Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Interview with Candace Blevins, Author of Gonzo

What made you decide to be an author? In 2005 there were few authors with experience in the lifestyle writing BDSM. I thought I could do better so I gave it a try. I’ve always had a paranormal world in my head but never thought I could do it justice. However, after building up my confidence with my Safeword series, I jumped into urban fantasy and paranormal romance and I’m having a blast. My paranormal books don’t have the intense BDSM of my Safeword series. Some of the characters are totally vanilla, some of the couples are just a little kinky, and a few couples play around with some light BDSM. 
What do you like best about being a writer? What do you like the least? I love to write but I detest editing. It takes me three times as long to edit as it does to write, and while I’m writing I’m discovering all kinds of details I didn’t know until my fingers typed them. You have to edit your work before others can see it, though. There’s no way around it.
How do you think your life experiences have prepared you for writing? I traveled the world in my twenties and didn’t get married until I was thirty. I met my husband in the lifestyle and twenty years later we’re still in it, though it looks a whole lot different now that we’re parents. I’ve had so many adventures — I have a lot of experience to fall back on.
Have you ever felt as if you were being dictated to while you wrote a book--as if the words came of their own accord? If yes, which book did that happen with? This was the case with my first books, but then I started outlining the biggest events and pantsing the details. However, my muse decided to go against the outline in Safeword: Arabesque, then again in Brain (even though I argued hard against it), and again in Gonzo.
You’ve written twenty-two novels and are working on a twenty-third. What’s your favorite time management tip? Writing is easy in the beginning because all you have to do is write. Once you’re into the publication and marketing phases there’s so much more to do. I don’t really have any tips other than to put writing first and treat it like a job. Books don’t write themselves and the only way to get the characters out of your head and into a book is to spend the time doing it.
Are you a plotter or a pantser, i.e., do you outline your books ahead of time or are you an “organic” writer? I’m a blend of the two. If I plot everything then my muse basically says, “Well, if you know what happens then you don’t need me.” However, as a professional writer with deadlines, I can’t totally pants my stories anymore.
I spend time with the characters in my head for weeks or sometimes months before I start writing their stories, and I know the beginning and have a rough idea of the ending. I know their specific challenges and some of the conflicts, but I don’t know any details. A few books have gone completely off my original outline and have been better for it, but most of the time my blend of plotting and pantsing works.
If you had one take away piece of advice for authors, what would it be? The biggest writing advice out there seems to be ‘show don’t tell’ — but that’s so misleading. If you show everything, you’ll bog the story down. It might be better to give the advice of ‘carefully decide which pieces of information you’ll tell versus what needs to be shown.’ The emotional bits need showing, and of course most of the sex scenes. You’ll likely want to show how it feels to ride your bike, or run as a wolf, too. But there’s so much story to be told in a one hundred thousand word novel — if I showed everything it’d be a half-million words. 
Candace, thank you so much for being with us here today. I know my readers will enjoy your work and your interview.


Gonzo has not only had to come to terms with the loss of his entire family, but he also barely survived being shot in the chest multiple times while still a human, and was then later turned into a werewolf during a vicious attack while hiking as he tried to put his life back together.

Constance has had her own losses to deal with, and while nowhere near as bad as Gonzo’s, they’ve left a mark on her as well. She’s determined to live her life without a partner though, because her two sexual experiences in college convinced her she’s asexual.

Gonzo’s a biker people cross the road to avoid, while Constance has multiple doctorate degrees and works as a research scientist for a leading pharmaceutical firm. Gonzo doesn’t trust women, Constance has no use for men — and yet they’re going to find themselves working toward the same goals.

Can they form a team to do what needs to be done?
Candace Blevins lives with her husband of 18 years and their two daughters. When not working or driving kids all over the place she can be found reading, writing, meditating, or swimming.
Candace writes Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Contemporary BDSM Romance, and is currently writing a kick-ass Motorcycle Club series.
Her urban fantasy series, Only Human, gives us a world where weredragons, werewolves, werelions, three different species of vampires, as well as a variety of other mythological beings exist.
Candace's two paranormal romance series, The Chattanooga Supernaturals and The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, are both sister series to the Only Human series, and give some secondary characters their happily ever after.
Her Safeword Series gives us characters who happen to have some extreme kinks. Relationships can be difficult enough without throwing power exchange into the mix, and her books show characters who care enough about each other to fight to make the relationship work. Each book in the Safeword series highlights a couple with a different BDSM issue to resolve. 
You can visit Candace on the web at candaceblevins.com and feel free to friend her on Facebook at facebook.com/candacesblevins and Goodreads at goodreads.com/CandaceBlevins. You can also join facebook.com/groups/CandacesKinksters to get sneak peeks into what she's writing now, images that inspire her, and the occasional juicy blurb. 
Stay up to date on Candace’s newest releases, and get exclusive excerpts by joining her mailing list!
Tour giveaway
5 copies of Brain (RTMC #2)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Other Books By Candace Blevins
Only Human series (Urban Fantasy)
  • Only Human
  • Unhuman Acts (early 2016)
  • Only Human book three, title TBA (2016)
 Chattanooga Supernaturals (Paranormal Romance)
Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club (link)
Short erotica stories from the world of The Chattanooga Supernaturals

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