| Angela Knight is writer whose star is definitely rising fast! Lately, I have seen her name everywhere and hear her name on everyone’s lips. She is a busy woman writing great stories to entertain the masses. Her form of erotic romance is sure to make you squirm in your seat. Her heroes are impossible to resist and her leading ladies know how to hold their own! Recently, I got the chance to ask the multi-talented lady some questions and here is what she had to say:
Thia: Could you please tell us how you define erotica /
romantica?
Angela: I think romantica, as opposed to either erotica or porn, has a strong romantic component that erotica usually lacks and that porn definitely does. I also try to give my stories strong external plots as well as lots of sex; erotica is usually just sex, and porn generally has no plot at all.
Thia: What made you decide to become a writer?
Angela: I love to read. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was nine years old, and I’ve pursued that goal relentlessly. It took me the next 30 years to become a published novelist, but I’ve finally pulled it off.
Thia: What inspired you to write such wonderfully steamy romances?
Angela: I loved those deliciously sexy early romances like FLAME AND THE FLOWER and WOLF AND THE DOVE. I devoured them. Looking back on them, they were really tame, but the idea of this sexy, dominant hero pursuing the heroine was a huge turn on for me. So that’s what I’ve always written.
Thia: I have noticed that your stories vary from book to book. Do you have a never ending fount of ideas? Where do you draw inspiration?
Angela: Actually, I’m relieved to hear you say you think there’s a lot of variety in them. I worry about that sometimes, since I do play with certain recurring themes – sexy, dominant men who are often predators in one sense of the word or other. They may be vampires or werewolves, or they may just be cops, but they always have that common alpha thing going. Ahem – ideas. Well, I have a really short attention span, and I can’t stand being bored. So I sit around and try to come up with ways to make whatever I’m doing different and fun for me to write. And hopefully, for readers to read.
Thia: Do you have any favorites among your hero and heroines?
Angela: Tough one. I LOVE Cade McKinnon in Forever Kiss. He’s so tortured and sexy. I like Michael Roarke in “Roarke’s Prisoner” in Secrets 2 – he wants the heroine, and he doesn’t much care what he has to do to get her. And right now, I’m really enjoying Galahad in “Galahad,” a novella I’m doing for BITE, a Berkley anthology featuring Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris and the wonderful MaryJanice Davidson. Galahad is such a smartass. Of course, in the Arthurian legends, Galahad was this saint like character, so you know I’ve got to turn THAT one on its head…
Thia: Which story has been the most fun for you to write?
Angela: All of them have been fun, or I wouldn’t have been able to finish them. I am having a blast writing MASTER OF THE MOON, because my heroine is a kickass female werewolf being romanced by the King of the Fairies. That’s FUN. And I’m having fun with Galahad.
Thia: Tell us a little about your vampires. What drew you to tell their stories?
Angela: I love vampires. But I didn’t much like the psychotic ones or the whiny ones. I wanted to do vampires that have no desire whatsoever to be “cured,” because they’re not damned or undead or evil. As Cade says, “Never getting old, sick or bald doesn’t exactly suck.” My Red Sage vampires are scientific vamps – they’re the victims of a virus that transformed them. My Berkley vamps are all descendents of the Knights of the Round Table, who became vampires after Merlin had them drink from a magical Grail. (In the myth, the Holy Grail was the cup of Christ; in my version, it was a device that genetically altered those who drank from it.)
Thia: One of my favorite characters of yours is Freika, from Jane’s Warlord. How did you come up with the idea for a canine partner?
Angela: Actually, Freika was the character I got first for that story. I just had the image of this snarky wolf rustling around in the bushes, calling “Here, kitty kitty kitty,” in a Hannibal Hector voice… He was one of those really fun characters to do. And I’m delighted you like him!
Thia: When you read, what authors do you pick? Who is a must have for you?
Angela: The list is SO long. J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, MaryJanice Davidson, Diane Whiteside, Lois McMaster Bujold, Wen Spencer, Jim Butcher, Linda Howard…I could go on and on, but you don’t have that much space.
Thia: I read at your site,
http://www.angelasknights.com that you do your own graphics. What started your interest in this art?
Angela: I became an artist even before I started writing – I was maybe six. But I couldn’t pull off the images in my head until I discovered Computer Generated Art using programs like Poser, Bryce and Vue d’Esprit. So it’s only been in the last three or four years that I’ve really gotten serious about doing art again. I gave it up back in the late eighties, because I realized I could either be a good artist or a good writer, but not both. Now, thanks to CGI, I can do some of the stuff I think up.
Thia: Tell us about The Forever Kiss, your latest release. Cade is a fantastic hero, how did you choose him?
Angela: Thank you! Well, I thought, OK, what kind of vampire do we never see? Well, I don’t think anybody has ever done a cowboy vampire. So there you go. And Cade was just hotter than heck. I loved doing that guy. He’s got such a twisted relationship to his villainous sire, and he’s so dedicated to his heroine – I couldn’t resist him.
Thia: You contribute to Red Sage Publisher's Secrets. Tell us how you got started with that.
Angela: Well, I was at Moonlight and Magnolias in 1995, where I had JUST been shot down in flames by an editor from Harlequin Temptation who told me there was NO WAY her readers would ever want to read anything about a male stripper, even if he was an undercover detective. So I was wandering around, depressed, when I saw this flyer for Red Sage. I figured I could do erotic romance, so I sent in Roarke’s Prisoner. Within like a week, I got this call from publisher Alexandria Kendall, who jokingly asked me if I was an alien. Turned out, she’d found the zero G blow job scene I did so convincing, she wondered… LOL! I’ve been writing erotica ever since.
Thia: Tell me about your views on vampires?
Angela: I think women see vampires as archetypal symbols of men. For women, vamps are symbolic of everything that is seductive and dangerous about men. They’re powerful, they’re sensual, they’re predatory, and whenever you embrace one, you’re taking a risk. You don’t know if this guy intends to do something bad to you or not. If he does, he’s so much stronger than you; you’re pretty well going to be screwed. So there’s fear and the sex all wrapped up in this hot package. Women writers use vampires to talk about the risky aspect of male and female relationships. That’s why women almost always portray vampires as sexy and heroic, while male writers tend to portray them as simple monsters. Vamps just don’t have the same resonance for men.
Sarah: You always paint such a vivid picture of dominant men. Is there a
model you use as an inspiration for your male characters?
Angela: Well, I started out reading those wonderful alpha dominants by people like Linda Howard and Nora Roberts and Elizabeth Lowell. I adored those guys, so when I started writing, that was the kind of guy I wrote. Some readers don’t like them anymore, but I know a lot of us do. The trick is to figure out how to civilize alphas JUST enough so you don’t have too much b*stard without losing too much heat. It’s kind of like cooking with jalapeños.
Sarah: Your style leans towards the paranormal and science fiction, do you
like the genre as a whole (outside of your writing) and if so, what are
your favorites? Star Trek? Lord of The Rings? Star Wars? Etc? If not,
what are your favorite genres?
Angela: Oh, I grew up on Star Trek. I was a huge Trekkie from the time I was 12. Saw the STAR WARS movies, loved LORD OF THE RINGS – all that stuff. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Kirk and the gang. And I read SF long before I started reading romance. I was a big comic book fan too; I actually started out writing comics and went from there into romance. To this day, I don’t watch most of the TV everybody else watches – you’d have to tie me to a chair to make me watch SURVIVOR or any of the sitcoms. It was always stuff like BUFFY, ANGEL, HIGHLANDER or X-Files. Now it’s SMALLVILLE. Even Rescue Me, my current favorite, has strong paranormal elements. The hero is haunted by the ghosts of all the people he couldn’t save. I like that blend of paranormal, gritty reality, and humor. Which is, now that I think of it, basically what I write.
Sarah: Did you read a lot as a youth? (If yes) What book did you sneak under
your covers with a flashlight?
Angela: I never went anywhere without a book when I was a kid. Still don’t. Andre Norton, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark. I loved Heinlein’s YAs – HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL. STAR BEAST. Good fun, those books. And when I hit my mid teens, I discovered THE WOLF AND THE DOVE. That book hooked me on romance. Oddly, when I was really young – seven or eight – I read books about bees and ants and horses. Lots of science stuff. I’ve always been fascinated with science.
Thia: What does the future hold for Angela Knight?
Angela: I have no idea. Hopefully to write erotic romance until I’m a withered little old lady. I can tell you I had so many books out this year, I lost count. It was month to month. There’s been: “Mercenaries II” from
http://www.ellorascave.com/ back around January, 2004; “Dark One,” an E-book from
http://www.changelingpress.com under the pen name Victoria Michaels in May, 2004; “Stranded,” an e-book from
http://www.loose-id.com/, also under Victoria Michaels, in June, 2004. A novel, Jane’s Warlord from Berkley in June, 2004. “Taming Jack,” in July, 2004 in TALES FROM THE TEMPLE 2 from Ellora’s Cave. FOREVER KISS, a novel from Red Sage, in July, 2004. On September 4, 2004, there will be “Seduction’s Gift” in HOT BLOODED, an antho with Christine Feehan, Maggie Shane and Emma Holly. On October 5, there will be MASTER OF THE NIGHT, a Berkley novel. In December there will be “Wake Me,” a novella in Secrets 11 from Red Sage; and in January, 2005, you’ll get “Galahad” in Bite. Then in Summer, 2005 you’ll get MASTER OF THE MOON from Berkley, and in the fall you’ll get MASTER OF WOLVES from Berkley, along with a Warlord novella in an anthology called KICKASS from Berkley. God, I can’t believe I WROTE all that stuff. I also got four Top Picks in a row from Romantic Times Bookclub for JANE’S WARLORD, FOREVER KISS, Tales from the Temple, and HOT BLOODED. So I’m steppin’ large and livin’ easy, to use the phrase from a really bad male enhancement commercial.
(Click
here for a review of THE FOREVER KISS)
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