Guest Author, Interview & Giveaway w/Larissa Ione

Ecstasy Unveiled (Demonica Series)

by Larissa Ione

Today  I am thrilled to be apart of the Ecstasy Unveiled Blog tour celebrating book 4 in the Demonica Series by Larissa Ione. Larissa was kind enough to answer some of my questions about her writing and Ecstasy Unveild. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to enter the Giveaway! I have 5 copies to give away of Ecstasy Unveild. So let's begin!
 

First off, I want to thank you for having me! Okay *flexes fingers* let’s get to it! :-)....Larissa Ione

If someone were writing a story about Larissa Ione, what would your blurb say?

ir Force veteran Larissa Ione was a storyteller from birth. As she grew, so did the tales. And now she’s trapped inside her head with demons, vampires, and humans with supernatural powers. She either needs therapy, medication, or to be rescued by a really hot doctor. Will help reach her before she loses her grip on reality completely?

Can you tell us a little about your newest release Ecstasy Unveiled?

I’d love to! Ecstasy Unveiled is the fourth book in the Demonica series, which is set in and around an underworld hospital run by vampires, demons, and werewolves. The core of these books is a family brothers, all of whom are demons, and none of whom were raised together. They fight a lot but they also are very close.

In Ecstasy Unveiled, a new brother makes waves, and the family unit is tested. Lore, the new brother and an assassin, is set against them when he’s forced to target a family friend. But the friend is being guarded by an angel, Idess, and she’s determined to keep Lore from doing what he needs to do to save his sister’s life. There’s lots of action in this book, and a lot of steamy scenes!

What is the hardest part for you about creating/continuing on with a series? Focusing on the current story. When you know the basic plots and arc of the books in the series, there are scenes you’re dying to write from books ahead of the one you’re working on. It’s so tempting to skip ahead when you’re stuck on the current book, and so easy to let yourself daydream about future books when you really need to be working on the one in front of you.

Have you ever encountered someone who said, “You write what!!! “? LOL – all the time! But I’m proud of what I write and how I got the point where I’m at, so really, I just shrug off any odd comments or weird looks.

Which of your Books would you like to see turned into a movie and who would play the main characters?

That’s a hard one! I guess the best one would be Passion Unleashed, because it’s very much an adventure book, and much of it takes place in Egypt. The main characters? Hmm…I think the hero, Wraith, could be played by Josh Holloway from LOST, and Julie Benz might make a great Serena.

What was your favorite scene to write in Ecstasy Unveiled? What was the most challenging?

My favorite scene is one where Eidolon, Tayla, and Wraith are discussing the Smurfs. I laughed all the way through that scene, because Eidolon is so serious and stoic, and it killed him to be talking about cartoon characters. The most challenging? Hmm…probably any scene where the brothers were fighting. They love each other so much, so making them be at each others’ throats was hard.

What advice would you give to people who "run out of creativity" when writing? Read and watch movies. Exercise. Get out of the house. It’s really, really important to fill the well.

Can you briefly tell the us how you Made My First Sale?

Well, I had basically given up on writing. I’d gotten so close to publication, and I was on the verge with a manuscript I loved…and then we were hit by Hurricane Katrina. We lost everything, and our hurricane insurance didn’t cover the storm surge damage, so none of our losses on the brand new house and contents were covered. Just days later, I got a rejection for that manuscript that was so close. I had to move with my son to Washington state to live with my parents for a year, while my husband, who is in the Coast Guard, remained in Mississippi, living on his boat and trying to take care of the mess.
So anyway, I basically gave up on writing, unable to take any more hits. But the writing community came to my rescue, and with all the support, I was able to get back on that horse. I threw caution to the wind, figuring I didn’t have anything left to lose, and I started submitting again. I sold my first story to Red Sage, and two weeks later sold 3 books (with writing partner Stephanie Tyler) to Random House, and then a few months after that, sold the Demonica series. It was awesome, and definitely worth the wait!

If you could be any heroine from one of your books, who would you be?

Probably Kira, from my Sydney Croft book, Unleashing the Storm. She can communicate psychically with animals, and I’m a huge animal lover, so she’s special to me. But I also wouldn’t mind being Tayla from Pleasure Unbound, because she’s a demon slayer, and she really kicks butt. *g*

What qualities are a must when creating your hero?

He’s got to be protective of what is his. He has to like animals. He has to be confident, and deep down, he’s got to have a soft inside, because on the outside, he’s hard.

Do book covers matter, would you go back and change any of yours if you could? Book covers are really important! I love them, and I will always pick up a book with a great cover. I’ve been very lucky, because my covers have all been fabulous. The only thing I’d change? The hair on the hero on the cover of Pleasure Unbound. Eidolon has short dark hair, and the model has longish, blond hair. He looks more like Wraith than Eidolon!

What is the most interesting thing you’ve done in the name of research?

 became an Emergency Medical Technician so I could accurately portray my medical heroes and heroines. Emergency medicine has always fascinated me, so it was fun to take the course and work on ambulances!

If you could ask readers any one question, what would it be?

Do you read the dedications in books? I’ve always been curious about that! I always read them. I’m probably a weirdo…

Thanks again for having me! It’s been fun!

SYNOPSIS: "A Demon Enslaved…
Lore is a Seminus half-breed demon who has been forced to act as his dark master's assassin. Now to earn his freedom and save his sister's life, he must complete one last kill. Powerful and ruthless, he'll stop at nothing to carry out this deadly mission.

An Angel Tempted…

Idess is an earthbound angel with a wild side, sworn to protect the human Lore is targeting. She's determined to thwart her wickedly handsome adversary by any means necessary-even if that means risking her vow of eternal chastity. But what begins as a simple seduction soon turns into a passion that leaves both angel and demon craving complete surrender.
Torn between duty and desire, Lore and Idess must join forces as they battle their attraction for each other. Because an enemy from the past is rising again-one hellbent on vengeance and unthinkable destruction."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I began writing the way so many writers do the moment I learned to wield a pencil. But even as a child, I didn't write "kid" stories. I preferred something more dramatic. Something that didn't include Dick, Jane, and a dog named Spot. I wanted my characters to be named Dracula and my dogs to have names like White Fang or Cujo. I'll always have my parents to thank for that. They never censored my reading material (though I suspect that if they had truly known what was between the covers of some of the books, they'd have been a little more careful,) so when other girls my age were reading Laura Ingalls Wilder and Judy Blume, I was immersing myself in Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

Later, after I'd joined the Air Force and was in dire need of something to read between shifts at the weather station, I continued to read horror, but I'd branched out into fantasy, and then, finally, romance (though I admit I went kicking and screaming to the latter.)

Turned out that I loved romance! So I started writing it, but again, my style and voice leaned toward the dark, paranormal side. Fortunately for me, paranormal romance, as a sub-genre, was booming. I let my imagination fly, and soon I'd sold a series of dark, sexy paranormal romances to Grand Central Publishing.

I still read a lot of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and in fact, one of my all time favorite books about writing is On Writing, by my favorite childhood horror author, Stephen King. If you're an author or a reader, I highly recommend this book for an insight into an author's mind—which can sometimes be a very scary place.

Go ahead; Seduce your dark side.

Author Website: LarissaIone.com

MySpace Author Page

Author Article: Bond of Brothers

Follow @LarissaIone on Twitter

Excerpts of previous books:

***GIVEAWAY***

With Many Thanks to Anna @ Hachette I have 5 copies of ECSTASY UNVEILED to give away!

+1 Entry for answering Larissa's question above

+3 If you are a follower

+7 If you pimp this contest out (tweet/sidebar count)

*** MUST LEAVE E-MAIL OR ENTRY WON'T COUNT!!! ***

Winner will be chosen via Random.org on Feb 12th

(open to US & Canada only, no PO Boxes, sorry publisher rules)