Chatting to Alaina Drake about Forbidden Touch

Today I'm welcoming Alaina Drake to my blog for a chat about her intriguing book Forbidden Touch (out 24 September).

1. Did you do any research for your book? What resources did you use?

I researched the setting a lot. The book is set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the university city of Boulder. My family and I take vacations there each year to hike and climb in the mountains. I took a lot of pictures of the natural surroundings and flipped through them for inspiration as I wrote.

2. Do you have a favourite place to write and if so, where is it?

I write at my desk in our downstairs study. I am a full-time stay-at-home mom during the day, so I write after our daughter goes to bed. I’ve come up with a system that works for me. I have to have her baby monitor right next to the lit candle. I have to eat peanuts when I write and I have to wear one of my husband’s sweaters when I write the…ahem…steamier scenes. Call it quirks…but it works for me!

3. Do you aim for a certain amount of words when you write, or something else you aim for?

I always try for a thousand words a day minimum when I’m writing a first draft. I find that getting the “juices” flowing each day gets me into a rhythm where my body expects to write every night and actually misses it when I don’t. I always write even when I don’t feel like it. I can always highlight and delete the really bad stuff, which, of course as all writers will tell you, happens a lot.

4. Are you a plotter or a panster?

I’m both. I plot out the main character arc. I ask myself: how does each character grow? How does their individual growth lead them to a stronger romantic relationship? I know the basic storyline, and I try to map out each scene, but, inevitably, I will start with something like sixteen scenes and end up with twenty-five. I need more scenes than I think I will to develop characters, and I gladly add them in when my characters beg me to do it.

5.What are you working on now?

Forbidden Touch is Book One in the Claimed Series, which follows four women, all roommates, as they each explore romance in a different way. I have already written Book Two in the series, Forbidden Temptation, which focuses on roommate Jenn, a literature professor and avid rock-climber. I just finished the first draft of the third book, which is Forbidden Addiction. This book focuses on feisty Nina, my first scarred heroine. She made me cry and fall in love with her.

6. Do you have any tips for any new writers wishing to be published?

Forbidden Touch is my first published novel, so I can offer a lot of advice for new authors wanting to get published. The painful, scary, and sometimes depressing querying process is still fresh for me. My first piece of advice is to never worry about getting published as you write your first, second, or third drafts. If you write for an editor you think you will get someday, it will never work. Write for yourself. For the joy of it. Let the characters wake you up at one a.m. (even when your toddler is going to be up in five hours!) Let the plot work itself out when you’re folding clothes or blow-drying your hair. Write what you want to write. And, embrace the fact that the first couple drafts are going to stink. Wait, not just stink…I mean stink REALLY bad. And that’s okay! If you compared my first draft of Forbidden Touch to the final one, you would see very little resemblance. An author I admire and follow on Twitter once said, “Think of the first draft as shovelling sand into the sandbox. Every draft after that begins to build the sandcastle.”

So, I guess what I would say to new writers wishing to be published is to write with the goal to tell a story, not to get published. If it gets published, it’s just a really cool bonus.

Bio:

Alaina Drake discovered her love of writing in the fourth grade when she won her first young author writing contest. After attaining a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English Literature, she set out to write novels that combine her two loves: erotic romance and classical literature. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her watching sports, and, of course, reading way past midnight. She is an avid rock climber and former ballerina, and she finds a lot of connection between the two activities despite their obvious differences. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and daughter.

Blurb:

Hannah Black saunters into the bar in her four-inch stilettos, intent on breaking her recent streak of bad dates and even worse sex. What she finds instead is sizzling hot doctor Beckett Stanton - but she doesn’t realize that he is the last man she should have chosen for her one night fling. While their views of sex and love polarize them, the attraction between them doesn’t allow either to turn away. The two play a dangerous game that tests both of their resolves, and when Hannah is given the chance to satisfy her needs, she is forced to make a decision - because the man with whom she wanted a no-strings-attached fling tugs at her heart in ways she never anticipated.
Here's a trailer for you to watch: https://youtu.be/qFhfPImR9YE

The shortened link to buy the book is this: (Mybook.to/Forbiddentouch