Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
GIVEAWAY: Victoria Sue is giving away a backlist eBook with this post – for a chance to win, comment below.
Today, Victoria Sue – Victoria Sue fell in love with love stories as a child when she would hide away with her mom’s library books and dream of the dashing hero coming to rescue her from math homework. She never mastered math but never stopped loving her heroes and decided to give them the happy ever afters they fight so hard for.
Thanks so much, Victoria Sue, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: How would you describe your writing style/genre?
Victoria Sue: So you have to understand I’ve pretty much written everything – paranormal, urban fantasy, historical, contemporary, MPreg, romantic suspense. And the thing I love the most is urban fantasy. That’s my jam. Take a normal world and tweak it a little.
I think its because I’m a romantic idealist. I live in the real world but with a Happy Ever After!
JSC: Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
VS: ^^^ See above lol – and I wish I didn’t. I’m sticking with paranormal/urban fantasy from now on. It’s like a life goal or something.
JSC: Where do you like to write?
VS: At home. We use a spare bedroom as an office. I’d love to be all cool and hip and say Starbucks but nothing would ever get done and I’d float away on a caffeine cloud.
JSC: What were your goals and intentions in Twelfth Knight, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
VS: I adore English legends. And I’ve spent the last four years of my writing career (I’m a Brit living in Florida) de-Britting every story I write. I had so much FUN with my English knight you wouldn’t believe!
JSC: Who did your cover, and what was the design process like?
VS: Jay Aheer – and she gets me like you wouldn’t believe. I sometimes have a stock photo idea that I send and then she does magical things.
JSC: Were you a voracious reader as a child?
VS: OMG Yes! I drove my mum and dad nuts until I discovered the local library. I would take ten books (my maximum allowed) out on a Friday and by Sunday I was going back for another ten.
JSC: Which of your own characters would you Kill? Fuck? Marry? And why?
VS: The epic problem with that is that I write gay male romance and I’m a female. So – I just lust from afar and mother them to death.
JSC: We know what you like to write, but what do you like to read in your free time, and why?
VS: Paranormal. I tried contemporary (honestly) but it just doesn’t do anything for me. Sitting on my bookshelves right now are Kendall McKenna, Kristen Britain, Mercedes Lackey, John Flanagan, Christopher Paolini.
JSC: Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
VS: The future absolutely. They don’t have proper bathrooms in the past.
JSC: What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about him or her.
VS: The trouble is I’m balancing writing what my readers want and writing what is true to the series. I have a kick ass Knight but she’s female. It sounds awful but I have a lot of readers that won’t read a female/male story. Ali is perfect and she deserves her story. I’m just not sure how to pull that off yet. Which is sad, I guess.
And now for Victoria’s new book: The Twelfth Knight:
To battle an ancient evil, the greatest weapon each hero will have is each other.
Hundreds of years ago, facing defeat, the witch Morgana sent monsters into the future to vanquish a humanity King Arthur wouldn’t be able to save. The King might have won the battle, but now, centuries later, a few chosen men will have to fight the war.
Merlin always hated being named after some mythological wizard. His dad had been obsessed with the magic man of King Arthur’s Court before his untimely death – a loss that had sent Mel reeling in a downward spiral. He is ill-prepared, to say the least, for the outrageous claims of a proper English knight bent on overcoming evil.
Born a commoner, Lancelot was never supposed to be a knight in his own time, never mind now in a modern world he is so woefully untrained to protect. Thrown into a battle centuries in the making, this flawed hero, and a young man too-used to battling monsters of the present day, will have to come together in a last desperate fight to save humanity.
Can Mel and Lance defeat the greatest enemy the world has ever known? Or in the midst of fighting evil, will they discover the real threat has always been a shattered heart?
And what if the one fight they cannot ever hope to win is with themselves?
Get it on Amazon | Amazon UK
Excerpt
We know there is something different about you because you can see them. That is an absolute fact,” Gawain said at last.
“You think?”
Mel looked up at the mildly sarcastic tone Ali used, wondering why she sounded irritated.
“Merlin told Lance that he would know when the final battle was nearing. That something would happen to him. A sign.” Gawain stretched out his hands, almost in supplication.
“But I’m not yours, you said so.” Mel stared at Lance, unsure why he still felt the need to point it out. Turn the knife as his gran would say.
Lance bent his head, looking at the floor and frowning in concentration, and Mel felt almost bereft if that was the right word. Like he’d lost something he didn’t know he had in the first place. Am I mad? He barely existed in a crappy apartment and sold his body every night. He’d been originally going to save for something else, to be something else. It had been temporary, he had promised himself. And somehow nearly five years had gone. Would he still be selling sex in another five years, or would some psycho have slit his throat by then? Mel stared at the computer screen. He was protesting the loss of something he didn’t have in the first place.
A change is as good as a rest. His gran said that all the time as well. His earliest memories of his dad were being pulled onto his knee and told stories of knights and dragons and all the heroes his little heart could ever wish for.
And one day it had just stopped. It had seemed like his whole world had been on fire when his dad had woken him frantically and told him to run, as fast and as far as he could, and wait until he came for him.
But he never had. He’d hidden behind some old car and cried until a cop had found him. He’d been reunited with his mom a few hours later, and they’d had to go live in some awful motel. Then the other nightmare started—not worse than losing his dad, but like he’d lost him all over again. He used to lie in that room and have nightmares, some while he was asleep and some while he was awake. His mom was drinking, and it wasn’t long until she had gotten a boyfriend. And more importantly, no one had ever tried to explain what had happened. The sickening realization that his father might have died trying to protect him was a horrible one.
His life became a downward spiral, and his dad had never found them no matter which city Mom dragged him to. As a child he used to sit out at the end of the road and just wait for his dad to show up because he never believed he was dead. And somehow in the years that followed, he had forgotten that.
“What about my dad? I don’t believe with what you have told me his death was accidental, but I would have been easily found if they had looked. And I definitely didn’t meet any mysterious strangers that wanted to look after me.”
He wasn’t that lucky.
“I don’t know,” Lance admitted again. “The only clues we were given were fifteen hundred years ago from a dying man. You may be different because of the name.”
“No,” Mel challenged. “You are clutching at excuses because you refuse to believe Guinevere isn’t coming for you. You have this idea you are going to get her as a reward, but I have news for you, oh mighty knight of the realm or whatever you are. Life isn’t like that. Shit happens. Good guys die and bad guys win.”
His ears screamed with how loud the silence was.
Then Lance jumped up so quickly his chair toppled back, but he was out of the room before it hit the floor.
And Mel deflated. That wasn’t fair. He was sick of never being good enough, but that wasn’t Lance’s fault. “Should I go after him?”
“It depends if you are staying, I guess,” Ali said bluntly and righted the chair.
Mel stared at all of them, their expressions equal with hope and worry. He chewed at his bottom lip. He didn’t feel special, and he wasn’t sure even if Thor decided Mel was his he wanted to belong to him anyway.
Liar. He glanced around the room and weighed up the possibilities before him. Gawain? He wasn’t into the tortured-genius vibe really and had a feeling—even unintentionally—being around Gawain might make him feel a little inadequate.
Kay? On the surface Kay seemed to be as capable as Lance. He was certainly as hot—maybe even better-looking—but there was something about Kay that hinted at a great hurt and hidden vulnerability. He had a feeling it was going to take a strong man or woman to unravel him, and Mel wasn’t sure he was in the right headspace at the moment to be fair to either of them.
Ali? She was a badass, and he had a feeling they could become great friends, but the other half of her soul? Maybe not.
Lucan? Appearance-wise, Lucan was exactly what Mel would go for. Large, brooding, probably dominating in the bedroom, and muscles in exactly the right places…but.
But? Mel nearly screamed the frustrated thought. What was it about Mel that always made him want the very thing he could never have? Stability, honesty. Love?
He pushed the little voice away. “Is it safe here?”
Kay nodded to the computer screen. “More of Gawain’s genius.”
But Thor was still in his head no matter how much he wanted to push him away. How his gray eyes lit with determination. The strong lines of his face that screamed dependability. Mel could imagine him on a horse—would have to be a stallion. Full armor, arm brandishing the huge sword as he yelled his battle cry.
“Show me what to do.”
It was a decision. He lowered his eyes, not wanting to see either triumph or gratitude in theirs. Their enemy might be something unspeakably evil, but becoming dependent on Lance especially was just as dangerous. Someone who—despite his less than definite denials—was in love with someone else, a dead woman. It would be too easy to get carried away and imagine this knight belonged to him.
Author Bio
Victoria Sue fell in love with love stories as a child when she would hide away with her mom’s library books and dream of the dashing hero coming to rescue her from math homework. She never mastered math but never stopped loving her heroes and decided to give them the happy ever afters they fight so hard for.
She loves reading and writing about gorgeous boys loving each other the best—and creating a family for them to adore. Thrilled to hear from her readers, she can be found most days lurking on Facebook where she doesn’t need factor 1000 sun-cream to hide her freckles.
Website: www.victoriasue.com
Twitter: @vickysuewrites
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriasueauthor
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