An interview with Juliet Chastain

Please join me in welcoming Juliet Chastain as she shares with us a little about her writing and her latest book release, The Captain and the Courtesan.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:
1) Links to website and list of books with purchase links.
Website

The Captain and the Courtesan available at:
Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Bookstrand
1 Place for Romance
Breathlesspress.com

2) How long have you been writing? What got you in to writing?

Back in sixth grade, inspired by a wall calendar with photographs of kittens (one of my most treasured possessions at the time) I wrote a sad story about a couple of kittens. This tragic tale made me cry and got me an “A” from my teacher.

Along the way, I switched focus, so to speak, and became a photographer. But here I am, after fifteen years shooting fashion, writing again. This time my stories have lots of steamy romance and happy endings. No kittens no sad tears.

3) What was your first published book? Looking back, is there anything you’d change about it?
The Captain and the Courtesan is my first published book.

4) What or who has influenced your writing?
I adore Jane Austin, especially Pride and Prejudice. Growing up I loved Charlotte Bronte and Louisa May Alcott. I think their spunky heroines who are overcome by love had a strong influence on what I want to write.

5) Where do you get your ideas?
Wish I knew. A little snippet of something pops into my brain, and sometimes I take that and start writing and more ideas come that eventually make a story. Sometimes no more ideas come and I get really cranky and go do something else.

6) What hinders your writing? (distractions? noise?)
Computer non-co-operation (the truth is, I don't really know how to use it)


7) What genre are you most comfortable with? What would you like to explore?
I have several things in the works. One is a full-length mystery with a photographer heroine. Another is a sprawling family saga—the family members are witches. Right now I'm concentrating on a few more short erotic romances that are almost ready for submission.

8) Are you a by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of writer, or do you have to use an outline to put your collective thoughts into some semblance of common sense?
I'm a pantser but trying to become more organized!

9) Which of your books is your favorite? Why?

I have only one book out now, and a couple more soon to be released. So far, I must admit that I am pretty fond of them all.

10) Do you incorporate some of yourself into your characters? Personality traits? Likes? Dislikes?
I think I do that a little, but I mix it up with other people's characteristics.

11) What do you think is the perfect hero/heroine? Why?
For romance stories, the hunky, powerful hero is a given. I tend to like him to be gentle, sensitive and kind as well. The heroine should be someone I like—smart, spirited, and nice.

12) What is your latest release? Please share the blurb and purchase info with us.

The Captain and the Courtesan.

BLURB:
Against his conscience, Captain Edward Howland buys a night with the enchanting and mysterious masked courtesan, Lady Amelia Kentley, and their evening together becomes far more than either expected.

As her first night as a courtesan approaches, the mysterious masked noblewoman is the talk of London. Impoverished Lady Amelia Kentley, wearing a mask to hide her identity, is resigned to her fate, working in a brothel to support her child and herself. When she meets the kindly and passionate sea Captain Edward Howland, she is shocked at the powerful attraction she feels for him. She hopes that he will be her first paying lover. Dare she dream of more, of running away from her degrading situation with him?

Edward disdains paid-for sex, but he is so enchanted with the masked Lady Amelia that he cannot resist the chance to claim a night's pleasure with her before he sets sail in the morning. They share hours of overwhelming passion, and a deep affection develops between them. By daybreak, Edward is determined to find a way to rescue her from her fate as a courtesan, but can he do so without besmirching his honor?

Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Bookstrand
1 Place for Romance
Breathlesspress.com

13) What do you have in the works?

In February Cry of the Wolf , a short story, in which a hunk of a man who is also a wolf, keeps his passionate love a secret, certain that the woman he adores could never love a man who was also a wolf.

Gypsy Lover will be released in April. Dragged off to London kicking and screaming, to become a proper young lady, Lucy-Anne Spencer rebels. She doesn't want the suitable husband she is supposed to find but longs instead for the Gypsy lad and the freedom she once loved.

14) Do you have any suggestions/comments for prospective authors?
This is hard. Only do it if you love it.

Book Title: The Captain and the Courtesan

Genre: Regency erotic romance
Publisher: Breathless Press
Purchase:
Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Bookstrand
1 Place for Romance
Breathlesspress.com

Format: all e-book formats

BLURB:

Against his conscience, Captain Edward Howland buys a night with the enchanting and mysterious masked courtesan, Lady Amelia Kentley, and their evening together becomes far more than either expected.

As her first night as a courtesan approaches, the mysterious masked noblewoman is the talk of London. Impoverished Lady Amelia Kentley, wearing a mask to hide her identity, is resigned to her fate—working in a brothel to support her child and herself. When she meets the kindly and passionate Captain Edward Howland, she is shocked at the powerful attraction she feels for him. She hopes that he will be her first paying lover. Dare she dream of more, of running away from her degrading situation with him?

Edward disdains paid-for sex, but he is so enchanted with the masked Lady Amelia that he cannot resist the chance to claim a night's pleasure with her before he sets sail in the morning. They share hours of overwhelming passion, and a deep affection develops between them. By daybreak, Edward is determined to find a way to rescue her from her fate as a courtesan, but he finds there is no honorable way to so.

EXCERPT: Adult

Before she entered the parlor in which the gentlemen waited to bid for her favors, Amelia took a glass of spirits, for she could not stop trembling. She had struggled to accept her fate, but she was resigned no longer. Since last night, when she had kissed the new captain, she had been filled with an unreasonable hope, which she could not suppress. She warned her heart that a navy man would be unlikely to have the means to outbid Madame's wealthy aristocratic clientele. And even if tonight were spent in his arms-she seemed unable to keep herself from longing for that outcome with all her heart and soul-in the morning he would sail and be gone from her life. Then she would be available to any man who could pay whatever Madame charged for her. 



And yet she hoped. She hoped for one night with the new captain. And, in spite of herself, she dreamed of more. 



She entered the parlor on Madame's arm. Against the dark green walls the huge lewd paintings in their heavy gold frames appeared to flicker in the light of the gas lamps as did the gentlemen seated on the damask upholstered sofas and on the fine Chippendale chairs. 
Madame led her to a small dais and helped her to step onto it. Amelia wore a pale green dress, cut shockingly low and of fine, almost transparent muslin. She wore no petticoat or stays beneath it but only a thin shift and a string of fine pearls around her neck. 





She counted eleven men. Her heart sank. The captain was not among them.

She took tight hold of Madame's arm for a moment as she tried to gather her courage. She was glad of the mask, for she felt the blood drain from her face. 



She had known she must not hope, but all the same she had anyway. He had awakened her heart and her body and she did not regret it, but now her life as a harlot would be all the more difficult for her. She looked out at the men and could only dread what lay ahead. If it had not been for her child, she would have wished herself dead. 



Each a man had a glass of spirits or wine in his hand, and each carried at least five hundred guineas in his waistcoat, more than five times the amount a working man made in a year. She recognized a few of them, including an elderly man she had met socially in the past before she had been thrown onto the street. She could not help but be shocked to see him here, for she had always thought him the soul of propriety. Several others had sat with her, as had the captain, in this house and had a drink.





The door opened and two more men entered. One wore the navy coat of a seaman and her heart leapt. It was he, the newly made captain. 



She almost laughed out loud in joy. And then she wanted to laugh at the irony. Until recently, she was a completely respectable woman, the granddaughter of a viscount and the widow of a baronet. Now she prayed that a man whose name she did not know, and with whom she had spent a mere half hour, would buy the right to bed her in a brothel.