With nine New York Times bestsellers, Lauren Blakely’s sexy, contemporary titles have also appeared on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists more than three dozen times.
Her bestselling series include Sinful Nights, Seductive Nights, The Start of Us (No Regrets), Caught Up in Love, and Fighting Fire. She recently released Big Rock, a sexy standalone romantic comedy that became an instant New York Times bestseller.
Maya Fleischmann (MF): What inspired your debut romance novel Caught Up In Us?
Lauren Blakely (LB): Romantic movies! The heroine is a huge fan of movie romances, and wants that movie kiss, movie love, movie HEA in her life. She’s a romantic but she’s also had her heart broken, so of course she has to learn to trust again!
MF: What do you think is the most appealing aspects of your books?
LB: That’s a great question! I’m thrilled that readers like them at all and I think, based on what I hear from readers, is that they like the heart in the stories and specifically they like the strong men who fall hard for strong women!
MF: Judging by the titles and covers of Sinful Love, Big Rock and Mister O, your books are getting steamier and steamier. The description for Night After Night features a warning: “spare panties are needed.” First Night has a Reader Advisory Some story descriptions that include “panties-optional” and reader advisory: “suitable for 18+ due to very sexy scenes, dirty talk, and light bondage.” How much more will you turn up the heat?
LB: How high can it go? Ha. But seriously, folks. Night After Night and the other novels in Seductive Nights were quite steamy and so are all the titles in Sinful Nights, especially Sinful Desire. I love writing those scenes and exploring love stories through the erotic scenes – I love watching characters fall in deep, forever love through the erotic intimacy. That said, I REALLY love writing romantic comedies, so I’m aiming to blend the dirty scenes with the funny scenes in books like
Big Rock, Mister O and Well Hung. Those books have both the high heat that Seductive Nights readers are used to but also the comedy and lightness that Big Rock fans seemed to enjoyed.
MF: Do you think your books can get too steamy for your audience?
LB: I think my books have just the right amount of steam for my readers! I also have certain books in my catalogue that have less sex, and I have books releasing that are sexy and steamy, such as my upcoming Sapphire Affair, but not at the heat level of Seductive Nights.
MF: Do you have a clear idea of the character before you start writing?
LB: For the most part, but I find they always surprise me as I go and those surprises make for the best parts of the story!
MF: Do you enjoy writing from the male or female perspective equally or is there one perspective you enjoy more?
LB: I enjoy both but at the moment I’m having a blast writing the all-male POV in Mister O (just like in Big Rock). It’s fun to be in the guy’s head and try to figure out a woman.
MF: What authors/books have influenced you and your writing?
LB: I’m a huge fan of Stephanie Perkins. I love everything she’s written. I also love chick lit, books like The Time Traveler’s Wife, Danielle Steele, as well as contemporaries like Christina Lauren, Emma Chase, Melanie Harlow and Samanthe Beck.
MF: In the late spring, you are going to release Mister O, another standalone romantic comedy. What can you tell us about us this book to tantalize us further?
LB: Ah, Nick Hammer!! He is just a scrumptious dirty delicious man! He’s funny and dirty and confident, but not cocky, and he is completely in lust with his best friend’s sister, and he can not read her at all, and it drives him crazy! All he wants to do is make her feel oh so good.
MF: What made you decide to go with indie publishing versus traditional publishing?
(LB): I wrote and published five young adult novels with NY houses, and when the last one we pitched didn’t sell at the same time that I lost a big client in my media writing business, I dusted off the idea for a romance novel, wrote it, edited it and self-published it! It was borne of necessity as self-pubbing often is. Now, I love it madly, and while I have worked with publishers like Entangled, Montlake and Bloomsbury in romance I intend to continue indie pubbing regularly.
MF: Do you have a favorite quotation from your book or character? What is it and who says it?
LB: My favorite line from Big Rock comes from Spencer when he says: “But you’re not supposed to be attracted to your best friend like this. That’s not how it works. I’m probably going to have to get checked into a facility to deal with the amount of attraction I have for you. I’ll ask them to remove it, and they’ll say, ‘Sorry, sir, it’s spread across your entire body and we can’t take it out.’”