Where do you hail from and what do you love most about your hometown?
I’m proud to be a grunge kid, an element of Seattle, Washington, the city I grew up in. My love for music and reading was really nourished by this incredible city. Nothing beats getting cozy with a book and some good music when the rain is drizzling down your window.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer. Yayyy, good thing that worked out. My second choice was a Spice Girl. I thought perhaps when Ginger Spice quit, that I could replace her. I used to dress up as Baby Spice and give shows on stage. Oh, and by stage, I mean front patio.
Tell us about your latest book.
Confessions of a Sex Demon is my very first erotic novella. The title came to me first, and I thought, this sounds so scandalous, I have to tell the tale!
Blurb:
Zahra proves that sex demons do it better as she goes from captive to captivator.
Sex Demon Zahra Aniron is a closet romantic. Too bad she spends her time having hot, kinky sex with paying strangers. But she needs the money to pay off her sister’s debt to wizard thugs. There could be worse things than getting paid for pleasure, especially since a sex demon needs climax to survive.
As a blacksmith, Lennox Aegros puts his fury to good use pounding steel into swords. When he arrives at a new town, his real cause for being there isn’t to sell weaponry, it’s for revenge. When he finds the succubus he’s been searching for, her beauty means he can mix business with pleasure. But the joke’s on Lennox, because as he succeeds in torturing his victim by repeatedly bringing her to the brink of orgasm and then denying her the release that she so desperately needs, he realizes that Zahra’s slow demise means the breaking of a heart he didn’t think he had.
Do you have anything new in the works and can you tell us a bit about it?
Confessions of a Sex Demon is book one in the trilogy, and I’m very excited for the next two releases, Claiming of a Sex Demon (Dec. 2012) and Addictions of a Sex Demon (Feb. 2013). I also have a full-length paranormal trilogy releasing from Crimson Romance. The first book, Secrets of the Fog, will release October 29th, 2012 and will be available in print and e-format.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging about writing?
What advice would you give to writers just starting out?
Be prepared for a slow process. After submitting a query, it takes weeks to months before you hear back, and in some cases, you might not hear back at all. I always tell people never to give up on your dreams. Whatever it is, if it’s writing, singing, marketing, whatever…you can make it happen. Just keep truckin’ and don’t let anyone stop you.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
I’m so lucky to have the opposite problem. I have more books written in my head than I can handle. I just need the time to write them all.
Who is your favorite author and why?
I adore Kresley Cole because she has a great sense of humor.
What books have most influenced your life?
Probably being read to at an early age; books like Where the Wild Things Are and the Mercer Mayer books. I lived for bedtime so I could read or be read to. Thanks to my mom, my grandma and my aunts, I was starting to read books like Clan of the Cave Bear and authors like Nora Roberts and Jayne Krentz before I was 15.
How did you deal with rejection letters?
To be honest, I’ve not had many. I’ve had tons of “form rejections” off of a query. I don’t count those as rejections though, and I don’t think other authors should either. A query is only a fleeting chance to have an agent or editor ask to read more. If they haven’t actually read any pages, I certainly don’t think it should be called rejection. It’s just that for whatever reason, they weren’t interested. I’ve only gotten three rejected where some of my writing was read, and they were both very encouraging about what they read. So instead of feeling rejected, I actually felt pumped to send them something else in the future.
That being said, “form rejections” are almost even worse, because you wonder if anyone will actually read something, even if only a page, and give you a shot. After a wrote my first 3 full-lengths last year, my first year of writing, I queried agents and editors and only received “form rejections” and not one page of my writing besides the query was ever seen. Only when I wrote Confession of a Sex Demon, an erotic novella, did I actually get something read.
To rectify the situation, I went to my first conference and met with agents and editors in person. It’s much easier to charm their pants off that way, and I recommend every author to pursue that option.
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
A coffee maker and a support system. For me, I have my family, but also fabulous crit partners.
Where do you as an author draw the line on gory descriptions and/or erotic content?
Welp, I just wrote and submitted a gladiator novella and it’s pretty gory, and I love it. My crit partner was totally grossed out because after our hero gets stabbed in the gut, this one line read, “His lips gave birth to a crimson fountain.”
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
BRACE YOURSELF FOR AN EPIC SECRET! While I was writing a hot scene from Claiming of a Sex Demon, I made out with a bottle of champagne…You know, to make sure I was able to write an extra sensory experience. I’m pretty sure I drank half the bottle first. It was my delicious Sofia Coppola champagne that I bought to celebrate the contract for Confessions of a Sex Demon. J
Don’t forget to give us links to your website etc.
About Jaye: Born and raised in the grunge capitol, she took her love of music and poetry from the Pacific Northwest to California. Now she lives in Alameda, a quaint island town in the Bay Area. With a degree in Anthropology-emphasis in Archaeology, she’s itching to climb some more pyramids. When s
he’s not writing, she’s either at her day-job or taking long walks along the Alameda beach and gazing at the outline of San Francisco in the distance. Oh yes, and her heart can generally be found in Paris…
Coming Soon:
Erotic Novellas
Confessions of a Sex Demon: Available now from Beachwalk Press, Claiming of a Sex Demon: Dec. 2012. Addiction
Sensual Full-lengthss of a Sex Demon: Feb. 2013
Secrets of the Fog: Oct 2012 from Crimson Romance, Secrets of the Sky: Feb. 2013, Secrets of the Jaguar: June 2013 from Crimson Romance
Email:JayeShields@gmail.com
Twitter: @JayeShields
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jaye-Shields/228175300573148?ref=hl
Website/blog: www.JayeShields.com
