Wynter Daniels: Burning Touch

Is that a hot title, or what? It's the latest in a ridiculously long string of releases form Wynter Daniels, this one from Ellora's Cave. Seriously, does the woman ever sleep?

Blurb:

When Devon Wise’s massage clients start turning up dead, she reluctantly leans on the sexy guy next door to help her clear her name. Having lost her parents at an early age, she doesn’t trust that anyone she cares about will stick around. Devon never lets her feelings get involved, keeping everyone at arm’s length. But after their first sizzling night, she can’t get enough.

Real estate investor Ben Stafford can’t keep his mind—or his hands—off the earthy beauty who happens to be his new neighbor. When the bodies begin piling up, he wonders if she’s as innocent as she claims or if he’s been spending all those lust-filled nights with a killer.

Ooooh...suspense AND hotness. Love it! And now here are some burning questions I had for the insanely prolific Ms. Daniels:

KC: In terms of plot and pacing, what do you think the formula for success is with romantic suspense?

WD: I think pacing has to be pretty fast these days - as a society, we want it as exciting as possible. I don't know that there's a formula for success as far as plot goes, but lots of surprises are definitely important.

KC: Does that change in any way when the book is considered to be an erotic romance?

WD: Good question! The pacing in an erotic RS must allow for development of the love scenes so there must be realistic dips in the action where the hero and heroine can have time to do their thing without the bad guy banging on the door before they've had time to do some proper smexin!

KC: What made you branch out into writing erotic romance? (I know I did it on a dare from my RS editor)

WD: Actually, some of the first manuscripts I wrote were borderline erotic. I won a contest with the Wild Rose Press when they were first getting off the ground. That story went into an anthology with other steamy stories and became my first work available in print. To be honest, I'd never read any erotic romance when I wrote it. When my crit partner, Katie Reus/Savannah Stuart started writing erotic novellas, I realized how little of the genre I'd read. I bought an Ellora's Cave book and realized how sorry that first story of mine was! So I began writing a truly erotic piece, which became Tropical Exposure, the first book I sold to Ellora's Cave (after a year in queue). In the meantime, I sold a novella to Red Sage, then another (and they are awesomely nice folks). I now have 14 erotic stories (spread among 4 publishers) and a three-book series under contract with Ellora's Cave.

KC: Wow, you've been a busy girl! What are the most important elements to include when writing a love scene that show the hero and heroine forming an emotional connection (other than the obvious, I mean)?

WD: The most important part to show the connection is more the build-up than the actual sex part. IMHO, the stuff that happens before and after the lovemaking shows the emotional stake and the reactions to each other.

KC: I’ve heard it’s very tough to break into Ellora’s Cave. What was your experience like?

WD: Well, it took a long time, but as we all know, patience is so necessary for writers. My first submission (which I now know wasn't nearly as hot as it could have been) was rejected after a year - yes - a year!! The next took almost as long, but part of that was an email glitch (my spam filter or my editor's ate a letter). Once I checked in with her (on Katie's suggestion), it wasn't long at all. They accept roughly 4% of general submissions. But once that first one was accepted, everything went way quicker. I'm so lucky to have a wonderful editor and all my experiences with Ellora's Cave have been very professional and positive.

KC: You’re an extremely prolific writer. What’s your secret?

WD: I write full time. Also, at this point in my career, my goal is to get as many titles out there as I can, so I write mostly novellas rather than novels (although my new release is a novel).

KC: Okay, I'm kind of afraid to ask this, but what do you have coming up next, and what are you working on now?

WD: Today is release day for Burning Touch, which I am very excited about. I've also just released a contemporary novel titled False Pretenses , which is chock full of heat and deception. Next on tap will be the first novella in the 3-book series of romantic suspense stories from Ellora's Cave. The series is called Long and Hard and the first book is titled, Sizzle at Sea and takes place on a cruise ship. No word on the release date yet.

I just started working on a contemporary romance -- a slight change of genre to cleanse my palette;-)

KC: O_o 

You see what I mean, readers? Holy...

WD: Readers can find me at my website, http://www.wynterdaniels.com/ along with links to my blog, Facebook page and Twitter.

Bio: Wynter Daniels lives in Central Florida with her husband of more than twenty years and their two nearly grown children. They are all the slaves of two very demanding cats. After careers in marketing and the salon industry, Wynter’s wicked prose begged to be set free. She writes for several publishers including Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id andRed Sage. She loves to hear from readers, but only if it’s good.

KC: Thanks so much for sharing all this with us today! Wynter has many books available in all kinds of genres, so I hope you'll go check out some of her work. For now, she's made me feel really lazy, so I'm off to go draft something!