Paranormal Romance Fans for Life: Author Interview: Lindsey Piper Author of Caged Warrior, The Dragon King Series

Please help us in welcoming Lindsey Piper and her Dragon King Series to our blog today! Welcom, Lindsey! Please make yourself comfortable and we will get started.
So....

Where are you from and from where/who did your love for writing come from?

I think some brains must be hardwired for storytelling. My mother still has papers from when I was two or three, trying to form sentences the best I could. I’ve always had a need to express myself, through art and song and dance, but writing is the one I’m actually good at!

Can you say that your journey to publication was difficult? If so, what were the hardest moments to get through?

The hardest moments are when certainty evaporates. That’s the reminder this is a job as much as any, where layoffs are always possible. If I’m under contract and happily writing along...yay! If I see a blank spot on the horizon, I don’t breathe a sigh of relief that I can take some time off. Heck no! Time to get the thinking cap on and work harder. It was during a pause like that when I came up with the proposal for “The Dragon Kings.”

How do you overcome i-suck-it is, that little voice in your head that tells you your writing isn’t good enough?

Heh. Um. The computer program “Write or Die” is about the only answer I can give you. Oh, and being under contract. It’s hard to give into that voice for too long when an editor is tapping her foot, waiting for a draft! But believe me, the little voice never goes away.

What is your dream vacation?

Lounging, sleeping, eating, Italy, cool breezes, clear nights, and more eating...probably Italian food, since I’d be in Italy.

Describe your writing style in five words.

Intense, sexy, emotional, unabashed, risk-taking.

What movies are you currently excited to see?

I just saw my absolute must-see of the year, Before Midnight, so I’m a happy little bunny. I’ve been following Jessie and Celine since their start. It’s like watching my life in a fictional mirror, aging exactly with each film. But now I’m looking forward to The Conjuring (I adore horror films) and a sing-along of Grease showing at my local cinema next month!

What are you currently reading?

Because we’re in between seasons, I’m back to Game of Thrones. I should finish it before my daughters head off to college.

If you weren’t a writer, what other careers would you pursue?

I have a master’s in history, so I’d probably be teaching high school or community college history, or now that I have a pretty hefty publishing resume, I’d teach creative writing. I love teaching.

If you could create a holiday of your own, what would it be called?

Don’t Talk to Me, I’m Sleeping.

For people who haven’t read your novel, how would you summarize the plot?

A man who’s fought in Cage matches all his life is tasked with training a woman to become his partner in battle. He has extraordinary senses and reflexes, while she is just discovering how volatile her powers are—powers she didn’t know she had. They’re a race on the edge of extinction, which means the ultimate prize in these sport matches is the right to conceive. He wants a child. She wants to save her kidnapped son. Somehow they manage not to kill each other in the meantime, even falling in love. Because it’s a romance, after all!

What are two of your pet-peeves?

Bad drivers and dog owners who let their dogs bark on and on and on and on and on...

To you, what makes a good story?

Compelling characters. Make them vampires or BDSM fetishists or rodeo cowboys—I don’t care. Just make me care about them, and I’ll follow them to their happy ending, no matter how they need to get there!

What usually turns you off about a story?

Just the opposite of the above answer: characters that aren’t compelling. A character doesn’t have to be like me in order for me to relate to him or her. In fact, the more escapism the better! But if something rings false about their logic or emotions or behavior, I can’t get into them as “people” I want to root for.

If you could collaborate with any author, who would you choose, and why?

Ian McEwan. He wrote Atonement, which was adapted into a movie starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. He blows my mind. Intense and literarily stunning, and always with a twist ending. I look for it. I really do! But I never see it coming. I’d love to see how a mind like that works, and try to keep up.

What is on your night stand?

Lotion. iPod. Kindle. And a magazine that’s probably four months old but has Bradley Cooper on the cover!

What is your favorite book?

Atonement, followed closely by Dune. Among romances, it’s Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor.

SERIES SPOTLIGHT INFO:

SILENT WARRIOR

The Dragon Kings, Prequel Novella

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A silent woman ashamed of her criminal background becomes a Cage warrior to seek redemption. An unrepentant fortune hunter will do anything to escape his mounting debts. Although rivals on the streets of Hong Kong, they find common ground when seeking their clan’s stolen idol, but for vastly different reasons. Neither one suspects that love will begin when he becomes the first man in five years to hear her speak.

CAGED WARRIOR

The Dragon Kings, Book 1

Publication Date: June 25, 2013
Publisher: Pocket Star
Print ISBN: 978-1451695915
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Ten years ago, Audrey MacLaren chose to marry her human lover, making her an exile from the Dragon Kings, an ancient race of demons once worshiped as earthly gods. Audrey and her husband managed to conceive, and their son is the first natural-born Dragon King in a generation–which makes him irresistible to the sadistic scientist whose mafia-funded technology allows demon procreation. In the year since her husband was murdered, Audrey and her little boy have endured hideous experiments.

Shackled with a collar and bound for life, Leto Garnis is a Cage warrior. Only through combat can Dragon Kings earn the privilege of conceiving children. Leto uses his superhuman speed and reflexes to secure the right for his two sisters to start families. After torture reveals Audrey’s astonishing pyrokenesis, she is sent to fight in the Cages. If she survives a year, she will be reunited with her son. Leto is charged with her training. Initially, he has no sympathy for her plight. But if natural conception is possible, what has he been fighting for? As enemies, sparring partners, lovers, and eventual allies, Leto and Audrey learn that in a violent underground world, love is the only prize worth winning.

BLOOD WARRIOR

The Dragon Kings, Book 3

Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: Pocket Star
Print ISBN: 978-1451695922
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Digital ISBN: 978-1451695953
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As a young man, sarcastic, violent Tallis Pendray believed the Dragon Kings’ survival depended on a prophecy delivered in dreams by a woman named “the Sun.” His role has been to complete inexplicable, even reprehensible tasks. First, by murdering a priest, he united his fragmented clan in their hatred of him. Dubbed “the Heretic,” Tallis fled his family’s Highland estate. Now disillusioned, he seeks revenge on the woman he holds responsible for two decades of exile.

Telepath Kavya Indranan is a charismatic, seductive cult leader born to a prominent family. However, she grew up terrorized by the ominous threat of her powerful, insane twin brother. On the run and hiding among the poor, she witnessed the destruction wrought by her clan’s centuries-old civil war. Maturity nurtures Kavya’s determination to end the cycle of bloodshed. Those who follow her call for peace have nicknamed her “the Sun.”

Bent on revenge, and without knowledge of Kavya’s noble intentions, Tallis kidnaps her on the eve of her groundbreaking announcement. The two watch in horror as her twin brutally smashes the tentative truce…and hunts the sister whose death would make him invincible.

Kavya is the Sun–revered, untouched, and bound by a lonely destiny that promises a deadly showdown against the last of her family. Tallis is the Heretic–despised and exiled because of actions that seem random, heartless, and contrary to the safety of the clans he protects. She’s not a goddess, and he’s not a natural born killer. A desperate trek from the Himalayan foothills to the Scottish Highlands reveals two secluded souls hidden by bloody reputations. Will their trust be strong enough to avert an all-out war that could destroy them, and their kind, forever?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lindsey Piper is the alter ego of an award-winning historical and contemporary romance author. Her hotly anticipated DRAGON KINGS series is her first foray into paranormal fiction. She lives and writes in Chicago.