Aloha,
Meg, thank you so much for having me as a guest today!
Aloha H K Carlton!! So good to have you here and congrats on your new release!! Hands H K a champagne to celebrate and a couple of tasty wee whore derves as my dad calls them. Always exciting. :-)
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Today H K is going to talk us through how she came up with her new series about to be born. It's a question we get asked a lot as writers. Where do you get your ideas from?
An invite, an
idea, a series is born.
The story I’m here
to talk about today started with an invite from my lovely editor, Susan, at
MuseItUp Publishing. MuseItHot was about to launch a whole new imprint and
since I like to write sexy stories along with a whole lot of other stuff, she
sent me the submission guidelines.
Up until that
point, I’d only penned historical romance for MIU. The specs were simple
enough. Paranormal Erotic Romance, short stories, with ‘Dark’ in the title.
Erotic romance I can do. Short story? Bites fingernails. I’m awfully wordy.
Hmmm.
And then there was
the paranormal aspect? I wasn’t sure. The closest I’d come to anything like
that was a time-travel story which I really enjoyed creating. I wasn’t sure if
I could do it, but I didn’t want to let her down and really wanted to work with
Susan again. And for some reason, when it comes to writing, I love a challenge
(challenges in real life, not-so-much).
A couple of my
stories began from testing myself. I just wanted to see if I could do it. My
first test a male/male story. And my second was ménage. I decided that if I
could get them accepted, then my venture was successful. They have both been
published. And I even wrote a sequel to the first ménage story, which has also
been published. But could I do paranormal. What did I have to lose?
Where to begin?
First of all, I had to decide what paranormal entailed for me? Scary, creepy,
spine-tingling or downright horror? And when does it stop being paranormal and
cross into horror? Oh the questions of being a novice again.
[By this time,
churning in my head was something my dad used to say to me when I was afraid of
the dark: There’s nothing there in the dark that isn’t there in the daytime.
(This was actually the original tag line for the first book) Luckily back then,
I didn’t realize how completely untrue and misleading this saying really is but
it helped at the time.]
What do readers of
paranormal prefer to read—ghosts, vamps, shifters? Or some other kind of being?
Then came setting?
Where, what, who…
Different eras?
Alternate dimensions? So many options.
And I also had to
cover the sexy romance part as well.
So I start with a
couple. A couple doing what? I closed my eyes and my female character was
walking through a darkened hallway. The back of my neck actually started to
tingle. I thought that was a good sign. She’s on edge, not quite scared but
anxious. Tense. What’s up ahead? Door creaks. She jumps, a man appears but only
for a split second. I could work with that.
Right around that
time, those ghost hunter adventure type shows were everywhere, so I put my
characters in a house purported to have supernatural activity and I that’s
where the actual writing began. I wrote Meet Me in the Dark rather
quickly. I was quite pleased with myself. But once I got to the end, and this
happens to me a lot, I realized I could go on into a second book. There was
more to the story. But the imprint was looking for stand alones. Right?
I messaged my
editor and said good news bad news. Good news I wrote a story for the Wild
Darkness Calls themed stories. Bad news it’s not a short story, it’s over the
word count. She replied, how much? We can do a prequel/sequel or a trilogy of
short stories. Send me what you have.
Excitement! I sent
the first story while working on the second. She loved it. Send what you
have when you finish.
Cue the runaway
massive snowball careening down the ski hill!
Book three turned
into four and…oh, sheee, damn it, Susan, I don’t write short stories! Nor do I
stick to genre. This series of seven, yes, I said, seven (hangs head) also
incorporates some of the genres that I love to read and write. So much for a
one op short story.
I don’t want to
give too much away with the first book just coming out but this series is truly
an ongoing saga involving several generations of characters. The tale begins
with Meet Me in the Dark and a haunted house in the U.S. and eventually sweeps
us to one of the most haunted castles in Ireland, in an unsettling and at times
horrific saga with many twists and turns that I hope will keep readers not only
guessing but intrigued to the very end.
Needless to say,
my beloved editor unleashed the beast and I thank her for it. ;)
BLURB:
Possession
is nine tenths lust
Crishtin
Davenport thought she was attending a simple Halloween event–A
good scare to get the blood pumping. But instead she finds her pulse racing
over one of the event’s organizers.
Josh
Hewes loves nothing more than investigating paranormal activity, but after
meeting Crishtin the only thing he wants to explore is her.
However,
getting to know one another takes an unexpected turn when some randy spirits
get in on the act.
Crish
and Josh are inexplicably drawn into a heady web of desire and want nothing
more than to possess each other. But they’re not the only ones.
Be careful what you invite in to play…
Meet Me in the Dark
is on sale now at a
pre-order price of .99¢
(Lustful Possession
Series Book One)
1-Click
@ Amazon
Expected release dates in the series:
March 2015 - Book Two in the Lustful Possession Series
–
–
April 2015 - Book Three - The Dark Son: The Fall of Cairnnon Castle
May/June - Book Four – Rising from the Darkness
July/August - Book Five – Dark
Seed
Sept./October - Book Six – Bending
Darkness
Nov/Dec. - Book Seven – Conclusion of the Lustful Possession Series – Dark Defeat
Be Careful What You Invite in to
Play...
About the Author:
H K Carlton is a multi-published Canadian author of romance and its varied sub-genres including contemporary, paranormal, historical, saga and erotica.
I enjoy writing in many different genres. I write where the muse takes me and make no apologies for it. By now, it’s quite safe to say I will never pick just one genre and stick to it. There are just too many possibilities and stories left to tell. Today time-travel, tomorrow sweet historical romance—the next release might be, down and dirty erotica or ménage. I hope you’ll join me for the ride.
Variety is creativity’s playground—it’s where you’ll find me.
Author Links:
Aloha, Meg! Thank you so much for having me as your guest today!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Aloha H K! Love having you as always :-) Thanks for being here and hope the series goes really well. :-) Aloha Meg :-)
DeleteI love the way you challenged yourself with this series, HK. I've only ever written contemporary romance, and the thought of attempting anything else is daunting. You've inspired me to get out of my comfort zone! Best of luck with your new project. And I love the cover and title!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Helena. Can't wait to see where stepping out of your comfort zone might take you! The sky's the limit. :)
DeleteThe series sounds delicious! Love the idea of the portfolio writer with fingers in many genre pies. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Iona. It's never boring, that's for sure.
DeleteCheers!
Oh my goodness - talk about one heck of a series - each story so different from each and yet finely weaved together - I'm a push over for ghost stories. HK - I love the series: )
ReplyDelete