I must admit I love a good dark read every once and awhile. This week I have a great opportunity to highlight some of mine and your favorites! I am starting off the week with spotlighting some dark reads by Kitty Thomas. I am also excited because I got an opportunity to interview Kitty!
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Emily Vargas has been taken captive. As part of his conditioning methods, her captor refuses to speak to her, knowing how much she craves human contact. He’s far too beautiful to be a monster. Combined with his lack of violence toward her, this has her walking a fine line at the edge of sanity. Told in the first person from Emily’s perspective, Comfort Food explores what happens when all expectations of pleasure and pain are turned upside down, as whips become comfort and chicken soup becomes punishment.
Amazon Link: Comfort Food
Barnes & Nobles Link: Comfort Food
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Veronica Cason lives in a small apartment with no clear view of the sky. It’s uncertain which might crush her first: her debt or the buildings squeezed in so tight that they surround her like ominous sentinels. She can’t breathe in the city. Her success is a lie, and her debt is coming to collect her—unless someone else gets there first.
When a stranger offers her a job at a ranch, it feels like salvation, but it could also mean her death if his motives aren’t pure. Which door has the tiger behind it? The claustrophobia of the city or ranch life under an open sky?
Amazon Link: Big Sky
Barnes & Nobles Link: Big Sky
Faith Jacobson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After witnessing a mob hit, she’s only moments from death when Angelo Raspallo decides to give his brother an unlikely gift.
Leo has avoided involvement with the family business, but it doesn’t make him a saint. He’s troubled and ashamed by his darker sexual desires, one of which is to own a slave. But when his brother throws Faith at his feet, repainting the scenario to make Leo the hero rescuing her from certain death, his moral fortitude will be tested. If Faith were kinky, it would be easy to live out his fantasy, but she’s not—not even a little bit. Even the mildest spanking sparks terror in her that Leo can’t bear.
The gift soon becomes a burden as he fights with himself over how to handle the addition to his home. He could release her, but his brother doesn’t do loose ends. The only thing keeping her out of the bottom of the harbor is Leo’s mercy. She’s like a beautiful piece of art he keeps in a glass case but can never touch. Is possessing her enough?(
Release date: TBA
Giveaway
CLICK TO ENTER TO WIN AN E-BOOK COPY OF BIG SKY BY KITTY THOMAS
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My Interview with Kitty Thomas
What inspired you to write a book as dark as comfort food?
I had this idea, sort of an erotic fantasy about this capture situation with this man who wouldn’t speak to her. The idea IMO started out a lot less dark but as I got into the writing it got much darker. It was a really difficult book to write. I put so much of myself emotionally into that book that it really drained me. I say I “opened a vein for that one”, and readers for the most part seem to respond in a favorable way to that.
If you could spend a weekend with one of your characters, who would it be?
Either Asher from Tender Mercies or Christian from The Last Girl. I’m drawn to Asher’s kindness, but unhealthily drawn to Christian’s danger. Actually… hmmm maybe August, but he’s a character from a new book I’m writing. There are characters I wouldn’t want to spend time with in real life though. Like Luke in Big Sky. I think he’s too crazy/unhinged and he doesn’t even have the vampire appeal going on for me to overlook that. I do feel a lot of sympathy for Luke and care about him, but I wouldn’t feel safe alone with him. Master from Comfort Food is a definite no. No way do I want to be locked up, even in a nice house with him. Okay, maybe for a weekend, but that’s it! Asher, though? I’d give my heart and all my trust to him forever.
Do you plan your novels ahead of time or let your characters lead the way?
Well, when I’m writing my other pen name, I tend to really plan a lot because it’s a series and the world is complicated so I can’t just write by the seat of my pants without contradicting major plot points from earlier books. But right now all the Kitty books are stand alones, so there is less need for that. I can follow the story more, though I do outline. How much or how little just depends on how much or how little that book needs. Some books practically write themselves and only need a very light sketch of how the plot arc goes and the goal I’m working toward for the ending. Other books start stumbling without a more detailed outline.
Do your characters surprise you from time to time?
Almost always. That’s why I write. I want to find out what happens next. And I’m lucky, I get to find out before you guys! 😛
Describe your typical writing day.
Hehe it might be more exciting to describe to you my experience of paint drying. 😉 My writing day really varies by A LOT. I wish I could say I have this one routine I always follow but I tend to try out lots of different methods. One week I may be going hard and crazy with 10,000 word days. Other weeks I’ll end up with around 2,000 words from short 15 minute writing segments added up throughout the day (those are fun). And then sometimes my head isn’t in the game and no writing happens at all because the rest of my to do list is too crazy (but i REALLY try to avoid that one. Writing is the most important part of my job.)
When you’re developing your characters, do you find real people to base their looks on.
No, I know a lot of writers do that, but I don’t really at all. Sometimes after the fact I’ll see someone and be like: “Oh that fits that character!” Usually, it’s after a reader has pointed out who THEY see in the role. Like one reader thought Joe Manganiello (Alcide from True Blood) fit Master. And I kind of have to agree with that. But I don’t have like famous people or other real people in my head when I’m writing the characters.
(I agree too!! 🙂 )
Get connected with Kitty:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kitty-Thomas/240949879265789?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kitty_Thomas
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2654606.Kitty_Thomas
Blog: http://kittythomas.com/
