We’re in for a treat today! My sorority sister and great friend, romance novelist Gwyneth Bolton, has popped over for a visit. I can’t wait to pick her brain a little bit…
AC: Hi, Gwyneth! Thanks for stopping by! Pull up a cozy chair and have some cyber tea with us! I have lots of questions for you. First of all … tell me what kinds of vitamins you’re taking. Seriously, I don’t know you manage it all. You’re a college professor in the daytime, right? When do you write? What do your students think of your books?
GB: It is hard trying to manage it all.
AC: Oh, good! I thought it was just me!
GB: Before I sold my first novel and entered the world of deadlines, it was easier. I wrote when I felt like it, not because it had to be done by a certain time. Also, I’m the most creative in the wee hours of the morning. This is not good when you have to get up and teach the next day. I hope to find a nice balance soon. I usually try to write a little each day, usually in the evenings. And I aim to make the most of weekends and summers. But, that doesn’t always happen.
Most of my students who learn about my other life as a romance writer think it’s cool. I have a few students who have actually read my novels and have enjoyed them. Several of my students came to the first book signing for my first romance novel, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me. That was funny, because after the reading they had lots of questions.
AC: I’m sure they did! I’m blushing on your behalf!
GB: I realized that it was their turn to put me on the spot and they took full advantage of it. LOL. It was fun, though. I’m glad they came out.
AC: In Divine Destiny, you’ve created a futuristic, conflict-filled world with its own history and mythology. What is the future like in this world, and how did the idea for it come to you?
GB: The future is bleak but hopeful in this world. It is the world after war, disease and destruction have destroyed everything. I took it back to the continent of Africa because I see it as a land of beginnings. I have no idea how I came up with the futuristic, conflict-ridden world. The hero came to me first and he was this warrior guy. And the more I started to think about him and where he might exist. It came to me visually as a sort of garden amongst ruins.
AC: I have to ask: Darwu the Warrior Prince is a very strong, arrogant alpha male, with clear ideas about the roles people should play, and when he first meets Kara Millan, the freedom fighting heroine, he’s very physically rough with her. Later in the book, too, he takes a very strong hand with her. Did you have any reservations about using this kind of interaction between the hero and heroine?
GB: If it were strictly a contemporary romance novel I would have toned Darwu done a whole lot.
AC: I was wondering about that. I think most of the women I know would’ve clocked him, and that would’ve been the end of the romance before the first fifty pages!
GB: As the hero in a paranormal erotic romance who is a Warrior Prince, I didn’t have a whole lot of reservations about it. When he first meets Kara he thinks she is a rebel sent to aid in his assassination. He is trying to get information from someone he thinks is the enemy trying to kill him. Because I write character driven stories for the most part, I had to be true to his character. This is a dominant male in an erotic romance that believes in spanking, for pleasure and punishment.
AC: Interesting. In this future world that you’ve created, there’s a very well-defined belief system regarding people’s mates. What motivated you to create such a system? What themes should readers take away from it?
GB: The thing that I most want readers to get from the novel, besides a hot and enjoyable read, is that relationships take compromise and working together.
AC: Amen.
GB: You can’t have a true partnership and build a meaningful loving relationship with one person trying to rule the other. Even as Kara and Darwu come together and realize that they are sacred mates, it can only really work between them once there is a compromise between them and they really listen to and try to understand each other. Once they stop trying to tame and control one another, they can truly experience divine love.
AC: Will there be any futuristic follow-ups to Divine Destiny?
GB: I hope so. I am working on a prequel to the novel now.
AC: Oh, good!
GB: It is still a paranormal erotic romance but it takes place in contemporary times. The title is Next Lifetime and it’s the story of the cursed ones in the Divine Prophecy who were cast out of the Garden and had to get together for people in the future to know their mates. I envision these books as a part of a trilogy that I am calling the “Sex, Love and Revolution,” trilogy. After Next Lifetime, I’ll go back to the future with the third and final installment.
AC: You also write for Harlequin/Kimani Press. Do you have a different style or voice for each of your publishing houses?
GB: I think my voice is similar in most of my work, although my tone and style changes depending on the line that I am writing for. I think the Parker Publishing books in the “Sex, Love, and Revolution” trilogy have a tone and style that fits the paranormal erotic elements. My Kimani books seem to be more emotional and full of drama with a little angst thrown in for good measure. And the Genesis books in the “Hip-Hop Debutantes” trilogy are sort of hip, funky, funny and fresh. They have a lighter tone. I think all of my books are very passionate and emotional… Well… at least that’s what readers have told me…
AC: What should we look for next from you?
GB: In February, I have an erotic romance novella coming out in the anthology Cuffed by Candlelight. My novella is titled, “Handcuffs Mean Never Having to Say You’re Sorry.” I’m really excited about this anthology because I get to be in it with Beverly Jenkins and Katherine D. Jones.
AC: And … ?
GB: In March the follow-up book to my first novel, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me will be released by Genesis Press. That novel is Sweet Sensation and it is the story of a former rapper and a hip-hop super producer. The novels in the “Hip-Hop Debutante” trilogy all take common romance plots and give them a hip-hop remix. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me remixed the arranged marriage plot. And Sweet Sensation will add some flavor to the secret child plot.
AC: I can see I’ll need to save my pennies. My TBR pile is about to get a lot taller! It’s been a pleasure having you, Gwyneth! You’ll have to come again soon!
My first book for Harlequin/Kimani Press, Just About Sex, will hit bookshelves any second. You know what that means: I’m a bundle of nerves and excitement. I’m especially thrilled that RT reviewed JAS and gave it 4.5 stars (its highest rating) and made it a Top Pick. Here’s what the reviewer, Debbie R. Sims, had to say:
There’s a cool new site out there and I thought I’d spread the word about it a little. 
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More than fifteen years ago, after the last final of the fall semester of my second year of law school, I went to the SPCA to pick out a cat. I wanted a pet and I figured it would be my reward for studying my behind off during exams. When I got there, though, I was sorely disappointed to discover only one scrawny kitten, the sole remainder from his litter. He meowed at me, and then went about the business of playing. I watched him dubiously, certain he was defective in some invisible yet crucial aspect. Why else would he be the only kitten left?