Interview with Cassie Ryan & Giveaway!

SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS by Cassie Ryan

First in a sexy new series featuring four succubus sisters fighting demons and desires.

Jezebeth is living out the centuries as any succubus must-seducing men to survive and corrupting souls to make her quota with her queen, Lilith. But, when she's attacked by a bounty hunter demon, it's a handsome human who saves her.

Noah Halston is a horror writer who owes his life to Lilith. Now he must pay up by eluding the fearsome beasts of hell while escorting a very attractive and tempting succubus safely to Lilith's lair-or else he will forfeit his soul to an eternity of torture.

Trouble is, if he spends too much time with the all too tempting Jezebeth, he may just lose his heart-or, even worse, his life.

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Hi everyone! Please help me in welcoming paranormal romance author, Cassie Ryan, to Lovin' Me Some Romance!

My Interview:

First, I'd like to give Cassie the floor to introduce herself and her new series, The Sisters of Darkness.

Hi everyone! I’m Cassie Ryan and I’m a book-a-holic...oh, sorry, wrong meeting :) But I do absolutely love books, which I’m sure is why all of you are here too.

So who am I? I write smoking-hot paranormal romance as Cassie Ryan and steamy paranormal romantic suspense as Tina Gerow. I think I’m just one of those kids who never grew up and still love to play “what if”, only now I get paid to do it! But today is all about the smoking-hot paranormal romance! My brand new series, The Sisters of Darkness series kicks off with a bang with Seducing the Succubus, which releases tomorrow, October 5th! (Can you tell I’m excited?)

Here’s the very cool blurb that Berkley came up with for it (I’m soooo glad they do blurbs – I’m so much better writing books than promo blurbs!):

First in a sexy new series featuring four succubus sisters fighting demons and desires.

Jezebeth is living out the centuries as any succubus must-seducing men to survive and corrupting souls to make her quota with her queen, Lilith. But, when she's attacked by a bounty hunter demon, it's a handsome human who saves her.

Noah Halston is a horror writer who owes his life to Lilith. Now he must pay up by eluding the fearsome beasts of hell while escorting a very attractive and tempting succubus safely to Lilith's lair-or else he will forfeit his soul to an eternity of torture.

Trouble is, if he spends too much time with the all too tempting Jezebeth, he may just lose his heart-or, even worse, his life.

Succubi, for me, come with this stigma of well, for lack of a better term, of being whores. You explore this stigma with your hero of SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS, Noah. He arrives on scene with a grip of stereotypical assumptions regarding his succubi heroine, many that I went armed with into the read too. I feel a little bad about this too, especially in light Jezebeth's pain at Noah's cruel assumptions. Did you have similar stereotypes with succubi? What inspired you to write a series about these often misunderstood supernatural beings?

I always love exploring stereotypes and turning them on their heads, so when I saw a History Channel show on demons, my writer antenna immediately went on full alert. The show was talking about the Garden of Eden and Lilith (who in many cultures was considered the first succubus) when the idea for this series started swirling around inside my head. I love the underdog, and immediately wondered how Lilith felt about this whole event. After all, she was only doing what was in her nature, and she’s been blamed and shamed for it ever since. Besides that – I’m a firm believer that history is written by the victors—Adam and Even in this case—which makes me burn to know the real story behind the “official” version. And all of that made me wonder what it would be like to live as a succubus for eternity—with all the shame, assumptions and even the “job requirements” inherent with such an existence. The rest of the story and the universe within the series grew from there.

Archangels! I was so delightfully surprised when archangels, hot sexy archangels, walked onto the pages of SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS. And that first scene with them was absolutely smoldering! I'll admit to being drop-jawed and unprepared. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't the effortless heat that erupted from your novel. I'm forever fascinated with the romance world's current obsession with angels. Why do think these enigmatic, larger than life characters, have captured romance readers?

I think just like the succubi, Archangels are one of those mystical beings that we as humans want to know more about and understand. I hadn’t really planned on having the Archangels in my story, but when I explored what happened to Lilith after being kicked out of the Garden, and how she survived—it was obvious to me that Archangels had to be involved. I was fascinated by the idea of “how” Lilith survived. She’s a succubus and needs sexual energy to survive, but there was only Adam and Eve on earth at that time and they were obviously now off limits. So Lilith had to get that energy from somewhere... It’s well documented in all versions of man’s expulsion from the Garden that an Archangel kicked them out, which meant that same Archangel had to deal with Lilith – and that’s how Uriel came to be in my story. And if they happened to fall a bit in love with each other over the eons of him providing her with sexual energy, even if it was forbidden, well, who could blame them? Right?

I think you’re starting to see how my mind works...a total ramble that turns into stories :)

I wouldn't have ever thought to combine succubi and angels but your seamless combination has me smacking my head thinking "duh". What inspired this pairing? What came first, the angels or the succubi? How did you decide which supernatural being would lead your series?

The succubi definitely came first, but I don’t think the series would be the same without the Archangels. They are the ultimate family with fights and prejudices and grudges and all of the normal family dynamics—except that they’ve had since before the beginning of human time to deal with each other. :)

You have a lot going on SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS with many forays into multiple POVs. What kind of challenge is it to know the inner workings of so many different characters? Are you a methodical plotter or a "panster"?

I really love writing in 3rd person limited because it allows you for a chapter (or a scene) to delve inside a single character and allow the reader to experience life AS that character. It is somewhat of a challenge at times to get inside all those different heads, but I find that the story really flows when I do. It’s much easier to understand the motivations of each of the characters when you’re looking at the world through their eyes. I know other authors who don’t use as many POV characters as I did in this book, but it just seemed natural with all the strong personalities, and I think made the book more interesting...but I guess the readers will be the ones to tell me if that’s true or just my imagination :)

As for my writing method – I’m a brainstormer/pantser. I’ve tried really hard to be a methodical plotter and I really suck at it. My ideas grow and morph inside my imagination, and then when I’m ready I sketch out a synopsis that I strengthen as I go. Then I write a birth (or creation) to present character sketch in first person for the major (and some of the secondary) characters – and that fills in a lot of the conflict and motivation. Next I get together with my critique group and brainstorm to fill in any plot holes or to add any really cool scenes the group has come up with. I love brainstorming – it’s like all that creativity takes on a life of its own! Besides – what’s more fun than sitting around with a bunch of other writers talking about story ideas with a few good drinks? :)

SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS is a high octane ride with plenty of action, passion, and sexual tension. What's easier to write, action scenes or sex scenes? What tools do you use to get yourself in the mood, or I should say your characters in the mood?

Believe it or not, action scenes are much easier to write – they just flow! :) Sex scenes are really fun to write, but they take more choreographing and attention to detail so the reader feels like they’re in the thick of things (pun intended) :) For either one I pop in my headphones and turn on my writing play list that has great movie soundtracks in it—Pirates of the Carribean (all), Harry Potter (all), Robin Hood, The Rock, 300 and many others. They get me in that “movie” mood, which is really what I’m doing – I’m creating a very descriptive account of something so the reader can create their own vivid movie inside their imagination. I found out the hard way that I can’t write to music with words – or I end up typing the lyrics...which isn’t good mid scene.

If I ever have an issue writing either of those scenes – it’s usually because some of the motivation is missing, and I know I need to go back and add that before either the sex or action scene will flow naturally. In fact, that’s what I’m convinced writer’s block is—my intuition telling me something in the story is missing and I need to figure out what it is before things will flow again. My critique group is amazing and helping me brainstorm past those blocks as well :) (We’re called the Butterscotch Martini Girls if you want to check us out – a great bunch of women! http://www.butterscotchmartinigirls.com/)

I'm in love with the covers of both SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS and THE DEMON AND THE SUCCUBUS. Did you have any say in their creation? How thrilled were you with the outcome?

Berkley has been terrific to work with on every aspect of the publication process. They do ask for my input and are very open to my ideas on the covers and then they have an amazing art department that brings it all together. I absolutely love both covers—especially Seducing the Succubus. Although I have to admit when I first saw The Demon and the Succubus cover, it had to grow on me over the course of a few weeks. The psychedelic colors swirling around the couple are actually shades of the dead that have begun to appear on earth. and the house in the background is The Sinner’s Redemption—the brothel that the heroine in The Demon and the Succubus works at. I think since those were both so clear in my mind, there was no way the cover could match that. But it’s an amazing cover and so far everyone agrees :)

What's next for Cassie Ryan?

The Demon and The Succubus releases on April 5, 2011, and hopefully Berkley loves The Sisters of Darkness enough to pick up the next two books in the series as well. My Tina Gerow side also has some stories in the works, and both of my personas have a thick file of story ideas, not to mention all the ones that pop into my brain every day :) Other than writing, I’m teaching several online writing classes at Savvy Authors over the next year and a half and I’m looking into some smaller conferences around the nation to attend. And hopefully there’s some movie producer out there who is looking for some really fun books to turn into movies – and he’ll call my agent and I’ll be telling everyone about that next time I visit! :) (Hear that movie producers – yup – I’m talking to you!)

Thank you so much for letting me head on over and share my new release with everyone! I hope everyone will drop me an email to let me know how they liked the books. I can always be reached at Cassie.Ryan@cox.net!

Giveaway Details:

Cassie Ryan is giving away one signed copy of SEDUCING THE SUCCUBUS. Here's how to enter:


*Comment with a Valid Email Address (Entrants that do not leave an email address will be disqualified)*

**Contest Open to ALL**

***Must be 18 or Older to Enter***

****Contest Closes Thursday, October 7th at Midnight U.S. Pacific Standard Time and the Winner will be Chosen Randomly and Announced Friday, October 8th****