I’d like to welcome the lovely Lea Barrymire to my inspirational author interview for September. Lea has done terribly well, terribly quickly. Her first book was only out in April and she is already getting published with more than one publisher and has a variety of books out. (I read Alpha in Hiding for Lea as a ‘critical reader’ before it was accepted and thoroughly enjoyed it). Over to you Lea:
I have to say that writing about myself is just as difficult as writing a synopsis. I’m a reader more than a writer, a fighter more than a lover, and an antagonist in all aspects of my life. I’m a mom, a wife and a business owner. I try to keep my priorities in that order. I can’t live without coffee and chocolate, but could gladly go my entire life without eating another donut. I love writing strong heroes and stronger heroines. I have a fondness for BDSM that has flowed over into my real life. I’m married to my high school sweetheart, live fifteen minutes from my childhood home, and still call my parents Mom and Dad.
Tell us about your latest book.
The book surrounds a pair of wolf shifters, Seth and Emily. But, this isn’t the normal alpha male saving the weaker female. Oh, no.
Emily is the Alpha’s daughter, who takes a job for her father that she doesn’t want to undertake. She is tasked with trying to get Seth in touch with his animal side. She’s disgusted the first moment she lays eyes on the weaker male and lumps him in with all of the other weak males in her life. Her strength allows her to do her job, but keeps her segregated from other wolves.
Seth has tried his entire adult life to avoid his wolf, going to any extreme he can think of to stop the monthly change that overcomes him. When he finds Emily Prescott, the dreaded daughter of the Alpha, standing on his porch he’s terrified. He isn’t happy about being forced to accompany her on a short camping trip, but what else could he do?
Eventually Emily and Seth find that they aren’t so different after all, and the road to Seth’s communion with his animal side is great to read.
(Read an extract at the end).
Is there any trivia about your latest/forthcoming story that you can share with us?
I actually worked with both wolves and cougars as a teen (way cool stories there, let me tell you) so their mannerisms and such are pretty comfortable for me to write. When I'm writing animal scenes I try to remember how the wolves interacted with us and each other. Being part of a wolf pack is one of the coolest things I've ever done.
What are you currently working on, or what’s on the horizon?
As always I have so many things going. I’m working on a shifter book for a new series, Accidentally Yours. I have a couple of books to get written for series I have already started. AND, if that isn’t enough I have a space abduction that is quite a change from the norm. How about a female alien on the lookout for a male to sate her needs?
Who did you dedicate your first book to?
My hubby had the honor of my first dedication. Without his unending patience with me pulling out my laptop at every possible moment, disappearing for hours, and constantly writing things in my little notebook, I wouldn’t be a writer.
If you had one item to take into the bedroom with you what would it be?
Trick question? I’d say if it couldn’t be my hubby, I would pick my cordless, multi-function butterfly vibrator. Wait, was I supposed to say a book or something? LOL
How can you fans find you on the internet?
Excerpt for Alpha in Hiding:
“Lenny, how many times do we have to do this, hmm? Go eat. You aren’t going to lose face with your buddies if you just go back over there and eat like a good boy.” She smiled and whispered, “I don’t want to hurt you today.”
Lenny, being the follower he was, turned to see what his friends were doing. They were all watching him expectantly, grinning like adolescent idiots. He turned back and she could see the determination on his face. Fine. They wanted a show, she would give them one.
She stood from the table, took a step toward Lenny and growled deep in her throat. She let her eyes partially change, her wolf yipping for a fight inside her head. Harnessing the Alpha blood racing through her veins was easy. She unleashed a little of the power and wrapped it around the irritating male standing in front of her.
The change in Lenny was instantaneous. He couldn’t fight her power—none of them could. He backed away from her, all six foot three of him, cowering slightly. Tremors worked their way through his body, making his teeth rattle. He turned his head and looked at the floor, tilting and baring his throat submissively. A low whine worked its way from through his lips. If she pushed much more he’d be a puddle on the floor, belly-up and quivering.
She looked up and slowly met every set of eyes in the place. She bared slightly elongated canines and growled, “You will all leave me the fuck alone for the rest of my meal. If any of you approach me, so help me, I’ll make you piss yourself right here in front of everyone.”
Two steps had her sliding back into the booth. She grumbled to herself about assholes and their friends. A chuckle brought her from her thoughts. She had totally forgotten about Seth. He was laughing silently, shaking hard enough to make the table vibrate. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be pissed at him or laugh along with him, so instead she scowled at him and went back to shoveling her now-cold eggs into her mouth.
“Would you really make one of them piss their pants?” Mirth still clouded his voice, making it deeper. Amusement sparkled in his eyes. She almost kept from smiling back—almost.
“Sure. I’ve made Lenny lick my boots before. Actually, most of the males in here have been belly-up at my feet a few times.” She said it with pride, although she almost cringed. How would he react to that? She never cared what anyone thought of her actions, but this one time she looked at how she treated some of these males and saw how bitchy she could be.
“Nice. Well at least the threat took care of them, although I was sort of looking forward to you making one of them piss himself.” He chuckled. It sounded nice rolling from his chest.
The sound cut off abruptly and he exploded into a sneezing fit. She sighed. Weak males were the bane of her existence.
“Come on, we’ve got about forty more minutes until we reach the cabin and I have a full day of fun planned for us.” Scooting from the bench seat ended the conversation. She threw a wave toward Sal and strode from the diner, fully aware that every set of lungs breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she was gone. Some days she wished she was a normal female. It sucked having to be always on her guard, always the strong one.
Thanks for being interviewed, Lea. Good luck with the books. Next month’s inspirational author is Marie E Blossom.
Jen
It is interesting to note (since I also write BDSM stories) that her own BDSM ones sell better than her cowboy ones. And, although she is interested in writing historical stories, she knows full well that they don’t sell as well, but she would like to have a go at sci-fi some time. (At this moment in time my sci-fi has sold much better than my BDSM stories on Bookstrand, which in turn sold vastly more than the romantic comedies, but not so on Amazon where the BDSM ones are better sellers). In fact, when I checked out Siren’s top bestsellers on Amazon UK the day before our meeting, Jan had four books in the top 12!!! 
I asked her what form of promotion works best and Jan said she got a lot of traffic to her blog/website when she started posting the first chapters of her books whereas, to date, I’ve only done a short extract. Hmm. Food for thought.
