An Interview with Author April Vine

Welcome to Sinclair Books. Today I am sitting down and talking with the very talented April Vine. I am very happy to be able to do this interview with April because she was such a great help to me when I had my first book published. You can find out more about April and her books here.

 

A blindfold of silk to heighten all senses, adding sultriness to pleasure, mystery to identities…Five years ago, Kelly Paton's friends devised a New Year's resolution to relieve her of her virginity and catapult her platonic relationship with David van Wyk into a mind-blowing passion-fest. But not only did the blindfold conceal Kelly's vulnerability, it also masked the identity of the virile man who took as he pleased.

Nothing could have stopped Adam van Wyk from the blindfolded beauty dressing his brother's bed. After all, she was only David's present to himself, a dalliance while he waited on the virgin heiress he was in love with. Or was she?

Five New Years' later, David has once again Kelly within arms' reach but the wounds of betrayal aren't quite healed.

Can Adam resist reliving the tempting memories and put his brother's happiness before his own, or will he risk it all and finally claim the one woman he's ever loved?

 

At what point in your life did you decide that you wanted to be a writer? Was it something that you always knew you wanted to do?

I wish I could remember the definitive moment when I realized I wanted to be a writer. My mum’s always been an avid reader – she has hundreds and hundreds of Barbara Cartland historical novels. My late dad, an obsessive book buyer, whether it was a thesaurus, an Enid Blyton adventure or a Reader’s Digest book about birds. Books were part of the furniture at our house.

I loved the escapism they offered and began to write stories about my friends at school, without even thinking of myself as a writer. I’d give them names they wished they had and wrote about adventures they’d have in exotic faraway places. They would wait quite eagerly for my little books which was really paper folded in half and stapled together to look like a book. When I reached high school, I changed genres and switched to romance : ) If one of my friends had a crush on a guy, rest assured I was going to write a full account of their romance with a guaranteed happy ending. I was extremely popular. I made all my friends romantic dreams come through on paper! :) So I guess I always knew I wanted to be a writer.

I have read all of your books and loved each and every one of them, but which was the most fun to write?

I think my first one, The Midnight Rose. That was my first ever foray into erotic romance, which was prompted by a lovely former editor. Previously, I wrote straight-laced romance, I mean with the bedroom door shut and bolted. Oh, but how I giggled at all the..ermmm…wrong words I had to use for The Midnight Rose, made myself blush silly, shocked myself, surprised myself, doubted myself. A rollercoaster of emotions but each one unleashed something else inside me particularly a wild side I never knew I had :)

Ryan Redford's reputation as a hard-nosed secret service agent in Cape Town, South Africa nearly goes out the window when his best friend's sexy, all grown up, little sister orchestrates an all-out, everything bared, seduction. To protect both his body and his heart, he describes the most depraved acts he can think of--everything he's fantasized about doing to her--sure to scare the virgin away. Hell, they scared him. Except when she takes his threats as promises, she expects him to deliver. Leah Jenkins was not taking no for an answer. She would deal with the consequences tomorrow but, tonight, Ryan Redford owed her--big time. Eight-year-old memories etched into her brain like a perpetual flame had kept her a virgin because no other man but Ryan would do.

 

Payback was said to be a bitch, but this time it's guaranteed to be a pleasure.

Do you consider yourself a planner or do you allow your stories to flow from the depths of your mind?

I’m a hopeless pantster, and I have the bruises to show for it. I go in with nothing but a blank screen and maybe a scent, or a swagger, or sometimes even a whole sentence and then I bang (pun so not intended) my way to the end. I wish I could plot. I know some plotters, yes, YOU, who plot to perfection before they even start writing a word. Me, I can’t even read a map, I find it too restricting. Getting lost is totally underrated :)

If you had to sum up your writing style in three words what words would they be?

That is a ridiculously hard question to answer, Alex! Hmm…funny, well sometimes, emotional, always and sexy, I hope.

What do you think the best part of being a writer is?

I can do it in my pajamas! I get let off the hook for burning supper, because it’s not my fault I’m afflicted with an imagination that keeps dragging me away from reality at inopportune times. But mainly it’s going to that place all writers go when they’re actually writing. It’s beautiful, I want to live there :)

 This is a question I love asking because for a writer it is such a ground breaking moment. How did it feel to see the front cover of your first book for the very first time?

Surreal. The realization final hit that I’ve put myself out there. Scary and exciting at the same time. I felt very grown up.

What do you think the hardest part of being a writer is?

Writing! Without a doubt! It’s the strangest notion in the universe. There’s nothing in the world I want to do, or can do for that matter yet every day I talk myself out of actually doing it. It boils down to a very bizarre battle between my butt and the chair.

“All you have to do is disguise yourself, pretend to be me, go to India and meet the man I’m supposed to marry. By the time he realizes you’re not me, I’ll have already eloped…”

After a break up with her boyfriend, Haley Kent agrees to her best friend, Anjali’s madcap plan, hoping mystical India will help her find inner peace. Instead Anjali’s arranged future husband turns out to be a gorgeous Indian God with a touch that scorches.

Rajeev Yuvaraj refuses to be outsmarted by the sexy, blonde, blue-eyed American and devises his own retribution. A bride is what he expected and a bride is what he would get even if it meant handcuffing Haley to his wrist during the marriage ceremony.

But when Haley discovers the true nature of his secret scheme, can Rajeev seduce her back into his arms again?

 What is your favourite novel of all time?

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The book I wish I wrote though is Life of Pi by Yann Martle – it’s amazing.

You were such a big help to me when I had my first book signed, but what words of advice would you give up and coming authors?

Ah, thank you, Alex, but you’re brilliant on your own, you know. My advice to new authors and this is advice I try to follow myself: Just get it done, just write the book, don’t sweat the big things just yet. You really can fix anything but a blank page as THE Nora Roberts says.

 What can we expect from your next book?

I’m working on three at the moment, from the stuff that happens when you have live sex, and yes stuff does happen, to a lust spell gone awry, and a femdom novel just to keep things in the balance :)


Thank you, so much, Alex, for having me.

I want to thank April for taking the time out to have a chat with us. I am looking forward to your next book so I hope you keep winning the battle between your butt and the chair! I wish you all the best with your writing.