N.J. Walters is an incredibly prolific author with Ellora’s Cave and Samhain. With five series, including Awakening Desires and the Jamesville books, and over three dozen titles currently out, she has also been published in numerous anthologies including Overtime, Under Him from Ellora’s Cave and Simon and Schuster. She’s penned steamy paranormals, contemporaries, time-travel and menages, much to the delight of her readers! I’m delighted to have N.J. as our featured author this May.
Chat with N. J.! N. J. Walters will be joining us on Thurssday, May 7th from 6-8 pm Eastern for a special guest author chat at my readers loop!
Sierra Dafoe: N.J., thanks for joining us this month! What was it like, getting that first acceptance from Ellora’s Cave for Annabelle Lee?
N.J. Walters: Thank you so much for inviting me, Sierra. Getting that first acceptance was an incredible moment. I was actually at work and my husband called me. He told me I had an email from Ellora’s Cave and asked if he could open it. He read me the acceptance letter. LOL I could barely contain myself. We definitely celebrated that night when I got home. I still didn’t believe it until I actually saw it for myself. Some days, I still can’t believe it.
Sierra: Annabelle Lee became the first in the Summersville Secrets books. When you first wrote it, did you envision it as part of a series? What challenges did you find in writing your first series?
N.J.: No, I didn’t envision Annabelle Lee as part of a series. I actually started writing it to enter it in an online competition. You had to enter the first so many pages and the top ones got asked for the entire manuscript. Well, those five pages didn’t make the cut but I kept writing and revising Annabelle Lee. When I finished it, I submitted it to Ellora’s Cave.
Series seem to come naturally to me. Every secondary character has a story and eventually they start nagging me to write it. My first three books: Annabelle Lee, Harker’s Journey and Katie’s Art of Seduction all ended up as the first books of a series.
Christina’s Tapestry was supposed to be a stand-alone book, but you can see how that worked out. LOL The fourth book in the Tapestries series just came out a few months ago and I’m not done with that world yet.
Some series I actually know they are going to be series when I start. The Dalakis Passion vampire series, Jamesville, and Awakening Desires were series from the start. That made it a bit easier when it came to plotting future books.
Sierra: In April, you just released the fifth book in the Jamesville series, Past Promises. Tell us a bit about the book, and about the residents of Jamesville!
N.J.: It’s actually the seventh book in the Jamesville series. Discovering Dani, the first book in the series, was actually the first book I ever wrote. It wasn’t my first published book, but I did eventually find a home for it with Samhain Publishing. The first two books in the Jamesville saga—Discovering Dani and The Way Home—are different from the next five, as I’ve changed a lot as a writer since I penned the first two stories. The later books—The Return of Patrick O’Rourke, The Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke, A Legal Affair, By The Book, and Past Promises—are much spicier than the original two. I love Jamesville. Like any small town, it has its secrets. It also has wonderful people who you just want to know more about.
Past Promises, the latest book in the series, brings back characters from earlier books. Linda Fletcher has moved to Jamesville to start a new life and fulfill her dream of opening an antique shop. But her past won’t let her go. When her powerful, manipulative family makes trouble, Levi Mann steps into help. Levi is a former military man turned handyman who is helping Linda with the renovations for her building in exchange for free rent. He’s drawn to Linda and won’t step aside when her family threatens her dreams and everything she’s built.
Sierra: Eek! How did I miss two books? Now I have to go shopping (grin). You’ve also recently released new books in the Awakening Desires and Tapestries series -- how do you manage to juggle writing three series simultaneously?
N.J.: I just naturally seem to shift from one series to the other. Writing such different books keeps my writing fresh and keeps me interested. I’m always alternating which series I’m working on so that readers will keep getting more books in the series they love. I could write for the next five years on series I’ve already started (and spin-off books) and not run out of books to write. LOL Keeps me out of trouble.
Sierra: Are there any recurring themes you see in your stories? Ideas or motifs you find yourself returning to repeatedly?
N.J.: I’m a sucker for the wounded hero and, I admit, I’ve written more than my fair share of them. There is something about a strong man fighting against his dark past, being a hero in spite of his best efforts to not be one that I find compelling. I always want my characters to grow emotionally, to fight their personal demons. They may not always vanquish them all, but they do face them. And that’s important for all of us.
Sierra: In your view, what really makes an erotic romance come alive? Both as a reader and a writer -- what makes a story really sing for you?
N.J.: The characters. It always comes back to the characters for me. I have to feel something for them, to identify with them in some way, in order to want to read their story. It doesn’t matter how great the plot is if I don’t care about the hero and heroine.
The erotic relationship between the characters is an integral part of the plot. We are at our most vulnerable when we let our guard down and have sex with someone. Some people will respond by putting up their guard to protect themselves, others will give everything, not holding anything back emotionally or physically. You can learn a lot about a person with how they act before, during and after sex.
Sierra: And what else do you have coming up?
N.J.: Endless Chase, the next book in the Dalakis Passion Vampire series is due out from Ellora’s Cave on May 6th. This will probably be the last book in this series. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
I also have Amethyst Dreams coming out later this year. This book is linked to Amethyst Moon, which is a novella that was written as part of the Ellora’s Cave Birthstone Series. Both books in the Amethyst saga are time travel/ménage a trois.
I just contracted two more books with Ellora’s Cave. They are futuristic books that spin off the stories of two genetically enhanced assassins that readers will recognize from another series. That’s about all I can say right now about these books.
Sierra: Finally, where can readers find out more about you and your books?
Sometimes the only way to leave the past behind is to ignore the voice of reason—and leap.
Jamesville, Book 7
For Linda Fletcher, the sign in front of her new business says it all. Past Promises Antiques is her declaration of independence from her powerful and manipulative family—and a vow to herself that her future will be different.
She never considered herself the no-strings-affair type, but the chemistry between her and her newly hired handyman is too intense to ignore. Moving to Jamesville was a bold step, so what’s the harm in taking one more—into his arms?
Levi Mann’s shadowed past keeps his bags packed light and his feet on the move. But one look at Linda, and he finds himself willing to hang around—just long enough to figure out what it is that triggers their explosive passion.
EXCERPT:
Sighing, she gave into the inevitable and went back to her desk. The envelope was still there, looking innocent.
Linda grabbed the two-hundred-year-old silver letter opener from her desk drawer and lifted the envelope. Fitting the silver tip in the corner, she slit the top. The tearing sound seemed unusually loud in the quiet of the store. She dropped the letter opener back on the desk and pulled out the letter.
Like the envelope, it too was made of the finest quality paper. Only the best for Fletcher, Fletcher and Dyson. Her stomach churned, the low-grade burning a reminder she needed to take some of her medication. And she’d been doing so well these past few weeks controlling her ulcer. This was why she’d moved farther away from her family. They literally made her ill.
Folding back the paper, she scanned the signature first. It was from her brother, Austin. She let out a breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding. At least it wasn’t from her father, Austin Senior.
She scanned the letter and the pain in her stomach intensified. It was the usual song and dance. When was she going to give up this foolishness of being a shopkeeper and join the family firm? She was an embarrassment to them all. And if she didn’t want to join the law firm, she could at least marry well and join her mother in her charitable pursuits.
Linda blinked back tears as she stuffed the letter back in the envelope. It was always the same. Ever since she was a child, she’d been different. She’d wanted to play softball, but was enrolled in ballet instead. She’d wanted to learn gymnastics, but was sent to ballroom dancing class. Her childhood had been a series of controlled activities and schools. All her friends had to be approved by her parents. Public school was not an option.
She’d hated every minute of it.
Everything from the clothing she’d worn to the girls she could be friends with was chosen by her parents. She’d chafed at the restrictions, but eventually they’d worn her down. Linda had responded by withdrawing, becoming a quiet, studious child, which had suited her parents just fine.
The only person who’d understood her at all had been her maternal grandmother. Antoinette Lafayette had been a force in her own right. Even Austin Senior gave way when her grandmother put her foot down and demanded something. And what she’d demanded had been Linda’s presence every summer.
Linda had lived for summers spent with her grandmother. Antoinette was the one who’d instilled her with her love of antiques. The two of them had spent days driving around the state and beyond, attending estate sales, yard sales and searching through thrift shops for buried treasure.
At her grandmother’s house she could wear jeans, run and laugh. It was a time of freedom and she’d always cried when summer ended and she was sent back home.
“Are you okay?” A low, male voice startled her out of her daydreams of the past. Linda whirled around, hand on her chest, heart pounding.
He stood just behind her. Watching. Waiting.
She had no idea how long he’d been there. It should have been impossible for a man his size to sneak up on her. At six-and-a-half feet tall, Levi Mann took up a lot of space. His body was massive, but it was all solid muscle. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the man.
He was wearing his usual uniform of jeans and a T-shirt. The faded denim clung to his thick thighs like a second skin. The soft cotton of the shirt molded to his biceps and chest, leaving little to the imagination.
And she had imagined him. A lot.
Lying in bed late at night, Linda had wondered more than once what it would feel like to touch all that sculpted muscle. She knew what it looked like. Levi had helped her with much of the renovation work on the building, as well as the painting, often removing his shirt while he worked. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d stopped painting just to stare at him while he was working. Levi gave new meaning to the phrase abs of steel. His tanned flesh looked as though it was pulled tight over slabs of muscle.
And the man was just as potent from behind. He had wide shoulders that tapered down to his thick waist, the muscles making a perfect V. His butt was first class all the way.
“Linda?” The way he said her name gave her shivers. “Are you okay?”
Oh, God. She was standing here like a ninny, staring at him again. “I’m fine.” She shook herself and dropped the letter in the garbage. “Just thinking about things.” That was vague enough for him to drop it. In her experience, most men were just as happy to avoid lengthy, in-depth discussions with females.
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