Having a SASSE Drink and Chatting with Violet Heart



Hello SASSE Readers, let’s welcome Violet Heart to our SASSE World. Pull up a chair and tell me if you prefer tea or coffee for our little chat.

Violet: Thank you so much for having me! I’m a tea drinker, as many Californians are. Twinings English Breakfast is my choice when I want caffeine, and Zen green tea with lemongrass is great when I simply want something hot and soothing. Those of you who really know me and follow me on Facebook know my evening preference is always VODKA!

SASSE: Tell the readers a little about yourself. How did you get into writing? Have you always thought you would be a romance writer?

Violet: When my third husband left me for a younger woman, I’d had it. No longer would I rely on a man. That’s when I began writing. Though commitment hasn’t worked out for me, I still believe life-long love is out there. I have enough friends in lasting marriages to see it firsthand. In a way, I’m addicted to the high that comes from new love. Boy meets girl. Sparks fly. The chemistry within a first kiss. The first time two bodies come together. As a result, it was natural for me to write romance because with each story I write, I get to experience those emotions and that high through my characters.

SASSE: What was the first romance book you ever read? What did you think? What was your first impression of the genre?

Violet: I read my first romance novel when I received it as a present during my fourteenth Christmas. To be honest, I can’t remember the title. Too many years and too much drama has clouded that memory. I do remember, however, the yearning it stirred in me. The desire to have a love like that for my very own. Since that first book, I’ve only read romance. I can’t get enough of it.

Purchase Sweet Backlash



 

 

 



 

Purchase Sweet Restraint

 

SASSE:  Can you explain to the readers about the Sweet Series? How did you come up with this series? Have you always desired to write BDSM romance stories?

Violet: When I worked as an author with Phaze Publishing, I noticed that BDSM books sold big. I wanted to write one specifically for Phaze, and that’s why I wrote Sweet Backlash. My friend and fellow writer, Laura Kitchell, works for a law firm in Norfolk, VA, and I love listening to her stories about the office. They inspired the story. Once I began writing Sweet Backlash, it became an obsession. I spent literally every spare moment working on it. To date, it’s the fastest book I’ve ever written. I had it fully drafted in ten days.

When my contract ended for Sweet Backlash, I happened to be writing for New Dawning International Bookfair, which has been my home for many years now. I wanted them to run a second edition of Sweet Backlash, but I didn’t want the book to stand alone. Plus, the heroine’s best friend had been begging me for too many years to writer her story. As a result, I wrote Sweet Restraint as a sister book so I could pitch Sweet as a series. I’m proud of both stories.

SASSE: Are each one of the stories in the series a standalone? Or will reader need to start at the first one to understand what is going on?

Violet: Sweet Backlash and Sweet Restraint, though they share characters, can be read out of order and still make complete sense. In Sweet Restraint, we see the main characters of Sweet Backlash a full year after their Happily Ever After, so it could actually be fun to read Sweet Restraint first then go back and read Sweet Backlash to see how that couple came together.

SASSE: Bring us into the world of your story Sweet Restraint. Introduce the readers to Kathy and Theo.

Violet: Kathy is a kickass Dom who loves the BDSM life. Theo is a Dom who’s done with it. When they meet, there’s only one direction for them. Unintentionally, they face their demons when waging sexual war against each other. In the end, they both find healing.

SASSE: What was the most emotionally challenging scene to write in the book?  Do you normally find yourself getting emotional while you write; crying, screaming…sighing?

Violet: Sweet Restraint is one of the few books that actually made me cry while writing it. That’s a big deal. I don’t cry. Theo had broken through Kathy’s substantially thick walls, but she was still clinging to defiance. In a scene where she demands he use the name of her choosing and not her given name, buried resentment and sorrow from her childhood surface. It cuts her to her soul, and my heart broke for her. I sobbed. I admit it.

SASSE: If you could write in any genre that you have never written in before what would it be?

Violet: Probably science fiction. I love the idea of world building, and the erotic possibilities are practically endless. Moowa-ha-ha-ha!  Don’t get excited, though. No promises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SASSE: Now let’s shift (pun intended). Tell us a little bit about Bitten and Bitten Too.

Violet: Ah, yes. For this, I actually have to back up a hair to the first story I wrote for New Dawning. New Dawning had put out an open call for erotic twisted fairytales. I wrote a Beauty and the Beast short story set in eleventh century Normandy titled “Hideous”. That’s how I came to this publisher. The book sold incredibly well, and I had discovered that not only did I thoroughly enjoy writing erotic paranormal historical but that not many authors write in this tiny niche. I wanted more, but I didn’t want to write vampires. Not yet, anyway. So I went with werewolves. That’s how I came to write Bitten. Bitten Too sprang naturally from a secondary character. Like the Sweet series, the Bitten series may be read out of order.

SASSE: What is coming next for you?

Violet: Brace yourselves. Erotic Greek mythology!  Dun-dun-daah!  I’ve written two stories so far but don’t have contract on these, so I’m currently kicking around the idea of self-publishing these. Either way, look for them in 2015. I’ll keep my website updated, so check it from time to time. You can find me at violetheartbooks.com, and you may friend me on Facebook.

SASSE: Thank you Violet, this has been just delightful to sit back with you and learn a little more about you and your story.

Purchase Bitten series:
Bitten
Bitten Too

Learn more about Violet Heart

After her third husband left her for a woman half her age, Violet Heart took her divorce settlement and bought a mansion in Beverly Hills. Now she spends her days at poolside writing books and surrounded by crazy up-and-coming rock musicians and actors who give her constant fodder for her stories. You may email her at violetheartbooks@yahoo.com and visit her on Facebook. Be sure to visit her website, violetheartbooks.com, for excerpts, teasers, and to see what's coming next.

            Website:  http://www.violetheartbooks.com/

            Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/violet.heart.5623