Author Interview…Rachelle Chase & a contest!

V&S: What did you think of your first RT?

Rachelle Chase: It was an awesome experience! I got to hang out with a lot of great authors, including one of my favorites, Robin Schone, as well as fellow SECRETS author, Calista Fox. Plus I met lots of wonderful readers, new authors, and got some great photos with the cover models.

And speaking of the models, I’ve just launched the SEX LOUNGE Finding Derek CONTEST (www.FindingDerek.com), which seeks the American male who most resembles the hero in my new erotic romance, SEX LOUNGE. So I’m hoping some of the models I met, as well as other hunky guys, will participate. So if you know any sexy guys, please send them over – or stop by, yourself, to enter to be a judge!

I needed a week to recover from RT when I got back home but I can’t wait for the next one …

V&S: Can you tell me about the Dreams & Desires anthology from Freya’s Bower?

Rachelle Chase: Dreams & Desires is an awesome anthology featuring short stories by Jenna Bayley-Burke, Faith Bicknell-Brown, Amanda Brice, Sela Carsen, Gemma Halliday, Candace Havens, Zinnia Hope, Jackie Kessler, Susan Lyons, Richelle Mead, Debbie Mumford, Rhonda Stapleton, Bebe Thomas, Emily Veinglory, Sasha White, Lois Winston, Shaunna Wolf, Kit Wylde, and myself.

The stories range from sweet to spicy. My story, “Romance For One,” about a woman dining alone at a restaurant who gets a pleasant – but unexpected – surprise, is in the spicy category. But here’s the best part: None of us, including the publisher, profit from the book. All proceeds from the book go to a battered women’s shelter in Florida!

V&S: I saw on your site that you’re going to be a guest author at the online Romance Writing Book Group @ BN.com. What’s this group about…who can come?

Rachelle Chase: Author Leigh Michaels hosts the book club. In her words, here are the details:

“The BN romance writing bookclub is open to everyone with an interest in romance novels – writers and readers. You can visit the site to get the gist of what’s going on, then register (all you need is an email address and a password, and it takes about 60 seconds to sign up) and then you can post and ask questions. Since the previous discussions remain on the site, new people can jump right in where we are, or go back through the previous discussions in whatever order they like. We encourage posting writing assignments and/or very short sections of a manuscript for reader feedback.

The book club has been operating since January, and every two weeks we focus on a different subject (but previous discussions remain on the site). So far we’ve talked about heroes and heroines, secondary characters, conflict, plotting, point of view, and dialogue. Right now we’re spending a couple of weeks with author Jenny Haddon, the president of the Romantic Novelists Association (the UK equivalent of RWA). She writes romance as Sophie Weston and has also written a new guide to punctuation, so we’re talking about mechanics right now.”

May 15, 2007 – May 28, 2007, I’ll be the guest and the subject will be love scenes and sensual tension. It should be great fun, so I hope everyone will join us!

V&S: If you could be any one of your characters, which one would you choose?

Rachelle Chase: Hmmm. I don’t think I’d actually want to be any of my characters, as they are all so very different from me but I think one of the ones I had a lot of fun creating was Nichole Simms in SEX LOUNGE. To take her from passively recording her sexual fantasies in a notebook about a sexy client named Derek to actively acting them out with him, once he finds the notebook, all the while keeping it believable and emotional and, eventually, leading to love … well, that was a challenge for me. One I totally enjoyed.

V&S: Can you give the readers an idea of what kind of stories you write?

Rachelle Chase: I was joking with a fellow writer the other day and said “I write Inspirational Erotic Romance” because, while my stories have very explicit sex and are very hot, I think they are tame in comparison to others out there. Meaning, I do not use exotic sexual positions, ménages, BDSM, polyamory, etc. There are many authors who can do this well, but I am not one of them.

Instead, I take everyday people who somehow find themselves in erotic situations. Like, Bobbie, in SIN CLUB, who thinks she’s doing a striptease for her boyfriend, only to discover it’s her neighbor she’s beckoned to her bed. Or Sharice, also in SIN CLUB, who thinks she’s called a guy she met outside a club, only to discover much later she’d misdialed.

Then, I mix in control issues and lots of internal conflict over what my characters thought they wanted vs. what they got, and weave in the external plot, all the while keeping the sexual tension high and consistent throughout the book.

That’s what I think a reader can expect when they pick up a Rachelle Chase book.

Shiloh, Vamps & Scamps, thanks so much for having me on your blog!

Thank YOU Rachelle!

FYI…Rachelle will be giving away a copy of Sex Lounge to somebody in the comments… so if you have questions or comments, post away. I’ll draw a winner sometime in the next few days.