It’s time for my monthly
inspirational author and this month is the turn of Siobhan Muir. What I love
about her background is the reference to being an expert with fossil fox teeth!
Not many authors can claim that. LOL. Over to you, Siobhan….
Thanks, Jen. I live in Las Vegas,
Nevada, which is an adventure in and of itself. When not writing, I often spend
time looking down a microscope at fossil fox teeth in the name of paleontology.
An avid reader of science fiction/fantasy, Mr. SM gave me a paranormal romance
for Christmas one year, and I was a goner. I’ve been an actor at the Colorado
Renaissance Festival, a field geologist in the Aleutian Islands, and restored
inter-planetary imagery at the USGS. I call my type of writing kick-ass
adventure with hot sex for men and women to enjoy and I believe in happily ever
after, redemption, and communication
.
(The renaissance acting must have been fun. I’ve
done am-dram myself and love history.)
Tell
us about your latest book.
My latest release
(The Navy’s Ghost) is a military romantic suspense I like to call my Menáge
a’SEALs. It’s about three SEALs, one of which is female, finding the balance
between duty, love, and acceptance. SEALs make their own rules, but sometimes
that’s not enough to overcome things we’ve been taught throughout life in the
society we share. The heroine, Ghost, wants to try a permanent threesome with
her swim buddies, Magic and Retro. Magic is okay with the idea, but Retro has
been taught by his father that sharing a woman is bad (and his dad is very
homophobic). Retro carries this fear with him even as an adult SEAL and this
story is how he and the others find the clear water to a committed relationship
amidst the scary job of being a SEAL.
Here’s the blurb:
A SEAL is strongest
with her Team…
Ensign Christiana
"Ghost" Brickman is the only female SEAL to survive BUD/S training, a
real Navy Jane. But when an ambush ends her career as an active SEAL, she’s
free to pursue other interests. Like her two best friends Lt. Jim
"Retro" Waters and Chief Warrant Officer Todd "Magic"
Hunter. She's wanted them for over a year, but never dared to approach them
while in the squad.
Retro has fought his dark desires since
high school, certain the need to share a woman unnatural. Magic had never
considered sharing before Ghost mentions it, but it solves his dilemma of
choosing between his best friend and his woman. But
Retro balks at Ghost’s offer to share and retreats from both when she
marries Magic.
Everyone feels
Retro’s loss, but he ignores the ache of their broken connection in favor of
living ‘normal.’ When Ghost and the other wives of Beta Squad are kidnapped,
Retro must reevaluate how much both Ghost and Magic mean to him. And he must
decide how far he's willing to go to save the woman he loves, before she
becomes the Navy's ghost.
(Sounds terrific. You can read an extract at
the end)
What
makes a great hero?
I think the best
heroes are the ones you can identify with, who you can connect with. Heroes
don’t have to be the most alpha or the most skilled. Some of the best
characters out there are the ones who aren’t perfect and have some quirky
flaws. But a great hero is one who seems the most real (with a little bit of
fantasy thrown in - we’re talking about romance here) with problems or fears
most people can understand or have experienced. What makes him a hero (and this
goes for heroines too) is he tries to overcome or heal from those problems and
fears holding him back.
When
did you write your first book (and is it published)?
I finished my first
novel length book at the age of 13. It was a fan fiction novel before I even
knew what the term was and it will NEVER be published. I even rewrote it and
matured it in high school, but yeah, not going to see the light of day.
(Haha! Know what you mean)
What
are you currently working on, or what’s on the horizon?
Currently, I have
three WIPs that will be finished this year. There’s a prequel to The Navy’s Ghost entitled Bronco’s Rough Ride and it’s about one
of the SEALs from Beta Squad before he joined the team. Then I have the third
book in the Cloudburst Colorado series entitled Cloudburst Coffee & Spa. This is Moira’s story, the good friend
to the heroine in The Beltane Witch.
And the third is a standalone romantic murder mystery set in an underground
BDSM club in Las Vegas, entitled Second
Chance Succubus.
Further out is a
contemporary dragon romance entitled Courting
the Dragon Widow, and a dimension shifting tale with centaurs and dryads
entitled Taking the Reins. Those two
are still in just beginning stages but should be done this year some time.
(Dragon romance – fabulous! Wishing you luck
with all of them)
What do you do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not
writing, I’m reading, sewing, baking, hiking, or looking through a microscope
at dead things. My background is in geology with a specialization in mammal
paleontology, and in the early 2000’s I was the North American expert in
Pleistocene fossil fox teeth.
(I’m impressed!)
Who
did you dedicate your first book to?
My husband, Mr. SM.
The whole reason I got into writing erotic romance was because he told me
romance was bunk and he had no interest in it. I asked him if he’d read
something I wrote just to see if I could make a story he’d find enjoyable and
he agreed. Her Devoted Vampire is the
story I wrote and he changed his mind about romance after that. ;)
(Well done you!)
How do
you come up with inspiration for your books?
Inspiration comes
from anything. Sometimes it’s a social issue bugging me, sometimes I get ideas
from movies or songs or news stories I’ve seen during the day. And sometimes
it’s pure magic from the dreams I’ve had. Three of my published books started
from dreams, Queen Bitch of the
Callowwood Pack, The Beltane Witch, and
The Navy’s Ghost.
Favourite
rainy day activity?
Reading (and
writing). I grew up in Seattle so rainy days were really common, but after all
the activities and homework were done, I’d hand write all my stories or I sit
down with a cup of cocoa and read. It has carried through to my adult life too.
Although, it doesn’t rain much in Las Vegas.
You can find Siobhan on the internet through
these links:
And here are some buy links for her books:
Finally, an extract
from the Navy’s Ghost:
Silence stretched once more and the sounds of the coffee shop filled
the space. Jim’s thoughts churned in his eyes, but his face showed nothing and Todd
hoped the lieutenant wouldn’t shut down. Chris’s confession rocked the strict,
militarily precise world they’d lived in, and Todd found he liked the upset. Hell yeah. He hoped she wanted them both
in bed, too. Probably. She doesn’t do
half-measures.
“You ever considered sharing a woman?” Jim asked at last.
“Before Chris said anything? No.”
“You really love her?”
“More than life, man.”
“Yeah, me too.” Jim grimaced as if his coffee had soured.
“How long?”
“Since SERE. The damn Kookaburra
song sucked me right in.”
Todd chuckled and sipped his coffee, thinking back to their time at
SERE training. “Yeah, that was damn funny. I sang the song in my head for weeks
after.”
Retro snorted, a little more humor in his expression, but he sobered
quickly. “The thing is I’ve never met anyone like Chris. The only women I went
for were soft, feminine, cuddly. You know, like a kitten or a puppy.” He
scraped a blunt nail on the tabletop. “But Chris blew it right out of the
water. She’s kick-ass and strong and so damn beautiful, I get hard just
thinking of her taking down the enemy, slamming the butt of her rifle in their
faces, and still managing to extract the targets.” He met Todd’s gaze. “She
kept up with us in training. Hell, she led
us through a lot of it. I figured she’d slow us down, make us worry over her
welfare and abilities. Boy, did she kick the shit out of that idea.”
Jim’s hands encircled his coffee cup, but he didn’t pick it up. He
seemed to be picking his words instead. “She won me over at SERE and only
backed up my respect and admiration over the years we’ve worked with her. It
just about killed me when she went down in that miserable dump. If you hadn’t
been there…” He swallowed hard.
“God, she looked so small and so beaten then. It was all I could do
to keep from beating the contact into a bloody pulp. I just labeled it as
further training in torture and made sure we got out safe. I’ve never been so
scared in my life.”
He paused and turned his gaze to the window. “Until now.”
Todd agreed. Chris had terrified him when he’d clamped her femoral
artery closed, grateful to whichever God watching out for her he’d been able to
grab it before she bled out. He’d definitely earned his nickname. But she’d
survived and he renewed his gratitude every day. As for her confession of
loving both him and their classmate Retro, it didn’t frighten Todd so much as
shock him. A whole new set of parameters had risen up for him to consider.
He could hear Chris’s voice egging him on. Are you man enough to take it, boys?
“You’re freaked out?” Todd focused in keeping his voice carefully
bland.
“Well, yeah. I mean, aren’t you?” Jim’s jaw tightened. “Happily-ever-after
always meant the guy gets the girl of his dreams and they hook up. Done. I
never heard it included another guy,
much less one of his best friends. And I’m straight, man. Straighter than a
flagpole. I have no interest in ‘entering at rear’.” He shuddered dramatically.
“Not even anal sex with a woman? You’ve never even thought about
it?”
Jim shut up and stared at Todd, his eyes suspicious.
“Are you really considering what she proposed?”
“Was it a proposal? I figure she just told us what she felt.”
Retro growled. “Same difference. Are you really okay with the idea
of sharing her?”
Magic dropped his head and rubbed his fingers across the surface of
the table, brushing away crumbs left from a previous customer. Am I okay with sharing the woman I love with
Jim?
The thing was he loved Retro, too, loved him as a brother and a
friend. But he wasn’t gay. Like Retro, he held no interest in sucking cock or
getting rammed by a guy’s rod. But making love to Chris with Jim there, sharing in their love and the physical expression
of it—Hell yeah, it turned Todd on more than just fucking Chris alone. They’d
always been stronger as a team, including their private, intimate lives. Todd
had never considered sharing before, but now the idea of fucking Chris with Jim
intrigued him.
“Yeah, I am.”
Thanks for joining us
here today, Siobhan. I wish you lots of luck with your stories. Next month is
the turn of Liv Honeywell.
Title of book: Friendly
Seduction
Title
of book: Bounty Hunters’ Captive
