Interviews

Author Interview — Koko Brown

Koko Brown is an accidental author who came up with the idea for her first erotic manuscript while daydreaming in bed. Taking a hiatus from her day job, she had enough time on her hands to flesh out the story in two short weeks. A week later, she cleaned it up, then sent it to Ellora’s Cave during the Christmas holidays. By January she heard from one of their editors and by March (and many revisions) she signed a contract for her vampire novel Charmed. Calling the east coast of Florida home, Koko loves to travel, shop in thrift stores, ride motorcycles in flip-flops, renovate houses, and volunteering.

website/blog: www.kokobrown.net

myspace: www.myspace.com/kokobrown07

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorkokobrown

The Writer:

1) What is the best thing about being a writer? The worst?

The most ironic thing about this question is that I’ve never wanted to be a writer, well not books anyway. I always wanted to work for a fashion magazine. Write witty accolades, wear fabulous clothes and take unbelievably long lunches. However, I’m glad I decided to take the plunge because I love the reaction I receive from readers. It’s great when they talk about your characters like they know them and that’s great since you’ve spent long hours, months and sometimes years trying to shape them. The worst thing about being a writer is the editing process. I take an abnormally long time to the point that it’s more time than writing the first draft.

2) What is your method of breaking through writer’s block?

Usually I use music. I’ll pick one song that epitomizes the relationship and I end up playing it over and over until the manuscript is done. For example, Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten” influenced Charmed. Omarion’s “Ice Box” helped me get through Frozen in Time. Currently, I’m listening to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” for a total re-write of a story I finished more than a year ago.

3) Do you bring your own life experiences to your writing? Your own personality? If so how?

I like to write about places I’ve visited or lived at one time. That makes it so much easier than having to pull out Google maps and figuring out a street or landmark you’ve never seen. My first book Charmed is a classic example of an author infusing their personality into their characters. The heroine Chloe Walker is me through and through. And Tristan is my fantasy guy. So, I think that’s why that book was so easy for me to write because I was trying to make my dreams come true.

4) What fuels you as an author to continue to write?

I’m always daydreaming so I have to put my stories down somewhere and why not get paid for them? The readers also motivate me because they’re always asking when is your next story coming out or are you going to write a sequel for so and so.

5) Can you tell us a bit about what book(s) you have coming out next and what you’re working on now?

I have about four stories going at once right now, but I do have a story entitled Carnal Moves coming out soon from Ellora’s Cave. It’s set in post-Katrina New Orleans and its Mad Hot Ballroom meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer BUT instead of vampires the main protagonist is a half-breed demon who ends up falling in love the heroine who has commitment issues.

The Person:

1) Which season do you prefer? Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter? Spring and Fall!

Spring and Fall! I live in Florida that’s when the weather is absolutely perfect.

2) What is your favorite Holiday?

St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite holiday. Yes, I know that’s odd, but it is and has always been my favorite. So much so that I showed up at school one day dressed like an Irish immigrant, accent and all! My 5th grade teacher loved it. She even seperated me from the rest of the class and I didn’t have to do any work for the rest of the day. I’ve sort of deduced that its my favorite holiday because my favorite color used to green and my first name, my REAL first name, is Irish. Go figure.

3) Do you like Comedy, Drama, Romance, Foreign Language, Indie or Mystery movies?

I LOVE ALL MOVIES. It doesn’t matter what genre as long as it has opening and closing credits and an interesting plot in between. My love for celluloid is one of the reasons I attended the Toronto Film Festival last year. That and an impending deadline on a domestic flight voucher from Delta Airlines. LOL! I love old black and whites over more contemporary pieces though…well except for the Godfather series and Sixteen Candles. At one point in time, I could recite the dialogue from the Godfather I and Godfather II right along with the characters.

4) When you get a chance to read, what books do you love to read?

My interest lies in much of what you and I write. Paranormal, mutlticultural erotic romance. Love your books by the way:)

Oh, I also love a book featuring a larger than life heroine who the hero can’t get enough of.

5) What bores you as a reader?

This list might be a mile long so I’ll keep it to less than five! I will put down a book if the storyline is slow paced or features too much sex with a lame story line sandwiched in between. I love sex, but give me a story! I was weened on Johanna Lindseyand Rosemary Rogers, so I love an adventure which takes me around the world or introduces me to a new setting. I also hate story lines featuring secret babies from overbearing bosses or tycoon millionaires.

6) What is your favorite food and what is your guilty pleasure food?

Like movies, I love food especially East Indian. Hmm, I wonder if tha’s why I’ve featured quite a few Indian characters in my books. LOL!

7) If you could go anywhere on a vacation where would you go?

It’s funny that you ask this since I just fulfilled one of my longest held dreams this past March. I went on a two week tour of the Mediterranean with stops in Spain, southern France, Monte Carlo, and Italy. I just love Bill Me Later! Nothing like putting a dream vacation on layaway!

What is your favorite feature on a person? I love a man’s sense of humor.

I know it’s not a feature but it’s a characteristic that would make me essentially blind to any deformity.

9) Do you have a secret talent?

Well to my friends and family it would be my writing. But to my readers and anyone else reading this interview, I would have to say that I’m a novice fashion designer. Before I learned how to drive, I taught myself how to sew, make patterns, and sketch my own designs.

10) What is your favorite time of day?

Early morning hours because everyone is still asleep, the house and neighborhood is quiet and I can get so much done. Before eight o’clock, I’ve already walked my dog, worked out and fixed my breakfast and lunch.

11) What do you think is romantic? What does the word Romance mean to you?
Nothing is more romantic that being in love with someone and having that love returned. With those types of emotions in play any setting can be romantic.

12) What type of music gets you dancing?

I like everything from Patsy Cline and David Bowie to Michael Jackson and Beyonce.

13) Who would you go out on a date with if you could?

Gerard Butler or Jeremy Piven. They’re both extremely attractive to me but more so because they both seem to have a great sense of humor.

14) You’re having a dinner party, what five people would you invite?

I know this may sound morbid, but most of my dinner guests would be deceased. I guess people become more interesting once their six feet under. My five dinner guests would include Henry David Thoreau, Eleanor Roosevelt, Josephine Baker, Emperor Hiroshito and Malcolm X.

Random Questions:

1) Aliens have landed on the planet. What are the three things you would tell them that are great about this planet?

Humanity, the geographical landscape and the multitude of animal species.

2) If you could create your own drink what would go in it and what would you call it?

Even though I really don’t drink I would call my drink Koko Mo’. It would include two parts Godiva Chocolate Liqueur combined with one part Malibu coconut rum and served on the rocks.

3) You have been locked in a mall and told you can get anything you want and when they open in the morning you won’t have to pay a single cent. What stores would you hit? Better question how would you haul away all your loot?

Ugg…I absolutely hate shopping so, I’ll have to pass on this question or I’ll hyperventilate.

4) If your life were turned into a cartoon, what cartoon character would you want playing you?

If my life were turned into a cartoon, I would want Stewie Griffin from Family Guy to play me. At times, I feel like I’m hiding who I really am especially the fact that I’m actually very well read and that I have an I.Q slightly higher than the average person.

5) If you were a pirate what would your booty consist of? What would your pirate name be?

6) Okay I have to include a crazy question so here goes: He-Man, GI- Joe, The Thundercats, The Transformers and Jem are all in a battle to decide who is the best 80s cartoon, who do you think will win? I told you it was a crazy question. No one said I was sane. :-p

By the power of grey skull it would have to be He-Man! Not only was He-Man larger than life, but so were the villains he battled from Skelator to Evil Seed.

Unedited Adult excerpt: THE MERRY WIDOW

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“I heard he’s hung like a horse.”

Phillipa Jones’s violet eyes swung up from the stack of missives in front of her to settle disapprovingly on her office clerk. Despite celebrating her fourth year anniversary at the job this past summer, Lucy never ceased to amaze. Her brand of frankness was more suited to the docklands than a place of business. “Miss Pemberton, I’m sure that piece of information may be of interest to those within your own set, but—”
“Pardon me, ma’am,” Lucy said with dignity, “but it’s not just me set. It’s the entire ton that knows it as well. Why, just last week, I read in the Evening Marlborough about him fuc—I mean having a dalliance with a certain Italian duchess at the opera.”
Phillipa pursed her lips at the mention of the daily newspaper, which had become popular for its weekly gossip column, the “Ruffler of Victorian Feathers.” As if she didn’t have enough to worry about as a female business owner. She also had to worry about her recent decision being uncovered by the ‘all knowing and all seeing’ Lady Cherbourg.
“O’ course, they ain’t mentioned his name for they never do, but everyone knows who the honorable Viscount of Equine is.”
“Viscount of Equine?” Phillipa’s lips twitched in bridled amusement.
“Yes, it’s a reference to his cock. Like I said, hung like a— ”

Lucy didn’t finish, but her brassy curls bounced around her face as she nodded in excitement.
Phillipa was not entirely unfamiliar with the male sex organ, but she couldn’t help the blush staining her cheeks. Proper ladies just didn’t speak so freely on such a subject, not even in intimate circles. Once again, she questioned her hiring of her young charge in order to her provide her with a better opportunity than the one she would have faced working on her back or eking out a pittance as a washwoman.
“Despite Lord Bellomont’s special attributes, Miss Pemberton, I will not see him,” Phillipa replied brusquely. “Furthermore, I know very well that this is his third visit, but I am not interested and will never be interested in anything he has to say. Harry and I built this shipping company from one small frigate to the five steam liners we have today all with the sweat off our backs. And I will not see it lain to waste regardless of the large purse he’s offering. Now please go back out there and tell his Lordship good day.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Lucy turned to do her bidding but came back around, a queer look etched on her face. “Mrs. Jones, I almost forgot. Your coach is ‘ere. Oscar arrived right before the Viscount came calling.”
Phillipa looked up so suddenly her spectacles slipped down her nose. “My coach? What time is it?” she asked, reaching inside her jacket pocket.
“It’s a quarter past three, ma’am.”
Phillipa confirmed the time on the silver pocket watch Harry had given her thirteen years earlier, on her 25th birthday. Despite its age, it still told accurate time.
Hell’s bells! she groaned. She’d been so busy with making sure the books would be closed by the end of the month she’d almost forgotten what was happening tonight.
“While you tidy up your loose ends, I’ll get rid of ’is Lordship.”
“Thank you, Lucy.” Phillipa snapped the watch closed, the click resounded loudly in the quiet room. It was even more quiet now because she no longer shared it with Harry. Yet despite his passing and her subsequent taking over of the business, her routine had not changed.

She always started work promptly at eight o’clock and she never left her offices before six o’clock. Her driver arriving three hours early was due to only one thing—this was the evening of her first visit from Madame Valant’s stable of young gentlemen.

Rising from her desk, she walked over to the coat tree in the corner and removed the black bonnet hanging from the branch. As she tied the grosgrain ribbons under her chin, her fingers shook with nervous excitement.
Ironically, she’d read about the Madame and her notorious “stable of studs” in the Evening Malborough. The prime attraction was that the Madame, or at least her stable, made house calls, for Phillipa doubted that she would have had the nerve to visit the infamous Pall Mall and its stretch of gentleman’s clubs.
Not really knowing what to expect, she had been surprised by the middle-aged woman who floated into her home a month ago. Petite of stature with pale blonde hair and strikingly beautiful, Madame was a ray of light in the dark room.
“For now, all you want is a companion?” Madame Valant regarded Phillipa closely over the rim of the delicate tea service.
Phillipa took a deep breath and replied, “Yes. Although Harry died over three years ago, I am not eager to enter into the confines of a conventional marriage. I just want the company of a man to brighten the halls of this home again, even if it’s just for a few hours,” she added quietly, unable to meet the other woman’s gaze. Instead, she looked down at her dress and straightened her tartan skirt for the hundredth time across the mahogany sofa.
“I truly understand, ma cherie. When my benefactor died, I was surprised at how much I missed not only him, but his very maleness, and the security and protection that his mere presence provided. And perhaps one day you will feel comfortable enough with one of mes garcons that you might be willing to quench your baser needs.”
Phillipa opened her mouth to refute that prediction, but Madame Valant leaned over and placed a creamy, heavily bejeweled hand on her knee. “Tut, tut, cherie. You are a woman in your prime. And one that I assume was well loved and was used to the pleasures between a man and woman. If you were not, you would never have called me. Sooner or later, I hope you will indulge in my fine stock to satisfy all your womanly needs.”
And tonight might be that night, Phillipa mused as her coach ambled through the crowded streets of inner London. Over the course of a few short weeks—while the Madame searched for a suitable placement—her initial disquiet had turned into one of anticipation.
Like a connoisseur of fine wine, Madame Valant had supposedly chosen her bevy of male companions well. Not only were they rumored to be handsome, but well educated as well, many of them the bastard children of the nobility.

So even if her visits remained innocent in nature, such as sharing the occasional evening meal, playing backgammon or even discussing the evening papers, she had the option of tasting from the Madame’s stock if she was sorely tempted. And considering her heightened eagerness for her unconventional company, sooner might be now rather than later.
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