Author Interview: Crane Hana

The Exquisite Quills Blog welcomes author Crane Hana!

EQ: Welcome to EQ! Tell us a little bit about yourself! 

Crane: I'm a writer and artist living in the American Southwest, aka 'the Blast Furnace'. I've been playing in the same science fiction & fantasy secondary-world setting for 25 years, but erotic romance has opened up exciting new horizons. I'm short, middle-aged, and in love with a technomage...all else is subject to change without notice.

EQ: What made you want to become a writer?

Crane: In March of 1987, I read what was (I thought at that point) the worst fantasy romance novel ever written. I remember tossing the paperback out a second-story window into a snowstorm, and thinking: ‘I could probably create something better.’ Six months later, I’d finished writing my first space opera romance. It was horrible. I’ll never publish that version of it. But it taught me that I could write a 90K string of mostly coherent words.

EQ: Pick out one of the best lines in your novel. What do you love about it?

Crane: “You just saved my life, and all you want to do is die?” Those are almost the first words prince Valier says to escaped-slave Moro, and they sum up so many subtexts in the story: Moro’s stubborn refusal to give in to a hellish master. Val’s untrained sadism, which will save Moro’s sanity if Val can just grow up and learn mercy, too.

EQ: Describe how you came up with the plot of your novel.

Crane: I have a very large story bible involving a lot of worldbuilding. A few years ago I decided to embrace writing original M/M erotic romance, since I’d flirted with it in fan fiction for years. In my old notes I found a paragraph about a M/M pair: a devious, dangerous emperor and his glowering bodyguard and mate. I wanted to know more about how they became a couple. I started with a single sentence: “Throw the fight, songbird”, and free associated for about 25,000 words. By then, I’d fit the story into an existing narrative, and I knew who everybody really was. Of course, that also turned my short, explicit M/M romp into a much longer dark political intrigue.

EQ: Tell us a little bit about your most recent release.

Crane: Moro’s Price is a 100K+ M/M erotic romance space opera with BDSM themes and definite nods to ‘Firefly’, ‘Babylon 5’, ‘Torchwood’, and ‘The Fifth Element’. In the decadent 50^th Century, three competing interstellar empires are on the verge of war. Prince Valier gives suicidal escaped-slave Moro another option than leaping off a skyscraper - a few hours of meaningless rough sex, while Moro is infected with Val's lethal symbiont. Neither man expects Moro to survive, or become the one man who can tame Val's darker urges. The galaxy will never be the same.

Crane Hana’s Links:

www.loose-id.com/authors/l-p/mc-hana/moro-s-price.html

http://www.amazon.com/Moros-Price-ebook/dp/B008ON1X1K

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-moro039sprice-891333-145.html

Author’s website: www.cranehanabooks.com/blog

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008UUSDNI

Check out these titles from Crane Hana:

Moro’s Price (as M.C. Hana)

‘Saints and Heroes’ in Thrones of Desire (as M.H. Crane)

Upcoming releases: I am currently writing Moro’s Shield, which continues Val and Moro’s adventures, and getting ready to self-publish Singer in Rhunshan, a mild M/M/F novella set in the same universe as ‘Saints and Heroes’. I’ll have updates and links on my blog, when final release dates are set.

Cassandra’s Revenge

The Singles Cruise

Golden Dolphin Four

By Skye Michaels

Inspiration for Cassandra's Revenge

I wish I knew where ideas come from.  If I did I would bottle it.  Sometimes just paging through a magazine and admiring the beautiful couples in the perfume ads, listening to a song on the radio, or driving around a beautiful area (like the downtown historic district of Ocala) can spark an idea.  Then the people are kind of in my head for a while as an idea for a story starts to take shape.

When I start a new book, I may only have a sentence or two in my mind as to what it’s about.  A girl goes on a singles cruise with her girlfriend and sees the guy who stood her up on prom night.  She has changed and he doesn’t recognize her (Casssandra’s Revenge – Book 4 of the Golden Dolphin Series coming out in November). 

When I start I have no idea where the story is going.  I just start writing:  Chapter One, and go from there.  I may get hung up along the way and slow down, but the story just keeps coming on its own.   If I’m  stuck, I may talk it out with my sister or daughter and they will make suggestions.    I have written eleven (and one-half – LOL)  books without ever doing an outline, but everyone works differently.  I may not spend the time on an outline, but I will spend it while writing.  Someone else may have the whole story outlined in detail and then just write.

I like doing a series.  You get to keep in touch with characters you have made a connection with.  My first, the LeClub Series  published by Siren Publishing, ended up to be six books set in the historic district of downtown Ocala, Florida.  They all have a horse background which is my personal favorite thing.  My second, the Golden Dolphin Series, is a spin off of LeClub, as one of my people in the first series purchased a 300 foot mega yacht and that is the background for the new stories.  It allows me to keep in touch with my favorite characters from the first stories while broadening my canvas with new people and locations.

I have to say to anyone who wants to write, just do it.  Start with “Chapter One” and go.  You can always go back and edit.  If you don’t start, you never will.  – Best of luck, Skye Michaels

BLURB

Savannah jewelry designer, Cassandra St. Clare, agrees to accompany her best friend, interior designer, Devon James, on a singles cruise aboard the Golden Dolphin, a three hundred foot super yacht.  The cruise was a prize in a charity raffle at Le Club Waterfront-Savannah, a BDSM club located in an old cotton warehouse on the Savannah River, and promises to be a blast.  Although Cassandra has only been an infrequent guest of Devon’s at Le Club, she’s game to give the BDSM cruise a try.

The Golden Dolphin provides a very discreet, luxurious and private venue for BDSM cruises.  The Greek captain, Constantine Cortelis, Alexander Dragados, the Chief Mate, as well as Gregory Dempsey and Natasha Romanova are all aboard again.  And surprisingly, of course, the lovely Baxter sisters, jewel thieves extraordinaire!

Cassie is shocked to discover that the boyfriend who stood her up on her senior prom night is aboard and is apparently now a Dom.  It had been fifteen years since she last saw him.  At first she is tempted to bolt, but when she realizes that he did not recognize her, she decides to stick it out.  She would just avoid him at all costs. 

Beaumont Bainbridge finds the tall blonde stunning and wonders why she heads the other direction every time he looks her way.  He can’t figure her out.  Every other woman aboard is clamoring for his attention—just like they always do.  Beau doesn’t understand why the beautiful Sandy is giving him the cold shoulder.  Can he figure it out and maybe even warm her up?

Available on Bookstrand.Com   (coming to Amazon and Barnes and Noble in six weeks)

Other books by Skye Michaels available on Bookstrand.com, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com:

The LeClub Series:  Calleigh’ Collar, Kelly’s Challenge, Anne’s Courage, Paula’s Commitment, Madison’s Choice and Belinda’s Crown

The Golden Dolphin Series:  Ivorie’s Surprise, Harper’s Submission, Violette’s Vibrato, Cassandra’s Revengen, and coming soon:  Pandora’s Box (February 2014) and Hannalore’s Treasure (WIP)

The Horsemen Series:  The Appearance of Impropriety

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SKYEMICHAELSBOOKS Fan Page for covers and first chapters

E-MAIL:  SKYEMICHAELSBOOKS@YAHOO.COM

First Kiss Wednesday

It's  First Kiss Wednesday!

 
Kisses are the mainstay of romance writing.  No matter how sweet or spicy our stories are, they usually involve at least a kiss or two.  And the first kiss is especially lovely - that first, soft touch of lips - or perhaps the kiss is fierce and hungry.  Maybe the characters murmur words of love or words of teasing while discovering the texture and taste of each other.  Maybe the only sounds they can emit are gentle, timorous moans or deep, throaty groans.

Okay, now that we've set the premise, here's what you can do for First Kiss Wednesdays.  In the comment box, give us a maximum of 300 words of the first kiss of a published work or a work-in-progress and one link to your website or blog or Amazon Author Page. 

Read and luxuriate in the glories of the first kiss...

Oh, and lips only...  ;-)