Erotic Fiction Author Panel Part 2:
Adriana Kraft, AP Miller, K.A. M’Lady and Regan Taylor return to discuss New Year’s resolutions, coffee and cats, chocolate and rum, happy endings...and the books they love to read...
Adriana Kraft, AP Miller, K.A. M’Lady and Regan Taylor return to discuss New Year’s resolutions, coffee and cats, chocolate and rum, happy endings...and the books they love to read...
Author Interviews by A.J. Llewellyn
1. It needs to be asked, what was your best New Year’s Eve ever…and your worst?
Adriana Kraft: The turn of the century. We started watching Y2K (remember??) enter in at the international date line early on New Year’s Eve day and stayed up a full 24 hours mesmerized by ABC’s coverage as the celebration circled the globe. Sydney, Moscow, the Vatican, London, New York and finally Hawaii and Samoa - all peaceful and filled with hope. Couldn’t wish for better.
AP Miller: Well I'd have to say my best New years Eve had to be when I spent it in NYC. The crowds were incredible and it was so cold! But watching that ball drop in person was just amazing. I never really did have a bad New years. I always make the best of them each year no matter where I am and who I am spending it with.
K.A. M’Lady: I work a lot so any New Year’s that I can manage to stay awake to even meet the New Year I consider it a plus. I’d say the best New Year’s Eves are the ones that I make it past midnight and am able to hold my husband, look into his pale blue eyes, promise to love him more throughout the next year than I did before – if that’s possible – and bring in the New Year to the touch of his lips on mine. Any thing less than that would pretty much suck.
Regan Taylor: Best – The night I met my high school boyfriend, Roy. I was 16, he was tall, dark and utterly gorgeous and 21. When he left that night he asked me to go to the movies with him the next week, I said yes. My mother was horrified. She was even more horrified when I told her he was the man I was going to marry. We dated till he went overseas with the Army and went our separate ways for over 20 years. We reconnected two years ago. He’s still tall, dark and utterly gorgeous.
Worst – two years ago – I had to help Miss Ginny cross the rainbow bridge several days before.
2. What are your New Year’s resolutions as a writer – and a reader?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Market. Market. Market. Market...and enjoy the process. She says: works for me!
AP Miller: Our first resolution is to make all our deadlines. As a reader, we both want to make sure we finish all the books we started. I seriously would like to get back into Dianna Gabaldon's Outlander series. Andrew is a much more faithful reader then I am and manages to finish what he starts.
K.A. M’Lady: As a writer, for my publisher, Mojocastle, I’d say it is to turn in Realm III ~ Illuminated Death. That is my one and only goal. Of course, there are a ton of stories started and characters biding there time to speak, but some just have to wait there turn.
As a reader - I try to save my pile of books I want to read for when I finish a story. So I guess I better get my booty in gear – the pile is growing!
Regan Taylor: Writer – Submit and have signed Mistaken Bride, Amazonia and The Photograph.
Reader – Hmmm, I always read 3-4 books a week….I’m not sure how many more I could read.
3. What is the one thing you wish your partner or spouse would do with you in the new year?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Spend time wandering. We have great times wandering, and stories naturally evolve. She says: I’ll go anywhere he takes me!
Adriana Kraft: The turn of the century. We started watching Y2K (remember??) enter in at the international date line early on New Year’s Eve day and stayed up a full 24 hours mesmerized by ABC’s coverage as the celebration circled the globe. Sydney, Moscow, the Vatican, London, New York and finally Hawaii and Samoa - all peaceful and filled with hope. Couldn’t wish for better.
AP Miller: Well I'd have to say my best New years Eve had to be when I spent it in NYC. The crowds were incredible and it was so cold! But watching that ball drop in person was just amazing. I never really did have a bad New years. I always make the best of them each year no matter where I am and who I am spending it with.
K.A. M’Lady: I work a lot so any New Year’s that I can manage to stay awake to even meet the New Year I consider it a plus. I’d say the best New Year’s Eves are the ones that I make it past midnight and am able to hold my husband, look into his pale blue eyes, promise to love him more throughout the next year than I did before – if that’s possible – and bring in the New Year to the touch of his lips on mine. Any thing less than that would pretty much suck.
Regan Taylor: Best – The night I met my high school boyfriend, Roy. I was 16, he was tall, dark and utterly gorgeous and 21. When he left that night he asked me to go to the movies with him the next week, I said yes. My mother was horrified. She was even more horrified when I told her he was the man I was going to marry. We dated till he went overseas with the Army and went our separate ways for over 20 years. We reconnected two years ago. He’s still tall, dark and utterly gorgeous.
Worst – two years ago – I had to help Miss Ginny cross the rainbow bridge several days before.
2. What are your New Year’s resolutions as a writer – and a reader?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Market. Market. Market. Market...and enjoy the process. She says: works for me!
AP Miller: Our first resolution is to make all our deadlines. As a reader, we both want to make sure we finish all the books we started. I seriously would like to get back into Dianna Gabaldon's Outlander series. Andrew is a much more faithful reader then I am and manages to finish what he starts.
K.A. M’Lady: As a writer, for my publisher, Mojocastle, I’d say it is to turn in Realm III ~ Illuminated Death. That is my one and only goal. Of course, there are a ton of stories started and characters biding there time to speak, but some just have to wait there turn.
As a reader - I try to save my pile of books I want to read for when I finish a story. So I guess I better get my booty in gear – the pile is growing!
Regan Taylor: Writer – Submit and have signed Mistaken Bride, Amazonia and The Photograph.
Reader – Hmmm, I always read 3-4 books a week….I’m not sure how many more I could read.
3. What is the one thing you wish your partner or spouse would do with you in the new year?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Spend time wandering. We have great times wandering, and stories naturally evolve. She says: I’ll go anywhere he takes me!
AJ Says: You two are adorable!
AP Miller: Snuggle more when I watch movies. Andrew would like me to spend more time with him doing what he likes.
K.A. M’Lady: More date nights, but most of that is partly my fault – all this work and so little time… Maybe I need to write more and work less. There’s a thought!
Regan Taylor: Snicker….growing up my grandmother used to tell me that whatever you did on New Years Eve you’d do for the rest of the year. Guess what we do EVERY new years eve at the STROKE of midnight?
AJ Says: MMmm...I don't know? Tennis? Badminton? Crochet? Am I close?
AP Miller: Snuggle more when I watch movies. Andrew would like me to spend more time with him doing what he likes.
K.A. M’Lady: More date nights, but most of that is partly my fault – all this work and so little time… Maybe I need to write more and work less. There’s a thought!
Regan Taylor: Snicker….growing up my grandmother used to tell me that whatever you did on New Years Eve you’d do for the rest of the year. Guess what we do EVERY new years eve at the STROKE of midnight?
AJ Says: MMmm...I don't know? Tennis? Badminton? Crochet? Am I close?
4. I love childhood questions…what was your favorite TV show growing up and how does it hold up for you today?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Not sure I had one. Preferred books. She says: My parents didn’t even get a TV till I was a teenager - grew up buried in books, too.
AP Miller: I actually had many favorite television shows. Scooby Doo, The Archies, Cagney and Lacey, The Dukes of Hazard. But if I had to pick only one I would have to go farther back and choose “Captain Kangaroo.” He had a wonderful way with children that helped instill values and morals. I woke up to his show daily and can actually remember watching him and Mr. Green Jeans all the way back to age three.
K.A. M’Lady: I’ve never been real big into TV. I read, or (now here’s a concept for today’s kids – went outside to play!)
Regan Taylor: Tinker Tom – no one else remembers it – but he was tall, dark and gorgeous. (Are you seeing a trend here?)
Although I’ve decided Colin Wilson would make an excellent Austin Quinn.
5. Who are your favorite authors and have they inspired your work at all?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Favorite authors from childhood and youth: Zane Gray, Willa Cather, James Michener. Their work still carries a spark that fuels my writing. She says: Jane Austin, Margaret Mitchell, Anaïs Nin, Madeline L’Engle. Depth of character and a sense of wonder are always inspirational.
AP Miller: My ultimate favorite author is Dianna Gabaldon...everytime I read her I draw inspiration. She has a way of drawing the reader deep into her stories, bringing out every emotion with in the reader, and that's what a good story is made of...if you can make a reader feel what your characters are feeling then I'd definitely call that inspiration.
K.A. M’Lady: Favorite authors – Do you have enough space? Cummings, Poe, Whitman, Thoreau, Billy Collins, Ann Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, King – to name a few. I’m real big into poetry – it’s where most of my writing started – even as a kid. So I tend read just about any poetry I can get my hands on, whether it’s online or the classics. As far as vampires, I cut my teeth on Ann Rice, like most. The images she created, you could just about reach through the page and touch the gilded edges of bowls, the velvet of curtains. Smells the slough of alleyways. You were there in the streets, in the brothels, in the crypts and it was real.
Regan Taylor: Alexander DuMont – he does revenge in such an elegant way. Someday I’m going to do it with the same style and class as Edmund Dantes.
6. Do you play music when you are writing and if so, what are your faves?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Often. Celtic, Native flute, “I am Woman.” She says: he left out Johnny Cash. For me - classical music, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan.
AP Miller: As a matter of fact I do play music when I write. I listen to all the 80's songs. My muse is George Michael.
K.A. M’Lady: No, none – I guess I’m one of those people who need the silence when I’m writing. Maybe it’s so I can channel the characters or something… Strange thing though, when I read, I can read anywhere, in any condition or any amount of noise.
Regan Taylor: Depends – when I’m working on the Bride Series it’s usually Enrique Igelsias, The Spell series Melissa Etheridge. Otherwise, no.
7. What are the two things I will always find on your desk?
Adriana Kraft: He says: If you can find anything on my desk, more power to you - I can’t! She says: A geode, and a red silk rose from Phantom of the Opera.
AP Miller: Chocolate and rum!
K.A. M’Lady: Ok, if we’re talking office desk, coffee. If we’re talking home desk, I have this pen holder a dear friend gave me – it’s a hunk of wood that say’s “Writer’s Block” -- she gave it to me so that I never get it. And, if we’re talking where I do most of my writing, well then, I usually just use my lap top – on my lap, at the office, on my lunch hour. I tend to go hide away in a storage room where people can’t bug me and I spend my lunch time writing. You’d be surprised how much you can write an hour a day. I’ve written three novels – two of them in 3 months time. (no that does not include the editing process, the re-editing process, or the galley process – this whole publishing thing is a much bigger deal than one would ever imagine – but, just the initial drafts took 3 months).
Regan Taylor: Pictures of my cats and a cup of coffee.
8. What is the worst ending you ever read in a book?
Adriana Kraft: Any ending where the hero or heroine dies. The ending can be messy, but needs somehow to be happy and uplifting. That applies to movies, too. Message in a Bottle was a bit of a blow...There’s a reason we write romance!
AP Miller: I can't remember ever reading a bad ending in any of the books I've read.
K.A. M’Lady: I hate the books that just end. The ones with no particular meaning that ties it to the story and you’re just sitting there saying, “What the hell was that?” I like the cliffhangers. Laurell K. Hamilton is good for that. She makes grind your teeth just a little. Leaves you saying, “Damn it! When it the next one coming out? I’ve got to know what happens next!” Or I like the stories that leave you with just enough to let your own imagination wander. They keep you guessing, pondering the possibilities of what could be. It sort of lets you make up the ending – if you could write it yourself – while your waiting for a sequel.
Regan Taylor: Oh Oh Oh! M.J. Rose’s The Reincarnationist! The ending was so unexpected and NOT the one I wanted. Once I got over my own tantrum about it I realized it was utterly brilliant and the only one that would be right. If you haven’t read it I strongly recommend it.
9. If you were a Disneyland ride, which one would it be?
Adriana Kraft: He says: don’t know the names of Disneyland rides - but from carnivals? The tilt-a-whirl. A lot of spinning, some ups and downs, and it gets you and your partner naturally close together. She says: Actually, the Disneyland Teacup ride inspired one of our Extasy erotic romances...it was the first thing we thought of when we picked up the Three of Cups Tarot assignment. We’ll leave it to you to figure out the link...
AP Miller: I don't know...I've never been to Disneyland.
AJ Says: What, are you kidding me? I live for Disneyland!!
K.A. M’Lady: I’d probably say I was that spinning ride that the floor drops and leaves you sticking to the wall. You know it’s going to happen, it’s wild, yet somewhat predictable, a whirlwind, but still foreseeable, and yet still make you wonder.
Regan Taylor: The space one.
10. What is the one place you would like to visit before you die and why?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Stonehenge. It’s like a magnet drawing me. She says: The Great Wall of China.
AP Miller: I think I'd love to visit Egypt because I have always had a fascination with Archeology and the Pyramids for as long as I can remember. Besides I would love to see them before they are torn down or destroyed by war.
K.A. M’Lady: Scotland and Ireland. My husband’s ancestors are from Ireland and I’d like to experience it with him – his heritage. And Scotland because there is just something about it that calls to me. I can’t explain it, or describe it – it’s just an odd sort of yearning.
Regan Taylor: The pyramids at Giza. Because it resonates with me and always has.
On Behalf of Dark Diva Reviews I would like to thank Adriana Kraft, AP Miller, K.A. M'Lady and Regan Taylor for stopping by today.
K.A. M’Lady: I’d probably say I was that spinning ride that the floor drops and leaves you sticking to the wall. You know it’s going to happen, it’s wild, yet somewhat predictable, a whirlwind, but still foreseeable, and yet still make you wonder.
Regan Taylor: The space one.
10. What is the one place you would like to visit before you die and why?
Adriana Kraft: He says: Stonehenge. It’s like a magnet drawing me. She says: The Great Wall of China.
AP Miller: I think I'd love to visit Egypt because I have always had a fascination with Archeology and the Pyramids for as long as I can remember. Besides I would love to see them before they are torn down or destroyed by war.
K.A. M’Lady: Scotland and Ireland. My husband’s ancestors are from Ireland and I’d like to experience it with him – his heritage. And Scotland because there is just something about it that calls to me. I can’t explain it, or describe it – it’s just an odd sort of yearning.
Regan Taylor: The pyramids at Giza. Because it resonates with me and always has.
On Behalf of Dark Diva Reviews I would like to thank Adriana Kraft, AP Miller, K.A. M'Lady and Regan Taylor for stopping by today.
We wish everybody a very, very happy New Year and we look forward to bringing you many more exciting interviews in 2009!
Links:
Adriana Kraft:
http://www.adrianakraft.com/
www.myspace.com/adrianakraft
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adrianakraftnewsletter/
http://www.glee.com/AdrianaKraft/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MidnightSeductions/
AP Miller:
www.myspace.com/pattipaige
K.A.M’Lady:
www.geocities.com/mladyfair12
www.myspace.com/kamlady
Regan Taylor:
http://www.regantaylor.com/
