Character Blowout! Debra A. Soles, TALKERS

I’m thrilled to welcome over Paranormal/Syfy Romance’s first official guest, author Deborah A. Soles. Part one and two is a character interview hosted by me (Sky Purington). Part three is an author interview hosted by Skhye Moncrief.

So grab your drink of choice, sit back and enjoy. You’re going to LOVE this!

A bit about the book TALKERS

When the safety of Ritter’s band is compromised by stalkers his uncle recommends Shayle to protect the band and catch the stalkers. Though famous, talented, gorgeous young men, they have a secret from their past that makes them who they are and fuels a nasty stalker problem. When Ritter decides Shayle is the love of his life, how will she ever resist him.

PART 1: Time to interview the heroine, Shayle Forester!

SKY:  Tell us a little bit about you.

SHAYLE:  Since I was old enough to walk, I’ve been in constant residence in my father’s hanger bay. There hasn’t been a ship that has come in for service that I hadn’t touched or fiddled with in more years than I care to remember. Now in my early thirties there isn’t a fighter plane or cargo ship I can’t take apart and put back together even better than it was before.

Along the way I’ve lost most of my femininity, replacing it with threadbare automotive jumpsuits and lean muscles from hoisting motors and transmissions. There were even a few time I’ve been forced to use those muscles to defend myself and my father’s business from drunkards and even loan sharks trying to reposes a client’s plane. It’s given me a well known reputation for being not only a top notch mechanic and pilot, but also a woman who could easily take care of myself.

As soon as my years learning at the Academy were over, I came back home. I married a comrade from school and had the biggest joy of my life, my son George. Unfortunately, my husband was a womanizing cheat and our marriage didn’t last very long.

After my divorce, I stayed on to work at my father’s mechanic shop, Bishop’s Aviation. Living in my childhood home with my father and son, I was happy with my routine and more than happy to avoid another messy relationship. That was until he walked in and changed everything.

SKY:   Remembering the moment you first laid eyes on Ritter Ederhard, what thoughts come to mind?

SHAYLE:  He was in his early twenties, very tall and slim. His black hair was longer than I liked on a man, falling halfway down his chest, but not shabbily. It actually looked like he had spent a small fortune having a professional stylist cut it. There were even a number of strand clumps where three inches of the bottom had been dyed a white blond.

The strange, vividly eye-catching clothes he wore were tight fitting. They showed off a lean muscled body that was obviously taken care of by hard work and a strict diet. His clothes looked new and made of a type of great quality material that to my eyes seemed extremely expensive.

My eyes traveled up to his face and he had to be the most beautiful man I have ever seen, with almost feminine features. His pointed nose was a bit thin, added to a tiny slightly pointed chin, high cheek bones, long cosmetically thinned eyebrows, one of which was pierced, which went surprising well with long dark eyelashes and a pair of dazzling bright green eyes. He was a man who could make even a woman like me sigh in pure enjoyment from just the sight of him.

SKY:   He has one trait you adored from the start. What is it? You know without doubt he appreciates one of your traits. Share what you think that is.

SHAYLE: (Chuckling) I have to laugh at the cheeky kid’s audacity. He came to talk me into taking a job keeping women away from their band and at the same time he manages to flirt with me.

(Leaning over she whispers confidentially.) The kid is what eight/ nine years younger than me and has the brass to try to get me to take the job by flirting with me.

(Straightening back up, giving an exasperated smile) Even when I feel like smacking him I can’t help but love his complete confidence. The kid is a sex god and full well knows it. Thankfully he isn’t astonishingly vain like his brother.

The trait he most admires about me, I’m sure would be my skill at my job. During the time I was his pilot he took a huge sigh of relief. The old man who worked for them before scared the pants off him. He has also shown me a number of times that he respects my ideas and authority as his bodyguard.

SKY:  He has one trait you’d change if you could. What is it? Oh yeah, there’s a trait you know he’d change about you…fess up!

SHAYLE:  (Snorts rather unladylike) That is an easy one. His attitude toward his twin brother. No matter what happens Ritter fully supports Petrus. Even when Petrus slept with so many women their band ends up with stalkers, Ritter still refuses to tell Petrus how horrible he is. Honestly, I think his greatest fear is disagreeing with Petrus and creating a rift between them that can never be fixed.

(Pointing at herself while shaking her head) What trait would he change about me? That is a no-brainer. He would get rid of my since of right and wrong. It isn’t in any way appropriate for me to be lusting after such a kid, but God forbid he excepts that.  

SKY:  Ah, love is in the air. What is the single most romantic thing he’s done for you?

SHAYLE:  During the tour there was an accident and flames shot up my back, burning my spine and neck. My clothes from the waist up were ruined and had to be trashed. At the next planet we visited I got a mysterious package. Inside the box was a long sleeve button up shirt and a tank bra almost identical to the ones that had been thrown away.

There was also a scarf to hide the bandages covering my burns. It was soft dark blue scarf covered in silver stars. It was a lovely touch, but what really got me was the tank bra. There are few things more intimate than a man knowing what a woman’s underclothes look like.

SKY:  He has a feature that draws your eye every time. Care to share? His eye constantly roams to a particular part of your person. Tell, tell!

SHAYLE:  As horrified as I am to say it, Ritter does draw my eyes to him. It isn’t exactly a certain feature, more like his movements. The way he walks, the motion of his hands when he talks, how he poses for photo shoots and lord have mercy the way he dances. The man has music in his very soul and music has never looked so sexy. But, I have to say he has the most perfect tight little bottom that makes my mouth water, to my shame.

Hum, I don’t think he really focuses on any part of my body except my lips. He is always trying to steal a kiss. His hands though have a habit of sitting on my hips or even roaming lower when he thinks he can get away with it.

SKY:   How do you think Ritter would answer the following…  Our favorite thing to do together is…?

SHAYLE:  Kiss! Did I mention no matter how much I argue with him about us not being together he still tries to kiss the daylights out of me?

SKY:  You and Ritter just don’t see eye to eye on what issue?

SHAYLE:  Our relationship. I say that it is strictly business. He is the employer and I’m his employee. I’ll do my job, catch his stalkers, then go home. End of story. I have no business having a relationship with a man so much younger than me.

He on the other hand says screw right or wrong, he wants me and nothing will change his mind about it, not even my many objections.

SKY:   He said one thing to you that you’ll never forget. What was it?

SHAYLE:  In the middle of one of our many arguments, Ritter told me. “You are vrong. Love can solve anything and I refuse to give up on you. I vant you and I intend to have you.”

PART 2: Now it’s time to interview the HERO, Ritter Ederhard!

SKY:  Tell us a little bit about you.

RITTER:   I’m the lead singer of the rock band Haven Sent. Music is the very essences of me, so I never vanted to do anything else. We started the band Haven Sent, my twin brouther Petrus and two of our childhood friends before ve had made it to our teens. Ve are really famous now, so famous that ve have a bad talker issue.

I’m the opposite of my brouther vho only cares about sleeping vith one girl after another. My secret is I desperately vant to find true love, but doubt I ever vill. Between my issues vith family and gold digging fan girls I started to lose faith. After hiring Shayle I start to think that just maybe I have a chance. So, off to our three month tour, hoping the talker problem vill be resolved and Shayle vill decide she vants me too.

SKY:   Remembering the moment you first laid eyes on Shayle, what thoughts come to mind?

RITTER:   (Gives you a wide grin.) That vas an unforgettable day.  My uncle Gunter had sent me to Earth to find the voman he said vould fix all my problems.

Shayle vas vearing nasty greasy looking overalls, big clunker rubber boots that were completely ghastly. Her dark brownish-black hair had been shoved up into an un-kept ponytail that looked both hazardous and vindblown.

Honestly I thought she really needed a bath and a full makeover, but at the same time I had the undeniable urge to flirt with her. I acted more like my brouther than myself that’s for sure.

SKY:   She has one trait you adored from the start. What is it? Hands down, she appreciates one of your traits…what do you think that is?

RITTER:   Her total devotion to family. As  much as I needed her help I admired that her first thoughts were for her fauther. She made no promises until she vas sure he vould be ok vithout her. Being a twin and being raised in a broken family taught me to value family and friends above all else. 

She likes my eye for detail and my complete focus on things. I’m a perfectionist and hard working and I think that gives me some much needed credit vith her.

SKY:  She has one trait you’d change if you could. What is it? You figure there’s probably a trait she might want to change about you… care to share?

RITTER:   Ah, I hate how she sits on her moral high horse and refuses to take vhat she vants. She is always vorried about right and vrong, about vhat people vill think. It drives me completely mad. Am I so easy to resist that a little age difference is more important than my love?

(Frowning, Ritter nods.)  She can’t stand that I never fight my brouther over his disgusting actions toward vomen. I know he is vrong, but I also know he does too. Maybe one day he vill change, I hope.

But Petrus, is my twin. I have to stick by him. If ve argued over this and he never spoke to me again I’m sure I vould die. It vould be like half of myself vas missing.

SKY:  Ah, love is in the air. What is the single most romantic thing you’ve done for her?

RITTER:   After hearing that Shayle had problems getting in touch with her fauther at the beginning of the tour I had my assistant pick her up one of those small personal satellite phones. Before I gave it to her I played vith the camera on it. I figured out how to adjust it to get the best pictures, vhile snapping pictures of the signed/graffiti vall and my band mates.

Deleting them all, I fiddled vith it until I figured out how to take crazy pictures of myself.  In some pictures I made funny faces or threw kisses. Playing with the mirror on the vall I took pictures vith strange angles. Looking at them vould make her laugh or smile. Maybe even make her shake her head, thinking I was ridiculous, either vay it vould make her think of me.

I added myself on speed dial as number one and put my name as MY LOVE, vith a picture of me blowing kisses at her. But to truly make it special I took an expensive diamond earring off my ear, a tiny chain with a crystal disco type ball on the end of it and secured it onto a little black rope, then used it to make a phone charm for her.

SKY:  She has a feature that draws your eye every time. Care to share? She can’t stare at you enough… but where is she staring? Now’s the time to gloat about your thick head of hair. *Sky sniggers* Truth! Do you think it’s your eyes? Chest? Etc.

RITTER:  I can’t help myself. I’m constantly looking at her mouth. Every time I kiss her it just makes me vant more. Vhen our lips meet, I feel like melting into a puddle at her feet. It is the most heavenly experience I’ve ever lived through. Honestly though, if she isn’t covered in grease everything about her is beautiful.

As to me, I’m not arrogant. I know I look good. Vomen fall over themselves to be vith us, but unlike my brouther it doesn’t matter to me. To Shayle, I’m pretty sure she likes the tush. I’ve caught her peeping at it a number of times. Vhen I dance or pose I make sure she gets a good look. Vearing skin tight pants in front of her seems to agitate her vhich makes me extremely happy.

(Grinning widely, Ritter wags his eyebrows suggestively) It makes it real hard for her to keep saying there is nothing between us. Vhen she shakes like a leaf and avoids looking at me, I know what naughty things she vould like to do vith me. 

SKY:   How do you think Shayle would answer the following…  Our favorite thing to do together is…?

RITTER: Oh, ve love seeing new things together. New planets, new creatures, all of it is amazing to see vith her. I’ve seen most of everything there is to see, but vith her it is like discovering everything over again.

Then again, if ve vere to spend all day in each other’s arms kissing till neither of us could breath, it vouldn’t hurt my feelings any.

SKY:  You and Shayle don’t see eye to eye on what issue?

RITTER:   Our love. She says no I say yes. Vho gives a crap about how much older she is, or how she is divorced and doesn’t vant another relationship doomed to failure. I believe ve are meant to be together and she is just going to have to learn to deal vith it.

SKY:   She said one thing to you that you’ll never forget. What was it?

RITTER:  There vas a stop on the tour vhere ve had to avoid another celebrity. That night after the gig, ve got into yet another argument and vhat she said gave me hope for us.

“I don’t want you to think… Look I know it was wrong. I don’t want to play with you. My feelings are because of my past and knowing our age difference is so big that it is just wrong. I don’t want you to think it has anything to do with you personally. You are a wonderful man, nice, smart, talented, sexy and desirable. You already know that and use it well. I just refuse to go there with any man, not just you.”

I answered her vith,. “So vhat you are saying is you never meant to go along with it? I just tempted you?”

I tempted her. (GRIN) A tempted voman has feelings for a man. If she had felt nothing, then ve vould have had a problem. But temptation made sure she couldn’t hide behind her convictions any more.

PART 3: Skhye's 2 Cents:

1. What do you primarily use for research: the internet, favorite movies, cutting-edge science found in professional journals/popular magazines/the newspaper, the fiction you thrive on, the good old library, other life experiences, or _____?

I have the “Got To Know” disease. If I come across something and don’t understand or know what something means it drives me batty. If I don’t know, then I’ll look wherever I have to, to find out the answers I want.

My sci-fi/ paranormal reference come from TV, movies and books. I’ve watched everything from Buffy and Angel to Farscape and Battlestar Gallactica. I never would have seen myself as a science nerd, but I tend to read Popular science whenever a copy comes in my line of vision and I even had a subscription to Discovery Magazine.

Using those I have come up with a cure for the blood viral disease effecting a few characters in my Zogone sagas. And learned everything I could about Cryogenics.

I stop by the library almost every week and I have found the joys of the internet. Go to a search engine put in a word, phrase or even a question and you can find loads of information on anything. Me likey lots! J

2. Aside from sexual tension, world building keeps me grabbing more romantic fiction. Especially, futuristic romance. I blame this on my fascination with the natural and cultural realms of the human world. What is it that has you returning for more romance?  Basically, what floats your boat?

When I was learning to write the one piece of advice I got that keeps coming back to me is write what you know.  The thing that we might not get is that two people might not know the same thing. Some times something we do every day may seem normal to us and we never think how others might look at it.

One person may bake just for fun, while the next person might not know the difference between a frying pan and a baking dish. One person might know how to knit beautiful detailed blankets, while another may only see yarn as a fun toy to play with kitty.

What I love about writing is showing my readers those different views they might have never even have thought about on their own. Since I have picked up the “Got To Know” disease, I’ve learned about all sorts of different things and I love passing the knowledge on.

 3. When you world build, do you use a system? In anthropology, researchers have a top-down or bottom's up approach. What's yours? Do you throw everything in, including the kitchen sink, from line one. Or do you slowly write toward the end and add layers as you're confronted by them (I call this second approach painting oneself into a corner or pantsing the world!). And if you pants the world, how many times do you revise the story to layer religious, political, economic, technological, natural facets, etc. into the world?

In my Zogone saga, I give hints about what the Zogone races’ world is like. As each book progressed I give more detail and more until the Zogone’s home planet and even their universe seem real. But I can’t say it was all thought out before I wrote any of the books. Actually the first book, Old Dreams, started in Scotland. The monsters my character Arlene was dreaming of turned out to be the alien Zogone race later in the book.

I tend to let my worlds flow to me. As I write I let my characters move me in the direction that fits them. Do they come from a harsh poor planet or a thriving green one. Something that important would make the character the way they were.

Ritter and Petrus are from a healthy planet that is closer to well off. If they came from a poorer planet like Shayle living on a dieing Earth, I don’t think they would be as out going and confident. I’m sure they would still be cocky though.

So, I’m more of a go back and layer type of writer. Look, listen and add what is right for the characters. If a character loses a family member, what would their funeral be like? Graveside? Fasting? Long silent vigilance? Or their beloved planes flying over head. I don’t think a farmer would have planes or a playboy a Catholic style vigilance. 

My what ifs, always make me end up editing my books a couple of times, before I’m happy enough to pass them on to NCP.

4. Why do you prefer writing sci-fi, paranormal, or fantasy romance? What is it that keeps your mind wrapped around the possibilities of a story that spark and flare into a whole new world?

I can’t decide! I love sci/fi, paranormal and fantasy. I always write outside the box and never segregate one genre from the other. If I’m writing and whatever comes to mind fits into my story, I add it. That was actually my downfall for years. Before I found New Concepts Publishing, no one would consider my outlandish ideas. 

Outside of my box is weres, witches, vampires, wild Native Americans and even one very naughty pirate. Added on to them in March is my book Talkers. Ritter and Shayle’s story about a number of things I learned over the years, my love of music and a group of hot alien rock stars.

An excerpt from Talkers can be found under NCP’s free reads.

ALL DONE! Thanks for allowing us to rake your characters over the grill.

Visit Deborah A. Soles' Website.

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Learn more about Deborah at her NCP Network and Blog.

Contact Deborah at debdebss@yahoo.com