Please welcome Jeanne St. James to the blog, author of Banged Up, Rip Cord and Double Dare. Thank you for agreeing to answer my nosy questions and share them with everyone visiting today.

Q: To begin, please share which genre(s) you write in…
A: I write erotic contemporary romance: male/female, male/male and male/male/female. Though my Phaze release Rip Cord is a m/m erotic novella with a “happy for now” ending. It’s not a romance per se.

Q: How long did you write before you received your first contract for publication?
A: YEARS! I’ve been writing since I’ve been about 13 years old. I’m now 41. However, I only started submitting to publishers in fall of 2008 and contracted my first release (Banged Up) within 6 months. And within 6 months after that had contracted two more stories.

Q: Out of all the stories you’ve written, which is your favorite?
A: It’s hard to pick! If I have to pick, I’ll pick Double Dare, since it was a blast to write since it was my first ménage a trios story.

Q: Do you need to be in a specific place or atmosphere before the words flow?
A: Yes, I need to be on my laptop, not my desktop computer and I like to be in my living room recliner. And I am more creative in the evening.

Q: What’s the strangest source of inspiration you’ve found for a story?
A: I wrote a story a long time ago (which will probably never be published) but I started it because I was waiting for my husband (my first husband) to come home late one night and thought, “what if he never came home?” And the story was born about a young woman who ended up being a widow and then discovered a new love, etc., etc., etc. Not that I wished ill on my ex-husband (*ahem*).

Q: If you could offer one tidbit of information for new writers, what would it be?
A: Write, write, and write some more. The more you write, the better writer you become.

Q: Do you have an evil day job or do you write full time?
A: I have an evil evening job. Right now I work permanent 3-11 shift. I’m an emergency dispatcher. I am working towards writing full time.

Q: Name one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you.
A: I play the piano. I’m not sure how surprising that is.

Q: What’s your favorite dirty word?
A: Shit. I use it too often.

Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
A: Absolutely! I have my belly button pierced and my ears are double pierced. I have a black rose wrapped around a red heart tattoo on my ankle and I have a large rose with a Celtic vine (I’m not Irish!) at the top of my spine. I just had my belly button re-pierced and the tattoo at the top of my spine done for my 41st birthday… a present to myself.

Q: If you could be intimate with three people (not necessarily all at one time *g*) without getting in trouble with your significant other, who would they be?
A: Mike Rowe (actor/spokesperson), Tyson Beckford (model), and Hines Ward (Pittsburgh Steelers #86).

Q: If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you spend the money on?
A: I would pay off my mortgage and then I could write full-time.

Q: Which household chore do you abhor and why?
A: Cleaning the tub. I don’t mind doing the rest of the bathroom, but the tub is a pain in the butt.

Q: What’s your favorite comfort food?
A: Booze.  I love whiskey sours and diet Coke and rum, along with sangria and martinis. I think that about covers it!

Q: Do you have a favorite book or movie?
A: I have several but I usually say that Hope Floats is one of my favorite movies. It is so romantic!

Q: If you don’t mind sharing, would you tell us about your latest work in progress?
A: I’m working on a couple projects… more erotic contemporary romances, plus revising a first book of a series. No details as of yet, since I’m “all over the place.”

Q: In closing, tell us a bit about your latest release (& share a yummy excerpt for those who aren’t yet familiar with your work)
A: My latest release is Double Dare, an interracial ménage a trios (m/m/f) that’s out with Loose Id. It’s available here: http://www.loose-id.com/Double-Dare.aspx

Quinn Preston, disappointed by one man, finds herself in the arms of two more, taking part in forbidden pleasures she never thought possible…

Quinn Preston, a financial analyst, is not happy when her friends dare her to pick up a handsome stranger at a wedding reception. What better reason to give up men when her previous long-term relationship had not only been lackluster in the bedroom but he had cheated.

Logan Reed, a successful farmer and business owner, can’t believe that he’s attracted to the woman in the ugly, Pepto-Bismol colored bridesmaid dress. And to boot, she’s more than tipsy. After turning down her invitation for a one-night stand, he finds her in the parking lot, too impaired to drive. He rescues her and takes her home. His home.

The next morning Quinn’s conservative life turns on its ear when Logan introduces her to pleasures she never even considered before. And to make things more complicated,
Logan already has a lover…

Tyson White, ex-pro football player and Logan’s business partner, is completely in love with Logan. He has mixed emotions when Logan brings home Quinn. But the dares keep coming and things heat up with the three of them. Nevertheless Ty wonders: will adding Quinn to the mix end up enhancing or destroying Logan’s and his relationship?

An Excerpt:

When Logan glanced up again, he saw a pink vision stalking toward him, and he sat up straighter. Shit, the cause of his earlier hard-on was coming his way.
She looked determined, and she still had a grip around her glass like it was a lifeline.
She stopped directly in front of him and put one hand on her hip.
“Are you Logan Reed?”
Oh, shit. “Yes?”
“You don’t know for sure?”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
“Are you fucking anybody right now?”
“Right this minute?” He glanced around to see if anyone else was hearing this surreal conversation. Luckily no one was paying attention.
“No. Do you have anyone who is going to get mad if I ask you to dance?”
“Uh. No.” Well, hell, that was a unique way of asking someone to dance.
She placed her drink on the table and he asked, “Is that still your second one?”
“No, third.”
“I was afraid of that.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled, but he was too heavy for her to lift, so he unfolded himself from the chair to accommodate her.
“Are you asking me to dance?”
“You have a problem with that?”
“Not at all.” He interlaced his fingers with hers and led her to a corner of the dance floor. Luckily for him, the D.J. had turned the lights down and was playing a series of slow tunes. Ones he could dance to. There was no way he was doing the chicken dance or line dancing. He had his limits.
As the slow, wailing tune blared through the large speakers, Logan slid his palms around her waist, his splayed fingers coming to rest at the small of her back. The fabric of her dress felt terrible, and he didn’t know why women wore shit like that and suffered. The dress certainly wasn’t flattering.
But it wasn’t the outer package that mattered to Logan, it was the prize he found inside when it was unwrapped.
He stepped in a little closer and pulled her hips closer to his. He swore he heard a little gasp. He smiled into her over-styled, dark blonde hair and nuzzled it. Underneath all the hairspray, he caught a scent of wildflowers. It smelled nice.
“What’s your name?” he murmured into her hair.
“What?” She turned her head a bit, and she ended up nuzzling his neck. Her lips, the shape of which reminded him of an archer’s bow, were warm and soft, and he could detect the fruity scent of the Slammers on her breath.
She was average height for a woman, which made her a bit shorter than him, so he had to lean down a bit to place his lips against her ear.
“What’s your name?”
He felt the shiver of her body against him, so he traced the delicate shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue. The touch was light enough, but she unmistakably felt it. In response, she arched her back slightly, pressing her hips into his.
“Quinn,” she finally answered him, her voice breathless.
“Quinn,” he repeated while moving one hand up her back to the bare skin rising out of her dress. He drew the pad of his thumb along the smooth expanse of flesh, along her exposed spine, moving up to her neck to cradle it in his palm. His thumb continued to stroke her skin along the vein in her neck.
He pulled away a little and looked down into her face. Her eyes were heavy and her lips were parted. Her breaths were short and quick.
He struggled to keep from thrusting against her. If she looked this good in that God-awful dress, he wondered what she looked like in normal clothes. Or no clothes at all.
Or just a pair of handcuffs.
His balls tightened, and he released a long breath out of his nose to steady his pulse.
“Quinn, do you like sex?” He placed his cheek against hers, and they swayed to the music, their hips, their thighs brushing against each other.
Her eyelids fluttered a bit before she answered, “Sometimes.”
“Why only sometimes?” he whispered against her ear.
She shrugged slightly, and one of her off-the-shoulder sleeves slid down a bit, exposing more creamy flesh.
Logan brushed his lips along her collarbone. It was delicate and covered with smooth skin. When he got to her shoulder he worked his way back, and in the hollow of her neck he placed a kiss.
There was a groan. He didn’t know who it came from. Her? Him? He didn’t care. His hand at the small of her back slipped lower, to just where the rise of her ass was. The fabric of the dress kept him from feeling details, but his imagination took over.
One song transitioned into another, and they weren’t even aware of the other couples dancing nearby.
His hips kept a steady side to side rhythm, while his hand on her back kept her close and in perfect time with him.
He was hard. There was no doubt she could feel it. Even with the yards of fabric around her midsection, her belly brushed against his length, teasing his cock.
“What kind of sex do you like?” His voice sounded low and gruff to his own ears.
“The kind when I get to come.”

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To learn more about Jeanne St. James, please visit her website at http://www.jeannestjames.com or her blog at http://jeannestjames.blogspot.com. You can find her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/jeannestjames) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/jeannestjames).Banged Up is available here: http://tinyurl.com/bangedup
Rip Cord is available here: http://tinyurl.com/phaze-ripcord
Double Dare is available here: http://www.loose-id.com/Double-Dare.aspx