Interview with erotic romance author Jennifer Lynne

Today's guest author is Jennifer Lynne from Australia to tell us a bit about her book Educating Ethan.

Bio:
Jennifer Lynne is a mum of two who works by day in medical admin and at night writes sensual and erotic romance from her home in Melbourne, Australia. She lives in hope that readers will continue to enjoy her novella-length stories of love and lust!

You can find Jennifer at:
Website/blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

Welcome, Jennifer! Please tell us about your current book release.
Educating Ethan is a sensual romance novella, and my first release with Breathless Press. It is an older woman/younger man love story, but I wanted to twist the classic cougar tale a little to allow other issues to come to the fore, and in the end I hope that Ida and Ethan's story becomes more about two people falling in love and trying to deal with the emotional baggage that we all bring to a new relationship. Regardless of our age.

Here is the book blurb: Ida Deloraine intends to build herself a new life and a catering career, after a painful divorce. When the much younger Ethan Holt moves in across the street, an innocent flirtation quickly becomes serious when the two realise their age difference is no barrier to all-consuming passion. But Ethan is the exact opposite of what Ida is looking for in a sexual partner. In her eyes he is young and vibrant, with his life and his dreams still ahead of him, whereas hers are all in the past. Can Ethan, who is fighting his own demons in the form of a car accident, failed marriage and forced career change, convince Ida to overcome the past and live for the moment? And just who is educating who in this cougar encounter?

What inspired you to write this book?
I'm a woman in my forties, and in the past couple of years I've read a spate of romances that contain a young heroine and an older man. While most of these have been extremely well-written and enjoyable, I haven't necessarily connected with them on a personal level, and the last two stories I've written have been about a slightly older heroine – first Jeannie and her husband Jake in Platinum Passion (a ménage romance in which a Greek god visits a long-married couple to reignite the passion in their relationship) and now Educating Ethan, in which an older woman has a second chance at happiness with a much younger man.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I'm currently working on Books 2 and 3 in the Gods of Love series that began with Platinum Passion. This series, about the Greek gods of love known as the erotes, is more erotic in tone than Educating Ethan, but I try and balance an emotional connection with the physical one no matter what heat level I write, so the end result is still a romance and not erotica. Book 2 – Aphrodite Calling – is about Himeros (god of sexual desire) and his interactions with a career woman in modern-day Melbourne, Australia. Book 3 is about Anteros (god of requited/unrequited love) and is tentatively titled, Sex Club Secrets.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I've always written, ever since I was little, but it wasn't until I was at university and someone dared me to write a "Mills & Boon" that I began to look at writing more seriously. I took the dare and wrote/submitted my first manuscript. Of course it was rejected, but with very positive feedback about my unique writing voice. I joined the then fledgling organisation Romance Writers of Australia and devoured their newsletter every month, but really just dabbled in writing as a hobby until after my divorce. At that time I was finally in a mindset where I felt it might be possible to reach for my dreams, so I rewrote an erotic romance called Seducing Serena and submitted it to Red Sage. They bought it for their Secrets anthology (Volume 28), and it was when I got that trade paperback copy of Volume 28 in my hand that I finally felt like a "real" writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I would love to write full-time, but it is not financially viable at this stage. Up until recently I was a single working mum, so most of my time was spent either in my part-time day job in medical admin, or running my teenage girls around to their various school, part-time work, social and exercise activities. It is exhausting being a parent of teenagers! I also ran an internet costume business on the side, and my writing was mostly done between midnight and 1am. I kid you not! A year ago we moved in with my partner and his son, and these days, even though life seems just as busy, it is much nicer with someone to share the decision-making and driving! The costume business is history now, too, so there is definitely more writing time these days.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don't know if I have an interesting writing quirk. I just write. Um, well…I know a lot of writers like to listen to music to evoke a particular mood when they write, but I love to hear the ticking of our clock in the kitchen – it is loud and everyone else in the house hates it! – but if I can hear the clock I know the house is most probably empty for a little while, and that means I have some peace and quiet in which to write. I love peace and quiet – it is so rare in a house full of teenagers. Does that count as a quirk? (yes, it does!)

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Well, let's see, at first I wanted to be just like Nadia Comăneci (remember the Romanian gymnast with the perfect 10 score?), then a famous and glamorous tennis player (Chris Evert was at her prime around then!). I graduated to wanting to be a vet, then for a short while in my teens I wanted to be a private secretary so I could marry a millionaire boss like they did in the romance novels I was reading at the time! Impressionable, much? I'm blushing right now! When I finally grew up, I decided I wanted to be either an artist, or a journalist and work in PR. The writing won over the art, and I worked in PR and marketing for many years, before moving into admin and working as an author in my spare time.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I do love to hear from my readers, so please feel free to contact me via my website, or friend me on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you again for having me here today. All comments on my interview here at Lisa's blog will go in the draw to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card. Winner will be announced at the end of my blog tour on Mar 30th.

If you'd like to follow my tour, next stop will be tomorrow at http://www.readergirlsblog.com/.

Here's a list of all tour dates and blog stops.

Readers, the more you comment, the more chances you have to win!

Thanks for being here today, Jennifer.