Monday, January 26, 2015

The Ice King by Lee Brazil


Welcome to another Breathless Monday! Today we greet Lee Brazil...

Lee Brazil
Author Interview Questions for Erzabet’s Enchantments

1.      How did you start writing erotic romance?
I was driving home, across country from visiting my mother on the east coast, and there's a section of the back roads there where there's no good radio reception. I got Christian music… and country music intermittently. It was tough, but I turned off the radio and drove in silence. That's when they started talking to me. The voices. My first character, Mack Taylor, telling me about his life and the trouble he was having with his boyfriend. Twelve hours later, I still couldn’t get the story out of my head, so I wrote it down.

2.      Plotter or pantster?
Oh both. I have occasionally plotted something out chapter by chapter. Havan Fellows and I had a pretty decent outline going for the holiday story we wrote last year. But sometimes, I just wing it. The Ice King was a wing it. It started with a prompt.

3.      What are three things you have on your writing desk?
Currently? I have a handful of colorful pens, because I was marking deadlines on a calendar. There's a pad of paper that is marked with the days of the week that I use for planning menus. That's one of my weekend tasks. And a mango margarita. Because tequila rocks. And it's Friday night. Sometimes the cat is here too, but I seem to have annoyed her today and she's abandoned me for a seat in the sun.

4.      Favorite food?
Ordinarily I'd go with something Italian here, like lasagna, but I've been craving a nice thick steak with plump mushrooms and caramelized onions.

5.      Tell us a little about your new release. What character in the book really spoke to you?
The Ice King is a very short m/m romance. It's an office romance, a boss/secretary sort of thing. The Ice King is written entirely from Rafe's point of view. He is a superstitious, yet suave man who enjoys a variety of bed partners… Until he meets Elian.

6. I write because I enjoy it. I am fortunate that I am able to do this full time as a career. That's something I never imagined possible. Not after I graduated college and realized how much just making a living takes out of you.

7. What is your favorite type of character to write about?
I enjoy flawed heroes. Not the arrogant, workaholic sort of flawed hero many people mean. I prefer real flaws, like short tempers, jealousy, and selfishness. These types of characteristics make heroes who are difficult to like, as one of my writing friends has said, but it also makes them more realistic.

8. What is the sexiest scene you ever wrote?
*blinks* Um… I have no idea… I rather like the scene in The Ice King where Elian bends over his desk for Rafe… that illicit, in the work place setting lends something to it.

9. What advice would you give new authors in the erotica/romance field?
Don't give up. Whatever stands in your way, get around it. Whatever holds you back surmount it. There is nothing like the feeling of finishing a story…unless it's that first moment you get a contract offer and realize someone else thinks what you write is worthwhile.

10. What is next on your writerly horizon?
I'm currently focused on Pulp Friction 2015 with my writing partners, Laura Harner, Havan Fellows, and Will Parkinson. PF is an intricate series of interlinked series of m/m romances.

Twitter @leebrazil

Buy Link

Author bio-
Somewhere in a small town in up-state New York are a librarian and a second grade teacher to whom I owe my life. That might be a touch dramatic, but it's nevertheless one hundred percent true.
Because they taught me the joy of reading, of escaping into worlds crafted of words.
Have you ever been nine years old and sure of nothing so much as that you don't belong? Looked at the world from behind glasses, and wondered why you don't fit?

Someone hands you a book, and then you turn the page and see… There you are, running from Injun Joe in a dark graveyard; there you are fencing with Athos; there you are…beneath the deep blue sea- marveling at exotic creatures with Captain Nemo.

I found myself between the pages of books, and that is why I write now. It's why I taught English and literature for so many years, and it's why my house contains more pounds of books than furniture.
If I'd had my way, I'd have been a fencer…or a starship captain, or a lawyer, or a detective solving crimes. But instead, I am a writer, and I've come to realize that's the best thing in the world to be, because as a writer, I can be all those things and more.

 If I hadn't learned to value the stories between the pages, who knows what would have happened? Certainly not college…teaching…or writing.

Blurb-
CPA Rafe Montaigne's day is heading downhill fast and he hasn't even had a decent cup of coffee yet. What could make it worse? A secretary in a snit.

Elian is efficient, attractive and cold as ice toward his boss, and he has been since Rafe's ex stopped by the office. Rafe is a sophisticated player, a businessman who knows how to have fun and he's not particular about whether his playmates are male or female.
It seems Elian isn't quite so indiscriminate… What's a boss to do when his secretary won't play nice?

Book excerpt-

The clack of computer keys signaled Elian's return to his desk, and Raphael grimaced as he realized he'd have to pass by that judgmental stare, those assessing eyes, to get to his own desk and the coffee. Should have taken the opportunity while the man talked to his plants to dash to his inner sanctum. He'd planned to be early, but one fiasco followed another, and of course, super secretary beat his ass to the office again. He ran a hand through his curly black hair, trying to make sure it was semi neat. Glanced down to check his clothes before he caught himself. Fuck. He was drenched to the skin. There was no way he looked like anything but a drowned rat. Who was the boss anyway?
He pushed open the heavy wood door that boasted Montaigne and Associates - though really, it was just him and Elian - and breezed through to the inner sanctum. The room was blessedly cool after the humid heat of the outdoors, and Elian had turned on the peaceful music he favored. Rafe made to step past Elian, whose gaze was focused on his computer screen.
Immediately the typing stopped, and the long elegant fingers fell into his lap. Rafe found his gaze locked on those hands, such soft, strong hands. Every nail was buffed to the perfect shine, trimmed to the perfect length, shaped by God into a perfect oval of healthy pink. He swallowed. He could nearly feel those nails digging into his muscles, scraping down his back, leaving fiery trails of sensation to burn their way to his groin.
"Your messages." Elian's icy voice jolted him from his fantasy not a moment too soon. Much longer and he would have been embarrassingly aroused, despite the fiasco of his morning.
More bad luck? In the beginning, Elian had addressed him in a much warmer tone. Once, he'd even had a good morning and a how was your evening for his boss. Since that day, though, it had been nothing but the cold shoulder.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting!