Welcome Karyn! Looking forward to getting to know more about you and your work - wishing you lots of sales and success :)
What is the best and worse
thing you have learned from an editor/agent?
I have learned so much from my editor, it’s tough to pick the best,
but probably the advice she gave me was to write my love scenes as if the
characters were blindfolded was the most helpful. This forced me to describe
sensation and emotion, rather than just stage directions.
I never looked for an agent with novels, but when I queried agents
for my screenplays, the worst thing I ever received back was a paragraph long
rant on how my “pitch” was too short. “You only gave me the concept and main
storyline! I don’t have any idea what happens.” It was puzzling. I was taught
to pitch to entice them to read the script.
Then I spent days drafting a three page long version of a pitch for
another script I had, and his response was, “No thanks, I have a similar
concept in production.”
What is your typical day?
I work a nine-to-five day job managing a graphic design department.
I try to write during my lunch break, then squeeze a few additional hours of
writing when I get home, after the kids are in bed.
What do you read while in
the midst of a project? Or don’t you?
Usually I can’t read while I’m writing. I reward myself when I
finish a draft or polish, and buy a few books, then inhale them on a weekend
binge.
What do you do
with a paperback once you’ve read it?
If I liked it, it hangs out on my
nightstand for a while and might get re-read. If I wasn’t a fan, it goes almost
immediately to one of the bookshelves in my home office.
Are you nervous
about friends reading your books?
No, although my father has chosen not to
read them due to the sexy parts. (There are a few scenes that are pretty racy.)
He works as a nurse and took a stack of paperbacks into the hospital break room
to give to his coworkers. Apparently one of the nurses came to him a few days
later and asked him if he’d read it, and looked relieved when he said no. She
said she couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable those scenes might have made him. J
What things
inspire you to write? Location, music, film or even in a book?
Music, most definitely. When I wrote screenplays, I listened to
soundtracks or instrumentals without words, but with novels it’s the opposite.
A lyric can inspire a scene, or in the case of my work-in-progress, a song can
inspire an entire book. Mumford and Sons, “White Blank Page” inspired
“Surrender.”
What’s next for you?
“Surrender,” the third book in my series is due out in April, and my
debut novel is currently on sale now for 99¢ through Dec. 21.
Keep
by Karyn Lawrence
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Billionaire CEO Shawn Dunn has plenty of sex, power, and
money. A woman turning down his advances? Unfathomable. Yet that’s what she
does, again and again.
Kara Hayward is supposed to be off limits. Her sister is
hiding from the dangerous assassin she escaped from, and it’s best for everyone
if Shawn keeps his distance. Certainly as far as Kara is concerned. Shawn’s
only after one thing and then he’ll walk away, just like her ex-husband.
But Shawn has larger desires and he’s used to getting what
he wants. He doesn’t care if being together is dangerous. He doesn’t believe
that threat to him, or his empire, is real. Right up to the night he has
everything taken away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
“You'll stay here where you're
safe, until we have a plan.” Shawn stared at her as if waiting for an answer.
Was there any other option? She
sighed. “Okay.”
She expected him to get up out of
the bed, to go to the shower, but he continued to sit there like a lump.
“Thank you,” he said, “for
agreeing.”
Annoyance grew in her. “Can you
stop doing that? Treating me differently?”
“What?”
“How you're being nice to me. I
don't like it.”
He blinked. “I'm sorry, you're
asking me to be mean?”
“No, just treat me like you used
to. I can't handle it when you come at me all . . . sideways.”
“Sideways?” he said, a small
laugh escaping him. “Are we in combat?”
She scowled.
He exhaled and then gave her a
large grin, and she could see it in his eyes. The game was back on. He finally
moved, but it wasn't how she wanted it to go. He had on the smallest pair of
boxer briefs she'd ever seen, and they clung to every inch of him.
“Want to take a closer look?” he
asked, looping a finger under the waistband.
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Karyn Lawrence is an author, graphic designer, and screenwriter. She
published a nonfiction book about color guard after an editor discovered her
blog, way back in the infancy of the Internet and long before blogging was
really a thing.
She has been a screenwriter for more than fifteen years, with rather
mild success, and grew tired of her stories only reaching a handful of readers.
The decision was made to try fiction in early 2013 and once she figured out how
to write internal dialogue again, the prose came fast and furious. She most
enjoys writing smexy (smart-sexy) books featuring a lovable SOB hero and a
tough-as-nails heroine.
Karyn is a Chicago native who lives in Kentucky with her epic husband
and two adorable sons.
Twitter: @karynsloan
Website: www.karynlawrence.com
Karyn will be awarding a
$25 gift card to Amazon, a signed paperback copy of both "Keep" and
the first book in the stand-alone series, "Stay", bookmarks from
"Stay" and a can kozie with the logo from the fictional beer company
that the hero owns in "Keep" (Swag and print book are US only) to a
randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
I enjoyed the interview.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for having me!
ReplyDeleteThe cover is super sexy. Love it
ReplyDelete