Morning Loverlies,

It's a beautiful morning here at Casa Chez Emma's and surprisingly enough, I've revived Emma Does Authors. Let's be honest, I'm lazy and a tad bit of a commitphobe so instead of being ridiculously over ambitious and driving myself crazy doing authors twice a week, I'm only going to be doing them once a week. YAY! Most of the time the Emma Does Authors interviews will be posted on either a Tuesday or Thursday but occassionally there'll be posted on another day of the week.

This morning we have the incredibly awesome Delphine Dryden. Del writes erotic romance for Ellora's Cave just recently released her seventh book with them. So we're gonna help Del celebrate!

Del's giving away an ebook copy of her most recent release. All you have to do is leave a comment and you'll be entered to win a ebook copy of Roses and Chains. Please note: This contest is open to all participants 18 or older. Contest is open until 11:59 pm Tuesday, April 13th and winner will be announced, Wednesday, April 14th.

Emma Petersen: Welcome Ms. Dryden, How are you doing this marvelous day? Wonderful, I hope.

Delphine Dryden: Fan-freakin'-tastic is definitely good! Awwe. Good puppy. So last Friday was the release of your title, Roses & Chains, which is part of the 1-800-Dom-Help series.

Emma Petersen: Congrats! Here at Casa Chez Emma's we do what we call a Release Day Boogie! It's required so get ready. What song would you like to boogie to?

Delphine Dryden: Well, since our esteemed mutual editor tweeted "That's The Way, Uh-huh Uh-huh, I Like It" earlier, that's in my head. I guess it's either that or some sissy bounce music.

Probably the former is a wiser choice since my kids are home.

Emma Petersen: LOL That'll work. Will it be the Gold Member version or KC And the Sunshine Band version?

Delphine Dryden: KC and the Sunshine Band, dude! Let's kick it old school!

Emma Petersen: Old school it is!

Emma Petersen: Okay, now that you know what we do around here for release days, tell us, what do you do to celebrate a new release?

Delphine Dryden: Rescue assorted household goods from the dog, drink an extra glass of merlot, tweet like a madwoman…and special for this release, I went to a book festival/signing thing on Saturday!

Houston Indie Book Fest. A good time was had by all.

Except the poets and the communists, sitting at adjacent tables…they didn't seem to be having fun at all.

Emma Petersen: LOL Do poets or communists ever have fun? (Please note: I meant absolutely no offense to communists, poets or poetic communists. I'm sure they all know how to party with the best of them.)

Delphine Dryden: These ones appeared to be forming some sort of vortex of doom over their booths. Then a communist came over to the TX Authors of Romance Fiction table, where I was along with my fellow Texan smutketeers, and she tried to convince us to join her revolution. I think she needed some lessons in judging her audience.

Emma Petersen: Hehe. Just a little. So tell us about your latest release, Roses & Chains?

Delphine Dryden: It's a festival of kink! Nothing fetish-y, just the good old bdsm sorta kink. D/s, bondage, whipping and so forth. The classics, you know. Oh, and it's my first menage.Which always looks, to me, like "My First Menage" which would be a hilarious book title.

Emma Petersen: Yes, the classics. Gotta stick with the classics. And it's girl/girl/boy, right? Which I personally love but we don't often find in the world of erotic romance.

Delphine Dryden: It is Boy/girl/girl, yes. So many arms and legs and other sundry body parts to organize and choreograph! But it's fun. In a new twist for me, I actually start this book off with a sex scene (one of the heroines, Mara, is being flogged to orgasm on a St. Andrew's cross in the public room of a bondage club). I think my editor was shocked, as it usually takes me a good third of the book to get to the bow-chicka-wow-wow parts.

Emma Petersen: Love it! And I definitely love bow-chicka-wow-wow. What's one thing you'd like readers old and new to know about Roses & Chains?

Delphine Dryden: Aw frig I hate questions like that! Roses and Chains is really a story about embracing new possibilities. Daniel, the hero, is just learning that he isn't only a service Top. Delia, his wife, is coming to recognize that topping from the bottom hasn't been giving her what she needed, but that there is another way. And Mara – who seems like the most unconventional character at the start – really has to cast off her preconceived notions about long-term relationships.

So at its heart, it's about personal growth. And, you know…sex. Lots of kinky sex.

Emma Petersen: Roses and Chains, has elements of BDSM. Do all of your books have the same?

Delphine Dryden: Not all of them. My first book, Snow Job, has an alpha male and some spanking, but not really a D/s vibe. The Truth and Lies series was originally going to be my attempt at "straight" contemporaries…but somehow I started out with cybersex in How to Tell a Lie, moved to some tying-up and a little spanking in Art of the Lie…and now the third book that's sitting with my editor is just pretty much all about the shibari. I did throw Naked Truth in, which is plain vanilla. But I think I may end up with full-on D/s for the final book in the series.



On the other hand I'm including NO bdsm in the more mainstream romances I'm working on, so we'll see how that turns out. I've just started submitting things to places.

Emma Petersen: Which, if any, do you find easier to write? Your titles with BDSM elements or the mainstream romances?

Delphine Dryden: Gosh. The BDSM stuff, actually. Short and kinky, like me! But I'm really enjoying the much longer mainstream steampunk project I've got going on. The research and everything is a lot of fun, and I was a fan of steampunk before most people ever heard of it, so I'm hoping to get that out there before the craze is over.

Emma Petersen: You know I've never really got down what steampunk is, it's like Will Smith's Wild Wild West and the new Sherlock Holmes?

Delphine Dryden: I haven't seen the new Sherlock Holmes! But yes, it's like that. Like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, like Meljean Brook's Iron Duke or anything by Gail Carriger, like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and that sort of thing. I did a post about it on my blog.

Oh, also The Prestige, for steampunky things.

Emma Petersen: Oh awesome. Thank you for the link. So tell us, have long have you been writing? Did you always want to be a writer?

Delphine Dryden: I have been writing since before I can remember. I really started writing stories when I was twelve or thereabouts.

Emma Petersen: And had you always wanted to write romance or did that come later?

Delphine Dryden: Oh no. I didn't even read romance between about age fourteen or so and the time I picked it up again a few years ago. I'd written this book, you see, and I had no idea what it was so I needed to read to find out. So I'd know what publishers to send it to.

The genre had undergone considerable changes since the eighties, by the way.

Emma Petersen: Definitely.

Delphine Dryden: Although the books of that time left an indelible impression on me, I think. I do still love me some alpha males.

And I'd really love to be able to write historicals. I'm working on it. I love the dialogue, but I don't know if I have the concentration. You know I am a huge fan fic writer, yeah? Well, was…that was what really got me started in writing romance. Well, erotica.

Emma Petersen: I definitely have a soft spot for alpha males and I would love to see a historical from you. I think that would be made of so much awesome it would hurt. In a good way. You're a fan fic writer? Awesome. I think quite a bit of authors got their start that way.

Delphine Dryden: Yeah, one of my favorite fan fic friends is a wildly successful multipublished author w/ Berkley, she just recently got on Twitter. And two of our other friends from back in our fan fic days now have their own literary magazine and are just about to kick off a small press.

Emma Petersen: Wow, awesome congrats to your friends and here's wishing the greastest sucesses on all of their ventures. Being a writer can be stressful, there's so much to deal with, often a good majority of it being out of your control, so what do you do to destress?

Delphine Dryden: Really the writing part is the de-stressing activity for me.

Emma Petersen: So at Casa Chez Emma's we're all family. We keep each others' secrets and we'd like to keep yours. Tell us your deepest darkest secret. And let me just warn you in advance, THERE IS A WRONG ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION! Just ask Alisha Rai. So tread carefully.

Delphine Dryden: Dayum. What did Alisha Rai say?

Emma Petersen: She said she didn't like Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Worst she called him a whiner.

Delphine Dryden: So I suppose it isn't enough that I recently re-bought a big stack of Laurie McBain's books (see our earlier conversation about early-eighties historicals w/ alpha males) and have them on a sooper sekrit shelf in my closet? For research purposes.

Emma Petersen: That's not a dark or shameful secret and it's much awesomer and safer than evil Alisha Rai's secret! So before we conclude this interview we're going to do a little exercise. I'm going to give you a word or phrase and you say the first thing that pops into your mind.

Delphine Dryden: K.

Emma Petersen: First word is water.

Delphine Dryden: -based lubricant.

Emma Petersen: ROFL! Awesome answer!

Delphine Dryden: I dig Giles, by the way. Total closet Dom. Sorry, continue.

Emma Petersen: Oooh loved him more as Ripper. I have such a soft spot for bad guys. No worrys. Next word is golden.

Delphine Dryden: Ewww!

Emma Petersen: ROFL! Why Ewww? Everyone takes my innocent word and turns it dirty.

Delphine Dryden: Next word?

Emma Petersen: LOL "Ewww" was the response? LOL Totally acceptable. Next word is werewolf.

Delphine Dryden: Space Opera

Emma Petersen: LOL Buffy

Delphine Dryden: Giles

Emma Petersen: Shoes

Delphine Dryden: Yes!

Emma Petersen: Juice.

Delphine Dryden: Box

Emma Petersen: Zombie

Delphine Dryden: Apocalypse

Emma Petersen: Drag

Queen

Emma Petersen: Communist

Delphine Dryden: Party

Emma Petersen: Flogger

Delphine Dryden: Yes, please.

Emma Petersen: Twitter

Delphine Dryden: Ate My SOUL

Emma Petersen: Hehehehe. And that concludes are interview with the incredibly witty and totally kick ass Delphine Dryden. Dont forget to comment and you'll be entered to win a copy of Roses and Chains. Also you can find more information about Ms. Dryden, Roses and Chains and her work at her website @ http://www.delphinedryden.com.

Delphine Dryden: Thanks so much hon.

Emma Petersen: You're welcome and thanks for much for the interview! There you go! Don't forgot to comment for a chance to win Del's book!