Hi, Today I'm pleased we have as a guest here author Alice Gaines. She's had several novellas out in Red Sage Secrets anthologies and they chose hers as one of the stories for the launch of eRed Sage (http://www.eredsage.com/).
Alice Gaines loves the fantastic and the ultra-sensual. Writing gives her the opportunity to combine these two pleasures. Besides spinning tales in her head, Alice’s passions include vegetable gardening, the San Francisco 49ers, and America’s Test Kitchen. Alice has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and lives in Oakland, California with her two pet corn snakes, Casper and Sheikh Yerbouti. Feel free to e-mail Alice at algaines@pacbell.net.
NN: Welcome, Alice!! Please tell us about your story out now with eRed Sage, Master of the Elements.
Alice Gaines: As Elsbeth says goodbye to her father at the foot of the forbidden mountain, he places a bride’s garland on her head and then refuses to let her go.
NN: Welcome, Alice!! Please tell us about your story out now with eRed Sage, Master of the Elements.
Alice Gaines: As Elsbeth says goodbye to her father at the foot of the forbidden mountain, he places a bride’s garland on her head and then refuses to let her go.
“I won’t leave you,” he insists. “Not to what lives up there.”
But Elsbeth has always known that her fate can only be found at the crest of the forbidden mountain in the master’s castle, a place shrouded in legend and kissed by the clouds.
Every hundred years, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the new century, a virgin from the town is led to the foot of the mountain and sent up to her destiny at the master’s hands. None of the virgins are ever heard from again.
As the time for the sacrifice grows near, the master’s protection against the elements begins to falter. Drought, wind, cold. Crops fail. The people are suffering, and only Elsbeth can put a stop to it.
But at what cost? Is Elsbeth a blood sacrifice? Or a companion to ease the master’s isolation?
NN: What a great premise!! Please tell us about your favorite character in the book and why is this the case?
AG: The story only has two important characters -- Elsbeth and Lord Raelen, the Master of the Elements. Although I love and admire Elsbeth, Raelen is the one who totally captured my imagination. He's mysterious and frightening and yet gentle and adept at giving his virgin companion great pleasure. As the story progresses, he becomes more human, more vulnerable, and more precious. I want that man!
NN: He sounds like a hero I would easily fall in love with! Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?
AG: Never give up! Never surrender!
Okay, that's Commander Peter Quincy Taggart of the NSEA Protector (Questarians know what I'm talking about), but it's the best advice to writers at every point in their careers. It's never easy, and it never gets easier. The rejections hurt more after you're published. Take it from someone who knows.
Ultimately, the only thing you can count on is the joy of writing itself. Publishers will reject or neglect you. Editors will fail to recognize your brilliance and insist you throw out your best stuff. Reviewers will write descriptions of your books that prove beyond a doubt that they never read your stories but someone else's. Blogs? Don't even get me started on blogs. Your nearest and dearest may not understand why you HAVE to tell stories. They may even try to sabotage you.
In the end, all you have is your characters and the beauty of the worlds you've created for them. Cling to them and protect them. They -- and you -- deserve no less.
NN: This is so true! What’s next for you?
AG: I'm in the process of finishing a full-length book set in an alternate universe where a mutation has created a sub-species ultra-sexual human beings called Novuses. My heroine is cast into that universe where she has to learn how to fix her own world so she can save her child. In that alternate universe, she meets her soul mate -- a powerful Novus leader. When the time comes to return to her world, will she be able to bring her lover back with her? Will she have to chose between her child and the man she loves?
After that, I have a few short things I need to write before I can move on to my next obsession. I recently succumbed to the Timothy Dalton version of Jane Eyre. Oh, la la! that tortured, beautiful, passionate man! To exorcise that demon I want to write my own story about the redemption of a man who believes he was born without a heart. Only, my Jane will be a force for sensuality rather than a force for morality.
NN: What a great premise!! Please tell us about your favorite character in the book and why is this the case?
AG: The story only has two important characters -- Elsbeth and Lord Raelen, the Master of the Elements. Although I love and admire Elsbeth, Raelen is the one who totally captured my imagination. He's mysterious and frightening and yet gentle and adept at giving his virgin companion great pleasure. As the story progresses, he becomes more human, more vulnerable, and more precious. I want that man!
NN: He sounds like a hero I would easily fall in love with! Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?
AG: Never give up! Never surrender!
Okay, that's Commander Peter Quincy Taggart of the NSEA Protector (Questarians know what I'm talking about), but it's the best advice to writers at every point in their careers. It's never easy, and it never gets easier. The rejections hurt more after you're published. Take it from someone who knows.
Ultimately, the only thing you can count on is the joy of writing itself. Publishers will reject or neglect you. Editors will fail to recognize your brilliance and insist you throw out your best stuff. Reviewers will write descriptions of your books that prove beyond a doubt that they never read your stories but someone else's. Blogs? Don't even get me started on blogs. Your nearest and dearest may not understand why you HAVE to tell stories. They may even try to sabotage you.
In the end, all you have is your characters and the beauty of the worlds you've created for them. Cling to them and protect them. They -- and you -- deserve no less.
NN: This is so true! What’s next for you?
AG: I'm in the process of finishing a full-length book set in an alternate universe where a mutation has created a sub-species ultra-sexual human beings called Novuses. My heroine is cast into that universe where she has to learn how to fix her own world so she can save her child. In that alternate universe, she meets her soul mate -- a powerful Novus leader. When the time comes to return to her world, will she be able to bring her lover back with her? Will she have to chose between her child and the man she loves?
After that, I have a few short things I need to write before I can move on to my next obsession. I recently succumbed to the Timothy Dalton version of Jane Eyre. Oh, la la! that tortured, beautiful, passionate man! To exorcise that demon I want to write my own story about the redemption of a man who believes he was born without a heart. Only, my Jane will be a force for sensuality rather than a force for morality.
NN: Sounds fantastic! Thanks so much for being here today, Alice!! Please visit Alice's website at: Alice Gaines To join her yahoogroup send an e-mail to AliceGainesChambers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
To blog readers, who is your all time favorite romance hero and why did you fall in love with him so quickly and completely?
4 comments:
Alice gives some great advice, and I LOVE Timothy Dalton in that role. I think I even have a picture of him that I'll have to find and post. Favorite heroes? There are too many to count! I love most of the heroes in Victoria Holt's books - Connan Tremellyn in Mistress of Mellyn, Napier in The Shivering Sands (so tortured), Joss in Pride of the Peacock. And I love most of the heroes in Georgette Heyer's books - Miles Calverleigh in The Black Sheep is my favorite. More recent heroes? I love the lazy golfer in Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Lady Be Good and I adore Rafe in Eloisa James' The Taming of the Duke. There are obviously just too many to list here! LOL
Wow, what a loaded question! If I had to pick one, I think I'll stick to the first romantic hero to hit me (at least in books)...Ruark Beauchamp in Kathleen Woodiwiss's 'Shanna'. He had it all: looks, charm, no nonsense attitude, strength, intelligence. Best of all, he won over the girl when she thought he had nothing.
Master of the Elements sounds great!
I have too many favorite heros to count or name here...but I did just finish Eloisa James's Desperate Duchesses, and Lord Griffyn is extremely manly, hot and sexy...
For me, Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series!
(Though I have to agree to Ruth's suggestion of Ruark Beauchamp. He will remain a larger-than-life hero as well because Shanna was one of the first romances I read.)
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