1.
Heroes, Heroines,
Villains. Which are your favorite to write?
I think I most enjoy writing heroines. My husband and I co-author
erotic romance under this pen name, so he often delves into our male characters
more, and I love taking on the role of our heroines to bring them to life. I
find that especially true when it comes to writing black moments, that sudden
realization when a heroine faces a desperate choice. I often reach back to some
of my own experiences – having been engaged four times, married twice, and
divorced once, I’ve had a few heartbreaks and difficult choices. I love
reaching inside for what drives the heroine and pulling the reader into her
inner world.
2.
Heroes. How do you find
them? Do pictures, real life or plain imagination create the man you want every
reader to love? Do they come before the plot or after you have the idea for the
story?
All of the above, and then some. A photo, a chance encounter, even
a friend or two… and I’m certain we have one or more heroes who bear at least
some resemblance to my husband. After all, if I’m going to live in the
heroine’s skin while we’re writing, it’s easier to fall in love with the hero
if I’ve already done so! That being said, we also write alpha heroes, bad boys,
familiar tropes almost nothing like my husband. For both heroes and heroines,
we usually have broad strokes of a plot before the characters emerge, and we
spend a lot of time together getting to know them and their backstory, much of
which never makes it directly onto the page.
3.
Heroines. How do you
find them? Do pictures, real life or imagination create the woman you want the
reader to root for? Do they appear before the plot or after you have the idea
for the story?
Again, all of the above. My favorite story about finding a heroine
happened several years back. We lived in Norther Minnesota and were driving US2
across northern Wisconsin after visiting family. The highway follows the main
street through Superior, WI, complete with lots of traffic lights and parking along
the side of the road. We had to stop behind a contractor’s van that had double
parked and wait for traffic to pass before we could get around it. The back
doors of the van were open, revealing painting supplies, ladders, etc. Before
we could pass it, a tall worker approached it, dressed in painters white
coveralls. It wasn’t until the worker reached the back of the van that we
realized it was a woman. Our surprise morphed quickly into the heroine of The
Painter is lady, which we set in the
same town.
4.
Villains or villainesses or an antagonist,
since they don’t always have to be the bad guy or girl. They can be a person
opposed to the hero’s or heroine’s obtaining their goal. How do you choose one?
How do you make them human?
I’m going to cop to my husband’s role on this one. Not all our
stories have villains, but when they do, the main inspiration is his. He’s a
trained criminologist, so inner details about how their minds work, how they
carry out their evil deeds, what drives them, what they might do next—all these
choices start with him, and then we process the scenes together as we develop
the story. In several of our romantic suspense stories, we’ve written scenes
from the villain’s point of view, sometimes revealing who he is, sometimes not.
5.
What is your latest
release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the villain?
We’ve just released a short erotic romance holiday story. A
Reluctant Santa. No villain in this one, just a cautious, practical pair of
fifty-year-olds who are a tad relationship phobic. Carol Hawkins manages a
retail outlet in the fashion industry and lost her husband a few years before
our story opens. She has yet to meet anyone who sparks even a flutter of
interest. Cliff Rutgers, who runs a sporting goods store, hasn’t sought a
serious relationship since his divorce several years back. We had fun watching
these two characters fight their resistance and take slow, careful steps before
they finally let loose and turn up the heat.
6.
What are you working on
now?
Two projects, actually, as well as re-editing a previously pubbed
series that will begin releasing in the spring. We’re nearly finished creating
a reader magnet – a short story that will be free to readers who sign up for
our newsletter. We’ve sent a pair of mid-life swingers to a free week in Las
Vegas to see what adventures they can discover. That one will release sometime
in January.
The second has been percolating for years. Both of us have Celtic
roots and are very interested in Celtic history and spirituality. We’ve also
been reading widely on the UK during the era of Roman occupation. The upcoming
two-book series opens during the Roman occupation, when a Roman Centurion
captures a young Welsh woman named Seren and gives her to his wife as a slave. We
also love paranormal elements, so this woman has been gifted with the sight
and an ability to telepathically communicate with the young daughter she’s
forced to leave behind when the Centurion moves Seren and his family back to
Rome. Book two focuses on two of Seren’s descendants in the present day and her
efforts from the place between worlds to bring them together so she can move
on.
7.
How can people find you?
Website: https://adrianakraft.com
Blog: https://www.adrianakraft.com/blog
Newsletter: free download of our erotic
romance novella Cherry
Tune-Up for signing up.
Twitter https://twitter.com/AdrianaKraft
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.kraft.5
FaceBook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/AdrianaKraftAuthor
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/adrianakraft
GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1578571.Adriana_Kraft
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kraftadriana/
BookBub
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/adriana-kraft
Extasy
Books Page https://www.extasybooks.com/adriana-kraft
8.
Who are your favorite authors?
Probably each of us would answer this differently, but since I get
to write the interview, here are mine. I’m a huge Jane Austen fan and have
re-read all six novels more times than I can count. Emma is my favorite
of those, because of that moment when she’s walking around the garden with Mr.
Knightley and has to make a decision. My kind of moment! I’ve re-read Kristin
Hannah’s The Nightingale a couple times, even though I only came across
it in 2017. I love it for the bravery of all its main characters, for its
brilliant construction weaving back and forth between eras, and for the role of
secrecy, both that of the characters, and the secrets the author withholds from
us until the very end. My newest favorite is anything by Emily Henry, but
especially Book Lovers, because it turns so many tropes upside down. I’m
also quite enamored with C.W. Gortner, a male author who writes compelling
first person narratives featuring historical women. My favorite of his is Marlene,
which chronicles Marlene Dietrich. I’m so struck by his ability to bring us
such an authentic rendering of the inner life of a woman.
