Interview w/ Jennifer Dawson-- notebooks, Disney and...rocking some awk...

I used to be a nice, normal girl. I had dreams. Good, happy dreams of a white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a fairytale love that lasts forever. Nobody ever warned me that sometimes, the prince dies three weeks before the wedding.

Now, I go through my days, a shadow of my former self. I pretend I’m okay, and the people in my life pretend to believe me. But, sometimes, when I can no longer stand the craving, I roam an underground sex club looking for my next hit. It’s dirty and wrong, but I can’t stop, and my only line of defense between them and me, is the rules I’ve designed to keep me safe. The men always abide by my rules. Until I meet him.

I don’t question the instincts that tell me to run. One look at him, standing there, power radiating off him in waves, tells me all I need to know. He will make me crave those happy dreams I’ve left behind. And that is not an option.

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Good morning Jennifer! It's so nice to have you stopping by. I've been whipping up breakfast so figured omelets and hash browns...okay and maybe cinnamon rolls (a girl needs her dessert) would be good while we chat about Crave.

Thanks so much for having me, Anna.  Your blog is awesome and it’s such a pleasure to be here.  We should absolutely ditch the omelets and hash browns and focus on cinnamon rolls. Hot, with extra gooey icing is the only thing to eat while we discuss Crave. 

Well...if you insist *pulls out the pretty green swirl dishes and snags a cinnamon roll...okay...okay...two of them* Now, Crave. That's a damn HOT cover! 20 words or less... how would you get someone panting for what's inside those pages too?

Thank you, I love it too.  Of course, we can never go wrong with a well-developed back, now can we?  As for panting, well, if you like a man that’s 6’5”, dominant, determined and knows how to deliver a good spanking, I think you’ll find Michael as irresistible as Layla does. 

*whispers* I think I'd like to meet Michael. lol Alright, can you tell us 3 behind the scenes facts about Crave and Layla's journey? Think Pop-Up Video style.

Three facts… the pressure is on!  

• I developed the whole concept for the book on a road trip to Florida with my husband and kids.  I guess the thought of going to Disney got my creative juices flowing.  Not really about Layla’s journey, per se, but I do have a very strong fondness for a highway in North Carolina. 

Aw yay for loving a bit of North Carolina! That's my state :D I'm rather fond of bits of it too ;)

• I wanted Michael to sing Eric Clapton’s, Layla to her at some point during the book, especially the “you’ve got me on my knees, and I’m begging darling please” parts but it never made it into the book. If I ever write a follow up novella to revisit them, you can expect that song in there.  

• I have an Uncle that died before I was born and when my Grandma died my Aunt (his wife) told me that it was like losing my Uncle Victor all over again because my Grandma was the only person that would ever talk about him with her.  When I wrote Layla’s story, I thought about that a lot—that idea of someone being alive and vivid in your mind but feeling like a ghost.  

Oh that is a thought that would stick with you for sure. Where there any moments or quotes in the book that just hit you?

This is from the 1st time Layla meets Michael and she’s running scared.  I just love the contrast between her meeting a man she knows will give her what she’s been missing and being terrified of it.  That moment when he calls out exactly what she most fears.

“I can give you what you need.” His fingers twine around my throat and squeeze. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to feel the threat, and respond with another surge of powerful lust. “Not what you want—” His mouth dips perilously close to mine. “What you need.”

Oh yeah. That would do it. Whew! So, what's your favorite things about Layla?

When we first start her story she’s a very broken defeated woman and I loved watching her fight to get her life back.   That struggle to get her life back with the belief that it was impossible.  

That's always such a thing to see! Tugs at your heart for sure. Now, what about Michael? What's the first thing that pops in your mind about him?

His self-confidence and his patience.  As Layla says to her best friend at one point, he needs to be to deal with her. 

That self-confidence is so dang sexy. I'm crazy curious about him. If he could do anything for 24 hours what would he do?

He’d spend hours deviously and deliciously torturing Layla in only the best ways, then they’d take their dog, Belle to the park to play. 

Oh, I'm really liking the sounds of that. And a dog-guy. Yay! Love guys and pets. So swoony. Totally silly but if Layla and Michael were gonna be a dessert...what would they be?

Once at a restaurant I had this dessert that was a cross between a warm flourless chocolate cake and tollhouse chocolate chip cookie.  It was a French restaurant and the waiter sold me on the dessert by saying in his thick accent, “This, this is better than the sex.”  Let’s just say he did not undersell it.  It might be the best thing I ever put in my mouth. This would be Michael and Layla as dessert. Unfortunately, the restaurant is now closed and I would pay big money for that recipe, but alas, it’s merely a memory. 

*grabs a cinnamon roll when what she really wants is a bit of that better than the sex dessert!* So, we love some heat here. How hot and dirty do these two get? Are we gonna be fanning ourselves and squirming?

Nah… it’s totally tame only closed door sex in this one.  

Oh...um...well that's...I mean...yeah. Those are good sometimes too...I...guess. So. hrms....

*Big Grin* Just kidding!   To quote Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock, “I'm a real good sex person. I do it all the different ways.”

But seriously, there are BDSM elements of the book, lots of dirty language, and hot, intense sex, but it is not hard-core.  If you like spankings, you and Michael will get along just fine. 

Well. Damn, Jennifer! Messing with a girls head like that after she doled out warm cinnamon rolls. Wrong. So wrong. lol I might have to set Michael and is spanking self after you. Mmhm! heh Speaking of sexy men...favorite man candy?

I’m currently finishing up book 4 of my Something New Novel and the hero is a football player, so any guy in a uniform catches my attention, paticularly if they feature that cut on a man’s hip. Yum!

 

Niklaus Mikaelson - The Originals, Love Klaus!

Oh noms. The V. *swoons* Three things on your to-do list?

1. Write.
2. Edit.
3. Call the orthodontist. 

Weirdest thing in your purse right now?

A mojo voodoo bag from my trip to New Orleans. 

Favorite office supply?

Notebooks.  I’m obsessed with buying them.  They might rival my shoe obsession and my husband doesn’t understand either one of them. 

Oooo notebooks. And shoes. #Happy. Last thing that made you blush? *raises eyebrow*

I was listening to Sebastian York read a sex scene and it was so deliciously dirty and awesome I couldn’t stop blushing and looking around me to see who was watching, certain that everyone knew exactly why I was squirming. 

Bwahaha. Sounds like I need to track down this Sebastian. I'm completely obsessed with?

See answer above. Sebastian York.  A narrator I discovered when I listened to Christina Lauren’s, Dirty Rowdy Thing.  I am in love with his voice. I’d listen to him read the phone book. 

Oh oh! I feel that way about Ed Sheeran! Totally get it. Best food ever? Like, you would do naughty things to get your hands on it kind of good.

Well I already mentioned my to-die-for dessert but for food, I’d have to go with crab legs.  Butter, salt, and pure heaven. 

I'm still thinking about that dessert. *noms* and that's probably the only time crab legs will ever be on herding cats. lol So, what's up next for you?

The Name of the Game, the third book in my Something New Series, comes out September 29th. It’s a contemporary romance about two complete opposites and their reluctant path to true love.  It’s fun, sexy and a bit more mainstream, but it’s still written in my same voice.  

I’m also working on book 2 of the Undone series, Sinful that is a prequel to Crave and features Michael’s sister and his best friend.  It will be released in Fall of 2015.

Very exciting! Love those opposites. Thanks so much for coming by to nosh and chat, Jennifer! It was great getting to know a bit more about your characters :)

Thanks so much for having me! I had a blast. 

Jennifer Dawson grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from DePaul University with a degree in psychology. She met her husband at the public library while they were studying. To this day she still maintains she was NOT checking him out. Now, over twenty years later they’re married living in a suburb right outside of Chicago with two awesome kids and a crazy dog.

Despite going through a light FM, poem writing phase in high school, Jennifer never grew up wanting to be a writer (she had more practical aspirations of being an international super spy). Then one day, suffering from boredom and disgruntled with a book she’d been reading, she decided to put pen to paper. The rest, as they say, is history.

These days Jennifer can be found sitting behind her computer writing her next novel, chasing after her kids, keeping an ever watchful eye on her ever growing to-do list, and NOT checking out her husband.

Jennifer also writes erotic romance under the name Julia Devlin.

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