questions about reading and writing
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I didn’t really know it. It just sort of started to flow from me. I always enjoyed writing in a casual way, and kept journals for many years, but it wasn’t until my mid-thirties, when I needed a way to explore my emerging submissive feelings and needs, that I began a serious, cohesive approach to writing. It was a safe way to test out my fantasies before trying out the real thing… I started to send online friends little vignettes of story ideas, and they liked them and encouraged me to give it a go professionally. Just as a lark, I started submitting short pieces to erotic magazines (there were no ebooks back then, and no broadband, just dial up and pray. It was a whole different world back then, much harder to break in). I started getting pieces accepted, and that encouraged me to continue. It began to snowball until I thought, gosh, maybe I’ll try me a full blown novel…And I did, and it got picked up and published by Masquerade Publishing out of New York (now defunct) and that was it. The bug had bit—I was an author!
What was the first book you ever wrote?
Sarah’s Awakening – Which was originally issued as Sarah’s Surrender by Masquerade. They felt that title would sell better, but when I reclaimed the rights, I put back the title I had always wanted for it, because the novel is about her sexual and submissive awakening after a lifetime of denying her own impulses and needs (as I said, my first writings were explorations of my own fantasies and dreams…)
Who was the first person you told when you sold your first book?
Philip Miller, the co-author of Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns (a how-to 101 BDSM basics book that still sells quite well some 15 years later, though Philip himself passed away only about a year after I met him). He was the one who most encouraged me to try to get published, so naturally I turned to him to let him know when I succeeded.
What made you want to become a writer?
Once I started doing it, I found it quickly entered my blood. I can’t imagine how I went all those years not doing it. Now I write constantly. I love the process. Coming up with the stories, fleshing out the characters, creating the story, getting involved, letting it take me over. … When I’m in the middle of working on a novel, and I’m “in the groove”, really flowing, I actually dream in narrative sometimes, which is really bizarre. I’ll wake up with a line in my head, “John turned toward Cole, his eyes flashing,” will be playing in my head, as a scene unfolds. Crazy stuff! But it works for me.
How many books do you have published?
Over fifty novels and no plans to stop!
What do you have lined up for the near future ?
Heart Thief is my latest work in process. It’s a m/m BDSM cowboy romance! It’s about Luke Malone, a Texas country boy who has gotten away from his roots in the bright lights of Las Vegas. He’s seduced away from a casino job by a rich, sexy Houstonian named Glenn Griffin who promises to give him the submissive life of his dreams. Though he thinks he’s falling in love, instead he finds himself reduced to little more than a sex object, and one who is conveniently tossed aside when Glenn finds a new boytoy to play with. Sent off to an East Texas horse ranch, ostensibly to vet a possible finance deal for Glenn, Luke meets Sawyer Croft, an enigmatic cowboy with a spiritual take on BDSM and its power to lift you out the mundane and into something sublime. Luke finds himself tumbling into the strangest love affair of his life, and also the most exciting and meaningful. But Glenn, apparently already bored with his latest toy, reenters the scene, ready to reclaim what he thinks is his. He forces Luke to choose, or pay a very heavy price for all concerned.
Doesn’t that sound fun? I am shooting for a mid-summer release.
questions about things you like
What are your favourite foods?
Crème brûlée, rice pudding, sushi, barbeque baked beans, fresh ripe peaches, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, ice cream. Being a low-carb lifer, I rarely indulge in these treats, but my oh my, do I love them!
What is it that helps you relax after a hard day
Reading a good novel and sipping a snifter of fine brandy
If you could do one thing to make the world a better place what
would it be ?
I would make John Lennon’s song, Imagine, come true. No countries, no religions, nothing to kill or die for, just people living together in peace. Sounds corny maybe, but that simple song is, in my mind, the most poignant piece of poetry I know.
What is your favourite tv programme ?
I don’t really watch TV. I used to enjoy West Wing back in the day, and before that St. Elsewhere (see I really am old! J)
What is your favourite film ?
The Lord of the Ring films and the Harry Potter films, and Little Miss Sunshine, and Across the Universe
What are you all time favourite clothes to wear ?
Comfy thick soft cotton loungewear, no buttons, zippers, underwear or hooks!
What sports do you like ?
Not much for sports, unless you count sex. Crazy wild sex, lots and lots of it. ;)
Thanks for the interview, it was lots of fun! Anyone who would like to join my mailing list to keep apprised of new releases, contests and stuff like that, just drop me an email at claire at clairethompson.net . I answer all emails and love hearing from readers. Below are my links:
http://clairethompson.net
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clairethompson
http://twitter.com/CThompsonAuthor
http://clairethompsonauthor.blogspot.com
http://romanceunbound.com
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