~INTERVIEW with Lisa Renee Jones following her new release HARD RULES (A Dirty Money Novel #1)
Synopsis
Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in the smoldering, scorching first novel in the explosively sexy new Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones. How bad do you want it? The only man within the Brandon empire with a moral compass, Shane Brandon is ready to take his family's business dealings legitimate. His reckless and ruthless brother, Derek wants to keep Brandon Enterprises cemented in lies, deceit, and corruption. But the harder Shane fights to pull the company back into the light, the darker he has to become. Then he meets Emily Stevens, a woman who not only stirs a voracious sexual need in him, but becomes the only thing anchoring him between good and evil. Emily is consumed by Shane, pushed sexually in ways she never dreamed of, falling deeper into the all-encompassing passion that is this man. She trusts him. He trusts her, but therein lies the danger. Emily has a secret, the very thing that brought her to him in the first place, and that secret that could that destroy them both.
INTERVIEW with Lisa Renee
Hello, Lisa, thanks so much for saying YES to doing this little interview on The Sirens Book Reviews blog. We are honored and excited for the given opportunity for us and the readers to get to know you a little bit more…
1.First of all, can you tell something more about yourself? I'm pretty much what you see is what you get. I'm a mom to two grown boys, and a wife to my best friend, Diego. And I'm an author :) Oh and I have an addiction to coffee and chocolate!
2.Before your writing career started off, you owned a multi-state staffing agency? Can you tell us something about that as well? It was crazy, but it paid the bills. Definitely not where my heart was at all. But it taught me some very good lessons that I still apply to my work today.
3.And you were also listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine, which is remarkable status by itself…NOW, if you don't mind my asking, what made you leave it all behind for a career in writing? Thank you! And I left because I wasn't happy. It wasn't what I ever wanted to do. It didn't let my creative side out to play at all, so I decided to try my hand at writing full time.
4.Can you describe to us the „little spotlights“ of your writing style? What is the distinctive mark that separates you from the other authors? I say this as humbly as possible, but I hope it's my writing. I personally feel as if my writing is a bit different. I'm a bit wordier, but every word is strategically chosen for the specific scene, and I hope that translates to the reader.
5.Hard Rules is a book about the devious ploys in the most cruel industry of enterprising , how well are you acquainted with that field and how did you prepare yourself for the story? Can you let us into your research process? I'm not acquainted with the business field at the level at which the Brandon's operate. But it's not far off as far as corporate operations goes from what I experienced when I was running my staffing agency. Corporations are corporations. From the news and the fiction that have been spun over the years we all have a pretty solid conception of what the culture is like. So I just amplified it, and made it a bit darker to fit the needs of my storyline. One of my favorite things about fiction, I can alter reality when need be. Though I do desperately like to stay as close to reality as possibly on the important parts.
6.How did you come up with the storyline of Hard Rules? A lot of it was just my imagination. Of course I had a little inspiration for Shane’s character as a corporate Jax Teller-esque character. And then of course the fight between he and his brother is very Cain and Abel. So there are definitely outside influences, but the general idea was my imagination running wild once again.
7.What did actually come to you first, the very idea of a potential storyline, or maybe the blurred shapes of your characters? The storyline this time. Or at least the general idea, but once I had the broad subject the characters just popped up and made themselves noticed.
8.Shane Brandon is a very intriguing and complex character – meaning among many things, he needs to „justify“ to himself the actions of doing the „wrong“ to make the „right“ and his inner struggle to „keep the sane“ side of himself and not lose himself along the way is filtered through his relationship with Emily Stevens. How hard was to write Shane's character? He was actually fun to write. He’s definitely complex. And more so than my usual character, but I think that why I enjoy writing him. It never ceases to amaze me that the man has more depths to be unearthed as I’m still writing the series.
9. Shane's and Emily's biggest fault/fear is the „trust“, and in the treacherous world they work and live in is not making it any easier to achieve that…but they do it through the carnal, physical need…do you think it's possible to develop the kind of „trust“ that would complete you from the inside through carnal/physical need? Well, I don’t write sex to write sex. Every time there’s an all-consuming need between the two of them, at the heart of it is a turning point for their relationship. So the physical aspect stems from them learning to trust more.
10. Emily is a very brave and bold young woman, who drops everything she's ever known to run away from her „not very positive“ surrounding into the unknown…how much of Emily's characteristics or deeds can you find in yourself? Or not? I think a few of her personal quirks are definitely my own, but as far as just her in general, she’s very much her own character that stemmed from my imagination. After writing so many books I’ve pretty well done the mirroring a character after myself or friends/family, so with Dirty Money I got to create fresh and new characters.
11.Do you relate more to Shane or Emily? I think a little of both. My nervous habits, running and coffee addiction from Emily and my need for control from Shane.
12.What are your future plans? Write and write some more. At least for the immediate future, I've got back to back deadlines, so I'll be plenty busy.
13.Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Hopefully with a project or two in development for film or TV and writing a book or two a year. I love all of my books, but my schedule has been crazy these past few years with writing so much. So I'd like to take it a bit slower, but still be writing, because it's what I love to do!
14.Little fun quickies: coffee or tea? COFFEE!! 15.beer or wine? Wine. 16.summer or winter? Summer. Though I'm in Colorado so it typically doesn't get out of control hot :) 17. movie or book? Book! 19. Would you like to say something to your readers out there? Thank you so much!!! I honestly can't thank my readers enough. They're why I get to do what I love every day.
Thank you, once more for this opportunity. We wish you every success with the release of HARD RULES and for many, many more of your books to come. Looking forward to the next installment in the Dirty Money series and we hope to repeat this experience as well. Thank you so much for having me!! And I can’t wait to share DAMAGE CONTROL (book two) with my readers either!
Interview conducted and arranged under the supervision of The Sirens Book Reviews, August 8th, 2016.
About Lisa Renee
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series, which is now in development for a television show to be produced by Suzanne Todd of Team Todd (Alice in Wonderland). Suzanne Todd on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful, complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy - a modern girl we all can identify with. I’m thrilled to develop a television show that will tell Sara’s whole story - her life, her work, her friends, and her sexuality. In addition to the success of Lisa's INSIDE OUT series, Lisa has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is presently working on a dark, edgy new series, Dirty Money, for St. Martin's Press. Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women's Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine. Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at www.lisareneejones.com and she is active on Twitter and Facebook daily.
