ROSEMARY LAUREY

Welcome to our spotlight of Rosemary Laurey Author of Walk in the Moonlight

CarolCastellanos: Hi, How are you?

Rosemary: I'm good Carol.

CarolCastellanos: What genres do you write?

Rosemary: Contemporary and vampire romance, erotica, children's and a bit of nonfiction from time to time.

CarolCastellanos: What genres would you like to write?

Rosemary: I'm pretty busy with what I've got on my plate right now. I would one day like to do a little more in fantasy line.. the possibilities there are fascinating and I'd like to write erotic romance.

CarolCastellanos: Where do you get your ideas?

Rosemary: They are floating out there in the universe. You just reach out andgrab one when you need it. Ideas are the easy bit... it's pushingand pulling the ideas into a story that takes sweat.

CarolCastellanos:Do you pattern your characters after any real people?

Rosemary: No.. and yes. I suppose I do.. sort ofAn evasive answer, Iknow but no, they are NOT molded on specific people but... I try veryhard to make them believable as human beings...so in that sense, yesthey are reflections of 'real' people.

CarolCastellanos: What authors do you admire?

Rosemary: I'd like to write characters and settings with the same skill asSomerset Maughn and A J Cronin. Weave complicated plot lines andcreated strong women with the skill of Susan Issacs. Write shortstories with Saki's punch lines ( but not his bitterness). Createheroes like Maggie Shayne's (every single book of hers I've everread had a hero worth keeping) . Be as prolific as P G Woodehouse orBaroness Orczy. And last but not least, I'd feel truly content if Icould ever create a character as lasting and enduring (in everysense) as Yarbro's, Comte St Germaine.

CarolCastellanos:What authors do you read?

Rosemary: Ah! Here's a very much shortened list.. and in no particular order,I hasten to add. These are all authors I've read ( or reread) andenjoyed in the last year or so.Kathleen Eagle, Chelsea Quin Yarbro, CS Lewis, Graham Greene, Susan Issacs, J.C. Wilder, Karen Robarts, Joanna Trollop, Barbara Hambly, Thomas Hardy, H H Munro (Saki), Laura Antoniou, Laurel K. Hamilton, Janet Evanovich, Katie Fforde, Christina Jones, Tony Hillerman, Fay Weldon, Elizabeth George, Emma Holly, Portia da Costa, Tanya Huff, Georgette Heyer, Daphne du Maurier, Better stop hadn't I?

CarolCastellanos: What genres do you read?

Rosemary: Mostly romance, erotica, some fantasy, a little science fiction,mysteries and whatever I come across and looks interesting.

CarolCastellanos: What other genres do you see yourself writing?

Rosemary:I'd really like to branch out and do more fantasy romance, and one day,down the road, I'd like to write about, about child murderers. Notsure if it will be fiction or nonfiction Odd subject? Yes. But in myteaching days I taught two convicted killers, I will never forgetthese two boys. On a lighter note. I'd really like to write moreerotica, and erotic romance.

CarolCastellanos: What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

Rosemary: Writing : )

CarolCastellanos: Do you see yourself ever not writing?

Rosemary: Not while I live and breathe! One of these days I'll up my toes andexpire.. but until then... I'll write until they pry my dead fingersoff the keyboard.

CarolCastellanos: What books do you have planned in the near future?

Rosemary: I plan on writing Tom's story next and of course keeping up with theshort stories and nonfiction column that bring in checks between royalties.I have a dragon novella out now, so I'm keeping fingers crossedand I've an erotic romance novella waiting to get writtenafter I finish Justin.

CarolCastellanos: How did you get started writing?

Rosemary: I started writing seriously in 1992 after my youngest child left forcollege.

CarolCastellanos: When is your next book due?

Rosemary: Justin's story, Rapture in Moonlight, will be out for RT in November.As far as short stories, I've one in Herotica 7 this summer, oneout in Australia in June and two in the UK in the next few months.Some are erotica under my Madeleine Oh alias, and the others,women's fiction as Rosemary Laurey.

CarolCastellanos: Was there any author or authors who helped you get your startin writing,or helped you break into the field?

Rosemary: I'll always owe a debt to Bonnie Pega, author of many Loveswepts,and Sue Gunter. Sue and I shared many a drive to Richmond while weplotted and bolstered each other up, and of course the SERIOUSWRITERS: JC Wilder, Beth Morrow, Molly Greenberg, and Donna MacMeanswho keep me writing... or else.

CarolCastellanos: What do you feel makes your books unique or stand out fromothers in your genre?

Rosemary: Going by what readers tell me.. it's the characters, the setting andthe atmosphere, I'm not about to argue with my readers ...

CarolCastellanos: What made you choose the genres you write?

Rosemary:The vampires chose me. I'd written three chapters before I realizedthe that Kit seemed so different to Dixie, not because he's English,but because he is a vampire.. after that the story took off on itsown.

Romance, well I love to read it and I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

My children's book I wrote when I was still teaching. It's the book Iwanted for my LD students. I couldn't find it so I wrote it myself.It just took so long to sell that now it's seeing the light ofpublishing, I'm no longer teaching... Why erotica? It's fun.

CarolCastellanos: Do you have a special subgenre?

Rosemary: Right now vampires.. .but I really want to do more dragons.

CarolCastellanos: Do you have a favorite place you like to write?

Rosemary: In my writing room.. luxury of luxuries. Now we have an empty nest Ifinally have that 'Room of my Own".

CarolCastellanos: In what order do you write? For example starting beginning toend,combining parts, in random order or in development cycle?

Rosemary: I start at the beginning, go on to the end then stop. Let it sitawhile and then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

CarolCastellanos: Do you feel that the e-books afford authors a bit morefreedom ofexpression in their books?

Rosemary: Yes, I do. Seems epublishers are open to the "odd" books,paranormals, science fiction romance, historical time periods the bigpublishers won't touch... books that cross genres, or ones likeSouthern Song with "unacceptable' plot elements. It has a subplot ofteenage alcoholism.

CarolCastellanos: What do you feel is, or isn't being done to promote authors?

Rosemary: Not enough. : )I think we'd all like our publishers to spend morepromoting us but this is reality, not a dreamworld. The harsh truthis that authors have to do a lot themselves.

CarolCastellanos: Do you feel that the marketing departments have their fingeron the pulseof readers?

Rosemary: No. but I don't think they see that as a priority marketingdepartment are out to sell as many books as possible and the easiestway to do that is to sell great quantities of a few books.. not tosell a wide variety of books to meet readers tastes.

CarolCastellanos: How do you feel about review rating systems?

Rosemary: When I get a high rating I think they are greatSeriously though,I think it's a flawed way of doing it... A careful well-writtenreview, pointing out strengths and weaknesses and giving a briefintroductory synopsis is far more help to a reader looking forsomething to read.

CarolCastellanos: Through what venues do you feel most of your books are beingsold?

Rosemary: Not sure... need to see my next royalty statement to be certain butat a guess, I'd say Amazon, my publisher and Bookaholics... notnecessarily in that order.

CarolCastellanos: What do you feel is the best part of the publishing industry?

Rosemary: Writing the books without a doubt! Meeting readers at book signingsand conferences comes a very close second.

CarolCastellanos: What do you feel needs to be changed about the industry?

Rosemary: I'd like to see more attention being paid to what readers SAY theywant.. instead of what publishers THINK will sell.

CarolCastellanos: Do you think small press and e-books will be the wave of thefuture?

Rosemary: I think they are already making a pretty good ripple... and no, theywon't change the way the conglomerates do business but I do thinkthey are getting attention. Look how many of the New York publishersare now putting out electronic versions of their big authors.Harlequin are reissuing the defunct Shadows books.. could it bethey've noticed readers going to small presses like Imajin, Avid andHard Shell? When ebook readers come down in price the way pocketcalculators did, I can see the sale of reasonably-priced ebookstaking off. I'm not so sure of the ones that sell for the price of ahard back.

Recent Or Upcoming (Rosemary Laurey) titles:

WALK IN MOONLIGHT October 2000paperback ISBN 1-929613-53-9disk ISBN 1-929612-54-7Avid MR PARKER'S PROBLEM DAY May 2001disk ISBN 0-7599-0177-5Hard Shell Word Factory SOUTHERN SONGMarch 2001 paperback 0-7599-0052-3December 1999 disk ISBN 1-58200-065-4Hard Shell Word Factory BEST WOMEN'S Erotica 2001 December 2000ISBN 1-57344-117-1 paperbackCleis Press 1.800.780.2279 ww.cleispress.com HEROTICA 7 due summer 2001ISBN not known at this timeEditor Marcey SheinerDown There Press 415.974.8985 Rapture in Moonlight ISBN 1-929613-53-9~ Avid Press ~ Decmber 2001   [an error occurred while processing this directive] See a problem with this page? Email:carpathian@simegen.com