Liane Gentry Skye urges us to Believe in happily ever after

Liane Gentry Skye was considered the girl most likely to become a nun in high school. Upon graduation, she wasted no time rewriting her miserable destiny. Two marriages, one real life alpha hero and four beautiful babies later, she decided it wise to exchange her rhinestone thong for soccer mom sweats. These days, her walk on the wild side lives (mostly) in her imagination. The mother of two children with autism, what time she doesn't spend breathing life into her secret fantasies, she spends grant writing and advocating for a better world for persons with autism. In that vein, she has written for such venues as Autism/Asperger's Digest, Autism Today, Guideposts: Angels on Earth.

Liane also writes hot stories for Red Sage. I'm excited that Liane and I will both have novellas in the upcoming Secrets Volume 27, out next July! But today we're going to talk about another of her books.

Nicole: Liane, Welcome! Thanks for being here! Please tell us about Believe, your December release from Red Sage.

Liane: Believe is a light hearted holiday erotic fantasy loosely based on the Christmas classic, Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

Nicole: Very cool! And I love the cover! Please tell us about your favorite character in the book.

Liane: The hero, Nikolai, captured my heart from page one. The story's opening finds him standing on the gallows, getting ready to meet his maker. Nikolai has been a naughty boy, and now he's paying the price for his Robin Hood meets Don Juan DeMarco lifestyle. By the time our lusty Nikolai meets Virginia, my slightly jaded, contemporary heroine, he's gone seven hundred and fifty years without getting it on and his wooing skills have grown a bit rusty. To say that he comes off as an overly ardent suitor is a bit of an understatement, and the initial sparks that fly between he and Virginia are both hilarious and volatile.

Nicole: Sounds fantastic! Which element of story creation is your favorite?

Liane: This story was literally a gift. The bones of it poured out of me in two weeks time. What was hard for me was revising, breathing life into the the erotic discovery between Virginia and Nikolai without coming off as too flowery. When I started editing the love scenes, I wanted my readers to experience them as vividly as the characters did. Because Nikolai and Viginia's relationship was so miraculous, I agonized over each and every word until the scenes stirred me in the way a fine piece of music might. I wanted the rhythm of the language to elevate the erotic elements into something that was as reverant as it was hot. I tried very hard to infuse those moments with as much beauty as I was capable. It was exhausting. It was also a wonderful feeling when it finally came out right. :)

Nicole: Sounds like the end result will be beautiful. Which element of this story was the hardest for you?

Liane: I partially answered this above. :) The parts of my stories I end up loving the most are inevitably the ones that give me the most grief--the love scenes. I truly agonize over them. I feel that making love is a form of worship between lovers, and I want my love scenes to transcend the physical act to become something larger than just mechanics. After all, isn't that what true love is all about?

Nicole: Absolutely. Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?

Liane: My best advice to new writers is also the hardest piece I ever had to swallow. Worse, I heard it from someone I thought had no right to say it to me--my husband. I was having a hissy fit about having no time to write between taking care of the kids and battling my sons schools for appropriate services (my boys have autism). One day, my husband settled his hands on my shoulders, forced me to look at him and said, "Liane, if you aren't writing, it's because you don't want to write. Quit blaming us."

Ouch. Those words settled over me like ice water. How dare him say that to me! But after I got over my hissy fit, I realized they were true. I was burying my dream beneath my responsibilities. I was at that horrific midpoint in a story that was struggling to come to life, but would't cooperate. My husband knew I wanted to quit. He also knew I was angling for an excuse to do just that. Because of what he said, I didn't. What I did do was get mad enough to grind my way to the end. Thank God, he called me on it, because that novella, Heart Storm, will be published in Red Sage, Publishing's Secrets, Volume 27.

So here's the advice. :) Writers write. There's no substitute, no short cut. We all waste time. If you don't believe me, then take a few days to list the amount of time you spent watching tv, reading a book, or waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice. Trust me, it adds up. If you are a writer who isn't writing, it's because either you're scared, you're stuck, or you haven't reached the stage in your dream where you're willing to lay all excuses aside and just grind your way to the finish line.

We only have this one life. This. One. Life. Do you really want to look back at the end of yours and say "I wish I'd finished that story?" I didn't think so. :)

Nicole: Wow! Wonderful advice! Would you like to ask blog readers a question?

Liane: I'm finding myself craving stories that aren't so brooding as what I've read previously. With all the bad news whirling around, I'm craving lighter fare. Are these hard economic times impacting the books you read? If so why and how?

Nicole: Great question! I love those uplifting happily-ever-afters. Everyone, please visit Liane's website at http://lianeskye.com/ Thank you, Liane, for being here with us today! It's been a pleasure!