Why don't you start with telling us a little about yourself? What genre do you write in and why?
In a word, I write sexy. I’ve written paranormals, fantasies, and (with a co-author under the name Sophie Mouette), contemporaries—but they all have the word “erotic” in the subgenre description. I’ve also written a boatload of short erotica.
I love paranormals and fantasies because I adore the possibilities for magic, mayhem and unexpected pleasures and perils that wouldn’t fit in a real-world setting. Besides, witches, shape-shifters, satyrs and other non-exactly everyday types make such great heroes and heroines, with large- than-life problems to match their extraordinary abilities.
And I love sexy because…come, on I’m getting paid to think about naughty things in great detail and then write about them. For most people, contemplating what a naked Daniel Craig-lookalike weretiger might get up to with a plus-sized witch and a vampire with a Jamaican accent would be a distraction from their job. For me, it is my job. How fun is that? (I just made that example up, by the way—but now I’m itching to figure out the story that goes with those three characters.)
What comes first for you when you sit down to write a book? Plot or Characters?
Most often, what I get is a quick image that tells me it needs to become something bigger. Plot and characters arrive shortly thereafter. With luck, they arrive on the same bus or I may end up doing a lot of flailing.
Do you "cast" your characters using pictures or actors to help inspire you when you're writing?
My Lions’ Pride heroes have actor inspirations. Rafe is based on actor Mark Descascos. Jude is actor Keith Hamilton Cobb. Interestingly, I’ve never seen Keith Hamilton Cobb in anything. I came across a picture of him while looking for something else and said, “Oh my gods, that’s Jude!” One of the heroes in the forthcoming Foxes’ Den is the fiddle player from an Irish band I’m fond of.
My heroines, though, just appear in my head. I’m not sure what that means!
How long does it take you to finish a book from start to finish?
About a year for a full-length novel, although I’m getting faster as I go along. That said, I’m usually working on several projects at once. ADD? What makes you say…oh look, a butterfly! (Or in my case, a hero!)
How much does reader reaction mean to you as an author? Do you read your own reviews? I love positive feedback! I read my own reviews, but try to take them with a grain of salt.
And some chocolate and single-malt Scotch, if they’re not good.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing up the third Duals and Donovans book, tentatively entitled Shamans’ Sanctuary, and also the last novella in the Seasons of Sorania series. My co-author and I are also doing a final revision on one of our contemporaries, which is a sexy comedy. Kind of a brain wrench to jump from one to the other.
What books are currently on your nightstand?
I’m reading Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series, which are high fantasy. Next in the cue is Ill Winds, the first in the Weather Wardens series by Rachel Caine. After that, maybe a Bernard Cornwall historical. My TBR stack is ridiculously huge.
Where did you get the idea for your latest book?
The work in progress, Shamans’ Sanctuary was set up by events at the end of Lions’ Pride. Since Elissa, Rafe and Jude ended up in a remote part of Quebec, Canada, I researched French-Canadian folklore…which gave me the idea for the major external conflict the characters face.
Warner Brother cartoons were also a major inspiration, which will make sense once you read the book.
If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?
I’d start with Lions’ Pride, since it’s the first in the Duals and Donovans series (and the only one out right now, although Foxes’ Den will be out in August) and Lady Sun Has Risen¸ which is the first Seasons of Sorania story.
Where can we find you on the web?
http://teresanoelleroberts.blogspot.com and www.teresanoelleroberts.com. Be warned that the web site needs a major overhaul! You can also friend me on Facebook—I post regular updates about new releases there.
If we sat down with your muse, what do you think they would say about you?
“Teresa doesn’t need me for ideas. She has plenty of those on her own. My job is to get her to focus.”
Please tell us about your latest story. What inspired it? Where can we find it?
Lions’ Pride isn’t my latest, but as a new print release, it’s a big thrill. (I love e-books, but print books feel even more special.) Lions’ Pride started out as a short, tongue-in-cheek story about an animal control officer who answers a call about an exotic pet and discovers his neighbor is a shapeshifter.
Only once I started writing, the ACO turned into a bisexual cop who was a closeted feline shifter. The lion shifter he gets the call about acquired a hot, super-smart witch wife who specializes in sex magic. First they all got tangled with a shadowy and dangerous government agency and then they all started falling in love. Not the comic romp I envisioned, but a lot richer and much more erotic and romantic.
You can find the print edition at Amazon.com for preorder. Soon, it will be at your favorite neighborhood or online bookstore. The e-book’s available from all your favorite vendors, including My Bookstore and More.
Anything coming up in 2010 you want us to get excited about?
As I said, Lions’ Pride comes out in print in July. Foxes’ Den, Duals and Donovans 2, will be released by Samhain on August 6. This is another paranormal ménage. Elissa’s gorgeous, witchy cousin and his fox-Dual husband meet a beautiful cursed kitsune (Japanese fox-spirit) who needs sex magic to break the curse. Which might be less of a problem if it weren’t for those darned sorcerers butting in—and if kitsune couldn’t die from unrequited love.
And sometime this fall—I don’t have a firm date yet—Threshing the Grain, the autumn Seasons of Sorania title, will come out from Phaze. It’s romantic and erotic, but also dark and creepy. It features satyrs and a dangerous demon, as well as a magical healer and a very sexy warrior who has to go way past his comfort level to save the day.
What is your favorite candy bar and why?
A dark chocolate caramel bar made by a little place in Ogunquit, ME called Harbor Sweets. It’s incredibly rich and satisfying, but not overly sweet.
Duals and Donovan: The Different, Book 1
When Rafe Benedict gets Elissa’s call for muscle to back up her magic, he risks his law enforcement career to answer. He’s spent a lifetime hiding his Dual ability, but something about Elissa and Jude’s magic awakens the cougar within him.
Tempting, bronzed Rafe is the perfect fuse for Elissa’s sex-fueled magic. Danger lies in breaking her vows; joining with anyone other than her true mate could not only send her marriage up in flames, it could burn out her powers in a last, all-or-nothing explosion. But Jude is worth the risk. And for Rafe, potential heartbreak is nothing next to the chance to help the two people he’s coming to love.
First, though, Rafe needs a crash course in Cougar…
Warning: This title contains evil fae, guys with guns, shadowy government conspiracies, a snarky ghost, and smoking-hot, three-way sex.
EXCERPT:
(For a little setting, Jude has been captured by the bad guys and shot up with a dangerous experimental drug that's affecting the bond between his human and lion sides. Elissa's managed to pull them all into the spirit world so she can heal his damaged spirit--via sex magic.)
Elissa's lips tasted of green and cinnamon, of life itself burgeoning, and his cock swelled in response. But there was an undertaste, one hauntingly familiar but not right.
Pine and forest smells, like the air around them, amber and male feline musk. For all it didn’t belong around his woman, let alone on his woman’s lips, it went straight to his cock and balls, adding to his desire. He ached sweetly for things he hadn’t known, had barely dared to imagine.
A hand gripped his shoulder, large and heated and firm. Not a threat, but a gift, he sensed. The scent of sage, already on the wind, already on Elissa, grew stronger.
Reluctantly, he turned from Elissa.
Into Rafe’s waiting arms.
Rafe stood, fully human, naked as Jude himself. He was shorter than Jude, but strong, muscled. Perfect copper abs tapered to narrow hips and a cock Jude felt hard against him, but didn’t dare to look at.
Instead, he met the other man’s eyes and saw the cougar, tawny and alert and curious, in the same spot where the human-seeming Rafe stood. The lion responded as he would to a beautiful lioness, or to the lioness the lion perceived Elissa to be despite her human body.
All kinds of questions rambled through his head, too many to ask.
“We’ve found you,” Elissa said. She pressed against him, her arms around his waist, her breasts soft against his back. “We’re going to get you out, my heart. No matter what.”
“Elissa…” He tried to turn, to look into her eyes, to tell her not to risk herself. That he’d be fine—even though he had no idea how he would be, poisoned and imprisoned and in the kind of pain that would eventually break his mind.
Rafe had left his hand resting on Jude’s shoulder as if it was the most natural thing on earth. He placed the other over Elissa’s on Jude’s hip, so his fingertips brushed Jude’s skin, the sensitive low belly, perilously near Jude’s swollen dick.
His cock felt huge, treelike. On fire with need. Wrong, yet so right. Elissa’s cunt was its natural home, but he felt an equal pull toward Rafe’s lush mouth and firm, elegant ass.
The air throbbed with the smell of herbs and pears and pine and fur, of male and female musk. Jude closed his eyes, trying to shut out some of the stimuli, but this was a dream and the sight of Rafe, of Elissa, of the two of them touching him and each other, burned through his eyelids.
“Rafe, what are you doing in my dream?” Jude finally stammered. He’d meant it to sound accusing, but it came out plaintive and eager, as if he’d been yearning for Rafe to be there for so long he’d given up hope.
“This,” Rafe said, and reached up to kiss him.
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