Special Guest K D Grace and CONTEST!!

I am so happy to have super hot romance author K D GRACE here with me today!

Lisa Fox: So, tell us about you. Who is K D Grace?

KD Grace: First off, I’d just like to say thanks for having me, Lisa! Can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to this. It’s great to be on you lovely site.

Now, who is KD Grace? KD Grace is a chick who loves to write, REALLY loves to write, more than just about anything else she can imagine doing. I would say that writing has not so much defined the boundaries of her life as expressed them and pushed them and stretched them. KD experiences her world through writing. Writing allows every experience – real or imagined — to be twice-lived, sometimes even thrice-lived. But it also allows every experience to be faceted and diverted and rerouted through the imagination where it can be recycled and reshaped and recreated into fiction. KD is the goddess of the universe she writes into existence, and that is totally fun and ooooh, such an ego rush.

LF: Your latest novel, The Initiation of Ms. Holly, sounds mighty delicious. I mean, a blindfolded, champagne-drenched tango – totally hot! Where did the inspiration for the story come from?

KD: The Initiation of Ms Holly had two main sources of inspiration. The first was the experience I had two Februarys ago of being trapped in a dark train under the channel in the Eurostar Tunnel. The idea of sex on a train isn’t new, but it is a perfect jumping-off place when it’s complicated by the darkness of the tunnel rendering Rita Holly unable to see the face of the man who so deliciously distracts her from her claustrophobia.

The second source of inspiration was the Psyche and Eros myth from Greek mythology. I wondered what would happen, how the story would progress if, like Psyche, my heroine is not allowed to see her lover’s face until she fulfills certain tasks that are required of her before the two are permitted to be together. And of course, since The Initiation of Ms Holly is an erotic romance, sex is involved in those required tasks. With those two ideas in mind, I went to work creating a modern version of the Psyche and Eros myth set in London in an exclusive, enigmatic dance club called The Mount.

LF: In your bio you said something very interesting, that you believe “that Freud was right. In the end, it really IS all about sex.” What led you to that conclusion?

KD: Well, first of all, there is the biology thing. No sex, no next generation. You can’t get more ‘all about sex’ than that. I think as humans, we’ve tried to rationalize away the animal-ness of our sexual drives. We’ve tried to clean them up, dress them in silk and stilettos, and make them smell like citrus and spring flowers. I think all these things, as well as trying to control the hows and wherefores and with whoms of sex are really our anemic efforts to control the most dangerous power in the world.

Secondly, there’s something about sex that is so much more than just physical. It’s almost religious. I don’t think it’s hard to understand why the religious rituals of so many ancient cultures involve the sex act. And even in modern western religion, though it’s cleaned up and sanitized, it’s still there. God impregnates a virgin and she gives birth to a son who will save the world. Oldest story in the book, whether the book is Greek myths or the Bible. There is something totally spiritual about sex, something that takes us outside ourselves, beyond ourselves to a place so totally in the body that it’s almost an out of body experience. It’s no surprise that orgasm is referred to as ‘la petite mort.’

LF: When you’re not writing, what do you do for fun?

KD: I write 🙂 No, seriously, I am a long distance walker. My husband and I are particularly fond of mountain walking in the English Lakes, and we live in an area where we can set out in any direction from our house and walk for miles in the English countryside. Our longest point-to-point walk to date was 117 miles in nine days, but we’re planning something even bigger this summer. Fingers crossed.

When I’m not walking I’m veg gardening. I figure in another year or two there’ll be no more lawn left in our back yard due to my on-going maniacal efforts to grow at least one more variety of tomato and a few more ears of sweet corn.

I actually find both walking and veg gardening great inspiration for writing. Some of my very best story ideas have come when I’m up to my elbows in compost and weeds or when I’m traipsing the countryside on foot.

LF: And speaking of fun, here’s a random fun question. Who would you break the law to meet?

KD: If the laws of physics are included in the laws I could break, and I could bring someone back from the dead, the person I’d most love to meet and have a conversation with is Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Mists of Avalon is one of my all-time favorite books, but beyond that, her Darkover novels opened my eyes to multi-faceted human sexuality at its most diverse and did it from the safe, comfortable distance of science fiction and fantasy. Also she had a wonderful way of making the old stories and the ancient myths new again, vibrant and relevant, and if I could wish anything for myself as a writer, it would be to be able to do that.

LF: Any new projects in the works?

KD: I’m finishing the last polishing of my second novel, The Pet Shop, which will be out with Xcite Books in October. It is the story of a woman who receives a human Pet from her boss as a reward for a job well done. And what was supposed to be a weekend of hot sex turns into an obsession to find out who her Pet is in his real life. It has been one of the most fun projects I’ve ever written, and I can hardly wait to share it.

Also I just got back from a research trip to the Lake District for my third novel, Lakeland Heatwave: Body Temperature and Rising. Heatwave is my first paranormal erotic romance, with ghosts and witches and magic and murder and, of course, lots of hot sex. It may be my first paranormal erotic romance, but as much fun as I’m having with it, I doubt it will be my last.

LF: How can people find you online?

KD: You can find me and information about my writing, along with some hot excerpts and some observations of just how right Freud really was on my website, http://kdgrace.co.uk.
You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

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Journalist, Rita Holly, never dreamed sex with the mysterious Edward in the dark of a malfunctioning train would lead to a blindfolded, champagne-drenched tango, a spanking by a butch waitress, and an offer of initiation into the exclusive mysteries of The Mount. Desperate to save her threatened job, she agrees, scheming secretly to write an inside exposé on the club that will make her career. But as she delves deeper into the intrigue of The Mount and the lives of its members, she soon discovers that her heart may have other plans.

To celebrate the release of The Initiation of Ms Holly, KD is giving away a copy to one lucky commentator! Rita Holly goes through a lot of crazy (and sexy!) trials in order to be with her man. Just leave a comment telling us What’s the craziest thing you’ve done for love? and be entered to win!!

Winner will be chosen randomly and announced Monday, March 28, 2011