Getting to know author J. L. Oiler

 Can you tell us a little about how you started writing; was it something you have always wanted to do?

I have always had a great love for reading and it was a natural thing to write.  I can remember creating these elaborate tales in my head to share with family and friends. When I was about 12 I began putting them down on paper. 

Who or what has been your biggest influence as a writer?

My biggest influence as a writer has been life itself, there isn’t any part of my life past or present that has not managed to worm its way into my writing.  I guess I have a very inspirational muse.

Your work is very popular with readers and reviewers; how does it feel to have such positive recognition for your work? 

It all still feels surreal.  When I received the first proof copy of Blood Dance I must have ran my hands over the pages and smelled the print a hundred times.  I feel really blessed for my current and future success. 

What do you consider to be the key elements of a great story?

I think a great story has to be able to pull the reader into the story.  I want to feel my pulse increase when the tension builds.  It should paint a vivid picture of who the characters are and the events that are occurring. 

Could you tell us a little about how you develop your characters? Who has been your favorite character to write? The most challenging? 

I can plan out all the physical aspects but in the end the characters tell me who they are and what they would do in a given situation.  My favorite character to write has been Ares (Blood Dance: Seeds of Oden Book 1) I love her fiery personality and attitude.  The most challenging character has to be Shala, from Eclipse of the Twin Moons.  It was difficult writing about and for a character who cannot speak. 

Please tell us about the projects you are currently working on; what can readers expect to see in the coming months?

I just finished a Christmas Anthology with Authors Ashlynn Monroe, BethAnn Buehler, Lila Munro, and Jessica Coulter Smith.  It is titled; All I Want for Christmas is Redemption. I also just finished the third book in the Seeds of Oden Series: Blood Denial.

My current WIP includes a story about a demon that comes to the human realm searching for a mate, and another about a researcher who finds out her boyfriend is something far from a normal human male.   

Where can readers find out what's new and how can they contact you?

Readers can find information at either of two sites; www.joiler.weebly.com which is my personal author site, or www.wickedmuses.webs.com which is the group site for Ashlynn, BethAnn, Lila, and myself.  If readers would like to send me an e-mail they can send it to: jloiler@live.com .  

 Do you feel your writing is character driven or plot driven? How do you balance these two elements?

I believe they are character driven and the main character shows me the direction of the plot, and sometimes the plot of any follow-up stories. 

 What is your favorite movie of all time? The one where you can watch it and still get affected at the same spots each and every time?

The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich. 

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 5 things would you have with you? 

My family, a box of romance books, a lighter, a fishing pole, and a knife

What is your favorite way to relax after a hard day working and writing?

A long hot bubble bath…auhhhh

What is the one era you would love to go visit and why?

1700’s  I would love to be able to take a look at our world before progress changed it so drastically. 

What is one historical figure you would love to chat with and why?

William Shakespeare,  I would love to know what he was thinking with some of his plays and what was the inspiration. 

Out of all your books, do you have a favorite one? If not, then which one is closest to your heart?

I don’t have a favorite, but All I Want for Christmas is Redemption is closest to my heart.  It was such a unique and bonding experience for all involved.  It was such a journey to make each story blend completely with the others that I believe it allowed each of us to grow as writers.  It also allowed me to find some amazing friends.

If you could have been the servant to any famous person in history, who would that be and why?

Bram Stoker.  I would love to see all the mayhem that went on behind scenes when he wrote Dracula. 

What so you see for the future of publishing and ebooks?

There has been such an influx of e-publishers coming out that I think we will probably see a flood of new authors and stories. Unfortunately that also means there will be quite a few that don’t survive. 

Which of your characters do you love/hate/fear/pity the most and why?

Sol (Blood Dawn: Seeds of Oden Book 2) she is strong, self assured and not afraid to kick some ass to protect what’s right.

Do you get along with your muse? What do you do to placate her/it when she/it refuses to inspire you?

I love my muse though she has been known to jump ship and go out partying with her muse friends.  If I need her inspiration I like to sit out on the front porch and stare up into the night, it’s even better if it is raining.

What is the most ridiculous thing that you have thought about doing to any of your characters but never did?

I considered giving one pink hair and some rather questionable piercings. I just did not know what to write about the sensations she would have with them.

If you were a world ruler and you were given a choice of 3 laws to enact, what would they be?

Love, Read, and Respect

 Sneak peek into Blood Dance:

Leaning down she reached for the small shot glass her hand trembling slightly. Just as her fingers gazed the smooth lip he pulled it away and motioned for her to come down to him.

“Come down from there and it is yours,” he called loudly over the pounding music.

She stood slowly eyeing him with a glower of distrust.

“No,” she shouted as she jumped down to the floor on the opposite side of her silvery cage and stared at him through the strong metal bars that separated them.

“You are not hungry little one?” he asked leaning on the rails and holding the glass toward her.

“And what is it you want in return?” she questioned as she watched the liquid splash in the

small container, hunger obvious in her eyes. Kaden smiled and ran his tongue along his thin pale lips longing to taste and touch her supple body. “I thought so,” Ares said before he could compose a clever response.

“It seems a fair trade. You get what you need and I, I get what I need.” He began to move around the raised cage toward her, each motion slow and steady. “You know you need to feed. Make this easy for both of us,” Kaden continued as she watched him move toward her, his golden eyes raking over her with every step.

Reaching out, he ran a lock of her hair through his callused fingers, marveling in its softness. “You are so very beautiful, so incredibly sexy.” Leaning forward he brushed his lips against hers in a feathery kiss. She stepped away, the battle raging in her head and heart playing across her face. Turning fast, she left him standing there on the dance floor as she retreated toward the rear office. “There is no sense running away. You will come to me Ares. We both know this,” he called after her as he downed the shot of strong liquor.

Buy link: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/blood-dance/6331227

Talking with Author Annie Nicholas

Ever have a high school crush, which you obsessed over but never did anything about? If yes, then you have something in common with my hero, Eric.

BLURB:

Someone is about to get some Spice in his life.

Spice has nothing but the clothes on her back when she returns to Chicago. She's looking for a better life, and that means reuniting with her estranged twin sister, Sugar. She isn't thrilled to find out Sugar's boyfriend is a vampire. But then she meets Eric, once the bottle-cap-glasses wearing nerd next door - now grown into the kind of man she'd love to snuggle with on this cold winter night...and he’s offered her his room in Sugar’s house.

Eric can’t believe Spice has returned. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again, let alone having her stare at him as if he’s sex on a stick. But now that all of his fantasies for them are coming true, reality rears her ugly head and Eric must tell Spice his intimate secret; he’s actually an Alpha werewolf looking for his mate and he thinks he’s found her.

Link:  www.lyricalpress.com/the_alpha

Excerpt:

Excerpt :
Warm yellow light streamed from behind her. “Forget your keys, Sugar?” a male voice asked from the doorway.

She stopped and glanced over her shoulder but saw only his silhouette.

“Oh my God, you cut your hair. Daedalus is going to freak.” The laughter in his comforting voice disappeared and he moved closer. “Don’t cry.” He wiped a tear from her face. “It looks great.” With a grin, he ruffled her short blond curls.

She couldn’t help but smile back.

He thought she was Sugar, her twin sister. Something in his voice sounded familiar. The face didn’t ring a bell though, but shaggy brown hair fell around most of it. He had a nice, easy-going smile. It would be wonderful to come home to a smile like that every night, but it belonged to her sister.

Her grin faded.

He wrapped his strong, thick arm around her shoulders and pulled her inside. Laughter drifted from the living room where three men and an oriental woman were setting up a board game.

One of the men, who had short cropped red hair, looked up. “Where’s the food? You were supposed to grab some grub on the way home from work.”
“We’ll order pizza.” The guy next to her squeezed one more time before walking into the next room, a huge kitchen.

“You cut your hair.” The woman spoke with a thick accent and sprung across the room to run her fingers through her hair.

Spice retreated and bumped against the entrance wall. This game of pretending to be Sugar used to be fun as kids but not anymore. With her hands raised, she kept the strangers at bay as they surrounded her like a pack of wolves. None of them looked dangerous, but what were they doing in her sister’s house while she was at work?

The way they grinned at her and each other, she concluded they were all good friends.
Sugar had everything she wanted; a loving man, friends, and a home.

“Daedalus let you cut your hair?” A short man built like a bodybuilder approached her.
The awe in his voice snapped Spice out of her self-pity and the protector inside reared its head. This was the second reference to someone allowing her little sister to do something. “What do you mean ‘let me’?”

What kind of relationship did Sugar have? She needed permission to cut her hair? Maybe destiny brought her back to Chicago to save her little sister from some monster. Again. All those bad things happening to drive her here couldn’t be coincidental.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Where is my sister, and what are you doing in her house?”
They glanced at each other, confusion apparent on their faces. “What?”

The man in the kitchen stuck his head out of the door, chocolate brown eyes wide as he stared at her. “Spice?” The smile he’d given to her when he thought she was Sugar returned but wider.

Her heart skipped a beat. In the light his face seemed familiar as well. “I know you.”

“You should, we were only neighbors forever as kids.”

“Eric!” He had grown. Stupid, of course he’s changed. But she never expected that the skinny, lanky bottle-cap-glasses-wearing nerd would develop into a charming, handsome I-wanna-snuggle-you-on-a-cold-night kind of man. “Hi.” The jobs as a hostess, a bartender, and the most recent, a stripper taught her how to talk to men the way they liked. But with him grinning at her like a happy puppy, her mind went blank.

He swept her into his arms in a bone-cracking hug.

“Wow, I’d forgotten Sugar had a twin.” The redhead scratched his chin. “You look exactly alike, except your hair is short.”

Eric set her back on her feet. “Let me take your coat.” He tugged on the belt and untied it. To her surprise, the small action sparked warmth between her thighs. Not like he took off her clothes but she began to wonder what it would feel like if he did.

Their eyes met. His pupils dilated, the chocolate brown faded to amber, and something feral peeked at her.

She gasped and stepped back.

The pretty oriental girl took her arm and dragged her into the living room. She chattered about making tea, but Spice’s attention riveted on Eric as he stood with the men surrounding him.

What the heck? She’d seen need in men’s eyes before but this was darker, deeper, and so much more alluring.

Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u7ZlO9f24I

Thanks for letting me share my new release with you! It’s available June 21 and I’ll be giving away a copy of my book at my blog www.paranormalromantics.blogspot.com that day so come enter.

Annie Nicholas  www.annienicholas.com

Talking Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase

Strange Neighbors

Ashlyn Chase

Available NOW

When star pitcher and shapeshifter Jason Falco buys a small apartment building, he sees it not only as an investment but as a place to escape the demands of major league baseball.

That is, until he meets his tenants--a sarcastic unemployed vigilante vampire; a wereraven with a morbid sense of humor; a werewolf thief who sells security systems; and two witches with an owl who work as phone sex actresses. Not to mention a beautiful, all too human nurse. But with all the hooting, howling, and hollering going on, how's an all-American shapershifter supposed to sweep a girl off her feet?

Sneak Peek Excerpt:

Strolling away from her car with competing thoughts swirling through her brain, she fumbled in the dark for her back-door key. Suddenly, her feet went out from under her and she found herself hurled to the ground and pinned by some foul-smelling brute. A moment later she realized she had hit hard pavement with her head.

Unable to find her voice right away, or even process what had happened, she lay there, dumbstruck. The moon reflected a glint of metal nearing her face.

“Shhh… Don’t scream and I won’t hurt you—much.” Maniacal laughter followed. A hand fumbled with the buttons on her coat.

Oh my God. What is it they tell you to do in case of rape? Oh, yeah, scream!

Merry inhaled deeply and let out a blood curdling scream. She didn’t even recognize the voice as hers. Suddenly her throat tightened and she recognized another threat—her asthma.

She remembered being told to fight but not struggle. They liked it when a woman struggled. Gouge out his eyes! Punch his nose up into his brains. Fight like your life depends on it.

As she tried and failed to get near the bastard’s face, her assailant grabbed her wrists in one hand and pressed the sharp knife to her neck with the other.

He hissed, “Shut up! I told you to shut up!”

She pushed his arm away from her and freed one hand. Grabbing anything else she could get a hold of, she tried to yank him off of her.

His jeans must have hung low on his hips, because she grabbed onto the waistband of his underwear. Riiiiiip.

The perp yelped. His eyes flashed in horror and she realized she had just given him a world-class wedgie.

Dear God, I’m going to die. I’m going to be raped and killed in a back alley on my first night as an independent adult. I’m never going to fall in love, get married, hug my children, or live in a McMansion.

The knife pressed into her flesh, and the warm trickle down her neck meant he had pierced the skin. Should she scream again? Would he just kill her and leave her rather than rape her? Or would he, ewww, kill her first, then rape her? Oh, my freakin’ God!

As she contemplated what would be the lesser of all possible evils, the man flew off of her and landed a few feet away. At first, she didn’t see anyone else.

When she blinked, two shadowy figures stood over the gasping pervert. One of them clamped his boot on the would-be rapist’s neck and pointed a gun at his face. The other one hurried over to Merry and helped her up.

“Thank you. Both of you. You saved my life!” The man holding her elbow seemed preoccupied with her neck. Awareness rolled over her. She recognized the dark-haired man who had been leaning against the wrought iron fence, watching her move in. Again, he wore all black, but the concern on his face completely changed his ominous air. His dark chocolate eyes were warm and almond shaped, much like her own.

“He missed your carotid artery. You’ll be okay.”

Merry touched her neck. Thankfully, his diagnosis seemed true. Blood simply trickled from the wound, it didn’t gush.

“I saw you yesterday,” she said. “Do you live in this building?”

“Nearby,” he said, then he turned his attention to the other man, a tall blond with broad shoulders—also dressed in black. “Konrad, here, is one of your neighbors. Hey,” he called to the tall blond with the massive shoulders, “leave him to me and take her inside.”

“Good idea, Sly,” the striking Viking said. His white teeth glistened as a grin spread across his face. His canines seemed larger and more pronounced than in most men. Light facial hair and a short goatee softened his jawline. He had heavy brows of the same color. His ears were slightly pointed and poked though his almost waist-length hair.

The dark-haired man called Sly moved with lightning speed, holding down the assailant.

The guy protested, vehemently. “No, please! I’ll do anything you ask. Just let me go.”

The blond Konrad changed places with Sly and escorted Merry to the back door. She glided along beside him, numb, as if in a dream.

As soon as she had ascended the concrete steps, before she stepped through the door that Konrad held open for her, she turned and caught only a glimpse of the scene she had left behind. Sly knelt beside the stranger and leaned over by his head. Konrad placed his hand on her lower back and hurried her in, closing the door on a male scream that emanated from the dark alley.

Order your copy on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Neighbors-Ashlyn-Chase/dp/1402236611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270205590&sr=1-1