Joining me today in The Loft is author Amber Daulton. Amber writes sexy stories with heart, including romantic suspense, and contemporary and historical romance. She is the author of the romantic suspense series, Arresting Onyx, and several standalone novellas. Her books are published through Daulton Publishing, The Wild Rose Press, and Books to Go Now, and are available in ebook, print on demand, audio, and foreign language formats. Amber writes full-time and praises her husband for being the cook in her family. Without him, Amber claims, she'd starve. Amber and her husband live in North Carolina with two spoiled, demanding cats named Darby and Pepper.
S: Good morning, Amber! Thanks for joining me today.
Why write romance?
A: I love the versatility of it. Most romance books are more than simple boy-meets-girl love stories. There’s action, danger, mystery, emotional upheaval, physical trauma, etc. If you take away the falling in love aspect from a romantic suspense, for example, then you have a suspense/action/thriller story. The romance genre is so widespread that I’ve heard of men reading and enjoying various books without realizing those books are classified as romance.
S: Versatile is a great way to describe romance stories. I like to say love comes in all shapes and sizes. Thankfully, we are seeing more diversity in romance and romance characters.
What's your preference--Brains or brawn/beauty?
A: I like a mixture of both. My heroes don’t have to be ripped and gorgeous, or be brainy, but it doesn’t hurt either. Same with the heroines. I try to create flawed, three-dimensional characters readers relate to.
S: I think it's important to make the characters in contemporary romance books real. It makes the story more credible--unless you are writing fantasy or paranormal romance.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
A: No, but it makes for a nice fairy tale. I do believe in lust at first sight, though, since we all have animal natures. But for love to grow between two—or more—people, there has to be respect, mutual compatibility, and friendship. Something like that can’t pop into existence as soon as you see someone. Love and relationships take a lot of work, and even if you do fall in love, outside forces or even your and your partner’s actions can enhance that love or make it fade.
S: What do people get wrong about writing romance?
A: They often think it’s cliché and full of toxic heroes with gleaming muscles and waif-like beauties without an original thought in their heads. These naysayers have probably never read from the genre. Romance books are more than just romance these days, more than broad-shouldered men and clingy women. They focus on family problems, friendships, careers, personal demons, and hope. The villains are often sympathetic, and sometimes you even root for them. There’s action and tears, everything that makes up a blockbuster movie.
S: It's amazing to me that so much prejudice is directed at romance stories as well as romance authors. It takes real skill to write romance well.
What’s the best advice you have ever given?
A: For new and veteran authors alike, read modern books--as in what’s been published in the last five years. Publishing guidelines and styles change all the time, so you can stay updated on what’s acceptable by reading newer books. In addition, don’t put excessive demands, deadlines, and restrictions on yourself. Writing is difficult enough, and it’s only half of the work. I’m a plotter, not a panster, so I always recommend you plot out as much of the story as you can before you actually start writing it. By doing that, it’s easier to see plot holes, and you can avoid writing yourself into a corner later. Finally, handling rejections and bad reviews with finesse is a must, taking care of marketing and publicity demands is a handful but a requirement, and writing your next book while dealing with everything else is cause to bring out the vodka. But ’tis the life of an author.
S: That's good advice. What inspired "Ryan’s Temptation?"
A: That’s a loaded question, and I should start from the beginning. I never meant to write the Arresting Onyx series. Book 1, "Arresting Mason," started as a single book, but the secondary characters demanded stories of their own, so I kept writing. Before long, I had a trilogy on my hands. But that wasn’t enough either. As I was writing book 5, a pestering little voice in the back of my head told me to go back and squeeze in two novellas in the middle of the series. You see, I’d introduced two secondary characters in book 1 and let them return in book 3, but I didn’t give them a chance to shine in their own story. Deep inside me, I just couldn’t accept that. These two women, Chanel and Shea, are wonderful friends to Mia, the heroine in "Arresting Mason." They deserved a story of their own. So after a little re-writing of books 2, 3, and 4, I wrote two novellas and marked them as books 2.5--"Ryan’s Temptation," and 3.5 "Trevor’s Redemption." All the books in this series include the men’s names, but I chose a different format for the novellas to help readers differentiate between them and the full-length novels. Into The Fire collects ten romantic suspense stories from ten authors, including "Ryan’s Temptation," featuring Chanel Leroc and her sexy new doctor friend Ryan Naylor.
S: Is there anything special you would like people to know about "Ryan's Temptation?"
A: "Ryan’s Temptation" is only available in the limited edition Into The Fire box set—at least for the time being. In late summer of 2022, I’ll re-release it as an individual book, so grab it now if you don’t want to wait. Plus, you’ll get a bunch of other great stories in the set. A win-win!
Danger, Secrets, Murder, Passion… Love.
Lose yourself in the world of cops and criminals, witnesses and fugitives, old loves and new flames, where the stories turn scandals into romance and secrets into passion. With all levels of law enforcement included in the intrigue, you'll find unintended romance, passionate secrets, and forbidden love.
Your favorite contemporary romance authors invite you to join them for scintillating stories of law and order. Which of these arresting stories will have you cuffed?
These romances will take you deep into the fire.
Who will get burned when the case is cracked wide open?
S: Wow. That's sounds pretty suspenseful. Where can readers buy the box set?
Thank you for the awesome interview. I had a blast!
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