Jade Lee aka Kathy Lyons has been interviewed last year on Lazy Literature and has now graciously consented to another one. Perfect in time with her blog tour and her new book „Dream Nights with the CEO“. (Photo: Copyright Jade Lee)
Thanks for partaking in a second interview! I am very delighted to have you back again.
When we had our first interview in 2012, you had just started with the „Bridal Favors“-series. It is now well under way with the publishing of the third novel „What the Bride Wore“ in August 2013. What are your feelings, now that the end is near?
I’ve actually finished writing the 4th novella/novel set (out in Jan/Feb), so for me the bulk of this series is done. I’ve paired up all 4 ladies in the bridal salon, so everyone’s got a happy ending. But it turns out that Sourcebooks wants to keep the series alive, and I’m more than thrilled with that idea. After 4 novellas and four novels, I’ve got plenty of characters I want to explore, plenty of room for hot, sexy fun.
But for my readers, the middle is just about to begin. Winning a Bride comes out first in July. It’s an e-novella that introduces the Crowle brothers. Their story was really gripping for me and I hope people read both the novella and the novel. Ever since I started watching Supernatural, I’ve really enjoyed watching brothers interact. Hopefully everyone will love my two brothers as much as I do! Then the novel is What the Bride Wore coming in August.
The novels written under the pen name Kathy Lyons are very sexy and contemporaries instead of historicals. Was that the reason for your two names?
It started out ages back when I wrote Blaze books for Harlequin. I was recruited to bring multi-cultural stories to the line, so I wrote as Jade Lee. Sadly, the books never sold well, and my editor called saying, “Marketing thinks the Jade Lee name is tainted ethnic. So take a girl-next-door name and we’ll see how that goes.” I complained bitterly about having to take a new name, but it turns out Harlequin knew what it was talking about. I switched to Kathy Lyons for my fun, hot contemporaries, and my sales took off.
„Dream Nights with the CEO“ is out now. What can the reader expect from that?
FUNNY and SEXY. Okay, so I always write hot. About 25 books ago, I studied and practiced and learned how to write sexy, and I think I got pretty good at it. So all my books – Jade and Kathy—are very hot. I never expected Dream Nights with the CEO to end up so funny. Seriously, I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever written. The hero has a comic book obsession, so the dream sequences took on a super-hero feel. It fit because he’s trying to hide his attraction to his assistant (very unprofessional!) So in the dream sequences, he’s trying to hide his identity while the heroine is trying to unmask him. OMG, almost every sequence had some real giggle moments.
How did you come up with the dream aspect of the book which is very interesting?
Um, well…hmmm. ::cough cough:: Fine, I’ll tell you the truth. I travel a lot. As in A LOT. And one night I noticed that a really hot guy was in the room next door. Nothing happened. I’m happily married. But that didn’t stop me from thinking about possibilities. Next thing I know, I’ve got this idea about a B&B where strangers (or co-workers in this case) start sharing dreams. After all, you can’t control your dreams, right? All those secret fantasies come out! And bam, the idea of shared erotic dreams just blossomed in my twisted brain. All because there was a hot guy in the room next door.
Now you’re on a blog tour. I’m not sure if German readers know that concept. Could you tell us something about the „journey“ you’ve got to do?
This is my first blog tour too, so it’s a little new to me. Basically, Entangled Publishing has set up a huge number of blogs. I’ve pre-written posts for all of them (and let me tell you, that was a lot of work!). Now they’re going live one day after another, each post at a different blog. The tour lasts from May 27 – June 16. To see the full list of my blogs, you can check it out here.
The fun stuff for you all – other than getting to read all my random thoughts–is that every commenter is entered into a contest. One person at the end of the tour will win a bunch of my e-books plus some “dream” jewelry! So comment everyone! Maybe you’ll win!
What is the next project waiting to be worked on?
I’m writing the sequel to Dream Nights with the CEO. I had so much fun with that book that I couldn’t resist doing more! So Dream Nights with the Wrong Twin by Kathy Lyons is scheduled for October 14 release. It’s turning out to be fun in a different way. Have you ever seen While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock? One of my favorite movies of all time! Well, this book is going to be like that—a lonely heroine pulled into a goofy family–with the added bonus of twin confusion and sexy fun!
Some of your novels are published as ebooks. Many American authors chose that path and have skipped the traditional way of publishing. Do you prefer one to the other? And where do you see the advantages for authors?
A few years ago, I got the rights to 17 of my books back from Leisure Books when Dorchester Publishing closed its doors. At the time, I thought my career had hit a disaster, but I ended up digitizing all my backlist and putting them up through ebookdiscovery. They’ve done a marvelous job of publicizing my backlist, bringing new readers to books that weren’t noticed when they first came out in the 90s. I’m thrilled with what eBD is doing, but I have to say, I love working with Entangled Publishing and Sourcebooks, too. In general, my opinion is that I write. That’s what I do best. I very much prefer leaving the publishing and promoting aspects to someone else.
Thanks for being a guest on Lazy Literature again. 🙂
Anytime! I love you gals!
