Interview and Giveaway with Shiloh Walker

SHILOH WALKER

Burning Up July is coming to an end (almost) and we are not slowing down!  We have here today one of our all time favorite authors, Ms. Shiloh Walker.  Not only is she an extremely talented author, but I had the chance to meet her and she is so much fun and extremely sweet in person as well.  Please help us give her a warm welcome to UTC!

HOT IN HANDCUFFS is an anthology with Shayla Black, Sylvia Day and yourself. I would say your story is the one that goes a bit deeper than the others. What can you tell us about this story and about the FBI Psychics series?

It's a government-run organization of psychics, basically.  The books are all pretty much standalone, although you do see some of the characters reappear from time to time.  The series started with THE MISSING, and the next one is THE DEPARTED.  It's a bit of romantic suspense, a bit of paranormal, a bit of angst...basically everything I love in a romance.  :)

You recently released the last book in your Hunters series? Are you sad to see this series go? What are some of the challenges when a series goes on for so many books?

Yes, I'm a little down about it.  I wanted to reboot the series and flip it on its head, but sales were dwindling and you can only carry a series for so long when the sales aren't there.   A lot of readers don't always want to get invested in a very long series and sometimes it's complicated to know where to start--I know that because I'm definitely a reader, too, so I've been there.  In the end, though, a writer just has to do the best you can.  I did get to write Toronto's book, which I always wanted to do, so that's a good way to end it, I guess.

STOLEN will be coming out later this year. Even though the covers are very similar in theme to your Ash Trilogy, this book is not related. Will this be the beginning of another series? What can you tell us about this much anticipated book?

No...it's not another series.  It's completely standalone.  Hmmm...well, it's kinda complicated, although I can you that the inspiration for the idea came from something that I saw happen on twitter.  And for anybody who has read FRAGILE?  Um, well, I finally wrote a heroine who is even more screwed up than Devon.

This has been a great year for releases! You also released the 6th book in your Grimm's Circle series, GRIMM TIDINGS. For someone who hasn't read this series, what is it about?

In short?  Bastardized fairy tales.  I really twist them up, and for somebody who hasn't read any of them?  You can generally read any of them on their own, with the exception of the bridge story--I THOUGHT IT WAS YOU.  That was written a companion piece for books two and three.  GRIMM TIDINGS is actually a very good book to start with...and I kinda love Jacob.

What's one key element you have to keep in mind when writing a great BAD GUY?

Don't make him a cardboard cutout.  He has to be every bit as real and deep as the hero and heroine.  If he's not believable, then the hero and heroine don't have as much to overcome.
Since readers have been in an erotic romance craze, which book of your (and other authors) would you recommend they try?

Oh...my.  Well, if they are looking for BDSM, I'd recommend Joey Hill.  Lauren Hill is another awesome writer.  Naturally, I'd also point you to my fellow anthology mates, Shayla and Sylvia.  Of mine?  Depends on how kinky you want to get.  I have everything from hotter romance, like TEMPT ME, to threesomes like VOYEUR and PLAYING FOR KEEPS (be warned, both of them are tear-jerkers) and then there are my earlier HUNTER books which are...um, really hot.  The kinkiest thing I've got out there is BEG ME, but it is not a story for everybody...it involved a woman who has rape fantasies and actually was married to a guy who happily met her every fantasy, but then he died.  Not long after, she was assaulted.  A few years later, she decides she wants to take her life back--all of it, including her sexuality. 

You dabble in several other genres. Which genre is the most easiest to get into? Which one would you say is the most difficult? Is there a genre you would like to try in the future?
Romantic suspense and paranormal have always been the easiest for me.  I'd love to do more urban fantasy...my first UF title is coming out on 8/1 and I'd say that's been the hardest.  I tried going the traditional route with that book, but it didn't work out, so I decided to go solo on it.  In the future?  I don't know.  I'm easily distracted so there are number of ideas that catch my attention.

Deadlines have passed and you've got a few days to relax. What would we find you doing?

After the way my summer has gone?  SLEEPING... LOL

You're going to a conference and are asked to make up your own panel. What authors will be there with you and what will you talk about?

If I can have anybody?  I want Lynn Viehl, Nora Roberts and Mercedes Lackey.  They've inspired me for so long...I'd love to talk about just...inspiration.  How books can shape a young writer's career long before she even realizes she might have one.

We're asking participating authors to share their favorite cocktail drink recipes with our readers so they can cool off this summer. Do you have a recipe you'd like to share?   

THE CHOCOLATE CHERRY!
This is my contribution to society. I'm calling it a chocolate cherry and it's a drink I think I kinda made up at #RT2012. I had Triple Sec, Pinnacle Cookie Dough Vodka and Cranberry Juice...(there were other things, but these seemed to be the things that would go together). And they went WELL. Take 1 part of the vodka... MUST BE THE COOKIE DOUGH vodka, 1 part triple sec and 2 parts cranberry juice. mix, serve over ice in a shrek cup. Ok...the shrek cup is optional.

I even have a picture!
http://pinterest.com/pin/70439181642208857/


EXCERPT

The beach.

Mica would find him at the beach.

Even though she wanted to pretend she’d find anybody else at the beach, Colby Mathis was the one she’d find at the beach. She knew it in her gut. In her bones. In her heart. As she climbed out of her car, she wished she’d remembered to get that haircut she’d been putting off. Wished she’d thought to put on makeup. Wished she’d put on something other than the serviceable jacket and trousers she wore. Wished she’d look halfway…well, nice when she saw him again.
And even as she wished all of those things, she wanted to kick herself. She was here about murder. How she looked shouldn’t matter at all.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself as she studied the beach. “Where to now?”

The beach was a pretty damn vague destination. He could be anywhere. Yet she found herself heading up the coast—not aimlessly, either. Almost like she was being pulled that way. The longer she walked, the more excited she got, too. The faster her heart raced, the hotter she felt. And it had nothing to do with the June sunshine beating down overhead.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she neared a bend and she knew.

He was there.

And then she rounded it and she saw a figure standing on the edge of the beach.

“Oh, hell.”

The dread he’d been feeling all day had finally eased up a little.

Colby wanted to think he’d managed to avoid whatever in the hell was out there trying to call him. But while the dread was gone…other things weren’t. His heart continued to race, like he was out running in a fucking marathon. His mind was crowded with whispers. You can’t outrun it, you can’t outrun it, you can’t, you can’t you can’t—

He would have done damn near anything to stifle those damned voices. Anything.

And then, abruptly, everything went silent.

Like the calm before the storm.

Even before he turned his head and saw her, he knew. Some part of him did, at least. He didn’t even know if he could claim it was any sort of psychic knowledge. Certain things, people didn’t need true psychic skill to know—just instinct—and this was probably every bit as much as instinct as anything else. The instinct that trouble was coming his way.

Trouble…five feet, nine inches of trouble and most of it was leg. Black hair was pulled back in a braid so tight, he wouldn’t have known it was curly. Except he had spent many, many hours with his hands fisted in those curls. She hated them…he’d always loved them. Her eyes, a deep, strange shade of blue-violet, so much darker than his own eyes, were hidden by sunglasses and he could only imagine the derision he’d see there. And it would be there.

He knew it just by the sight of the slight sneer on her pretty face.

Mica Greer never had much cared for psychics. Strange, considering she was one. Or maybe not so strange, he supposed. Denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt and all that.

Mica’s gift, like his own, had been unstable. Unlike him, she hadn’t learned to stabilize it through practice alone. She’d needed a partner, and she’d turned out to make a damn good anchor. For a while, the two of them had worked together in training. Her gift had grown, bloomed…as had some crazy thing between them.

Then she’d decided she didn’t want all the ‘crazy shit’ in her life.

She pulled out. Not just out of the unit, but out of the FBI, altogether.

And from him—

Don’t go there, he thought. Blowing out a breath, he shifted his attention back to the ocean, trying to reach for some inner peace. It wasn’t going to come, though, and he knew it. If she was here, on top of the insane coming at him, then it was for a reason.

I can always pretend she’s here because after all this time, she realizes she’s still in love with me.
READ OUR REVIEW AVAILABLE NOW Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes and Noble  

About the Author:

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing just about every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and paranormal romance, and urban fantasy under the name J.C. Daniels.

Maidens! We have a PRINT copy of HOT IN HANDCUFFS up for grabs. (US ONLY)
This contest started with Sylvia Day's interview. 
Only one book winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway