Piper Kay is a new to me author who writes M/M romance, and has some very hot covers! Seriously, I’m in love with the covers of her books. Piper has volunteered some of her time today, to pop onto the blog and say hello. She’s here to tell us a bit about herself and her books.
So let’s get to know Piper!
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m very refined, calm, cool, and collected, and my shyness drips over the edges so much that it’s scary. (and if you bought that, I have oceanfront property in Arizona.
Honestly, I’m just me, nothing special. Mother of three kiddos, whom I adore, and I write because it keeps the characters that run around in my head at bay. Let me ignore them and watch what happens. (little hellions that I love with my heart and soul)
I work for Encompass Ink, which is an imprint from CHBB (Crushing hearts & Black Butterfly Publishing), who is also the parent company for Hot Ink Press, and Vamptasy Publishing. I honestly love and respect them to the core and back. #onehouseunited we all are, like a big family. They gave me a chance, way back when.
When I first came up in the genre, many years ago, I was so blessed to have so many authors and readers who knew the genre much more than I did, but I fell in love it with the first time introduced and then challenged myself to just go for it. I’m glad I did, the community is entirely 100% amazing and I love that.
2. Can you tell us a little bit about your latest release? And what readers can expect when they open one of your books?
Absolutely so. Passion’s Pride, is book three in The Passion Series. It revolves around my characters Sparky (aka Serge) and Ash. Sparky popped up in Payce’ s Passion, book two of the series, and originally, he was only supposed to have one sentence in the story. Well, much to my surprise, that little firecracker had me off and running. I’m talking, literally, in circles, he still spins me crazy. LOL. He’s so full of heart and passion, and fun, so full of surprises. I’m his author and don’t know what to expect from him next-lol But, in this story, all though he is still him one hundred percent, he has a side that no one has seen yet, when it comes to Ash. He’s loved Ash for a couple of years, only in this one, you get to see how they come together at the end of it.
3. As an M/M author, can you tell us what are some of the benefits, and some of the struggles of writing gay erotic romance?
As an MM author, I love the genre with all my heart, I just do and wouldn’t change that for the world. The community is a close nit one and so very supportive of one another. Both from the authors, to the readers and whatnot. It’s tight. The obvious struggle is that I’m a female, so I literally research a lot, via friends, google, books, etc. But it is well worth it to me, because I have this thing I call a heart string. You either get it or don’t. With so very many people that have honestly given me insight and experiences in their life, etc, our heart strings have a meeting in the middle. Lots of people don’t understand or get it maybe, it’s like having a tug-of-war thing going on and I can’t stand that. I just love this genre and will continue writing it as long as I live.
4. Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way, either growing up or as an adult?
So many and where to start. When I was growing up as a kid, I had a hard time remembering things. I could read something, and couldn’t tell you one single thing I had read, so it took me literally reading a book over and over, about four or five times to get it. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of reading back then. I guess somewhere over the years, that disappeared. I remember reading Anne Rice for the first time, Lestat-lol I absorbed it all in one sitting, then went out to find everything she’d ever written, and I read them all. It was like a whole different world opened up to me, and I loved it.
There is another author, named Gemma Poppet Rice, and talk about instant addiction to her words and the way she words it, OMG. She’s also one of my closest online friends now. I watched her like a hawk when I first got online then, to see how she did things.
Another is Rue Volley (who happens to be one of my lit sisters) I read her books and was amazed. I silently stalked her also, just watching her as she worked her way up as an author, seeing how her writing grew and grew, and what a pure joy to watch. She’s brilliant.
Janus Gangi is another. She was there with me from the beginning, with love and encouragement all along the way. Her writing is deep and I love that about her.
Bobby Rose is my first, and foremost, best friend, and an author second. When he was alive, I devoured every single word and advice he had to give. He is one of the best I read, because he twists and turns things in such a wonderful way, that it makes you think. He makes you really dig deeper into what the real meaning of things are, and for that I love him. I also miss him very much.
All of these people are the ones I watched and that impacted my life in so many ways I can never say thank you enough. Huge influences in my life.
5. Does/has anything in real life influence your writing? (Life experiences, films, books, celebrities, music, places, etc.)
Ha! Everything. I’m a people watcher, so there are pieces all over the place. In all of my books, there is something I’ve been through personally, but I like to scatter them out like that apparently. It’s like that saying, ‘the day you quit learning something is the day you need to die’ Well with writing it’s the very same thing, only I can look back on it now. For example, in my latest release, Passion’s Pride, there’s a huge part of me in that one. Gianormous. Back when I first started writing I told everyone that none of it was literally my experience, but now that I look back on it, there was, I just didn’t know how to see that then. It’s a weird thing, not even knowing you put something about yourself in a book, until years later. It makes me laugh.
6. What do you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process?
Overthinking it. When I write, I get so OCD about wording and then also try to evaluate if what my words say will make sense to anyone else. Then I jump in and try to edit myself, which I totally suck at. (ask my editor- LOL) I never knew that typing a simple sentence or that one word, could hang you up for half a day, staring at it to get it just the way you want it. I overthink myself half to dang death. And promoting is extremely hard. It’s like I want to be that social butterfly who talks to my friends and readers, and other authors, asking questions about if they liked the story, what their favorite part is, etc. Not trying to go promote it.
Excerpt: Sparky’s POV from Passion’s Pride
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/PassionsPride-Bk3
Still straddling him around the waist, latched on to him like a tree frog on glass, he opens the front door, then kicks it closed behind us with the heel of his boot. Hottness!
“That was the bravest thing anyone has ever done for me, Serge.” The pupils in his eyes dilate, making them a sultry and seductive shade of brown.
“I was just showing off for you. See, chivalry isn’t dead.” I wind my arms around his neck.
“But you could have been killed and why? It wasn’t worth the risk.” Ash holds on tight to me.
“Put me down, right now.” I demand.
Ash releases me, and I stand there with my hand on my hip trying to decide how to address him on his remark. My foot echoes down the hallway, as I tap it against the entry way tiles.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” He cocks his head to the side. He’s so freaking adorable when he does that and it’s making it difficult for me to concentrate.
“Because of what you just said, Mister. I’m not sure whether to smack you across the face, withhold the goodies, or actually explain it so that you understand it clearly.” I’m trying so hard to keep a straight face.
“Withhold the goodies? I’d rather take the slap, to be honest.”
“Well, okay, I wasn’t really going to do either or those things, because that would be sort of like punishing myself, which I am totally not into, by the way, but it sounded really convincing, didn’t it?”
“Very much so.” Ash grins at me.
“Almost like I’d taken acting lessons or something. Buuuuut, back to the matter at hand, it was worth the risk. You’re worth the risk to me. I’ve waited for two long years hoping you’d actually kiss me one day, and wa-laa, you did. That’s worth a bullet to the skull any day of the week.” I point my finger to my temple like a gun.
“Do you ever take anything seriously? I mean it. Aaron is one crazy nutcrack, this could have ended way differently. And by the way, I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time too.” Ash crouches over, thrusting one shoulder forward, then the other and, stalks in closer to me.
“Wait! Hold the damn phone, you have?” Ash grins, then nods.
“Then what in the Sam Hill took you so long then?” This better be good.
Connect with Piper:
Amazon author page: http://amazon.com/author/piperkay
FB: https://www.facebook.com/piper.kay.1
About me: http://about.me/piper.kay
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiperKayAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6613775.Piper_Kay
Authograph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/PiperKayAuthor
Google: https://google.com/+PiperKay
Blog: www.piperkayauthor.com
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChQcM-y0AvDtn6YO9PY7lxg
