Hi Jayne, thank you so much for taking the time to chit chat with me. I know you are finishing up Devon’s Pair (Powertools series #4), which happens to be another book I’m drooling to get my hands on.
Naughty D’ – Tell us a little about yourself? Have you always wanted to be an author? And why pick Erotic romance?
Jayne – Thanks for having me Naughty D’! I love your site so it’s a pleasure to join you as your guest and I might need a break from Devon’s Pair before my blood pressure rockets out of control. It’s a naughty one, I hope it lives up to your expectations! So… as for me… I’m not that interesting! Just your regular average person by day. I have a daytime career in finance working for a Fortune 500 company. By night, I like to break out the creative side and write. A very long time ago I considered writing but never very seriously. More like I enjoyed assignments in school as far back as a freshman in highschool! I took a creative writing class and ended up writing two full novels. I remember them being written on regular lined paper by hand and locked in a three ring binder. One was a fantasy adventure, Lord of the Rings has always been one of my favorite books, and the other was a romantic suspense type book about a fictional woman who was the first female professional hockey player in a men’s league and her psycho ex-husband was stalking her. Well, I guess not so much has changed since then! As for erotic romance. Hmmm… I’m not sure how that happened except that I remember reading books and feeling like they weren’t complete. Sex is an integral part of the romance development between two people and so for me, it feels honest for that to be a focal point of my story about two (or six) people coming together. (Naughty D’ – hehehe two or six )
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Naughty D’ – You have several series out, is there one you enjoy writing more than the others?
Jayne – I love them all for different reasons. A lot of my books feature places I’ve traveled to so they are sort of like memory holders for me. Shifting Gears features a lot of personal insights I had while in China and the other Cougar Challenge book I wrote, Driven, is set in France and Italy, where I also traveled. Actually, I’ve been to every place I’ve written about. In fact, I think my Red Light Series featuring Star (a hooker in Amsterdam’s Red Light District) is probably my favorite to write. Again, because I’m able to share a lot of my personal cultural learning from my two trips there and also because writing first person allows me to explore deep into her character. I feel like I am putting on a Star suit when I write those books. I’m about to start the fourth book in the series as soon as I wrap up my current project! (Naughty D’ – DRIVEN was HOT, I just turned 40 this year so Cougar books are becoming more interesting to me)
Naughty D’ – You co-write the Compass Brothers series, with Mari Carr. What made you want to try to co-write a series, where you both work on the same book? What are challenges you face when collaborating with someone on the same book? What benefits are there to co-writing?
Jayne – That’s a good question. Mostly, I think my collaboration with Mari was an organic extension of our day to day interactions. We email/text/talk many times every day. We talk about our projects, debate plot points and character flaws or brainstorm ideas for future projects, titles, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. So it felt pretty natural to come to this conclusion. More specifically I remember Mari saying something about wanting to do another series and she said something like, instead of wild irish why not itallion stallions, which is how Mark and Sebastian refer to themselves in my Cougar Challenge books. So we were joking about how they might be long lost cousins of her Collins family or something utterly ridiculous. From there it evolved into a family story and kept moving and changing and becoming more series until the Compass Brothers were born. From there we just kept the momentum going. I think that’s the best benefit to writing with a partner. When one of us stalls the other is there with fresh ideas and perspective. With both of us together, I feel like we can dismiss the fringe ideas for each other and really bring something new and strong to the table. The best of both of us. It is challenging though. I think one of the toughest things is that our styles of writing are vastly different. It works for us because we each write different characters and each of those characters have their own voice but trying to make things even between us at a happy median can sometimes be challenging. AKA, I’m pretty sure Mari would like to kill me sometimes. I told her that we’ve moved beyond friendship to sister status since we can fight but still love each other! (Naughty D’ hangs her head in shame as she admits she hasn’t read any of the Compass Brothers, YET, I just moved it up in my TBR)
Naughty D’ – Now to one of my favorite series – Men In Blue. What drew you to write about police officers?
Jayne –Oh Men in Blue. Mmmmm. Well, why not? They’re hot! Plus I had a bunch of murder mystery type stories rolling around in my brain. Without having the law tie-in they’d have to be some pretty unlucky friends to keep having these crazy things happen to them 🙂
Naughty D’ – Night is Darkest is one of the best M/M/F committed menages I’ve read. I totally connected with Mason, Tyler and Lacey. The death of Lacey’s brother broke my heart. What made you decide to kill off Lacey’s brother to use as the catalyst to bring mason, Tyler and Lacey together? (BTW this hopeless romantic secretly wishes that Rob has gone into protective custody and comes back)
Jayne – Ohmigosh. That was pretty serious praise. Thank you first of all. I’m so thrilled you’ve enjoyed the books. I really put a lot of me into the Men in Blue books. They’re loooong first of all. I spend a TON of time with these characters as I’m writing. Mistress’s Master, the latest, took me about three months to write. That sounds really slow to me but it’s the best I could do with my day job. Yikes. So I’m excited to hear that maybe that investment is paying off 🙂 As for poor Rob. Well, there’s a story there. I actually wrote the opening to Night is Darkest very shortly after losing two close family members. Imagining her grief was not a stretch. And while I agree with you, I wish Rob was safe and in hiding, I feel like my characters in that series don’t life in a perfect world. There are real consequences and stakes to the things happening in the book. They have dangerous jobs. No one can get lucky all the time. RIP Rob! (Naughty D’ and that is why MIB grabbed me from the first sentence of Night is Darkest)
Naughty D’ – Razor’s Edge and Night is Darkest introduces us to More of the sexy Men in Blue. I love the humor and ribbing they give each other. MOST of all I fell in LOVE with J’Rad early on, just knew there was something not quit e so straight laced about him. How did you come to realize that under his nerdy facade was a Master of our dreams?
Jayne – Oh, that’s an easy one! JRad was always a Dom in my mind. I knew he was hiding oodles behind his computer geek act from the first time I wrote him. I tried to hint at it when he was attracted to Lacey, who clearly has submissive sexual tendencies. Plus, there had to be a reason such a hottie was hiding in the dungeon of the police station, right? Honestly, I think JRad is one of my favorite characters in the whole series and you’ll see soon just how naughty he really is. In fact, I think Mistress’s Master is by far my dirtiest book yet. And it’s all his fault. 😛 (Naughty D’ –oooo I can’t wait to read it)
Naughty D’ – How many more books can we expect in the Men in Blue series? Any teasers you would like to share about the series?
Jayne –Ohhh that’s a great one. So, in Mistress’s Master you will definitely get to know Matt and Clint much better and I think it will be clear by the end of the book that they have a very real potential for a Men in Blue book. There are two other characters I wrote in that book, who you have not yet seen in the other Men in Blue books, that I have a lot of notes on. If readers want more of the series and my editor and publisher are excited about more projects I feel like I have at least three more books in me to come. We’ll see though. I was careful to close the book with satisfying resolution of the larger part of the MiB universe just in case. (Naughty D’ CROSSING FINGERS)
Naughty D’ – Well I’ve taken up a good chunk of your time, so I’ll let you go…for now 😉 Before we go, is there anything you would like to share with WTFbr? Future projects? Fun tidbits? On your appearance at RAW?
Jayne – Let me see, what can I give you that’s new news. How about this… My powertools series always appeared to have four natural books in it. However, I just finished the first full draft of Powertools #4 and I don’t feel like all the story is told. I think we’ll be seeing the guys again in the future and see what happens to the guys and their interactions after they’ve found mates. I just can’t stop thinking that there’s no way they’d walk away from the bond they had in the crew at large. And if you want to talk to me more, yes, I will be at Lora Leigh’s RAW in late October. I would LOVE to see your readers (and you!) there. I can’t wait to hang out and talk about all our favorite reads. Plus there are going to be smores! Who can resist smores? Not this author. (Naughty D’ – SMORES and a where are they now for Powertools sounds interesting)
WTFbr followers, thank you for stopping in to check out what Jayne has to say. IF you haven’t started the Men In Blue series, GO NOW and start =) Comment on this interview for a chance to win a copy of Night is Darkest or Razor’s Edge, if you’ve already read both of those you can win some sexy swag from Jayne. Check back here Saturday to see if you won =)
CONTEST HAS ENDED
Okay Jayne, I love the books I’ve read of yours but I haven’t read any of the Men in Blue books. Bad me!
Can’t wait for more about the power tool guys and I love visiting with Star. She’s such a differnt and interesting character. The Compass Brothers are also a favorite. I started them on my way to Houston. They definitely kept my mind off the fact I was flying, which I hate.
Can’t wait to see you at RAW. Yes, Billy and I signed up this past week. I may have to keep a better eye on him this year as last year he met Mari by giving her a big kiss.
Terri
Great interview, I have not read any of the Men in Blue books, will have to add them to my must read list.
Shelly
Loved the interview and looking forward to reading these books!
Glad you enjoyed the interview…Thanks so much for continuing to follow us =)
If my wtb list gets any longer I might have to rob a bank. Hope I win something since my bank is broke at the moment.
I haven’t started the Men in Blue series – gonna have to check them out!
Going to have to add these series to my TBR list. Loved reading your comments.
Patricia
panthers.ravens@yahoo.com
I love Jayne Rylon’s books. I would love the chance to read either book. I don’t own either yet. Thanks for another great post.
jepebATverizonDOTnet
Wooohooo Jayne!!! Loved the interview! Super cool, and of course, can’t wait for the latest!
hugs,
billi jean
I cannot wait for Mistress’s Master!! And I love Razor’s Edge. Razor is great!
Devon’s Pair is a naughty one? Can’t wait!
😉 What Jayne Rylon isn’t a naughty one?! ;-D How could we help but love it, when it is written by you?!?
Nancy E everitnm (at) hotmail (dot) com
Great interview! It’s great to hear from the author themselves on what they think when they are going through the writing process for their books. Never read any of her books but I am quite interested now. Thanks!
Annnndddd the winner is Patricia…please contact Naughty D and let me know if you would like one of the books or Swag. CONGRATS!!! D
Thank you Jayne for the interview, can’t wait to read Mistress’ Master =)