Tuesday, December 3, 2013

TwoLips Reviews Interview with KC Klein



TwoLips Reviews Interview with KC Klein

KC Klein has lived most of her life with her head in the clouds and her nose buried in a book. She did stop reading long enough to make a home with a real life hero, her husband, for over sixteen years. A mother of two children, she spends her time slaying dragons, saving princesses, and championing the belief in the happily-ever-after. Her debut novel, Dark Future, is afinalist in the 2012 Prism contest and has been honored with a reviewers choice award. Her other titles include a sci- fi, 2012 RONE award winning romance anthology, Hotter on the Edge, and the first two books in her Texas Fever contemporary romance series, Texas Wide Open, and HustlinTexas. KC loves to hear from readers and can be found desperately pounding away on her laptop in yoga pants and leopard slippers or more conveniently at www.kckleinbooks.com.

TLR: How did you start writing erotica?

KCK: Why do people keep asking me that? I think it’s the cover of Texas Wide Open. When you put her boots, her hands, and the title together people tend to come to the wrong conclusion. ☺ Since I don’t write erotica that’s an easy question to answer—I haven’t. LOL! I don’t expect to be writing erotica anytime soon. After four novels and two novellas, I am finding the sex scenes quite a challenge.

TLR: Tell me about your writing process - what really gets your creative juices flowing?

KCK: My creative writing process has changed over the years. When I first started to write I never thought about how I wrote. I just did. I wanted to be an author ever since I can remember. Creating stories in my head came natural to me. I thought everyone did that.

Now, that I have to write on demand, sort of speak, things have changed. I learned that I have to protect and nurture that creative well inside of me. After a long day of writing the last thing I want to do is read a book. I know that sounds weird. I have a huge love of reading, but by the end of the day I don’t want to see any words on the page. I turned toward TV as a way to relax. At first it was fine, but as the weeks turned into months I realized that I was losing my story. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to read. I needed to stimulate my imagination and “see” the stories in my head even if they aren’t mine.

Reading is what every author needs to do.

TLR: Do you have any unique rituals that get you in the mood to write?

KCK: I like to exercise in the morning. I always, always need my coffee. I love fat-free French vanilla creamer. I wrote my first two books longhand in spiral-bound notebooks. I now write on an Alphasmart on the patio in my backyard.

TLR: Are you able to devote yourself to a full time career as an author? If not, how do you balance your writing with other aspects of your day to day life?

KCK: Balance? What balance? I’m writing this interview on Thanksgiving day. ☺ (no worries, I am having family day tomorrow. )

I can’t devote myself to a full-time career as a writer. I work part-time, have small children, and spend a lot of time volunteering. It’s hard, but this is how I’ve learned to live my life.
I read an author interview somewhere where she talks about how she’s written so many books and has written two or three series. At first I was jealous. Wow, this woman has got it down. Then I continued to read and found out she really never leaves her house. It was literally something like she made a trip to the grocery store once a week and that was it. All she does it write like all day.

I don’t want to live my life like that. I work out five days a week. My health is important to me. I have a great relationship with my extended family and friends, and most importantly my husband and kids. I’ve made my choice, and if that means I only write one book a year then I am okay with that.

TLR: Who are your literary influences/inspirations?

KCK: I love Karen Marie Moning, Diana Gabaldon, and Philippa Gregory. All of them are wonderful authors and something to aspire to.

TLR: What’s the best advice you’ve been given as an author? The worst?

KCK: As an author that you need to read—inside your genre, outside your genre, it doesn’t matter. Just read.

The worst was to stop reading romance because you may unintentionally plagiarize another author’s work. The reality is we “steal” things from everything around us, music, books, my husband’s bad jokes. Plagiarism is copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work.
Reading a good book and seeing how an author creates tension or handles a certain turning point is just about making yourself a better writer.

TLR: Are there any genres that you’d like to explore in the future?

KCK: Ummm….good question. Yes. I’ve written in sci-fi romance which has always been my first love. I would love to write a historical, and I have a great series idea for a dystopian YA. Of course, at the heart of them all would be the romance. I am a romance reader and writer to the core.

TLR: What’s the most memorable thing a reviewer has said about your work?

KCK: I love when a reviewer says that my book was a surprise. That they didn’t expect the intensity, the humor, or the twist at the end. I love when they say their whole life was put on hold because they just had to finish. They had to find out what happens next.

I am a relatively new author, and readers aren’t really sure what to expect when they pick up my books. My books, even my contemporary romances, are gritty, intense, funny, and fast paced.

TLR: What genre is your favorite to kick back and relax to?

KCK: I like contemporary romance, historicals, but I am also trying to delve into the classics. I always want to improve and what better way than learning from the masters.

TLR: If you could choose anyone you wanted as a partner for one steamy night - who would it be and why?

KCK: Umm…Hugh Jackman. There is just nothing wrong with that man.

TLR: What’s your favorite part of a man’s body? A woman’s?

KCK: His eyes. Her lips.

TLR: When meeting someone for the first time, what’s the first thing that grabs you about them?

KCK: Their smile. I really am into teeth, occupational hazard. I’m a dental hygienist by day and romance writer by night.

TLR: What’s turns you on? Off?

KCK: A sense of humor. An arrogant attitude.

TLR: What food is guaranteed to put you in the mood for some steamy loving?

KCK: That would be wine, but you have to act fast because following the steamy feeling is the sleepy feeling. My husband has learned to be quick on his feet. Things can go from hot to night-night fast. ☺

TLR: What are a few of your guilty pleasures?

KCK: I love wine. I love chocolate. I love, love salty chocolate. Oh yeah, did I mention wine?

TLR: If you could have one superhero power, what would it be and why?

KCK: To never have to sleep. Is there a superhero who has that power? Insomniac-man? NoDoz-woman? (Leanna/TLR: I think I’d love to be her side-kick - never enough hours in the day!)

TLR: Can you give us any hints as to what’s on the horizon for you?

KCK: Hints? I’ll tell you anything you want to know. LOL! Next, is the third installment of the Texas Fever series. This will be Cash’s and Lauren’s story. I would love, LOVE to write the sequel to Dark Future. No one would read it (no one read the first. Oops, I take that back Two Lips did a review on Dark Future, so one person read it. ☺), but I still want to write it. (Leanna/TLR: I have this book on my TBR pile and I’m excited to read it, but I can tell you that there are quite a few 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon!)

TLR: Where is the best place to keep up to date on your upcoming releases and works in progress?

KCK: My poor neglected website at kckleinbooks.com, but if you really want to keep up to date please sign up for my newsletter. I talk about all my upcoming releases, sales, and I want to start giving away free gifts. So just go to my website and click on the sign-up button on the side.  (Leanna/TLR: If you’re on Facebook - you can like KC’s author page here:
https://www.facebook.com/kckleinbooks)

I also do a quarterly giveaway on my Facebook page for anyone who likes my page or signs up for my newsletter.

To celebrate my latest release, Hustlin’ Texas, I am giving an e-book away. To enter just Facebook, tweet, or Pintrest the blog post and then come back and comment that you shared. Thanks again and happy reading!

KC Klein

Here are what some people are saying about KC Klein:

HustlinTexas:

“Sassy, sexy, fun, but sweet at heart, KC Klein knows how to spin a tall Texas yarn.”—Lori Wilde

“A sexy read. KC Kleins hero is as hot as a Texan summers day. KC is an author to watch..” —Rachel Gibson

Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town…

Oak Grovesmost beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isnt one of them. He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to break one of those rules…

Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face to face with the one man shes done her best to forget. But she has her reasons for being here—and they dont include winding up in bed with Jett. Especially since hell never forgive her once he finds out the truth about why shes back…

Blurb for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:

“A tortured hero, a love that defies distance and time…this is a book you wont soon forget.” –Cat Johnson

Katie Harris loved growing up on a ranch. She had her horse, the beautiful Texas prairie, and Cole Logan, the cowboy next door. But there are a lot of secrets hidden under a Texas sky…
Katie always knew shed marry Cole one day—until he broke her dreams and her heart. But now that Katies father is sick, shes back home, older, wiser and nowhere near the love-sick fool she once was.
Cole knows Katie doesnt want anything to do with him. But after so many years, he cant pretend shes no more than a neighbor. Holding his ground was hard enough when she was seventeen. Now that shes her own woman, Coles heart doesnt stand a chance…
“Passionate, gritty and fast paced…with a hot blooded, honorable hero to make every woman's knees go weak.”—Diane Whiteside
Blurb for DARK FUTURE:
A woman caught between two futures...

Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go travel in time to save the world--and his life. Of course, her future self doesn't tell her who he is just sends her into the darkness and straight into an alien invasion.

...must choose between the man who has her heart...

He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting military commander of Earth's army and the world's last defense. There's only one way for Smith to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy--slice her throat. Except, he didn't anticipate the desire he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman. 


...or the fate that saves the world.

As Kris and ConRad struggle to trust each other in a world on the brink of destruction, they each will have to face the ultimate choice of whether to fight or die... survive or forgive. 

Buy links for HustlinTexas:


Buy Links for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:

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