Jessica Clare | Loving Billionaires and Introducing Primordials

MIRANDA OWEN: Your latest release – HIS ROYAL PRINCESS – is so sensual and I love the characters. Since Luke and Alex first appeared in a previous story – ONCE UPON A BILLIONAIRE – did you always plan to give them their own book and tell the story of how they met?

JESSICA CLARE: I always wanted to! I suggested it to my editor over and over until she was probably tired of hearing it! :)

MO: When we last checked in with your Midnight Liaisons crew, you introduced a new bunch of characters called primordials. Will you continue your Midnight Liaisons series? If so, will you have some books featuring these primordials?

JC: I would love to! I just wrapped Savannah and Connor's book and the Primordials feature in that. I always wanted to do more stories for them, but the sales on the ML books weren't what my publisher liked, so now I need to figure out how to squeeze them into my self-publishing schedule. :)

MO: Your paranormal books feature so many different types of magical beings – various animal shape shifters, vampires, etc. - do you have a personal favorite?

JC: There's a harpy I've mentioned in passing a few times that I'm dying to write a story for.

MO: You have said that, at some point, you will come out with a story featuring Savannah and Connor (from the Midnight Liaisons series) – do you know if you plan on making it a full length novel or a novella?

JC: It's complete and it's a shorter novel - about 65,000 words instead of the normal 85,000 the other books are, but it'll be coming out soon. :)

MO: I really enjoyed BETWEEN A VAMP AND A HARD PLACE, and was wondering if you planned on continuing that as a series, or if that was just a stand-alone romance.

JC: It was just a stand alone, alas. I wanted to play with doing something that wasn't connected to anything and it was fun to just kind of let anything roll through, knowing I didn't have to set up a future world. I might even do something like that again in the future, just for the joy of a one-off. :)

MO: I love your billionaire books. Specifically because they are fun, sexy, and the guys aren't jerks. Do you plan on writing either another series, or stand-alone books, featuring non-billionaire regular guy heroes? Or possibly another series about a different group of billionaires?

JC: Right now billionaires are selling for me, so we're going to keep playing with the billionaire trope. I do have a new book coming out in 2017 that's called DIRTY MONEY and it's going to feature all new characters.

MO: Any teasers you can share about Gretchen and Hunter's wedding?

JC: Daphne's back!

MO: Tell me a little about your Once Upon a Time-Travel series. Was it a love of fairy tales or a love of time-travel stories that inspired you to write this series?

JC: Yes and yes. I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, and also of portal fantasy books, and so this was me getting to play in both ends of the pool. I still need to do more of them! it's just finding the time.

MO: Let's talk a little about your Hitman series you write with Jen Frederick. What is that writing process like?

JC: Jen would do the hero POV because I felt less confident in the hero's head, and I would do the heroine's. One of us would write a chapter, and then the other would go forward. We didn't really outline ahead of time because it was exciting to see where the other person would take the story when it was handed to them. So much fun!

MO: Do all the Hitman books all take place in the same world – the characters know each other/work together?

JC: They do! They don't all necessarily intersect in the story together but they're all in the same world and someone is always connected to someone else.

MO: Are your “Games” books as fun to write as they are to read? JC: Sometimes! And sometimes they're a pure beat-down. I know the 'World Games' books are my least favorite to write even though they're the ones fans like the most. But for me, it's endless research which means it takes 3x as long to write each one, because I have to look up flights, connections, airports, locations, think up tasks, etc. The end result is fun but getting there is rough!

MO: Do you think you'd ever do a “Games” book about a cooking game/reality show?

JC: I am the world's worst cook so I don't know, but I do love the Great British Bake Off so I've entertained the idea.

MO: What are you currently working on?

JC: I'm writing Gretchen and Hunter's wedding novella! And then DIRTY MONEY. For self publishing, I'm about to put out ALPHA EVER AFTER (Savannah and Connor's story) in the next month or so. :)