Midnight Brew presents Patrice Michelle

Born and raised in the Southeast, award-winning author Patrice Michelle gave up her financial calculator for a keyboard and never looked back. Thanks to an open-minded family who taught her that life isn't as black and white as we're conditioned to believe, she pens her paranormal romance novels with the belief that various shades of gray are a lot more interesting. She's a natural with a point-and-shoot camera, likes to fiddle with graphic design and, to the relief of her family, strums her guitar to an audience of one. The Café has the pleasure to receive one of the wonderful Silhouette Nocturne authors, Patrice Michelle! MMC: Welcome to the Midnight Moon Café, Patrice. When did you first become interested in writing paranormal romances? Patrice: I first became interested in writing paranormal romance when I couldn't explain why a ring I'd bought seemed to carry this perfumed scent despite of all the hand washings I'd done while wearing it. When I couldn't explain it, my mind started racing...what if I could write a story centering around a ring with a perfumed scent--that story ended up being a vampire story and my very first sale - Kendrians: A Taste for Passion. MMC: Since you're pubbed in multiple genres, do you approach writing a paranormal romance any differently than, say contemporary romance? Patrice: The biggest difference with paranormal romance is the world building, whereas with contemporary romance, the world around the characters already exists and is familiar to the readers. That means I spend a fair amount of pages, not only building the new world around the characters, but also creating the paranormal aspects of the characters themselves. MMC: How much time do you dedicate to research for your stories? Patrice: It really depends on how little (or much) I know about the subject I've decided to write about. For instance, with my Bad in Boots cowboy series, I did a fair amount of research in order to really understand the rodeo stock contractor's world and ranching in general. In my paranormal worlds, I'm making up my own rules and world characteristics, so the most important research aspect there is for me to be very consistent across several books when it comes to depicting my world accurately. Bits and pieces I research as I run across them, like procedural stuff for a police officer. Even though my world has vampires and werewolves in it, I still try to keep the "contemporary" aspects of the book as true to our world as I can. MMC: Let's talk a little about world-building in the Scions series. How did you come up with your backstory for it? And how does that setting affect your main characters? Patrice: The back story for the very first book was based on a vivid dream I had. From that book and the characters within it, others stories were developed. Some of my main characters are grounded in the contemporary world, whereas all of my heroes are set in a paranormal world. Each story in the Scions series merges these two worlds by bringing the characters together. All three books are intended to be read as a stand alone story, but there is a prophecy that flows through them, tying the three books intricately together. MMC: Tell us a little about the first book on the Scions series, Resurrection? Patrice: In the first book, Jachin Black is a vampire who has been cast out from his Sanguinas clan. He lives in the darkness among the humans, who's blood is poisonous to him. Jachin becomes an assassin to survive his exile. He survives because he believes in a prophesy told to his clan years ago of a human woman who will help the Sanguinas have a better way of life. When the heroine, Ariel Swanson writes a novel about vampires, Jachin believes she's the human to fulfill the prophesy. Only, Jachin's not the only one after Ariel. And so the adventure begins... :) MMC: What's your favorite aspect of the book? Patrice: My favorite aspect of the book was how it was inspired. I had a dream and bam, I just had to write it. Go figure that book would by my first NY sale. :) Seriously, though...my favorite aspect of that book was the darkness, the intensity of the characters along with the non-stop action scenes. I really enjoyed writing them. MMC: The second installment of the Scions series, Insurrection, just came out now in May from Silhouette Nocturne. Give us the scoop! Patrice: Scions: Insurrection takes up a few months after Scions: Resurrection left off. Insurrection is very much Landon Rourke's story. Landon is the sexy, tough werewolf you meet in Scions: Resurrection book one. Landon also has issues with his Lupreda wolf pack in that he lives apart from them, but at the beginning of the story he's asked by his pack members to use his relationship with Jachin to find out if the vampires had anything to do with three suddenly missing werewolves from the Lupreda pack. Not only does Landon have to try and keep peace between the wolf pack and the vampires, but his investigation puts him right in the path of Kaitlyn McKinney--the cop recently turned Detective who is investigating the case of some strange burned remains in a park. Those remains happen to be one of Landon's missing weres. Landon tries to steer Kaitlyn away from his dangerous world, because he's also connected to Kaitlyn via a past mistake he made and has regretted for eighteen years. The hard part is...Landon has fallen hard for Kaitie and the more he's around her the harder it is to keep his inner wolf from claiming the human woman as his. MMC: What challenges did you face in the process of writing Insurrection? Patrice: The biggest challenges in writing Insurrection was making sure that this second story stood alone, while not "info-dumping" on the readers. As an author we want to make sure we ground the reader, bringing them up to speed on what happened in book one, but doing so in such a way as to present the past information in a fresh, new way while sprinkling the details throughout the story. Also, each book builds more about the prophecy, so yet again, it's giving new information about the prophecy as it pertains to these characters. And all of this is done while writing a full-on, intricate, twisty plot and an entire love story in seventy-five thousand words. A challenge, you ask? Yes it is. LOL! But one I've learned a lot from. :) MMC: What attracts you about the paranormal characters you write about? Patrice: I love being able to make my paranormal characters larger than life, while grounding them in real world problems. MMC: Who is the sexiest hero in your books to date and why? Patrice: Hmmm, that's tough. Jachin is darkly sexy because of his intensity and his dedication to his beliefs and his clan, despite his own personal feelings for the heroine. Whereas Landon is admirable and all around drool-worthy because of his personal sacrifices for both his people and for the heroine, while his desire for her is so angsty and deep! So I guess I'd have to say BOTH because they heroes are very different but both appealing in their own ways. MMC: Let's say you've just landed a movie deal, and you get to pick the actor who'll play the hero from one of your books. Who would you pick and why? Patrice: Ooh, what a FUN question! Jachin Black could be played by Gerard Butler because Gerry can play a great vampire, both dangerous and as sexy as hell. Landon would be Hugh Jackman with light brown hair. As Wolverine, we know just how well-built and intensely dedicated Hugh can come across! MMC: What keeps you writing day after day? Patrice: Deadlines! LOL! No, it's true. But the reality is, I write everyday because it keeps my mind fresh and my writing flows more smoothly when I write everyday. Also, I give myself permission to just write, no matter how good or bad it is. WORDS can be edited. A blank page can't. :) MMC: Now for the fun questions. Which one is sexier, vampires or werewolves, and why? Patrice: Not fair! They're both sexy in their own way. Vampires are dangerous and there's something very sexual about their bite and need for blood, especially the heroine's But werewolves are seductively primal. Using all their senses, they can truly draw the heroine in...verra deep! MMC: Do you have any obsessions? Collections? Patrice: The only collection I can't seem to stop myself from doing is buying research books and reading books. Argh, my shelves are groaning at me to buy a Kindle! But I just love holding a print book in my hands. It's sad, but true. MMC: What's something that your readers may not know about you? Patrice: I don't listen to music while I write. I find music to be very inspiring and if I listened to it while I was trying to write, I'd end up thinking about the lyrics instead of writing. So I reserve music listening when I'm trying to relax or when I'm trying to free my mind for inspiration. MMC: Do you have a favorite food/beverage/music do you always have on hand while you're writing? Patrice: Yep, I guess I could've put this under my "obsession". Coffee. I can't help it, but I do lurve me some good lattes to get me going before I start writing. MMC: Do you have a newsletter, blog, or website where fans can read about you and your books? Patrice: My website is www.patricemichelle.net, where you can also sign up for my newsletter as well as my on-line Yahoo discussion group. I also have a MySpace site which can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/patrice_michelle ----------- Contest Time! Check out Ms. Michelle's latest Nocturne, SCIONS:INSURRECTION: Blurb: When Detective Kaitlyn McKinney responds to a call about a strange, burned body, she discovers something far more complicated—and dangerous. Landon Rourke is a werewolf, exiled from his pack and dedicated to keeping a protective watch over Kaitlyn. A prophecy has said that his kind and vampires would one day come to a truce. But that day has yet to come. Landon has his own past to deal with, too, involving Kaitie herself. A dark truth that has kept them apart for years. When Kaitlyn gets caught up in the battle between vampires and werewolves, the long-simmering attraction she shares with Landon ignites. And in that attraction they find the secret that will bring them together. Doesn't Landon sound simply delish? *winks* Well, now you can own him. Okay, not him, really, but the closest thing to satisfy you. A copy of SCIONS:INSURRECTION will be given away among those who leave comments. *wg* Feel free to post questions as Ms. Michelle will be dropping by to answer them. Heh! But remember this contest ends tomorrow at midday.