EQ Welcomes Berengaria Brown
EQ: Welcome to EQ!
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
Berengaria is a multi-published author of erotic romance:
contemporary, paranormal (magic, ghosts, vampires, fairies, dragons, and
werewolves), futuristic, medieval, and Regency-set historical. She loves to
read all different kinds of romance so that is what she writes: one man/one
woman; two women; two men; two men/one woman; three men, two women/one man,
three men/one woman…. Whatever the characters need for their very hot
happily-ever-after, Berengaria makes sure they get it.
EQ: Tell us a little
bit about your most recent release.
Tammy has been lusting
after Lydia for ages. They attend the same gym and Tammy makes sure she’s there
when Lydia goes. Lydia recently turned forty and has realized that there’s more
to life than a career. She’s aware of Tammy’s interest in her and decides it
would be good to get to know Tammy better and see what develops.
Damaris has loved Larnie
for a long time, but Larnie’s unwilling to commit to a true relationship. They
end up joining the gym together, and Larnie’s very nervous about taking this
step.
Will these women deny
what's in their hearts or will they find love?
EQ: Describe how you
create characters.
Berengaria: I don’t
actually create characters. They turn up in my head and demand that I tell
their stories. Sometimes several of them are yelling at me all at once and it
can get quite confusing, especially if my boss asks me a question right when I’m
trying to tell a character to shut up and wait until I get home from work.
EQ: Who or what has
had the biggest influence on your writing?
Berengaria: When I
was small my Mom was quite ill. My Dad had never had to look after me for more
than an hour or two at a time until then, and he wasn’t too sure what to do
with me. The first day he bought me a wonderful set of blocks with bridges, and
towers, and awesome things in the box, and I played with them all day. I’m
pretty sure he enjoyed playing with them too. At least for the first hour or
so. But by the second day he was once again at a loss to know what to do with
me.
He loved reading, so he sat me down and taught me to read. I
was already fascinated that the black squiggles on the pages of my books
actually meant something, and picked up the idea fairly quickly. My Mom was ill
for several months. Long before she had gotten better I was reading
voraciously. All the kids’ books I owned, I could now read, and I read them
over and over. When I got tired of that, Dad took me down to the local library,
and signed me up for a membership card. That worked well for several years,
until I’d read everything in the children’s section. Dad didn’t even blink. He
just handed me his adult borrower card and I started to read the adult
collection.
Some people were horrified that I might read something that
little girls shouldn’t know about. Dad wasn’t worried. “If she doesn’t
understand it, it won’t hurt her. And if she knows what it means, there’s no
need to hide it from her,” he said.
And that is why I write erotic romance including FF, MM, and
ménage. Because it’s fantasy. Because it fills the imagination. Because I can’t
help asking “what if” all the time. Because my father taught me a very
important principle to live by. Let people make their own boundaries. Let
explorers explore. Let readers read. And for those who don’t want to try
anything new, they have the freedom to choose that, too.
EQ: What is the
biggest risk you’ve taken in your writing?
Berengaria: Writing Lesbian
romance is a huge risk. Most people would advise me to stick with MM and/or
ménage. But to me, it’s incredibly important to treat the love of a woman for
another woman as equally as important as the love of a woman for a man, or the
love of a man for a man. And the fact that my new lesbian romance “Women in
Love” became a bestseller in just forty-eight hours proves that other people
believe in lesbian romance, and want women to have the freedom to choose the
partner with whom their heart resonates, too.
Find Berengaria Brown at these
places:
Friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter
