Torie's Glories: Author Spotlight Featuring Aaron Speca and Patricia Laffoon!

There are no strangers in my life. They're simply friends I haven't met yet. I've been blessed to meet some amazing people on my adventures through social networking and the worlds I inhabit there.

This week I am uber thrilled to have Aaron Speca and Patricia Laffoon with me.  So belly up, grab some liquid noms and join me as I pick Le Brain of pure Fab!

So, what inspired you to write your first book?

{Patricia} That was all on my writing partner Aaron...*eyes him with a grin* He took a small story line and submitted it into a contest he saw online. Much to my surprise we were accepted and the next thing I knew, tada, we were published.

{Aaron} Yes, it was a short story. I saw the call for submissions 24 hours before the deadline, when I was home sick, and so I spent the day editing a story we had written in role play format into a 5000-word short story.  It was a shock to be selected, and to be published, and in many ways it still is.  As for our first book together, the first book of “The Realmwalker Prophecy”, it is almost ready for submission!

What were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) during it? Did you find yourself daunted at all?

{Patricia} ME? No him *nodding my head towards Aaron* Yes I will have to admit this freely. He does all the hard stuff I get all the fun stuff ... we write, he edits and makes it all sound good together.

{Aaron} Not really daunted, just occasionally overwhelmed.  But since we started down this road, I always knew that eventually, it would happen.  The biggest obstacle is time.

Do you ever find yourself torn between what YOU want for the character and what ACTUALLY ends up happening?

{Aaron}  Not for my main character, but sometime characters that I plan on only being a side character end up getting a story all their own.  When there are disagreements, characters usually win.

{Patricia} Nope this is a no brainer for me. I am she and she is me  ~I am the Mermaid, coo coo ca choo, coo coo ca choo~

Do you have a particular style of writing? Organized or do you wing it?

{Patricia} Sweetie I fly by the seat of my pants most every day of my life...*Giggles* No now that's not entirely true, we talk get a type of game plan and go from there but mostly it's reaction to an action that gets us started.

{Aaron}  We have a very general sense of a story, but yes for the most part we are what are called "pantsers".

What's currently cooking in that amazing gray matter of yours?

{Patricia} I'm working on another dimension of this epic tale that involves our two young lovers in a western...

{Aaron}  Yes, what will become clearer as our series hopefully gets published and developed is that there are multiple worlds these two souls exist in, and are destined to find each other, and there is a grand story that connects them all.  The first book is pirates and mermaids in what we know as the 18th century Caribbean; there will be a Western, and other settings.  Each is a world in its own right, but they are all connected.  That's the fantasy aspect of it.

If you could choose any writer, who would love to have as a mentor?

{Patricia} OMG there are sooooo many. It would be to hard to choose for me but if I HAD to pick one right this minute...I'd have to go with Sydney Croft/Larissa Ione.   I read her before I started reading the Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark-Hunter series.

{Aaron} Wow - I think I will just have to go with influences.  To me there have been few storytellers like Isaac Asimov.  I grew up on science fiction, and you will see elements of that even in these stories.  Roger Zelazny and his Amber series are another source of inspiration.  C.S. Lewis, Sherrilyn Kenyon, J.K. Rowling, and Stephen King are other strong influences.

Time for the "randoms" as I call them:
Fave food group? {Patricia}  Fast  {Aaron}  Edible
Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne? {Patricia} Stark, he has cooler toys  {Aaron}  Stark, for his sense of humor
Celebrity Death Match...name your top two?
{Patricia} Toss a coin I haven't a clue. I've never watched...
{Aaron}
Historical, sci-fi or fantasy?
{Patricia} Can I have a third choice? Paranormal Romance
{Aaron} All of the above, including Patricia's, which is what you will find in "The Realmwalker Prophecy".

Of all your characters, which one is closest to YOU?
{Patricia} I only have one in all her facets she and I are still one.
{Aaron}  Rudy has so much of me, or at least what I would hope is me.

Care to share an excerpt from any of your works?

{Aaron}  Sure, this is an excerpt from our Work in Progress, "The Realmwalker Prophecy: Heart of the Mermaid" ...

***

Rudy stepped up to the table, and he could hear Trish take a sharp intake of breath and hold it. Here came the bluff. He looked over the chart and placed his finger on their current position east of Augustina. The map had a triangular area marked on it. The Devil’s Triangle, full of mystery and quite frankly, death. With Bermuda at its apex, it encompassed a good portion of the southern Atlantic and far east Caribbean.

The map he had seen placed Atlantis right at its center.

His finger traced a path from their position east-northeastward, finally stopping at the southern edge of the Triangle. “Set sail for this point.” Stryder nodded at D’Von who started barking orders and went to the wheel, and Rudy followed the man with his eyes.
The wheel seemed normal enough. Rudy took a couple of steps towards it, and noticed something in the pedestal. A diamond-shaped recess, with metal rope-like things trailing out of it and disappearing into the deck. “What on earth are those for?” As he asked the question, he heard Trish gasp and a hammer cock. Rudy froze.

“Interesting ye should ask about that right away.” Stryder’s voice oozed malice. “Now, why don’t you come back over here and tell me the real course to Atlantis. Or your pretty little lass takes a bullet to the head.”

Rudy turned with his hands in the air to be faced with Trish’s arms being held by Sapphire and a crewman, and Stryder standing with his gun pointed right at her head. Sapphire held a knife to her throat, and pressed a little, bringing forth a small trail of blood. “No!” Trish was saying. “You gave your word that we wouldn’t be harmed if he showed you the way. Rudy, tell him you told him the way to go!”

“Aye that be true, but he ha’n’t shown us the way now has he?” He shoved the pistol into Trish’s cheek. “Have ye, lad?”

Rudy was deflated. Was he that transparent? Slowly he walked back to the chart and placed his finger at the point where the now-destroyed map had marked. Dead center of the Devil’s Triangle. “There, damn you. There’s your precious Atlantis.” Now, he was sure Stryder would kill him. He could only hope Trish would be spared.

“D’Von! We have our heading.” Stryder uncocked the gun and holstered it once again, to Rudy’s surprise. “Now, now, Sapphire, my love, let’s not get the deck all bloody.” Sapphire rolled her eyes and removed the knife from Trish’s throat. “Tonight you will dine with us, Mr. MacTavish, but for now since ye know yer way ‘round a ship so well … D’Von! Put Mr. MacTavish to work and take the mermaid back to their quarters. And remember sweet.” Stryder put his hand under her chin and tipped her face to his, and Rudy had to check himself to keep from rushing into a fight he couldn’t win. “Yer singing will have no effect on me or on much of my crew. So think about what I might to do to him, should ye try any of yer little siren tricks.” He released her and motioned for her to be taken away.

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Patricia, Dawn, and Aaron can be followed here:  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Speca-Author/216515161730857

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/aaronspeca

Blog http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com

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Rudy and Trish are the main characters in Patricia and my published short stories in the "Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness" anthologies.  You can get to know them as well as get 23 other great stories!  Here's where you can find them:

Evernight Volumes 1 and 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Aaron-Speca/e/B009POYD96/

Both are also available on All-Romance E-books (ARe)
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/

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Thank you so much for stopping by today and chatting a spell with me. I wish you much joy, luck and magic in your ALL your endeavors!

{Patricia} sweetie it was our pleasure thank you for having us.