Welcome back to the Weird, the Wild, and the Wicked.
Today I have the honor of hosting paranormal and contemporary romance author Doris
O’Connor with a new release through Evernight Publishing, Too Devious to Tame. She shares the
recurring problem of having characters demand their stories be told and
succumbing to the need to write them. Neither of us can get away.
Bwahahahaha! Ahem.
Welcome, Doris. Thank you for being with me today.
Thanks so much for having me here today. :)
What started you on the path to becoming a romance
author?
Well, I've always spun stories in my head, for as
long as I can remember. And I always thought that one day I would write a
novel. That day never came, until in September 2010 a friend entered the New
Voices competition. She told me about it and I thought to myself, why not give
it a go? I wrote that first chapter in a day and sent it off—not the cleverest
thing to do, really! Not surprisingly I didn't get anywhere in the competition,
but it opened the door to the wonderfully supportive world of fellow romance
authors, and I received some very encouraging feedback. What's more, I was
hooked. I needed to write that story, and Scandinavian Scandal was in fact the
first manuscript I ever completed. Then I heard about NaNoWriMo and I joined
that too.
Too Hot To Handle (Book 1 in my Giovanni Clan
series) was born then. I won Nano that year, and quickly wrote book 2, Too Cold
To Love and then made a start on Too Devious To Tame, but ground to a halt
until Nano last year, when I finally wrote the story.
After a complete re-write Scandinavian Scandal was
one of my first releases, and Too Hot to Handle was eventually accepted by
Evernight, after yet more re-writes to correct all the newbie mistakes. It's
been quite a journey. :)
Congratulations on your recent release on Too Devious to Tame with Evernight
Publishing. Introduce us to the main characters and premise of your story.
Too Devious To Tame is book three in my Giovanni
Clan series, and it tells the story of Cousin Giorgio and Jemima Donovan.
Readers will have first met both of them in book two, Too Cold To Love. Jemima
is Elise Giovanni's wayward twin sister, and she causes all sorts of havoc in
that book.
Here is the Blurb for Too Devious To Tame:
When Giorgio Giovanni tracks
the troublesome Jemima down in a hospital bed in Italy, he has one thing on his
mind—revenge. However, the fragile woman he encounters is not the devious
female he remembers. When it becomes clear that she is in danger, he risks
everything to keep her safe.
Left for dead, Jemima wakes up in
hospital, terrified, and with no idea of her identity. The angry man, who comes
to claim her, is the only link to a shared past she can't remember. A past that
threatens to destroy them, and all she has ever held dear.
With danger all around them, and
their sexual chemistry off the scale, can they find their way back to each
other, or is the past too devious to tame?
Did anything in particular inspire this story?
When I was writing Too Cold To Love, it became clear
that Giorgio and Jemima had history, and I wanted to explore that history.
Plus, Jemima was such a complex character, I had to find out what made her
tick, and why she acted in such an atrocious way. There had to be a reason why
Elise put up with all of Jemima's behavior, because Elise is no push over.
And Giorgio seemed such an interesting person; again
I had to get to know him better. He comes across as such a playboy and the bad
sheep of the Giovanni, and he is all of those things, but there is so much more
to him.
Amnesia is a common conflict in stories. What made
it work so well in this story?
Well, I had to think of a way to redeem Jemima in
the reader's eyes. She needed something to shake her up and smell the roses,
and to take a good long look at her life. She gets mixed up with some dangerous
people, and when she wakes up in the hospital bed, she has no clue who she is,
or what has happened to her. All she does know is that she is running and she
is terribly afraid. Then in walks Giorgio, and she has to deal with her
attraction to him as well as trying to figure out why she is being hunted, and
why he is so angry with her.
As the missing puzzle pieces slowly click into
place, Jemima changes. She is a very strong person. What she endured would have
broken stronger women than her.
So, the whole amnesia angle works so well here,
because she is literally given a chance of a new life—to become a new Jemima.
It completely throws Giorgio, because he doesn't know how to deal with her at
all.
What other projects are on the horizon for you that
we’re likely to see?
I have a Romance on the go story coming in February.
Sol And The Magic Fingers is a little funny and hot story about a very naughty
genie, and was great fun to write.
I've also been offered contract for another series,
following on from my free read Mr. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Natasha's story
will be coming soon. I'm knee deep in a work in progress concerning a
billionaire who inherits a virgin, and I have some other stories planned.
My mind never stops, lol.
Thank you for joining me today, Doris, and we look
forward to all your upcoming releases!
Thanks so much for having me. It's been great fun. :)
If you’d like a copy of Too Devious to Tame, you can find it at:
And be sure to check out Too Hot to Handle, the first book in Ms. O’Connor’s The Giovanni
Clan series.
Thanks again for having me here, Siobhan :-D
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Doris. Thanks for stopping by. :)
DeleteFantastic interview. Jemima is quite the character!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shyla, she sure is :-)
Delete