Hi Arlene! So glad to have you at Author Chat, where we can learn a little bit about you, and your book.
Grab a cappuccino and let’s chat. Unless you have another favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?
I’m a water snob. Boring, I know but I love clear sparkling spring water from Maine. I make rice, soups, and cup after cup of tea with it.
Tea is my addiction too. Fur or feathers, petwise?
Fur. Canine. But it’s been quiet since the mutt my son abandoned died a few xmas’ back.
Aww, sorry to hear it. They do leave a void. Any pet peeves? One thing that really burns your biscuits?
I will open my mouth, no matter the size of the threat, if I witness cruelty or abuse of another human, animal, insect, and so forth. I’d make a good hit person, never an inquisitor.
That’s a good thing. :) Favorite quote?
In this moment? ‘Writing a novel is like giving birth through your eyeballs.’ Lisa Gardner
Ha! Funny and too true. What’s your ideal day like?
Up early on a day free from the flower shop, sunny and cool enough to need a sweater, my head clear, the laptop in front of me.
If you could live out any fantasy, what would you do?
Hard call. Pick the selfish fantasy where I live beside a white sand beach in a threesome with two perfect males and unlimited internet? Or the discover cures for the ills of the human race? Fine. I’ll combine the two. The guys will get Nobel prizes for saving the environment, inventing transporters and warp drive, etc.
The best of both worlds – good choice! Beethoven, Beatles, Foo Fighters or Keith Urban?Beatles and Beethoven mixed.
Excellent. :) Do you have a music playlist for your book?
Nope. Any background except country or rap.
Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?
I’d love to hang with most of mine, but for dinner I’d invite Deron (Incoming Alert). He’s funny, smart and a fantastic cook, and he’d immediately understand I’m hopeless and take over cooking. I’d not invite the color of sunshine (Splintered Energy), Jane Doe aka Narci would snap my neck the second she saw me.
While creating your books, what was one of the most surprising things you learned?
That the paragraphs that don’t flow easily are the ones that stand out if I work until there’s clarity, but if I fail, backspace or delete is best. Those keys are the most faded on my keyboard.
Yep, revision’s a beast! Or brings out the beast in us. Where can readers find out more about you?
Please share a book blurb and/or excerpt.
Splintered Energy, sci-fi romance. Boy Meets Girl:
I’m so damn scared. Jaylynn felt like she walked on eggs guarded by a red dragon. Her unpredictable captor not only had inhuman strength, he possessed photographic memory. She’d answered his demands for names to everything in sight, and he’d managed ten minutes without looking like he’d break something—and that included her neck. Should she beg for compassion? She didn’t understand what he wanted, and she might not live long enough to find out.
“I want to go home.” She hated herself for the whine. “My arm hurts. I’m thirsty and frightened. Please let me go.”
“Teach arm hurts.” He tossed the last log on the fire.
“I don’t want to die. You broke my arm.”
He looked confused, and then he sighed. He rubbed his temple, tossed cracked sunglasses onto the couch, and lifted his chin.
Oh! My! God! He’s not even a human lunatic!
Her legs unfroze—his hand muffled her scream. Drawn into the demonic rays that were his eyes, Jaylynn choked on the fear twisting in her throat like she’d swallowed a python. She couldn’t move, breathe, or understand the current surging from his hand into her face. What’s happening to me? In the midst of her panic, she began to comprehend the energy he radiated was soothing—in a caught-by-an-electric-demon sort of way.
When her scream dissolved, he dropped his fingers from her mouth. His other hand held her back from him, kept her from collapsing. He felt real. Solid, seductive flesh. No horns. No tail. Gates of hell didn’t open, and he looked stricken. Blood tears welled in beautiful vermillion eyes.
Unable to look anymore, his grip unbreakable, she stepped into unreality, and buried her face into his chest. He grunted at her whimper. Picking her up, he carried her to the couch, and she fell from his arms like an irritating, limp doll.
When the security blanket landed on her lap, she dared to open her eyes. Sunglasses back on, he fidgeted beside her.
She drew a shuddering breath. “What…are you?”
His gentle caress dried her face while his rough voice growled, “Don’t know name. Don’t know broke arm. Want home. Jaylynn home, soon.” He drew back from her and his hands balled into fists. “Jaylynn, no afraid. Teach thirsty.”
That radiant light couldn’t be real, it just couldn’t. She dared to close the space between them and took off the sunglasses.
He looked away, and then shifted glowing eyes back.
“Your eyes shouldn’t be red.” The mangled glasses fell from her hands and he put them back on. “You’re a demon? Is hell for real then?”
“Don’t know hell. Don’t kill Jaylynn. Try don’t break Jaylynn.”
He sprang up, strode to the end table, raised it over his head, and smashed it on the floor. He flung the splintered wood into the fireplace. “Jaylynn no afraid. Hurts…Demon’s head. Teach thirsty.”
She inched for the doorway and managed to croak, “Thirsty is a need for water. There’s a sink in the other room.”
Red eyes burned into her back. An isolated dwelling in the woods, no telephone in sight—could she get more doomed?
Wonderful. Thanks so much for chatting Arlene!
Thank you for hosting me, Cate, on your lovely blog. You’re one amazing writer and I love getting to know you better, too.
