PRG Featured Author Interview – January 2012
The Paranormal Romance Guild
is proud to present
PRG Premium Member
& Author of Desire and Deception
Sharon Buchbinder
1 – Please tell us a little bit about yourself
After I graduated with a BA in Psychology and no job, I realized my dreams of working in the attic writing great prose would have to take a back seat to the simple pleasures of eating, drinking, and having a roof over my head. Fast forward a few decades, and I had a career path that would make all but the kindest say, “What were you thinking?” After working in health care delivery for years, I became a researcher, then an academic. I was a tenured full professor. I had it all– a terrific, supportive husband, an amazing son, and a wonderful job. But that itch to write (some call it obsession), kept beckoning me to “come on back” to writing fiction.
2 – What were your inspirations for writing or becoming an author?
I have always been a story-teller. As a child, I got into a lot of trouble for “making things up.” Now, I get rewarded for making things up. I love being able create heroes and heroines that people can relate to–even crazy cat ladies, as I did with Catastrophe, my first publication with The Wild Rose Press (WRP).
I’ve been writing fiction since I was in middle school, and have the rejection slips to prove it. In high school, I even submitted a script to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” on yellow-lined paper in pencil.
Not surprisingly, that was rejected, too. David McCallum, now playing “Ducky” on NCIS, used to play Illya Kuryakin on the “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” I had a major crush on him, part of the reason I wrote the script. LOL.
As an academic, I published numerous non-fiction article and two textbooks. However, I found the road to publication in fiction to be much harder. After I published some short stories in horror and mystery, my friend, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, recommended I join the Maryland Romance Writers (MRW). I joined in 2005 and found friendship, support and the opportunity to develop as an author with MRW and the Romance Writers of America (RWA). Since romance has over a dozen sub-genres, I was able to turn my fascination with horror and mystery into paranormal romance and romantic suspense. I washome.
3 – Tell us about your Book(s)/Series(s).
DESIRE AND DECEPTION, an Erotic Thriller, is the second book in my series about strong women and the men who love them. SOME OTHER CHILD (Romantic Suspense, completed and in edits) and DESIRE AND OBSESSION (Paranormal Romantic Suspense, will be completed by the end of December) are the companion books to this story.
Driven by voracious desires — ambition and lust — Izzy‘s house of cards is threatened when the department chair confronts her about her transgressions. Used to getting her own way, Izzy isn’t about to let her boss expose her deceptions. When Sarah fishes her department chair out of the Florida waters on her overdue honeymoon, she insists on initiating her own investigation — despite her husband’s objections, the possibility of career suicide, and her ticking biological clock. A trail of clues leads Sarah outside her dean’s door — and inside Izzy’s home. Sarah is forced to choose between her husband, her friend, her career, and her integrity — and it seems as if no one will come out a winner.
Izzy is the larger than life embodiment of all that is forbidden to “good girls”: she embraces her sexuality and desires and takes control of her life and the men in it — and pleases herself. Sean loves Izzy unconditionally — and is the only man who has ever truly loved her for more than just her sexuality. With him, Izzy discovers the redemptive power of true love and realizes that she can change, despite her horrific past.
In this story, I had to show that there were reasons for Izzy’s man-eating. Her sexual appetite is driven by her need to be accepted and loved–not for who she is, but for who she can become. Tomas is a good-looking thug who worked for Izzy’s crime boss father and saw an opportunity to marry into a wealthy crime family. Izzy fell for him — but soon found herself searching for fulfillment outside of her marriage. Let’s just say, Tomas has his dirty little secrets, too.
4 – Why did you write it?
In writing DESIRE AND DECEPTION, I wanted to tell a sexy suspenseful tale about smart, powerful women and the men who love them. I wrote about society’s expectations of what a woman should be versus what a woman wants to be. And since the standing advice to writers is to “write what you know,” I then placed these characters into the setting of a rigidly hierarchical academic world where tenure and promotion are the duo brass rings. With Isabel and Sarah chattering at me the entire time, DESIRE AND DECEPTION is a story that practically wrote itself. I hope readers enjoy the story–and the sex!
5 – Why should people buy it?
DESIRE AND DECEPTION is different from other erotic fiction. An erotic thriller, it has plot twists and surprises, and an abundance of interesting three-dimensional characters. It is not a “cookie-cutter” story, which is one of the reasons I believe it is an RT Book Reviews Nominee for Best Erotic Fiction Book of 2011 and has excellent reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Nook. An incredibly hot read, DESIRE AND DECEPTION does not make you wade through pages of back story and narrative to get to the “good parts.” It starts with a bang, so to speak and ends with a surprise that will keep you coming back for more (I hope).
6 – Where can readers find your book(s)?
DESIRE AND DECEPTION is available now on Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058OIY2E , Nook https://bit.ly/qtFhjK and from Red Sage Publishing https://www.eredsage.com/store/product827.html
All of my books are available at:
Nook at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/sharon-buchbinder
7 – Do you have any book trailers, etc.?
Thanks to my good friend, the very talented, Florence Robinson, DESIRE AND DECEPTION has a fabulous, hot book trailer athttps://youtu.be/drjvWmZEHrU
https://youtu.be/drjvWmZEHrU
8 – Do you have any upcoming events such as book signings, speaking engagements, etc.?
All of my ebooks can be autographed via Kindle graph.
As President of Maryland Romance Writers, I preside over out monthly meetings which can be found listed on our website.
I will be appearing at the 2012 Baltimore Book Festival.
I’m always available online at Twitter and Facebook.