In the Author Spotlight

Marna Martin

AL: Thanks Marna for being in the spotlight this week.

MM: Thank you for having me. I love getting a chance to talk to people!

AL: Tell us what’s happening with you?

MM: Right now, I'm living the glamorous life of a stay-at-home mom. This is a big change for me! It's taken quite a bit to adjust to making my own deadlines. My husband is active-duty Navy and is currently deployed, so our entire family is in a holding pattern until he gets home this summer. Right now, I'm focusing on Scout meetings, choir practice and writing.

AL: What do you have the shelf for us to read?

MM: My only currently published work is Strip. I'm polishing up a few other projects, including the sequel to Strip, and those will be heading out in the next few months.

AL: What sizzling tales are you whipping up for us readers?

MM: Tease, the sequel to Strip, will be bringing back Lissa and three sexy Egyptian demigod brothers, searching for the missing fourth. I'm also working on Metamorphosis, a s/f romance featuring space pirates, and Don't Touch, a paranormal romantic thriller.

AL: When did you know you had to be a writer?

MM: I started telling stories before I could write, much to my parents' consternation. My first published story appeared in a teachers' magazine when I was in 8th grade. At one point in time I was given some very negative feedback and that kept me from attempting to get published for almost two decades. I'm happy to say that I've moved past that and now I'm trying to make up for the lost time.

AL: Who is a great example to you and how you live your life?

MM: I have a great deal of respect for the late Bettie Page. In a time where women were supposed to keep their sexuality behind closed doors, she embraced it. She's the ultimate expression of liberal feminism, owning her sensuality without being constrained by how "good girls" were supposed to live.

AL: Do you have a top 5 actors list? You know that list of men that make you go yum, yum that would be inevitably yours, if only....

MM: My big weakness is for voices. Classically trained actors with a hint of a British accent send shivers up my spine. I'd have to say my top picks to come over and read to me would be would be Sean Connery, Patrick Stewart, Naveen Andrews, and Hugh Laurie. Oh, and I adore Masi Oka, because intelligent men are a total turn-on.

AL: If you were a Superheroine, would you wear tights and a cape?

MM: Probably not. Tights have a bad habit of bunching if you move in them too much, and I keep thinking capes are just things for the super-villains to hold on to in a fight. I'd much rather be wearing leather.

AL: You are told you have to meet one paranormal creature, no safeguards, what do you choose? What do you bring with you?

MM: Oooo, this could be fun! I only get to meet one?
Considering how much I hate housework and how seldom it get done when I'm writing, I think I'd like to meet one of the Wee Little Brown Men. I'd take bottles of cream and stout lager, so I could pay them appropriately.

AL: What fun activities do you like to do when you’re not locked away weaving tales of steamy love and hot blooded men?

MM: Moms are allowed to have fun?
Actually, I am a gamer chick. I love role-playing games. I'm equally happy playing in a tabletop game with dice and character sheets or in a live-action game, dressed up in a costume and beating on my friends with plumbing supplies. I find that creating a character and totally immersing myself in that mind-set for a few hours really sparks my creative juices. After a good gaming session I'll sit up and write for hours.

AL: Please share a favorite quote with us.

MM: "Well-behaved women seldom make history."--Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and Harvard professor

AL: If you'd like to learn more about Marna please visit:

http://marnamartin.webs.com/

http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/strip.htm

Featured Title:

STRIP

Availiable from New Concepts Publishing

BLURB:

Faced with paying tuition after losing her scholarships, Lissa auditions to work at a high-class strip club. An attempted abduction by an obsessed fan forces her to re-evaluate working in the club; when her boyfriend disappears, she feels compelled to investigate the club's hidden mysteries. She finds a 4,000 year old terror that may demand her life—or more.

EXCERPT:

Mike shuffled quickly through a folder of CDs, selecting some older syntho-punk pop with a strong beat . His fingers fumbled as he tried to drop the disc into the tray.

Lissa hid her smile as he bent to pick up the disc. “I am such a dork,” he muttered quietly as he hit the play button. He sat back on the couch as Lissa pushed the coffee table to one side to give herself more room.

She began swaying with the music, catching the beat and losing herself in the song more thoroughly than she did at work. For once, she didn’t have to worry about keeping a customer pushed to the absolute edge between club propriety and animal desire. This dance was for herself as much as for Mike. Her hands ran up and down the front of her dress, cupping her breasts then traveling down to press the thin fabric of her dress against her pubis, outlining the shape of her stomach, hips and crotch. Her hips moved back and forth, and she delighted in the feel of cotton wrapping sensuously around her legs, clinging, revealing, flowing around her in an eddy of flower-printed black fabric. She was hypersensitive, hearing the catch in Mike’s breath as she turned and swayed before him. He reached out, touching her legs just above the knees, where the fabric hem flirted across his fingers. He lightly ran his hands up the outside of her thighs, his fingers shaking. Lissa smiled, resting her hands on his shoulders, swaying under his touch as she met his green eyes, dark with desire.

“Dear God,” he whispered, his hands sliding up over the curve of her ass and pulling her gently to him. “How do you keep them off of you?”

Lissa slid into his lap without resistance, meeting his lips for a long, sweet, lingering kiss. “I don’t encourage them,” she answered.

His fingers curled in her hair as he pulled her in for another kiss, tasting her lips and mouth. His other hand caught for a moment in the fabric of her skirt, then he slid it around her waist. Sitting in his lap, Lissa could feel his erection pressing against her thigh. She pressed back, and Mike groaned softly against her mouth. “Oh, Lissa,” he breathed. “Is this what you really want?”

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” She slid down from his lap until she was kneeling between his knees, her abdomen pressed against his crotch, her breasts against his stomach as she turned her face up to kiss him again. His hands wandered up and down against her back. She could still feel the tremor in his hands, and knew she was shaking like a leaf herself. “Any roommates I should worry about?” she asked.

“No, none.” His hands moved hesitatingly to the long row of buttons on the front of her dress. He undid the top button slowly. As the first button squeaked free, she reached up to his hands and gently lowered them to the second button. His eyes widened and he leaned forward to kiss her again. Four buttons were undone by the time they came back up for air.

Mike lowered his head to her bared cleavage, running his tongue between her breasts. Lissa sighed and threw her head back. His mouth nibbled up along the line of her throat, and she gasped in pleasure. Her hand cradled the back of his head as he kissed her throat and breasts some more. His warm thumbs edged the fabric of her dress and bra aside, releasing her nipples. He sucked the right one first, then the left, biting gently before he pulled away. “I’ve wanted to do that ever since the first time I saw you on stage, wearing that chain,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

He concentrated on undoing the buttons again, then pushed the dress down off Lissa’s shoulders. The dress fell away, leaving her bare but for her bra above the waist. The black lace cups of the bra were riding underneath the curve of her breasts, and Lissa felt more exposed than she would have naked, her breasts being presented on display for Mike’s pleasure. “Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes locking on hers, his hands cupping her breasts, thumbs running across her tight nipples.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said. She began unbuttoning his shirt, smiling at the tiny pops of the plastic buttons escaping the tight material. When she could reach inside his shirt, she let her hands rove across the light cotton of his t-shirt, enjoying the feel of chest hair and toned muscle underneath. “Are you?”

His arms wrapped around her as he pulled her close, kissing her thoroughly as their bodies pressed together. She could feel the hardness of his erection pressed against her stomach, his pulse pounding hard enough that she felt it through the denim. “Very,” he answered.He stood, lifting Lissa to her feet. She twisted her hips and her dress fell to the ground, leaving her wearing only a black lace set of panties and bra. Mike shucked off his shirts and tossed them onto the papasan chair. He scooped Lissa up so she was cradled in his arms. “My room’s a mess,” he admitted ruefully, “but the bed is still more comfortable than the couch.”

Lissa didn’t notice his room.