’t help wondering if being with all three men will risk the future she’s always wanted with one of them.
As three strong sets of hands caress and undress her, Callie surrenders to desire, because sometimes you just gotta say...yes.
Tonya: Why did you write this story?
Laura: Oh, so many reasons. First, because, to me, group fantasies are just so damn sexy and erotic. The idea of one woman being the focus of multiple men’s desires and attention. That’s just hot! *winks* Also, I’ve always liked friends-to-lovers stories, and I think that’s what makes Just Gotta Say not only off-the-charts sexy but also sweet and romantic too. Plus, I couldn’t not write it—the characters would not leave me alone.
Tonya: I can feel the sizzle! Some of us have things we do to get into the writing frame of mind like music, or drinks. Do you have anything special you do to get into the writing mood?
Laura: Not really. Given the balancing act I mentioned above, I pretty much have to write as and when I can. Have laptop, will write! That’s my motto. *grins* Seriously though, I don’t require much in the way of a special routine or a special place to write. My only real habit is I have to read some of what I previously wrote before I can begin writing new words on a story. That re-reading gets me back into the headspace I need to be in to pick back up again, plus the minor revising I do while I re-read helps me create a pretty clean first draft, a nice side benefit. While I like to listen to music to help inspire my writing, and I do make story playlists, I can’t usually listen to music while I write because it’s too distracting.
Tonya: Now that’s a great idea! I like the story playlist idea. *jotting that down* Are you ever at a loss for ideas? What do you do to get past those times? I don’t have them often but being out in my yard and gardens helps me get creative.
Laura: Thankfully, I haven’t really experienced this problem. Mine is more the opposite—an overabundance of ideas. In fact, creating new, alluring plot bunnies is probably my biggest form of procrastination. If the story I’m working on stops cooperating, my brain helpfully (or unhelpfully, depending on how you look at it) offers a new story idea to think about. Usually, those moments of non-cooperation are because I’m trying to force the characters or the story to do something they don’t want to do, and if I just listen harder to my muse, I’ll realize the way to fix it.
Tonya: That makes total sense, Laura. Do you have a card file where you keep story ideas? Where do they come from?
Laura: I have a running Word document of ideas. It currently has a dozen fairly well fleshed-out story ideas—and I haven’t updated it in a while. Where do they come from? I don’t know, but I rarely feel like I “thought up” a new story. Instead, I often feel they come to me. One minute the idea’s not there, the next it is, and often it comes with a good bit of specific detail. Occasionally, though, I’ll come across a phrase or hear a music lyric that sparks an idea and, similarly, it then takes on a life of its own. Giving life to new stories ideas is a way cool experience to have.
Tonya: Tell us about a day in your life as a writer.
Laura: There’s no typical day, not with working a full-time job and being a mom to young kids. I write whenever I can. Some days I might be able to put in eight hours, other days just one, if I’m lucky. I tend to write at night after the kids go to bed, though sometimes I can sneak in some weekend writing time or some weekday time on non-teaching days. When I can, I meet my best friend and YA paranormal author Lea Nolan at our local Panera, and we set up camp in “our” booth and write together for the day. That’s a lot of fun.
Tonya: How nice that you have another author in your area to write with! Are you a daytime writer, night time writer, and do you have to be alone to write?
Laura: Oops, jumped the gun there, didn’t I? One of the reasons I enjoy nighttime writing is because I find it easier to concentrate and lose myself in the words in the still quiet of the house at night. But I don’t have to have it that way. The background noise at Panera almost never bothers me, because I tend to zone out when I’m writing.
Tonya: Do you have critique partners or ever been in a critique group? What was the best thing you learned from a critique?
Laura: My best friend is my go-to critique partner, and I also belong to a critique group of ten other authors formed out of my local RWA chapter. Both have been invaluable. It was through being critiqued that I learned, on the first draft, that I tend to be very strong and clean at dialogue, setting and physical action, but weaker on layering in emotional reaction. So, now I just know that a regular revision agenda has to be going back through and ensuring the emotional development is there.
Tonya: I learned so much from my critique partners and we keep learning. I love it! Do you write better when you first have an idea of what your characters look like or do you write, then add character looks?
Laura: OMG, I cannot write if I don’t know my characters. In fact, the only pre-writing planning I usually do is to write out character sketches. I write character-driven stories, so they’re too central to my whole conception of a project to be able to start without knowing their names, their appearance, their goals/motivations/conflicts. I’m kinda the same way about the story title—I can’t really get into writing a story until I know what it’s called. Luckily titles tend to come to me pretty easily.
Tonya: I’m glad I’m not the only one who writes that way! LOL Do you always include HEA and is that type of ending important to you?
Laura: Well, I write romance, so all my stories include happy endings or happy-for-now endings. It’s the norm of the genre, and it is important to me because I hope to be taking readers on a feel-good journey that leaves that smiling and warm-hearted at the end. That doesn’t mean I won’t drag them through some angst and conflict in the middle, but, yeah, I’m an HEA kinda writer-girl. *grins*
Tonya: Where can our readers find you and your books?
Laura: I write for The Wild Rose Press, Decadent Publishing, Entangled Publishing, and Harlequin Nocturne. So my books are (or will be, for forthcoming titles) available at their respective sites. But, you can also find me and my books at these links, too:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter SignUp
Tonya: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?
Laura: Just, as always, thank you for your support and for joining me in the great adventure that is reading and writing! And thanks for hosting me at your place, Tonya!
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:
Comment between now and midnight EST Friday 9/30 to enter to win an ebook of Just Gotta Say (releases 9/30 from Decadent Publishing). Winners will be chosen using random.org. Comments must include your email address to be counted. For an extra entry, follow Laura on Twitter and leave your Twitter handle in your comment. Contest is open to international. Good luck!
Tonya: Readers - Laura will be around for questions so ask away. Let's show her some love and leave a comment to be in the drawing. Don't forget to leave your email addy and follow her for an extra entry! Good Luck!
The Just Gotta Blog Tour features giveaways at every stop—check it out!
