GIVEAWAY and INTERVIEW with Author Kate Douglas

Welcome Author Kate Douglas........

Several years ago before I started writing my blog I read several of Kate's books from the Wolf Tale Series and the Spirit Wild Series. Though I don't have reviews to share I would tell people reading this post that they are unique, sexy and worthwhile reads. So it is my pleasure to share Kate Douglas with my readers.

(Readers don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the article for my reviews of her books, information on some of her other series and a giveaway.)

GIVEAWAY WINNERS ANNOUNCED FURTHER DOWN THE PAGE

Coming Soon

If we were to sneak up on you writing what would the scene look like?

You’d catch me in my office, a 12 x 12 foot room that’s literarily bulging at the seams. It’s filled with books, two laptops, one PC, two  printers, a scanner, a portable heater, a fan, all my book covers framed on the walls, and every spare inch covered with bookshelves and more books. And that’s forgetting the filing cabinets, six-foot worktable (where the PC sits) and two storage cabinets. In the corner, jammed against a bookshelf, is an old beat-up recliner where I write. Oh, and I forgot to mention...my mountain bike is in here, too, set up on a trainer so I can ride and not go anywhere. It works as a stationary bike. I can’t run since injuring my Achilles (I was doing 2-3 miles every other day) so my husband set the bike up so I can exercise. Sitting all day is bad for your health. I also have a pull-up bar in the doorway and use it to keep my arms strong and my shoulder loose. (had shoulder surgery years ago and it still tightens up on me). Author maintenance is important—sitting can be bad for our health and I try to remember to keep the parts moving.

If it wasn’t such an embarrassing mess in here, I’d send you a picture, but I’ve been on such a tight schedule that I’ve been stacking rather than filing. Use your imagination...

When did you know you wanted to be an author? 

I had a poem published in the local newspaper when I was in the fourth grade, and I think that was my first incentive. I put it aside after discovering boys, but I’ve always loved to write, and come from a family of “diary keepers.” I have some old ones that fascinate me, and kept my own for years, but when I was expecting our second child in 1976, a friend got me started reading Harlequin romances, and I was hooked.

My work has always revolved around writing—copy writer for a radio station, drawing and composing a cartoon strip for a public health agency for seventeen years, newspaper reporter—but my energy was going to raising kids and being a wife and mom. I remember thinking I could write books like those romances—after the kids were older. In the early 1980s I actually dreamed an entire story and I got up and wrote like a madwoman. I still have that legal pad I wrote it all down on, and my handwriting was illegible even then, but it eventually became my very first, never published but proof I could do it, book. I still have it. I will freely admit I’m afraid to read it.

What obstacle did you have to overcome to make this happen?

I think I was my biggest obstacle. I entered the first three chapters of that original book in an RWA writing contest and won first prize, which was the incentive to write the whole thing, but I was really enjoying raising the kids, their dad had a stressful job and then commuted for a couple of years 120 miles each way to work—daily. It was a full time job just keeping the household going, plus I was a full time newspaper reporter for a small, weekly paper in the mountains up out of Fresno where we lived. That job satisfied my need to write. Doug got transferred to Sonoma Co. and the kids were in school, I didn’t have my newspaper job so I got serious about writing romances. I started  submitting my finished book to various publishers—one at a time, because they wouldn’t take simultaneous submissions and we had to type the book—at least I had an electric typewriter—and mail the original (or pay to have a copy made) to an editor with return postage enclosed and then wait. Often up to six to eight months for the thing to show up back in my mailbox with a rejection letter.

Without an agent it was hard to get anyone to actually look at a manuscript, but I kept writing and sending and raising kids and taking care of my husband. (He’s wonderful, but I used to tease him about being high maintenance...he’s gotten more self-sufficient since he retired) I became the queen of rejections and I can honestly say I got rejected by some of the best in the business. My first sale was to an ebook company in 1998 or 99—I honestly can’t recall at this point, because the book didn’t come out until 1999, I think. But this was before people even knew what ebooks were, so my sales were not earthshattering.

What’s interesting, though, is that I started finding readers then that have stuck with me for all these years. I think that’s really cool. And my first sale to New York, when I was 55 years old, was Wolf Tales, a book that started out as an online serial with Changeling Press, a small epub that’s still in business and still putting out terrific books.

 What is one thing you'd like your readers to get from your books?

That love heals. It makes us whole and it doesn’t always have to be the traditional romantic relationships that are the best ones. That sometimes it’s the family we create through friendships that are better than the ones we were born to. Obviously that’s more than one thing, but essentially it’s that we have to have love in our lives. Love of friends, of family, or the family we build. I’m a diehard romantic—I live for those happy endings!

Of all your book heroes, which is your favorite one, what book is he in and why did you choose him?

The one I love the most is the one who drives me batshit crazy, and that would be Anton Cheval, my über-alpha shapeshifter from my Wolf Tales and Spirit Wild series. He’s in all twenty five “Chanku” novels and novellas to date. Anton was a secondary character in the very first Wolf Tales who stepped in and took over. He was and still is stronger, smarter, better looking and more irritating than any other hero I’ve written before or since, and when I haven’t mentioned him in a story for a while, he haunts me. He’s been driving me batshit crazy for the past year now because I’ve been busy writing romantic suspense for St. Martin’s and haven’t written a new Chanku story. Since that’s my next project, I’m hoping to shut him up.

I think it’s the character who takes on a life of his own who becomes memorable. Anton has done things in stories that were so unexpected that I swear I can hear him laughing at me while I’m writing his scenes. He has a distinct voice that I actually hear when I’m writing in his point of view. I keep worrying that maybe I didn’t make him up, that I might be channeling a real entity, which would just be weird, especially since I’m usually writing about his very active sex life—one he enjoys with members of both sex, often with his mate but just as often with other members of his pack. It’s all good.

How about your favorite book heroine, which is your favorite one, what book is she in and why did you choose her?

That’s easy—Keisha Rialto, Anton’s mate. She’s amazing—for one thing, she hasn’t killed him yet—and she’s another character who came to me with a look and a voice that were so powerful I will never forget her. Weirdest thing when Barack Obama was first running for president and his wife Michelle was introduced on stage, I just about freaked out in the front room! I knew she was Keisha. She looks exactly as I had imagined Anton’s mate. Tall, strong, and beautiful, very well-spoken and determined. Keisha has to be because the Chanku are a matriarchal society, which means she has to wear the pants in that relationship. And she does. I love writing her scenes! I actually wrote a book in Wolf Tales, Wolf Tales 11, where Keisha goes undercover to help thwart an attempt on the President and First Lady. I never mention them by name, but it’s obvious who they are.

Can you share what this year will look like as far as new books coming out? 
See the graphic above for the book covers discussed in this question.....

I have a lot in 2016, actually. GROWL already released January 5—that’s an anthology of three complete novels (and yes, it’s a BIG book!) with FERAL PASSIONS, the first of my werewolf stories for St. Martin’s Press which originally released last September in an ebook duet. My next release is the ebook novella of TANGLED, the prequel to my Intimate Relations series that was originally in the HOT ALPHAS anthology. That comes out on May 3. (The first two novels in the series, INTIMATE and REDEMPTION both released in December.)The second book in the Feral Passions series, WILD PASSIONS, comes out June 7 as an ebook duet in Claimed by the Mate, Vol. 2 with AC Arthur. The third and final book in my Intimate Relations romantic suspense series, AWAKENED, releases June 28, 2016, and the WILD anthology with WILD PASSIONS comes out in print September 20, 2016. The third in my Feral Passions series, DANGEROUS PASSIONS, just went to my editor yesterday, and I don’t have a release date on it yet.

And yes. It’s going to be crazy trying to keep those straight, especially since I intend to get to work on the next Chanku story as soon as possible.

 What is the most unusual thing about you that others don’t know and you are willing to share?

I wish I could think of something, but my life’s always been an open book. Although one thing that I’ve not talked about too much is that my husband did my genealogy a few years ago, tracing my family’s roots. (He already had his, courtesy of genealogists on both his mother’s and father’s sides, and used to tease me about being a mutt) Anyway, my father died when I was in my early twenties, he was estranged from his family, and all we knew about his people was that most of them lived in Tennessee and that our last name was an English surname. Nothing special. Doug (my husband) got to hunting for information, and we came across names of cousins I’d met once when I was about five. We discovered, through them, that the last name I’d grown up with wasn’t the original family name at all, that my grandparents on my father’s side were both from Russia and had emigrated in 1903 and 1905, I think. They married in this country. I’d have to hunt for the exact dates, but my last name, if my grandfather hadn’t changed it around 1920 when my father was about two, would have been Trelisky. I’m a Russian Jew on my father’s side. Not English at all!

I met one of my cousins a few years ago, and he looks so much like my older brother it’s just weird. I’ve got other cousins I’ve yet to meet, but we’ve been in touch via email and on Facebook. It’s been fun, and a reminder that family isn’t always what you think it is.

Sometimes, it’s a lot more interesting!

Thanks, Teri, for the chance to take over your blog for the day. Sorry it took me so long to get to these, but I had this book to finish writing...

Kate Douglas

(Readers don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the article for my reviews of her books, information on some of her other series and a giveaway.)

Some people just seem to know they are meant to write, but it can still take a while to figure out exactly what their career will entail. Kate Douglas started out writing radio copy for a country western radio station in 1972, wrote and illustrated an educational cartoon strip for the American Mosquito Control Association for a number of years, was a newspaper reporter for a small town weekly where she covered everything from high school sports to drug busts, and then, in the mid-1980s, decided to write her first romance.

Many submissions and rejections followed.

In 1998, she published with a small ebook publisher before anyone knew what an ebook was, but it wasn't until 2005, a full twenty years after finishing that first romance, that she signed with a New York publisher.

In January 2006, Kensington Publishing launched their Aphrodisia imprint of erotic romance with Kate's Wolf Tales, a sexy paranormal series about a lost race of shapeshifters. Kate has continued on as the imprint's lead author, with twenty-one novels and novellas in the full Wolf Tales series. She also has a series with Kensington's Zebra imprint, DemonSlayers, and has just completed her latest Aphrodisia series, Dream Catchers, which opened with the NightShift anthology and her novella, Dream Catcher, followed by the novels Dream Bound and Dream Unchained.

Kate and her husband of over forty years have two adult children and six grandchildren. They live in the small town of Healdsburg, California, in the heart of the beautiful Sonoma County wine country. 

~ Find The Author At ~

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Google+

Intimate Relations

My Review

My Review

Coming Soon

Kate Douglas—book list

Romantic Suspense:

Intimate Relations

Tangled/Hot Alphas anthology

Intimate

Redemption

Awakened (June 2016)

Lethal

Lethal Deception

Lethal Obsession

Carved in Stone (stand alone)

Erotic Paranormal:

Wolf Games

(released as ebook 2-author duets first, then in print 3-author anthologies)

Feral Passions (Claimed by the Mate Vol 1/GROWL—out now)

Wild Passions (Claimed by the Mate Vol 2/WILD –out June in ebook, September in print)

Dangerous Passions (TBA)

Wolf Tales
Sexy Beast—Chanku Rising/or Wolf Tales 1.5 Chanku Rising
Wolf Tales II
Wild Nights—Camille’s Dawn / or Wolf Tales 2.5 Chanku Dawn
Wolf Tales III
Sexy Beast II—Chanku Fallen / or Wolf Tales 3.5 Chanku Fallen
Wolf Tales IV
Sexy Beast III—Chanku Journey / or Wolf Tales 4.5 Chanku Journey
Wolf Tales V
Sexy Beast IV—Chanku Destiny / or Wolf Tales 5.5 Chanku Destiny
Wolf Tales VI
Sexy Beast V—Chanku Wild / or Wolf Tales 6.5 Chanku Wild
Wolf Tales VII
Sexy Beast VI--Chanku Honor / or Wolf Tales 7.5 Chanku Honor
Wolf Tales VIII
Sexy Beast VII--Chanku Challenge /or Wolf Tales 8.5 Chanku Challenge
Wolf Tales 9
Sexy Beast VIII--Chanku Spirit /or Wolf Tales 9.5 Chanku Spirit
Wolf Tales 10
Wolf Tales 11
Wolf Tales 12

Spirit Wild: Chanku 2nd  Generation
Dark Wolf
Dark Spirit
Dark Moon
Dark Refuge

Dream Catchers

Dream Catcher/Nightshift anthology

Dream Bound

Dream Unchained

Demon Lovers

(ebooks only)

Unbalanced (perma-free)

Unbound

Unmasked

Unleashed

Undaunted

Dragons & Dreams

ebooks only)

Finding Magic

Chasing Dragons

Paranormal

DemonFire

HellFire

Crystal Dreams/Nocturnal anthology

StarFire

CrystalFire

Contemporary Romance

Cowboy in my Pocket

Dime Store Cowboy/Promise of Love anthology

68 & Climbing

Contemporary Erotic Romance

A Very Good Thing (m/m romance)

Something Even Better (m/m/f romance)

Historical

My Valentine (novella) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~ Find Sportochick At ~

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Barnes&Noble| Amazon 
| Bloglovin' | Networked Blogs | Tsu | Pinterest (Book Reviews and Interviews)