Author: Tanya Korval
Genre: Erotica/BDSM
Publisher: Connell & Parker
Release Date: Feb 25 2013
UN translator Lucy Snow sneaks into an embassy party...and meets Prince Jagor, heir to the throne of Asteria. He's mysterious, charming and supremely powerful, and the chance encounter turns into a steamy kiss in one of the embassy bedrooms.
Their initial tryst isn't enough for the Prince: he offers her a job as his personal aide. Not only is she now conducting a secret romance under the watchful eyes of his retinue: Lucy is only too aware that in the wealthy European kingdom of Asteria, women are ‘owned’ by their lovers.
As the couple battle to keep their love a secret, Jagor shows Lucy a submissive side to herself that leaves her breathless: but is she ready to accept the Prince’s collar and the life in Asteria that comes with it? When their relationship becomes public, can she survive the glare of the spotlight? And, as political unrest in Asteria threatens the entire royal family, exactly how far will she go for love?
This erotic romance includes explicit scenes.
Tanya
Korval
Where
were you born and where do you call home?
London
and London, although I’ve also lived in New York.
What
or who inspired you to write? And how
long have you been writing?
My
mother, who used to write but, despite much encouragement, never dared to
approach a publisher. I’ve been writing
for about ten years, but only started to write ‘for release’ – as in, things
that would be seen beyond a tight-knit group – last year.
When
did you first consider yourself a writer?
When
my first book came out: before then I was just someone noodling with words.
What
is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 30 or less
words, what would you say?
Asteria: In Love with the Prince. I would say: ‘Shy UN languages whiz is swept
into secret love affair with the fabulously wealthy prince of a country where women
are owned as slaves.’
I
love reading the warnings on the blurbs for many books. If you could write a
warning label for yourself as a person or an author, what would it say?
Warning:
this life contains scenes of debauchery that may lead to next-morning regrets,
strange British mannerisms including the use of ‘crikey’, fatalism due to
Russian heritage and sometimes baseless optimism due to British upbringing.
If
you gave some of your characters an opportunity to speak for themselves, what
would they say?
Medenko,
butler to the prince and his father before him, would say that this entire
interview is an outrageous breach of protocol.
The
king, who is (wrongly) proud of the English he’s managed to pick up and would
ask if ‘You enjoy writing your reading under the bed blog?’
Doracella,
who has lived in Asteria all her life and becomes the heroine’s maid, would ask
why you Americans find it so hard to stand up correctly – look, like this – and then make you practice
standing up and sitting down without using your hands. Again.
The
queen, doesn’t speak English for anyone but would give you an icily polite
smile.
Jagor,
the hero, has eyes only for the heroine: but Asterian men have a way of looking
at you that may well make you go mushy regardless.
And
Lucy, the heroine? That would depend
whether she was greeting you as the prince’s aide, his lover, his princess or
his slave.
Which
character speaks the loudest, to you? Do any of them clamor to be heard over
the others?
The
easiest to write are the minor characters: Gwen (Lucy’s best friend) and the
queen (the mother-in-law from hell). I
love writing them. I could easily fill a
book with those two if I didn’t keep them under strict control.
Do
your characters try to make like bunnies and create ever more convoluted plots
for you? Or do you have to coax them out of your characters?
They
do, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Jagor often reacts in ways that make me throw out my carefully planned
plot and rework it: I’ll build up to something and then have to redo it in a
more subtle, more complex way because the planned way isn’t true to his
character. Lucy’s the same and when the
two are in the same room the scene can easily go in a completely different –
but better – direction to the one I had planned.
Have
you based any of your characters on someone you know, or real events in your
own life?
One
of the advantages I have in being a Brit is that we really do have a royal
family – and there are several others in various European countries that our
media keep a close eye on. Some of the
events in Asteria are based not so much on actual royals, but more on – for
example – how the media interact with them.
Do
you have a specific writing style?
I’d
like to think I’m realistic without being overly gritty and escapist without
being unrealistic: is that a style? Yes a Unique Style
How
did you come up with the title?
The
book is the full-length novel version of the four part series I’ve written over
the last year: The Prince of Asteria, The Palace of Asteria, The Princess of
Asteria and The Fall of Asteria.
Summarising all of that in one novel title was quite hard! In the end I chose ‘Asteria: In Love with the Prince’ because, in the end, it’s a
love story.
Is
there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
That
you should never not do something just because of what people might think, and
that you can surprise yourself with what you can become if you give yourself a
chance.
Do
you have plans for a new book? Is this
book part of a series?
The
novel includes all four parts of the series, and this is a complete series – not
an ongoing one - so no cliff-hanger ending!
Everything’s tied up at the end.
I may do more Asteria books in the future, but they will tell other
stories with new characters.
Who
designed the cover of your book?
I
did. The photo of Jagor and Lucy is by a
fantastic photographer known as Kiuikson.
Where
do you see yourself in five (5) years?
I
want to be doing exactly what I’m doing now, hopefully reaching more readers.
If
you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I
think I’d live right here in London, actually.
Although maybe somewhere where the roof doesn’t leak.
Do
you prefer ebooks, paperbacks or hardcover?
I was
a paperback hold-out for a long time: I had this thing about wanting to own something physical. Then everyone started commenting on how much
my posture had improved, and it was because I’d bought my first Kindle as a
tentative experiment and I suddenly wasn’t having to haul six or seven books
around with me everywhere I go. So now,
it’s ebooks all the way. I quite like
having paperbacks of particularly loved books, though.
What can we expect from you in the future? ie More books of the
same genre? Books of a different genre?
My first book (My Secret Life) is a little hard to categorize: it’s somewhere between
erotica and erotic romance: it has much more plot than you’d expect from
erotica and it’s character led. But
although there is a romance, it isn’t the main thread of the story, so I don’t
like to call it a romance in case people are disappointed. It’s more ‘one woman’s journey’, if that
doesn’t sound horribly arty.
I’ve also done a fantasy erotic romance (The Elf Princess’s Lover) which is pretty much a classic ‘love across class
boundaries’ romance but set in a Tolkein-esque world of elves and humans. I’ve done a contemporary romance (Music) and the Asteria series which is also contemporary. So I think I’ve settled into contemporary
erotic romance and that’s probably what I’ll keep doing, but a sequel to The Elf Princess’s Lover is a possibility if people demand it.
How do you market/promote your
books?
I’m a Brit, so self promotion
isn’t something that comes easily to me.
When I started out I had no idea at all – really! But one of the great things about the indie
scene is that people help each other: we all work together and offer advice: it
doesn’t matter if you’re writing vampire romances or a non-fiction how-to-do-it
on sailing or a zombie thriller. So
thanks to some very nice people I’ve learned – slowly – and can now blog and
tweet and get to know my fans on sites like Goodreads. It’s also through working as a team that we
can do things like the
Insatiable Reads Book Tour, which I’m currently on. It’s like a slightly unruly bus loaded up
with authors: I’m the token Brit on the back seat with a flask of tea.
What do you think makes a book a
really good/bestseller ?
I think if we knew that, we’d all
only ever write bestsellers. I keep it
simple and just try to write the best books I can.
Have you ever suffered from a
"writer's block"? What did you do to get past the "block"?
I have done in the past: now I
seem to manage to avoid it. I think my
top trick is that I try to never end a writing session stuck or at a tough
part. I only stop when it’s going well
and I know what’s going to happen next.
That way, instead of dreading coming back the next day I’m itching to
get going again.
What
was your favorite chapter (or part) to
write and why?
The
four parts are quite different. The
first one was fun because, as the kick-off, it was quite a fast,
straightforward, erotic romance. The
second one was all about secrecy – the hero and heroine are in love but they
have to hide it from the rest of the prince’s retinue and from the press – it
was all stolen moments behind unlocked doors, which was fun. The third one I think of as ‘The Princess
Diaries for grown ups’ – it’s basically the heroine making the transition to
being a princess, with both all of the glamour and all of the headaches that
entails. The fourth one ups the drama
and is full of life and death, political upheaval and knuckle-biting moments:
it was fun to write action and suspense mixed in with the romance. Overall, though, I think my favourite part is
when Lucy meets the queen for the second time.
Imagine meeting your mother-in-law-to-be, who’s the queen of a foreign
country, in her own palace, having previously lied to her about your
relationship with her son. I had a lot
of fun with that one.
What
has been the toughest criticism you’ve been given as an author? What has been the best complement?
Criticism:
that a 30,000 word romance was too short.
That bothers me because I don’t want anyone to feel disappointed or let
down. It’s one reason I wanted to do
Asteria as a full-length book.
Complement: after writing Music, a fan said that she thought I was
actually a musician, because all of the little asides about life as a musician
were spot-on. That’s not really credit
to me, though; it’s credit to Dominic, an awesome real-life musician who acted
as my go-to expert for that book.
What do you do to unwind and
relax?
I’m lucky because I open my front
door and I’m in London so there’s never a shortage of things to do (although
it’s a crushingly expensive city to live in).
But the main thing I do to unwind is – sorry this isn’t crazier – cook. I don’t have much time when I’m writing, but
when I finish a book I cook something special.
I do also have wild parties in vodka bars, though: honest! When Can I Come Visit LOL WE Need Vodka Bars :)
Have
you ever read a book more than once?
Oh
gosh yes – I like to be surrounded by my favourite books and pluck one off the
shelf just to re-read a certain passage.
Nothing wrong with that. I often
do that while the PC is booting up.
What
book are you currently reading and in what format (ebook/paperback/hardcover)?
Are
there any new Authors that have seized your interest and why?
Aimélie Aames. I happened across Her
Billionaire, Her Wolf, which as you may guess is a paranormal erotic
romance. I was just blown away by the
writing. I need to go and read her whole
backlist. Sounds Like I need to check her out as well
Is
there anything you would change in your last book and why?
No,
but only because one of the nice things about turning the four parts into one
novel is that I’ve been able to go back and tweak anything I wasn’t happy
with. Right now this is ‘The Director’s
Cut’: ask me again in a few months, of course, and I’ll be unhappy with it
again.
Do
you have any advice for other writers?
Write
– see the next question.
What
is the best advice that you have ever been given when it comes to writing?
Write. You can easily spend 50% of your writing time
reading about how to write and the other 50% on marketing. Both of those are very important: of course
you should always be improving your writing and your books won’t sell without
marketing of some form. But ultimately
writing is what will help you most: everything else should be secondary.
Just
For Fun
What
are your pet peeves?
I
don’t think I have many, really. I’m a
very chilled-out person. Automated customer
support helplines get my goat, though.
Cats
or dogs?
Both.
White
Wine or Red?
Red
in the evening, white in the day. Er...does
that sound bad?
Coffee
orTea?
Coffee
mid-morning or mid-afternoon to perk me up.
Tea first thing in the morning and at all other times.
Favorite
Food?
Mexican.
Vanilla
or Chocolate Ice Cream?
Vanilla. Given some of what happens in Asteria,
there’s a joke in there somewhere.
What
are 4 things you never leave home without?
Laptop,
lipstick, cash, phone. It’s amazing what
you can get done with those four.
Laptop
or Desktop for Writing? Or Old School Pen and Paper?
Desktop
for long sessions when I’m up against it.
Laptop in a park in the summer when possible (but this is Britain:
writing outdoors is practical for about three days a year).
Where
and when do you prefer to do your writing?
Mornings
out of preference, and cosied up in front of the fire.
One
of your favorite quotes -
I’m
afraid this is going to sound completely inappropriate, but: ‘They who can give
up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither
liberty nor safety.’ – Benjamin Franklin.
List
3 of your all time favorite books?
Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo – the whole series I enjoyed this series as well.
Anything
by Mill Millington, Matt Beaumont or Chuck Palahniuk
List
3 of your all time favorite movies?
Lord
of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring
Chung
King Express
Pride
and Prejudice
An
actor you have a crush on –
I
should throw in someone new and exciting you’ve never heard of, who you have to
go and Google now, just to be cool. But
I’m going to be honest and say Goran Visnjic.
What
is a movie or TV show that you watched recently and really enjoyed?
Leverage, which has sadly just been canned: it was
a great five seasons, though, and if you like con artists and great
storytelling you should check it out.
Tanya
Korval is a British author living in London who was coaxed into writing erotic
romance after her boyfriend of the time shared some steamy letters she’d
written (he was not forgiven for some time).
She has also lived in New York, and prefers New York sandwiches and
coffee but London tea and muffins.
Tanya Korval is currently on virtual tour with 15
other awesome romance authors as part of the Insatiable
Reads Book Tour. From March 4-31st, readers will be invited to
enter for a chance to win a Kindle, free books, and other fun goodies. Readers
will also be able to participate in author chats, get insights into writing and
publishing romance, and collect story swag.
Places to find Tanya
Other Works by Tanya
Places to find Insatiable Reads
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