Interview of Author Sultry Summers

Today it's my pleasure to present an interview of romance author Sultry Summers.

Latest Book: Tail Of The Dragon






Buy Link:  http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=529&osCsid=pufned00tid16pgq6e4ib5eu57


 BIO:
I’ve written as Sultry Summers for several years now instead of writing under my given name. I prefer it that way. But I must admit it is great to see your name on a bookshelf. Having had that experience I can now settle in as Sultry. I write for enjoyment and escape, not for fame though I won’t turn it down.

Sultry was a product of an afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. I will tell the reader, though the thunderstorms in North Carolina rival those in Florida. The intensity of the lightning in the mountains is truly awe inspiring.

Since moving up to the Blue Ridge I’ve been more productive in writing if less active physically, the winters don’t motivate me to ride my bicycle as much, nor do the steep mountain roads. Lance Armstrong I’m not. But now I really have to watch the calories. Fortunately the area we now live in is a bit flatter and friendlier to biking and walking, the Little Tennessee River that runs through our property is wonderful to walk beside.

I am proud to have two new books coming out soon and a third already contracted for later in the year.

This one is a full length novel and one I’ve been looking forward to seeing it released for a long time. I have a couple of others just waiting their turn. That isn’t to say I don’t have a computer full of shorter length stories in line. I do! I invite you to visit my web site – I’ve re-vamped it complete with the pages for the new releases, except the book later in the year – those are coming.

Check out the “links” button, keep up with my blog, and my yahoo group link for upcoming releases.


Q: What's the first thing you did when you received word that you’d sold a book?
A: I’ll answer this question in regards to Tail Of The Dragon – I jumped up and down I was so thrilled! I have a lot of respect for Decadent Publisher and their authors. I worked very hard on Tail Of The Dragon. It means a lot to me to be a Decadent author.- I yelled a bit as well.

Q: Who is your favorite character in your book and why?
A: In Tail Of The Dragon – I think it would have to be my Heroine because she is herself even though she has to resolve some difficult issues regarding reincarnation. And because when she meets the hero, Garnith, who is injured and very much as stranger to her, she doesn’t leave him, she helps him.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as one of your heroines? Tell us about your heroine.
A: This question I’ll answer about a book that isn’t released – yet but is contracted with a released date in December, Atlantis Vortex. The character is the heroine in the book, Jessica. This is a really difficult call – I think I would encourage the director/producer to find an “unknown” The heroine in this book is tall and muscular not thin and boney as so many of the big Hollywood “starlets” are today. She’s gutsy – for one so young twenty-two, she’s lived a lot. She is a scientist, an archaeologist and has lived in some very dangerous places – but she retains her innocence. It would be a difficult role to fill. Possibly Blake Lively comes to mind, but she’d have to put on some muscle she is a bit on the skinny side.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as one of your heroes? Tell us about your hero.
A: Same book as above: This one isn’t as difficult “Thor” the character from The Avengers - Chris Hemsworth. He would fit pretty well.

Q: Do you eat comfort food when writing? If so, what food inspires your imagination?
A: I’m a chocoholic – I love to eat chocolate chips, thank heavens that the chips – especially dark chocolate isn’t that high in calories. I also love to eat Strawberries and Oranges.

Q: What hobby do you enjoy when not writing?
A: I love to sew, embroider and garden when the mood strikes I paint.

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!  http://www.sqpens.com
http://wwwescapeintoromance-dareimagination.blogspot.com (please note – there is no “.” after the three www’s)

BLURB:
Danielle is ready to challenge a twisting, turning road known as Tail of the Dragon on her Ducati sport bike. Forced to stop because of a violent unpredicted storm, she parks near the dam where the eleven-mile stretch of road begins. Another challenge bursts from the weird, purple lightning storm. Garnith, a changeling/dragon, emerges in the twenty-first century over the Fontana Dam in North Carolina. Swooping down to drink from the fresh water of the dam, he accidentally touches a power-line, and, injured begins to change. He lands on the overlook where Danielle has taken refuge. Garnith passes out. Danielle is terrified but entranced with the creature changing before her eyes into a handsome, incredibly built, naked man. Garnith wakes to see Danielle. Where and when is this strange place the wizard has sent him? Danielle and Garnith realize chance has little to do with their meeting. Destiny has played her hand and soon both learn the evil wizard has discovered his way into the future and another life to exact revenge on Garnith. The wizard discovers Garnith’s attraction to Danielle and will use her to his ends. Unless Garnith can stop him.

EXCERPT:
Danielle screamed. She’d seen an artist’s portrayal of fantasy dragons, but those didn’t exist. It must be a hallucination because she didn’t do drugs. It was flying straight at her, and it looked like a real dragon. Amazed, when she first watched the creature fly low and drink from the lake, she realized it came from the storm, and what had caused the down draft. Dragon’s wings. Mesmerized and frozen in fright, she remained astride her motorcycle.

Giant, open talons appeared to be about to enclose her. The claw like nails extended, were six inches long at least. Outstretched wings pushed backwards slowing its descent. The creature’s iridescent purple head was easily half the size of her motorcycle. Its green eyes glowed and appeared focused intently on her. She screamed again; it landed so close, but a strange thing happened, it shrugged off a leather backpack and collapsed.

Was it dead? Oh please goddess, don’t let it be dead! A dragon with a backpack?

She shook harder than when she saw the dragon approaching, something she didn’t think possible. Her legs, unsteady from her wild ride, were wobbly from fright but she couldn’t stay on the bike any longer and was too unnerved to ride away. She slid off the motorcycle’s seat. Danielle’s compassion wouldn’t allow her to leave the injured creature anyway. She stood on unsure legs, and watched the dragon in complete, dumbfounded amazement, unsure of what to do.

What constituted first aid for a dragon? 

A quick glance to the side fell on the simply made backpack it shrugged from across its incredibly broad shoulders. Her attention went back to the beastie and she noted, too, it breathed heavily.

Danielle took a couple steps closer. It drew a great, yet labored breath. She froze. A great exhale of smoke came from its nose.

By the goddess, it breathed fire. 

Despite that revelation, her curiosity was quickly winning over her fear, and she moved closer. Its image shimmered, the dragon’s shape becoming less defined, changing.

Into what?

She saw the sparks when it touched the power lines and knew the beast received a nasty shock. One wingtip, singed where it hit the power line, was red and charred. With so much wattage, it might be dying. Danielle didn’t know why, but again, she hoped it wasn’t. She couldn’t stop herself. With a tentative hand, she gently touched it, a light caress and quickly drew back feeling a surge of psychic power from the creature.

Amazed at the sympathy she felt for the mysterious dragon, an almost overwhelming need to comfort him washed through her. More astonished, she watched, drawn closer as the incredible creature’s change became more obvious. Its wings were disappearing as was the tail.

“Poor thing.” She dared caress him again. It groaned and coughed. The dragon’s changing appearance was becoming – human. She knelt down beside it hoping no other riders came by, wondered why they hadn’t and thankful at the same time.

How could she explain this creature? Why should she have to? 

For some reason, Danielle found she didn’t want to share her discovery.

Other people would come. Who? The sheriff or police and what would they do with it?

More questions, with no answers. She felt strangely drawn to this creature, and instantly protective. He was vulnerable and injured. His vanishing left wing was singed and a charred mark appeared from contact with the power line. Before her gaze, the dragon’s wounded appendage transformed into the muscular hip of a man.

More changes occurred as she watched. Blond hair with a streak of dark auburn mixed through his thick mane just right of the center of his human head replaced horns and scales. His color changed from purple and emerald to a smooth, yet fair, tanned complexion with defined, handsome features she thought magnificent.

Danielle scrutinized the rest of his well-shaped muscular body, that of a warrior. All signs of a dragon vanished. Long thighs tapered into corded thick calves with very human feet and toes. Various scars marred the perfection of his human body. Somehow, perhaps the psychic intuition her Wiccan mentor insisted she possessed, clued her they were battle scars.

He groaned again, beginning to regain consciousness. He was going to need clothes. She dragged her gaze from the artistry of his body, the sweetness of his face in his unconscious state, and turned her attention to his pack. “

A dragon with a backpack?” Danielle walked to where the rough, tanned leather, hand sewn jerkin pack rolled when the dragon shrugged it from his massive back. It wasn’t a small pack and spanned three feet across and five feet long. She stared amazed at the size.

“It’s a dragon. You expected a book bag?”

The dragon/man groaned again. She quickly threw open the flap of his pack. Open, the pack revealed items that would have surprised her had she not found him as he was. If she’d not seen him change from a dragon into his present form, the piece of chainmail and a breastplate of armor would have bewildered her. Somehow, the medieval gear seemed appropriate. It took both her hands to lift the jewel encrusted Pictish sword and pull it from the pack.

“I knew these were heavy but geez!”

After much tugging, she pulled what appeared to be his clothing and another piece of heavy chainmail all snagged together from the pack. She understood why the weapon seemed so much heavier than she expected. Carefully, she untangled his garments and found those too were, unusual.

Wrapped in oilcloth and tied with a thin purple ribbon that had snagged and come loose, another piece of clothing tumbled out, partially wrapped. Danielle held up a hand-woven, hand-sewn linen shirt. She admired the small, precise stitching, and the crest sewn on the right breast spoke well of the seamstress’s talent with her needle. Danielle wondered if it were his wife or a favored girlfriend from where he came, who had taken such care to sew the garment. A pleasing, light lavender scent clung to the piece. A familiar, pleasant smell, an unusual version of lavender, generally the scent didn’t appeal to her.

A prickly feeling along her neck warned her of his gaze on her, and she turned to find intense emerald green eyes staring at her from where the man sat on the grass. Her mouth went dry in wonder, each muscle in his broad chest tensed, defined. His legs crossed covering anything immodest. Drawn into the depths of their ethereal glow, his eyes narrowed, capturing hers, holding them. Without realizing, she clasped his shirt to her breast. Her heartbeat revved up, and though she wore heavy leathers, she felt more naked than the nude man. A distant, mechanical rumble reminded her where she was. Other riders were fast approaching. Taking cautious steps, she moved toward the strange man who watched her every move, to stand a little distance away and toss him his shirt.

Without a word, he caught the garment, his stare never leaving her except to pull on the shirt. Long enough to cover his body down to his hips, it spoiled her view of the best body she’d ever seen, but Danielle knew it was better he not be naked when the approaching motorcycles blew by. The thunder of Milwaukee Iron grew louder, the roar of the oncoming motorcycles drawing closer, fast. He struggled to rise. Some effects of the electrical shock still affected him though he was…. Danielle’s thought process stopped, human now. She watched him limp to his pack, pull from it a pair of tight leather pants, and slip them on. He winced, but pulled the deerskin over the burned area and turning, laced the front with his back to her. Unlike the men she knew, he seemed modest.

“Sir, can you speak?”

“Ya.”

He looked back, his glowing green gaze fixed on her. Danielle took a step away, afraid of this dragon-man.

“Do you speak English?”

He looked at her and tilted his head. His warm appraisal made her uncomfortable. Distracted by his serious and fierce expression she jumped when the group of motorcycles raced by. The riders’ heads moved in the direction of their bikes, they focused on maneuvering the curve. Danielle and the unusually dressed man went unnoticed.

She noticed the thunderous sound jolted him, drawing his interest away from her to the group of loud motorcycles. He crouched in a defensive posture and moved a step between her and the group, protectively. Before he could grab his sword, they sped past leaving him with a perplexed and puzzled look. “Ya, I speak English, yet not as you and know not how I understand you.”

He turned toward her, glancing at his sword. Danielle realized he wanted his weapon, anxiety in his eyes, his body’s stance defensive. He seemed to feel threatened. She stepped away from his pack as she stood between him and the pack where his crafted weapon lay.

“My apologies maid, you witnessed me unclothed, ‘twas not of my choosing.”

“I kind of realized that, ah…. My name is Danielle. I am sorry to go into your, ah pack, but I didn’t want you to be naked when others came and since I heard them coming.”

“My thanks maid, err Danielle.”

It was an extremely awkward situation. Seeing him naked was nothing compared to the fright of first encountering him as a dragon, then watching him change into a man.

“Are you badly injured? I know you….”

Their gazes locked, his expression intense. She just admitted she saw him as a dragon. Maybe he didn’t want her to know.

“There is some pain where I struck the lightning line, but it is not unbearable. You saw me change? Me head hurts where some type of noise entered from that metal structure…. Maybe that is why I can understand you. Words I have never heard before came from the noise.”

“Yes, I saw you hit the line and land. You were unconscious for…a time.”

She was shaking again, fear cold in her blood. Since gaining her black belts in martial arts, she was confident of self-defense against most men. Yet this man was big enough to kill her regardless of her training. Of course, if he could change from a dragon, he could change back. Panic threatened to take over. She stepped farther away and closer to her motorcycle, watching him closely.

What if he should begin to change? How much time would she have to escape before he became a dragon? Can I ride faster than he could swoop down on me?


Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for interviewing me, it’s been a real pleasure.