Guest Interview: David Bridger

Join me in welcoming author David Bridger to Fierce Romance today. David and I are members of the awesome Romance Divas forum and I’ve been looking forward to reading his debut romance, Beauty and the Bastard, from Liquid Silver Books since he first talked about it. The cover is great and here’s the blurb:

Saul the Bastard is a fallen angel who works as a bounty hunter for powerful urban demon families. Rebecca Drake, a modern day demon princess, is being hunted by dangerous desert demons. When Rebecca's family hires Saul to protect her, they are both unhappy with the arrangement--but before long sparks fly as they try to resist their strong mutual attraction. For the first time in living memory, Saul has someone to love; someone he is scared of losing; someone the desert demons have marked to be their next sacrifice.



You can check out Beauty and the Bastard here.

David was great enough to agree to answer a few questions today for our readers.

So first, please tell us a little about yourself.

Hi Natasha. Thank you for inviting me here today.

When my seagoing days came to an end, I crawled up onto a Devon beach and settled there with my wife and our three young daughters.

Actually, it was a bit more dramatic than that. I came home quite badly dented and spent two years paralyzed, several more years in a wheelchair, then up (and down) on sticks, before finally standing unaided fifteen years after the original injury. What kept me sane, through all that pain and distress, was learning how to write.

I'd always intended to write novels when I retired from the Royal Navy. Just didn't expect retirement to rear up and smack me down in my early thirties, is all.

But everything turned out well in the end. I love writing as much as I always knew I would. And now, with the publication of my debut novella Beauty and the Bastard, I'm an author.

I know! I don't think that will ever get old. I'm an author!

Wow, I never knew you were a wounded warrior. What else would your readers be surprised to know about you?

Every year I choose a project or two to immerse myself in though the midwinter months. There's always a stack of novels involved, and usually a DVD box set of some treasure I missed when it was on TV – Firefly in 2007/8, Deadwood in 2008/9, Twin Peaks in 2009/10, and I have True Blood series 1 & 2 lined up for 2010/11. Obsessive? Moi?

Next winter's big new project will be: learn to play the Native American flute. I've asked my family to buy me one for Christmas. Come January and February, passers-by will hear haunting notes carried on the wind from the roof garden behind our house. Unless we're being hammered by Atlantic gales, of course, in which case the notes are more likely to emanate from the chimney along with the log fire smoke.

Good luck with your winter project! I love the title, Beauty and the Bastard. Tell us a little about it.

This one is totally down to my editor, Sue Swift, who also writes as Suz deMello. I wrote the story under a different title, but Sue said it wasn't strong enough for a paranormal romance. She warned me titles weren't her strongest suit, but threw out a few suggestions anyway, and her very first one was Beauty and the Bastard. The moment I heard that, I knew it was perfect.


I think that title will attract a lot of readers. What element of story creation is your favorite? (Character? Setting? Plot? Etc.) Why?

No contest. Everything I write is character-driven. I enjoy world building and plotting, but without vibrant characters in the mix everything else is like a theoretical exercise. My characters live in my head before they make it to the page, and only the ones I fall in love with get to appear in public.


Hey, character is my favorite element too! Do you have rituals you follow when writing?

Yoga on the roof. We have a big garden behind the house, but we also have two big slobbery dogs. Those boys and their wet noses get everywhere, but fortunately they've yet to learn how to climb ladders. So I go up on the roof garden, where we have heavy pots filled with shrubs and flowering plants arranged in a vaguely Japanese fashion, and I clear my mind with yoga before my first writing session of the day.


Hmm…maybe I should try yoga. Most people think a writer’s life is really glamorous. What’s the least glamorous thing you’ve done in the past week?

Ten minutes ago I disposed of the steaming great pile of poo that our 90lb Dogue de Bordeaux pup deposited on the path immediately under my study window. Thanks for that, Elvis.


Gotta love those dogs! What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Write. Keep writing. And keep writing.

When it seems as if the road goes on forever without a destination in sight, keep writing. There's a whole world of related activities out there, and some can be valuable, but only writing itself moves us along the road.


What can we look forward from you in the future?

I'm two chapters into writing another Angels and Demons novella. It features new characters and isn't a sequel to Beauty and the Bastard, but it's set in the same world and I love it.

I also have a novel out there on submission: an urban fantasy shifter story with romantic elements. If that gets picked up, it might become the first book in a series.

And waiting patiently on the back burner is a futuristic steampunk romantic sf adventure.

Where can we find out more about you?

My site is www.davidbridger.com

I blog here http://david-bridger.livejournal.com/
Tweet here http://twitter.com/dbridger

Come and say hello!


I’m sure our readers will be checking out you and your book. Is there a question you’d like to ask our readers?

Who are your favorite romantic characters? Are there any new types you would like to see?