On Saturday the 18th, my antho-mate, Vivi Andrews, won the Romance Writers of America’s 2009 Golden Heart for Best Contemporary Single Title Manuscript for her book Easy Money.   Huge congratulations to Vivi, who sat down with me for this interview before her exciting win.   (You can read about all the 2009 Rita and Golden Heart winners here.) I’m going to ask Vivi to come back and talk about how it felt  to attend and win.  But for  now, here’s what she had to tell me about Serengeti Heat, available in electronic format from Samhain Publishing right now and coming in print in Spring 2010.

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Hi Vivi, and welcome to my lil blog.  Congratulations on the publication of Serengeti Heat.  I enjoyed reading it –it’s always nice to see a non-werewolf shifter book, and I love the big cats.

How bout we start by you telling me a little about your world.  Are there other shifters besides lions, or other supernatural creatures?

First off, thanks for having me here, Kinsey!  It’s such a thrill being with you in the Shifting Dreams anthology.  When you’re wildly famous, I’ll be able to say I was with you on your very first release!

Now, about my world!  Yes, there are other shifters and supernatural creatures, but like the lion-shifters in this story, they exist in secrecy.  My shifters go to great lengths to avoid being noticed by humans who might not be so understanding of their tendency to turn all furry and go hunting – even if it is only their own cattle on the menu.

I’ve always loved the idea that there is more to the world than what we see on the surface of things and this world I have created gives me the chance to explore that.

You’ve created a really interesting world, and you didn’t load the story down with a lot of detail – which is smart, considering the length.   Have you written about this universe before, or do you plan to revisit it again?   (Hint: I think Zoe needs her own story!)

LOL.  I love the hint.  And yes, I do plan to revisit this world, though I haven’t written in it before.  I’m currently working on a series of novellas about my heroine’s four studly brothers (and yes, Zoe does find herself in the heroine role… eventually). J

Explain the Bastard Coalition.

Ah, the Bastard Coalition, a nefarious pair of bullies who were running the pride before Landon came along and challenged for control.  The previous Alpha, Leonus, and his enforcer, Kato, ran the pride like it was their own private harem, hiding behind tradition as an excuse for their brutality.  Of course, that was before our Hero showed up to change all that…

What was it that attracted you to lions as shifters, as opposed to another animal?

I’ve always found the big cats to be particularly sexy – something about their power, grace and innate superiority just fires my imagination.  The choice to go with lions, rather than tigers or leopards, had to do mostly with the social habits of lions.  I wanted to integrate the unique group dynamics of lion prides into the story.  Lions naturally live in groups, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t power struggles and some pretty unforgiving survival-of-the-fittest tactics – like kicking mature males out of the pride before they can become a threat to those in power and the stronger females preventing the weaker ones from being allowed to mate.

Lastly, this isn’t about Serengeti Heat, but writing in general, and I ask it of all writers.  What comes first for you – characters, or story?    And what aspect of the story do you find most difficult to write – dialog, action scenes, descriptive scenery, etc.?

I almost always start with the characters.  I really feel they are what drive the story.  You change them just a little bit and the ripples are enormous.  A slightly different character will react to a situation in a different way and completely change the arc of the story.

As far as which aspect is hardest to write… I don’t really think of the pieces broken up that way when I’m writing – dialogue, action, description.  I’m always looking to find balance between all the elements – and always finding new ways to improve my writing – but I don’t really think of one aspect as harder than any other.  They are all jigsaw pieces fitting together to make something that hopefully looks pretty as a whole.

Thanks for giving us the scoop on Serengeti Heat, and good luck with the release!

Thank you so much, Kinsey!

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Next week I’ll post my interview with Robie Madison, author of The Man of Her Dreams, also available now from Samhain.

Filed under: The Romance Genre, Writing