Today, I’m welcoming my good friend, Siobhan Muir. She has a new release, the second in a fantasy series with romantic elements. I was lucky enough to get to beta read this sweet winter holiday story. FYI, Siobhan hosts a flash fiction contest on her blog every Thursday. If you’d be interested in judging or participating, be sure to leave her a comment. I participate almost every week, and have judged several times. It’s a blast!

First, though, let’s get to know Siobhan before I start to grill her with my fantastic interrogation interview techniques. 😉 She lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with her husband, two daughters, and a vegetarian cat she swears is a shape-shifter, though he’s never shifted when she can see him. When not writing, she can be found looking down a microscope at fossil fox teeth, pursuing her other love, paleontology. An avid reader of science fiction/fantasy, her husband gave her a paranormal romance for Christmas one year, and she was hooked for good.

In previous lives, Siobhan has been an actor at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, a field geologist in the Aleutian Islands, and restored inter-planetary imagery at the USGS. She’s hiked to the top of Mount St. Helens and to the bottom of Meteor Crater.

She writes kick-ass adventure with hot sex for men and women to enjoy. She believes in happily ever after, redemption, and communication, all of which you will find in her fantasy and paranormal romance stories.

Her new book A CENTAUR’S SOLSTICE WISH released yesterday, January 26th. It’s a sweet M/M fantasy romance and is book 2 in the Rifts series. Before I tell you more about it, I want you to meet Siobhan!

When did you know you were a writer?

I think I always knew. I began telling myself bedtime stories (after my parents read me one and turned off the light) since I was 7 or so. And they wouldn’t stay in my head by the time I was 10 so I wrote them down. There were other things I needed to do in life like go to college and travel, but the stories stayed with me and kept getting written until someone told me to show them off beyond email to friends.

And I’m really glad they did! Othewise, we wouldn’t have met. So, I want to know who are three authors, living or dead, you’d want to have dinner with?

Monica McCarty, Kate Pearce, Deborah Coonts. All three are living and are really interesting people. I’ve met Deb, but having lunch with her, heck any meal, is a hoot. That woman keeps me laughing. 😀

Deb is a hoot! Travel. You’ve done a lot. So, jet-setter or armchair traveler?

I used to be a jet-setter, but having a family curtails that for now. So more of an armchair traveler until the kids get old enough.

That will be fun. We always enjoyed dragging The Only along with us. 😉 Speaking of traveling, what’s the place you most want to visit?

Toss up between New Zealand and Machu Pichu, Peru.

Let’s get to the important stuff. Coffee, Tea, or Other?

Both, but I drink coffee most often.

Are you a Glass ½ full or ½ empty sort of girl?

I tend to be a positive thinker because nothing but negative things come from thinking negatively. Plus, being negative is exhausting.

Yeah, I’ve kind of noticed that about you. 😀 Now, for our readers, I did NOT put Siobhan up to this. I simply asked what she was currently reading.

LOL Cowgirls Don’t Cry by Silver James 😉

What’s next on your Reading List?

Hmmm, which one? Third Chance by Ann Mayburn.

I want to know more about your writing, or more precisely, your process. When–the time of day–and where do you write?

I’m an early bird and get most of my writing done before 6 pm each day. I have my own office now, with a real door! Lol this is good because when I’m in the middle of an intense scene, I can close off the world to concentrate.

I sometimes use a writing soundtrack of the musical variety. Do you use a “soundtrack”? If so, music or other background noice?

Not usually. I tend to listen to music only when I’m editing or when reading.

How about inspiration for your current book. Character first.

I came across the photo of an intense, well built, and handsome man on Facebook and he gave me this look of, “My story’s next whether you have something else or not.” I don’t usually write holiday themed tales, but he wasn’t letting my attention wander.

And for the plot?

The plot didn’t come to me until after I got the first scene written. All I knew was it would be between two men, it was the time of the winter solstice, and they’d both made the same holiday wish for love and partnership.

And last, the setting?

The setting is in the world of my previous release, Take the Reins. These two men are centaurs and this story takes place after the ending of Bethany and Mack’s story. I wanted a bridge-tale that kept the world alive in the readers’ minds before the next one comes out in the middle of 2015.

What’s your process? Are you a Plotter, Pantser, or Puzzler?

Hmmm, combo of all three? I write a short and loose outline so I make sure to include some details I don’t want to forget, then I let the muse tell me how the scenes will come together. But sometimes I get stuck and a scene will come to me that isn’t linear to where I am in the story. I’ll write that scene and fit it in where I’m pretty sure it will go.

Almost done now. Just two more questions. First, any writing superstitions? Must-have foods, shirt, pen, or other little idiosyncrasies you want to share?

No, not really. I do believe I write better with something to drink next to me, whether water or coffee, and I tend to write better in the morning.

And finally, we want to know about your next project. What WIP are you working on?

My next project is a serial fantasy, action/adventure romance. Sheesh, how many genres can I fit in there? But it’s a story I wrote in the year 2000 and it was inspired by the adventure I was having out on Adak Island, Alaska. I was half-way to Russia and this story wouldn’t leave me alone. I was supposed to be mapping the largest volcano on the island (which I did), but when I got home from fieldwork each day, this story just came out.

It’s about a Hollywood actress on a solo-hike in the middle of White Sands National Monument when she steps across a dimensional boundary and runs into the guy with whom she’s supposed to film her next movie. Except it isn’t him and she’s not in her home world and now she has to figure out how to live here, since getting home doesn’t seem to be an option. Plus there’s an army after this man and she has a talking horse. It’s a four part serial all about her adventures. Each part is about 25K words and will come out in February, March, April, and May, and then the whole set will be out in paper in June.

Okay, that sounds totally awesome! Do I get to beta read it? *looks all hopeful and stuff*

If you want to know more about Siobhan, check out her WEBSITE | BLOG | GOOGLE+ | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | TSU.CO | GOODREADS | PINTEREST | ALL ROMANCE | AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE | BOOKSTRAND

Because it’s release day for A Centaur’s Solstice Wish, Take the Reins is on sale this week for 75% off on Smashwords. Just use this code: XE38G and you can grab the first book in the series for only a $1! And All Romance has the sale price, too. Just put the books in your cart and click buy!

And here’s why you should go buy the book!:

Blurb:
When making wishes on the Hunter’s star…

It will take more than wishes to improve Sedgewick Icetrotter’s Solstice. After being sent to the infirmary, again, for dislocating his shoulder while stringing his bow, he figures he’s got a snowball’s chance in hell to impress the centaur he loves. Until Corporal Ronin Creekjumper brings in two injured centaurs suffering from unusual insect bites, and Sedgewick knows how to treat them.

Ronin can’t believe his good luck when Sedgewick saves his men. It also gives him a chance to do more than light candles for his injured friend. Ronin takes the chance and invites Sedgewick to spend the Solistice holiday together. Just the two of them.

And a pack of hungry dire wolves who’d like to put Sedgewick on the menu. Who says Solstice can’t be exciting?

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