And here:

And here:

And here:

I wasn’t only influenced by movies and TV. I mostly read mysteries when I was young, but I read a fair amount of sci fi-type books, too. And even some of the mysteries I liked leaned toward the paranormal.

Gradually, my tastes moved toward the paranormal, with romantic elements…

And the list goes on…and on…and on. Even Agatha Christie wrote paranormals – who knew?

I guess I’ve always been more into the fantasy/paranormal/sci fi genres than I thought! What about you? Do you like to travel to the far out side?

Remember when you read your first romance, your first paranormal, your first sizzling hot novel?

Back in the day, I wouldn’t have described myself as a romance reader, even though I did read gothics by Victoria Holt and Dorothy Eden, and romance suspense by Mary Stewart and Evelyn Anthony.

The first “romances” I read were probably those written by Kathleen Woodiwiss:

Not long after that, I discovered Harlequin, Mills & Boon, Silhouette and Candlelight Ecstasy romances, in particular:

And…

And…

And…

And then I discovered the…sizzlers!

And that was just the beginning…

So what about you? What were the books that turned you onto romance?

DesiComments.com | Happy Holidays

Please welcome PIPER TRACE! I announced Piper’s upcoming visit awhile back – please forgive the delay, she was working on edits for her upcoming book and novella with Ellora’s Cave.

I had the pleasure of meeting Piper Trace last June, first at Duffy Brown‘s mystery bash, and then at Lori Foster’s Reader Author Get Together. Remember her name – I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of Piper in the future!

In the meantime, she was kind enough to let me pick her brain in the following interview. Enjoy!

Anya: Hi Piper! Congratulations on your sale(s) to Ellora’s Cave! How long have you been writing?

Piper: Hi Anya—love the look of your blog! Thanks so much for interviewing me! I’ve always been a “writer”, but it really started to come together for me in college when I took some creative writing courses. All of my stories were about sex. On my final paper my professor wrote, “Well written, and about your favorite subject of course…” Of course!

Then I put writing away for a long time and had a few different careers before I sat down at my computer one day and decided to try writing again. I’ve been obsessed ever since. That was April of 2010.

Anya: Wow, I’m impressed! You’ve recently made your first sale…and your second. Would you share your “call” story with us? (Even if it was an email rather than a phone call.) Give your books a plug, too!

Piper: The whole thing was such a whirlwind! I still can’t believe how it happened. I was writing for about eight months in what I called a “vacuum”—I didn’t have anyone to read my stuff and I had no idea if I was any good. But I worked hard—I read and researched as much as I could on the craft of writing, and I wrote and rewrote…wrote and rewrote.

Finally I started networking online with other authors in my genre and one of them told me about the Lori Foster Annual Reader and Author Get Together. When I registered for the event I signed up to do some pitches and made that my deadline for finishing my first book, the light-BDSM novel I was working on at the time, Come When Called. The Get Together took place in June of 2011.

I was blown away at the event! Not only was it a lot of fun, but there were so many opportunities for aspiring writers! Plus the other writers I met there—like the awesome Anya Davis!—were SO welcoming and supportive! I didn’t just network…I realized there was a whole “family” of authors out there ready to support, empower, teach, and befriend each other.

The event was a real turning-point for me—and it’s where I met the great Meghan Conrad, an editor for Ellora’s Cave. Given the nature of what I write, Ellora’s Cave was my dream publisher. I pitched and Meghan requested to see the full…a month later I finally made myself stop polishing it and sent it to her and the other folks who’d requested it.

About a week went by and I was sitting in my car in a parking lot checking my emails on my phone for the millionth time when I received an email from a publisher saying they wanted to publish my book. I SCREAMED! I was laughing, crying, squealing, hitting my steering wheel and hopping up and down in my seat. If anyone else was in the parking lot, they must have thought I’d lost my mind.

I had the same experience a few days later when I got the email from Meghan Conrad saying that Ellora’s Cave wanted to publish Come When Called! Since then I’ve sold another book to Ellora’s Cave—a Christmas novella entitled Fueling Her Fire.

Anya: Tell us about your interests and activities in your “real” life.

Piper: I love to make things—whether it’s sewing, cooking, crafting, upcycling, or writing books! You can check out some of my craft tutorials on my website at www.pipertrace.com. Stop by and learn how to make your own pasties! They make great stocking-stuffers, folks.

Anya: Who are some of your favorite authors, and what are some of your favorite books? (For example, if you could only keep five books, what would they be?)

Piper: Oooh five books? Can I bind all the Twilight books into one large volume?? Okay my five favorite books of all time would be (you’ll be surprised—I like the classics): Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, And Both Were Young by Madeleine L’Engle, Twilight of course, and then it would be a toss-up between two books of poetry—Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros and What My Father Believed by Robert Wrigley. Actually no, I can’t live without either of these books of poetry so because I have them both nearly memorized maybe I could recite them Book of Eli-style. That would allow me to keep Interview with the Vampire too.

My favorite authors are Stephen King (but only his earlier stuff and not The Dark Tower series), Laurel K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris.

Anya: Still on the subject of books, which books/authors turned you on to romance?

Piper: Stephenie Meyer. That might not make a lot of sense, but it’s the truth.

Anya: Where would you like to see yourself in five years? In ten?

Piper: With a huge backlist of best-selling books, of course! Honestly I just want to bring sexy and emotionally engaging books to readers that they enjoy and recommend. I just hope to achieve that.

Anya: Do you have a blog or a website?

Piper: Yes! www.pipertrace.com I post sexy craft tutorials and information on my upcoming books. Check it out!

Anya: What were some of your favorite books as a child?

Piper: I read constantly as a child. I read all the Christopher Pike books and a lot of Stephen King. My favorites were the books I had to read for school: Silas Marner, To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows, Animal Farm, Great Expectations, The Scarlet Letter, etc. I think in some ways they were my favorites because I got to talk about them and explore them so deeply as part of the class. I LOVE to discuss literature! I once quit a book-club in disgust because the ladies didn’t actually want to talk about the books…or even read them! They just wanted to get together, gossip and drink wine. I’m all for that…but AFTER we talk about the book!

Anya: What have been some important turning points in your life?

Piper: Oh wow, this is deep. Let’s see. My decision to follow my now-husband across the country even though we weren’t even engaged; my decision to go to law school; and my decision to start writing again. There are more personal ones, but I’ll keep those private.

Anya: Who are your hotties (in real life, fiction or TV/movies)?

Piper: Ooooh, (rubs hands with a wicked twinkle in my eye): Dean from Supernatural, Damon from The Vampire Diaries, Neal Caffrey from White Collar, Edward Cullen (but not Robert Pattinson), and my newest love, Harvey Specter from Suits.

Anya: What have been some of the highlights of your writing career?

Piper: I don’t think I’ve had a writing career long enough to answer that question! So far, it’s definitely been selling the first book I wrote!

Anya: Tell us a couple of little-known facts about yourself.

Piper: I love YA books. I hate books and movies about people doing terrible things to each other. I wear heels all the time (that’s probably not a little-known fact). I’m rebellious to the point of being self-destructive sometimes.

Anya: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Piper: A writer, no question. And maybe an archeologist. I can write your name in hieroglyphs.

Anya: That’s so funny! I actually have a mug I bought at the Luxor in Las Vegas with my name in hieroglyphics. (Not sure how accurate it is, though!)

Thanks very much for visiting with us today! Can you tell us what we can look forward to from you?

Piper: Yes! Fueling Her Fire should be coming out in December from Ellora’s Cave. It’s a small-town Christmas erotic romance novella—so if you like the nostalgia of a small-town Christmas, but you still want your story rocking a lot of sizzling sex, then definitely curl up with a mug of cocoa and check this one out. It won’t disappoint!

Fueling Her Fire: Kip Parker is a former small-town geek turned big-city lawyer. She can’t quite forget her roots though in rural West Virginia where her first love, sexy Dylan Johnson, the out-of-reach senior football star, had betrayed her and crushed her heart.

Come When Called: Should be out in early 2012. It’s a light-BDSM M/F/M ménage book with M/M elements.

Ford is cool sexuality and dominance, Charley is warm muscles and affection, and Evie is the lucky girl in the middle…

Do you like your heroes dominant and refined or big tough-guys with a heart of gold? It doesn’t matter…in Come When Called you can have both!

Evie has the same problem with men that she has with cheesecake – she’s always trying to cut back, but they’re just so damned delicious. But this time she’s in real trouble. Fired from her law firm, Evie must hide from her psychotic, lawyer ex-boyfriend until she can come up with the money she owes him.

Rich and dead-sexy Ford Lachance caused Evie to get fired by seducing her into being sexually dominated for the first time…in the law firm library. But he offers her the perfect solution: be his highly-paid, live-in assistant for a year at his guarded estate, and in return he will use his considerable influence to get her whatever job she wants after the year is up.

But Evie’s out of her league in trying to keep up with Ford’s escalating game of domination and pleasure.

Charley is Ford’s best friend and his opposite – warm and affectionate to Ford’s cool, aggressive sexiness. Pleasing both of these virile men at once brings Evie mind-blowing satisfaction. But she makes the mistake of falling in love with them and Ford is incapable returning her feelings…and Charley’s.

As Evie and Charley both struggle with Ford’s denial of their love, Evie still lives in fear of her ex with good reason…and Evie, Ford and Charley find they must face their feelings and decide whether this threesome can work while fighting for their lives, and their love.

Follow Piper Trace on Facebook and on Twitter!

**UPDATE – DECEMBER 12, 2011*

Piper’s new Christmas novella can now be ordered from Ellora’s Cave!

Read more about it on Piper’s blog here.

And check out this cover – WOW!

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