Interview and Contest with Award-Winning Author Joey W. Hill

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Beloved Vampire
Book IV of the Vampire Queen series (can be read as standalone)
Joey W. Hill
Erotic/BDSM Paranormal Romance
Berkley Heat
August 2009

Book Description:

Mason has lived in the Sahara desert for almost 300 years, grieving for a lost love and guarding her tomb. When the tomb is breached, his bloodlust is stirred to raging by the thought of someone disturbing her sanctuary.

What he finds is Jessica, a fugitive from his own world. Jessica was the forced second-mark servant of a cruel vampire master. Through an unexpected turn of events, she was able to kill him when he tried to give her the final mark, which would have made her his full servant, bound to him even in death. Because the third marking was not complete, it left her alive…barely.

Drawn by the historic legend of the tomb, not knowing how it intertwines with the vampire world she is seeking to avoid, Jessica’s only desire is to die there, with her hand on the sarcophagus of the woman who’d had an unyielding faith in love.

Instead, she finds her desire to live forcibly re-awakened by the vampire who refuses to let her give up. She clings to her hatred, but the more Mason struggles with her, the more determined he is to help her believe in love again. The only catch is he might have to do the same. But can he offer up his heart to another extraordinary woman if he already gave it away centuries ago?

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In depth interview with Award-Winning Author Joey W. Hill

CSM: Please help me welcome Erotic Romance author Joey Hill to Erotic Romantic Crush Junkies. Joey, I am so psyched you stop by to spend time with me and my readers. So, tell us more about yourself. My readers love learning new and interesting things about an author, and this would give you a great chance to make them feel close.

I’m delighted to be here as well, and flattered to be asked. New and interesting things, hmm? Since I’m currently writing one book every four months and cramming in promo and basic family stuff wherever I can find time for it, my life, while I’m loving it, may come off sounding dull as dirt. But I can probably come up with a few things to use as interesting trivia. I’ve technically never graduated from high school – got early acceptance to a college, refusing in a typically rebellious and bullheaded fashion the bureaucratic requirement to acquire a couple more elective (basket weaving) credits to get the diploma during my last summer vacation. I entered as a creative writing major, and then diverted to non-profit management, which I applied to animal rights/animal welfare work for about ten years. Feeling I’d accomplished what I could there, for the time being, I was drawn back to writing and found a publisher in 1999.


I’m a vegetarian, of course. Kind of goes with the whole animal rights thing, though I shamefacedly haven’t found the willpower to be a total vegan. I am far too weak when it comes to desserts. I’ve embraced the Wiccan faith for about twenty years now. My life pretty much revolves around writing, and the needs of one husband and seven animals and regular calls from my mother, announcing 1) the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and 2) the latest sales at Wal-Mart that might interest me (laughter). Despite this rather Bohemian background, I’m a fiscal and foreign policy conservative, but a social issue liberal, comfortably straddling the Independent line.

CSM: If you have 2 hours free time tonight, what would you rather do? Why?

I have such a hard time deciding what to do with free time. Probably because I have so little of it, I’ve lost the natural ability to relax and take advantage of leisure time when I get it. However, I’ll typically either watch a movie, a taped DVR show or read a book, something to transport me to something else, where someone is telling me a story, versus me telling them one (laughter). Spending time with my husband and animals while doing any of those things makes it perfect.

CSM: What kind of books do you love to read? Why?

Well written, character-driven stories where the plight of the character grabs me in the first couple pages. I don’t care much about the politics or the point A to point B plotline, as long as that makes sense and isn’t distracting. In a really good book, those things merely provide opportunities for us to delve even deeper into the characters, feel their emotions. And of course I prefer it to be a romance and, even better, an erotic romance, because I prefer my sex real and steamy. Throw in a D/s undercurrent (or overcurrent), and I’m happy as a clam. Examples of my favorite books – Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, the first three books (Jamie and Claire – yeah!), Once in a Blue Moon by Penelope Williamson, Gift of the Goddess by Denise Rossetti, Violet Summers The Worthington Group series (particularly Daniel’s Surrender), Bitter Homecoming by Ann Jacobs, Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning, etc. I also adore Jacquelyn Frank’s new Shadowdweller series. Beautifully written! I’m reading Rapture now and it is tremendously good – has almost all the qualities I like.

CSM: What type of music do you relax to?

I write to music, so when I’m doing things around the house, errands or traveling, I like to listen to the playlist soundtracks I’ve created, either remembering the scenes to which I wrote them, or thinking up new ones. My musical taste is very eclectic, but the common theme is emotion or what the lyrics are conveying. I’ve been getting some great suggestions lately from my yahoo fan group about music I hadn’t heard before, like Darren Hayes’ Insatiable. My husband is an avid music fan as well. He has a great ear for lyrics and discovered Daughtry for me, among many others, but I love that band’s sound. The ultimate gritty contemporary dark erotic romance music.

CSM: Besides being a total book junkie I’m also a music junkie. When I’m writing I have a sound track playing either in my mind or in my cd player. What’s your sound track? What type of music is on it?

Whoops, I got ahead of us. See the above. I recently had a request from one of my readers to put the “soundtrack” lists for my different books in the File archive of my yahoo fan group, and I’m going to try to do that in the next few weeks. Of course, readers might piece them together just from reading the books. Two examples: In my latest release, Beloved Vampire, there’s an intense erotic scene in a BDSM club. Mason and Jessica have a pretty intriguing interaction on the dance floor, where the background dance music includes Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head”, Abba’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and Marc Anthony’s “I Need to Know”. I was listening to all of those while writing the scene. I have a male/male erotic romance, Rough Canvas, where my two protagonists are lying in a field, beneath a tree, their very emotional scene enhanced by John Mayer’s Gravity, playing on Marcus’s MP3 player. Again, I was listening to that when I wrote the scene.

CSM: What is your favorite stress reliever?

Treadmilling while watching favorite series I’ve DVR’ed. Currently it’s Criminal Minds and ER.

CSM: What is your favorite food?

Chocolate, preferably some type of Dove bite-sized morsel – Dark, Milk, Tiramisu, Caramel filled – I’m pretty much happy with all of them.

CSM: Describe yourself in one word?

Neurotic. However, to distinguish myself from most other authors who share that trait, I’ll also say...reclusive. Okay, maybe that STILL doesn’t make me any more unique. Ah, well. I have no worries about being part of the crowd. Sometimes blending and being invisible is the best way to focus on your stories. As I’ve told people before--those who meet me and are amazed that someone who looks like a kindergarten teacher could write erotic romance--if I was out being a wild, sexed-up tramp in stilettos, WHEN would I have time to write? (Plus, stilettos hurt my feet just to look at them.)

CSM: What’s your biggest regret in life?

That’s always an interesting one. I don’t have personal regrets; that is, regret for decisions I made that resulted in painful consequences to me. Things like that can be strong fodder for emotional writing, if an author can look at them objectively and not get bogged down in self-indulgence (aka, having a pity-party in your own writing). And those experiences gave me what I have now – the depth of my writing, a wonderful husband who understands me like no other, and a lovely, quiet life.


What I do regret are the decisions I made that hurt others. I won’t go into specifics on those, since they would of course involve the privacy of others, but I will issue one powerful, blanket regret – I regret my self absorption as a teenager which, though I know it’s a common teenage affliction – resulted in a lot of very callous behavior toward my poor mother, who has been a blessing and a friend to me in so many ways (smile).

CSM: What is the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?

My husband and I, and two friends, took a bareboat sailing charter in St. Maarten and spent a week going from port to port. It was the one and only time I’ve been out of the country, and it was amazing to be in a different place, with a different culture, managing a sailboat and all the things that can go wrong (and right!). We found a lovely island and anchored there a couple days – Tintamarre. We also went to St. Bart’s, Philipsburg, Grand Case, Marigot, etc.

CSM: How would readers find out more about you?

Just visit my website, www.storywitch.com. You can go to Books Available or the series links and read free excerpts, blurbs and reviews of my books. There’s also a link to my blog there, and currently I’ve been serializing a vignette on my blog, based on characters from my full length works. Right now it’s a contemporary couple from the Nature of Desire series, but next vignette will be based on my Vampire Queen series. On my home page as well as the blog, you’ll also find reference to my yahoo fan group, where they have great ongoing discussions, and I pop in far more often than I should to chat, because it’s a wonderful group of folks. I also hold occasional “Bookclub nights” there to discuss latest releases. That is, when the readers will let me (they want to make sure I’m not neglecting my next deadline – laughter).

CSM: When did you write your first book?

First published book was written in 1998, an epic fantasy called Guardian of the Continuum. It was published by an epublisher that is currently defunct, but had good reviews, finaled in the EPPIEs, and won the Dream Realm award for Fantasy. However, like much non-erotic digital work at that time period, it didn’t get a large distribution, so when I signed with an agent a few years ago, she recommended I pull it off my site (since I now own the rights again), so we can update and market it later, as it is the first of a five-book series.

CSM: How long did it take you to write it?

About 3 years. It wasn’t under deadline, and I was writing and marketing short stories at the same time while working a fulltime job and juggling other family and community efforts. There wasn’t the same sense of urgency I had now. That was also at the close of my active period with animal rights, and I was still transitioning away from that.

CSM: Did you encounter any obstacles in writing?

There are always obstacles, but none that can deter me, if I truly want to write. Time is always the biggest challenge – never enough of it to get it all done, and then as your name builds, little chunks of it get eaten away by promo, conferences, and of course the fact you do need to spend time with your family and take care of them. Now that I’m under deadline, writing one book every four months, time is even more critical. I worry about--and try to maintain constant vigilance—against any drop in quality, because I never want to give my readers crap just to meet a deadline. My long term readers and critique partners are invaluable for keeping me on course.

CSM: What do you think about editing?

It depends on which edit cycle. I do four full edits of my books. Edit one is cleaning up, rearranging – it’s like moving to a house and seeing all the boxes. Everything is there you need, you just haven’t arranged it and set it out. So a lot of effort and toil, but fairly okay. Second edit is the one I despise the most. That’s my “this book completely sucks and my career as a writer is over” edit because I’m cleaning up what I did in edit one, and it’s like slogging through a swamp, watching so closely for snakes, alligators and spiders, that I miss what the scenery is like. In short, I get very detail-oriented and don’t have any perspective for the big picture. Third edit is where I feel much better (hopefully) because I can see the results of the first two, and it now feels like a book. Then fourth edit is the polish, which is a nice finish, but by the time I’m done I’m really ready to send it off, because I couldn’t possibly read it one more time. Part of that feeling is the result of turnaround time. When I was taking 6 months to 3 years to write a book, there was time to take more of a breather between edits and see it fresh. Now I finish one edit, and twenty-four hours later I’m on the next one (hence the vigilance about quality mentioned earlier).

CSM: Where and when do you write?

Monday through Friday, 8am-4:30pm. I typically do email and promo stuff 8-9am, but start writing at 9am and work until lunch, when I take a break with the dogs and cats. Then it’s back to writing until 4:30pm. Hopefully I am able to keep my nose to the grindstone and get a productive day in without getting distracted by the things that can come up when working at home! Sometimes, if I’m pressed on a deadline I’ll also give several weeknights and a weekend day to it, but if not, I reserve those times for promo work and email.

CSM: What books would you recommend to aspiring writers to improve on style, character development, plot structuring, dialogue, etc?

The building blocks of good writing seem to be covered in much the same way in most books on the mechanics of writing. I probably read every single one I could get my hands on when I started writing. However, a good reference/reminder of the most important rules is Judy Delton’s The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them!). I supplemented and stayed current on techniques with subscriptions to writing and industry mags, like Writer’s Digest, Romance Writer’s Report, etc. Thanks to the Internet, there are a wealth of blogs by authors and writers’ groups now that also debate the mechanics of good writing. Once an author feels he/she has a good understanding of these (which is usually when a lot of what you’re reading on the subject starts to be redundant), then the best books to read are your favorite authors, to see how they apply those rules. Final step – start writing and doing it yourself, and use good critique partners to help you tweak and refine your craft.

CSM: What is your must-have book for writing?

Stephen King’s On Writing or Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Both focus on the psychology of being a writer, versus the mechanics. You can find hundreds of books on the mechanics (as noted in previous question), and you should read those, really learn the building blocks of your craft, but in order to stick with it, you have to be dedicated spiritually to writing, and understand the psychology of being an aspiring writer. I think these two books speak well to that.

CSM: What is your advice for aspiring writers?

I always have three essential pieces of advice, and they echo that of a great many published authors, so an aspiring author shouldn’t consider them trite – these are actual, serious maxims:


1) Know your craft, and keep learning, no matter how long you write.
2) Know the business
3) Never give up

I added that about triteness, because a lot of folks would look at #3 and think that’s just pep talk language. In this business, if you want to make it, you will have to believe in yourself and your writing entirely and completely, while being willing to continue to grow professionally and as a craftsperson every day you embrace being a writer. And nothing will depress or deter you as much as the “business” of being a writer, which is demoralizing, depressing and unfair. Those are the good things to say about the publishing business (laughter). As Anne Lamott says, you can’t write because you want to be published or successful financially. You have to write because you love writing, or you won’t stick with it. No sane person would!

CSM: What genre(s) do you write?

Currently I write erotic paranormal and erotic contemporary. A great deal of my erotic work has a sensual to hardcore Domination/submission element to it, depending on the series. I have also written epic fantasy, mainstream romance and paranormal romance, so I don’t discount that those types of novels may be in my future one day, though I admit to loving the erotic genre – there’s so much freedom of expression in it, women embracing the deepest part of their sexuality. And so much of our emotional complexity comes out in physical intimacy. It makes for great character explorations in stories.

CSM: Among that you’ve written which is your favorite book and why?

That’s like choosing the favorite character (see below). I just can’t do it. I will say, if I need inspiration for my paranormals, I go back to Mark of the Vampire Queen, because Jacob and Lyssa’s story, which culminates in that book, really moved me, both as an author and a reader. For my contemporary inspiration, I go back to Mirror of My Soul or Rough Canvas, because those sets of characters also flowed so well, they help me believe I can reach that level again (grin). Sometimes, though, they make me think just the opposite, particularly when I get bogged down! (the Oh-God-I’ll- never-write-a-book-this-good-again syndrome)

CSM: Where do you get your ideas? Do you jot them down in a notebook in case you forget?

Certain things may catch my attention – like an interesting-looking person in a store, or a snippet of conversation, or a television program, and something about that piece of information will spawn a story idea


I use scraps of paper if no computer is handy, but if it is, I love using Microsoft One Note, because it sets it up like index cards on the computer and allows me to post reference links and all sorts of nifty background material.


Once I have a germ of an idea, I tuck it away and wait until my next extended car trip. Then I brainstorm in earnest while I drive, using background music and a voice recorder to log all the ideas. I might do that while in any “waiting” situation, like in heavy traffic, or while on the treadmill, etc, when only part of my brain is engaged. If I’m having trouble sleeping at night, I’ll do it then as well and make notes on those scraps of paper I keep on my side table.

CSM: Which of your books feature your family/friends, etc? What characters are modeled after them? Why?

None. And I’m not saying that just to protect them (laughter). The emotions of my characters are often drawn from my observations of people around me, who may be family, friends, or just the result of random people watching. I’m included in that people-watching, because who are you closer to than yourself when you’re analyzing emotions and motives? But these are bits and pieces that go into Frankenstein’s monster, so to speak – the character created is not only that compilation but something more, shaped by his/her experiences in the story. Another reason I’ve never used a fully fleshed person I know is that would feel biographical, which is not as interesting to me as discovering the facets of a new character.

CSM: Which of your heroes/heroines is most similar to you?

At different points of my life, the way my characters feel, or things they experience, their reactions to them, have reflected to a certain extent pieces of things that were happening in my own life, so I think it would be accurate to say that each book might mesh somewhat with me. However, the one that was most similar to me, for a particular period of my life, was my first erotic romance, Make Her Dreams Come True. Fortunately, Meg and I have both found a happier outlook!

CSM: Who is your strongest/sexiest/most lovable/hottest hero/heroine? Why?

This kind of question is always tough for me, because they’re like my kids (only I would never have those thoughts about my kids, because that would be sick and they’d lock me up – snort). I do feel close to each of them, however, so to me they’re all those things. My readers seem to have an abiding fondness for two of my characters, though. The first one, Tyler, of Ice Queen / Mirror of My Soul, is a Southern gentleman and sexual Dominant who ironically becomes fascinated with a female Dominant at his favorite club, The Zone. I think what made Tyler become so many reader’s fantasies was the lengths he would go to help Marguerite win an emotional battle against a truly horrific past. He was the Dominant of everyone’s dreams – anticipating her needs, pushing her to the edge of pleasure and emotional release, and flat out giving her everything of himself. So I don’t think Tyler could have won so many hearts without Marguerite as his foil to show exactly how wonderful he is.

The other character is Mac Nighthorse of Natural Law. He, on the other hand, was a sexual submissive, but an alpha cop as well, and he pulled off both aspects of his character so well that he won a lot of hearts by being the unexpected – an alpha who could still be an alpha while sexually submitting to a woman.


These are older, enduring favorites, but in terms of my current titles I’ve seen a rise in popularity for Mason, the hero of Beloved Vampire, for some of the same reasons that I think Tyler won hearts – his unique ability to help a troubled woman find herself again and win her love at the same time. Jacob is another growing favorite, from Vampire Queen’s Servant and Mark of the Vampire Queen. A former vampire hunter who becomes the servant of a 1000-year-old vampire queen, Lady Lyssa, he proves that he has a knight’s heart, willing to be put to the test for his lady’s well-being, no matter the situation.

In romance, heroines don’t get as much attention, but I’ve had many readers express a fondness for Mina, my seawitch heroine from A Witch’s Beauty. She’s a dark, foul-tempered creature who has no reason to trust anyone, and she gets assigned a young guardian angel, David, to help protect her. Not only from the forces of darkness without, but from those within her. She’s irascible yet not unlovable, as he proves, time and again.


While I can’t personally choose a favorite, I’d say if I was given a choice of meeting one hero and one heroine, it would likely be Marguerite and Jacob. Marguerite because her struggle to overcome her personal demons was so heartbreaking to write – authors tend to get a bit immersed (at least this one does), and there were times I wasn’t sure Tyler was going to be able to pull her back from self-destruction. She was so strong and so fragile at once, she was a heartbreaker to write. And Jacob, because his absolute dedication to Lyssa, no matter what, while still maintaining his own identity and strong will, made me love him all the more.

CSM: Have you ever wanted to write your book in one direction but your characters wanted to go in another direction. What did you do in such a situation?

All the time. If I’m smart, I listen to the characters. If I have a good reason for pulling in another direction though, there’s some negotiation that happens. I may put in some tweaks that adjust the plot a little bit toward my intent, hopefully with good result. But the characters have a more direct line to the muse, so often an author’s best strategy is not to get in the way of them telling the story. You can always go back later and do some editing if you think it needs tightening or polishing.

CSM: Tell us more about your current release by Berkley Heat “Beloved Vampire”.

It’s the fourth book in the Vampire Queen series, but can be read as a standalone. Unlike the previous three, which feature a female vampire heroine and a servant hero, this book has a male vampire and a female servant, and it has been well received by the readers. This book has had a wonderful debut, with reviewer top pick ratings from Romantic Times, Night Owl Romance and ParaNormal Romance. It was also just named as an alternate selection for the DoubleDay, Book-of-the-Month and Rhapsody Bookclubs.


I think that the whole series works well because it focuses on a heretofore less examined aspect of vampires – the vampire-servant relationship. Erotic romance readers particularly like the Dominant male, female submissive romance dynamic, and Beloved Vampire gives them that. Jessica is a fugitive from the vampire world, having killed her brutal vampire master, and Mason discovers her hiding in the tomb of his lost love. At the time, she is dying, and he has no choice but to mark her as his servant to save her life. But she knows only hatred and fear of vampires, so he has his work cut out to make her embrace life and love again. In order to do it, he’ll have to come out of the shadow of his lost love’s death and embrace those things himself. There’s a free excerpt and full blurb on my site, under the Vampire Queen series link.

CSM: Any new projects, works in progress?

Always. Am I breathing? (laughter). I just turned in Vampire Mistress, the fifth in the Vampire Queen series, to begin the editing process. It’s a ménage a trois, which was particularly challenging, because I’ve never written a ménage where it is intended that all three characters will be equally invested in the relationship (versus one just facilitating the relationship for the other two). The book features Gideon, a battle-scarred, bitter vampire hunter who makes an intense connection with the Mistress of a BDSM club, the night before she is brutally attacked and turned by a pack of psychotic rogue vampires. Unknown to Gideon, she has a silent partner in the club, a powerful, mysterious vampire named Daegan Rei, and the two of them must work together to help Anwyn through an unusual and rough transition process. Gideon is also Jacob’s brother.

Another book I’m working on returns me to my original contemporary erotic romance series, the Nature of Desire series, with Ellora’s Cave Publishing. There was a pair of secondary characters, who met at the end of Mirror of My Soul, who had an instant chemistry – Brendan and Chloe. I’ve been working on their story off and on, between deadlines, for about a year. However, since I’m at the moment between vampire books, I’m finishing it up to send in to EC in October. These two are more gentle than my usual high-powered characters (hence the tentative title, Gentle Mistress).

Brendan is every Dominant woman’s fantasy, the perfect, handsome male submissive, wanting to serve her every desire. Chloe is not part of the D/s orientation, but she and Brendan meet at Marguerite’s wedding and are irresistibly attracted. Overcoming a trauma that occurred months earlier, Chloe turns to Brendan for help one night, and their relationship begins, introducing her to a world she doesn’t know. One that makes her wonder if can she remain an outsider and still be in love with a man so deeply inside of it? And can he love her back?

The next book I’ll be writing will be another Vampire Queen series novel, where Elisa (secondary character from Vampire’s Claim) arrives at a wild cat sanctuary with eight children in tow, to the irritable dismay of the vampire who runs the sanctuary behind the scenes. However, she’s been sent by her vampire employer, the Lady Daniela. The children were illegally turned to vampires by a sire, now deceased, who treated them like a pack of wolves. Since Malachi knows so much about animal behavior, it’s a last ditch effort to help the kids adapt to the vampire world. In the meantime, though, he finds the resolute young Irish maid a challenge to his authority and his detachment from his own world, as the desire to make her his servant, and even more than that, gets stronger.

So plenty to keep me immediately busy. I also have several ideas percolating in my head. There’s another book idea in my brain for my Daughters of Arianne (mermaid/angel) series, the third book of which releases in December, Mermaid’s Ransom. I also have a couple more characters in the Vampire Queen series whose story I want to tell, as well as for the Nature of Desire series. Then there’s that epic fantasy series I’d like to update and remarket, a male/male erotic novella in my brain, and a twist on one of the Greek God legends to which I’d like to turn my hand in the future. Which kind of surprised me, because I’m not really into the Greek mythology, but this idea intrigued me enough that it caught my eye. Nope, won’t tell you which one, not until I make it a reality in my own unique way!

CSM: I want to take this time to thank you Joey for stopping by and sharing with my readers and myself a little bit about yourself. This sure has been loads of fun. I hope you enjoyed being here as much as we enjoyed having you.

Thank you! It has been a tremendous pleasure, and I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about me and my work. Remember to be sure and visit my website, http://www.storywitch.com/ for free excerpts, blurbs and reviews about all my work.