BLOG TOUR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY: The Monster Within – Released TODAY!!! (@RayneLola)

We are here today for kick-off day of

JENA’S REVIEW OF THE MONSTER WITHIN:

I don’t read erotica.  Every time someone asks me why I haven’t read the Fifty Shades of Poorly Written Crap trilogy and I say no, a little piece of me dies a horrible agonizing death when they give me “that look”.  A few months ago, thanks to a challenge issued from one author friend to another over dinner and drinks, I accepted that I would be reading at least one smut novel in my life.  Not only was I willing, I was looking forward to it!  I was excited!  As the novella got closer to being done, said writer decided to create a new pen name just for the smexier books that she writes.  Thus, Lola Rayne was born!

As Lola was getting closer to finishing The Monster Within, she decided that not only would there be one dirty little urban fantasy-slash-paranormal romance-slash-erotica story, there would be a WHOLE SERIES.  Now I was REALLY curious.

The day finally came when The Monster Within hit my inbox.  I started reading it and life got in the way and I couldn’t finish right away.  A week later, I picked it back up, finished it and was in LOVE!!!!

Yes, there are some sex scenes (shocking, I know) but the STORY is what really got me.  The story is…….well, just incredible.  From the very first page, I could hear my author friend in our main character.  Nicole is snarky and sarcastic at heart and she will make you laugh on the very first page.  Then, right away, shit gets REAL.  The action drops on this little novella like an atomic bomb and it is non-stop from there.  A seriously good and well-written plot line in a smut novel???  Who woulda thunk?!?!?!

For those of you out there that like the erotica side of it, don’t worry.  The sex isn’t lacking or poorly written either!  The dirty scenes flow well and are convincing.  They also work for the story line.  There are no scenes that are just crammed in there because it is expected of a smut novel.  Everything works together.  However, the scenes are “smutty” enough that you totally feel like a Peeping Tom after reading it.  *wink wink*

Overall, I give The Monster Within 5……ok, I was going to say something really bad just then but I will edit it down because my MOM reads this site!  I give The Monster Within 5 serious cases of girly wood!  (that really is much cleaner than what I was going to say).  This is a MUST READ and I cannot wait for the next installment in the series!!!!

Now for the super fun part!  We get to pick the author’s brain!!!  Here with us today is the uberfantastic Lola Rayne!  *audience goes WILD with applause*  Welcome Lola!!!!

Let’s talk about the basic stuff.  As a reader of erotica, who is your favorite smutty author and why?

This is tricky question, as I’ve learned that many people who I consider to write smut do not consider themselves smutty authors.  I’m not sure where the line is drawn, really.  What is the difference between a book by Kresley Cole, and one by Moira Rogers, and one by Charlotte Stein?

But since this is an interview and not the place for a debate, I’ll just give you a list of authors who write sexually explicit scenes that compromise a good chunk of a book who also manage to write a good goddamned story.  Which I just happen to have handy from a post in defense of smut that I never actually drafted.

Charlotte Stein (who writes flat out erotica)
Cherise Sinclair
Lorelai James
Tessa Dare
Moira Rogers
Tina Folsom
Nalini Singh
Heather Killough-Walden
Kresley Cole
Kendall Grey
and to a certain extent Ilona Andrews

There are others that I’m forgetting, I just know it… and the second this is published I’ll go “oh shit I totally forgot…”

You write under another pen name as well.  Will you disclose that pen name or would you rather keep the two separate?

Lola is the alter ego of Ginny Lurcock who is the alter ego of… yeah right, like I’m telling you that… Why don’t we just call her Madame X?  I thought it best to keep my stories that were either upper YA or UF with some smexy scenes separate from the stories which were just an excuse for… uh… adult bonding time?

The Monster Within is your debut published release as an indie author.  The writings under Lola are much different than the content you write under your other pen name.  Why don’t you tell our readers how Lola Rayne and The Monster Within came into being?

Well funny story… I was going to dinner with Amber and Jena, and Jena was late.  Because she’s like that.  So we’re at the Flying Goose in New London, and we sit down at the table right next to this woman I work with who HATES ME.  Like seriously asked me if I knew how to do my job one day.  Fuck you very much…  Anyways, Amber starts telling me about how she was searching for her book on the indie page for nook, and in front of her were all these adult novels for $2.99 that are like 50 pages with god awful names and terrible covers and basically about rape by different monsters.  And she went “you know, you could do better than that.”

And yes, that co-worker was still sitting right there)

Now, I like erotica, but I prefer what I now know is “erotic romance.”  Which is a fancy way to say “boning with a plot where the two (or more) people have some sort of feelings for each other.”  So when I was working on something else, the idea for the story just kind of popped into my head.  As ideas tend to do.  Because really who needs sleep when I can have characters running around in my brain shouting their stories at me?

Your characters are unique and witty.  Are they inspired by anyone in your life or strictly yanked out of your imagination?

Not usually.  I mean, I have stolen attributes here and there… and Ginny has a character that was based on a friend of mine and then kind of went in her own direction.  What happens more often than not though is characters just suddenly showing up in the dark alleys of my mind and going “pssst… pssssst… hey you, over here.  Have I got a story for you?”

We now know that this is going to be a series.  Do you know how many books will be in the series?

Uh… thirteen.  Don’t look at me like that, I like to plan big.

Do you have a guestimated idea of when book #2 will be hitting the market?

I have no idea.  Ryland and Liza are giving me fits.  Which is starting to piss off other characters who are willing to tell their stories, but have to wait for these two chuckle heads to get with the program.

…

That makes me sound crazy, doesn’t it?

What I meant to say was “it’s still being written, so no hard date as of yet but I’m hoping for early 2013.

Do you have any plans for other series?  Either spin-offs or completely separate from the Mounting Darkness world?

Do I have plans… oh that’s funny.  You’re funny Jena.  I have nothing but plans.  Right now, for Lola, I had the idea for a series of episodic shorts (that won’t come out until at least 2014) AND a series of werewolf novellas.  Mainly because I want to use the series title “That time of the month.”  Oh yeah, I went there.

Thanks for the interview Lola and thanks for taking the spoilers out of the last question!  I am almost done with book 4 and still have book 5 to read!  Lol  Good luck with all of your publishing endeavors!!!!  CAN’T WAIT FOR BOOK 2 IN THIS SERIES!!!!

And now the really, really super-fun part!

YOU CAN WIN A COPY OF THE MONSTER WITHIN!!!

We are giving away an eBook copy of The Monster Within!!

Enter your email address and preferred format
below and that’s it!  You’re entered!!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL WHO ENTER!!

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED***