For this week’s Spotlight I am excited to be bringing you the very candid Romance Novelist Riley Edwards.
SS: First and foremost thanks for being here today.
RE: I am happy to be here.
SS: Tell me about yourself?
RE: Hi Sylvia Hello Everyone! Thank you for having me. A little bit about me, I am a regular wife and mom. I am lucky enough to be married to my best friend. I get to say that because in his line of work he is deployed about six months out of the year. What they say is true, absence does make the heart grow fonder. All joking aside, my husband deserves a medal for putting up with my brand of crazy. My four children range in age from 22 to 8. My daughter is a Navy Nuke, and my son is an Infantryman in the Army. My two littles are still working their way through elementary and middle school. But, we have high hopes we have a Marine and Air Force pilot left at home. Like I said, I am just an everyday regular soccer mom.
SS: What can you tell us about your books?
RE: Being a fiction writer is the best job in the world. Every day I get to create these great characters, fashion world and set up outrageous scenes. The skies the limit on where I can take my readers. That is what reading is about, right? Immersing yourself into this fictitious world, and losing yourself in the pages. That is what my books are about, total immersion. Whether you want to be Jasmin in, Night stalker and track down a dark web, hackers, chasing bad guys in Russia. Or you want to take the afternoon and live in the world of BDSM, where strong women submit to even stronger men, finding what they each need in the power exchange. I want my readers lost in my words.
SS: Share how many books you have written and published?
RE: I have written five books. Night stalker- Red Team Book 1, The Gift, and The Awakening are all published. Unbroken – A Collective Novel, Season 1 is currently on pre-order. And Panther- Red Team Book 2 is in final revisions.
SS: What are the inspiration behind them?
RE: My husband. I’m sure you get that response a lot, and it sounds so cliché. But, I am fortunate enough to be married to a swoon worthy alpha male. He is ex-military, hot, and bossy. He still travels all over the world for months at a time giving me plenty of time write. Most of my Red Team characters are loosely based on him and his friends. Though they deny they are as bad as I portray them, their wives agree whole-heartily. Another big inspiration for me is music. Before I start a new novel I always create a playlist.
SS: What is the main theme of your characters?
RE: I write about strong women and the Alpha males that can handle them. – Not the other way around. There is no handling an Alpha. J So far, my focus has been on my female characters and making sure they are portrayed as strong women. Even in my BDSM series, I want my readers to understand that just because my females choose to submit they are not weak or doormats. It takes a strong woman to admit what she needs. But, that could all change next week, and my focus could change. I am a woman, after all, we are known for changing our minds.
The other thing I really try to do is make my characters relatable. One reader wrote me and told me how annoying a character was. (Total gut check, as an author) She went on to tell me that when the character found out she had been lied to about her past and who she really was, that she changed and lashed out. The reader said she was disappointed at the change in this character. That she wished that she hadn’t pushed away the hero and closed down. A few days later the same reader wrote me back and said she was wrong. That even though she was mad at the character what I wrote was real. That is what real people do. They get mad, lash out, and shut down. I guess you could say, strong and relatable characters are a must for me.
SS: What is your writing process?
RE: This is hard because my writing process is all over the place. It changes and evolves with each book I write. I admit I have writer's ADD. I do not plot my books. I start writing with a couple of ideas in my head and I let the story unfold as the characters talk to me. Believe it or not, sometimes I don’t even have an ending in mind. There are a few constants, coffee, diet coke, Cheez-it crackers, my PA Stacy Stewart to bounce ideas off of, and my editor Jay Layne. Without the last two, no books would exist.
SS: What message would you like your readers to take away from your books?
RE: I’m not sure about what message I would like them to take away, each book is unique in its message. The overall theme is always about finding love. But, what I think I really want my readers to take away from one of my books is, satisfaction. I want my readers to lose track of time when they are reading. I hope they want to consume my words. I hope that when they read the words, “The End.” they are disappointed because they wish there was more. The most valuable thing a reader can give me is their time. I do not want to waste a second of it.
SS: What is something we would be surprised to know about you?
RE: Oh! this will be fun. A few things my readers would be surprised to know- I am a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do. I was a bouncer in a nightclub in Century City, Ca. I have participated in full contact fight tournaments. Wait, this is a good one. I knit. I knit myself a new pair of socks every winter because my feet are always cold. I am a diet coke and coffee addict. The last thing is, I have an affinity for fluffy blankets. This So Cal girl hates East coast winters.
Here are Riley Edwards Links:
Newsletter - http://eepurl.com/cBkqKn
Amazon author page - http://amzn.to/2m9RqCf
The Gift - https://books.pronoun.com/the-gift/
The Awakening- https://books.pronoun.com/the-awakening/
Unbroken - http://amzn.to/2kOvWL0