AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JANICE SEAGRAVES

Today we sit down for a chat with romance, science fiction, and paranormal author Janice Seagraves. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

When I was twenty.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

I had to work for it starting at age forty. It took me eight years, so before I turned fifty.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author? 

I’m a hybrid author.

Where do you write?

In my bedroom I had a desk right up next to my bed. I literally roll out of bed and into my office chair and I start writing. 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I like it quiet so I can concentrate on the voices talking in my head.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

Sometimes something will happen that will trigger an idea.

Describe your process for naming your character?

I have the Character Naming Source Book that I use for my characters’ names.

Real settings or fictional towns?

It depends. In Windswept Shores my setting is a deserted island in the Bahamas. In the Matrix Crystal series, it’s the planet Zenevieva. In The Year of the Cat, the setting is a ski lodge and later a neighborhood in a small California town.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

In Windswept Shores my hero was addicted to beer and ketchup.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I’m an old softie. I cry when people are hurt.

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I wish I could have finished college.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

People not stopping at stop signs. Someone I know lost their son to someone barreling through a stop sign and right into his truck killing him instantly. So, if I see someone not stopping at a stop sign…in my head I’m telling them off.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Knife, blanket, and a pot.

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

Being a human inserting machine for our local newspaper.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

God Stalk (Kencyrath, #1) by P.C. Hodgell

Ocean or mountains?

I like both.

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Country girl at heart since we moved back into town.

What’s on the horizon for you?

Working on the very first book length manuscript I ever wrote. It needs a lot of work and that’s what I’m working on currently. I have the cover already done by the wonderful Lex Valentine of Winterheart designs.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

Only that I grew up with a deep love of science fiction and adventure stories. Always the consummate artist, I traded in my paintbrush for a desktop to write breathless life-affirming novels that celebrate enduring love.

Year of the Cat

Morgan isn’t expecting romance when she accompanies her friend for a week of skiing, but when she meets Jared, all bets are off.

Haunted by the loss of his parents, werecat Jared Catterick earns his keep working for the Catclaw Clan. Jared has secrets that he doesn’t mind sharing with a special lady, and he hopes Morgan is that special someone. When his past and present collide, it’s worse than he imagined, and he’s forced to fight for his life.

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#ROMANCE AUTHOR JANICE SEAGRAVES ON THE INSPIRATION BEHIND HER LATEST NOVEL

Janice Seagraves grew up with a deep love of science fiction and adventure stories. Always the consummate artist, she traded in her paintbrush for a laptop to write breathless romance novels that takes you out of this world. Today she stops by to tell us the inspiration behind her latest novel. Learn more about Janice and her books at her website.

The Dream That Inspired Alien Heart

Hi, I’m romance author Janice Seagraves, and today is my birthday. So happy birthday to me!

How did I get the idea for Alien Heart? It all started with a dream.

I dreamed of a redheaded woman. Let’s call her Audrey. In my dream, someone knocked on Audrey’s door. She opened her door to a white-haired handsome man. An alien. Does anyone remember the 1982 TV series, The Phoenix? The alien looked like the star of that show, Judson Scott. Let’s call him Keefe.

Keefe told Audrey he liked her show. (What show? I had no clue.)

The next morning, Audrey woke up in a cabin in the woods, and heard the noise of someone in the shower. When that person walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips, it was the same person who had knocked on her door. Keefe, the white-haired alien. And he explained to her that they were mated, and she was pregnant with his child. She, of course, was not happy. He made her breakfast, which she could barely eat. Later that same morning, Keefe had a visitor. Another alien who looked like him.

While they were visiting, Audrey sneaked out and climbed down to the creek that ran behind the cabin. She ran splashing through the water, but the alien and his friend called to her to stop and ran after her. The aliens leap from boulder to boulder like grasshoppers. Audrey looked back, then fell and hurt her knee. Keefe took her to the clinic, where she was treated by the aliens’ doctor. She was told she’s locked in, there were no phones, and no escaping the Compound.

That one dream launched the story of the Arcons coming to Earth and gaining mates.

Except I changed a few things.

Audrey became the host of The Ms Fixit Show. Teaching people how to make or fix things. I was called Miss Fixit because I made things out of wood or fixed things. I figured if it was good enough for me, than it was good enough for my female character.

Keefe got his name because it was close to Kiefer Sutherland’s name, and he played a vampire with light blond hair in Lost Boys. And because of Kiefer, the Arcons gained vampire fangs.

The Arcons remained tall and thin. Over six-foot tall. Some of the Arcons were more muscular than others. Those males are in the military class. But all are male.

I like to turn my stories on their head, so instead of a male dominated society like ours, the Arcons came from a female oriented society, and their females had all tragically perished on the trip from their planet to ours.

And because their females had all died, they needed human women for mates.

And to stay with my theme of turning things on its head: since our society holds the armed forces in high regard, their society does not. The military in their society is a place to send overly aggressive males to teach them discipline.

I decided Keefe needed a brother who was military, but he was ashamed of him. Enter Blade, who has a dark sense of humor. The two can barely tolerate each other. So, what was the glue I used to keep the brothers Keefe and Blade together? I gave them a little brother named Paz, who isn’t grown yet. Because the brothers were the last of their family, they had to raise Paz together.

And just for fun, I made the Arcons smell great and their kisses taste like candy!

Click here to watch the video. 

Alien Heart

Divorcee and single mom, hardworking Audrey Westberry is the host of a cable TV show called Miz Fixit.

Romance was the last thing on Audrey’s mind when two handsome extraterrestrials join the audience of her show.

Soon Audrey finds out a single word “mated” has different meaning when you are born a galaxy away. After a wonderful night of passion, Audrey finds herself far from home, impregnated and her life turned upside down. Will she ever be able to leave the alien compound, see her son again, or get home in time to film the fall season of her Miz Fixit show?

But what's a girl to do with two aliens that smell like candy, and their kisses taste like it, too?

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AUTHOR JANICE SEAGRAVES AND HER WRITERLY CAT OBSESSION

Janice Seagraves grew up with a deep love of science fiction and adventure stories. Now she writes them, along with romances. And cats. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Cats in My Stories

I seem to write cats into my stories a lot lately.

In Matrix Crystal River, I have a Shadow Cat that the heroine names Fluffy. (Named after a kitten I had as a child.) The cat will become a large cat about the size and shape of a cougar, and you’ll see him again in Matrix Crystal Rebels. Both are in my Matrix Crystal Series.

In my Chronicles of Arcon series, there’s a cat Goddess. She’s about the size and shape of a fluffy Maine Coon but lavender in color. She also talks and can change her shape from a cat to an Arcon, which is what my aliens are called. So, if you like talking cats, you might enjoy my series. She’s not in every book, because she’s a cat, and you know, shows up only when it pleases her.

In the book I want to talk about today, Year of the Cat, I have Jared Catterick, a werecat who is one of my favorite characters. He was fun to write, and I enjoyed the interaction between him and Morgan, his love interest.

Jared is Scottish and has a Scottish accent. His accent is softer in the beginning of the series because he’s working at a ski resort, but during the second half of the book it’s stronger because he’s comfortable around Morgan and allows his true personality to shine through. I don’t say this in the book, but you’ll see his accent get stronger, if you look for it.

Originally, Jared's story started off in three small segments and remained that way for years. I had Jared and Morgan’s personalities very firmly in my mind. I just had to connect the pieces, and eventually I did.

The original finished story was called “Werecat Love” and was only five thousand words long and published in an anthology. I enjoyed writing the story so much that when the contract ended, I returned to the story and added more to it to lengthen it and changed the title to Year of the Cat.

I just had to write a longer story about their love.

Jared was inspired by my cat Baron. I still miss him. He was a sweet boy, but he was a short haired, blond tabby where Jared is an orange tabby. And when Jared is in his human form, he has a shock of orange hair that stands on end.

And, I'm not seeing any end in sight for my fascination with adding cats to my romances. Which is good news if you're a cat lover and enjoying reading about my felines. 

Year of the Cat

Morgan isn’t expecting romance when she accompanies her friend for a week of skiing, but when she meets Jared, all bets are off.

Haunted by the loss of his parents, werecat Jared Catterick earns his keep working for the Catclaw Clan. Jared has secrets that he doesn’t mind sharing with a special lady, and he hopes Morgan is that special someone. When his past and present collide it’s worse than he imagined, and he’s forced to fight for his life.

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2C8KN8X

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR JANICE SEAGRAVES

photo by Rod Waddington

Janice Seagraves grew up with a deep love of science fiction and adventure stories. Always the consummate artist, she traded in her paintbrush for a laptop to write breathless romance novels that takes you out of this world. Learn more about Janice and her books at her website.

Windswept Shore and the Basket Weaver

In my book, Windswept Shores, my heroine is a weaver. I thought this would be a great hobby to help someone survive on a deserted island in the Bahamas and yet a believable aspect of a character.

I’m a craft person myself and took a class in weaving back in high school. It was a lot of fun and a couple of my baskets stayed in the class display for ten years. You have to have strong hands to wrap and tug reeds into place. In the class we also used yarn to wrap around rope and weave colorful baskets, among other materials. I have a small collection of baskets of various sizes and have used them for holding things and I’ve used them at a couple of family weddings, too. 

I have my heroine, Megan, weaving a basket or using a basket with the action in the story. She uses them for everything from holding clothes, gather food, and rinsing mussels. She uses almost any material that’s handy, which is something I learned to do in my weaving class. So many materials are weavable: cloth, rope, yarn, reeds, tall grasses, even pine needles.

Windswept Shores

The sole survivor of a plane crash, Megan is alone on a deserted island in the Bahamas. Then she finds a nearly drowned man. Another survivor, this time from a boat wreck.

With only meager survival skill between them, will they survive these windswept shores and can they find love?

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