Interviews
Author Interview
Please give us a brief bio, your website, my space page and blog links.
Bio:
Marianna Lauren grew up on a horse ranch in Arizona. Someday she plans to return to the desert, where the sun is warm, the food is hot, and the men in boots can melt you where you stand…
But there’s something just as hot about dark, dangerous bad boys from back East, especially ones who hunt the night. Find some in Red Rio Blue, a paranormal erotic Romance, available now from Loose Id.
http://twitter.com/MariannaLauren
The Writer:
1) What is the best thing about being a writer? The worst?
For me, the best thing is creating two different characters, throwing a bunch of obstacles in their path and letting them fall in love anyway, conquering those obstacles and having an exciting time doing it. Also, I get to write hot and wild love scenes! The worst, well, that would be when a story fails to come together, or sputters and dies after a few chapters. Or when the characters in the hot and wild love scene look up at me from the page and say, “C’mon! Can’t you do better than that?”
2) What is your method of breaking through writer’s block?
I crochet erotic afghans. Okay, not really. I do logic puzzles. I know, that’s really geeky, but it allows my brain to work on generating new story ideas in the background while I’m distracted.
3) Do you bring your own life experiences to your writing? Your own personality? If so how?
I wish I had such an exciting life, but despite the rumors, writing departmental budgets is not inherently sexy. Although many of the people I work for are rather vampire like. So maybe in a way, I do. I try to create characters who are different from me, and from each other, and then let them have their way. But I think the rough and tumble cowgirl in me who always wanted to ride faster than the boys instead of sitting pretty on the porch comes through in all those characters.
4) What fuels you as an author to continue to write?
I told my husband I was a big-time author and for some crazy reason, he believed me. So I figure if I keep writing, I might have time to make a name for myself before he notices it was all just wishful thinking! That, and the standard-issue creative-person’s compulsion to create things.
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 two in the works. A sequel to Red Rio Blue featuring Jackson. Also, a paranormal ménage set in the same fictional world, but with an entirely different cast, which I hope will be different and hot enough to catch some attention.
The Person:
1) Which season do you prefer? Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter?
It really depends where I’m living. Growing up in Arizona, I loved the winter. Most other places, not so much. Right now I love Spring. Not too hot, not to cold, the sun finally comes out again, and Cadbury Crème Eggs spout up everywhere!
2) What is your favorite Holiday?
Any holiday where I don’t have to cook for my in-laws. Like…Boxing Day. Or Groundhog Day. Groundhog day is actually a great holiday. There’s the prediction of spring (my favorite season), plus the Vegas-like excitement of laying odds on the outcome… will he see his shadow? Will it really be spring? Or more cold, gray, nasty winter… All in all, that makes for a pretty good day. And no greasy, burned-on mess to scrub.
3) Do you like Comedy, Drama, Romance, Foreign Language, Indie or Mystery movies?
I like em all. The different genres all have something to offer, and one of the best things about being a writer is that you can pull your inspiration from lots of different places. I actually like documentaries, too. I just finished a romantic comedy phase, and for some reason, I got on a horror movie kick. The people at Netflix must think I either have multiple personality disorder or that there are like 11 different people at this address.
4) When you get a chance to read, what books do you love to read?
Not to suck up, but I really loved Trapped and Prelude by, ahem, Selena Illyria Your vampires are sensual and use very cool magic. I’ve been reading a lot of Loose Id authors lately, and I’m completely blown away by the talent there. I like erotic romance, and paranormal romance of any heat level. I’ve always loved fantasy of all flavors, so that’s always something I’m up for, too.
5) What bores you as a reader?
I like a healthy dose of realistic conflict between heroine and hero. Some misunderstanding that can just be worked out with one good sit-down discussion doesn’t do it for me.
6) What is your favorite food and what is your guilty pleasure food?
Cliché, but dark chocolate. And jalapeño bagels from the Safeway bakery, with cream cheese. But not together.
7) If you could go anywhere on a vacation where would you go?
Eastern Europe. Hungary, Romania, Poland. See all those places of myth and legend. Maybe even go vampire hunting.
What is your favorite feature on a person?
The mouth. Weird huh? Most people say the eyes. But I like the shapes of people’s mouths, not even their smiles, and almost especially when they’re not smiling. There’s a world of emotion you can find in the way someone quirks their lips, or clenches their teeth, and some guys just have this strong, hard edge to them that just does it for me. Like the 90’s Batman movies… remember all the talk about which Batman was hottest, based on what showed beneath the mask?
9) Do you have a secret talent?
I can use my magic wristbands to deflect bullets and summon an invisible plane. Very handy in this age of long security lines and 3.4 oz. limits on shampoo in your carryon.
10) What is your favorite time of day?
Midnight. I’m not a morning person.
11) What do you think is romantic? What does the word Romance mean to you?
Oh, everything is romantic, if it’s with the right person. Love it what it’s all about, the spark of sympathetic understanding between two like-minded souls, the development and nurturing of that, the courage and strength to be vulnerable to someone else and trust yourself to them, and vice versa… when that’s captured just right, even during a shoot-out, it’s the most romantic thing in the world. Expensive dinners in fancy restaurants and hearts and flowers… heck, I can buy those myself.
12) What type of music gets you dancing?
This morning it was that groove on Paper Mario filtering out of the other room… later, it’s likely to be some stupid song I make up on the spot. It doesn’t take much.
13) Who would you go out on a date with if you could?
Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost). Especially with the glasses and reading a book. Or with a gun trying to kill someone. I’m good either way.
14) You’re having a dinner party, what five people would you invite?
Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow, Bill O’Reilly, Diana Gabaldon, and Josh Holloway. Should make for interesting conversation during cocktails. Or possibly none at all, in which case I’ll just sit there and drool over Josh Holloway.
Random Questions:
1) Aliens have landed on the planet. What are the three things you would tell them that are great about this planet?
Hot fudge sundaes. The Mega Boxed Set of Lost on DVD. Tequila. What else is there?
2) If you could create your own drink what would go in it and what would you call it?
Oh, I already did that long ago, back in my wild and crazy cocktail waitress days. Tequila, orange juice, and Ginger Ale (A Prickly Screw). Or Tequila, grapefruit juice, and 7-up (A Prickly Grape). After the first three or four, they were really, really good!
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?
Ooh… do we have lots of shoe stores in this mall? Cuz I really, really like footwear. I love really high heels, because I have really big feet. Heels less than four inches just look disproportionate and wrong. And the ones with all that extra-long toe matter poking out the front? Um, no. Those make my poor size tens look like crazy ugly witch feet. Which is why over the last few years of this disturbing trend, I’ve defaulted to my standard Levi’s and Tony Lamas. So I hope this mall has a good Western store. And I supposed I’d pick up a ride-on mower for my husband. And I have no idea how I’d get it all home… maybe ride it all home on the mower! LOL!
4) If your life were turned into a cartoon, what cartoon character would you want playing you?
Bugs Bunny. I love how he runs circles around Daffy.
5) If you were a pirate what would your booty consist of? What would your pirate name be?
I’d traffic in the illegal shoe and rum trade. My pirate name would be Bloody Marianna Morgan. And I’d definitely have a parrot.
6) Okay I have to include a crazy question…
(you mean those others were serious? LOL!)
…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
Thundercats. Definitely. Cats and swords? How cool is that? And Mumm-ra was actually scary…
7) You’ve been given the honor of naming a planet, what would you name it?
There are several very good reasons I don’t write sci-fi. One of them is that all the names I come up with that should sound really cool just sound completely asinine. So I’m not even going there!
If you were in a rock band what would the name of your band be? What would your rocker name be?
A punk band called Wet Sand In Unmentionable Places. You know, for that gritty realism. My rocker name would be Sandy Shore. *ducking rotten vegetables*
If you’d like, you can include excerpts from your latest work. Please include the ‘Buy’ link if it is available. Thank you for participating in this interview.
RED RIO BLUE by Marianna Lauren
Genre: Vampire Paranormal
Blurb
Aubrey Hunnisett, the owner of the successful nightclub the Rio Blue, is determined to buy out the Club Lunar, run by the dark and mysterious Michael Lennox. Michael is a vampire, and although he can feel intense mutual attraction arcing between them, he’s suspicious of Aubrey’s offer. Two tragic murders have thrown his club into rough financial waters.
Passionate sex fulfills her exhibitionist fantasies and gives Michael the chance to sift through Aubrey’s memories to see if she’s working for his hated enemy, the vampire Richard Sands. Though he discovers she’s not, his trip down her memory lane leads to its own batch of problems: he’s halfway to falling in love with her.
Aubrey’s a weakness his enemy can use, and does, dragging her into a vampiric conflict that’s more than a century old. But he’s underestimating Aubrey and her feelings for Michael.
Excerpt from Red Rio Blue
Inside Lennox’s office, a huge floor-to-ceiling window looked down onto the flashing activity of the club. From here Aubrey could see everything, including the dais in the corner where she’d been sitting a few moments before.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Hunnisett?”
Aubrey spun toward the deep, cool voice that had wrapped around her like a lover’s embrace.
He leaned against the edge of his glass-and-chrome desk, his arms crossed over his chest in a classically defensive posture, which on him looked defiant instead. It was his eyes, though, that made her feel as if she’d guzzled the whole bottle of vodka instead of just one glass. Beneath his closely cropped dark hair and sharp slash of brow, his eyes shone an odd shade of blue, two shades closer to purple than she’d ever seen. A swirl of unreality washed through her, a kind of momentary disconnect from her body, as if her mind were sending signals that her muscles would get around to obeying…eventually.
His face was classically handsome, model cut, with bold lines and a strong, clean-shaven jaw. Hard, though, not pretty, as if he belonged on a sailboat or a polo pony instead of just posing with one in a magazine. She couldn’t fault him for his pale skin, since hers would’ve been the same if she didn’t go tanning. By definition nightclub life existed in the nocturnal. He had his shirtsleeves rolled up and his collar open, but he’d draped his suit jacket over the arm of the white leather sofa on the far wall. His shoulders didn’t spread as far as Mr. Beefy’s, but he still appeared in very good, very alluring, very perfect shape.
Her gaze strayed down to the front of his dark dress slacks.
“Ms. Hunnisett?”
She snapped back to his face. “Uh, yes. Mr. Lennox. Thank you for seeing me.”
He came toward her, and she had a moment to admire how gracefully he moved. There was something powerful yet precise—controlled—in his walk, making her think of the wolves she had so recently seen hunting on his dance floor. Her heart did a little jig in her chest. He exuded raw sexuality, like the energy generated by the writhing dancing bodies downstairs. It seemed to grow more intense as he approached, overpowering her in this confined space. Aubrey struggled to keep her poker face on, but her body started shooting off sparks of arousal.
Not good. Not a good way to start a business meeting, wanting to push your competitor down and fuck him on his huge glass desk.
His voice sounded deep and powerful, a mix of orator and Isaac Hayes. His eyes were even more striking up close. “What can I do for you?”
What could he do? Oh, God. Roll down her stockings and run those big hands up her legs? Unclasp her halter and knead her breasts? Or go straight for the thong? A flush of moisture seeped past the wisp of lace between her legs and dampened her thighs.
He held out a hand to her, and for a moment she only looked at it, the wheels of her brain seeming to spin in mud before she realized she was supposed to shake it. She took his hand, but when her warm skin slid against the coolness of his palm, something else passed through her.
The world shattered into fragments like a breaking mirror. An image overwhelmed her mind, driving out all other thought, dominating all her senses. She found herself on a moor, lying on her back on the grass, her head turned to the side to peer out across a wide sweeping land of hills and distant, rocky tors. Waves of pleasure coursed through her. She was getting the fuck of her life.
The man on top of her thrust deep, over and over, and she was sweaty and slick and trembling with sensation, with an intensity that seemed to melt her from the inside out. She bit at the side of her mouth to keep from screaming, and then not caring, screaming and not caring, and looking up into her lover’s face only to find those haunting, just-short-of-purple eyes staring back into her own. Then the hunger in those eyes, the lust, impaled her, as his cock thrust into her, owning her and freeing her both at once…
She jerked her hand away, and the vision vanished, leaving her with a heavily thudding heart and an arm that trembled as if she’d just grabbed a live wire. Her hand tingled slightly where they’d touched.
“Sorry.” He smiled with an expression she couldn’t read. “Static electricity.”
Like hell. Her pussy still throbbed, and a drop of juice glided down her thigh and spread into the top of her stocking. She took a deep, steadying breath. “No problem. It’s good to finally meet you, Michael. You have quite a place here.”
“Thank you.” He gave her a new smile—the smile of a proud father.
Changing the subject gave her time to get control of her body again. “May I sit down?” Before I drip on your expensive carpet?
“Please, have a seat.” Lennox gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk.
She sat and crossed her legs, showing the best angle of thigh without overdoing it and leaning in just enough to present the best view of cleavage without falling into tramp territory. She wanted to display just enough skin to be a distraction. Payback for…whatever the hell just happened.
“So, Ms. Hunnisett—”
“Please, Michael. Call me Aubrey.”
Another warm smile from him, but his eyes lost not a bit of their intensity. “Aubrey, then. In what way might I be of service?”
She took a secret deep breath from behind the plastered smile of her game face. “I want to buy your club.”
His eyebrows raised, and his smile cooled. “Direct, I see. I’ll return the favor. The answer is no. Lunar is not for sale.”
“Everything is for sale, Michael. We only have to agree on a price.”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand, Aubrey. Lunar is not for sale. At any price.”
“Somehow I don’t believe that.”
He shrugged. “I’ve forgotten my manners. May I fix you a drink? I make excellent martinis, if you’ll forgive my lack of humility.”
“A martini is fine, thank you.”
He walked across the room, once again displaying that easy predator grace, both fascinating and slightly unnerving. She watched his back silently as he poured and shook, wondering what it was about him that drew her so. He finished pouring, returned with their drinks, and handed her the glass. He looked at her for a moment, and she thought she saw a flash of amusement in his eyes.
She was very careful to avoid touching his hand as she took the narrow stem. “Your business is down by half in the last month.” She nodded toward the huge window overlooking the dance floor. “And the trend is continuing.”
“A slight downturn. The economy. My investors are confident we’ll be up again by year’s end.”
Liar. He had no investors. Club Lunar was owned solely by Lennox, through a shell company that owned several other interests. He’d covered his tracks very well, but her investigator had been thorough. Fine, then. If he wanted to hide his cards, then she wasn’t showing either.
“Michael.” She leaned toward him, not aggressive this time but confiding. “May I speak frankly?”
He smiled. “I wasn’t aware you were holding back.”
“I believe your investors have painted you a bit too rosy a picture. Perhaps an…outside perspective would help you see things more clearly.”
“I think a rosy picture comes with being an investor,” he replied. “And I disagree with your assessment. I’m in a position to know, since I actually manage my club myself.”
She clamped her teeth shut to hold back her retort. She didn’t know whether to be angry at his implied insult that she employed a general manager or complimented by the fact that he’d taken the time to dig up information on the Rio Blue. Or maybe on her? She stirred her martini with her skewered olive and then popped it into her mouth. She set the pick back in the glass, where it leaned like a tiny wooden spear.
The dance floor still writhed with rhythmic motion, the sound of bass only a very faint boom through the thick glass. Her gaze fell on a dark-skinned man and a woman locked together in a scorching rhythm, grinding and thrusting on the punch of the bass, his hands sliding over her, her arms lifted high overhead, her head thrown back, her hair wild. The image of Lennox and her joined together on the grassy moor flashed back into Aubrey’s mind. Another rush of liquid seeped between her legs. She shifted in her chair.
Lennox’s nostrils flared almost imperceptibly.
No, they couldn’t have. He was at least seven feet away. Though his striking gaze had dropped down from her eyes to her lips, and then to her cleavage—no, her neck.
How odd.
“May I be even more blunt?” she asked.
“Nothing has stopped you thus far.”
She smiled at the gleam in his cool blue eyes. “The bad press over the murder is killing your business. There are people out there who think this murder is connected to another woman murdered last spring a few blocks from here. Even if there’s no connection, the press is bad for business. You’ll be bankrupt within the year. Sell to me now and you’ll at least have a decent amount of cash to roll over into another venture. If you’d like, I’ll even keep you on as general manager.”
His expression hardened. “Interesting that you’d use the word killing.”
“An unfortunate choice of words.” She gave a little half shrug. “But it’s the truth. I’ve been following the story closely. Is the investigation even close to being wrapped up?”
“If you’ve been following it closely, then you know it’s not.”
“Look, Michael. You and I both know this business is all buzz and aura. Stain that in any way, and you risk everything you’ve invested. Have a woman turn up dead in your neighborhood, not three months before another girl turns up in your own back hallway?” She nodded toward the glass and the dancers. “You’re lucky the place isn’t a complete ghost town.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he asked softly. “We were closing in on your numbers. Pulling in the best crowds. The faces. The names. We had the buzz.”
Aubrey shrugged. “The newest thing on the scene is always hot. The Rio Blue keeps pulling them in from all over, year after year, good economy or bad.”
“I didn’t realize you’d come all this way to discuss whose was longer.”
“I’m trying to give you perspective, Mr. Lennox. Here’s what I propose. We close down for a few months, remodel, rename, and then relaunch—hell, you can even choose the theme—and we ditch the black cloud of a brutal murder that happened on-site. We generate a ton of play for ourselves. Make a lot of money.”
“They’ll catch the man who murdered that young woman, and when they do—”
“They won’t catch him; it’s been over a month. The damage is done, regardless. I’m sorry it happened.” The murder was a tragedy, no doubt about it. The dead girl had been young, and according to her friends, it had been just her second time at the club. Only a monster would fail to see the horror in that, or in the sleazy newspaper reports that she’d been found naked, after consensual sex, with puncture wounds in her thighs piercing the femoral artery and not a drop of blood left in the body.
The nutcases on talk radio had a field day screaming about vampires and chupacabras roaming the city; others blamed the girl, saying she “asked for it” by dressing wrong and going to bad places. Namely Club Lunar.
“No one’s sorrier about it than I am,” he said. His handsome face appeared strained but closed off. His right fist clenched. He seemed to realize it all at once and slowly opened his hand again.
“Lunar’s impressive,” Aubrey said. “I’ll be the first to admit it. That girl’s death was a tragedy, and it’s a shame to see it dragging down a good club. I can see that you run the place well, and if you’re as good an investor as you are a manager, like everything I could find out seems to imply, then you know I’m the answer to your prayers.”
He stayed silent for a long moment, standing near the glass, looking down on the diminished crowd. “How much?”
“Two million.”
He didn’t even flinch, she’d give him that much. “The building was worth that before I even started.”
“We’re talking total remodel here, Lennox. Not cheap.”
“The answer is still no.”
She stood slowly, trying to display as much grace as he did when he moved. Her thighs were still sticky, and she wondered if she’d left a wet spot on the chair. “If I have to buy this place after a bankruptcy, I won’t be keeping you on.”
He turned toward her, his eyes flashing. Her heart raced again. Had that last comment gone too far? She’d admired him, had been turned on by him from the first, but it hadn’t occurred to her to fear him. She’d never even considered the possibility that he could have killed the girl himself. Until now.
“You smell blood,” he said, his indigo eyes shadowed beneath drawn brows, “and now you’re circling in for the kill.”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not a shark. You misunderstand—”
“I understand enough.” His eyes were brighter suddenly. Strange. Almost seeming to glow with their own internal light. He stepped toward her, and her heart began to pound faster in her chest. “I understand that you might just be taking advantage of an unfortunate situation, Ms. Hunnisett…or perhaps you were involved in that poor girl’s death.”
“What? Why would I have killed some innocent girl?”
“How did you put it? ‘To generate a ton of play for ourselves. Make a lot of money?‘ Or maybe you have an investor who’s not happy about losing all that buzz.”
He took another step toward her, his eyes blazing. Then his aura hit her as hard as a punch. It swarmed around her in a cloud of sex, of lust, of wild abandon. The air seemed to vibrate with it. She couldn’t breathe. Her panties immediately soaked through as heat exploded from her pussy, suffusing her body, and little electric arcs of desire shot up her spine. Her nipples tightened to hard nubs, standing out proudly from the silk of her dress. A shudder of pleasure whip-snapped through her, and she moaned softly. She couldn’t look away from his strange blue-purple eyes. They seemed to hold her frozen. Her knees might have buckled, but his gaze kept her paralyzed, unable to move, to flee, to resist.
BUY LINK:
http://www.loose-id.com/Red-Rio-Blue.aspx
© Marianna Lauren, November 2009
All Rights Reserved
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