Interview with Genella deGrey



Welcome Genella,

BW: Thank you for letting me interview you with some ordinary and some offbeat questions. Our readers are an International lot, so how about you tell us what region of the world you live in and what do you think makes it unique? (Be as general or as specific as you like with your location)

GD: Hi Brenda – thanks for having me! I was born and raised in Southern California and currently reside in “The entertainment capital of the world,” which is Burbank, as opposed to Hollywood. In fact, we are just over the hill from Hollywood.

BW: The common question for most writers is how you chose a career in writing? If you have an answer, go ahead and share, but we’d really like to know is have you ever done any writing while in the nude? And why or why not?

GD: It’s likely too early on to call it a career, but someday it would be nice to tag it that way. :)
       I have not done any writing in the nude – I’m most certain I wouldn’t like the way my desk chair would stick to my backside. LOL

BW: What do you find the hardest part of writing a book? Maybe the plot, the research, lack of time, or something else?

GD: My bloody fickle muse makes it tough. I have to be in the right mindset – especially for those scenes (wink, wink - being a single gal it’s difficult to conjure up the steam all by me one-sies, if you know what I mean) – and I would love to have more time to write (without worrying about paying the rent, etc.)

BW: Is writing your only career, or do you have what some people call “the day job”?

GD: I do have a day job – I am currently working as a creative assistant for the Blue Sky Team at Walt Disney Imagineering. And I have to tell you I LOVE it here. :)

BW: How much candy do you eat and what’s your favorite?

GD: On a normal month (not October or December) I can get by with one piece right before “that time.” I’m not really a huge sweets person, but you know a gal really needs her chocolate to tame the PMS beast within. LOL
       My favorite is See’s Candies – any of their Dark Chocolate or White Chocolate by Dove. Mmmm. Suggestion for a rainy night (or any night, really) : Watch the movie, “Chocolat” while taking nibbles of your Chocolate. Between that and Johnny Depp, I promise you’ll fully enjoy the experience. :)

BW: Are you married, have children or is your baby a bit fuzzy like a cat or dog, and how do they help or hinder your writing?

GD: Two questions ago, I was single . . . Sadly, that is still the case. ;) Single and looking for a good (sexy & smart) man.
        I have two adult children and a 7 year-old – none of which help nor hinder the writing. :)

BW: Do you get to travel for researching your books or pleasure, or do you have a life that has chained you to your neck of the woods? And where did you last go or where would you like to go?

GD: I do so love to travel! I’ve done it for research (not too much, though) but mostly for pleasure or romance novel conventions. My last trip was to Houston, Texas where I met up with a bunch of friends to go to a renaissance festival. I have to admit, it what the best time I’ve had all year – I even got to sign a couple of books while in Houston. :)

BW: What body part do you find sexy about a man?

GD: His smile – so that would be his mouth . . . . Yeah. His mouth. Ahem.

BW: What body part do you find sexy about a woman?

GD: Hm. It’s not a body part – More like if she’s friendly or not. . . and I guess that doesn’t have much to do with “sexy” per se. Although confidence is always sexy on a man or a woman.

BW: What story are you currently working on and can you give us the first glimpse of a couple paragraphs? We know it might be the unedited first draft, but it would really be a special treat to see a smidge of something in progress.

GD: I’m gearing up for the 30 January release of “Masterpiece,” where A Greek myth’s curse unfolds in Renaissance Italy. After that I will be editing “A Touch of Destiny” (a sexy Victorian old west romance where a widow gets another chance at love with a handsome young wanderer) and “Whisked Away,” (a related book about a couple of characters from ATod) – both set for release sometime in 2012. Once those are finished, I’m hoping to pick up my work in progress, “Cat and Mouse.” Here is a taste for your enjoyment (unedited) :

EXCERPT:

The London Season, 1898

Does she have to be so bloody loud? The woman mewled like a cat in heat. For God's sake, it's only a buggering.

From underneath the partially refurbished rig in a fashionable London town house’s repair shed, Katrina waited, ice pick in hand, for the perfect opportunity. Thankfully the woman, who may or may not have been in the throes of passion, was too occupied with her ear-piercing song to notice when her overly-gauche diamond necklace, heavy with its sparkling decoration, slid 'round to dangle from the back of her neck. The woman must have been hanging half-way out of the buggy's door, for the top of her blond head nearly swept the ground. Had the thing wheels, her coiffure wouldn't be in danger of attracting bits of hay and dirt from the floor—then again, Katrina wouldn't have been so well-hidden in the moonlight-dappled buggy port.

It was now or never. Eyeing the stone she'd chosen to detach from the ensemble, Katrina adjusted the instrument of liberation in her grip.

The woman who'd been vocalizing her crisis, feigned or not, quieted.

"Come, Mrs. Fowler, this is no time to be silent." The man doing the rogering, and the front-row-center recipient of her concert, hissed in a strangled whisper.

"Shut up you lout. I'm almost there," she retorted.

At once the rig rocked with the vigor of thief fleeing a crime scene. Katrina reached out to grasp the winking stone between her fingers when all at once, the entire necklace fell to the floor.

BW: It’s been a pleasure torturing you with questions and I hope not too painful a process in coming up with answers, and we hope to have you back again.

GD: Not torturous at all, it was my honor, Brenda. :)

 
 
Masterpiece
 
Available from Total E Bound Publishing
 
1605, Rome, Italy


It is the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. A handful of women artists emerge from the male-dominated middle ages to stand out among the crowd. A promising young painter, Gia Vessa, has just moved to Rome after the death of her father and immediately catches the eye of a handsome, wealthy man who seeks to become her benefactor. But what else will the sensually dark man want from her that she’d be more than willing to give?

Handsome as the Devil himself, affluent art collector, Pietro Scarabassi, has a secret. For thousands of years his spirit has waited to find the soul of Ciri, the young woman who gave away what he felt was rightfully his—her virtue, to some unworthy whelp. Now that he has finally found her manifested into the human form of the budding artist, Gia Vessa, Pietro will stop at nothing to destroy her and her lover.

Trapped inside a stone pillar that was once part of a Grecian temple of Venus, Zander has witnessed lovers worship each other and the goddess for centuries as he waited to be freed. Finally the day has come and he is able to use the few supernatural gifts the gods have bestowed upon him, but he must determine who houses the soul of his lover, Ciri. Once he finds her, he must foil the plans of their enemy, slay the demigod in human form and end the curse forever.

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2 comments:

  1. My readers are very shy apparently. :D
    Thanks for having me, Brenda!
    :)
    G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome. Most readers don't comment too often, I know from experience. I read a lot of blogs and rarely comment.

    ReplyDelete