Danita Minnis

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A P von K’Ory will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Author Interview: A P Von K’Ory

1. How did you choose your genre? What made you write this book?

Growing up with limited or no technology, I’ve loved reading romance ever since I was around four or five. I read those no-bedroom-scenes-beyond-the-kiss doctors and nurses love stories that were told in the women’s magazines my mother subscribed to. No Internet in those days, so no smartphone or tablet. Often, the reading would be clandestine. Such as in the bathroom or with a flashlight under the sheets after goodnight stories. By the time I hit puberty and was blissfully in boarding school in Yorkshire, Little Women was for the classroom while The Perfumed Garden was back in the clandestine department, shared with besties and besties’ besties  (how else to giggle and enact raunchy scenes about the steamy bits, right?) Even Lady Chatterley’s Lover was a real naughty treat. Soon after that came the non-clandestine delicious swooning with Barbara Cartland’s heroines even though they were chased but remained chaste till the gold band was on their destined finger.

I began to write steamy romance because I wanted to write stories I yearned to read.  Something discerning and gender-positive. The romance that shed all the shackles society has used over the centuries to keep women down. Now that erotic had gone mainstream, I wanted my version or preference to also be out there. I abhorred the conditioning of girls to be the ones to kiss the frog to make him a prince, put up with the Beast when they were the Beauty, or prick their fingers into a one hundred-year-old-sleep until the prince comes to their rescue.

In modern days it’s the financial inequality, even when the women have the same job and qualifications as the men. Girls are still made to grow up believing they are less worthy than boys. In books, girls and women are trimmed to identify with “someone just like you” while the boys are encouraged to identify with James Bond and Superman – never someone just like them.

Boys and men are whipped up to aspire higher. This led me to writing love stories where the woman is Alpha, no damsel in distress, and financially and socially independent. The woman who gets invited to the Met Gala on their own rights, not as a decoration on a man’s arm. Of course the heroines still go for the Alpha male. That’s a given. It’s wired in every woman since time immemorial to seek the protector who’ll fight and fend off danger while she’s having and nurturing young ones. That’s nature, not nurture. Women zoom away from wimps.

But I find tremendous thrill is having the Alpha hero go through more than his abs, chiseled chin, money, and the power that comes with it, to fall for the woman who makes him feel edgy, ´and not totally in control. It’s a heck of a turn-on to see Master Alpha struggle to align himself to his strong, independent, Alpha woman’s standpoint. In the UNTAMEABLE series, Leo and Adrian’s story, I also made both protagonists totally, insanely flawed. They’re both each other’s combustible tinder for a monumental fireball. Or like fuel tank and a match. As Leo says: Adrian is a permanent damage control. And Adrian: To try to contain and control Leo is like trying to contain and control the fierce f*cking wind. I simply love the exhilaration of the mano-a-mano battle for control. Until the compromise point, by which time things are already exploding all over the place to hell and beyond.

2. Writers write what they know, and must observe the world. Are you a firstborn, middle or last child, and how does this shape your view of the world?

I’m a firstborn and grew up in a very conservative and opulent atmosphere, and I think this reflects in my writing. I grew up where kids were best seen but not heard until they were allowed to be heard. I got more hugs and kisses from the household personnel than from my parents. So I became a keen observer, and the one to set the good example to the others by virtue of being the oldest. This was why I was thrilled to finally be in boarding school in England, far away from home. I could go hog wild and behave as I pleased as long as I hurt no one and broke no major laws with my behavior. I could ask tough questions and say whatever I felt like saying whenever I felt like saying them. Best of all, I could let my fantasies roam all over the planet and jot them down. Even when I read stories, I made notes about the parts of the book that I’d have written differently if I were the author. No wonder my current world turned out as diverse as the colours of the rainbow.

3. Where is your favorite place to write?

At my desk. But I always have pens and notebooks scattered around the house in the bedroom, kitchen, and tucked away in my bag or the evening clutch. I’d rather ditch the compact or lipstick than carry a bag without my pen and small notebook in it. My best place and time to hit on ideas come when I take a walk in the woods – yes, I always have pen and notebook there too or mumble on my phone.

4. How do you feel about killing your darlings, and what do you do with the remains?

OMG, I’m the *worstest* ever when it comes to killing my darlings. I agonize about it, go through excruciating indecisiveness, and even have tantrums and suppress the tears while I tear my hair out. Even after taking numerous master class lessons I still moan and groan when I have to kill my darlings. What helps to alleviate the pain for me is following the six rules I learnt:

I find the redundancies and chop them off. I have the tendency to over-explain or overemphasize to within a breath of the morgue. This leads to overuse or repetitiveness. Convince yourself that your readers are smart enough to connect the dots and use the cutlery at dinner. Don’t force-feed them or indulge in long explanations that get them to roll their eyes and probably stop reading altogether. I suffer from info-dumping that I fight hard to keep in check. I also drop those extraneous titbits from a region’s seasonal rotation to the best table manners.

Mind your writing style. I know I easily slip into the cute phrases and purple prose in my effort to develop my distinct “voice” that set me apart from my fellow authors. Cut off all sentences and phrases that probably sound great but add nothing but baggage to your work.

Keep your eyes peeled for those unnecessary subplots and plot twists that distract the reader instead of adding any useful element to the story. Ask yourself whether your story needs that addition. What does it bring to it? If you find no good reason to keep it, chuck it out.

Run a magnifying glass over your characters. Are there two or more with similar personality traits or narrative functions? Combine them. Supporting or tertiary characters must have a clear purpose or point of view that advances your plot. They should flesh out certain aspects of your protagonist, not just lounge about as some background white noise or decoration.

One good trait that stops me agonizing and tearing my hair out before the kill is having a separate file where I “collect the corpses” in the hope of using them elsewhere. More often than not, I find an appropriate place to slot them in with perfection. Repurposing certain characters into new spinoffs or standalones. The killing can be very rewarding when your creative mind resurrects those darlings and breathe new life into them.

Bring in a fresh pair of eyes and different minds. This is where beta readers, writing networks, or fellow writers you network with are God’s gift. Find and collaborate with those outside eyes that you trust to give you honest feedback on which aspects of your writing is working and which aren’t. Then cut off the surplus to requirements.

5. You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them?

I have to think hard about this one because I have several favourite authors I love equally but differently, depending on the genre, and I’d love to ask each one of them a different burning question. On the other hand, if I could be introduced to Colleen Hoover, her answer to my special question to her might cover it all.

6. Inquiring minds want to know…tell readers something about you that no one knows.

There’s a reason why I’ve kept it secret. I don’t want the dear readers to be my first victims. That would be too devastating for all concerned.

7. You are stranded on a deserted island with only a backpack for company. What three items are in your survival pack?

My tablet, pen, and notebook as a single item (to save the battery for reading and sending out an SOS), and a large packet of condoms, just in case there’s a hunky caveman still burrowed somewhere all by his lonesome self…

8. If you could have one superpower in your existence, what would it be?

I would rid all humankind of the worst mortal sin that plagues them, in my judgement: avarice.

9. Favorite snack?

Roasted and salted macadamia nuts.

10. Indy 500 – Do you know how to get where you’re going or do you drive the speed limit?

Ooops, you caught me on the back foot there. I had to Google Indy 500 (yeah, Europeans are ignorant like that) and inform myself. Erm, I guess I’d first try to find an Indy native as co-pilot.

His Untameable Wickedness

by A P von K’Ory

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GENRE:   Dark Erotic Romance Suspense

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BLURB:

LEO

A three-letter word made me a murderess at the age of eight years. But having experienced the curses of that word, I was done with men as I grew up. All men. Except to outplay them in the New York financial arena.Then Crowned Sex enthroned in gorgeous velvet charm and lustful gallantry storms into my life. Spewing volcanic lava on my monumental arctic ice block. With the unapologetic fierceness of a savage god. Wearing crackling thunderbolts straight from the god Zeus. Explosive has nothing on it.

Adrian isn’t hot, he’s fucking hellish. He embarks on melting my ice block at the speed of lightning. But I was done with men. I was done with sex. For ever. I. Was.

ADRIANI scented her darkness from the moment I was told about her. The sight of her sealed my decision. She was the woman created for my own darkness. I set off to protect her even from herself. Protect her to claim.

Fuse her darkness with my own. For. Myself. I’d fended women off me with bazookas when I was done but they weren’t. I wasn’t prepared for the battle I soon fought. Not only with her but also with her family. And New York’s billionaire gangsters who own entourage of corrupt cops and politicians. With every battle I won, she started new darker wars around me. You ate or you were eaten. Not even starving was an option.



NOTE: Although the blurb is in the first person, the story of Leo and Adrian is written in the third person. This story contains adult material including explicit sex and violence. You’ve been warned.

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Excerpt:

“If you feel I should stop, say you’re mine.”

“I am, I am! Just don’t stop, Adrian.”

He stopped, chortling deep in his chest, eyeing her from under his brows as his head lifted with her jerky thrusts. Adrian’s molten lava eyes radiated something utterly demonic but captivating, hypnotizing. They now seemed to shoot her senses with the wickedness every single cell in her craved. Those eyes concentrated on her flawed body, her utterly broken soul, crushing the fierce pride she falsely nurtured for her protection.

He made her feel invincible. Armored, even against his demonic wickedness.

He licked behind her ear, whispered, “Stop being your worst enemy, wildcat, and simply receive and revel in pleasure. Your whole body’s made to receive it. From me.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

P von K’Ory writes the kind of books she herself would like to read and is passionate about, whether romance, psychological thriller, or nonfiction. She is the winner of six awards from four continents, the last one being the Achievers Award for Writer of the Year 2013 in the Netherlands. The Selmere Integration Prize was awarded her in 2014 for her engagement in helping African Women in the Diaspora cope with a variety of domestic and social problems. The Proposal, a short story, won the Cook Communications first prize in 2010 and is published in an American anthology Africa 2012. In 2012, she won the Karl Ziegler Prize for her commitment to bring African culture to Western society in various papers, theses, and lectures. Again in 2012, her book Bound to Tradition: The Dream was nominated for the 2012 Caine Prize by the Author-me Group, Sanford, and in 2013 she was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Von K’Ory is married to an aristocrat and politician of Franco-German descent and has a large extended family. She lectures Economics and Sociology in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. She’s migratory and – weather willing – lives in Germany, France, Cyprus, and Greece.

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