Interview with Erotic Romance Author Marquete Williams!

The Interview:

GRACIE: I’m excited to have you here at The G-Spot, Marquete! Please tell us a little about yourself (or a lot J) and how and when you got into writing?

MARQUETE: I am so happy to be here, Gracie! Thank you for having me. My love of writing started when I was 14 years old when I made small changes to the school play I acted in. It was during that time my parents bought me a typewriter for Christmas. I loved typing.

At 17, my interest deepened. Being radical, and crazy over fast cars and boys with long hair, I told my friends I wanted to write a heart pounding, action/adventure story. At the same time, I read my first sexual Forum, and thought ‘wow’, I can write an erotic action! Though my story didn’t come to light right then, my erotic action, Siberian Jewel was born years later.          

GRACIE: Is there any one thing or person in your life that inspired your writing? Any one thing or person that influenced the genre you write in?

MARQUETE: The one person that has truly inspired me is Gracie C. McKeever! She is compelling, passionate and accomplished in her work, life and writing.  For a very long time, McKeever has been my mentor. Desert Dreams and New Life Incognita are just a couple of the titles from a long list of her work that influenced me. Since cyber-meeting her several years ago, McKeever has provided perpetual encouragement.

GRACIE (fiercely blushing and clearing throat): When did you get The Call and what was your first published book?

MARQUETE: I received The Call in November 2010 from Beth Walker at Secret Cravings Publishing! I signed the contract! Almost 4 months later my first book, Siberian Jewel was published and released in March 2011!  It was so exciting.

GRACIE: What do you know now about writing and the publishing industry that you wish you’d known before you started?

MARQUETE: Though writing and research can be fascinating, it’s a lot of hard work getting those words down in grammatically correct order. Accepting an editor’s censure and comments about one’s baby is not easy. Not to mention, as I had been previously cautioned by other authors, there’s a lot of work involved in promoting and marketing one’s books. However, in the long-run the best promotion an author can do is to keep writing and getting more books published.

GRACIE: Please give us a little story behind the story and what inspired your Secret Cravings Publishing release, Siberian Jewel.

MARQUETE: Siberian Jewel was originally called Jewel of the Sea and started out as a short story I was writing for a contest at Dreams Press. The deadline came and went for the contest. I continued writing my story however, but found my plot wasn’t going anywhere. The basic outline was about a man living in a beach house. He goes for a walk and finds an unconscious woman washed to shore in a wooden boat. He carries the lifeless woman to his beach house. They get to know each other and fall in love.

BORING flashed through my mind. So I gave it more thought. Next thing, I made some provisions: instead of my hero, Cal Mallory living in a beach house on the ocean, he was travelling on a yacht, and happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Toni, my heroine (literally) crashes into Cal’s yacht in her wooden boat, and into his life. Toni is running for her life because of her dead prostitute mother’s secret.

Retrospection: Upon completion I can now say my vision (from when I was seventeen) was coming to life before my eyes!

GRACIE: What is CEO, Cal Mallory’s Achilles’ heel and how did you go about stomping it?

MARQUETE: Cal is very jaded, hard-nosed, presumptuous and he doesn’t easily trust people. When he meets Toni he, of course, doesn’t believe her story about being chased by thugs. He thinks she’s partying it up with the girls, and racing boats. After a few heated arguments, Toni claims she has no idea why she is being chased, and overhears some horrible things. Cal senses her streetwise sense, feels her fear, and knows Toni is genuine and serious.

GRACIE: What about Toni’s character traits do you think makes her a perfect match for Cal?

MARQUETE: While on the run, Cal puts together the pieces of why Toni is being chased, and more and more they are getting closer to the truth. However, despite Toni’s tough attitude, Cal sees her uncertainties. The chase draws out Toni’s emotions and ugliest fears and jolts Cal’s heart, pulling out his deepest feelings for her, and bringing out the protective bear that wants to keep her safe.   

GRACIE: What did you find the most enjoyable about researching Siberian Jewel, in particular and your stories, in general? What do you find the most challenging?

MARQUETE: I enjoyed spending Cal Mallory’s money to purchase his yacht, LOL. Purchasing it, of course, was not part of the story, but it was fun shopping online, and learning a bit about the yacht before putting it on the ocean.

I had to invent Patty a fictional character, a former boatswain from the Navy to be Cal Mallory’s assistant who helms the yacht. I loved researching Mexico and its culture, and the Siberia diamond mines. I even asked my Dad for proper take-off procedure in a single engine aircraft. I refreshed myself on weapons and stance.

The most challenging things I faced was having to continually modify my writing style, understanding my characters’ POV, and the many daunting rewrites. After I contracted – the edits! 

GRACIE: Of all the stories you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

MARQUETE: Siberian Jewel was my first published novel at Secret Cravings Publishing. I love

Cal and Toni and even the villain, la Cruz aka Rattlesnake, and his hired men.  Toni’s (deceased

parents and Cal’s family. They were part of my life for a very long time. It was hard saying good-bye

to them.

GRACIE: I know this is like asking a mother which is her favorite child, but which of your characters is your favorite and why?

MARQUETE: You’re right. This is tough question. I really like Toni. I admire her attitude, chutzpah and courage.

GRACIE: What about your characters makes them unique?

MARQUETE: That a big, strong and heavily built man like Cal enjoys classical music, LOL.  

GRACIE: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process? Your least favorite?

MARQUETE: My favorite aspect is getting to know my characters, the plot and the areas where my stories take place. The ‘what if’s’ are quite interesting. I enjoy interviewing the characters. It amazes me at how well I get to know my heroine and hero through an interview. 

My least favorite is sorting through my scribbled notes that collect and grow over time. I have several stories outlined and piles of notes in my oak cabinet waiting to be sorted through before I can begin my stories.    

GRACIE: Are you a pantser or do you outline?

MARQUETE: Outline.

GRACIE: If you weren’t a writer, what other profession would you have chosen to pursue?

MARQUETE: I want to do EVERYTHING, from being a nurse, a paramedic, SAR (search and rescue), archeologist, a chef, detective, criminalist, a travel journalist, actress; a screenwriter. Working on location on a film set watching my novels being made into a motion picture!

To answer your question, if I weren’t a writer, I’d be a nurse, or maybe a paramedic?

For fun, I still want to fly.

GRACIE: Who are some of your favorite authors and why? Name some of your favorite books and why they’re your favorites.

MARQUETE: Jaid Black, Ruby Storm, Reese Gabriel, Sable Hunter, Vonna Harper, Denyse Bridger and Gracie McKeever. Recently, I picked up a novel, Rose Madder by Stephen King. All the stories I have read by these authors have tenacity and emotion. 

GRACIE: What are you working on now and what should readers be looking forward to from you in the future?

MARQUETE: I am working on Home Sexy Home, about a business woman,

Jacqueline Holly, who purchases a crumbling mansion in a small town and turns it into a

Bed & Breakfast. With the renovations nearly completed, Jacqueline doesn’t want

anything to get in her way to opening the doors to her B&B, when she finds one rough looking,

however, devastatingly attractive biker and drifter camping in the woods in her backyard.

I’m also working on Dirty Woman. The heroine, Fiona Lovett, wants to explore her sexuality by imitating the art she paints by being a sexual exhibitionist. 

Soon, I’ll be working on Bad & Beautiful, a sexy thriller about bad boy Billy Shaw who breaks away from drug lords to save a city the drug lords want to wipe out. Before he gets to the city Billy hides temporarily in a barn to attend to his gunshot wound. There he finds Sarah, a young sheltered woman who lives precariously through Cosmopolitan magazine and the media. Against Billy’s objections, Sarah goes on the run with Billy.     

GRACIE: Do you have a website and/or how can readers contact you?

MARQUETE: Yes, absolutely. My website is http://www.marquetewilliams.ca 

Readers can email me here: mhandywilliams@eastlink.ca

GRACIE: Where and how can readers purchase and/or read samples of your work?

MARQUETE: Readers can go to my website as mentioned above to read excerpts and find links to purchase my book(s) or they may follow the links below:  

Create Space (Print book):  https://www.createspace.com/3620940
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Siberian-Jewel-ebook/dp/B004SBQA3I
Secret Cravings Publishing (Ebook):  http://tinyurl.com/7h5kpbf

GRACIE: What advice do you have for beginning writers?

MARQUETE: The best advice I can give is to read, read, read, and then read some more for enjoyment and study. Read The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B.White, (recommended to me by Gracie McKeever J). Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon is a great how-to book too.

GRACIE: Marquete, thanks so much for taking time from your busy schedule to share yourself and your work with us at The G-Spot and giving us a little insight into your writing and the writing process! We’ll let you get back to writing those wonderful books you write! All the best!

MARQUETE: Thanks so much, Gracie for this interview! This was fun. I hope readers enjoy my interview as much I enjoyed being here. I look forward to hearing from them!

Intimate Affairs Now Available!

Check out the Kindle edition of my BDSM erotic short, INTIMATE AFFAIRS here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006VXIXSQ This is a re-release (formerly titled: GRAY BADGE OF TRUST) but if you didn’t read it before, then it’s new to you J and a bargain at $.99. Download your copy today!

Aside from the fact that I think it’s a pretty hot story and some of my best writing, I’m particularly proud of this release simply for the fact that my technology-challenged ass built and formatted the book all on my own in order to sell the Kindle edition on Amazon. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but after staying up into the wee hours one weeknight before I had to go to the EDJ, I finally got it! I hope you enjoy my efforts as much as I did J

Reading Goals for 2011

As of this writing I read 96 books, 4 books short of my reading goal for the year. I actually had two goals--100 books/25,000 pages. I reached the 25,000 pages goal about a week ago. I'm a little bummed about not reaching both, but glad to have been able to read as many books as I did, and to have discovered quite a few new, excellent authors. Unfortunately, I'm anticipating reading even less for 2012 as my own writing kicks back into high gear. I'd still like to finish no less than 50 books, hopefully more, to put a dent in my numerous TBR piles (and with my purchase of a Kindle, my TBR piles have been growing by leaps and bounds in the virtual and physical realms ;)

The usual refrain for me comes to mind: So many books, so little time. Of course this hasn't stopped me from piling up on books--both electronic and print. Helping me to feed my book purchasing addiction is this nifty little site I recently discovered http://www.pixelofink.com I'm about a week and a half into my subscription and I've already dowloaded at least 15 free or bargain e-books for my Kindle and looking forward to enjoying even more new and up-and-coming authors as well as my reliable auto-buys.

How about you? Did you reach your reading goals for the year?

AUTHOR BIO: My first three novels were historical fiction involving pre-colonial African explorers. Since I was always either accused or praised (depending how you look at it) for writing overly steamy sex scenes, erotic romance was the natural next step. I am currently writing about the rough and tumble life of the California gold rush, and I live in Northern California with my Newfoundland dog.  I just put her into my current release, Sure as Shooting.  The heroine didn’t want another child after hers was murdered by Indians, so she begged the hero for a “large fluffy dog”!

THE INTERVIEW:

GRACIE: I’m excited to have you here at The G-Spot, Karen! Please tell us a little about yourself (or a lot J) and how and when you got into writing?

KAREN: Oh gads, I had to teach myself to read and write when I was three simply in order to write.  I knew I wanted to write novels, so I somehow taught myself.  I guess I looked over my mother’s shoulder when she read aloud to me, and put two and two together. 

I taught myself to type when I was about six using my mother’s cursive manual typewriter.  Of course the “books” involved my best friend and our highly suspenseful journeys into a volcano or the sewer.  Or maybe it was just the schoolyard.

I wrote dozens of novels over the next few decades, just for fun, never attempting to get published.  It was just a stress reliever, I guess, something I obviously would’ve done anyway, a hobby.

GRACIE: Is there any one thing or person in your life that inspired your writing? Any one thing or person that influenced the genre you write in?

KAREN:  It’s the same answer for both questions: Henry Miller, the Brooklyn writer who was banned for writing The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy starting in the late 40s. 

My mother had his books on her shelf, so being hard up for reading material, I’d pull them down and read, starting with the sexy parts of course.  Then I realized it was pretty good writing, so read a bit before and a bit after the sex scenes.  Soon I said “Hell, let’s just read the entire book.”  I’m sure that’s how I started out inserting highly explicit sex scenes into otherwise serious and staid historical fiction novels. 

My theory was, why not have explicit sex in the 1800s?  They did it back then.  Just because it’s a highly “serious” to me about a revolution in pre-colonial Africa doesn’t mean they can’t have balls-to-the-wall sex. But a lot of people seemed confused, as though I was writing in two separate genres simultaneously.  You normally don’t see much sex at all in serious hist-fic.  Which is a bummer for people who like their history and their sex as well.

GRACIE: When did you get The Call and what was your first published book?

KAREN:  In 2005 I finally got serious about writing a book to sell.  I wrote The Hinterlands as a romance novel and sold it as a romance novel to Medallion Press, who then switched it to the hist-fic category because I was “so heavy on historical detail.”  Medallion wanted to be well-known for publishing novels in unusual settings, and this one was set in 1897 Nigeria and dealt with an ancient secret kingdom with highly advanced art that practiced human sacrifice.  And had wild sex. J

GRACIE: What do you know now about writing and the publishing industry that you wish you’d known before you started?

KAREN:  That you’re not automatically going to make tens of thousands of dollars right out the gate!  After I published my first book, everyone automatically assumed I was rich enough to stop working my day job.  That became highly annoying very fast.  Especially since I had assumed that, too.  “Wow, a novelist?  They must be jet-setting to the Caribbean every week.”

GRACIE: Please give us a little story behind the story and what inspired your Siren Publishing historical series, Going for the Gold.

KAREN:  That’s kind of funny.  I had three novels out, and I wanted to do something set in California instead of Africa.  So, knowing me and my penchant for detail, I spent about six months researching everything about the California gold rush.  I took 150,000 words of typed notes, all categorized by topic.  Boy, what an anal retentive.  Then I had to actually write the first three chapters, so all told it took me about eight months.  Well, my old publisher rejected the proposal.  I thought I was screwed.

Not necessarily.  I’d always thought I was well-suited to write erotic romance, so I thought “Why not take all this research and turn it into an erotic romance series?  Just leave out the Mormon part.  And most of the ‘boring’ historical detail.”  Voila.  Going for the Gold was born, published by Siren. 

GRACIE: What are the challenges you’ve faced in writing historical romance, in general, and multiple-partner, menage stories in a historical setting, in particular?

KAREN:  Well, the hardest thing about historical writing is probably the lingo.  I can’t use words like “dick” and “boob.”  Believe it or not, this is highly frustrating for someone fascinated with slang etymology.  So I’ll be typing along and have to stop to look up which year a word was first used. I’ve been doing historicals so long I don’t really have to stop and wonder if, for instance, a typewriter was invented yet.

And without a doubt, the most difficult thing about ménages is juggling three POVs, not to mention their limbs and appendages.  I love MMFs, so when you have two men, you can’t just write “his arm.”  Whose arm?  And some of those positions can get pretty athletic, almost like there is no gravity.  You have to really envision how everyone is positioned.

GRACIE: In Working the Lode, what facet of Zelnora Sparks’ personality do you think the most helps her thrive and survive in the male-dominated Wild West?

KAREN:  Her husband back east abandoned her, so she’s pretty independent to start with.  She had mining experience and she’s in her ideal environment, finding the gold that the men mine.  I’m an amateur mineralogist so I had fun writing a heroine who knows her heavy metals.  She knows how to thrive in a masculine atmosphere.

GRACIE: What is businessman Gage Lassen’s Achilles’ Heel and how do you go about stomping it?

KAREN:  Gage is trying like hell to be a hard-ass toward women after his wife ran off with his brother and child.  So he imagines he’s an “invert,” what we now call homosexual.  It’s easy for him to admit he’s falling in love with another man, but a woman?  That’s a different subject.  He treats Lola like shit, worse than the housemaid she is to him, not even acknowledging she also is a journalist for the San Francisco newspaper.  It takes him awhile to admit he has feelings for her.

GRACIE: What about adventurer Harrison Bancroft’s character traits do you think makes him a perfect match for Lola and Gage in Either Ore?

KAREN:  Harrison is a fairly laid-back fellow so he’s perfectly suited to be smack in the middle of this love triangle.  Sort of a mediator.  He spent years on the plains living with “red Indians” painting their portraits.  So he has patience and is open-minded to new things.

GRACIE: What do you find the most enjoyable about researching your stories? What do you find the most demanding?

KAREN:  I’m constantly amazed at the stories I stumble upon in history.  Things I never knew actually occurred, things that sound incredible now.  But folks, this really happened!  That’s the fun part.  I love driving around to historical sites and hearing the stories the crazed docents tell.  Guys posing like 19^th century medicine show men, for instance.  Guys re-enacting battles, getting all anal about the details of their uniforms.

Then, by the same token, it’s the most demanding aspect.  You’re never sure how much historical detail to throw in, especially in an erotic romance when that’s not necessarily what readers are seeking.  So you’re kind of stuck maybe just calling it a horse, when you just researched for days about appaloosas.

GRACIE: Of all the stories you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

KAREN:  Of course I’ve got to say my recent release, Sure as Shooting.  I think I like this because I based one of the heroes on the first black physician in America, James McCune Smith.  For his body I borrowed Shemar Moore, lately of Criminal Minds.  How can you go wrong with Shemar Moore? 

This character, Dr. Whitman Whitney, is absolutely unashamed of his heritage or his sexuality—he’s half-black and half-Cherokee. 

This brings a lot of natural conflict because his California battalion is battling some Indians who have moved into the Yosemite Valley.  Naturally, back then the sentiment was almost universally anti-Indian.  It wasn’t illegal to murder an Indian, for example.  And it occurred to me—why not have Dr. Whitney be the hero who gets married in the end to the heroine?  Why should the heroine always choose the white guy?  They’re a menage so of course they “marry” each other, but legally she can only choose one.

And let’s face it.  Who wouldn’t marry Shemar Moore?

GRACIE: What about your characters makes them unique?

KAREN:  I tend to write very offbeat characters.  That’s why I write about frontiers, places that haven’t been very settled yet.  The most off-the-wall people were drawn to frontiers—bold people with nothing to lose, who have been shunned from “normal” societies and want a new life.

GRACIE: Are you a pantser or do you outline?

KAREN:  I was always a diehard outliner until my current WIP.  I can’t believe I’m actually somewhat pantsing it!  I think it’s because for the first time in years, I’m actually not following actual historical events.  If you follow an actual chain of events, of course you have to outline, to an extreme degree sometimes. “Well on Thursday the 19^th of November, they blew up the armory…” 

GRACIE: If you weren’t a writer, what other profession would you have chosen to pursue?

KAREN:  I wanted to be a journalist in Africa until I realized I’m not terribly confrontational or aggressive.  You really need that, especially in Africa, to be a journalist.  My dream job is to be a Philly Soul backup singer.  “Get on board, and join hands, on the Love Train, Love Train!” 

 

But I’m really an awful singer, so I’d have to say a location scout for a film company.  Can you imagine?  Flying about the globe seeking out obscure spots to film?

GRACIE: Who are some of your favorite authors and why?

KAREN:  It’s embarrassing that I don’t have time to read for pleasure.  So all of my favorites are people like Dostoevsky, Knut Hamsun, D. H. Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, and of course Henry Miller—authors I enjoyed in my teens.  Fellow Siren authors I have enjoyed recently, though, are Reece Butler, Sophie Oak, J. Rose Allister, Missy Martine, and Natalie Acres.

I like historicals because it’s so much easier for me to believe that back then, men were men.  They’d cross a mountain range for the love of a woman.  Nowadays?  It’s pretty difficult to get a fellow to go to the corner Starbucks for you.  I can more easily suspend disbelief in a historical.  I tend to think things were much more romantic and dramatic back then.  There was so much more at stake.

GRACIE: What are you working on now and what should readers be looking forward to from you in the future?

KAREN:  I’m working on #5 in the Going for the Gold series about the California gold rush.  This one involves paddlewheel steamers and how they used to race them up and down the Sacramento River.  Unbelievable how many explosions were caused by men stoking the boilers just so they could win a race.  Bodies flying everywhere.  One guy sailed out of his stateroom on a mattress and landed on the bank unharmed, “like a flying carpet.”  I mean, you can’t make this shit up.

Next, I have a plan for a new historical paranormal series, but I guess I shouldn’t talk too much about that!

GRACIE: Do you have a website and/or how can readers contact you?

KAREN:   www.karenmercury.com

GRACIE: Where and how can readers purchase and/or read samples of your work?

KAREN: http://www.bookstrand.com/karen-mercury

GRACIE: What advice do you have for beginning writers?

KAREN:  This is going to sound weird, but I’d say do not listen to other writers, and especially wannabe writers.  Don’t get a crit partner.  You’re going to get so much conflicting information it’s going to saturate your brain and confuse you even more.  As if writers need more confusion.

I suppose that’s another way of saying to write your heart’s desire.  If you do, the passion will show through, and eventually some editor will notice that.  Hey.  I sold my first book, the editor later told me at dinner, thanks to this masturbation scene I wrote.  I didn’t know that was even remotely popular at the time, and it was supposed to be a “serious” historical romance, but she said she ran screaming into the next hotel room to tell the President “we have to buy this book!”  Some adventurer was jacking off in a river while the heroine sneakily watched from behind a tree.

So, you really never know.

GRACIE: Karen, thanks so much for taking time from your busy schedule to share yourself and your work with us at The G-Spot and giving us a little insight into your writing and the writing process! We’ll let you get back to writing those wonderful books you write! All the best!

KAREN:  Thanks so much for having me, Gracie!

Traditional Publishers' E-book Pricing - A Crime

Received this link in an e-mail from Amazon with a list of several other books they thought I might be interested in since I had purchased some other Mystery/Thrillers recently. Just out of curiosity and as I've read Jodi Picoult in the past and enjoyed her, I checked the link out:

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058M8JRG/ref=pe_170410_21550890_pe_epc_dt2

Now aside from the fact that this book is a reissue with a different cover (a rant for another day about how publishers get you to purchase a book that you've already purchased, but luckily I remembered the premise in this case) it's shit like this that just pisses me off with traditional, big publishers. WHY the hell is the Kindle version TWICE as much as the print?!?! And this is just a sample. I've seen other big name authors' books priced like this (J.R. Ward, for example, whose Black Dagger Brotherhood books I avidly follow!). Amazon makes this note beside the Kindle edition: "This price was set by the publisher", like this is supposed to somehow absolve and separate them from the travesty.

When I purchased my Kindle, I thought I would just convert and buy all my books in the Kindle version from now on, but with prices like this, I can see myself buying half-print, half-e, or just stop buying books from traditional, big publishers altogether, except in very special, auto-buy-author instances (and these are getting few and far between, especially since I can find comparable authors and themes with e-publishers). Admittedly, I have found lots of bargains and have downloaded numerous FREE or reasonably priced (i.e., $2.99-$5.99) books in Kindle version (some by big name authors) since I purchased my Kindle, so I guess like with any new technology, one must take the good with the bad (i.e., outrageous, traditional publisher pricing vs. reasonable e-publisher pricing). As usual, the best prices for e-books are coming directly from the source: E-Publishers!

I still like the idea of the Kindle and reading on it, but traditional publishing, hanging on tooth and nail to their outdated models (and pricing accordingly) is, as usual, trying to control the market and stomp on the "little" guy. Except that the little guy isn’t so little anymore as authors like Barry Eisler can attest:

http://writersbreak.com/2011/05/ebooks-and-self-publishing-a-long-dialogue-between-authors-barry-eisler-and-joe-konrath-part-1/

http://writersbreak.com/2011/09/novelist-barry-eisler-launches-the-detachment-explains-why-he-turned-down-500000-in-order-to-self-publish/

So traditional publishers, stomp on! E-Publishing is here to stay. Better check yourself before you wreck yourself!