Good morning! Please welcome guest author [ ]. Though I will be away for most of the day, please feel free to leave comments for [ ] and I will post them as soon as I return. Thank you!
~Kate
When you’re brainstorming for a new story, what usually comes first for you, the plot or the characters?
Oh, definitely the characters. It’s not uncommon for me to be at the end of one story and a new character starts whispering in my ear, “Tell mine next!” It’s happening right now. I’m about 100-200 pages from the end of this manuscript, and I’m getting the feeling the next one will be a Young Adult. I keep getting this voice saying, “Create a new world for me.” Simple, right? Yeesh.
When you’re writing, who is more in control, you or your characters?
The more I write, the more balanced I notice this has become. Before, I was totally at the whim and whimsy of my characters. Now, I’ll have the next scene in my head before I write it. I still get surprised, though, as the words tumble from my mind to my fingers to the page. I just learned something about my heroine last week, something that came out as I typed it, but made a heck of a lot more sense than what I originally thought.
Can you write sex scenes at any time or do you have to be “in the mood?”
Either, but I have a confession: Sometimes I’ll write a sex scene out of sequence to learn more about my characters. Are they passionate? Reserved? Demanding? Do they have any chemistry whatsoever? If I feel the “spark” is taking too long, I’ll jump ahead so I know what I’m working towards.
What do you like best about writing?
I love watching the story unfold. I’m a total pantser, AKA winger, and I love the magic that happens. Sometimes I just get into the zone, and it’s like I tap into the collective unconscious and let myself glide down the river unfettered.
What is one of your favorite ways to learn about your characters?
I live on the Erie Canal, and I’ll take long walks and “interview” them. I’ll ask leading questions like, “How do you feel now that X has done Y to you? What are you going to do about it?” This question usually leads to death. Just saying.
Would you tell us about your latest release?
I wanted to try self-pub, so I took a story that had been kicking around my hard-drive for the last few years, one I totally loved and that my critique partners said they loved and read multiple times. It’s called, A Decade for Darius, and it about two teenagers who have a profound impact on each others’ lives after meeting once, then come together ten years later fighting over an inheritance worth millions. And yeah, they never forgot one another.
What are you working on now?
Oh, it’s sassy, snarky, and sexy. I’m calling it, Impenetrable: Let No One In. Maggie is on the cusp of becoming a multimillionaire, but the guy she hired to test her “impenetrable” building breaks in, and, oops, he’s not the real guy she hired; he’s the one out to ruin her career with his little act of corporate espionage.
Do you have an excerpt from your latest release you would like to share?
Gladly! This one is from A Decade for Darius:
A flushed, panting Faith burst into Jessalyn’s office, almost banging the door into the front of her vintage stereo in her haste. “You’ve got to come out here.”
Was she blushing? Jess eased herself up from the chair and eyed her protégé. “What is it?”
“Some gorgeous guy is having a conniption out here. He’s really giving Arthur a hard time.”
She glossed over the “gorgeous” part—based on the boy-crazy source—but no one antagonized her staff. “I’m coming.” When she heard the raised booming voice, Jess squared her shoulders, tossed her long hair from her temples, and plowed right into the fray. Through the red haze in her eyes, she stuck her hand out at the insanely handsome man and said, “Hello, I’m Jessalyn Swan, proprietor of Phoenix Antiques, and I’ll be your sounding board today. Shall we adjourn to my office for this discussion?”
All the anger left his chocolaty brown eyes as he stared at her. His hair was dark brown and tousled, and his gaze held a determination and intelligence that she felt herself respond to on a primal level. He had wide shoulders and slim hips, and that very expensive suit he wore displayed to his advantage all of his masculine grace. But he looked disheveled and rattled with that five o’clock shadow, and she didn’t know what had set him off. He was not an unhappy prior customer; there was no way she would have forgotten this man.
She wanted to take her time and leisurely peruse the fine male specimen standing before her, making her cheeks heat with the unpredictable turn of her thoughts. But then his face relaxed, taking his color from an enraged red to a ghostly shade of gray and then back to a hint of pink, and Jessalyn felt herself coming to the same odd revelation as this man.
“Jess,” Arthur said, “This man is disputing his rights to the Covington estate.”
Covington.
“Jessalyn….” the man said as he stepped near, placing his hand on top of her still-outstretched wrist and holding it. “Jess, is it really you?”
She’d never once met a Beauregard her age before. But she had once met a young man, as equally gorgeous, with the same cadence of speech as an English knight of yore. Her mind immediately envisioned stone castles and gleaming armor and caparisoned stallions on battlefields. It couldn’t be. “I….”
“You know me by my middle name.”
As his hand slipped around to cradle her fingers, Jessalyn felt herself teetering on a dangerous brink over a yawning chasm with no visible bottom. She whispered, “Darius.”
What makes the hero of A Decade for Darius hot?
Did I mention he’s an Aikido champion? Yeah, his hands are lethal weapons, but he’d never turn them on her…. sigh….
Would you give us a sneak peek at one of your upcoming releases?
I’d be happy to do so! It’s not slated for release because I haven’t finished it yet, but here’s a glimpse of Impenetrable.
As soon as Maggie reached for her computer mouse, she realized it was moved. She clicked on Activity and saw someone had been on her computer nineteen minutes ago! What was she doing nineteen minutes earlier? Her fingers clenched the chair back, and her heartbeat kicked up a dozen notches. No. Impossible. She knew she had been pacing in front of her door, waiting for the deadline to pass. How the hell had he gotten in, let alone into her bedroom, sight unseen, as she waited for him?
She shoved off from the chair and spun in her room, scanning wildly. The door hadn’t been forced. Windows were still locked. Walls intact. Carpet unmoved. The same. It was all the same. Nothing was out of place in here.
Everything important on her computer was encrypted, and she needed the USB keycard to login to Donjon Securities, but still. Had her intruder attempted to download her security program? Even then, the end user would need the keycard and be at one of the three locations on this planet that were allowable, which included the lobby of her apartment building, the deli across from her office, and the one place she never wanted to visit ever again. And all three of those locations were programmed by latitude, longitude and altitude. If any were off by a foot, it wouldn’t boot up.
Didn’t mean she wanted that information out loose in the world, though. Who’s to say a supercomputer couldn’t hack into it?
The keycard was still in the USB port in back; she clicked on the “remove hardware” link and tugged the item free. Had the desktop been moved out of the room and then returned?
No. She forced herself to believe everything was fine.
She took the flash drive from her computer and opened the secret compartment in her one-of-a-kind lipstick display unit and made sure the other keycards were still hidden inside. It was the perfect hiding place: men would never understand the value of the perfect shade of red, and women rarely shared lipstick. She activated the hidden compartment and saw the two were safely ensconced in the bottom. She added the last one and snapped it shut, the seam invisible.
They were safe, for now.
A quiver of excitement skittered along her stomach, and Maggie couldn’t believe how it made her feel. A man had broken into her apartment. Gotten to her computer. Breached her files. Compromised her career.
She should be pissed. Or terrified.
Instead, all Maggie could think was, Game on.
How long have you been writing?
Does writing with crayons count? If so, second grade. If not, then I was 15 when I wrote my first full-length novel, a young adult fantasy set on another planet. Then, I wrote tons of short stories before getting back into full-length novels as an adult, maybe 10 years later.
To you what makes a great romance hero?
When I’m reading, I like my heroes to be the strong, silent, completely alpha type. But I don’t usually write those men. Mine are more of the “best friend” heroes: the steadfast, got-your-back kind that put themselves in danger rather than let the girl be harmed.
To you what makes a great romance heroine?
I like headstrong women who blatantly defy whatever the hero wants them to do. This is especially true for historical novels. In general, I love women who buck the system.
If you could be any kind of shapeshifter, what kind would you be?
Dragon. Yum. ‘Nuff said.
Do you have any pets?
Oh, boy. They are not so much pets as little furry demanding aliens that insist on traipsing across my keyboard, knocking books off the shelves, and yowling at about T minus 75 if I’m home writing and they think dinner should be served. That being said, I am and always have been an animal lover. I can’t imagine a day when I don’t have pets. Traveling gives me a taste of this alternate reality, and after 4 or 5 days, I something furry on my lap.
I’ve always adopted from and supported my local humane society, and I figured I couldn’t be the only author who feels this way, so I started an organization for authors to join called READ AND RESCUE. It’s a great way for writers to show their support of their own favorite cause, and best of all, it’s totally free. My goal is to help authors raise money for their causes by uniting behind a common logo. All it takes is a pledge. Here’s the website so you can learn more. http://dorothycallahanaut.wix.com/read-and-rescue
If you’d like to learn a bit more about me and/or my organization, please feel free to visit me at dorothycallahan.com. Anyone who has purchased one of my books and has rescued an animal is welcome to send me a picture of both for my website. It’s another way for people to show their support of their favorite pet and shelter.
This was so much fun, Kate. Thank you once again for hosting me today!
Thank you for being a guest, Dorothy!
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