Interview with Tina Donahue

Hello and welcome to my blog! Please give a big welcome to Tina Donahue, who is appearing today for an interview.

Tina, thank you for coming by, and thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Tell me about yourself.

Hey, Nikki – great to be here. Hmm, you want to know about me. Well, I’m a chocoholic. Been known to scarf down Hershey’s dark chocolates in supermarket checkout lines and to swerve across several lanes of freeway traffic if I spot a Dairy Queen (love their Oreo Blizzards). I’ve flown a single engine airplane (when I was very brave and stupid) and will read anything, even the backs of cereal boxes if I’ve run out of books.

How long have you been writing? How many published books do you have, and what genres?

I can’t recall a time I wasn’t writing. I wrote my first “book” – an illustrated tale of Dimples, the Adventurous Flea, when I was nine. My family didn’t have access to a copy machine, so I made several copies by hand. (my fingers were clawed for days after that). Being enterprising, young and very ballsy, I hawked my tale around the neighborhood. My first book tour! Got a few bucks, several cookies and candy bars in exchange for my tale. 

Currently, I have 24 published books (Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Kensington Publishing) with my 25^th being released in December. I write erotic romance in paranormal, contemporary, historical subgenres.

Here’s my official bio and links:

Tina Donahue is an award-winning, bestselling novelist in erotic, paranormal, contemporary and historical romance for Samhain Publishing, Ellora’s Cave, and Kensington. Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Romantic Times and numerous online sites have praised her work. Three of her erotic romances (Adored, Lush Velvet Nights, and Deep, Dark, Delicious) were named finalists in the 2011 EPIC competition. The French review site, Blue Moon reviews, chose her erotic romance Sensual Stranger as their Book of the Year 2010 (erotic category). The Golden Nib Award at Miz Love Loves Books was created specifically for Lush Velvet Nights, and two of her titles (The Yearning and Deep, Dark, Delicious) received an Award of Merit in the RWA Holt Medallion competition (2011 and 2012). Take Me Away and Adored both won second place in the NEC RWA contest (different years). Tina is featured in the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. She was the editor of an award–winning Midwestern newspaper and worked in Story Direction for a Hollywood production company.

Email: tina@tinadonahue.com

Website/blog: www.tinadonahue.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tinadonahue

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/authortina/my-books/

Are you a plotter or do you write from the seat of your pants?

Definitely a plotter. My outlines are often several hundred pages in length with research and photos of what I want my locales/people to look like. I like to think of my outlines as dry runs for the real thing. By the time I finish an outline, I have a very clear idea of where I’m going and I can dash off the story much more easily that way. It’s like planning a trip. For me, I get to my destination faster if I have a map and a route.

What is a typical writing day like for you?

I write for several hours before going to my EDJ (Evil Day Job) and when I’m finished with work for the day I write again. I write seven days a week except for Christmas and New Years.

Who do you love to read? Favorite authors, favorite books?

There are so many. However, the ones that come to mind are Lawrence Sanders – his Love Songs is absolutely awesome. Sol Stein’s Other People. Hilma Wolitzer’s Hearts (I still smile when I think about parts of it). Shanna by KathleenWoodiwiss – one of the all-time best historical romances. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. VC Andrew’s Flowers in the Attic. I could go on and on.

If you could have one paranormal ability, what would it be?

Wow, that’s a hard one. Either being able to fly or being invisible.

If you could keep a mythical/ paranormal creature as a pet, what would you have?

I want to say a unicorn. However, they probably eat a lot and I’d need a huge backyard so the darling creature could run around. 

Tell us a little about your latest release.

I actually have two.

Claiming Magique, Book One in my Appointment with Pleasure series, is an erotic contemporary. Here’s the blurb:

A man at the center of power…a woman who won’t be ruled…

They call her Magique.

Sought out by the District’s elite, she’s no ordinary call girl, deciding who will pleasure her for the evening. Her preference is for several men at once. Games of bondage and submission heighten her arousal and desire to have a strong male take her…to be adored.

Lobbyist Hunter Prescott was only looking for a good time, not a woman who unleashes a hunger so deep it changes his world. He won’t stop until Magique is his alone, a prisoner of his lust, powerless against his growing need for her body and heart.

With this man, resistance isn’t allowed. For this woman, he’ll create a world of sensual delight and yearning like none she’s known. Proving that only with trust and true surrender will she find unparalleled rapture.

More info: http://www.jasminejade.com/p-10319-claiming-magique.aspx

Illicit Desire, Book Two in my Outlawed Realm series, is an erotic paranormal. Here’s the blurb:

Pleasure that destroys all thought. Love that shatters all barriers.

Once a sex slave marked for termination, Lukan was miraculously liberated from E4’s Pleasure Palace, where E2’s fine, upstanding rulers secretly indulge their cravings for every imaginable vice. But freedom is not enough.

He left his heart behind with Arez. Within her fragrant, heated caress, he knew everything denied him. Rapture, contentment, tenderness…and love. Desperate to have her back in his arms, he embarks on a dangerous mission to deliver his untamed temptress from the certain death she does not know awaits her.

Within her velvet cage Arez knew only carnal submission and loneliness—until Lukan. But he has disappeared, and she senses something different in the way the supreme ruler is using her. Then, as if Lukan felt her longing for his strong arms and fevered kisses, he is there to sweep her from this twilight dimension to another.

But true freedom lies just out of his grasp. To reach the last portal—and their destiny—Lukan and Arez must first outwit an army of predators that hunt them. Human, subhuman…and monsters.

More info: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/illicit-desire-p-6991.html

What is something that you absolutely can't live without? (Other than family members)

Internet. Do all of my research on it. So much faster than having to go to the library like we had to just a decade or so ago.

What are some of your other hobbies outside of writing? I do like to shop. Macy’s is my second home. :)

What is a talent you wish you had, but don't? To be able to sing like Adele, Whitney Houston, LeAnn Rimes, Carrie Underwood. Any of them. Amazing talents.

Favorite color? Copper.

Weather: Hot or cold? Cold. I live in the desert Southwest. Gets to 127 during the summer. Brutal.

Favorite place to read? Bed

Favorite meal Toss up between Mexican and Italian

Favorite non-alcoholic drink. Chocolate milk.

If you could travel anywhere and do anything, no limits or money holding you back, where would you go?

Granada, Spain. I did quite a bit of research on that area for my historical romance Just One Kiss. Fell in love with that part of the world.

Website: http://www.tinadonahue.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tinadonahue
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/authortina/my-books/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/tinadonahue

Illicit Desires on Nook