Thursday, February 17, 2022

The week in The Loft: Author Dee S. Knight!

Joining me today in The Loft is Dee S, Knight. Dee has a bit of a split personality. She writes as Anne Krist for sweeter romances, and Jenna Stewart for ménage and shifter stories. When her characters are not killing people, falling in love, or becoming drunk with power or sober with responsibility, they are having sex, lots of sex. Dee lives with her high school sweetheart in a charming little town in northern Idaho, where they search out wildlife in the summer and snuggle together with hot stew and a cold adult beverage in the winter.

Author Dee S. Knight

S:  Good morning, Dee! It's nice to have you in my loft again! Your visits are always a pleasure.

When it comes to writing romance, do you consider yourself a dreamer or a realist?

D:  I've never really thought of it before, but I think a realist. On the other hand, I believe every romance has a smidgen of dreamer to it. What girl or woman doesn't want to feel that spark of electricity when she touches the hand of a man she thinks is so handsome? Or hope the Tinder date she's heading to will reveal a Prince Charming? My own romance was a mix of dreamer and realism. The realism--I didn't have fashion model figure and good looks and he didn't look like a GQ cover model. In fact, he kind of irritated me for a short while because he was there all the time. I didn't have time to process the idea of him. Also, at the beginning, there was no electricity, no sense that he was the one. The dreamer:  After a while—maybe I got used to him? His kindness and sense of humor won me over. Within two weeks, we'd determined that we'd marry someday. Oh, did I mention that I was 15 at the time? It took us a few more years, but we did end up married and so far happily ever after.

S:  I am always amazed when couples meet as teens and stay together for so many years. That takes a lot of hard work!

Romance in 2022. What are people getting right? Wrong?

D:  I certainly read a lot romance that isn't just M/F. I've read some excellent books that are M/M--I just finished Lisabet Sarai's, "At the Margins of Madness" and Kayelle Allen's, Tales of the Chosen series. Also, I've just fallen in love with Lucy Score. In addition to crazy humor in her books—which I love—it seems a lot of same-gender couples populate her world. They're great characters and add a lot to the storyline, but I have to admit, in my whole long life, I've ever only known three gay couples. So does this represent romance as I know it in my world? Maybe not. She might have had that many in one book. But maybe that's romance in her world. She's a fabulous writer and she makes it all work, so I'm a happy reader.

S:  Love comes in all shapes and sizes. I think that's always been the case, but writers did not feel free to explore certain types of couplings. That has really changed in recent years.

How did you meet your current partner? When did you know he/she was “the one?”

D:  True story. Jack and I met in school. We were in the eighth grade and in Algebra I together. I had polio as a baby and was in a Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children--that's what they were called then--in Greenville, SC. Because we were all children and they didn't want anything from home to upset us, all of our mail was read before we got it. One day, I came back to my bed from therapy and Nurse Coker pointed to a card on my bed. "Who is Jack XXX?" she asked. "Just a boy in my algebra class. Why?" "He has his eye on you. He likes you." So I read the card sent from our math teacher. Everyone in my class had signed their name except Jack. He signed "Come home soon, Jack." I guess the nurse read between the lines. The next year, Jack had gone away to school. And the next year. But at Christmas of our sophomore year, he came to my school for a Christmas concert. He asked me out to a movie that night. I went home that night and wrote in my diary that I'd gone out with a boy like someone I'd like to marry. We saw each other a couple more times is all. By the time Jack left to go back to school, he told me that we would get married someday. We dated several years—until college graduation—and got married. I've always wondered if Nurse Coker had second sight or something because marriage to Jack had been the furthest thing from my mind.

S:  That's an incredible story. What was your worst date ever?

D:  In college, a good friend's boyfriend was coming up from Durham, North Carolina with two buddies. She asked me if I would go with one. I said sure. The six of us piled into the boyfriend's car and made the 50-some mile drive up to Washington, D.C. for a night in Georgetown. The boy I was "assigned" was nice enough, but unbeknownst to me or my friend, he'd just broken up with his long-time girlfriend. He had no interest in a date with anyone. He barely spoke, walked far ahead of me on the street, and basically showed his resentment at being there at all. The night couldn't end soon enough.

S:  What do you appreciate more in your romantic partners--Brains or brawn/beauty?

D:  Brains. I think an intelligent person—who's still nice and funny and decent—is the sexiest thing a man can be. Sure good looks are nice, but will they help you with calculus when you're going for your MBA? Or figure out the best way to load freight on a truck you have to drive across country? Nope. Good to look at--I can buy a magazine for that.

S:  That's so true! What inspired "The Man of Her Dreams?"

D:  I've always been fascinated by the paranormal, and especially by psychics. I've visited The Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach several times and have gone to a psychic in Cassadaga. My experiences were close enough to real life for me to welcome making my character, Cassandra, a psychic. And I loved making the hero, Dan, such a skeptic that he literally pushed her away time and again. Good thing for him she is stubborn!

S:  Is there anything special you would like people to know about "The Man of Her Dreams?"

D:  It's set in real life Greenwood, South Carolina. Jack consulted there for nearly three years and we loved living there. We'd moved from a consulting job in the Civic Center area of San Francisco to little Greenwood—talk about culture shock. In the book, Cassandra also lives in San Francisco and experiences some of the same shock when she goes to Greenwood to try to save Dan's life. I hope I detailed life in the small-town south well enough for readers to see how great it can be to be in such a place. The setting is as real as Cassandra or Dan.

Here's the blurb--

A woman who has traveled thousands of miles searching for a tall man with brilliant blue eyes, a man she’s been dreaming of for months.

A man whose life is in danger—or so the screwy woman having dreams and visions says—but who doesn’t believe for one minute in the occult.

A man who has been thought dead for two years and who disappeared with a bundle in stolen cash.

How will these three come together? And who will be left standing at the end of their encounter?



S:  Well, that gave me the shivers! Sounds like great read! Where can readers buy your book?

D:  It's available on Kindle Unlimited at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K4SSBY7

S:  Dee, thanks for joining me today. If you'd like to learn more about Dee and her books, please visit--

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4 comments:

  1. Dee S Knight and Anne KristFebruary 21, 2022 at 2:45 PM

    Seelie, thanks so much for hosting me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2022 at 12:09 AM

    I loved this book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gibby CampbellFebruary 22, 2022 at 7:20 AM

    This was so much fun to read. I can't imagine marrying my high school sweetheart. I love this author and will have to check out the book.

    ReplyDelete
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