Today I am very happy to welcome author Michelle Pillow to my blog. Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of reading Michelle’s KING OF THE UNBLESSED, and I was blown away by the book.  So many absolutely wonderful fantasy elements–so many great twists and turns–and so many amazing characters.  I’m now hooked on Michelle’s books.  🙂  Thanks, Michelle, for writing such great stories!

Time for the interview!

1.    Please tell us a bit about yourself and the genre (or genres) that you write.

I’ve been a published author for five years and I absolutely love my job. I get paid to make up stories and create my own worlds and rules. I adore large world and character building, creating myths and legends, all of it. And I’m very honored to have readers who enjoy what I do.

I love all romance genres and tend to write in several at once, including historical, contemporary, futuristic, paranormal, fantasy, dark, light, sexy, sweet and every combination thereof.  I think changing it up helps keep my style and voice fresh.

2.    Describe your current (or upcoming) release in 15 words or less.

Dominating warriors who know nothing of love and need a strong woman to kick their…

3.    LOL—okay, now use as many words as you’d like to describe your story.

Lilith Enraptured releases March 29, 2009 in ebook. It is an alternate reality romance and the start of a new series I have coming from Ellora’s Cave called Divinity Warriors. If all goes well (and it looks like it is) I plan on having a bunch of different series in the Divinity Universe.

Divinity Corporation exists on a parallel plain to ours and they’re the first to have discovered inter-dimensional travel.  Like any corporation, they’re out for two things—power and money. They get this by trading, entertaining, monopolizing, whatever they have to.  In Divinity Warrior, there is only one thing the guys of that plain need – wives.  So Divinity offers to trade women for minerals. The ladies are supposed to be willing, but it turns out the first batch has no clue as to what’s going on. And, to top things off, it’s a primitive Medieval like plain where inter-dimensional portals don’t exactly grow on trees.

In Lilith Enraptured, Lilith is a data analyst for the company who’s accused of stealing an artifact. The “higher up” who actually did the deed has her sent to the primitive place to get rid of her and fulfill the trade quota.

Here’s the blurb:

Sorin of Firewall lives in a land forever at war. In fact, the Starian men are so busy fighting, their marriage ceremony has been reduced to a “will of the gods” event where they simply pick a woman out of a lineup and claim her as a wife. With women becoming scarce, it’s necessary to trade the offworld Divinity Corporation for brides. Duty-bound to attend the ceremony, he has no intention of picking a bride, let alone one from another dimension. That is, until he sees Lilith, the bewitching woman sent by the gods to reward—or punish?—him.
Lilith, a data analyst for Divinity, is betrayed by the Corporation and wakes up in a primitive, uncharted dimension filled with warriors who only know war and duty. But her initial fears of becoming a sex slave to a big beefy knight become all too real when a warrior of god-like proportions claims she’s his new woman. As Lilith discovers, there are worse fates than being the focus of Sorin’s skillful and earthy seduction.

4.    Which character do you like better from Lilith Enraptured—the hero or the heroine?  Why?

The hero, Sorin. He’s a tough, super alpha whose been burnt marriage-wise in the past.  His kind isn’t taught about love, but of the necessity of marriage. Raised to be a warrior who does his duty beyond all else, it’s really fun to bring this guy to his knees.

5.    What is the most challenging part of being a writer?

Marketing. It’s a tough business. When I started, like most newbie authors I had the impression that I wrote the book and could now sit back and let the publisher do the rest. Not so. As an author, I have to be proactive in what I do (not that I mind, a lot of it is fun now that I know how to do it). I have a radio show, I do my own website, blogs, promotions and marketing, signings, workshops, designing promo items, panels, ect. But I had to learn most of it from scratch.

6.    In a fight, who would win…Dracula or the wolf-man?  What? This question seems odd? Please, folks are dying to know this answer.

I agree, this is a serious topic. I mean, Dracula’s a badie, but he’s a little on the nobleman effeminate side. I think the more primal wolfman would take him in hand to hand claw slashing. If it’s an intellectual battle, Dracula would definitely win over the beast.

7.    What’s your favorite scary movie?  Come on, spill.  No explanations—just name it.  Let everyone else guess why.

I love watching Horror movies. I think, right now (it changes daily), it’s Dawn of the Dead at the shopping mall (down with the sickness lounge style). No, wait, Shaun of the Dead. Or Zombi 2, with the famous zombie v. shark. No, wait, Bad Taste (Classic!). Um, Land of the Dead. I am Legend—no, wait, I’m still mad about the dog in that one. Ok, I’ll say Perfect Creature. Um…. This is too hard. Next question please.

8.    Tell me the one thing you wish you’d known about being a writer, um, before you became a writer.

Again, it would be the marketing. I would have gotten started before that first book came out. I had to learn things and fast—building a website, graphics, yahoo etiquette, review sites, where and who and how and when. All that jazz.

9.    What is your writing schedule like?

Fast paced. At any given time I’m thinking of my next book or twelve, researching and writing another, in edits with 2-3 others,  marketing an upcoming or new releases (like for this month I have 4 book releases to promote—Lilith Enraptured and the 3 book relaunch of my Realm Immortal series at Samhain Publishing that just happened on March 6th).

10.    Tell me anything you’d like to tell me. 

Confession time? Um, well, I have a secret affinity for B movies. LOL

I have several books on the schedule this year that I’m very excited about, with more I’m waiting for official word on.

Pleasure Island (ebook) – Jan 23, 2009, Ellora’s Cave
Realm Immortal Series (3 Books) – March 6, 2009 (ebooks) 2009/2010 (print), Samhain
Divinity Warrior: Lilith Enchanted (ebook) – March 25, 2009, Ellora’s Cave
Divinity Warrior: Fighting Lady Jayne (ebook) – Summer 2009, Ellora’s Cave
Faire Justice (ebook) – April 2009, NCP
Prisoners of Love (print) – Sept 2009, Pocket Books

Thank you for having me!

Thank you, Michelle!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.