Ask the Author: Kelli Ireland
Answered Questions (5)
Kelli Ireland
Ooooh! Good question! I have to say that, at one point, I would have quickly answered Jamie and Claire from the Outlander series. But then there was such a hullabaloo about it not being "romance," I felt a little jilted. So I moved on. Now? There are so many to choose from! My favorite, though, likely has to be Charley Davidson and Reyes Farrow from Darynda Jones's Grave series. I really love that series. Or, thinking about it, Paris and Sienna Blackstone in Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. Yep, thinking about it? They're tied neck and neck. So I have to encourage these authors to write more and soon so I can have a tie breaker! LOL
Kelli Ireland
Hi Hannah Ruth.
All of the books I currently have are allocated for contests or promotional events. Sadly, that means I don't have any available that I can send out. If you have a review site, have you tried NetGalley? They provide free copies of books to reviewers.
I would encourage you to also watch my website. There are regularly contests there, on Twitter and on Facebook where books are given away.
Thank you so much for your readership.
All my best,
Kelli Ireland
All of the books I currently have are allocated for contests or promotional events. Sadly, that means I don't have any available that I can send out. If you have a review site, have you tried NetGalley? They provide free copies of books to reviewers.
I would encourage you to also watch my website. There are regularly contests there, on Twitter and on Facebook where books are given away.
Thank you so much for your readership.
All my best,
Kelli Ireland
Kelli Ireland
Thank you so much, Linda. I sincerely hope you enjoy the book.
Here's to a better 2016!
Kelli
Here's to a better 2016!
Kelli
Kelli Ireland
Hi Carla.
All the books were sent a while ago. Those who were international were supposed to be delivered absolutely no later than May 5. If your book doesn't arrive by then, will you please email me privately at kelli (at) kelliireland.com and let me know? I'll re-send a second book with the tracking information specifically for your shipment. I'm so, so sorry the delivery has taken so long. I sent it regular mail and that can truly be slow. But do let me know and I'll take care of it and, one way or another, we'll get you a copy of the book expeditiously!
Thank you so much for letting me know!
Kelli
All the books were sent a while ago. Those who were international were supposed to be delivered absolutely no later than May 5. If your book doesn't arrive by then, will you please email me privately at kelli (at) kelliireland.com and let me know? I'll re-send a second book with the tracking information specifically for your shipment. I'm so, so sorry the delivery has taken so long. I sent it regular mail and that can truly be slow. But do let me know and I'll take care of it and, one way or another, we'll get you a copy of the book expeditiously!
Thank you so much for letting me know!
Kelli
Kelli Ireland
I have to be entirely honest and say I didn't get to go to a male revue for research. Is it wrong that I'm entirely disappointed by that fact? Fortunately, I'm lucky enough to have a very good friend in Texas who has promised to take me to La Bare when I next visit. I intend to hold her to that offer. Yes, yes I do. :)
As for research, though, there was a TON of it -- all done after I'd written the initial proposal and my agent sold it and a second trilogy that will be released in 2015 after the Pleasure Before Business series. At that point, I watched videos, read a dancer's memoir, set up a Pinterest board of lovely men and, of course, purchased "Magic Mike." On a scale of 1 to 10 on how much I enjoyed the research? I'm going to give it a 7. A live show would have driven the score up, no doubt!
Ironic as it sounds, while I'd seen "Magic Mike" before, it didn't even cross my mind when I was considering this series. My agent asked me for a contemporary romance proposal, so I sat down and started brainstorming. I kept coming back to one question: What two occupations could I have a hero and heroine involved in that would put them at total opposites? The answer that popped into my head? Put a male stripper across from a slightly reserved woman entrenched in corporate America. So I did. The result is STRIPPED DOWN and the two books that follow in the series (WOUND UP and PULLED UNDER).
Overall? The dance scenes, the club setting and the characters are all products of my imagination. Now, if you ask me how much fun I had *writing* the series? The answer is a solid 10, CL. A *solid* ten. :D
As for research, though, there was a TON of it -- all done after I'd written the initial proposal and my agent sold it and a second trilogy that will be released in 2015 after the Pleasure Before Business series. At that point, I watched videos, read a dancer's memoir, set up a Pinterest board of lovely men and, of course, purchased "Magic Mike." On a scale of 1 to 10 on how much I enjoyed the research? I'm going to give it a 7. A live show would have driven the score up, no doubt!
Ironic as it sounds, while I'd seen "Magic Mike" before, it didn't even cross my mind when I was considering this series. My agent asked me for a contemporary romance proposal, so I sat down and started brainstorming. I kept coming back to one question: What two occupations could I have a hero and heroine involved in that would put them at total opposites? The answer that popped into my head? Put a male stripper across from a slightly reserved woman entrenched in corporate America. So I did. The result is STRIPPED DOWN and the two books that follow in the series (WOUND UP and PULLED UNDER).
Overall? The dance scenes, the club setting and the characters are all products of my imagination. Now, if you ask me how much fun I had *writing* the series? The answer is a solid 10, CL. A *solid* ten. :D
Kelli Ireland
There's no one answer I can give that's a guaranteed "fix" when it comes to writer's block. I *do* have a little bag of tricks I use, and I'm happy to share those. First, get up, get out and change your typical writing environment. I go to a little cafe not far from my house. It's often enough to convince my preternaturally fickle muse that it's time to play.
Second, try music. Take time to set up a playlist for your manuscript or a particular scene.
Third, shut everything down, find a dark place and lie there, thinking about which senses the scene will invoke. Find a way to use all five of them. Senses are all about stimulation, and this often helps to get the creative mojo moving when it's all but stalled out.
Fourth, push through the scene and leave yourself notes either with track changes or in the text itself and highlighted. Tell yourself: "Come back and fix x, y or z and add a, b or c." Be as specific as you can and then move on.
Fifth? Oh, fifth. I rarely do this, but sometimes it's best to step away for a fixed amount of time and do something else. The key here is *FIXED* amount of time. You can't walk away and leave it alone forever. Nothing's ever finished that way. If I'm forced to resort to this method, I give myself a maximum of a few hours. That way I know I'm destined to come back and this is just a little creative "time out" to get myself together.
No matter what, don't quit!
Second, try music. Take time to set up a playlist for your manuscript or a particular scene.
Third, shut everything down, find a dark place and lie there, thinking about which senses the scene will invoke. Find a way to use all five of them. Senses are all about stimulation, and this often helps to get the creative mojo moving when it's all but stalled out.
Fourth, push through the scene and leave yourself notes either with track changes or in the text itself and highlighted. Tell yourself: "Come back and fix x, y or z and add a, b or c." Be as specific as you can and then move on.
Fifth? Oh, fifth. I rarely do this, but sometimes it's best to step away for a fixed amount of time and do something else. The key here is *FIXED* amount of time. You can't walk away and leave it alone forever. Nothing's ever finished that way. If I'm forced to resort to this method, I give myself a maximum of a few hours. That way I know I'm destined to come back and this is just a little creative "time out" to get myself together.
No matter what, don't quit!
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