Welcome guest
author Francesca Hawley. Thanks so much Francesca for coming to the Passion
Sense blog to talk about your latest release at Ellora’s Cave, Leaderof the Pack, and for doing an interview. I love shapeshifters and book
1, Alpha vs. Alpha, was a big hit so
I’m sure this one will be too.
Kathy,
Thanks so much for the invitation to visit
your blog to share information about my upcoming release. I'm really excited to
be here.
*What is your current
(next) release and tell us a little about it.
My
next release on December 21 is Leader of the Pack. This story is a
sequel to Alpha vs. Alpha. Matchmaker
Serena Goldwolf sets up her friend, packleader Yohana Whitewolf to find a Mate
in order to placate her nervous pack. Serena matches Yohana with handsome
surgeon Dr. Per Goldwolf who wants to make partner in his surgical practice. To
do this, he needs to produce a fiancée to satisfy the criteria of the senior
partner of his medical practice.
*Where can readers
buy your book?
Readers
can buy the books on the new Ellora's Cave web site at http://www.ellorascave.com/leader-of-the-pack.html
. After the book is released, readers should also be able to find it at Amazon,
B&N and other popular stores and web sites that sell Ellora's Cave books.
*Do you have website,
blog or other links you’d like to share?
I'm
active with many social media sites on the internet. Here are some of the
places my readers can find me:
web
site - http://www.francescahawley.com/
blog
- http://francescasmindstream.blogspot.com/facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FrancescaHawley.author
twitter - https://twitter.com/francescahawley
goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/608399.Francesca_Hawley
pinterest - http://pinterest.com/francescahawley/
yahoo group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/francescahawley/
What is your writing
day like?
I
lost my day job back in October so my life has changed a lot recently. I used
to go to work and come home and try to get some writing done. Right now, while
I'm conducting my job search, I write daily. In early November, I managed to
slam out almost 20K words. I was amazed that I could do it. Amazed and
thrilled. It made me feel a real sense of accomplishment.
How did you get
started writing novels?
I've
been writing stories since I was in my teens. Unfortunately, back then I had
trouble finishing anything. In the early 2000s, I found the Ellora's Cave web
site and read voraciously and aspired to write like my favorite authors there.
In 2005, my first novella was published and then I was thrilled to sell Protect and Defend to EC in 2007. It's
been stop and start since then but I've continued to push forward with my
writing.
What advice would you
give to aspiring writers?
Never,
ever give up. Even though the process for getting published might seem long and
become disheartening. Always keep trying because one day you will succeed. That
publisher or agent you love will see your work and want it.
And
also, writers have an alternative if they want to go in that direction, they
can choose to self-publish. Just be sure to have someone, other than one of
your close friends, critique the writing for you. You don't want to publish
something that readers will remember in a negative way. If you self-publish,
make it the best it can be and you'll gain a following.
Do you have a
character in one of your books that continues to haunt you at night or
surprised you when you wrote the book?
I'd
say that character is Baron Eaduin Kempe, the hero of Seeking Truth. He started
out as a villain in a completely different book. I intended him to be an evil
sociopath with a beautiful face, but he kept whispering to me. Seducing me,
really. He assured me that I mistook him. He was a different man than I tried
to depict him as. It turned out, he was right. He was a hero, not a villain and
I still adore him.
Are you an outgoing
person?
Actually,
I'm very shy. You wouldn't believe it if you met me at Romanticon because I
dance and do all kinds of things there. But, when I first meet people I'm very
quiet and listen a lot. It's only as I get to know them that I start to open up
and let them know more about me.
Do you write a novel
straight through? Or revise as you go? Plan a whole series in advance? Or does
the series evolve?
I
write chronologically. I have a lot of trouble skipping around so I don't do
it. At times, I've left a scene out that needs to go in a particular place
(usually a love scene) and then keep going and return to that scene but
usually, I try to write with the flow. I do revise as I go. When I get started
again in the morning, I usually go back and revise the previous chapter or two
so I can get into the story and then the rest will flow more naturally when I hit
blank space. I tend to be a pantser - writing by the seat of my pants - so I
don't do a lot of plotting in advance. I often know when something might evolve
into a series though and I'll keep that in mind as I'm writing.
What’s next?
I
have a Valentine shapeshifter story on submission with my EC editor right now.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll contract it. The story is set in
Whitewolf, CO which is where Yohana Whitewolf is pack leader. It involves a
rock band full of shapeshifters called The Pack and a local girl, Mandy
Goldwolf, whose parents are members of the band. The new lead singer and guitar
god, Joe Blackwolf is much younger than the other band members and suits Mandy
to a tee. Family dynamics cause some bumps along the way to a Happy Valentine's
Day.
Do your books have a
particular theme or premise?
My
books usually feature themes regarding family issues. Estrangements and
reunions. Love and acceptance. But sometimes those problems aren't resolvable.
Those are challenging for me to write. I've got one in mind where that is an
issue for one of my characters and support comes from other places.
Anything unusual you
had to do for research on this book?
I
tried to figure out what a city manager/mayor of a small town would do. I knew that
Yohana would be managing a budget for her small town, but I was surprised at
the size of the budgets of Colorado skiing communities. For example, I found
that in 2010 the Aspen budget (combined expenditures and revenues) was in the
hundreds of millions. I wasn't expecting that for a town under 10,000 people.
So I had a challenge trying to figure out what kind of budget my fictional
resort town of Whitewolf, Colorado might have. I was surprised how interesting
that kind of thing was too. I'm not much of a number cruncher, but it was
fascinating to watch how politics played out in those communities.
Francesca Hawley,
author bio
Hi.
I’m Francesca Hawley and I’m a fat chick. A woman with dangerous curves just
like my heroines.
I
first began to read romance when I was in my teens. I loved the genre, but the
heroines were all thin. Their thighs didn’t rub together…had never rubbed
together…and frankly I had trouble relating to these ladies. The stories were
great—full of emotion and well told, but the heroines weren’t like me and that
was a major disappointment. I kept
wondering where were the fat heroines? I found some occasionally, but to have
their Happily Ever After they usually had to lose weight and go from ugly
duckling to swan.
Well,
I wanted a fat heroine who loved herself—or at least learned to love
herself—and a hot alpha hero who liked her jiggly bits just the way they were.
Since I didn’t find many big girls to read about, I decided to write about them myself. After all, I
loved to write anyway and had been writing almost as long as I’d been reading,
so Francesca Hawley – author of Romance with Dangerous Curves was born.
In
a Francesca Hawley romance, my readers will find authentic, sensual, fat
heroines who love and are loved by their intense, passionate, and seductive
Alpha heroes. I hope you enjoy their dangerous curves just as much as their
hunky heroes do.
Leader of the Pack - Blurb:
Surgeon
Dr. Per Goldwolf needs a mate to make partner in a prestigious practice.
Predator-Match.com—a matchmaking service for shapeshifters—not only finds him a
mate, they match him with his True Mate. Yohana’s long legs and fair flesh make
him lick his lips and her scent makes him rock-hard.
New
packleader Yohana Whitewolf’s life goal is to follow in her sire’s pawprints
and lead her pack. Leadership demands sacrifices. To calm her people, Yohana
needs a mate. But finding an Alpha male who won’t take over is a tall order.
Yohana doesn’t want the complication of a True Mate, but Per is a sexy,
intelligent Alpha male and she wants to shred his clothes every time she
touches him.
Everything
should be perfect—except she’s a packleader, and the Whitewolf pack is nervous.
Buy
link: http://www.ellorascave.com/leader-of-the-pack.html
Release
date: December 21, 2012
Excerpt:
By reading any further, you are stating that you are at
least 18 years of age. If you are under the age of 18, it is necessary to exit
this site.
An Excerpt From: LEADER OF THE PACK
Copyright © FRANCESCA HAWLEY, 2012
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave
Publishing, Inc.
Per looked up from his coffee to see
Yohana striding confidently across the room. Two steps behind her was the young
waiter, looking dazed and horny. What the fuck? Per had been on edge ever since
she left the table, envisioning her in the bathroom stall with her legs spread
and himself on his knees on the floor plowing into her. Now, here she was
sashaying back to their table looking satisfied. He stood to hold out her
chair. As Yohana stepped close to him, he was enveloped in the scent of her
recent arousal…and orgasm. His bitch screwed someone else then walked back to
the table as if nothing had happened. Fuck that! Per caught the
worshipful gaze of the wet-behind-the-ears pup and growled.
The pup blinked and stammered, gulping
in terror. “I’ll bring your check,” he squeaked.
“Like hell you will, you whelp. You just
mounted my Mate. We’re going for a walk. Now.”
The boy yipped, flying off for the
kitchen at a run. Per was after him in a shot, ready to kill.
“Per!”
He ignored Yohana’s cry of command,
looking back once, rage filling his vision. “I’ll handle this.”
The boy weaved between tables before
slamming headlong into someone exiting the kitchen with a tray full of pasta
dinners. Per caught the boy before he hit the floor, lifting him up by the
collar of his shirt. A firm female hand grasped his wrist, while her arm
encircled his waist.
Yohana pressed against his back to
whisper in his ear, “I masturbated in the bathroom. The pup was nowhere near
me. Let him go…” She sighed as he turned to look into her eyes. “Please, Per.”
He took a deep breath and nodded. The
scent of his Mate wasn’t on the boy, so he released the whelp, watching as the
boy ran hell for leather through the kitchen doors. Per closed his eyes,
mortified at his stupidity. He had never claimed a female this publicly in his
entire life, not even when he was in Sweden before his sire threw him out of
their pack.
Yohana eased away from him, turning to
the man, who happened to be Stefano Blackwolf the restaurant manager and son of
the owner, Roberto. “I’m sorry, Stef. This is my fault. I’ll pay for the meals.
Please allow me to buy the diners whatever else they would like to apologize
for their wait.”
Per shook his head. “No. My fault. I’ll
pay for it.”
Yohana frowned at Per. “I will
pay. It’s my responsibility.”
Per’s blue eyes blazed, then he paused.
“We’ll split it. Fair?”
Yohana patted his arm. “Yes. That’s
fair.”
Per blushed as Stefano lips twitched,
fighting to control his amusement. Per looked into Yohana’s eyes then he
started to chuckle, drawing giggles from her. She blushed, looking down at her
toes. He reached over, lifting her chin with a fingertip barely brushing her
lips with his.
“Dessert, Yohana? Would you like some
cannoli?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
“Two, Stefano?” Per inquired of the
manager.
Stef nodded, directing the busboys to
clean up the mess while he went to inform the waiting diners of the delay with
their meals. Per set his hand at the small of her back, escorting her to their
table. He seated her and reseated himself.
“I’m sorry for setting this mess in
motion. I didn’t consider you might imagine me having sex with Marcello. He’s a
baby.” Yohana took his hand, meeting his eyes.
Per clasped her hand before lifting it
to his lips to kiss. He froze, taking a deep breath. She’d washed her hand, but
he knew it had been inside her…recently.
Per looked into her startled gray eyes, breathing deeply so she’d know he
smelled her sex. He opened his mouth engulfing her thumb, sucking and licking
it. In spite of the soap, her taste lingered faintly on her skin bringing his
body rigidly to attention.
Yohana gasped, color rising in her
cheeks as she licked her lips. He could see her pebbled nipples tight against
the silk of her dress. This was no frigid bitch and he was in big, big trouble
because his mind rejoiced to discover it. Per wanted to mount her now. He
wanted to grab her, throw her face down on the table, rip off her panties, and
sink into her to make her his while everyone in the room watched…then cheered.
What scared him the most was the expression evident in her eyes. She wanted the
same damn thing!
