{"id":97,"date":"2015-06-19T01:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T05:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/?p=97"},"modified":"2015-06-17T09:18:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:18:14","slug":"author-interview-with-dakota-madison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/2015\/06\/19\/author-interview-with-dakota-madison\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview with Dakota Madison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dmAuthor<\/a>Tell us a bit about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am the author of 23 romance novels written under four pen names (Dakota Madison, Savannah Young, Sierra Avalon and Ren Monterrey).<\/p>\n

I live in a small town outside Phoenix, Arizona with my husband and our bloodhounds, Dakota and Madison.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your most recent book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nines is the first book in a romantic suspense series that features a group of anti-heroes. The first book features Roxie and Alexander. Alexander is a computer hacker who hides from the outside world because he was severely burned in a high school bombing. He agrees to help Roxie and her friends find the killer of Roxie\u2019s roommate and avenge her death.<\/p>\n

What was the most difficult part of writing about this character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexander was a difficult character to write because he refuses to leave the house. He doesn\u2019t want people to be frightened by his appearance. It was also difficult to write a romantic love interest who readers could fall in love with, who was has burns over half of his body.<\/p>\n

If you could give this character one piece of advice, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Accept yourself and allows others to accept you as well.<\/p>\n

What kind of antagonist is your favorite?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always enjoy flawed characters, but they need to be written so they have some redeeming qualities otherwise readers won\u2019t care about them.<\/p>\n

Who is one of your favorite fictional villains (can be from a book, movie or television)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loki from Thor is one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Blurb:<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a prestigious university members of a secret fraternity known for gang rapes believe they can get away with murder…only THE NINES can stop them.<\/em><\/p>\n

USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR Dakota Madison and Sierra Avalon team up to bring readers a new breed of antiheroes in the romantic suspense THE NINES.<\/p>\n

Vengeance is mine not the Lord’s. It’s what I breathe for. It’s what I’m still living for. I live for the moment when I will literally have his eye for mine. It’s been two years. Two long and difficult years, but my plan is nearly complete. When I’m not in a hospital having doctors try to repair my ravaged body I spend my time on the computer, doing hacking jobs for large corporations and governments who don’t want to get their hands dirty or be associated with a job if things go sideways. But they don’t have any reason to worry. I’m meticulous, so I’ll never get caught. Just one thing stands in my way: The mysterious young woman without a past who desperately wants to be part of my future. I just need to figure out why…<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vengeance is mine not the Lord\u2019s. It\u2019s what I breathe for. It\u2019s what I\u2019m still living for. I live for the moment when I will literally have his eye for mine. It\u2019s been two years. Two long and difficult years, but my plan is nearly complete. When I\u2019m not in a hospital having doctors try to repair my ravaged body I spend my time on the computer, doing hacking jobs for large corporations and governments who don\u2019t want to get their hands dirty, or be associated with a job if things go sideways. But they don\u2019t have any reason to worry. I\u2019m meticulous, so I\u2019ll never get caught.<\/p>\n

I have the one thing that most people don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Time.<\/p>\n

After I was burned it was difficult for people to look at me and when they did, it was with pity or disgust, often both.<\/p>\n

Even my own mother.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want anyone\u2019s pity. And I have enough disgust towards myself to last five lifetimes.<\/p>\n

So I left everything I\u2019ve ever known and started over on my own.<\/p>\n

Now I spend my days and nights in the small home I inherited from my aunt when she died. I would never have chosen to live next door to a large state university. It\u2019s often loud and there are young people everywhere. It\u2019s a constant reminder of everything I lost. I don\u2019t feel young anymore. I feel like an old man trapped in a twenty-year-old body. If wisdom is the gift of tragedy I\u2019d rather be ignorant.<\/p>\n

I rarely leave home. It\u2019s amazing what you can have delivered to your door these days. When I do need to go outside, it\u2019s always at night and I always wear a mask. Not like the ones kids wear on Halloween. It\u2019s more like the one that the Phantom of the Opera wore, but my mask is black and was specially designed to cover the burn scars on the left side of my face.<\/p>\n

My latest job is for an Eastern European mob family. Modern day computer espionage has given a whole new meaning to the term \u201cmob hit.\u201d There\u2019s no blood, no violence, just five million dollars vanished from several off-shore accounts in the blink of an eye. And I get fifteen percent. Not bad for a few weeks\u2019 work.<\/p>\n

Is it wrong to steal from criminals? I call it karmic justice. I don\u2019t take jobs that could hurt innocent people. I only wrong people who have wronged others.<\/p>\n

I have the luxury of a hefty bank account and very few needs. I don\u2019t need to work another day my entire life and I wouldn\u2019t want for a thing. But I need to keep my mind occupied. So I take hacking jobs that interest me and I take university classes online.<\/p>\n

Having online discussions with my virtual classmates gives me the illusion of having friends and a social life. I realize it\u2019s a poor substitute, but it\u2019s the best I can do given my situation.<\/p>\n

I try not to dwell on the past. The person I was, Mr. Popularity, the Class President, the Homecoming King, died the day my body burned like a barbeque on the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n

My life now is in the shadows. Living with the fringe dwellers on the edge of humanity. I often feel like a man whose body has died, but his mind hasn\u2019t caught up to that fact yet.<\/p>\n

When my computer roars I know I have an incoming message. It\u2019s from one of my contacts in China. I get a lot of work from the Chinese. I don\u2019t speak Chinese and don\u2019t have the patience to learn, so I use an intermediary to broker the deals. He gets fifteen percent of every deal he mediates.<\/p>\n

I hear the familiar buzz of SKYPE and when I click on the icon Xiang Yuan appears on the screen. He\u2019s young, probably just a few years older than me, but much better dressed. He always wears five hundred dollar suits and I\u2019ve never seen him wear the same one twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can get you eight hundred thousand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t reply right away. I like to play things cool.<\/p>\n

He continues. \u201cWith your skills this job won\u2019t take more than one week. Who else will pay close to a million for one week\u2019s work?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russians immediately come to mind,\u201d I reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019ll slit your throat if you don\u2019t deliver on time. We have much more patience than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I give a hearty laugh. \u201cYou guys are saints. You\u2019d never slit a hacker\u2019s throat. Maybe I should tell that to Jenks. Oh, wait. I can\u2019t. You killed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJenks got sloppy. That\u2019s one concern I never have with you. You\u2019re too meticulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

I shake my head. \u201cYou\u2019re just saying that because you need me to take the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the best person for the job,\u201d he corrects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the only guy you\u2019ve got left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNine hundred thousand. But that is the final offer. Do we have a deal?\u201d<\/p>\n

I nod. \u201cWe have a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Let me know when the job is completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t I always?\u201d<\/p>\n

Xiang Yuan doesn\u2019t bother with a reply. He simply disappears from the screen.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t need the money, but it\u2019s an easy job that will probably only take a few days\u2019 work. They\u2019re offering close to a million for it. It\u2019s not something I can refuse.<\/p>\n

I rise and take a stretch away from my laptop. Sometimes it starts to feel like an appendage and that\u2019s when I know I need a little time away from it. I step into the kitchen and make a fresh pot of coffee. While it\u2019s brewing I glance out my kitchen window. My aunt liked to garden and the backyard is like a small sanctuary. I like to look at the plants and flowers, but I can\u2019t be bothered with the maintenance. I have a gardener who comes by once a week to trim and weed and do whatever else needs to be done to keep it looking nice. I\u2019ve never actually met the man, but I leave a check in an envelope for him under a mat on the back porch.<\/p>\n

From my kitchen window I also have a slightly obstructed view of the small street I live on. The fact that it\u2019s Macedonia Boulevard and my name is Alexander is a coincidence that is not lost on me.<\/p>\n

The house is one block removed from one of the major thoroughfares the students frequent, so it\u2019s not as noisy as it could be for being so close to campus. I\u2019m still just a few blocks away from some of the dorms and much of the off-campus housing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m surprised to see a beautiful girl, carrying a backpack, stop right next to my house. I have no idea who she is, or why she\u2019s stopped there, but she looks lost.<\/p>\n

Her long, dark hair moves slightly in the breeze and when it finally blows away from her face I can see her magnificent brown eyes and perfect pink lips. If my wishes came true and I was finally dead I know I\u2019d be looking at the face of an angel.<\/p>\n

I shouldn\u2019t be standing in front of my window in the daylight staring at her. If she turned at just the right angle she could see me, and that wouldn\u2019t be pretty. It would probably traumatize her. I need to move away from the window, but I can\u2019t. I\u2019m completely mesmerized by her.<\/p>\n

When she looks at the street sign then looks up and down the block again there\u2019s little doubt in my mind that she\u2019s lost. I want to tell her that she\u2019s just a block from campus. She hasn\u2019t wandered too far afield. But I can\u2019t leave the house, especially not in the daylight. I know as soon as she took one good look at me she\u2019d probably run away screaming before I even had a chance to utter a word.<\/p>\n

As she heaves a large sigh my gaze is immediately drawn to her chest. She\u2019s wearing a pale pink sundress that fits like a glove and accentuates all of the lovely curves of her petite body. For a few moments I think about what it would be like to have my hands on her body. To touch her in the most intimate of ways. To run my fingers along her perfect, unblemished skin.<\/p>\n

Then I chide myself for even giving in to those thoughts. There\u2019s no use in imagining what I can never have again. Access to a woman\u2019s body is something I lost forever. No woman would ever consider being with someone as damaged and disfigured as I am.<\/p>\n

I considered my life over the day that half of my flesh was burned off of my body. The doctors working on me didn\u2019t think I would live. They called it a miracle that I didn\u2019t die. I call it a life sentence with no chance of parole.<\/p>\n

I realized pretty quickly that my life had irrevocably changed. What I didn\u2019t really understand until much later was the impact my injuries would have on the other people in my life.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until my high school girlfriend, Sara, was finally allowed to visit me that reality punched me in the face and knocked my teeth out. Sara and I had been together for over a year when it happened. She would have been burned just like me if she didn\u2019t have a doctor\u2019s appointment that morning and arrived late to school.<\/p>\n

Her allergy shots kept her from dying in the blaze, or even worse, surviving it like I did.<\/p>\n

She told me that she loved me nearly every day we were together. She was supposed to be my soul mate. We were supposed to spend our lives together.<\/p>\n

But when she saw me in the hospital for the first time after the school bombing it was like she didn\u2019t know me. When she looked at me all the love vanished from her beautiful brown eyes. It was like she was looking at a complete stranger.<\/p>\n

That was the moment I knew my life as I had known it was over. Sara never came back to visit me and I never saw her again.<\/p>\n

I spent my senior year of high school being homeschooled because I was in and out of the hospital so much. I\u2019m smart and was always a good student so I finished all of my work early and started taking college classes in January of what was supposed to be my senior year of high school.<\/p>\n

I traded in my high school prom and senior graduation parties for a life of worldwide hacking jobs and built my reputation as one of the best in the field of cyber espionage.<\/p>\n

For a brief moment I panic because the girl standing outside my house turns to face me and for a second it\u2019s almost like she can see inside of my house and she\u2019s watching me.<\/p>\n

But I know it\u2019s not possible. If she really had caught a glimpse of me she would have already backed away in horror, wouldn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n

The girl just looks puzzled. Her head is cocked like she\u2019s trying to figure something out. Then I see her walk towards the front of my house.<\/p>\n

I hurry out of the kitchen and into the living room. I move the curtains on the front windows the slightest bit so that I can just make out what she\u2019s doing. She\u2019s standing right outside on the front walk way, staring at my front entrance.<\/p>\n

What in the world could she possibly want with me?<\/p>\n

Then it occurs to me. Maybe it\u2019s not me she wants at all. Maybe she\u2019s one of my aunt\u2019s former students.<\/p>\n

She looks down at a small piece of paper in her hands and then looks back up at the house. It\u2019s almost as if she\u2019s trying to decide whether or not she should walk up to the front door and knock.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019ll do if she does decide to knock on the door. It\u2019s broad daylight. I only have deliveries come at night, when it\u2019s difficult to see me, and I always leave the lights off, obscuring their view of me even further.<\/p>\n

I hold my breath waiting to see what the girl will do. Just when I think she might make her way up to the door she takes off down the road instead.<\/p>\n

I breathe a small sigh of relief that I don\u2019t have to deal with her at the door. But in a small way I also feel a twinge of disappointment.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n

USA TODAY<\/em> Bestselling author Dakota Madison is known for writing New Adult and contemporary romance with a little spice and lots of heart. She likes to explore current social issues in her work. Dakota is a winner of the prestigious RONE Award for Excellence in the Indie and Small Publishing Industry. When she’s not at her computer creating spicy stories Dakota likes to spend time with her husband and their bloodhounds at their home outside Phoenix, Arizona. Dakota also writes under the pen names SAVANNAH YOUNG, SIERRA AVALON and REN MONTERREY.<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blog: http:\/\/karenmuellerbryson.tumblr.com\/<\/a>
\nFacebook: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KarenMuellerBrysonAuthor<\/a>
\nTwitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/karenmbryson<\/a><\/p>\n

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