Ann Jacobs has joined us here on Naughty Nights Press blog to share with us some things we may not know about her and to give us a bit of info about her new release "END RUN" available Feb 11th from Ellora's Cave.
Friends, this is one book you are not gonna want to miss! Can we say heat! *fans self* Book two of the Necessary Roughness series, you gotta get em all!
Hi Ann! Thank you so much for taking some time to answer a few questions! It is an honour and a pleasure to have you here at Naughty Nights Press.
1. Could you tell us a little about yourself? What a typical day is like for you? Favorite foods, favorite color, anything that you would like to share with us.
My days are pretty boring, except for when I go to RomantiCon and other writer/reader conventions. I start out about 6 AM by reading email and then move on to a light breakfast and my day of researching or writing. About eleven o’clock I break for lunch, and sometimes I do some shopping or gardening instead of going back to writing immediately. I enjoy food too much considering I’m always watching my weight—pizza and other calorific Italian delights re right up there as favorites. I also like most fruits and veggies, to balance off the evils of too much cheese, bread and pasta, LOL. My favorite colors are black and red, but I also like shades of green and blue for variety.
2. Can you please share with us how old you were when you wrote your first story?
I would if I could remember! I’m not sure, but I think back on my childhood when I often would make up stories in my head. I wrote my first actual complete book when I was in my early thirties.
3. What was your goal for yourself as a writer when you started? Did you meet or surpass it or did it change for you along the way?
I was going to be rich and famous, like the next Nora Roberts or Judith McNaught. I haven’t reached that goal, and since I found out just how few authors actually get that far, I’ve modified it. My more realistic goal now is to be well-recognized and write stories about characters I can love.
4. How did you decide to write books in the erotic romance genre? Was there anything that influenced your choice?
From the beginning of my fledgling writing career, I wanted to write romances where the couples made love with joy, abandon and a certain amount of realism. I hated those purple euphemisms, but even more I disliked reading flowery emotions coming out of heroes that I seriously doubted would ever come out of their Alpha, larger-than-life brains. Needless to say, my first published romances with Berkley and Kensington were VERY steamy—and a novella I wrote for Red Sage’s SECRETS was downright kinky. My jump to Ellora’s Cave came naturally, at a time I was fighting for my piece of the print market pie in NY, once I realized there was money to be made in ebooks even as far back as 2002 (when I signed my first contracts with EC). I’ve never looked back.
5. Did anyone in your own life inspire your main characters?
No.
6. How did you get the idea for the "Necessary Roughness" series and your upcoming release, "End Run"?
I got the idea for my four-book Necessary Roughness series (SACKMASTER is Book 1; END RUN will be released Feb. 11th) by marrying my Gridiron Lovers contemporary series with EC’s Christmas themed stories, “Merry Kinkmas”. These are BDSM contemporaries with pro football player heroes (Gridiron Lovers) who have different unusual fetishes that drive their sex play.
Why? I found it hard to say goodbye to the Gridiron Lovers, so Necessary Roughness sort of spun off from COACH ME, the last book in that series. Also, as I researched fetishes and found not one but several I thought would make intriguing stories, I decided not to do a Christmas Quickie but rather a whole new single-author series.
7. If pressed, could you choose a favourite from the books you have written? Why is it your favourite?
It would be very difficult for me to pick just one favourite story, but if pressed, I’d have to say it would be one of my contemporaries. A MUTUAL FAVOR or perhaps ROPED…but then, EYE OF THE STORM and HOT IN THE CLUTCH hold special places in my heart, as well. END RUN may end up on this “special” list in my mind, too. Why? The common thread in these stories seems to be the heroes’ characters—and the fact that something has changed each of their lives forever and complicated their self-images. (That’s a fancy way of saying I like writing tortured heroes, LOL.)
8. What is the most challenging aspect of being an author? What are the most rewarding aspects?
With the present proliferation of ebook piracy, the most challenging aspect of being an author may be the challenge of earning a decent income, when rampant piracy is combined with the ever-increasing numbers of ebooks from which readers may choose.
What I find most rewarding about writing romance is creating characters who stick in readers’ minds and keep them coming back for more.
9. What are some of your favorite literary works?
Like most American students, I grew up on Edgar Allen Poe (loved his poems, hated his novels), Hawthorne (THE SCARLET LETTER) and Austen (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE). The authors who shaped my own desire to write, however, were less literary and more “commercial”, including John Gresham, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz and Judith McNaught early on, and later Elizabeth Lowell, Linda Howard and many other romance authors-turned “mainstream”.
My incredibly talented critique partner, Joey W. Hill, writes erotic romance with a beautiful voice I’d almost call “literary”. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday she is considered among the “classic” literary fiction writers of this century.
10. Please share with us what can we expect from you next?
END RUN will be released February 11 by Ellora’s Cave. Book 2 in the Necessary Roughness series, readers may preview the book at Jasmine-Jade.com. The third and fourth books in this series will follow, along with the six new Pleasure Partners that will follow HIS PLEASURE MISTRESS, which is now available for purchase.
11. Besides being a writer, what other types of jobs have you held?
I have been a healthcare financial manager, a hospital fiscal director and a staff accountant with an international CPA firm, but for the past fifteen years I have written full-time.
12. Is there a specific bit of advice you would give to an aspiring author who is looking to publish their work? Traditional or Self-Publishing, paper book or e-book, which would you suggest?
Having gone both ways, I must say the quicker road to publication is generally with e-publishers, although self-publishing is obviously quickest but in most cases not nearly as profitable or as likely to count much toward building a writing career. Nowadays, ebook sales are catching up with print sales, probably nowhere more than in the genre of erotic romance—but there is more prestige if not more money in going with a traditional publisher who will not only put your book out in electronic forms but will also get that same book out in print with efficient distribution to bookstores.
If a person were writing traditional romance, I still would recommend she try hard to get a traditional publisher, because the sales numbers for these types of book with epublishers are still very low. With erotic romance, I recommend a top e-publisher with a good track record because I can write more, publish more, and make more money with shorter stories (which I feel are best suited for the erotic subgenre and my writing style) than I could with a traditional NY publisher.
13. Is there anything else you’d like to share with your readers?
I think I may have already told my readers more than they want to know, but if not they may find cover art, descriptions and excerpts of all my books that are presently available for purchase at my website, along with photos, freebies, links and so on. They also can glimpse my informal and infrequent ramblings on my blog and on Facebook.
14. Do you have any upcoming appearances? If so where can our readers find you?
I’m skipping the Romantic Times convention this year, but I plan to be at RomantiCon in Akron, Ohio, September 29-October 2. I may attend a few other events this year—if I do, I will list them at my website.
Thank you Ann! Your participation is greatly appreciated! It has been an extreme pleasure to have you on Naughty Nights Press today. We hope to see more of you in the future!
Visit Ann Jacobs:
On her WEBSITE, follow her on TWITTER or her FACEBOOK!
About Ann Jacobs
Ann Jacobs is a sucker for lusty Alpha heroes and happy endings. Erotic romance, to her, is the perfect combination of sex, sensuality, deep emotional involvement and lifelong commitment—the elusive fantasy women often dream about but seldom achieve.
First published in 1996, Jacobs has sold more than fifty books and novellas. She is currently nominated for Romantic Times’ 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in erotic romance, as well as having had books nominated by RT reviewers for best erotic romance in 2007 and 2008. Her books have earned awards including the Passionate Plume (best novella, 2006, second place contemporary, 2008), the Desert Rose (best hot and spicy romance, 2004) and More Than Magic (best erotic romance, 2004). She has been a double finalist in separate categories of the EPPIES and From the Heart RWA Chapter’s contest. Three of her books have been translated and sold in several European countries.
A CPA and former hospital financial manager, Jacobs now writes full-time, with the help of Mr. Blue, the family cat who sometimes likes to perch on the back of her desk chair and lend his sage advice. He sometimes even contributes a few random letters when he decides he wants to try out the keyboard. (Most of the time Blue just curls up, hides his eyes with his paws...and sleeps!)
She loves to hear from readers, and to put faces with names at signings and conventions.
Information for this post courtesy of Ann Jacobs' Website. All information remains under the copyright of Ann Jacobs.
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