DAY 1 with LAURA STAMPS
She will be joining the blog from 6pm-Midnight tonight to comment and chat with all of you!

I’d like to introduce my friend and delicious erotica author Laura Stamps.
I did manange to ask her a few questions, I know you can’t wait to  see what she said:

1. Where do you currently live?
Columbia, South Carolina.
2. Are you Married? kids? pets?
My 31-year wedding anniversary is June 30. Everyone who reads my naughty blog (http://www.LauraStamps.com) knows my long-suffering husband, Wes. *lmao* No kids, but I’ve been in feral cat rescue for 30+ years, so I always have lots of furbabies. At the moment I have 6 housecats (all socialized ferals and strays) and three outdoor kitties who are the last of the current feral colony I care for. At one time there were 21 cats and kittens in that colony, but I got them fixed and socialized and found homes for all except those three, which I kept for myself.
3. What/who/ How did you get started writing?
Wes is an Alpha, meaning he needs to be entertained. One day he was moping around, moaning about not having a hobby, so I bought him a Writer’s Digest magazine at Waldenbooks. He flipped through it in 5 seconds, tossed it on the sofa, and said it looked boring. I picked it up and thought it was the most fascinating mag I’d ever seen. I ended up reading it from cover to cover. There was a regular poetry column in that issue, so I wrote a short poem about one of my cats and….EUREKA!….it was the first time I had ever been satisfied completely as a creative person. At the time I had majored in art in college and was a professional artist with paintings and prints in galleries all over the country. But writing that poem really clicked for me in a way that nothing else ever had. My high school and college professors had always told me I had writing talent. But I’m also dyslexic, so the mechanics were hard for me. I was 30 at the time, and that was the day I changed careers. I went on to learn my craft, and never looked back. 23 years and 45+ published books later I’m still in love with the written word and writing novels.
4. Do you want to thank one person in particular for giving that extra push?
Actually, I came from a very abusive family so there was no family support for anything I did. My dad did buy me a typewriter when I was in college because he didn’t want me to pay someone to type my term papers. I was working 3 jobs at the time to get through college, and my money was tight. That was also the typewriter 9 years later I used to type my first book manuscript (no computers back then), so I’m always grateful to dad for that. I also wanna thank the guy who ran a “How to make money selling booklets” classified ad in the back of Writer’s Digest magazine 23 years ago. The booklet I bought from him taught me how to market in the book biz, so I will always be grateful to that guy. Last but not least, I wanna thank my long-suffering husband, Wes. Being an Alpha, he never gave me any encouragement. But I hear from his friends he says nice things about my writing all the time to them. So that counts, right? lmao!!
5. How many books did you attempt before you were published?
Okay, this is how the publishing biz works. Like any biz it has rules, and if you follow those rules life is easier for you. If you don’t, life is harder. Since I’m an easy slut, I’m gonna take the easy path. Duh. So I followed the rules for the writing biz. That means I built a nice resume of publication credits in magazines before I ever sent out a book manuscript to a publisher. Publishers and agents LOVE those rules for a reason. That’s because no matter how many of your friends/family/blog readers tell you they love what you’ve written, if you haven’t been published in magazines your fiction needs MAJOR editing. That’s a fact. No way around it. And no publisher wants to pay for that. Part of being a successful novelist is knowing you should submit your short fiction to magazines first. Why? Because magazines can only accept 10% of the good stuff. If you have lots of mag credits on your resume that speaks volumes to an agent or publisher about the quality of your work. Everybody in the biz knows how hard it is to be published in good mags. It goes without saying you’ll have to endure a few years of rejections when you submit to mags. But if you keep reworking your stories they will get better, and you’ll learn your craft. My stories and poems have been published in over 1000 magazines, anthologies, and literary journals worldwide. You know what that means, right? It means I’ve received at least 10,000 rejections. I also entered my books in book and chapbook competitions and won lots of awards for my writing that way. Because of my resume, when I send an agent or publisher a query letter about a book I usually get a positive response within hours. So to answer your question, the first book manuscript I sent out to a publisher was accepted within 24 hours. And that has continued to happen to me with most of my publishers. Yeah, it pays to follow the rules. 😉
6. Do you have any MUST haves to write? Food, drink or time?

Time for sure! I’m always so slammed with book deadlines and marketing/selling/networking/answering fan mail that I never have enough time. That alone takes up about 8 hours out of every day, and I work 7 days a week. I work on my novels from 10:00pm -3:00am, and I need complete silence when I’m working on a book. My novels are character-driven, and I need the silence to be able to hear what they’re saying to me. Around 11:00pm I dash down to the kitchen to fortify my brain cells with nut butter and rice cakes. A protein rush works wonders for me. Of course, so does lots of HAWT sex. Yummy! I’ll drop EVERYTHING for hot sex. Okay, I’m a slut. But who doesn’t know that? lol
7. Which novel is your favorite of your books?
Usually the last one. “Call of the Witches” was my fav until “A Vampire’s Kiss” was published.
8. Who is your favorite character?

You’ve heard the story about how I fell so in love with Donnie while I was writing “What Witches Want” that it took me 2 months to get over him after I finished the manuscript and sent it to that publisher, right? Now I’m crazy about Dray in “A Vampire’s Kiss.” I can’t say I have a fav character though. I ADORE Noelle from “The Witchery Series.” Wynn, her boyfriend is scorchin’ hot, too. And Sara is a clone of me. Gotta love her, ya know? Nah, I have a bunch of fav characters. 😉
9. How many books do you have in the works now?
I only write one book at a time. No way I could multi-task and work on several at once. I immerse myself in the world of that book, the characters, their lives, their unique voices, and that’s where I live for the 9 weeks it takes to write the first draft and then the 6 months it takes to edit it. Toward the end of a book I’ll start to think about the next book in the series or the next series and take a few notes. That way the day I finish my current novel I can start on the next one without missing a beat. So I write 365 days a year. Maybe that’s why I’ve never had writer’s block. lol
10. For your next book, what is the name and when is the release date?
“The Rune Witch Series” will be coming out in ebook in June. This is Wynn and Noelle’s series, and it’s HAWT! The books in this novella trilogy are “Sex Magick,” “Bewitched at the Beach,” and “The Harvest Moon.” The entire trilogy will be published at once because it’s been finished for two years. What can I say? This has been a hard economy for some publishers, and the first big publisher I sold it to went out of biz in March of 2009. Turns out the next publisher I sold it too is having trouble too and just released me from my contract today. Yay! So now Kittyfeather Press will publish it, and I’ll finally be able to get this fab series out to my fans. *happy dance, happy dance*
11. What made you write a dark book?
Actually, I never think of paranormal as “dark.” That’s because I’m a Wiccan Faery Witch (a SexWitch). That means I know psi-vamps and blood vamps for real. I see the Fey for real. I know shifters for real. My world in real life is very different from the life of the average non-Pagan. So this isn’t dark to me. This is real life to me. Because of this, all my series are Pagan and paranormal. I’ve never written any other kind of fiction.
12. Do you like writing the hot romance scenes?
LOVE it! However, people seem to think writing a good sex scene is easy. NOT. The truth is it’s hard as hell. That’s because it’s not what you think. It’s actually a very technical thing. You become like a movie director. You have to know where all the body parts are at all times, and they have to flow in a realistic way. Other than that, a good sex scene is made up of three parts: thoughts, action, and dialogue. And they’re not equal. Ever read a sex scene that kept throwing you out? That happens when there’s too much thinking in the sex scene, and it draws you away from the action. Thoughts should be the smallest part of a hot sex scene. And those thoughts should be about how good the action feels or how yummy the hero or heroine looks, and nothing else. The dialogue should also be about the action. That’s because the major part of a hot sex scene is the action. The thoughts and dialogue should bring the reader back to that. The action includes lots of physical details. Not too many, but not too few. Each author creates her own version of this formula, which is why we all write sex scenes in a slightly different way. And why some work for you as a reader, and some don’t. IMO, a sex scene works when the pace is fast and the action is hot. It’s easy to tell when a sex scene doesn’t work. Ever get bored in the middle of a sex scene, and put the book down? Horrors! Yeah, it takes years of practice to get it right. Even though I’ve been writing sex scenes for a long time, mine still go through 30-40 edits before I feel every word is right and in the correct place to give the reader the effect I have in mind for that scene. What effect would that be? A total panty-melt. As for inspiration, I have a verrrrrrrry active sex life (sex-obsessed grin). What can I say? I’m not like most erotica novelists. I’m more like the kinky heroine in an erotica novel. Sex is truly my life as well as my career. The sex scenes in my novels have all been tested in real life by me to make sure they’re safe, and they can give you a fab O. Gotta love testing, ya know? Yummmmy!
13. Do you have plans for another new book/series?
Yes. As soon as I get to a good stopping place in “The Manigault Vampires” series I plan to take 6-month break from that series and write “The Faery Witch Series.” Right now it’s in note form. But it’s the fourth series in my Witchy world, and an erotica novella trilogy in ebook. This is Donnie and Savannah’s series. I should mention all my series (“The Witchery Series,” “The Rune Witch Series,” and “The Faery Witch Series”) are trilogies. “The Manigault Vampires” series is the only one that will go on indefinitely. There is no preconceived series arc (beginning and end) to my vamp series.
14. What is the 1st book you remember reading and falling in love with?
“Withering Heights” by Emily Bronte. What can I say? I was trapped in an abusive family situation and the angst in that novel appealed to me. Not to mention I’m a hopeless romantic.
15. Who are your favorite authors? Favorite series?
Emma Holly is my fav. I think she is the most incredibly talented erotica novelist publishing today. Love all her erotica novels. My fav series of her is her Demon series (Yama). I also adore Lora Leigh’s “Bound Hearts” series, Sunny’s “Mona Lisa” series, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s “Dark Hunters,” and Kathy Love’s “Young Brothers” vamp series/demon books.
16. What is your favorite quote?
My own. Hey, you would expect no less of me, right? *falls over laughing* One of my fans started circulating this quote from me at Goodreads. She got it from a blog post of mine on my naughty blog. This is it: “I was born without a filter on my mouth” (Laura Stamps). So true. So true. lmao!
17. Do you have a favorite book cover?
Two, actually. LOVE the cover of “Decadent” by Shayla Black. I swear it looks like the guy is on the down stroke as he fucks the woman on the cover. YOWZA! And I adore the cover of “The Dream Hunter” by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Have you heard the story about that one? I was in the bookstore a few years ago when that novel came out. I turned, saw the cover, and screamed, “That’s Wynn!” Sure enough the guy on the cover of “The Dream Hunter” looks just like my hunky shapeshifter Wynn (“The Rune Witch Series”). Novelists always know in our minds what our characters look like. But when we see them in print it’s definitely a shock. lol
18. Naughtiest book you ever read?
Actually, I have no idea what the name of it was. One of my guy friends in 10th grade geometry passed me a porn novel in class one day. The cover was plain yellow and the pages were dog-eared (of course *lol*). I slipped it inside my geometry book and read it during class for several days. Didn’t matter that I wasn’t listening. Geometry was so far out of the scope of comprehension for a dyslexic like me that even if I had listened to every word the teacher said I wouldn’t have understood it. Instead I read some of the nastiest hottest sex ever and loved it! As you know, I am a kinkster (an exhibitionist and a voyeur). What you might not know is my tomcat dad (yeah, I inherited his libido) was one too, and both of my parents were Swingers (in the 60s they called it wife-swapping). So even though my parents were abusive (alcoholism and mental illness) they were very open with me and my two younger brothers about sex. For example, my parents loved their Playboy mag subscription. Those mags were all over the house, which means they encouraged us to read them as well. I’m not kidding. My mom would gather us all on the bed and flipped through each new issue with us. She said she wanted us to have a healthy attitude toward sex. Hey, no danger there when it came to me. My libido kicked in when I was 7. So that first porn novel in geometry class is one I will NEVER forget. Wow!

The Giveaway!
Laura has been so kind to give 1 lucky winner the first 3 editions of
A VAMPIRE”S KISS
her hot and steamy erotica novel.
Trust me girls, you are gonna fall in LOVE with Dray!
The Rules:
1. You must comment below, ask Laura a question.
2. Include your name & email address
3. Share the 9 Days of Darkness event with your friends
(enter the link where you posted the info)
4. Grab and post the 9 Days of Darkness button and get a chance to win a SPECIAL prize on the last day of the event! (be sure to tell me where it’s posted!)
You can find everything Laura @ the links below!

http://www.avampskiss.blogspot.com/
My verrrrry naughty blog:
http://www.laurastamps.com/
My “Laura Stamps” Fan Page at Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sexwitch
Follow me on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/sexwitch

This little tidbit is why I LOVE Laura:
“GAWD, I love Twitter! I’m such a text-messaging junkie it’s perfect for a chatty slut like me. Speaking of Twitter, did you see my tweet last night about the BJ? Wes came back from the dentist and found out he needs an old crown replaced. He was kinda bummed when he walked into my office and told me. So I gave him a BJ. See what a good wife I am? Hey, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ll drop EVERYTHING for hot sex. And anyone who reads my naughty blog knows my computer chair in my office gets quite a workout. Not only do I sit in it every day while I write the hot sex scenes in my novels, but that chair sees it’s share of the real thing on a regular basis. Dontcha love it?! *kinky grin* “