Interview with Laura Tolomei, conducted by Sassy Brit
Having been lucky enough to read many of your other books, I am beginning to recognize a dark streak in your fantasy work. Are you conscious of this?
I am and to tell you the truth, it surprised me
quite a bit. In fact, and please don’t laugh or think I’m exaggerating, I’ve
always steered clear of horror movies or books to the point I practically never
saw or read one, unless you want to count the movie of the Nautilus disaster as
one. For those who don’t remember, it’s about a fancy cruise ship like the
Titanic, which suffers the same fate, only people get trapped inside and just a
small group tries to reach the surface so they won0t drown. It’s one of those
classic movies where a few set off, but only one or two make it, the others
dying along the way, and it scared me so much—I was seven or eight at the time—I
had to sleep in my parents bed for a week…if you could call it sleep. Every
time I closed my eyes, the image of the protagonist, of which I don’t remember
the actors name, sealing a place still full of people who refused to follow
him, choosing certain death over possible safety, terrorized me to the point I
lay awake the rest of the night. And the thing was I imagined it all happened
to me, so from then on, I accurately avoided the horror genre all together.
Then I started writing and the prospective
changed entirely. Those same things that had scared me to death if I watched or
read them suddenly became sensually exciting as if they had lost their power to
hurt me simply because I created them. The creation process set the needed
distance between my feelings and writing about them, and my previous
sensitivity became an advantage in portraying horrible things in all their dark
and creepy details, bringing them to life in a way I never thought possible
before. So yes, I’m conscious of this dark streak running through my writing
and I’m beginning to feel comfortable about it now, after several books I’ve
written, and I think readers are starting to like it, too, especially the ones
looking for strong sensations.
Which
authors do you most admire and aspire to?
Oh, there are a whole list of them, so here
they are: Philip K. Dick, JRR Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Joyce Carol
Oates, Margaret Mitchell, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Jane Austin, Robert
J. Sawyer, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Lindsey Davis, Ellis Peters, Arthur
Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Evelyn Waugh, Somerset Maugham, Ellery
Queen, Katherine Kerr, Emilio Salgari, Umberto Eco, Elsa Morante, Alexandre
Dumas, Fiedor Dostoievski, Lev Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Oblomov, Victor Hugo, Charles
Dickens, Thomas Mann, Eric Maria Remarque, PD James, Marguerite Yourcenair,
Simone De Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Miguel De Unamuno, Albert Camus, VC
Andrews, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Albert Camus, Luther Blisset, Wu Ming, and
many, many more.
I
know you have a full time job, so how do you manage to find the time to not
only write your stories but promote them, too? Are you strict with yourself to
get the work out? Do you have any ways to make sure you write something every
day?
Wow, this is some question, no more than one
actually. Okay, I’ll go in order. How do I manage with a full time job you want
to know? Well, my working contract is based on a 36 hours/week schedule, which
means two days a week I work until roughly 6 PM, the other three only until 3
PM. As you can see, this leaves me plenty of time to look after my “second job”
as I sometimes like to call it, except when I’m travelling, which is why I also
have a great PR agent who fills in whenever I’m out or too tired to take care
of it. And yes, I’m pretty strict with myself, have to be if I want to get any
work done, so I try to write something every day, although it’s not always
possible, especially now that I’m just editing stories I’ve written a few years
back. But somehow, I’ve managed to stay on top of things so far and intend to
keep it up LOL
It
must take a lot of faith in your work to be able to write as many books as you
do. Do you love being a writer, or are there times where you doubt yourself?
Today I can safely say I never doubt myself,
can’t afford it since I’m living with a man who’s my greatest supporter and fan.
He likes to share my creative periods, always believing in my skills even when
I didn’t. And there were times, about twenty years ago when I wrote my first
book, I doubted I had it in me to become a real writer, someone with lots of
stories to tell, not just a recounting of my personal experiences. Then I came
up with Virtus and everything changed, not just because my husband said so, but
because I knew I could create stories. And I didn’t get discouraged either
after the many rejections to my Virtus submissions, especially since my man
kept telling me to have faith because it was an incredible work, so someone was
bound to notice it sooner or later. And he was right, someone did and here I am!
If
you could share one major writing tip, to help other writers in their quest for
publication, what would it be?
I usually tell beginners to be very patient
because publishers receive a lot of submissions and often don’t get through
them as thoroughly as they’d like, so it’s easy to miss a good work. But if the
book’s written in good English, it’ll have a better chances of being considered.
It may sound like a trivial tip, but often publishers discard a story simply
because it’s not written properly and would entail a lot of editing to make it
publishable. And POV issues are very important, too, though I myself learned
how to adjust that only after my second release. In any case, I always follow
two golden rules, provided by an ex colleague now friend of mine:
1. Never
fall in love with words
2. When
in doubt, cut
And following these simple advices, trust me,
your writing will improve so very much, like mine did.
What
is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Sometimes I get in a lazy mood and it’s hard to
get out of it.
What
is the trait you most deplore in others?
Deception! I really can’t stand people who lie
consistently, especially to themselves like it happens more and more often in
today’s world. Hypocrites, it’s what I think of such people, and I try to avoid
it in my heroes and heroines, who have a thousand defects, but never that of
lying about who they are.
If
you could write in any other genre what would it be, and why?
I’d love to write sci-fi, the serious sci-fi,
the one with the complicated technological and scientific knowledge that
explains how a futuristic world could work. It’s just too bad I don’t have the
necessary expertise to help create a credible story, so I keep away from the
genre, reading what I can and wishing I could've the skills to write one, too.
What
are you working on at the moment?
Right now I’m finishing up the edits on
Re-Scue, which is probably my most original concept to date, even if I already
used it in Divinitas somewhat. To be fair, Re-Scue came before Divinitas, only
it’s such an extreme, borderline story, it had trouble finding the right
editor. Now it’s housed with Romance Divine and it’ll be coming out first
months 2011. The originality is in the fact it’s not one book, but four where
the protagonist are the same two souls, only reincarnated in different bodies
every time. But if in Divinitas these souls had a purpose, and a strong
religious one at that, in Re-Scue there’s no high ambition except in their
pursuit of a bloody game of knife and bondage, which neither character can do
without no matter how many lives he undertakes. And their connection is so
strong they inevitably pull one another into the same life so that they get a
chance to play their game over and over. But of course, the game’s just an
excuse and the underlying feelings will bring them to tragedy every time unless
something changes soon.
Then I have to continue with my fantasy series,
the Virtus Saga. Already released the first three chapters—The Sex, The Game
and The Festival—I have the next two almost ready, The Leader and The Pledge,
so watch out for those beginning next year.
Where
can we find out more about you and your work?
Here are some of my links.
My Web
Website www.lallagatta.com
Amazon Author Page
Authors Island
Coffee Time Romance feature page
Goodreads Author Page http://www.goodreads.com/
TRR
Whiskey Torrid Publishing Author Page
Networking
MySpace
Facebook
Twitter http://twitter.com/LallaGatta
Goodreads Friendship requests
Linkedin
Gay Starta http://www.bebo.com/c/home/
The Blood Bank (Bitten by Books)
Erotic Romance Writers & Readers
And
finally, have you got a sneak peek excerpt from your current work in progress
you can share with me and my readers?
I do and since we started talking about my dark
streak, here’s something for that bloody taste we evidently all have without
being able to confess it too loudly, not even to ourselves:
However you lived your past, today you’re the
key to changing your future.
By Laura Tolomei
GENRE: GLBT, paranormal, dark fantasy, horror,
m/m, m/f/f
PUBLISHER: Romance Divine
BLURB
Only one rule: never fall in love. But the sex
and blood is fair game in a tantalizing chase through time and space as two
souls inevitably attracted go from one life to the next, hungering for their
fill of the savage game they’ve started so long ago now. But are they ready to
take the next step?
Unedited
EROTIC M/F
“Blood fascinates me.” Stretched out on the
bed, Tylean rolled on a side to look at Didri’s battered flesh next to him,
littered with many tiny scars, which he washed clean of the blood with tender
care, almost lovingly, applying a miraculous lotion of his own concoction that
in due time healed the superficial wounds perfectly.
Her life took a turn for the worst, though
Didri hardly noticed, too wrapped up in her fantasy world, a misty land where
everything seemed blurred. Only her body’s needs were clear, drowned as they
were in a ceaseless blood feasting that became increasingly dangerous.
Dissatisfied with superficial cuts, Tylean sliced deeper, taking his slow,
sweet time in carving her flesh with intricate patterns that left indelible
scars despite copious use of healing lotion afterward, until the balance
between pain and pleasure leaned heavily on the former.
Not that he consciously tried to hurt her for
most of the times, he appeared indifferent to her feelings, pulling back only
at the last moment, wanting to push her limits harder and faster beyond the
edge. Yet, it made for better sex, as he stated more than once, his cock
stiffening from the second the blade touched her skin up to his convulsive
release, usually in her ass, after having torn her to a red pulp.
She never complained however, complying with
all his whims, overwhelmed by the erotic vortex that made her senses spin out
of the mind’s control, which she did her best to ignore by shutting out
rationality all together unable to stop craving he take her—any piece of her would
do—for his own pleasure being her favorite agony until nothing made sense
except his powerful frame pounding hers incessantly. Accepting to be his slave,
the obedient servant to his cruel play was enough to feel as if he cared,
wanting to mistake his burning touch, whether with a cold metallic blade or
with a fiery possessive clutch made little difference, for something she knew
it was not. And away from him, nothing changed since Tylean was the only man,
the only person, the only thing she could think about, feeling his metal-gray
eyes following her wherever she went. Her heart, too, was caught in his game,
thumping violently—painfully was more accurate—every time he was near, quickly
moving to her cunt until the throb became unbearable.
But what absolutely astonished her was her
burning desire to be with him alone every breathing moment, asking for nothing
except his presence in her life, forever if necessary or until he struck a
vital part, whichever came first. So she lived on an intoxicating borderline of
sensations for weeks before she found the courage to call it with its right
name. And by then it was too late to do anything about it because she had
fallen in love.
Didri had not expected it, of course.
------------------------------
Oh and the excerpt has never been released before!Win a copy of Divinitas, a holiday novel, by leaving a comment here. Closes Jan 2nd, winner announced, Monday Jan 3rd 2011. Click here for more info about Divinitas. http://www.lallagatta.com/eng/_divinitas.html
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