My path as a writer from Epic Fantasy to Paranormal Romance
I started out as a fantasy writer. I grew up reading Tad William’s Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and my favorite childhood movie was The Last Unicorn. Fantasy came easy to me. It poured out of me in the form of castles, dragon, princes, and princesses. I loved reading and writing about gown, jewels, swords, beautiful scenery, and epic battles. It is my home genre and always will be.
But, I also grew up watching the original three Star Wars movies. I loved the exotic locations, the fire fights, and the backdrop of space. I’d written several fantasy books with no luck, and I decided to change genres and try something new. So, I tried writing science fiction. If I loved watching it on TV, then all I had to do was imagine a TV show or a movie in my mind and write it down as I went. All of a sudden, my writing was fresh and more edgy, and my mind lighted up with all the possibilities. My book, Paradise 21, landed me an agent and a publishing contract with Entangled Publishing, and my writing took off from there.
All of my books had romance in them. It was always integral to the plot. Without romance, I grew bored. I must say that first Hobbit movie had no romance, and even though I love fantasy, I have to admit the next two grabbed my attention more with the love triangle between Legolas, Tauriel, and Kili. I’m a sucker for romance, so why not try to write a book with that as the central plot?
It was scary at first. I liked to hide behind my castle and my alien races. So, I decided to write about the subjects I knew the most about. I’m a professional flutist, so I wrote about people playing in orchestras and the lives of professional musicians: Playing the Maestro, A Diva in Manhattan, and An American Girl in Italy are all products of my own life.
But I wanted to try something different: the paranormal romance category. It combined my home genre of fantasy with the new genre of romance. So where would I start?
There’s a famous piece written by Debussy for solo flute called Syrinx. It is about the Greek Gods Syrinx and Pan, and it had always sparked my imagination. I never liked the strange ending to the tale, so I decided to write my own ending, and Pan’s Conquest was born.
But why stop there? I started researching all the Greek Gods: Hades, Venus, Athena, Poseidon and thinking about stories involving each of them. I loved the movie Thor, and I thought: why not make my own Thor type book. So Ares’ Temptation was born!
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Ares’ Temptation
The God of War is about to discover love…
At the wedding of two Greek gods, Kaye Underhill is the only mortal in a sea of scantily clad nymphs and fickle satyrs. And worse — she’s dateless. The only bright side is the hot, muscled hunkiness of the God of War, who’s seated next to her. But there’s no way Kaye could ever grab a god’s attention… Is there?
Ares is in big trouble. A vengeful witch curses him, and the first person he touches will steal his strengths, while he receives their weaknesses. When Kaye trips, Ares catches her and poof! His powers disappear, and Kaye suddenly has the strength and coordination of a Greek god. To break the curse and regain his powers, Ares must get Kaye to fall in love with him.
But for the god who makes war, making love presents a whole new set of problems…
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