Today, our author interview is Crystal Jordan. She is the up-and-coming author…she has several books out there with epublishers (Cobblestone Press, Samhain Publishing, The Wild Rose Press) and will soon have new stuff in print with Kensington’s Aphrodisia line! Wow!

Let’s find out more about her.

Q. Looking at your biography, I see that you write many different genres. What’s your favorite?

A. Well, I just love a good love story…and I love being able to make stuff up out of thin air. Most of my books are cross-genre so I can have both. Paranormal romance, futuristic romance, paranormal or futuristic erotic romance. Who says you can’t have it all? They are SO wrong. I’m having my cake and eating it too–right now! (Is it wrong that it’s time for breakfast and not dessert?)

Q. What can you tell us about your latest release, TREASURED? (I adore that cover, by the way…I remember coming across it awhile back and just staring at it for many long minutes)

A. That cover was exactly what I asked for–only better! Anne Cain did it for me, and I just love it. It’s completely drool-worthy! TREASURED is a pirate time-travel book with one of my naughtiest heroes to date. James Morrow is just…well, a pirate. A take no prisoners, no holds barred PIRATE.

Here’s the official blurb:
Graduate student Rebecca Small is so obsessed with the past—especially the Golden Age of Piracy—she doesn’t mind her unglamorous job preparing museum displays. This display is about her favorite subject, James Morrow, a famous pirate who mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

Becca touches the pirate’s antique sword, and finds herself on a ship in the middle of a sword fight, saving the sexy captain from being stabbed in the back—literally. Once the smoke clears, the man who claims he’s her husband is more than eager to reward her for her timely assistance.

James Morrow knows very little about the woman he was forced to marry five years ago, but the woman who saved him doesn’t fit the portrait he’s painted of her in his mind. She’s strong, brave, and submits to his every dark desire. She seems the perfect woman for a pirate, but he makes his living among the dishonest and disreputable—trust isn’t a commodity he trades in.

Q. Tell us about your favorite book that you’ve written.
A. My favorite book is without a doubt my December 2008 release from Kensington, CARNAL DESIRES. It continues the series I introduce in a novella in SEXY BEAST V, which releases from Kensington in September 2008. It’s about a futuristic world where all humans have been genetically engineered into sexy shape-shifters, including dragons, tigers, polar bears, and mermaids. It basically has all my favorite elements: paranormal, futuristic, and naughty erotic love stories.

I set up a website that talks about the world and all the books set in it (I even have a few free reads available): http://crystaljordan.com/carnaldesires.html

Q. Do you write every day? What is your writing schedule like?

A. Definitely! I’m such a procrastinator that if I don’t keep myself in the habit of writing every day, I’ll get lazy and just…won’t write at all. You can see how my agent and publishers might take a hit out on me if I DIDN’T write every single day! Since I have a day job as a librarian, I write in the evenings on week days. My word count for weekdays is 1,000 words, and on weekends, it’s typically 3,000-5,000 words per day. No excuses, no whining about being blocked, I have to sit there until I make wordcount. Hey, I’m single, so I have the time to put into my writing.

Q. I see that you have something coming out in September with Kensington. How is working with a print publisher different than working with an e-publisher?

A. It’s SO different, and yet it’s basically the same. I mean, both processes are geared towards producing a high-quality book for sale to readers. That means working with an editor to polish and sculpt a manuscript until it’s the best it can be. For e-publishing, that typically means you’re working with one editor through the entire process and can go through three or more rounds of revisions and edits before you get to that final product. And all of this is done by sending an electronic file back and forth using Track Changes in Word.

In New York, it’s all on paper. With Kensington (the only New York publisher I’ve had experience with so far), I have my official editor who handles overall content. He’s the one who lets me know if I’ll need to do any significant revisions on a manuscript. From there, it goes to a copy editor (whose name I may or may not ever know) that handles grammar, punctuation, and spelling issues. The spelling can be especially fun for someone like me who likes to MAKE WORDS UP. I always feel kind of bad for anyone who’s anal about spelling getting my work. The final stage of the process is page proofs. This is where they send you print outs of what your book will actually look like and you go through to make one last check on spelling, grammar, and punctuation. What’s killer is if you find something you REALLY want to change at this point, because you actually aren’t allowed to–at this stage it’s ONLY a final check, no rewriting permitted. PainFUL for those of us who are OCD about our books.

 

Q. Which came first, the librarian or the writer?

A. The librarian. I never even dreamed of being a writer until I got my first job as a librarian and had no homework to fill my evenings, so I read like crazy until I was so bored with it I wanted to scream. I was complaining to my grandmother (who got me started on reading romance many, many moons ago) on the phone about how some author had messed a book up and killed one of the best secondary characters for no good reason other than shock value and…well, Grams interrupted my rant to say, “Crystal, if you think you can do better, then do it.” I responded, “Fine. Fine, I will!”

The rest is history.

However, in defense of that unnamed author, I now realize how frickin’ HARD it is to write a book, and that you simply cannot please every reader every time.

 

Q. Where do you see yourself in five years?

A. Number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. Hey, I can dream, can’t I? Go big or go home!

Q. Is there a book you’d like to write, but for some reason haven’t?

A. My critique partner, R.G. Alexander, calls me the Idea Machine. I always have a million ideas percolating on the back burner of my mind. So, if there’s anything I haven’t written yet (and there are MANY), it’s always because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to write all my ideas. Some will just have to remain in cold storage until such time as I can get around to them. Ah, well!

 

Q. Tell us about finding your agent. I love those kinds of stories!

A. Ha! My poor agent had no idea what she was getting into when she met me. Which is a good thing for me, because I love her long time. The short story is on the Tuesday of RWA week last year, I got The Call from my Kensington editor on a novella I had subbed seven months before and waded through the slush pile on. I didn’t submit it to an agent first because it was a previously e-published novella, and I didn’t think any agent in their right mind would touch it, so I went straight to the source and subbed directly to an editor. I honestly thought the novella got lost in the mail because I followed up and never heard anything back until my editor called me.

I was already in Dallas at the time, so I spent the conference stalking–uh, TALKING to agents. With a deal on the table, you better believe there were several who gave me business cards and told me to contact them when I got home from RWA–and a few who sat down and interviewed on the spot. I really wanted an agent who represented all my genres. Not just the romance, but I also dip my toes into YA writing as well. A friend of mine, Eden Bradley, is repped by Roberta Brown, who is without a doubt the nicest lady ever. And while she thought I was sweet, she definitely does NOT rep all my genres. She told Eden that she didn’t often recommend authors and agents to each other simply because it has the potential to go very badly, but that she was certain that I had to meet Lucienne Diver because she was The Agent For Me. So, Eden hauled me over (literally hauled me, and I’m three times her size, so she was a determined networker just then) to introduce me to Lucienne at the Berkley publisher party. While I had several agents offer to take me on, I just clicked with her the best, so when she said she wanted to offer me representation, I was all over her like white on rice.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the short story, but there it is!

Thanks for having me, it’s been fun!
-Crystal

It *was* fun, Crystal! Thanks for taking the time…

Kris