Interview with Jessica Subject

DEBBIE: This evening we are at our outdoor Cyber Den of Pretty Lights talking with Jessica Subject. Jessica has a new 1NS out with Decadent Publishing titled Beneath the Starry Sky, so I thought it apropos to meet out here tonight. Bundle up, grab a cup of cocoa, and join us to learn more about Jessica.

LAURA: Jessica? Jessica Subject’s in the house? Woohoo! Welcome, Jessica!

JESSICA: Thank you Debbie and Laura for having me here today!

LAURA: (To Debbie) You know, Jessica writes some rockin’ sci-fi romance…

DEBBIE: Yes ma’am, I am aware of this. I even have her book Celestial Seduction. It’s next on my list to read. You are bound and determined to turn me, aren’t you? Drag me kicking and screaming into the Solar System. Although, I will admit I’ve read some darn sexy futuristic romps along the Milky Way lately. You are making me a believer.

LAURA: You’ll thank me later. LOL
.....(Turning to Jessica) Okay, so I have to ask. I saw on the news where they just discovered Keplar 22b and say it's very much like Earth, with a balmy temperature of 70 degrees. Scientists believe there might very well be life there. What are your thoughts? As an author of science fiction romance, do you believe in extraterrestrial life?

JESSICA: I just read that. It’s so exciting to hear. I’d love to know if there is life on Keplar 22b as well as other planets located in the habitable zones of their sun. And yes, I do believe in extraterrestrial life.
.....This is one of my favorite movie quotes, from Contact, and I agree:
 Young Ellie: Dad, do you think there’s people on other planets?
Ted Arroway: I don’t know, Sparks. But I guess I’d say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.

LAURA: LOL Oh, yes it does! Love that quote, and the movie was really good, too. Oh, wait a minute….I see a spike on my SETI@Home program running on my other computer. No…the cat just stepped on the keyboard. Crap. Thought maybe…. Drat! My dreams of piloting a Colonial Viper are dashed once again!

DEBBIE: Yes, I am rolling my eyes. You readers should pity me. It’s a darn hard task keeping Laura grounded in the here and now. Anyway, back to Jessica. Your Bio says Science Fiction Romance is your favorite genre to write. Why? What do you like least and most about it?

JESSICA: With Science Fiction Romance, I have the freedom to create my own worlds, species and problems. And there can be many more problems in space. I can also show that love is universal. It’s not just limited to Earth and Earthlings.
.....What do I like least? Naming planets and people. Sometimes these names come easily, but in most cases, I search the Internet for names based on mythology. For example, Frey from Celestial Seduction is of Scandinavian origin and found in Norse mythology. And his home planet Ginnun comes from Ginnungagab, also based in Norse mythology.

DEBBIE: I can image. I’ve often wondered how authors come up with these names. We were trying to name the demon in a story we are working on now and the research into that one name took hours.

LAURA: Yeah, it did. And we did a good bit of Internet surfing as well. I think we changed that demon’s name twice more before we finally settled.
.....Okay, so let’s get on to your latest release, Jessica. Beneath the Starry Sky is a story for Decadent’s 1 Night Stand series and involves a very deep, emotional issue in the lead character. What was your inspiration for using Alpoecia Areata as an illness for your heroine?

JESSICA: In Celestial Seduction, I knew Tamara wore a wig, hiding her baldness, and that her own 1NightStand experience had given her more courage. The only two diseases I knew which left patients bald were Alopecia Areata and cancer (from treatments). But Alopecia Areata is a lesser known disease which can leave patients socially and emotionally scarred, and at this point, there is no cure or drugs approved to treat this autoimmune disease.
.....To learn more about Alopecia Areata and to help find a cure, visit the National Alopecia Areata Foundation http://www.naaf.org%20and%20the%20canadian%20alopecia%20areata%20foundation%20http//canaaf.org/

DEBBIE: Oh cool! Now, I really need to get Celestial Seduction read. I didn’t realize Tamara was a character in that story. I can relate to hair loss and the repercussions it can have on a woman. I don’t have Alopecia, but due to heredity, I have extremely thin hair to the point if I don’t style it right you can see my scalp. Not something that makes you feel very sexy. Fortunately, the hubby has fantastic ways of making me feel just that!
.....Speaking of sexy, your excerpt mentions some sexy lingerie. Do you have any hidden away in your own drawer??

JESSICA: Hidden? With kids, I have to keep a lot of things hidden. LOL And my husband knows what those “things” are. ;)

LAURA: LOL I’m sure he does.
.....Okay, so speaking of kids and hubby, we saw in your bio that you’ve got two children as well as a wonderful husband…plus a writing career. That must keep you busy! Everyone needs a break now and then to recharge. How do you relax?

JESSICA: It does! But I like to read, and when I get the chance, go hiking at various waterfalls. Although, some days, just getting out of the house by myself is relaxing.

LAURA: I love waterfalls. One goal for 2012 was to do more hikes with the family…now that the littlest one is out of the stroller, he’s leaving us all in the dust! Maybe I need to get one of those retractable leashes so I can real him back before he leaps off the top of the falls. And he’d do it, too! LOL Little guy is fearless!

DEBBIE: Hmmm…I think I need a virtual retractable leash for you. 

LAURA: We tried that, remember? Didn’t work. Burned the gears out. I think you gave up and mumbled something about decaf….which will never happen. NEVER!

DEBBIE: Can you hear her stomping her feet and shaking her fist skyward. I think she’s channelling Scarlet.
.....So, Jessica, last question, and yes it’s a random one. Filled chocolates, coconut cream or cherry?

JESSICA: Cherries covered in delicious milk chocolate are yummy, but my mouth waters when I think of mint smoothies. They have to be my favorite chocolate.

LAURA: Mmm…choooclate. Ooo, and coffeeee!

Debbie: See what I mean?? Rope it in, Laura.

LAURA: Yes, ma’am! So, we have a cover for Jessica’s release, right? A blurb and excerpt? And a buy link for our lovely readers?

DEBBIE: Of course. My feet are the one planted firmly on terra firma, remember?

LAURA: Hey…you have your moments, too, chickie. All I need to do is get you hooked on caffeine and launched off to explore new worlds and all will be right with the universe!
.....Jessica, it’s been a total pleasure to have you here at the G&G Cyber Den. Your stories rock! And the cover for Beneath the Starry Sky is just gorgeous! I hope that you’ll come visit us again with your next release!

DEBBIE: Hahahaha, coffee? Not likely. Never did develop a taste for the stuff, but there may be other vises you could try to corrupt me with.
.....Jessica, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us. Don’t forget to check out all the pretty lights while you’re here and please visit with us again anytime.

JESSICA: Thanks again, Debbie and Laura for having me today at the cyber den. :) I'd like to offer an ebook copy of Beneath the Starry Sky. Winner will be chosen at random from those who leave a comment on this post.



BUY LINK

BLURB:
Left at the altar with bald patches on her head and her self-confidence stripped away, Tamara Johnson must pick up the pieces of her life and face her Alopecia Areata, the autoimmune disease causing her hair to fall out. She is convinced no man will date a bald woman and arranges a one-night stand through Madame Evangeline’s popular service, 1Night Stand. With her new wig held firmly in place, Tamara arrives at the Castillo Hotel in Las Vegas for a night of passion and pleasure. Anything more than one night would mean exposing her bald head, and she will never do that to any man again.
.....Running into the Castillo Hotel, away from the paparazzi constantly at his heels, Josh Summers wants to spend his next few days locked away from the flashing lights and screaming fans. When he finds an incredibly sexy woman wearing nothing but lingerie lying on his hotel room bed, he thinks the hotel has made a mistake. Leaving the woman, he heads for the lobby to get the situation rectified. But an unexpected text from Madame Evangeline sends him back to his room, though unsure whether the woman on the bed is really his perfect match or just another fan believing him to be like his character on television. To find out, he must risk telling her his own secrets. If Tamara can handle his imperfections, she just might be his ideal woman.

Genre: Contemporary romance, erotic romance
Heat level: 4
Word count – 11k


EXCERPT:
.....Entering the large suite, she searched for any sign of her date. Madame Evangeline hadn’t given her any details, only that she would meet him at the hotel. Her stomach had been twisted in knots all day thinking of the possibilities. She found no one else in the room, but a welcome card sat on the king-size bed beside a box of chocolates.

Dear Tamara,

Your date for the evening will arrive soon. Please make yourself comfortable while you wait. A word of advice; don’t be afraid to show him the real you.

Enjoy your evening,
Madame Evangeline

.....She threw the note back on the bed. The real me? She didn’t even know who that was anymore.
Didn’t matter. The date would only last one night. Sure, Leah had found Jackson, but Tamara hadn’t come on the date looking for love. She only wanted a night of passion, a night to prove she could date again, even hidden under her wig. Love meant taking the wig off and she would never expose her bald head to a man again. If that meant a life of one-night stands, so be it.
.....She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the red lace teddy she’d bought the day before. If there’s one way to get a man to fuck me, it’s with sexy lingerie.
.....After changing into the form-fitting outfit, she waited on the bed, trying to figure out the sexiest pose to be in when her date arrived. What says ‘take me now’?

Guest Author Heaven Leigh Eldeen

Good moring, all. Today we are in our cyber-den, cozied up to the fireplace, chatting with Author Heaven Leigh Eldeen. Thank you for joining us.

Debbie: Welcome to Garland and Gould! Today Laura and I would like to welcome author, Heaven Liegh Eldeen, to our blog.

Laura: Oh, yes! Welcome, Heaven Liegh! We’re so excited to have you here. (To Debbie) So cool! She’s our first author interview!

Debbie: Ohhh, our FIRST, mwahahahahaha!

Laura: Okay, don’t scare her off. Though, I doubt you could really. Heaven Liegh has just released a young adult story called The Demon Side. It’s a paranormal/fantasy romance, rich with wonderfully drawn characters and a riveting plot.

Debbie: Yes, she said it was a series and she’s already working on the next story. So, we have a few questions for Heaven. First one is about your inspiration for The Demon Side? I used to spend a few weeks every summer with my grandparents. When I was five or six, I can remember vividly the witch that used to stare at me at night through the laundry room door. It was attached to the bedroom I used, and she looked just like the evil witch in the Wizard of Oz. She used to laugh and me and sneak up to my bed, lol. She WAS real. Did you have a witch or demon that inspired The Demon Side?
Heaven: My husband loves horror flicks. I absolutely hate watching scary movies. I do okay with the slasher films such as Friday the 13th and Halloween. However, movies that deal with the unseen, ghosts, and entities, flip me out! It doesn’t matter that I know the movies are completely fake and improbable. I can’t help but run through my house, turning on every light, screaming for my husband to hold my hand while I relieved my bladder during a commercial break. Of course, the jokester my husband is, never resisted cracking a few jokes about what a pansy I am or attempts to scare the poo out of me on our way back to our recliners.
AAATired of pranks and jokes, I built a self-defense mechanism in my head. I keep my eyes on the television but send my brain into La-La Land. Well, they have scary monsters in La-La Land too. Lucky for me, I set the rules for that amusement park.
AAAShort story longer, one evening I snuggle into my hubby as he turns on what is not just a scary movie, but the worse kind of scary movie, one about demons and ghosts attacking you in your sleep. How do you defend against that? You can’t. So, my defenses raise and off goes my brain to stand in line at the tea cups, when suddenly a Demon stands in line behind him.
AAABeing the cordial little guy my ball of pink spaghetti happens to be, he strikes up a conversation with the mortifying beast. Next thing I know, Rahovart, Etta, John, Alastor, The Arches and Rene are at the snack bar, stuffing their faces with nachos, sucking down lemonade and trading stories back and forth while I sit in the background typing every word that passes between them.

Laura: Oh wow! Man, your brain is cordial! LOL Guess I’m kinda close to that…like so many kids, my monster lived under my bed. But I didn’t hide under the covers. Nope, I forced myself to lean over the edge and stare that beast in the eye! Course, there wasn’t anything there except a bunch of toys and clothes that I’d stuffed under there instead of cleaning my room properly. Yeah, mom wasn’t a happy camper… Sooo, we’ve gotten a peek at your psyche, tell us how this all translated into putting pen to paper (or tapping the keyboard). What exactly got you started writing?
Heaven: My writing career began with a rivalry between my sister-in-law Echo and myself. For years we would go fist to cuffs until finally we took a survey of the collateral damages our feuds caused. In an effort to put an end to the squabbling, she gave me a vampire book for my birthday. It was far from the genre I enjoyed reading, but I had to give it a chance, in an effort for peace. A few months and fifteen vampire books later, I expressed to her I wanted something new. She responded with a snippy “Oh, you think you can do better?” Her reply was intended to be a shot at me but I took it as a challenge. Four months later, my first novel was complete and the love for writing had made its home deep within me.

Debbie: I love it! So, did Echo have to concede the point to you?
Heaven:Yes she did. Echo is now one of my largest fans and promoter. It is a sweet victory for me. Hehe.

Laura: Love the title: The Demon Side. Just brings all kinds of images to mind. But after you read the vampire story from your sis-in-law and you decided to take her 'challenge', did you know the story would turn out to be young adult?
Heaven: When I begin a story I don't think about what category or genre it fits into. My fingers just type what my gut and soul tell them to type. Finding where it fits I leave up to my publisher Decadent Publishing.

Debbie: Great idea!!
Laura: Yeah, that takes the pressure of having to write your story a certain way. You’re free to just let the words flow and then find the niche. Nice!
Debbie: Are you working on anything new?
Heaven: If you ask my husband, I’m working on way too many projects. He can’t understand how I keep them all straight. I am currently working on six other novels, including the second book in The Demon Side trilogy. In book two, The Human Side, we find our main characters, Ra, Etta, John and Rene, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, while dealing with new happenings. Once again, good versus evil will collide around Etta, but our hero may just surprise you.

Laura: Oh, another great title! I started out reading King and Koontz then I slipped over into romance. Are you a horror fan? It’s been awhile since I’ve read something really chilling. Do you have any recommendations?
Heaven: Yes and no! I love reading horror. Watching it not so much. Hands down my favorite authors are Dan Dillard and William Castle! Man can they spin a frightening tale.
Laura: Dillard and Castle. Got it! Gonna go check them out right after this interview.

Debbie: Wow! That’s a lot of projects rattling around in one head, lol! So, how do you keep all your projects straight?
Heaven: Most people I talk to think I am joking when I say my characters are voices in my brought to life with a stroke of the key. I'm not joking when I say this. Each character I create is like a friend I have had since elementary school. I know their life and their stories as if I have lived it with them. And in some cases I have. Plus, it helps having the knack for being able to keep gossip on everyone straight. I seem to be the one all my friends vent off to. I have to be able to tell them all apart 'cause if friend A calls and I confuse her with friend B, there could be some serious repercussions. So, I use my mad bestest friend skills with my works in progress as well.

Laura: LOL Girl, you got it going on. Me? Coffee and a notepad.
Debbie: Uh huh, like the five cups of coffee you had this morning? I wouldn’t want to read the notepad after all that.
Laura: LOL Yeah, I’m still trying to decode the scribbles. Don’t we have a blurb and excerpt around here? I’d like to the book cover, too—especially with a title like The Demon Side! That cover’s got to rock!
Debbie: Oh yes, cover, blurb, buy link…even an excerpt. We got it all!
Laura: Heaven Liegh, thank you so much for letting us interview you and sharing your latest release with us.
Debbie: Yes! And thank you for being our first. It wasn’t THAT bad was it???


BUY LINK

Blurb
Every kid has problems. Every kid has even more problems when they move to a new home. But when a kid with problems moves to a new home that has a Demon living inside it—look out!

Etta’s world is about to spin out of control when she encounters her new roommate—and Rahovart, that ancient trickster, is in for a few surprises too. So don’t mind all the crashing and rumbling; that’s just the normal noise Angels and Demons make when they’re fighting an epic war in the attic.

One thing’s for sure: Etta and Rahovart will have to go through Hell to Heaven and back again before that old Victorian home in Quantico Town finally quiets down…

Excerpt:
AEtta plopped back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling for a few moments. I wished I could hear her thoughts. Her father had just admitted to being a murderer for all practical purposes, though that was not how I viewed him. I truly believed John only tried to save the village, but his fervor and some help from a desperate Alastor, turned what should have been a heroic act into a bloodbath. Many men have unknowingly fallen from grace in the name of the greater good. Now, hopefully Etta would see that her father was just the victim of blurred lines between good and evil.
A“What are you thinking?” I asked as I lay down next to her on the bed.
A“Can a person still go to Heaven even if they’ve killed someone?”
A“Well, I’m not in the business of getting people to Heaven, Etta. That’s the last place I want them to go,” I reluctantly replied.
A“Even if it were me?” Etta stared hard at me with watery eyes, looking right into my blackened soul. I never gave much thought to where her soul would go, except to stop her from mistakenly giving it to me.
A“That is a choice for you to make. I can’t force you to choose a side. I can only put the temptations in front of you.”
A“You didn’t answer my question.”
A“What do you want me to say? I want to see you burn in the depths of Hell? You’ll never hear that from me. Only you and your actions can decide where you go when you leave this world.”
A“I would go if it meant I could be with you, you know.”
A“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” As much as I would have loved for that to be the case, her comment angered me. I couldn’t imagine a person like her becoming something like me.
A“I know that when you’re around I feel safe nothing could ever hurt me. I get butterflies in my stomach when you touch me. I know your soul, Ra. I don’t know how, but I know. I knew it the second I saw you. You weren’t meant for this existence. You fought for good once, and I’m certain you will again.” Etta was strong in words. She spoke with solid confidence. She described what I felt.