Keep by Karyn Lawrence Interview

Keep

by Karyn Lawrence

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BLURB:

Billionaire CEO Shawn Dunn has plenty of sex, power, and money. A woman turning down his advances? Unfathomable. Yet that’s what she does, again and again.

Kara Hayward is supposed to be off limits. Her sister is hiding from the dangerous assassin she escaped from, and it’s best for everyone if Shawn keeps his distance. Certainly as far as Kara is concerned. Shawn’s only after one thing and then he’ll walk away, just like her ex-husband.

But Shawn has larger desires and he’s used to getting what he wants. He doesn’t care if being together is dangerous. He doesn’t believe that threat to him, or his empire, is real. Right up to the night he has everything taken away.

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Excerpt 

If she weren’t so emotionally and physically exhausted, she’d be immune to him. Maybe immune wasn't the right word. Resistant, perhaps.

They hadn't taken their clothes off. Shawn had barely touched her. And still, the encounter left her desperate and shaky. Filled with need for him. Wanting him. It had easily been the hottest twenty minutes of her life.

Good-looking, her sister had warned her once about Shawn. Not even close. Jason was good-looking in a rough and tough sort of way. Her sister had always liked the bad boys and while Jason, the head of security, looked more conventionally dangerous, Kara knew better. That the taller brother in the suit was cunning and manipulative, making him far, far more dangerous than the one that carried a gun.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Karyn Lawrence is an author, graphic designer, and screenwriter. She published a nonfiction book about color guard after an editor discovered her blog, way back in the infancy of the Internet and long before blogging was really a thing.

She has been a screenwriter for more than fifteen years, with rather mild success, and grew tired of her stories only reaching a handful of readers. The decision was made to try fiction in early 2013 and once she figured out how to write internal dialogue again, the prose came fast and furious. She most enjoys writing smexy (smart-sexy) books featuring a lovable SOB hero and a tough-as-nails heroine.

Karyn is a Chicago native who lives in Kentucky with her epic husband and two adorable sons.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karynlawrenceauthor

Twitter: @karynsloan

Website: www.karynlawrence.com

Interview

Where are you from?

I claim Chicago as home, although I moved around quite a bit as I was growing up. (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana & Tennessee) Six years ago my husband and I traded snowstorms and high taxes for ice storms and barbeque when we moved to Kentucky. I love it here. I don’t even notice the accent anymore. Some of my family says I’ve picked it up, but that sounds suspect to me, y’all.

Tell us your latest news?

I just published “Keep” which is the second book in my standalone Command Series. This book poured out of me. I had no intention of writing a series, but when I introduced the main characters of “Keep” at the end of my debut novel “Stay” I instantly wanted more time with them. The third book (with a working title of “Surrender”) is in editing and I hope to publish it in late spring.

When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve been writing most of my life. It was short stories at first and then plays, and by the time I hit high school I was drafting novellas. I actually wrote a short book during my freshman year. I’d scribble down pages during study hall, and every night a different friend would take it home and read it, and bring it back in the morning for me to add to. During water breaks of marching band practice, we’d have a pseudo book club / beta reader discussion and I got instant feedback. It was great! Who’d have thought teenage girls were interested in giving constructive critique? My “book” was awful, but they were very kind and enthusiastic.

After high school, I got hooked on reading and writing screenplays. I’d always been in love with movies. I wrote in that medium for ten years exclusively, and went on to pursue it seriously for another five. But that industry is tough. Even if you write the greatest script ever (spoiler alert: I didn’t) there’s a decent amount of luck needed to break in. I’m not saying it’s easy to succeed in the book publishing industry, but mainstream Hollywood makes less than 400 movies a year, and most are written by established writers. I spent months crafting and polishing these stories. The script that made it the furthest was read by a dozen people, and is still stuck in pre-production, probably on a shelf buried under five other scripts. As a storyteller at heart, that’s brutal for me.

I finally stopped fighting the screenwriting advice that says you should try writing novels instead. (Did I mention screenwriting is tough?) I started my first draft of “Stay” in January 2013, and self-published it in May 2014.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I wrote a non-fiction book in 2002, but I looked at that as a fluke. When I first saw my book cover on Goodreads, that was the moment I felt like a writer. It was somehow more real than holding the paperback proof copy in my hands. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because my day job is in the print industry, so I’m trained not to view proofs as real.

What inspired you to write your first book?

It was the first screenplay I wrote. I was in love with the idea of a ballerina reluctantly falling for a tough cop. She’s feminine and her role is to create beauty, and he’s a masculine protector from violence. None of that original idea made it onto the pages of the script, but your first screenplay is always garbage. It’s, like, federal law that it be garbage. J

What would you like my readers to know?

My debut novel “Stay” is going on sale for just 99¢ Dec. 17-21.