Author Interview & Giveaway: Cheryl Brooks

Today I have the great pleasure of interviewing author Cheryl Brooks! She is the author of the Cat Star Chronicles!  Lets all welcome her to the blog and enjoy the interview!

1. To start off, welcome and can you tell the readers a little about yourself? 

I’m a horse crazy girl from Louisville, KY. My family moved to a farm when I was twelve, where we had horses and not much else. After high school, I went nursing school, got a job in the ICU, met the night shift orderly who was working his way through college, and married him three years later. Seeing Star Wars made me decide that what the world needed was a good, erotic sci-fi romance, so I started writing, but without a computer, it was very slow going. Later, I went back for my BSN, which got me a computer and a printer! I then had two children and we moved to a farm in Indiana so I could have horses again, but the writing bug was still there. I wrote three romance novels, sent a query letter to Harlequin, which was rejected, and didn’t write or submit anything for another ten or twelve years. Then I saw Under the Tuscan Sun, and said to my husband, “Wouldn’t it be cool to be a writer and live in Tuscany?” To which he replied: “Write!” 

So I wrote! I printed up manuscripts and put them in Amazon boxes for the gang at the hospital to read. I submitted my contemporary romances to several agents and editors and was repeatedly rejected. Later, I wrote The Rescue, which was the erotic sci-fi romance I’d always dreamed of writing. Then I joined RWA and saw in their magazine that Sourcebooks was accepting erotic paranormals, so I sent them The Rescue, which was later retitled The Cat Star Chronicles: Slave, and the rest is history!

2. Can you tell us a little about your upcoming or latest release? 

The Cat Star Chronicles series follows the lives of six Zetithian men who were captured and sold into slavery near the end of the war in which their world was destroyed. With their handsome cat-like features, amazing sexual prowess, and the ability to purr, these men are so hot that someone got jealous enough to disintegrate their planet. Hero, the new release, is the sixth book, and features Trag, the younger brother of Tychar, who was the hero of the third book, Rogue. After twenty years as a slave, Trag is now a starship pilot and is searching the galaxy for a woman who can make him forget the love he feels for his brother’s wife, Kyra. He finally finds Micayla, a young Zetithian woman who was raised on Earth, ignorant of her homeworld and even her species. She has never met a man who can arouse her passions, and when she meets Trag, all she wants to do is bite him! When they’re thrown together in the quest to bring the bane of Zetith to justice, sparks fly and an exciting adventure begins!

3. I am a fly on your wall.  What would I report back to my master about the daily grind of Cheryl?  

0800 She likes eggs and tea for breakfast.

0830 She reads blogs and comments while she drinks her tea, and then goes to the barn to feed the horses.

0900 She smells like a horse after she comes back from the barn.

0930 She might clean up the kitchen or pay some bills first, but then she’s right back at her computer until lunchtime. What the devil does she do that for????

1200 She’s eating lunch now, but it only took her about three minutes to eat it.

1230 to 1530 She’s still writing, and she drinks an awful lot of tea.

1530 to 1600. She’s walking on the treadmill, but she took her computer with her and is still writing!

1600 She went to the barn again and played with the dog on the way there. I know because I followed her once. On the way to and from the barn, she looks at the weeds in her garden and sighs with regret.

1630-1700 She fixes dinner. I really like to bug her while she’s cooking, too.

1700 She sits down to dinner.

1710 Wow, is dinner over already? She’s already putting dishes in the dishwasher!

1730 Oh, no! She’s back on the computer again, but is she blogging, or checking her email? I can’t tell, but afterward, she’s really stiff and it takes her a while to stand up straight.

2330 She almost fell asleep at her computer, but she’s taking a shower now.

0001 She checks to make sure her blog posted correctly and tweaks it a bit.

0010 She reads Harry Potter until she falls asleep a few times.

0030 Lights out! 

4. When you are not writing, what kind of books do you like to read?  

I love the Harry Potter series, and read it continuously. It’s what helps me wind down and fall asleep after I’ve been writing all day. I think I enjoy it mainly because it isn’t a romance, and I don’t have to compare it to my own writing, which I believe is something that every writer does.  

Do you have any favorite authors that are must reads? 

Not so much anymore, but in the past, I was a great fan of Mary Stewart, Daphne DuMaurier, and Georgette Heyer. I’m pretty sure I’ve read them all!

5. What are 3 things that are "must haves" for you when you sit down to write a new book?

My computer, my chair, and tea—hot or iced, depending on the season. The ideas come to me after that.

6. Do you have a blog or website that your readers can keep up with you and your books?   

I don’t update my website as often as I should, but my blog has a new entry every day. If you have any questions and don’t mind a few sexy hunk pictures, come on over anytime and post a comment!

My website is http://cherylbrooksonline.com/

I blog twice a month on Casablanca Authors Blog and every Sunday on Wickedly Romantic, but for the really hot stuff, come to http://cherylbrookserotic.blogspot.com/ Try not to let the warning page scare you too much. It is, as the title would suggest, very erotic, but we have loads of fun! 

Twitter?  

Nope, I don’t tweet, but I am on Facebook and I love to friend people!
 
Now for some fun stuff:

1. What came first--the chicken or the egg?

The chicken; eggs don’t lay themselves 

2. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

It does when it dries! 

3. If you choke a Smurf, what color do they turn?

Orange or red; sort of like how leaves change color when they lose their chlorophyll in the fall.  

4. If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

Only the writer of the song didn’t care. He wrote it because Jimmy paid him a big advance!

Favorite perfume: Don’t wear it, but I have this acai pomegranate soap that I absolutely love!
Favorite TV show: Don’t watch it much anymore, but my last favorite show was Farscape
Favorite Movie: Hmm, that’s a tough one, but probably Moonstruck.
Favorite Drink: Margaritas!
Favorite Dessert: Chocolate pie

Thanks for joining us on My Overstuffed Bookshelf!! 
 

HERO BY CHERYL BROOKS – IN STORES AUGUST 2010

The Cat Star Chronicles #6 

He is the sexiest, most irksome man she’s ever encountered...

Micayla is the last Zetithian female left in the universe. She doesn’t know what’s normal for her species, but she knows when she sees Trag that all she wants to do is bite him… 

He has searched all over the galaxy for a woman like her…

Trag has sworn he’ll never marry unless he can find a Zetithian female. But now that he’s finally found Micayla, she may be more of a challenge than even he’s able to take on... 

About the Author

Cheryl Brooks is an Intensive Care Unit nurse by night and a romance writer by day. Previous books in The Cat Star Chronicles series include Slave, Warrior, Rogue, Outcast and Fugitive. She is a member of the RWA and lives with her husband and sons in rural Indiana. For more information, please visit http://cherylbrooksonline.com/.  

 GIVEAWAY:

Would you like a copy of Hero? Well, thanks to Sourcebooks, they are going to send a copy to 2 of my lucky readers!  Here are the rules:

1. USA and Canada only.

2. Leave a comment with an email address for me to contact you if you win!

3. No need to be a follower, but I would love it if you would be!

Contest will end Monday, August 16th, 2010. 

Winner will be announced on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010.