Friday, July 4, 2008

Evangeline Anderson - DIK Interview


For the last 2 days Evangeline Anderson has been a guest of the DIK Ladies on the island where she discussed her 6 DIK books and 7 DIK heroes and gave away some of her books. As you all probably know, Evangeline is a very well known author – she has been published for over 4 years by Ellora’s Cave, LooseId, Aphrodisia, Liquid Silver and Cobblestone Press. She has written over 30 books, notably Dangerous Cravings and The Assignment which have been flying off the shelves at amazon.com and other booksellers. Some of her other books include Take Two, Pleasure Planet and Pleasure Palace from Aphrodisia (all of which are in paperback) Her most recent books are Charlie’s Bargain from Ellora’s Cave and The Last Bite from LooseId. Slave Boy is being released by LooseId on July 8th and we can't wait after reading the excerpt posted today.

Hello Evangeline and thank you for being visiting with us on DIK. We hope that you had a great time with the ladies and other readers while you were on the island -

EA Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here. : )

Evangeline what would you like your fans and other readers to know about you

EA Hmm, maybe that I’m pretty much the same as you. I’m a working mom with a husband who won’t help with the dishes and a five month old baby who still wakes me up two or three times a night. I used to believe that being published would change my entire life but nope, I still have to clean the house and make dinner like everyone else out there lol.
As for things readers might not know about me—I am a minister’s daughter. Sex was always a taboo subject growing up, which is why I was so interested in it. My first erotica was dirty stories I wrote just for myself and then burned so no one would find them (this was back when I was a teen). Only in the last five years or so have I thought that anyone else might want to read what I write which is how I got published in the first place.


Your fans love The Assignment and Dangerous Cravings which are both extremely popular and are out in paperback however, you have a brand new book out right now - Charlie’s Bargain. Another release expected on July 8 from LooseId is Slave Boy. In 30 seconds, what’s your sales pitch for these two books

Charlie’s Bargain by Evangeline Anderson now available from Ellora’s Cave

Charlie is just trying to survive. After losing her fortune she flees her home planet and hides from her blood thirsty creditors on a mining colony so horrible its residents just call it Hole.
Lynx is a Xorn, one of a feared race of non-humans known for their savage lusts. From the first instant he sees Charlie, he knows she is the only woman who can satisfy him.
Charlie wants nothing to do with the huge, muscular man with golden eyes but in order to survive on Hole, she will have to overcome her fear and make a bargain with the fierce Xorn—a bargain of desire, pleasure, and pain that will force her to see herself and Lynx in a whole new light.


Slave Boy—Male/Male sci-fi by Evangeline Anderson. Available at LooseId July 08.

Haven is a Master of the Order of the Light—a revered sect of mediators and healers that roam the galaxy righting wrongs. Ten years ago he bought a ragged slave boy from Rigel Six and brought him to live at the Temple of Light on Radiant. As Wren’s master and mentor, Haven knows the young man is off limits, so he keeps his forbidden feelings for his novice under wraps, vowing never to act on them.
Wren has been in love with his master from the moment he laid eyes on him. Haven rescued him from a life of sexual slavery and his gratitude is exceeded only by his desire for the tall, broad shouldered man he calls Master.
When the pair are sent to mediate a conflict aboard the huge Tiberion war ship, Haven discovers that he must have a pleasure slave to fulfill the local customs. Wren offers to play the part but will his role as Haven’s slave boy bring back too much of his painful past? And how can Haven keep his vows of chastity when he is forced to use Wren in the most forbidden ways? In a matter of life or death, both men must act on their hidden desires and hope not to lose each other forever.


You have been a published author for some time and write different genres. What are the recent changes/trends in the industry? How have you adapted your writing to meet the current cravings of your fans and new readers?

EA Well the biggest change I have seen lately is the fact that male/male stories are being accepted by publishers and embraced by readers. It used to be that some of the biggest pubs wouldn’t take any M/M stories but when they saw how well the smaller pubs were doing with them, they changed their tune.
In response to some of my own M/M books, most notably The Assignment, I have been writing a lot more M/M myself. I just had a M/M book out from Loose id in April called The Last Bite and I have another coming out in July called Slave Boy.
Also, e-book covers have gotten SO much better. Unfortunately, covers of books coming out of New York seem to be pretty much the same. I know from sad personal experience that when you sell a book to a big NY print pub, they will slap any cover they want on it so no improvements there. But e-books are getting better and better which makes me happy since I write a lot of them.


You are a very successful author. What advice would you like to pass on to aspiring writers and especially those DIK ladies who are trying to become published?

EA The best advice I can give you is write, write, write. The more you write, the better you write. Never stop. And once you’re at the point where you have a book ready to submit, be prepared for rejection. I got enough rejection letters to paper an entire room of my house when I first started writing and now, even though I have both print and e-book contracts and an agent in NY, I STILL have to deal with rejection. It’s part of the game so you can’t have a thin skin when it comes to trying to get your books out there. All you can do is keep trying and don’t get discouraged—eventually you’ll break through and get your book in the hands of the right person who will believe in it the way you do. Good Luck! : )

I know you write several genres but I think this is a fair question since you write M/M books as well. What do you really think about when you’re writing those hot sex scenes between two guys?)

EA Okay, this is kind of embarrassing, but when I’m writing a really hot love scene, it’s almost like mental masturbation. I don’t skimp on the sex in my books and I feel like if a scene isn’t turning me on, it won’t turn my readers on either so I go for it all the way. That means locking myself in a room and telling the rest of my family not to bother me whenever I am “writing sex”. When a love scene between two characters is really flowing, it’s the hottest feeling ever. My hubby knows if he’ll just leave me alone to finish, he’ll reap the benefits later. Lol

Since you’re female, how do you ensure that the M/M love scenes are realistic and that the action doesn’t seem fake? Do you ever get critiques from male (or female) readers about the sex scenes in your M/M books?

EA Well, I guess I try to think like a guy. I don’t want my scenes to sound like they’re between two women with penises so I try to keep my characters from acting girly.
I have gotten e-mail and letters from both male and female readers and just about all of it has been positive. I’ve never had a guy write me and say, ‘hey, that’s not how it’s done’ so I assume I’m getting it right. Of course, the sex in my M/M books, like all the sex I write, is idealized sex. I mean, if you could really have sex that’s as good and hot and never ending as what you can read in an erotica book, why would you bother to read it? You’d just be having it all the time. So the idea is to stimulate my reader’s imaginations while staying within the realm of that idealized reality.


What question have you never been asked in an interview (or anywhere else) that you’re dying to answer

EA No one has ever asked me if I would rather have sex or write it. The answer is (God I hope the hubby never reads this) I would rather write it. Sorry, I like a good roll in the hay as much as anyone but when I’m writing it, I can stretch things to the limit and really go for it. Plus I can pretend I’m the slender young heroine instead of a pleasingly plump nearly middle aged working mom. So writing wins hands down over doing.


Before we let you loose among the ladies, E could you tell us what you have planned on your site on your final day with the ladies?

EA Well, we’re going to have several contests and lots of book give-aways, both e-books and print books. We had a round robin yesterday to see if we can write a chapter of a new erotica book and I’m going to have some trivia questions for people to answer to win book prizes. Sounds like fun, huh? ; )


How can fans and other readers reach you?

My website is http://www.evangelineanderson.com/ and while you’re there you can find links to my yahoogroup and my myspace page. I also recently joined face book and I am listed as Evangeline Anderson. Come friend me on face book or myspace, I would love to add you. Also, if you have something to say about something I wrote, you can e-mail me directly at vangiekitty@aol.com I love to hear from readers and will always respond to e-mail.


Thanks E - that was really cool.

24 comments:

Sarai said...

Great interview!!!
So Evangeline what market do you prefer the print of ebooks?
How did you get into the market do you have an agent? Or did just submit to the company?
What part of the writing process do you like the most?
Thanks for hanging out with us and answering all the questions! I hope you can come back and play sometime.

little alys said...

Thank you for the fun interview! As sarai said, come back and play when you can!

Katie Reus said...

Great interview!! I knew you wrote for EC, but didn't realize you wrote for so many other publishers :) Hope you'll be back on the Island soon!

Tracy said...

Great interview Evangeline!

So I may have missed this somewhere but what was the first book you sold and who was it to?

LesleyW said...

I'll add my thanks to everyone else. And so glad you posted the Slave Boy excerpt. :)

Also after Jen's comments about the Assignment being what she imagined Butch and V to be like. I had to pick it up.

jessewave said...

Hi Evangeline
What amazes me about you is that after only 4 years in the industry you have published 30+ books for so many publishers. You must be a really prolific writer.

I'm looking forward to my free book :) and like the ladies said, you must come back and play sometime.

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Sari,
A lot of getting published in print is being at the right place at the right time. I happened to find out from a close friend (MIchele Bardsley who writes the Vampire Mom series for Penguin Putnam) that Kensington was starting up a new erotica line. So I sent a query letter and was told to send in some books for consideration. OUt of that I got a three book deal with Kensington for their Aphrodisia line and a NY agent. SO some of it is luck and some is just keeping your eyes open.
Hope that helps.
E

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Tracy,
The first book I sold... it's kind of a funny story. I had submitted a novel to EC but they hadn't gotten back to me. So I wrote about half of another novel and submitted it to Liquid Silver. About a week later I got this excited e-mail saying they wanted to see the whole novel. (I had pretended that it was finished at the time of submission.) Sooooo, I actually finished the novel, which was called Tandem Unit, in a single day. Of course, I already knew what was going to happen and how to get the characters there but still, I wrote 36K in one 24hr period and then turned it in. It got picked up and Liquid Silver loved it. Coincendentally (sp?) that is also the book that was picked up in print by my editor Hilary at Kensington. She changed the name to Take Two and slapped a horrible cover on it and there you go. It's a sci-fi menage novel about two guys who have to share a woman because of a chip they have implanted in their brains, in case you're wondering. I have never written that much in one day before or since but I know it can be done if I have to. lol E

Evangeline Anderson said...

little alys, katie reus, thanks for the invite to come to the DIK island again. I have really enjoyed myself and I feel like I've made some new friends.Thanks for having me. : )

Evangeline Anderson said...

lesleyw--Ya know, it cracks me up that so many people compare Valenti and O'Brian to Butch and V. I mean, when I first read the BDB books, I didn't make the connection myself. I continue to think that its just because both relationships are between alpha males. I am flattered, of course, because I am a huge JR Ward fan myself but I don't know if I can think of my two guys as Butch and V. Anyway though, I hope you enjoy the book. It was tons of fun to write. : ) E

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Wave,
I promise to get an ARC of Slave Boy into your hot little hands just as soon as I get my author copies from LI. And as for being prolific, I guess I just write fast. I edit as I go and don't use any beta readers and the first draft is what I turn in but that's just me. Now the down side of that is that I only finish about 1 in 10 books that I start. I tend to get bored *very* quickly and if a book isn't pushing my buttons and I have another good idea, I will kick it to the curb and go do something else. Sometimes I will get as far as 50 or 60K into a book and then lose interest and be unable to make myself finish. I call myself all kinds of names and wish I was one of those authors that could stick with a project better but I'm just not. So I have to write fast because if I don't, the book will die on me and I'll have to move on to the next thing.
E

Mary M. said...

Damn. How the heck did I miss this last night? It's not like I went to bed at 10!

Evangeline, nice to read more about you! And I'm so, so happy to see I'm not the only one wh abandons projects halfway through because I lose interest!! I'm like that for pretty much everything - if I want or need to do something, if I don't do it NOW, most of the time I never will. I have tons of fanfic ideas that never saw the light of day, and translations I started doing for my mom almost two years ago that are still not done (and it's not for lack of time). *sigh*

Loooool at the fact you'd rather write a sex scene than perform one :-DDD. Since you volunterred to answer it when it wasn't asked I'm guessing you're not too afraid your husband is going to find out about it, or be too upset if he does :-D. At least I hope so. I'm sure no one at the DIK would want your dream trip to the island to get you in trouble :-D.

If I may, one question: do people at your job know what you write about? What do they think of it? Just curious :)

Wave, you'll tell me when you read the Slave Boy ARC, right? Pretty please?

Tracy said...

Wow I can't believe you wrote that much in one day! Amazing! You may not have done it since but you know you CAN do it! :)

jessewave said...

Hi Mary

I will but the ARC will only be available the day before the book drops (that's my understanding) so you can pick up a copy on July 8th. You probably still have your LooseID GC from Anne and you'll be able to put it to good use by buying Slave Boy LOL

Mary M. said...

Yeah, I still have the gift certificate, but barely. It's a near miss - I was shopping on the site earlier when all my internet windows closed at the same time, AGAIN (grrrrr!!!). Slave Boy comes out on the *8th* ? Great! I thought it was the 18th :-D. But I want to buy something from Anne and Barbara too, since they're the ones I got the certificate from and I wanted to try their stuff anyway. And there are those two Amanda Young stories I forgot to put in my cart the last time, something I've regretted ever since...*sighs and checks bank account balance*

Carolyn Crane said...

What a great interview! Evangeline, I'm so happy you stopped by. I loved your insights about writing...and writing sex, and your books sound hot - esp Charlie's bargain, which I must check out!

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Mary,
Yes, I am the worst about abandoing projects and books half done. I dont know why I'm like that. Wish I could finish what I start even half the time but darn it, I am just not that way an I don't think that's going to change any time soon.
No, I don't think my hubby will visit the island. If he did, I'd have to wonder about him. His taste in books runs more toward sports biographies and espionage thrillers. THe important thing is that we both like to read. I don't think I could love and respect a man who didn't.
And yes, most people at my work know that I am a writer and a lot of them know what I write. I don't shove it down anybody's throat, tho. They think of it as my hobby and until recently when the baby came along, so did I. No I am taking steps to make it more of a career so you're going to see more frequent releases from me in the coming months. I have been a busy bee. lol E

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Tracy,
I did but I had what I wrote all plotted out and knew exactly what needed to happen in the book so it wasn't like I sat down and wrote it cold. I work well under pressure as long as I have a game plan. : P
E

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Carolyn Jean,
Thanks for stopping in to say hi. I hope you enjoy Charlie's Bargain. I had a lot of fun writing it. : P
E

Evangeline Anderson said...

Hey Mary,
Don't give up hope yet. We still have one more book drawing and you might win yet. : )
Evangeline

JenB said...

What a great interview! Evangeline, your two days were a blast. Thanks for hanging out with us! :)

Mary M. said...

Evangeline, are you an excited bee as well as a busy one? Lol. More releases is good. I'm already looking forward to Broken Boundaries next year. I've added it to my calendar of book releases So far, that calendar covers up to the middle of 2009. You can't say I'm not intense about "looking forward" to a book :-D.

I'm sure yours is the most original hobby of all people in your workplace :D. I'd love my future boyfriend (I'm currently single) to love reading too. It would be easier for him to understand why having time to read is so important for me :-D.

Sarah said...

Great Interview, loved the bit about writing the smexin scenes.

The Bookworm said...

wonderful interview! very interesting.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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