TBR welcomes Taryn Kincaid

TBR: Welcome to TBR, Taryn. Will you share a little bit about yourself?
Taryn: Let’s see…hmm…I write romance! D’oh! You knew that already right? My first release was a steamy and sensual Regency, Healing Hearts. My other releases have been erotic paranormals and they’re all set in Sleepy Hollow. I live and work not too far away from the real Sleepy Hollow, NY. It’s not that much like what I portray, but Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are both amazing in the fall, especially around Halloween time!  My stories are pretty HOT, but the sex is more or less spiced up vanilla. Like vanilla with ginger bits or cinnamon. Maybe like the steamy foam on your peppermint latte!

TBR: Tell us about THUNDER and where it's available.
Taryn: THUNDER is my second 1Night Stand story for Decadent Publishing. It’s available all over! (It’s $1 cheaper if you buy it at Decadent’s site!)

Decadent Publishing | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | All Romance | Smashwords | Book Strand

The hero of THUNDER, a hunky developer and contractor named Sean Jones, is the younger brother of Campbell Jones, the awesome architect hero (with superpowers) of my first 1Night Stand story, LIGHTNING. They are standalones and you don’t need to read one to read the other, but Camp does put in a brief appearance in THUNDER. In fact, Campbell arranges Sean’s 1Night Stand…the same way Sean talked Campbell into engaging the Madame Eve’s exclusive, high-end dating service. Turn about is fair play, after all!

TBR: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Taryn:

BLURB:

Lonely young witch, Veronica Hardwicke, has struggled to get on with her life after the death of the elderly husband who’d left her a fortune and a sprawling estate in mystical Sleepy Hollow. When frightening things go bump in the night on a stormy Fourth of July, who better to call than the sexy developer and contractor, Sean Jones, who's been renovating her mansion for months?

Sean may grace the tabloid pages with a different supermodel on his arm every night, but it's Veronica who drives him nuts. Ignoring his instinct to stay away, he answers her summons.

Will the thundering passion of their 1Night Stand tear down the barriers between them?

EXCERPT:

Veronica paced back and forth in the grand entry foyer of the Belmont mansion, the kitten heels of her Prada mules clacking on the marble floors.

The rest of the place might not be finished, but she’d insisted on having a few rooms completed, so at least she felt like she was living in a home, rather than a massive, never-ending construction project. Well, her contractor had insisted, even though working around the main entrance and central hallway created more work for him and his crew. But she was forced to admit he was right.

Her cell phone chimed on top of the antique credenza shoved flush against one wall. She leaped for it. Probably Geneviève, to regale her with all the fun she was having in Paris. Or Sean, to advise her he couldn’t make it after all. She sighed and read the text message on the small screen.

Congratulations, Veronica. 1Night Stand has found your date. Have a good time.

With both anxiety and mounting excitement, she stared at the screen and waited. No other info. Outside in the night, thunder boomed. She jumped then laughed at herself.

Ghosts are one thing, but freaking out at the weather now? Cripes, you really do need this date!

She let her imagination run wild, then texted back for more details:

When? Where? Who?

An insistent pounding at the front door jarred her out of her fantasy. She swung the door open on another explosive crack of thunder.

Sean stood on her doorstep, his soaked T-shirt molding sculpted pecs and abs, his drenched hair flattened over his brow. Rain poured down as he fiddled with his iPhone, a bemused expression on his face. Behind him, jagged arrows of lightning tore the dark sky. He glared at the screen, glanced at her in confusion, then back at the screen.

Veronica’s own phone pinged again. Thunder roared. She read the message in disbelief.

    You’re looking at him.

TBR: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Taryn: I love writing the 1Night Stand stories and this seemed a natural. Sean is a cocky devil in LIGHTNING and screamed for his own story. Veronica is mentioned in LIGHTNING, too, but she didn’t have a name then and I didn’t know anything about her, except that she was the wealthy woman whose mansion the Campbell brothers’ company, By Jones was renovating … and that Sean was having difficulties with her…even then!

TBR: Are you a plotter or pantser?
Taryn: I am a pantser all the way. I don’t even know where I’m going from sentence to sentence, much as I might wish it otherwise. If I could plot, I’d probably write mysteries!  Even if I get a plot bunny, it seems to go off and nibble story carrots somewhere else. On the rare occasions when I’ve tried to outline, either I gave up on the story, or the story ended up taking a major detour and ending up in a different county altogether.

TBR: How do you develop your characters?
Taryn:  I don’t know. It is a factor of many things. They’re backstory, of course. Whether they’ve been hurt or damaged, psychologically or otherwise in the past. What they do for a living.

TBR: Any tips or tricks for world building you’d care to share?
Taryn: The sky’s the limit, as they say. You can make up anything at all…and don’t worry about legend and lore …but you must be consistent in your own world.  In LIGHTNING and my not-yet released 1Night Stand story, FROST, the heroines are succubi. In LIGHTNING, the heroine had, in the past, problems with lightning during sex. One reviewer said she thought lightning was for Valkyrie. Well, yes. In Kelsey Cole’s series! Vampires are very much different in J. R. Ward’s world than in the world of Twilight and both are very much different from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So feel free…but stay true to yourself.

TBR: Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share?
Taryn: I’ll give you a threefer:

 “I’m not that good a witch.”

“Maybe you need a familiar.”

“You’re my familiar, Mr. Jones.”

TBR: Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?
Taryn:  Thunder Road, of course!

No, seriously, though. I cannot write with music on. I’m too easily distracted. I start singing or humming along. Not that I can carry a tune. I don’t mind if the TV’s on in another room because that’s just background noise. But music is too immediate. Like someone talking to you.

TBR: Which of your characters would you most/least like to invite to dinner, and why?
Taryn: I have one succubi sister left who needs a story, and Campbell and Sean have their By Jones partners and Sean’s squeeze, Veronica, has a friend who’s a will-o’the-wisp…so I sometimes envision what Thanksgiving would be like at one of their homes…hmm.

TBR: What's next for you?
Taryn:  Next up is FROST, my third 1Night Stand story for decadent. I LOVE this one! It was so HOT and fun to write. The heroine is succubus Dagney Night, the sister of Lily Night from LIGHTNING. The hero is a reclusive fire-sex demon and phenomenal artist, Maxwell Raines. It’s a Valentine’s story.

TBR: Any other published works?
Taryn: HEALING HEARTS, my Regency romance for Carina Press; SLEEPY HOLLOW DREAMS, my first Sleepy Hollow-set erotic paranormal for The Wild Rose Press; and LIGHTNING, my 1^st 1Night Stand story for Decadent Publishing.

TBR: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Taryn:  I recently discovered and got hooked on J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I devoured all of them like M&Ms, one after another. Right now I’m reading Team of Rivals, a nonfiction book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. It’s the book that inspired the movie, Lincoln. It’s fascinating.

TBR: Where can readers find you on the web?
Taryn:  I have a website at tarynkincaid.com, a blog at http://dreamvoyagers.blogspot.com, where you can find me. I LOVE comments and emails! You can also find me on Facebook, where I have a profile as well as a Facebook Author page. And I’m on Twitter and Goodreads. You can also find my author pages on Amazon, Manic Readers and The Romance Reviews. 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

TBR: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Taryn: If you’ve already read LIGHTNING or THUNDER, what would YOU like to see next from me?

TBR: Readers, Taryn will give away swag and a copy of THUNDER to one lucky commenter. She'll pick a winner and announce the winner here. Be sure to leave your email address so she can contact you.

Thanks for visiting TBR, Taryn! All the best to you, and Happy New Year’s!

TBR welcomes Paloma Beck

TBR: Welcome to TBR, Paloma. Will you share a little bit about yourself?
Paloma: This is a terrifying question to an introvert! Do I give the cursory information? How much do I want to share? And will that be enough? Should I share a bit more than I’m comfortable with because most people would prefer that? Oh, now I’m stressed and the interview hasn’t even started!

Okay, so that was a bit of an exaggeration but wasn’t that a fun way for me to tell you I’m an introvert? I have dreams of a life as a reclusive author in a house by the lake.

I’m a full-time author but my first love are my three boys who will be allowed to visit me once I get them off to college and become the reclusive author. They keep me busy, busy, busy so I write during the day while they’re at school. I have a traveling husband. True what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder! It’s seventeen years of wedded bliss for he and I. And yes, he gets to come with me to be a recluse by a lake. (It’s his retirement plan!)

I live with all men, including my pug Oliver, named after Oliver Wendell Holmes. This means I am the Queen of my castle. Sometimes I even don a tiara and walk around waving, “pick up that shoe” or “put that dirty plate away”. Yeah, Queen status isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

TBR: Tell us about COMING HOME and where it's available.

Paloma: Coming Home is my first contemporary romance published by Secret Cravings Publishing. The entire trilogy is the story of Rachel Porter, a romance writer, who has told her three sons tales of finding their true love since they were just boys. Now as men, they have yet to discover their soul mates. That is, until they come home…

In book one, Ryan Porter, Rachel’s oldest son, needs a change from his busy city lifestyle. After five years of living in New York and establishing his own real estate firm, something is still missing. When a family tragedy brings Ryan back to his family’s rural home, he meets Tyra. She just might be the catalyst for the change he needs, redirecting the course of his life. First he has to accept his relationship with his parents and embrace Tyra’s secrets.

Available from Secret Cravings: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&filter_author=146  

TBR: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Paloma: Here’s an excerpt of the first time Ryan sees Tyra when he’s at the local bar with his brothers…

The woman with the fiery red hair tossed a look over towards Henry at the bar, then snuck a look at Ryan and back to Davis. She smiled—a shy smile through her lashes—and Ryan’s heart ramped up. He noticed the shorter brunette standing beside her when she said, “Next game, you’ve got the winner.”

“I hope so,” Davis replied, “I do truly hope so.”

Ryan shook his head and blew out a laugh. How did Davis always pull it off so easily with women? One woman, Ryan could handle just fine—more than fine. But a group of women, no way, it felt like a swarm of bees were attacking him to even be in a room with so many women, gorgeous or not. And gorgeous was only the beginning when he checked out the ass on the fiery red head as she bent down to consider her next shot. She turned quickly at the sound of his laugh and the slap of the high-five he exchanged with Davis.

Caught. Her eyes jumped to Ryan and he gave her a sly grin when she raised her eyebrows at him. Not as broad as Davis, Ryan met his height at an even six feet. All of his brothers took after their father in their height. But it was Davis who looked most like their father with his darker coloring and chocolate brown eyes. Ryan and Henry had their mother’s lighter skin tone and green eyes. It was those green eyes that locked onto hers when she turned around. Yep, she was looking at him—not lover boy Davis.

Ryan definitely liked what he saw. She was tall, with legs that went on forever until they met with the sweet crossing he knew could bring this boy to his knees. As she bent over the pool table for her next shot, her ass stuck up into the air and swayed just slightly as if teasing him to inspect it further. Her entire body called to him. Shit, he hoped Davis had his sights on any other woman in that group because in his mind, he’d already laid claims on this one. And he wasn’t prepared to share. It had been a long time since he had a little harmless fun.

“Like old times, Ry, seems to me this night might be just like old times,” Davis said, bumping his shoulder when he noticed Ryan’s stare. “Knock it off. Quit the staring. You’re going to scare them away before I make our move.”

“I got news for you, Davis. I got moves of my own. It’s been a long time since I’ve needed you to pick up women for me.”

“Interesting. Hear that, Henry? Ryan says he’s got game,” Davis teased.

“Can’t wait to see this,” Henry snorted as he sat down at the table. They’d made up back in the bunk house but Henry was still sore. He knew how to hold a grudge, damn little shit. But Ryan knew just how to take his mind off his troubles tonight.

Ryan licked his lips, considering how much more interesting the night just got. He certainly liked what he saw and he knew she liked what she saw by the way her eyes roamed from his head to his toes. Ryan was dressed in an old pair of jeans that were tighter than the usual suit pants he wore and a tight black t-shirt he’d pulled out of his old dresser. He didn’t feel like himself but it felt good. Actually, maybe he felt more like himself than he had in awhile—the Ryan before his business became his life.

When Henry poured the beer out, Ryan grabbed up two glasses and headed straight for his target. Her eyes were glazed a bit, definitely looking down and he gave a little cough to catch her attention. Busted—guess they were even now. She blushed and it was beautiful—her flushed cheeks brightened her eyes, mesmerizing. When she reached out to take her beer and their fingers brushed, her hand shot back and some beer sloshed over the glass. Her soft feminine fragrance mixed in with the faint scent of the beer touched his nose and he took in a deeper breath to savor it.

She cleared her throat, seeming as taken in private thought as he was. “Thanks,” she said, giving him an intense stare while a smirk spread across her face right up to her gorgeous blue eyes, “So, you like my ass?”

Ryan swallowed back his surprise. She was forward…this was going to be fun. “Sure do,” he grinned, “And I’m pretty sure you like what you see too.”

Her look of surprise was priceless.

TBR: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Paloma: I wanted to weave a tale around a family where most of the story comes from the men. Readers love strong heroes –heck, I’m one of those readers- but I wanted to tell the story about how they become strong. I believe there are moments in a man’s life that define him. Readers will get to see those moments for the Porter brothers.

TBR: Are you a plotter or pantser?
Paloma: I allow my characters to guide me so I’m a pantser. There is a piece of me that has some idea where I’d like to head but I am not dumb enough to fight my characters when they have another idea.

TBR: How do you develop your characters?
Paloma: Organically. Most come to me with their story. I get all this running commentary in my head so I start writing and the characters evolve from there as I write everything down. Then as they go through their journey and the story is written, elements of their character develop. Life emerges from the actions they take.

TBR: Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?
Paloma: When I wrote Coming Home, I listened to a lot of alternate rock. The Maine, Dashboard Confessional, and Cartel mostly. The characters are in their late twenties, still young and I needed to get into that mindset to tell their story. Alt Rock helped me get there.  

TBR: While creating your books, what was one of the most surprising things you learned?
Paloma: I had to learn medical terminology, specifically how injuries affect the body. I dislike anything involve blood or doctor talk so I squirmed through sessions with one of my beta readers (thank God, she’s a nurse) to be sure I had the injury details correct.

TBR: What's next for you?
Paloma: I am finishing a seven book paranormal romance series that releases through mid-2013. Then I want to get to work on book two of the Porter Brothers. Henry’s story comes next and I think it’ll surprise readers the journey Henry will take before he finds home.

TBR: Any other published works?
Paloma: The Seven Sin Sisters is my PNR series about seven sisters entwined in a legacy bigger than anyone ever expected. One by one, they will find their mates from the immortal Valendite breeds and secure their place in history. Each sister embodies one of the seven deadly sins only to be cast aside once claimed. But claiming comes at the price of separation, causing a weakening of their combined powers, which none want to happen. The first two books are available now at http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&filter_author=146 but you can read about the whole series here: http://palomabeck.weebly.com/seven-sin-sisters.html.

TBR: Where can readers find you on the web?
Paloma: 

BLOG: http://RomanceBeckons.blogspot.com

WEBSITE: http://palomabeck.weebly.com

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PalomaBeck

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/PalomaBeckAuthor

FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/thePorterBrothers

TBR: Readers, Paloma will give away a copy of the Coming Home ebook to one lucky commenter. She'll pick a winner next week and announce the winner here. Be sure to leave your email address so she can contact you.

Thanks for visiting TBR, Paloma! Best of luck to you.

TBR welcomes Charlotte Henley Babb

TBR: Welcome to TBR, Charlotte Henley Babb. Will you share a little bit about yourself?
Charlotte:

By day I am a mild mannered web designer (except when troubleshooting IE) and grader of freshman papers in my online classes. But by night and weekends, I live in other worlds…Netflix is a primary portal, as I don't have cable or satellite or analog TV reception.

I'm working two jobs now  in order to be able to afford to retire in about five years, when I plan to write full time and travel to science fiction conventions.  My newest passion is steampunk. I love wearing my black leather corset, and my red striped bustle dress. I design fascinators and "thrall-ware" frippery for the donor who wants to remain discreet among the living.  That gives my non-verbal artist some air time, and lets me buy fabulous junk at yard sales and the Goodwill store to deconstruct and recycle.

I've been married twice, both divorced and widowed, which may explain why I don't write romance novels, and I've been single for over 15 years. My daughter is a freelance illustrator who is moving to the left coast to pursue her career away from the South.

TBR: Tell us about Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil and where it's available.
Charlotte: Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil is my debut novel, and it is available as an ebook on

·                     MuseItUp Publishing http://bit.ly/MavenFGM  

·                     Amazon http://amzn.to/Maven-k   

·                     Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/MavenBN   

·                     Smashwords http://bit.ly/MavenSW   

TBR: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Charlotte: Here's an excerpt that's not available anywhere else—Chapter 8, right after Maven is recruited. 

Here be Dragon

Outside Fiona's office was a vestibule with two chairs and a door leading to the village green, which was paved with jade and moss agates, surrounded by many plants. Cobbled lanes threaded between heavy-beamed buildings and incongruous brownstones. Something was missing, even in the anachronistic setting. A few cats lounged. A horse or two waited patiently, a dog slept in the path, and some people in peasant dress walked purposefully in the street.

What did she expect? Goblins, trolls, golems? It was still daylight. Then again, when she looked behind, the places they just passed seemed to have moved—some were closer, some farther away, and some not even present. The landscape itself possessed an innocent look, the kind the usual suspects take on when the cop walks the beat. Still, the Bump wasn't flashing. She wasn't Mundane anymore, but maybe more real than ever.

Their destination was a tavern with a painted wooden sign showing a red sunset fading to deep blue with a crescent moon at the top. The sign read “The Twilight Lounge” in glowing purple neon like letters. Magic?

Fiona stepped down two steps into a low doorway, which led into a dark pass-through. A cartoon on the wall portrayed a humanoid, a cloudy explosion and a sketchy reptile.

“In the Twilight Lounge, one wears a persona. Part of the ambience.” Fiona took her wand out of a pocket. “I prefer to do my own persona rather than risk Belle's sense of humor. Allow me to choose your favorite story.” She touched Maven's head gently with her wand and then her own.

Maven shrank, both in width and height. Her gossamer turned blue with checks, and she wore sparkly red shoes. Her hair grew and braided itself into brown pigtails. Fiona stretched up, dressed in black with a pointed hat and a green face.

“Oh my goodness!” Maven piped in a child's shrill voice.

“Goodness had nothing to do with it!” Fiona snapped. She tapped each of them again, this time the transformations wavered as if they were not vibrating at the right frequency.

“On second thought, let us be more traditional.” Fiona changed into a very large, brown bear with mob cap and apron, while Maven became a little girl with long, yellow ringlets, wearing a blue frock and white pinafore.

 “You'll find it amusing once you get used to it,” Fiona growled. “A certain contrast to one's own appearance is appropriate. It disappears at midnight, or you can change when you leave.”

Maven decided never again to risk Fiona's sense of humor. Fiona waddled in. Maven's shiny patent-leather Mary Janes clicked and her pinafore flounced over a scratchy crinoline. In the tavern various creatures lounged, drinking, eating, and chatting. An ogre sprawled across a rocky incline against one wall, while her date, a salamander, basked in cheery flames. Darkness hid much of the activity at the tables and booths, but to Maven it was Faery's equivalent of a bargain waffle house.

The bar, a sinister slab of marble as dark as swamp water, stretched along one wall. Cobwebs and Spanish moss draped the living trees which supported the slab. Several patrons sat or stood there—a Sphinx perched on a rock, lapping some golden liquid from a bowl; a unicorn on his hind legs held a glass in his cloven hoof, leaning on a foreleg as his leonine tail twitched toward a young woman on his left. She was dressed in rich fabric with a peaked hat and veil, and perched on a tiny stone tower, sipping from a long-stemmed lily. Maven wondered if either of them were virgins.

What do unicorns wish for? She knew what virgins wished for.

Behind the bar stood a dark, brawny woman. Her impossibly red hair was piled in a beehive above her massive neck. She had green eyes, green mascara, and green eye shadow out to her temples. She wore a bright-flowered red and green sarong, which only restrained her ample figure through some magic of its own—must be gossamer on steroids. Maven wondered who was behind that persona.

Fiona introduced her. “Belle, this is my new protégé, Maven.”

Maven felt herself curtsey, something she hadn't known she knew how to do. “How do you do, Miss Belle?” she chirped.

Belle stared speechless for a second, then guffawed. Her laugh chased every other sound from the place. Only as Belle began to gasp for breath did the sounds sneak back in with a few furtive looks.

“Do all right, Little Miss Maven. Just plain Belle will do.” She wiped her eyes. Fairy makeup stayed put—not a bit of it smeared onto Belle's hand. “Don't know your own strength, Fiona.” She calmed herself. From behind the bar she handed each of them a bowl of porridge. “How goes it, Goldilocks? Get your wand yet?”

“Yes, ma'am.” Maven took the wand out of her pocket, fighting the urge to curtsey again. She dropped her voice, but could not avoid the little-girl chirp. “Tulip did too. We've been learning to poof this afternoon.”

Belle's face lost its smile, and she arched her eyebrows at Fiona. “I'm sure Fiona knows what she is doing.” She didn't sound sure.

TBR: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Charlotte: I have always liked fantasy, but as I have gotten older, I’ve realized that there are no stories of the passage from youth to middle age, no stories for the passage through middle age and beyond. All the old women are evil or bumbling. We need stories—that large demographic of us Boomer women who have leisure, money and independence. It is said that civilization only began when people started living long enough to have grandmothers. Who writes for them (US)?

I wanted to write about women "of a certain age," middle aged, even old women. Maven is around fifty, too old to be a mother even if she had a lover, and she feels like an abject failure. Fiona is over 800 years old, and she still has a few things to learn, just as do Belle, the Cook, Dolores, and Lady Dee.

 There are young women in the story, but the point that I most wanted to make is that the Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast stories are the ones that poison our minds. No matter how long you wait, he's not coming to take you away from all this, and no matter how much you love him, he isn't going to change. It's kind of an anti-romance novel, though everyone gets a wish, and at least one character is literally swept off her feet and carried away.

Of course, I did want to write something light-hearted and funny, because the medicine goes down better with a spoonful of sugar. You won't make it to "old wives tales" status if you don’t know how to laugh.

TBR: Are you a plotter or pantser?
Charlotte: I’m learning to be a plotter…15 years and 40k words of non-usable bits shows me that plotting is more efficient. But I do sometimes just write and see where it goes. I can always change an outline.

TBR: How do you develop your characters?
Charlotte: Most of them are composites of people I know. Maven does not look nearly as much like me now as she did ten years ago. She has taken on aspects of several women I know who have a lot in common with her. Also, she likes beer, and I don't. I think it's important to give a major character something that is different from the author, or from the author's friends.

One character in particular, Silicon Jones, is based very heavily on a friend of mine, and he is good with that, as long as he gets his 10%. It's sort of a running joke between us, and Jones will eventually star in his own novel.

But other than those two, the rest of the characters mostly showed up and have developed as the story has gone along, in some ways much different from the way I saw them originally.

TBR: Any tips or tricks for world building you’d care to share?
Charlotte:  Two questions:
How is that world like this one? If it’s just like here, be here now.
How is that world different? What if one thing about our culture was different—say that women were considered to be better at math than men—how would that change how the world works?

For fantasy, you have to ask how the magic works. What does it cost? What can be done with magic, and what can’t?  

In my particular case, I wanted an obviously generic fairy tale setting as one of four dimensions where people exist: Mundane, Faery, Cyberspace and HD. The blended edges of these dimensions are defined by the Veil, which is coming apart.

In two other story universes, the view of magic is entirely different, and the political organization and the overall culture is upside down from the one I grew up in, primarily to see how that would work.

TBR: Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share?
Charlotte: “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing” –Lazarus Long (aka Robert Heinlein).

TBR: Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?
Charlotte:  I like light instrumental jazz if I need background noise. It helps me get into trance and stay awake. But mostly, I like silence. Music with words is distracting, and I already have enough distractions.

TBR: Which of your characters would you most/least like to invite to dinner, and why?
Charlotte: I’d least like to invite Grizelda the Troll, as I could not afford to feed her well, although I love her as a character. On the other hand, she could do a great job of clearing the shrubbery around the house.

Fiona and Maven are always around so I hear from them constantly.

TBR: While creating your books, what was one of the most surprising things you learned?
Charlotte: Don’t take writing advice from people who don't write. Don't listen when someone says you can't do it, you can't make money, whatever.

Many readers are like people in an art gallery—they know what they like, but they often don't know why they like it. Especially, don't take advice about where to start the story. I was counseled to start at the beginning, by a person who I thought knew more than she did, and I don't think getting the story written and published would have taken so long if I had written book three first, and then come back to this one as a prequel.

Live and learn.

TBR: Tease us with one little thing about your fictional world that makes it different from others.
Charlotte: Time and space move around unpredictably, due to the collapse of the Veil.  In one place, a week might last as long as six weeks in another space, and only a few hours in a third space. Whether time travel is possible or practical, I have not decided, but the first book takes place during Maven's (subjective) first week on the job, while several other story lines last for six weeks or more concurrently.

TBR: What's next for you?
Charlotte: I’m working on a sequel in which Maven is turned into a cat, working title That Darn Maven, and a third book, After Midnight. I’m thinking about a steampunk standalone, possibly starring Anne d’Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice as a heroine.

TBR: Any other published works?
Charlotte: I have several short stories in online 'zines which are still around. I wrote two story cycles in shared world space opera called Port Nowhere, which is now out of print. I plan to revamp those and release them in a slightly renamed version, since there is already a Port Nowhere world in the Star Wars Universe.  I have also published several Maven short stories in one volume: Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales.

TBR: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Most rewarding?
Charlotte: The most rewarding part is reading it once it’s done and forgetting that you wrote it, being caught up in the story. 

The challenging part is turning the internet off—no Facebook break, no research, just write.

TBR: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
Charlotte: One of my reviewers said that Robert Heinlein would like my writing, and that one of Terry Pratchett’s characters, a witch named Granny Weatherwax, would cackle at my stories. I felt like I’d won some kind of prize for both my favorite authors to be mentioned in the same paragraph with me. 

TBR: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Charlotte: I cut my teeth on Robert Heinlein and Louisa Alcott. I re-read Terry Prachett on a regular basis, as well as Sherry Tepper and Mercedes Lackey. Recently I’ve enjoyed Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series,  Shelly Adima’s Lady of Devices,  and for something completely different, John Hartness’s Bubba the Monster Hunter short stories.  My phone’s kindle app gets a workout.

TBR: Where can readers find you on the web?
Charlotte:  I’ve got platform! ;-)

http://facebook.com/charlotte.henley.babb
http://charlottehenleybabb.com
@charlottebabb
http://mavenfairygodmother.com
http://facebook.com/maven.fairy.godmother

TBR: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Charlotte: Which fairy tale (or other story) do you love to hate? What kind of twist would you like to see in it? Is there a character you'd like to see played by someone completely unsuitable?

TBR: Readers, Charlotte will give away an ebook copy Of Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil (prc, mobi, epub or pdf)  to one lucky commenter. She'll pick a winner on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, and announce the winner here. Be sure to leave your email address so she can contact you.

Thanks for visiting TBR, Charlotte! All the best to you.