Thank you everyone for having me
on the blog today!
Since Shifters is an Anthology,
not a single title, I thought I’d talk a little bit about each of them in turn.
It has been a while since I’ve been with these characters, since the stories in
this antho were all published in 2009 and 2010. Still, it’s fun to go back and
think about how each of them came to be.
CRIA
The first book in the anthology
is called Cria. At the time, there was a submission call at a small press for
romances that also supported taking care of the environment. I thought that the
“green” concept was very unique and wanted to give it a try. All I needed was
the setting, plot and characters, lol.
A couple of weeks later, I
watched a cable special on the Amazon Rainforest and knew that was the perfect
setting for my story. There are so many undiscovered plants and animals living in
the rainforest. It felt entirely possible that different shifter clans could
live there out of the public eye. If they lived out of the public eye, then they
had to be rooted deep in tradition and mythology, like the Incas, Mayans or
Aztecs. I imagined a woman full of spunk living in such a setting and had my
story: A feisty heroine decides that she doesn’t want to be subjected to the
whims of the men in her life. She rebels against the Cria, and gets caught up in a
fight against the humans who are destroying the trees around their home and
forcing them deeper and deeper into the forest.
The title, Cria, has multiple
meanings. Basically, it’s a baby camelid, like an alpaca. The literal
translation in Portuguese is “create” and in Spanish it is “breeding.” I loved
the sound of the word and thought it would be a good name to call an ancient
tradition where shifters picked their mates and impregnated them.
SPYDER’S WEB
This was the first book of mine
that was ever published. It was written in response to a contest Jessica Faust
had on her blog to write a great fist-line hook. She wanted us to post the
first line to our story and post it in the comments section. Then she’d read
the entries and ask for pages from the one-liners she liked.
At the time, I wanted to come up
with something attention-grabbing and shocking. It didn’t matter that I didn’t
have a story written. I really wanted to win! So one night my husband and I
were shooting one-liners back and forth over dinner and he came up with a
doozy: Every time I f*ck, somebody dies.
I mean, that’s fantastic, right?
I thought so, and put it up on the Bookends Blog. It didn’t win the contest,
but I had quite a few authors tell me that they loved that line. Their comments
got me thinking, and soon Spyder’s Web was born.
UP ON THE HOUSETOP
This was another story that originated
from a submission call. My publisher was looking for stories that had a holiday
theme and a title that was a Christmas Carol. After a lot of thought, I came up
with the title “Up on the Housetop.” Since I write erotic romance, I thought it
would be a good title for a story where lovers reunited on a housetop. Since at
the time I wanted to focus on paranormal fiction, I decided to make one of the
lovers a werewolf and see what happened. Who knew that such a simple concept
would grow to become the first book in one of my biggest selling series?
So there it is. Three stories,
three different ways they came into being. It was great spending time on the
blog today. Thanks so much for having me!
~~
Out just in time for Halloween, this ebook
anthology of alpha male shifters is a compilation of three of my most popular
M/F erotic stories. Within the first 48 hours, this bundle became an All
Romance Ebooks top 20 best seller, and an Amazon top 50 best seller in
anthologies.
Included in this series:
Cria - Aleta runs the ancient breeding
race to gain her freedom, but when she runs into someone from her past deep
within the Amazon rain forest, she must decide if freedom is truly what her
heart desires.
Spyder’s Web – A tough cop tracks down a
beautiful serial killer and discovers that things aren’t always what they seem.
Up on the Housetop – Chloe goes up to the
rooftop of her childhood home to escape her controlling family and discovers an
an erotic adventure she will never forget.
Buy it at:
Bio:
A lifetime New Englander, Suzanne married
her college sweetheart and has been with him for over twenty years. Every
summer she drags her husband and two daughters to Maine on a quest for the
perfect lobster dinner. Every fall she can be found down in Foxboro,
Massachusetts cheering on her favorite football team. In between those trips,
she’s a chauffeur, a maid, a chef, an event planner, a hairdresser, a wardrobe
stylist, a tutor and a sometimes masseuse. To keep her sanity, she often drinks
copious amounts of coffee and stares at the blank screen of her laptop,
dreaming of great adventures. Sometimes she even writes them down for others to
enjoy.
Suzanne also writes new adult romances
under the pen name Ava Conway (www.AvaConway.com).
