To celebrate 13 weeks of winter, Hàlön Chronicles will be conducting one interview a week for 13 weeks. Join us on the hashtag #13Winterviews, or check out our right-side blog hop to sneak a peek at all the wonderful authors and artists I’ll be interviewing in the coming weeks.
Hosted by: K. J. Harrowick
Without further ado, Erotic Speculative Fiction Romance Author: Kaelan Rhywiol.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m an over-educated wise-arse. I speak sarcasm as a second language, and I’m Asperger’s. When I first started writing it was to write down an incredibly detailed dream (I was 11) and I’ve never stopped, though I only got serious about publishing for the second time about a year ago. I’d just finished my third full manuscript in last years NaNo (2015), and after editing it, a friend encouraged me to plug into writer twitter. Lol, I learned how much I needed to learn, found critique partners and beta readers and have been querying that novel since around June 2016. I’ve also queried the other two, to no traditional success. I write a lot of short stories and novellas as well as longer books. Before deciding I’d really try to publish my work, I’d been writing custom kink stories for private clients for a while. Basically, people would tell me their kinks, what they wanted their characters to look like and I’d write the story to their specifications.
I have been and done a lot of things over the course of my 40 years, because, maybe due to my Asperger’s, I’ve never felt like anything fit. After being a CSI-tech/forensic anthropologist (which is what one of my degrees is in) and turning down a job with the FBI (should totally have taken the job offer); I did a stint as a history teacher, but teaching to the test just didn’t work for me. In my younger years, I taught riding and worked as a dude ranch trail guide. In the winter, I worked at bookstores. During university, I taught Middle Eastern (belly) dance and Arabic hand drumming to earn money. I did a stint as a high-powered sales rep to the US gov’t, federal defense division, and I’ve met some interesting people through that. I’ve been to interesting places most people don’t get to see, but sales is such a soul-sucking type of career that I honestly didn’t last long before I burned out. I had swine flu one year, and that pretty much ended that career because not long after I developed fibromyalgia and had to take a medical leave.
Turns out why nothing ever fit is that I’ve been ignoring my calling for a few decades. Writing and editing professionally, those things are what I’m doing now, and I hope to keep being able to do full time for the rest of my life.
What types of books do you write, and why?
Kinky! I can’t think of anything I’ve written other than my very first novel which will likely never be unshelved (it’s probably terrible, so terrible I don’t want to even look at it to SEE how terrible it really is) that hasn’t been consensually kinky. Most of my novels are polyamorous, and everything I write is diverse in as many areas as I can authentically or sensitively represent. I tend towards mixed-ethnicity, pansexuality, genderqueerness and kink, but I can’t think of anything other than trans that I don’t write about. The only reason I haven’t *yet* written a trans character is that I don’t want to do harm. There’s a sheer dearth in diverse titles to read. I like the different, and I want more than mono-romance to read. Fortunately? I can write it. As far as genres, I write Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy with heavy romantic elements, and Science Fantasy. I haven’t yet tried to write more than Memoir in young adult. I’m pretty sure my style doesn’t support YA writing, but if I ever develop it, I’ll write in that age group as well.
What were your early influences, and how does this manifest in your work today?
The Prydain Chronicles vs Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffery. The Valdemar Series by Mercedes Lackey. Xanth Series by Piers Anthony, other authors Robert Heinlein, Terry Brooks, Jane Auel. When I got a bit older, I ventured into romance and kink, Story of O, Beauty Series by Anne Rice, Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey and so many more that it boggles the mind. I’m dyslexic, but once I learned to read I immersed myself in the world of the written word.
These early reading choices can clearly be seen in my Science fantasy and other spec fic books because I have anthropomorphic characters, dragons, kink and heavy romance. My later reading choices are heavily Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, and my Ace Assassin series (my current Work In Progress) is influenced by Nalini Singh, JR Ward, Karen Marie Moning, Laurell K Hamilton, Jeaniene Frost, Colleen Halverson, Faith Hunter, and others.
Are there aspects of the craft that excite you more than others?
Research. I love research, drafting that first draft, making the character sheets and figuring out who my characters are… I love those parts. Oh, and sex scenes. I really adore writing good sex scenes. Line edits make me want to drink.
What books or websites are your go-to places while editing?
During editing? Google, Grammarist, Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and all the long and varied rabbit holes those places take me to. Behind the name I use a lot in drafting, same as google maps.
Tell us about your writing space (music/snacks/interruptions/etc).
I’m a mom, so pretty much have to be able to write wherever and whenever I can. I use a laptop, so it goes with me most places. That said, I have to have music, or I can’t write. I usually listen to some mix of hard rock, rap or alternative. Each book has a playlist of its own. I listen to my music on a pair of ratty head phones that I love, I drink coffee like it’s water (and tasting like dessert) and my favorite snacks are gummy bears and peanut M&Ms or potato chips (plain, ruffled, salted) with onion dip. I burn vanilla or rose scented candles when I work. All these things put me in the brain-space I need to write well, though I really can and do write anywhere.
Tell us about your current WIP or your latest book release.
How about both? 😀
My latest release is MOTHMEN a paranormal romance novella about two guys in love with one another and the girl one of them left behind. It’s polyamorous and has RACK Level Kink. I fell in love with these characters, and there are two other novellas plotted out in the series. In the next book, Shea gets a girlfriend, and we see more M/M sex. 😀
Here’s the link: Long link | Short link
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After dinner, Shea sat down on the floor in front of the crackling fire and sighed in gluttonous repletion. “Man, if you fed me every day I’d be the size of a house.” Jai smiled. “I doubt it. Our kind tends to burn off calories pretty fast.” Shea frowned. “Our kind? What does that mean?” Rian handed her a glass of the delectable shiraz they’d enjoyed with dinner before sitting down. “Remember I said we had something to tell you?” She sipped her drink, then nodded. “I do.” Jai drank some of his wine. Clad only in their house costume of well-worn jeans, he reclined on one elbow on the floor in front of the fire. He looked like he should’ve been ready for a photo shoot advertising distressed denim, tattoos or body piercings. His voice was quiet when he said, “Ever hear the myth of butterfly boy or the mothway?” “Yeah, I did a semester on First Nations myths just to learn about the ones on Lepidoptera.” “Okay, and have you heard the ridiculous urban myth of the Mothman?” Shea looked at each of their serious faces in turn and sipped her wine. “Yeah.” |
MY WIP is a contemporary PNR about a gray asexual former model turned assassin. She’s a pwca and has recently been sent back from the other-side, again, to take over-as Guardian of the In Between-the territory her almost-ex husband rules a part of. Their relationship is… complicated. There’s a bit of murder, a bit of assassination, a bit of magic and a smidgeon of kinky sex. 😉 It’s actually been the most challenging piece I’ve written so far, because apparently, I like to toss my characters in bed together pretty quickly. It’s one way I indulge my prurient mind because I sure as hell am not going to be doing it for real. (I’m GRACE/gray-asexual.) It’s why I wanted to write a gray asexual character, being able to read one would have helped me so much as a younger woman, and I know what it feels like. Still… it’s turning out well, and hopefully, this draft will be done mid to late January.
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He brought the bottle over and sat down after filling my glass. “I’m sorry for my temper the other night. I may have to get a bit drunk to be able to do this. It’s impossibly hard.” He lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his neck. “Kai. I’m sorry.” “So am I, love.” “Please, don’t.” “Dammit, Rhian. You can’t expect me to stop caring. If you tell me you have, you’re lying to me. Don’t forget I can smell it when you lie, now.” “No. I haven’t stopped caring. That doesn’t mean I can pick up where we left off.” “I don’t suppose it does.” He let his head hang back for a second before he straightened up and sipped his wine. “Any luck on the investigation?” “You know I can’t share that.” I drank some more wine. This is so hard. “Kai?” “Yes?” “We need to just do it.” |
If you like hot and steamy romances combined with amazing world building, check out more about Kaelan’s work and how to connect:
Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon | Goodreads
Before you leave, don’t forget to check out all the amazing Winterviews Authors. 🙂
Great interview and I’m hungry just reading about all those writing snacks!
Very Cool Interview!