Welcome to Kayelle Allen's guest blog

Welcome Ms. Kayelle Allen to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.

I'm excited to be here and can't wait to get started. Thank you for inviting me!

Did you always want to become a writer?

Yes. My mother wrote poetry and short stories, and she taught me to read and write long before I started school. Consequently, I had a large vocabulary at a young age. Unfortunately, I easily grew bored because everyone around me was at a much lower level. Eventually, I learned to use that to my advantage and ended up in the honors program in high school and on the dean's list in college. Plus, I loved crossword and word search puzzles, and when looking up a word in a thesaurus or dictionary, I often got so caught up in reading words around the one I wanted that I'd forget which word I was looking for in the first place. Words fascinate me and always have.

What is the most and the least interesting fact about writing?

The most interesting is that it has the power to change worlds. The least interesting is that for every published word, about twenty percent were cut. Ugh! What a lot of work. It's a good thing I love it because if I didn't, I'd have long since found some other kind of job.

How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?

I began a ritual that has repeated with each book. When I was a brand new writer that no one had heard from before, I invited better-known authors to join me for a chat the night of the release. I still do that, only now, the writers are even better known, and readers come out of the woodwork to be there! It's a lot of fun. I had thirty authors help me celebrate the release of Surrender Love in February 09. My eBooks are also available in print at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and on Kindle. Seeing them online was a real kick. Not all my titles are available in print. However, I do plan other series set in a different part of my universe, which I hope to release in print later down the writing road.

How did your family react to fact that you also write M/M romance novels? Has your family read your books?

My husband says he's glad people will have an opportunity to see true romance portrayed, and that every person deserves that. He's proud of my writing, and I can't begin to tell you how encouraging he is. He's the reason my overall writing brand is "Romance Lives Forever." He's an incurable romantic, which I adore about him. All my family knows about my writing. The few who don't approve, object more to its explicit sexuality rather than its portrayal of same-sex relationships. They don't like my explicit m/f romances either. Bottom line, it's my life and my business, and I don't need my family's approval. Of course, I'd like to have it, but you rarely get everything you want in life. One of my sisters constantly shares websites I might find helpful for writing or research. She's also personally mailed promo material to various people she knows, and has placed my bookmarks and postcards in local bookstores. That she lives near Las Vegas hasn't hurt me one bit, either!

Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

Everything I've ever read influenced my writing. I'm voracious. Anything that stands still long enough for me to focus is read: Ketchup and mustard bottles, cereal boxes, chocolate wrappers, the flags on Hershey's Kisses... Are you noticing a trend there? *grins* I have a bookcase filled with books that are keepers. Karen Marie Moning, Raven Hart, Julia London, Mary Balogh, Lynn Viehl (I'm re-reading her entire Darkyn series right now - one of my favorites - and getting ready for her upcoming Kyndred series), Heather Gladney, Susan Johnson, Robin Schone (a goddess among writers), Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon (a sweet and charming woman), Angela McKnight and many more. The case is almost six feet high and has multiple shelves crammed two-deep with books, and that's only the print ones that aren't in storage. I have a massive file full of eBooks. I have all of Chris Owens and Jodi Payne's Deviations series, which I've read several times--purely for research of course, *cough* Denise Rossetti, Michael Barnette, Janet E Jones, Shayla Kersten, Marty Rayne, Rowan McBride, Kiernan Kelly, Barbara Karmazin (my first critique partner and mentor), and so many more! I have more than a hundred folders in my eBooks folder, most filled with well over one book and dozens of single titles I haven't filed yet.

A comment here -- Authors not only buy, we collect. We want to keep up with the trends and find out what our favorites are doing. I'm thrilled to see authors at my chats. It's the ultimate compliment. Personal kudos to those authors whose chats I've attended and who have graciously acknowledged my writing. I'm there because I love your work, not to draw attention to myself, but I don't hide who I am on chats. Readers who like my work and see me at your chats will buy your work because they assume that if I like you and they like me, then they will probably like you too. That works both ways. Authors are always welcome at my personal chats!

Your release date is really full, which I love as a fan of your books, do you have a problem with deadlines and have you ever suffered a writers block?

What is this "writer's block" of which you speak? *places halo above head, where it wobbles and comes crashing down* Holy cow. This year has been the ultimate writer's block hell. I'm writing the sequel to Surrender Love (Surrender Trust), which when complete will likely be the best book I've ever written. After all, writing it has sucked out every bit of my lifeblood. Truthfully, I've had massive disasters this year, including the loss of my husband's income in the manufacturing world due to economic crunches, his return to college to study nursing, dealing with unemployment, loss of insurance, overcoming critical illness, a foreclosure that dragged out for seven of the longest months of my life, a move to a new residence that friends are sharing with us (thank God for friends!), a death in the family, ongoing divorce proceedings for one of my sons... Have I forgotten anything? Most likely. My memory was the first thing to go. Or was that the second? No matter. Writer's block hit me big time this year. However, I have been using what little time I can devote to editing, planning, and sketching out ideas for other books because I couldn't focus for long periods. Now that I'm more settled, I'm excited about writing and ready to tackle the rest of the book. There are times when you literally have to put the book down and deal with other things and issues. 2009 has been one of those years for me. However, I've grown and learned, and when I was stuck waiting for the next axe to fall, I read. 2010 will be a dynamite year!

Do you prefer stand-alone books or series?

I have three series, am working on several more, and have a couple of stand-alone things. Definitely series. I created an entire galaxy to play in, so I can go anywhere in it that appeals to me. When reading books, I prefer series as well. If I'm investing in characters and a world, then I want it to pay off big time. I like reading stories with familiar characters. It's like visiting with old friends.

Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?

First, thank you sincerely for the compliment! I do indeed feel as if they're present in my life. One of my friends told me I should wear a bracelet with "WWLD?" What Would Luc Do? because I always mutter, "Hmm. I wonder if Luc would do that?" Luc Saint-Cyr has been in all my Tarthian Empire books. All you Luc groupies out there will be pleased to know that since he's immortal, he'll be around a long time. I swear, he lives in my house. I have a poster over my pc of Dennis Haysbert, the Allstate spokesperson, who also played President David Palmer on TV's "24", and was Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on "The Unit." The actor could play Luc in a film. He's the perfect height (6'5"), has black skin and short-cropped black hair, the same butter-and-velvet style voice, and carries himself with authority and nobility. Luc has solid-black, whiteless eyes, but with contacts, Haysbert could portray Luc easily. As the Allstate spokesperson, his great smile and sense of humor are evident, as well as his strength of character. In the book Surrender Love, I have an in-joke for my readers who know Haysbert was my physical model for Luc. In one scene, Luc's assistant, Ms Mead, tells him about a new holovid about the pioneer Ran Holding, who was actually the immortal Luc in one of his previous "lives". Luc wants to know why anyone would be interested in a story about a man like Holding, since he saw nothing particularly important about that role. Ms Mead relates: '“He was a hero, sir.” She smiled. “I haven’t seen the vid yet, so I can’t say, but I hear the actor who played him was rather appealing. First name is Dennis, as I recall, but the last name escapes me.”' Readers who know my little secret (which is not so secret, btw -- I have a thing for Haysbert) will get a kick out of that line. I anticipate a character chat on my group before the end of the year, and since Luc has his "own" email, he'll be the guest of honor. His fans will be able to ask him anything they like; whether he answers is strictly up to him. A great example of how characters have sometimes taken over is the time I was pouring a drink for myself while I was working on back-and-forth dialogue between two characters, and without realizing it, I poured two drinks, one for each of us. D'oh!

Where do you get the inspirations for your books?

Everywhere. Snatches of conversations, a misheard word, trivia, but very often, it comes from music. I have playlists on iTunes for all of my characters. I even dedicated the book Jawk, Tales of the Chosen to Audioslave for their song, "What You Are" because it had such a huge impact on my writing.

Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?

OMG! Yes. Every writer deals with this at some point, I think. My friend Kiernan Kelly writes in big red letters "Insert sex scene here" and keeps going with the story until she's ready to write it. For me, at times, the scene flows, works, and is so perfectly natural that I hardly need to edit. I suspect it has a lot to do with my own state of mind at the time. When I write sex scenes, I like to be alone and uninterrupted. I'm home alone during the day M-Th so I try to complete them then. If all else fails, I grab a favorite book, look for the bookmarked scenes, and read them until I get in the mood!

What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who are your favorite hero and heroine, and why?

Right now, it's Surrender Love. Or For Women Only. No, wait, maybe it's Wulf... Oh, shoot. I love them all. Khyff and Mehfawni are probably my favorite hero/heroine, and I dearly love Luc and Rah, but Wulf and Alitus are also special. I want to do a book about the two of them later.

Would you like to give another genre a try, beside SciFi?

I've written Fantasy and loved it. Time travel is SciFi but I'd like to do that. I wrote a short contemporary Christmas story last year, available in an anthology with Sultry Summers. It's at Shadowfire Press. "Can a cop and an elf save Christmas for two lonely women?" I'm fascinated by mysteries and the way clues are sprinkled throughout. There is nothing I couldn't do if I put my mind to it. There are some things I won't do, but those are in the list of what publisher's don't accept anyway.

You have built with the Tarthian Empire a very complex world, isn’t it difficult to keep the overview?

I know it so well that it's not a problem, and because I'm careful to follow my own guidelines, readers won't find something that was on one planet in a previous book suddenly on another one in a new book. The map and a virtual tour of the empire is on my website. It's set up like the Tarthian Tour Company and you can click links to the individual worlds to tour them. Start here: http://kayelleallen.com/TTC-Home.html I also keep extensive notes and am preparing a companion book for the various series. I organize and file in a specific way so I can lay my hands on data with little difficulty. The overall high-level view of the story arc is available to me on a timeline, so I can tell when/where everything is supposed to happen and what comes next. The Tarthian Empire books cover a twenty-year arc of history, and the last six books have all taken place in the first five years. I have plenty of room to grow and tell more stories.

Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?

The easiest was Wulf, which I wrote in two months. The hardest was one I didn't finish, but at least five different series could rise from its ashes. ^_^

If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?

I'd love to be Luc Saint-Cyr for one day. What he spends in one visit to his tailor could keep me in luxury the rest of my life. Besides, no one ever says no to him. Er... Well, almost no one!

If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?

Alexander the Great has always fascinated me. I'd like to meet him. I own many books about him, and once, as I was describing one of his battles to my kids when they were in grade school, one of them said seriously, "Mom, did you know Alexander the Great?" LOL

Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?

I listen to varying types depending on the book and/or character. Each has his/her own playlist on iTunes. For Luc Saint-Cyr, I have a lot of music by Nightwish, Matthew Duffy, Within Temptation, Three Days Grace, Dirty Vegas, the Backstreet Boys (yes, you read that right), and Adam Lambert from American Idol. Adam's voice fits Luc's moods, especially on songs like "Mad World" and "The Tracks of my Tears." I'm waiting for the release of Adam's new song, which is from the movie "2012." The film is due in November this year. Hopefully, the song will be released sooner. Other characters are hardcore Metallica (Jawk), Audioslave (Wulf), and for Izzorah, anything with drums.

If you could choose one of your books for a movie, which would it be and who would you choose as the cast?

I'd pick For Women Only, because it's a great story as well as a perfect introduction to the Tarthian Empire and its people. We already know Dennis Haysbert would play Luc, and I can picture Travis Fimmel as Khyff Antonello, the former pleasure slave and master of female satisfaction. Jessica Alba would be perfect as Mehfawni Ruh, the kickass no-nonsense heroine who saves the day -- and the hero.



Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?

I'm always working on something. I have the rest of the Surrender trilogy to finish (Surrender Trust and Surrender Will), and then I'll finally get to When I Breathe, which I've been planning forever. Kiernan Kelly and I are working on a shape shifter wolf anthology, and I plan to pitch a series based on the adopted sons of Luc Saint-Cyr (aka the Harbinger). Five unrelated human males reared from toddlers to be professional thieves, come to consider themselves brothers, and all are involved in the others' lives. All reach the pinnacle of success as Arcane level thieves. However, one of them suffers a crisis of conflict that drives him far from his roots and he ends up on the other side of the law -- as a cop. The series will feature the brothers handling their own love lives while dealing with their brother's change of career and trying to help patch up his romance when his own unfaithfulness costs him the love of his life. There will be comedy, drama, romance, intrigue, betrayals, secrets, and some surprise cameos by other characters from previous books. Since it's a Kayelle Allen book, it will naturally contain plenty of plot twists and steamy hot sex. *sizzles*

Big congrats to your latest releases, can you please tell us something about them?

Last year I released Jawk, Tales of the Chosen (Liquid Silver Books), and then two releases through Shadowfire Press, owned by Michael Barnette and Auburnimp. Those were a reprint of The Last Vhalgenn, one of the stories in the EPPIE finalist A Time To... edited by Carol Hightshoe. The other was Naughty or Nice, a Christmas anthology with Sultry Summers. Then in February 2009, Surrender Love came out from Loose Id, featuring characters made famous in previous books. It's been a best seller and has won a Romance Junkies Reviewers Blue Ribbon Favorite award for 2009, plus has two four-star reviews, a four-and-a-half-star review, and two five-stars. The consistent comment I receive is that Izzorah "Rah" Ceeow is hands down the sweetest and cuddliest hero in town, and that Luc Saint-Cyr has finally met his perfect match. I couldn't be happier about that! By the way, neither could Luc. =^_^=