Spotlight on Kate St. James

Happy Book Release Day to Kate St. James!

I’m talking about various authors and books this week, so thought I’d start off with my buddy, my pal, my lifelong friend, Kate St. James. (Okay, so I’ve only known her 1/4 of my life, but it doesn’t sound as good). (All right, 1/5th of my life). (Maybe 1/6th). (Seriously, a few years). (At least 5). (Since 2007).

Kate’s first single title erotic romance, A LITTLE WILD, comes out today from Samhain Publishing, where it’s available in various digital formats. It’s also available in Kindle and Nook.

Here’s the blurb:

She wants a piece of his rock. He needs her, rock steady, in his heart.

Tess Sheridan won’t let anything stop her from making partner at a prestigious law firm, especially her notoriously soft heart. The result? She’s a handful of clients away from getting her name on that brass plate. And she hasn’t had sex in over a year.

When her best friend dares her to test-drive her erotic fantasies with a gorgeous stranger, she figures, why not? Loosening the reins will give her inner nympho some well-deserved pampering without jeopardizing her career goals.

Zach Halliday has enjoyed his bad-boy reputation to the fullest, but now it’s time to leave the relative safety of the family corporation and prove he can stand on his own in the business world. That doesn’t mean he’ll pass up an opportunity for some incredible phone sex with the beautiful strawberry blonde he met in a bar.

When business overlaps with the bedroom, Zach sees something special in Tess and is determined to convince her he’s the man she needs, anytime, anyplace. She can backpedal, but come hell or high-climbing-wall, he wants the fascinating, complicated sex bomb in his bed. Over and over again…

As my regular blog readers know,  I used to host guest bloggers for the blog, until I got, well, lazy about it. And I used to interview authors every once in a while for my website until I got, well, lazy about it. So I thought I’d change things up a little and invite Kate over to the blog itself for a little interview.

Cindy: Hi, Kate. Welcome to my blog and thank you for being my first blog interviewee!

Kate: Where’s the chocolate?

Cindy: You’re welcome for hosting you. Congratulations on the release of A LITTLE WILD. This is your first single title and also your first release with Samhain Publishing. Where did you get the idea for the story?

Kate: Thanks, Cindy! Like most writers, ideas for stories and scenes basically pop into my mind, inspired by things I read and see and experience. I jot them down and when the time comes to write a new book, I’ll often combine several hastily scribbled elements to create one bigger idea. That’s basically how the idea for A LITTLE WILD came to be. For years I had a book opening in my mind that revolved around two women in a bar. Later, I wanted to do a book about a sex bet, so that bar scene seemed like a pretty good place to start. I also wanted to write about female friendships and show them as they really are, with all the warts and foibles. That’s how Tess Sheridan, my heroine, and her wisecracking best friend, Chloe Nichols, were born.

Cindy: How about the hero, Zach Halliday?

Kate: I needed a hero with a great sense of humor, and I wanted him to appear to be the opposite of Tess. However, inside, they’re really a lot the same. They’re both proficient at “wearing masks.” By that I mean following one path in life to make someone else happy or to match up with a preconceived idea of how their lives should unfold. In Tess’s case, she was raised to be an over-achiever, in a way to help create a “surface gloss” of a perfect family life when really her family has been in danger of falling apart for years and does fall apart, to an extent, during the story (however, there’s hope for rebuilding).

In Zach’s case, his mother died when he was fourteen, and so the natural inclincation was for him to band together with his brother and father, and to follow in his father’s footsteps in the business world when inside he wants to do something different, something that’s distinctly him. At the opening of the story, Zach has made the decision to leave his father’s company, but he hasn’t told his dad or brother yet.

Cindy: Tell us about the set-up.

Kate: The set-up for A LITTLE WILD was a lot of fun to write. I needed to get two very different people together, and I wanted to have fun with it. So when Tess and her friend Chloe are in the bar celebrating Tess’s career successes, Chloe dares Tess to prove that she can have sex like a man, without emotional commitment. Chloe doesn’t believe Tess can accomplish this goal if she has more than a one-night stand with the guy, so Chloe bets Tess that she has to survive a six-week sexual relationship without falling in love. Tess agrees to the deal thinking she can weasle out of it later. But then she meets Zach, one thing leads to another, and Tess and Zach wind up having phone sex without knowing who the other really is. A few days later, they meet in the law firm where Tess works and Tess discovers he’s the son of the law firm’s biggest client, to whom she’s been assigned. As such, Zach is off-limits and she backs off their very new relationship. He needs to get creative about wooing her, and he’s not shy about using his sexuality. The shocker for him is when he falls in love for the first time in his life.

Cindy: Sounds like a lot of fun! But there’s a secondary romance in A LITTLE WILD, too. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Kate: Yes, there’s a secondary romance between Chloe (Tess’s best friend) and Zach’s overworked older brother, Ethan. So there are four points of view in the book. While Tess is on a mission to have sex, Chloe is at the tail end of a six-month commiment NOT to have sex. For Chloe, having sex too early in a relationship screws it up. And her biological clock is ticking something fierce. She wants to make very sure that the next man she becomes involved with is The One, and she figures the only way to do that is to get to know him on a non-sexual level first.

However, Chloe’s also allergic to what she calls “suits”—business types. So when she meets Ethan Halliday and develops an instant connection with him, she tries to stay far, far away. Of course it doesn’t work. In the end, love prevails, for both Tess and Chloe. And for both the Halliday men.

Cindy: What else do you have on the go?

Kate: I started off writing humorous erotic romance novellas for Red Sage Publishing. My first three releases appeared in the Secrets novellas anthologies (Secrets 21, Secrets 26 and Secrets 28). Then, this October, my first erotica short story, Tea for Three, released from Ellora’s Cave Exotika Quickies. It’s a menage story also set in Vancouver, Canada, like A LITTLE WILD. I didn’t write A LITTLE WILD and Tea for Three at the same time. I just happened to sell them within several weeks of each other and so the release dates are only a few weeks apart. More information about Tea for Three can be found at Ellora’s Cave or on my website.

Cindy: Thank you, Kate! Best of luck with A LITTLE WILD and Tea for Three. Happy Release Day and Millions of Sales to you!

Kate: From your lips to readers’ ears. Thank you for having me on your blog!

Cindy: Thank you for agreeing to be here on such short notice.

Kate: Not a problem! Kisses!

Cindy: Smmmmmooooooooooooch!

Hugs all around.

***

Information about all of Kate’s books can be found on her website: www.katestjames.com. Like her Facebook page or follow her on Twitter. Now. Because I said so. And you are under my power (getting sleepy, very sleepy).

Okay, you can like my Facebook page, too. Or follow me on Twitter (very, very sleepy).

The best deal for Kate and me? Like and follow us both!