Angela Knight published her first novella with Red Sage Press in 1996. In 2004, Red Sage released her second novel, Forever Kiss, as their first full-length single title offering.

Forever Kiss went on to win the Romantic Times Bookclub Critic's Choice award for erotic romance and the rest, as they like to say, is history.

Garnering further Critic's Choice nominations for Jane's Warlord (which took home a PEARL award and third place in the 2004 Sapphire Awards) and Master of the Night, and landing books in the #1 spots of both the Barnes and Noble and Waldenbooks trade paperback romance list, Angela has published close to twenty novels and novellas to critical and public acclaim, and Master of Wolves, just released from Berkeley, is currently at #10 on the Publisher's Weekly bestseller list, and #32 on the New York Times extended bestseller list.

Sierra: First off, Angela, how does that feel?

Angela Knight: Oh, it's totally fantastic. I never expected my book to do so well -- but I'm thrilled it did.

Sierra: Master of Wolves is the latest in the Mageverse series, with Master of Swords coming up in October. Now, that series idea actually started back with "Seduction's Gift", a novella in the Hot Blooded anthology, didn't it? Can you tell us a bit about the growth of that series, and how it has expanded into its present form?

Angela Knight: Hot Blooded was from Berkley. What happened was, I'd been doing vampires for years for Red Sage, which is the small press that publishes the Secrets anthology series. When Cindy Hwang at Berkley decided she wanted me to do a vampire series for her, I wanted to come up with something different from what I was doing for Red Sage. So because I love the Arthurian legends, I thought, what if all the knights of the Round Table were vampires? I took that idea and ran with it. Then when I wrote the first novel, I set part of it in the alternative universe called the Mageverse.

Since the Mageverse is a magical universe, I decided that the humans who live on Mageverse Earth would be magic-using Sidhe. So then before I knew it, I had fairies and dragons and unicorns and all kinds of fun things roaming around. My vampires and werewolves from Earth then interacted with all these amazing creatures. It was a lot of fun!

Sierra: What is it about the Mageverse world that keeps you, as author, coming back to it? How do you constantly make it 'fresh' for yourself?

Angela Knight: Well, it's got so many possibilities. I can do a story about the Sidhe, or shapeshifting dragons, or whatever. If I had to write nothing but vampires facing the same bad guys over and over every book, I'd get totally bored. This way I keep myself and my readers interested.

Sierra: Can you give us a 'sneak peek' at what lies in store in Master of Swords?

Angela Knight: The hero of MASTER OF SWORDS is Gawain, one of the knights of the Round Table. He has an enchanted sword which is actually a dragon named Kel, who was transformed into a sword by an enemy. Gawain's heroine is Lark McGuinn, a new witch who is struggling to come into her power. MASTER OF SWORDS is the climax of the Black Grail arc, so it has a lot of action and adventure as well as great sex. I loved writing about Gawain, Lark and Kel, and I'm very happy with that book.

Then the next book, MASTER OF DRAGONS, will star Kel, who has been freed from the sword to become a handsome stud. Lots of fun will be had by all!

Sierra: In addition to your many writing projects (Angela's written for Berkeley, Red Sage, Changeling Press, Loose ID, and Ellora's Cave) you also do gorgeous cover art for many of the Changeling Press books. Which leads to my next question: How on earth do you manage your time?

Angela Knight: With great difficulty. I don't do as much cover art as I used to, because I don't have time.

Sierra: What do you find fulfilling about doing artwork in addition to writing? And is the satisfaction (and the challenge) different, doing a cover for someone else's book rather than your own?

Angela Knight: Artwork is an entirely different process than writing. For one thing, I can do a cover in an afternoon, instead of taking months, like a book. So it's an immediate visual reward. Plus I love doing a cover and hearing how thrilled the author is with it.

Sierra: If I can, I'd like to talk about your success a bit -- I hope you don't mind!

Obviously, if industry awards and fan loyalty are any indication, pure excellence in writing has played a large part in that success. On your blog, you brought up a few points that I thought were really quite wonderful--first, that nothing can replace the learning process. Writing well absolutely requires months and years of butt in the chair practice. And second, that all the practice in the world does no good if you don't finish something (I've been guilty of that one a time or two). Earlier in your career, I know, you worked both as a news reporter and a comic book writer. What skills did you learn in those pursuits that have carried over?

Angela Knight: First, thanks for the compliment! Comic book work was great for me. Earlier in my writing, I was really wordy and totally fixated on creating beautiful descriptions. You can't do that with comics. You have to find the perfect words to get the effect across in the shortest amount of space. So that taught me a lot that I use in my own writing. As for reporting, all the experience I had covering cops and government has been invaluable research. Too, I learned the discipline to put my butt in the chair and work! Newspaper deadlines wait for no man -- or woman.

Sierra: What else (if I can get you to be so thoroughly immodest!) do you feel you've done that has had an impact on your success? Obviously, it takes a ton of work to reach the kind of success you're now enjoying--it's never an easy or a short process. What has that process been like for you?

Angela Knight: My biggest problem -- and I think a lot of writers share it -- was in learning to trust my own work. I'd write three or four chapters of something and decide it stunk, and I'd drop it. It wasn't until I started getting regular feedback from fans that I found the courage to trust my work to be good. Unless you can trust yourself, you're never going to succeed.

Sierra: Angela, thanks so much for taking the time with me. I'd like to ask one last question, which will hopefully be a fun one -- what do you find the most rewarding about your work?

Angela Knight: I just love creating worlds and living in them. But the best thing is getting to meet real people that enjoy what I do. That means more to me than I can say!

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me, Sierra. I'm truly honored!

Angela Knight maintains a website at www.angelasknights.com. Her latest release, MASTER OF WOLVES, is available online from Barnes and Noble (click here) and in bookstores everywhere. She also has books available online with Changeling Press, Red Sage, Loose ID, and Ellora's Cave.

Update, Dec. 2007: Angela has just been nominated for a Career Achievement award by Romantic Times Magazine, one of the romance industry's most prestigious awards. Master of Dragons, her most recent MageVerse book and another USA Today best-seller, has also been nominated for Best Shapeshifter. Yay, Angela! I am totally thrilled and not at all surprised. :-)

Update, Jan. 2008: Dark Side, an anthology with stories by Angela Knight, Willa Okati, and Sierra Dafoe, is now on sale!

Books by ANGELA KNIGHT (click covers for info!)