Today I’d like to welcome Sayde Grace, a great erotic author I had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago! Her cowboy stories are so scorchingly hot, you will be shifting in your seat constantly! I was so excited when she said she’d hop on over here to my small place on the net.
*Jumping up and down* SAYDE! Hello! Thank you for coming! Come in, come in…take a load off. Would you like a stiff drink before we get started? Yes? Thought so!
So I know Sayde is a pen name…do your nearest and dearest know you write erotic novels? 
Why did you pick erotic to write?
My immediate family knows my mom brothers and their wives. My in-laws know NOTHING and I want to keep it that way.
I didn’t actually pick erotic romance as the genre that I would write in. I had three previous books that had high heat levels in them but none were doing so well in the agent/editor world. I grew up rodeoing and I decided to write a story about a woman owning a rodeo production company or in this case a stock contractor. From there it just went way hot and well, it was actually my editor’s idea to cut over half of that story and use part of it as an erotic ménage. The other part is in rewrites for a mainstream contemporary romance.
Well, I haven’t read the contemporary one, but I can vouch for the HOTNESS of the erotic menage! Whew, I had to wipe my brow while reading it
Do you work a 9 to 5? Or are you a stay at home mom along with devoting time to your writing?
I am a stay at homer. I have two small children, one is in kindergarten while the other is not. I usually write a few hours during the day and stop when it’s time for my daughter to come home. I do most of my work at night, after my husband and children go to bed I’m usually on the couch typing away.
So that’s why I always see you when I’m up super late! I totally understand though, there is no time to do anything when the kids are up. And the days just seem to fly by.
You currently have several e-books out…tell us about them?
Right now I have the first book in my Built Cowgirl Tough Series, Riding Double out. The heroine in this story, Billie Atwater, is the owner/operator of a rodeo stock contracting business. She owns several head of bulls and bucking horses which she supplies to the top rodeos across the nation. She’s also madly in love with her ex, Bo Bennett, who she has a hate/love relationship with. But in the opening you’ll meet hot and funny Chet Haskins, the man she tries to have a relationship with. The three of them end up having a fun time which opens and heals old wounds.
The second in this series is, The Harder They Buck. Melanie is the cousin and employee of Billie. In this story we follow Melanie and rodeo contractor Lance Wright. Lance is recovering from a bull ride gone wrong and he’s trying to deal with the aftermath of that as well as convincing Melanie that he’s in love with her. Melanie, has never been shown love and knows nothing about it besides that it nearly killed Billie and Bo. She wants nothing to do with it and tries to be a hardass hoping to push Lance away. Melanie and Lance spend a night together that neither one can forget and in the end brings them together.
In April I have an urban fantasy coming out through Siren Publishing. Untamable is about a woman who spends her teenage years in love with her werewolf neighbor/best friend. He marks her before he leaves to find his pack but when he returns he’s not just the werewolf she loves, he’s the leader of the entire Luna Nation.
But when he takes her as his mate he awakens the long genetically buried werewolf within her. Together they find out that she’s the medical experiment of the werewolf who slaughtered most of the Luna Nation to become the Alpha. Now together they must face down the werewolf who nearly destroyed the Luna Nation.
I’ve read Riding Double and The Harder They Buck (Review HERE) and I loved them both! I am so excited for the Luna nation series to start! I love a good werewolf or shifter story. Those men are usually alpha and I have a thing for alpha men.
What are you working on now? When can we expect to see it?
Lol, see this is why I know some people actually follow me on twitter! I’ve been tweeting a lot about the books I need to finish up or rewrite!! Yay, people listen
All right, so I do have lots of books in different stages. What I’d love to do is make a writing schedule, you know for a certain amount of time work on this book or that book. I may do the schedule but sticking to it will be unrealistic. I get blocked writing something so I’ll pick up something else and write it until the flow comes back to the other book. I am all over the place sometimes but this year what I’d like to do is finish the following books
- The fourth and final book in my Built Cowgirl Tough Series.
- The second book in my Moonlight Cravings series (number one is Untamable).
- The first in my Wicked Cowboys Series. (the forth book in my cowgirl series opens this one)
- My erotic romance featuring a female US Marshall undercover as a Dom as she investigates a human trafficking ring.
- My contemporary romance featuring a cowgirl who is spreading her wings after the baby sister she raised goes off to college. She follows her dream of becoming a rodeo sports reporter while falling madly in love with one bull rider who has a dark side.
- My paranormal romance featuring a mated couple who is separated. My heroine wants a divorce but in the werewolf world there are no such things, so she’s come up with a plan, create a shot to separate the mated couples DNA therefore releasing her from the mate bond. A werewolf divorce
That’s what’s on my plate for 2011. Number one and number three will be novellas around 30k so those are easy. It’s all the others that are going to kill me!!!
Holy Moly woman, you’re ambitious! You’ve got a lot going on that’s for sure! But I seriously can’t wait! A werewolf divorce huh? Yeah, that’s a new one to me…I love when authors switch things up and create something entirely new!
Have you had trouble writing any of your characters so far? How do you resolve it?
Oh yeah!! I have trouble all the time. My mind runs a hundred miles an hour so while I’m writing one story I may be thinking of another one and then I get all crossed up. I get stuck sometimes and what I end up doing is I get a notebook and write out exactly what “I” want to happen. Now, this never sticks. I usually go off the notebook but my characters never stick to my plan. Which is okay because in the end it gets written. I also open another book I’m writing and write some on it. Usually taking my mind off one story will open my thoughts up and clear the way.
What has been your experience getting published? Was it a long road for you, or fairly short?
I started writing in 2008. I wrote complete crap that only a handful of people have seen. Then in mid 2008 I went to my first RWA meeting where I started learning more and more about the writing industry. I’ve queried a gazillion people and honestly been rejected by a gazillion people. But then one editor asked to see more and right before Christmas that same editor and I came up with a plan for my first novella which is now Riding Double. That story was published in May 2010 and in October 2010 the second came out. In October I also sold my urban fantasy which releases in April of 2011.
I love hearing how everyone gets started. There is so much more to it then what I used to think. Rejection seems to be the name of the game in the publishing field. I guess to find the right agent you just have to talk to a lot, but being turned down has to be hard on a person. I’m so glad you stuck to it because now I can enjoy all your smokin stories about super hot cowboys!
When you get time to read, what do you pick up? Any specific genre or authors?
I read everything. Right now I am searching for more fantastic historical romances. I’d love to write a time travel historical but I’m too chicken to venture that far out of my realm. And yes, it’d have horses in it, not cowboys but a Duke with a love for race horses
But I do have a list of favorite authors, Terry Spear, Terri Garey, Rebecca Zanetti, Nancy Gideon, and Lisa Klypas(spelling??) and Hannah Howell!!
We both know I enjoy Rebecca Zanetti as well…love her! I need to look into some of the other you mentioned. I’m sure, since we have similar tastes, that I would enjoy them as well!
You grew up around horses, do you have any now? What hobbies do you have?
I still have four. Besides reading I enjoy writing, riding the four wheeler, occasionally going hunting, and just hanging out around my house. I’m pretty simple.
I love horses. I don’t have any experience with them but they are just so majestic. I’d love to have the opportunity to own one someday. I’m pretty simple as well. Most of the time, if I’m home, I’m just lying around reading. Not that I’m home a lot…but when I am
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Oh wow, um I don’t know. I hope I’ll still be writing and maybe have many more books out in print and in ebook format. I really hope I’ll be going to book signings and all that kind of stuff :0
Oh, I’m sure you are right on the money with this one. I foresee it a lot sooner than 5 years though.
If you could go back and change anything since you started your writing career, would you? What would it be?
It would be to make my goals realistic. So many times we as writers hear reach for the sky, never settle. Write the book of your heart, and stick with it. That’s great advice but my advice is to be realistic. Make goals that are going to be doable. I mean, there are so many ups and downs in the writing industry that it’s really hard for someone to stay strong after rejection after rejection. By adding to those rejections with goals that you may have set way too high, it can be detrimental.
For me, I figured out soon that it wasn’t in my immediate future to be the next Nora Roberts. Some people may, but I needed to learn the ins and outs of the writing industry before realizing that I wasn’t going to wake up on Oprah’s book list the next morning with the book of my heart Really and truly I haven’t written that book yet and don’t know what it will be.
I tend to write something that inspires me and when I’m done I’m done. I query it until I have queried everyone I want to and then I let that story rest. When I finish one book I start another one. Which I think is the best advice I’ve ever been given because it distracts you from the rejections or the worrying you will do while querying. So my best advice is this: when you finish a book, finish it, don’t obsess on it. Let it rest and query the hell out of it, listen to what agents and editors tell you about it and fix the problems that are in it if there are any, but at the same time start something fresh. By doing this you can apply all the things you learn from the querying process to make that next book even better.
Sayde has graciously said that she would give one commenter of their choice of e-book. Either Riding Double or The Harder They Buck!
To enter please leave a comment for Sayde! I will leave the contest open until Jan 14th at 11:59pm (EST). This contest is open internationally and to those 18+ years ONLY please.
Sayde has written a little something for the interview as well!
READING IS INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS 18+!!!!!
All right because on twitter Nikki mentioned the Supernatural boys I’ve decided to add a picture of them and use them for my inspiration for my some of my characters. I gotta say that this one is the hotter of the two and surprisingly looks a lot like one of my cowboys
*sigh* I dunno Sayde…did you see my Jared Padalecki post, because he is looking mighty hot as well. I think he needs a part too LOL.
Thanks for letting me stop by today and a huge thank you to Nikki for giving me some blog love!
Ok and for added fun here is a scene that I just wrote with my Supernatural guy lookalike
Ella watched as Campbell moved with a confident swagger all the way to the chair beside her. His masculine scent filled her nose and she inhaled deeply unable to deny that she loved the way he moved and smelled.
His hand brushed over the back of her chair snapping her attention to all hands on deck. “Claire’s worried about you.” A finger tangled into her hair to tug one loose curl softly. “I informed her that you’d put me in my place quick like but not to worry I was still willing to take one for the team to keep you safe.” His lips quirked into a sly smile that begged for her to return it.
Ella rolled her eyes; this teasing man beside her was the Campbell she’d grown up with. The one who found humor in nearly everything and made those around him see it too. His boyish smile mesmerized her.
He turned to look over her shoulder, his lips inches away from her ear. The warmth of his breath wisped across her cheek. “But next time you put me in my place you’ll be guiding my d*ck inside your sweet p**sy.” His whispered voice drew a gasp from her.
Dear god, she was going to kill him. He’d just said d*ck and p**sy in front of his parents and his sister. Her face flamed as her eyes widened. His soft chuckle burned in her ears. He was laughing at her! The jackass!
“Close that mouth darling, you know what kind of ideas it gives me.” He winked before facing the other three people at the table.
Ella stammered trying to come up with a witty retort but nothing left her mouth. Instead she just blinked in disbelief. She didn’t quite understand the way her body responded to his rough voice and crude comments. Everything he said kicked her body into a heated overdrive of sexual awareness which in turn kicked her mind into utter outrage.
“Eat up darlin’, you’re gonna need your energy to soothe my balls after that near fatal kick.” He pushed a plate of ribs in front of her.
