Hey peeps,
I know how you love a good romance book with saucy bits (Erotica & BDSM), so I thought you might like to meet with Mistral Dawn, author of “Taken by the Huntsman.”
Hi Mistral, Thank you for joining us here at LS! It’s good to meet with you!
Hi Julie!!! Thank you so much for inviting me to your awesome blog! 🙂
I thought we could start by introducing you, so with that in mind, I’m sure we would like to know, Who is Mistral Dawn?
I am a thirty-something gal, living in the SE US at the moment; though, I have lived on both coasts of the US during my life. Somehow never in the middle though, odd. 😉 I have three kitty-children and a varying number of rescues at any given time (please spay or neuter your pets! 😉 ). Currently, I’m in grad school, but one day I’ll grow up and be a romance novelist. 😉
Thank you for letting us know a little about yourself. Your book, Taken by the Huntsman, is your first novel. Where did you get the inspiration to write it?
Wow! The answer to this question is a little strange. I had never really written any non-school assignment fiction before, except for a dreadful fanfiction piece I wrote in middle school. Last June (2014), I had a pretty heated debate with an online friend about the nature of consent, and what society should and should not accept in terms of private behavior among consenting adults. We had a very serious difference of opinion about this, and I went to bed that night thinking about the debate.
At the time, I was also doing some research into European mythology and legends (just because I’m a nerd that way), and somehow this information got jumbled in my head while I was asleep with the debate I’d had earlier. I had a dream that night (the details of which I’ll leave to your imagination 😉 ), and woke with the idea for Taken By The Huntsman.
A friend of mine was kind enough to say that she was intrigued by the idea, when I texted her the details, and said she’d be interested in knowing more. I wrote the first couple of chapters and emailed them to her, asking if she was bored yet, and she kindly said she wasn’t bored and wanted to read the rest of the book; so I wrote it. 😉
As I was writing, various other characters came to wake me up at night (what is it with people not respecting sleep around here?!? 😉 ) to tell me they also had stories that need to be told. So I’ll write those too. 🙂
So it’s part of a series?
Yes, I published Taken By The Huntsman in September 2014, and I intend to release my second novel, Bound By The Summer Prince, in February 2015. I also have three additional books and two short stories planned for this series, but the number keeps growing as I continue to lose sleep. 😉 Each book will be about a different couple, but some old friends will pop up now and again. 😉
Hell’s bells woman! You need sleep! However, it appears nighttime is when we have our best idea’s, and as long as you don’t forget when you wake up, it’s all good! Do you wait until you rise or do you have a pen and paper on the nightstand?
I sleep with my Kindle next to my bed, and if I wake up with an idea I email it to myself so I don’t lose. ;-
Smart cookie!
What are the hardest and easiest things about writing?
Writing the sex scenes is both hard and easy. It’s a total blast to let my imagination run away with me! I mean think about it, hot Fae males with thousands of years of experience? The possibilities are endless! 😉
But at the time it’s really hard to figure out what it would be like from a man’s perspective. What’s it like to make love to a woman? What does sex feel like to a man? What do men think about during sex? These are things my own personal experience can’t tell me, and has anyone ever noticed that a lot of men have trouble putting feelings into words? 😉 Oh well, practice makes perfect, right? 😉
YES!! Practice!! That’s actually a good question indeed, what do men think about during sex? lol. Okay, so what’s the best part about being an author?
Getting to talk to the people who read my book!! I can’t even describe what a thrill it is to hear that someone liked my work, and I’ve met some totally awesome people this way! 🙂 Even when people tell me they think my writing needs work, I still value their feedback and appreciate that they took the time to let me know their thoughts. It’s just a total rush meeting all of these new and wonderful people. 🙂
I agree, feedback is vital for us newbie writers, and we need to positively encourage our readers to continue!
What’s the hardest part? What do you have planned for the future with regards to where this series is going?
The hardest part is definitely the marketing/promotion. No one knows who I am, so it doesn’t matter how good or bad my stories are; if people don’t know about them, then they won’t read them, right? Trying to get my name out there, and my books in front of people takes a lot of time and effort, especially since, as an indie author, I have to do most of the work myself. No publishing house marketing machine here. 😉
I don’t want to say too much about where the series is going, because I’d like it to be a surprise. 🙂 Each book is a standalone story and can be read (and hopefully enjoyed 😉 ) all by itself, but there will be an overall theme that will develop more as the series progresses. You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what it is. 🙂
Would you say it’s difficult for an indie author to get noticed? What, in your opinion, is the best way to self promote?
Oh yes! There are a huge number of totally amazing books by extremely talented authors that are not represented by traditional publishing agencies. Trying to get one little lone book, or series, by a completely unknown author with no famous connections noticed is really difficult.
So far, the best way I’ve found to self-promote is to network with, and promote, other authors. As I said, one voice in a cacophony gets drowned out, but if we all start speaking as one, then our collective message is both louder and clearer. Mark Shaw, who started the #IndieBooksBeSeen movement, understands this and has been working hard to make it a reality.
Many, many, many people read, and a lot of those people also have very diverse interests. It “costs” nothing to tell someone who enjoyed your book about a book by another author they might like. Doing so takes nothing away from you (a person can certainly read books by more than one author), and it might help someone else. Working together, more of us can succeed in a market where it’s likely we’d all fail working separately. It’s a collaboration, not a competition.
You’re absolutely right, we’re not in competition, we just want people to have a bigger choice, and hats off to Mark Shaw for creating that hashtag for us indie writers!
Read a snippet from Taken by the Hunstsman
He leaned down to look into her face as she passed and it hit him: the Siorghra, literally, ‘eternal love,’ the bond between Fae who were Anamchara (soul mates). He’d heard of it, of course, all Fae knew of the Siorghra and hoped one day to feel its sweet sting, but after so long? And with a human? Impossible! He had never heard of a Fae finding their Anamchara in a human, not in all the millennia of his existence. Long ago some of the Fae had kidnapped humans and brought them to Fairie as mates or as servants, but even in the cases when the Fae and the human had felt the deepest of love for each other he had never heard of them forming the Siorghra. And yet it was unmistakable.
The Erlking looked into the human woman’s eyes, blue eyes that sparkled like the darkest sapphires, and felt a devotion unlike any he had ever felt in his very long life. His connection to this woman, who he had never even spoken to, was stronger even than his connection to the Wild Hunt. He hadn’t even thought that possible! He thought to wonder if this was some sort of spell cast by Griogal to distract him from the hunt, but no, Griogal was Sidhe and it was Pixies who had power for love and lust charms. No Pixie would aid one who had slain one of their children and even if they would, no love charm could be mistaken for the Siorghra. Dea Matrona (the great mother goddess) had created the Siorghra so that the Fae would always know when they had found their perfect match; she had made it so that all Fae would instantly know what it was when they felt it. She would never allow a cretin like Griogal to pervert such a magic for his own petty uses. No, this woman must truly be his Anamchara.
There was no question in the Erlking’s mind about what must be done next. All Fae only ever received one Anamchara; he could not possibly leave her in the human world. Aside from all of the perils she would face as part of her human existence, just being his Anamchara would make her a target for his enemies…and he had many enemies. Several hundred thousand years as the final arbiter of Fairie had resulted in more than one Fae holding a grudge against him; and along with their very long lives Fae had very long memories. .
He would need to immediately take her and bring her to his fortress in Fairie. There only those who were oath bound to him would have access to her. It was possible for a Fae to break an oath, of course, but if they did so they were subject to vengeance from the Wild Hunt. Thus far none had ever broken an oath to the Erlking.
That’s awesome! Thank you Mistral, I’m sure everyone will want to wish you the very best of luck for your current book, Taken by the Huntsman, and also, Bound by the Summer Prince.
It’s been a pleasure to find out more about you, and I hope you’ll return when Bound by the Summer Prince is released to tell us about it a little more!
Thank you Julie!! I really appreciate it and I’ll definitely keep you posted! 🙂
You can purchase “Taken by the Huntsman” via these links…
Amazon, B & N, iTunes, Smashwords, Kobo
If you’d like to connect with Mistral Dawn, check out her blog,
Amazon Tweet Book Tweet Two: This is a group of authors who share reciprocal tweeting, as well as advice, information, and encouragement. LINK
#IndieBooksBeSeen: This is a movement to help independently published authors effectively compete in a market that is traditionally dominated by large publishing houses.
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