I had the fabulous privilege to interview Kelli Scott, author of Hair of the Dog (one of my favorite shifter romance books.)
Kelli is also offering an ebook copy of Hair of the Dog to one lucky commenter. Leave her a comment and your email address. Monday, June 25th we will pick a winner.
So, Kelli, tell me a little about where your idea for Hair of the Dog
came from.
Once upon a time I
worked at a fraternal organization. You know—one of those men’s clubs named
after a majestic animal. The kind with secret handshakes, rituals and
salutations. Sometimes they wear goofy hats or colorful vests adorned with
regalia and call each other Brother.
As a general rule, my
mind does not operate paranormally, but I thought what if…what if the members
of these benevolent societies were actually shifters of whatever fierce critter
was their namesake? Wolves and Cougars and Bears, oh my. That’s a start, right?
What’s next? Set the story in a sleepy little mountain town where shifters come
to rejuvenate, relax and vacation. Throw in a magical hot spring in danger of
drying up and an enchanted fairy prophesized to save the town and you’ve got
the beginnings of a story. Sprinkle with romance, drizzle with sex and serve
sizzling hot.
What types of research did you do, or was it all cooked up
in your head?
You mean besides the
sex?
Well, I guess along with the sex *snickering*?
I have a research
assistant. Guillermo. He’s an unpaid intern with benefits (just dental). He
cooks, he cleans and he stands in long lines at the Post Office. He also takes
the computer to the repair shop when it gets a sexually transmitted disease
from the dodgy websites I visit. That way the repair man thinks Guillermo is
the pervert.
I hate the “other”
kind of research, involving note taking and studying facts. But I did take an
online class on werewolves. And I read a novella about a wolf shifter. Does
that count? Okay, yes, it was pretty much cooked up in my head and I relied
heavily on my editor to tell me if it was plausible.
Hmmm, sounds like I need a Guillermo! My computer repair dude thinks I'm a pervert. *grinning* Kelli, who is your favorite character in the book, and why?
I want to say Bobby
Joe Dumfries because he was so fun to write, but I’m going to go with my hero,
Grant. He’s loyal, smart, funny, brave
and a born leader. He’s a regular
civic-minded guy who happens to strip naked, shift into a wolf and run wild
through the woods.
What was the funniest line, in your opinion, from the book?
“Sounds like a mob of flea-infested, beer-bottle-busting hooligans with
a tendency to howl at the full moon and call their wives and girlfriends
bitches.”
What scene was the hardest to write?
I hate for the story
I’m writing to end, the reason I have so many unfinished manuscripts on my
computer. I also hate to put my
characters in peril, so the scene near the end where they are risking their
lives to save the town and fighting the bad guy. Hard to write. Hard to wrap up
all the loose ends and say goodbye to the characters.
What is your favorite scene between the hero and heroine?
That’s so hard. They
are nearly combustible every time they’re together. I’m going to go with the
scene with Ivy and Grant in her office late at night when she finally realizes
there’s something “odd” going on in Mystic Springs. Emotions are running high,
her panties get decimated and condoms are everywhere.
If you could be any character in the book, who would it be?
I think I’d be my heroine,
Ivy Fontainebleau, because she blooms and flourishes in Mystic Springs. She
really discovers who she is and becomes comfortable in her own skin, fur,
scales, feathers—whatever. And she gets to boink the hero.
Boinking is always a plus! Now, why do you write paranormal?
I don’t always write
paranormal, but it’s fun to bend reality. I think I have a few more paranormal
ideas rattling around in my head. It’s the lore involved with some paranormal
that kicks my butt. But I’d love to write more shifter stories centered in
Mystic Springs.
What is your absolute favorite paranormal book? Why?
I loved The Magic
Knot by Helen Scott Taylor. Sort of an edgy modern day fairytale, with actual
fairies.
If you could have any paranormal trait (shifter, vampire,
demon, witch, super-human power) what would it be, and why?
I’d want to be a super sexy witch, casting spells and making potions and looking fabulous doing
it.
Here is the blurb and excerpts from Hair of the Dog:
When Grant, mayor of Mystic Springs, asks Ivy to run the Mystic Springs resort, she’s so thrilled, she accepts the job without so much as visiting the town first. Then she arrives and meets Grant—and her goals change. She got her dream job, and now she wants Grant…preferably at her mercy in the bedroom.
Grant’s inner animal is desperate to take Ivy. And he’s not joking about the “animal” part— Grant and most of the Mystic Springs residents are shifters. The spring is more than a landmark, it’s the touchstone that grounds their powers and keeps them on the human side of the shifter spectrum. But the spring is running dry…
The townspeople are convinced Ivy is the woman who was prophesied to rejuvenate the spring. Local legend is rife with rumors of sex rites that might help, and Grant’s only too happy to give them a go. He just has to convince Ivy that he’s the man—er, wolf?—for her.
“Ivy? Ivy Fontainebleau?” he inquired.
She raised her hand. “That’s me. I’m Ivy.
All day long.” I’ll be whoever you want me to be. She pushed her glasses
up the bridge of her nose. Not so much because they’d slipped. More out of
habit.
“I’m Grant Grayson.” He smiled reassuringly,
shook her hand and lifted her bags into his idling vehicle before his words
registered in her brain as anything more than pleasant noise. Very pleasant
noise indeed. “We spoke on the phone.”
“Mr. Grayson.” His name escaped her lips
quietly like air leaking from a tire. Yes, she fondly recalled their verbal
exchanges. His face exceeded the picture his words painted in her mind and his
physique was nothing to complain about either.
“My friends call me Grant. I hope you will too.”
He opened the passenger side door for her, his gaze scanning the surrounding
area. “Sorry I kept you waiting.” His eyes flashed with awareness. His nostrils
flared. “You know how it is.”
As if in a hypnotic trance, Ivy slid into
the seat. She decided she’d slide into a flaming chariot from Hell if he opened
the door and smiled in her direction, flaring nostrils and all. While he
rounded the front of the car, she checked herself in the mirror. Sadly nothing
had changed. On a scale of one to ten, he was a ten. She was a five on a good
day. Not so much on a day like today after a seven-hour bus ride and an
impromptu blackout on a roadside bench while critters closed in around her.
Her eyes had an unfortunate habit of playing
off the colors around her. Hazel, some called it. Today they were probably a
dull gray like the pavement and the darkening sky and the interior of his car. Why
couldn’t he have violet upholstery? The poets would describe her hair in
prose as mousy brown, which rhymes with blousy gown and lousy frown. Nothing
about her stood out except her mediocrity and her inability to create sensible
rhymes.
Grant took a seat behind the wheel and
flashed her a slow-motion-instant-replay of his previous smile. His smile
melted her insides to a warm, gooey liquid, but couldn’t melt the gold wedding
band on his finger. Even without the band, his starched collar, matching socks
and pressed button-up shirt gave away his domestic classification. Married.
Like a cherished garden, he was well tended.
“Beautiful, beautiful countryside,” Ivy
said. “Just breathtaking.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” he replied,
easing his Jeep back onto the country road. “Wait until you see the spring.”
“I can’t wait.” Her entire face ached from
smiling. Muscles she hadn’t exercised much in her twenty-nine years of life.
Needing to fill the silence, she said, “Funny story—”
“Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?” He checked
his side mirror before his eyes cut to her for the answer.
Ivy tilted her head and crinkled her brow.
“A little of both. Anyhow, when I graduated from high school—”
“Franklin High School in Arizona, class of—”
She held up her hand in protest. “Let’s not
go there.” She didn’t need to be reminded that her life was not on the fast
track to success for a woman her age. “As I was saying, I craved some adventure
in my otherwise dull life, so I pinned a map on the wall—”
Glancing over at her, he asked playfully,
“Did you throw a dart at a map?”
“Yes! How did you know? Oooh, look at that
creek.” Ivy pointed out the passenger side window. “Pretty. So, so pretty.
Where was I?”
He threaded the car effortlessly along the
ribbon of road and said, “You threw a dart at a map.”
“Oh yes. You’ll never guess where it landed.
Guess.” Am I babbling? Yes. Shut up, Ivy. “I’ll give you three guesses
and three guesses only.”
“Mystic Springs?” he replied.
She smacked him in the arm, which probably
didn’t happen much to him, being the mayor of Mystic Springs and all. “Yes! How
did you know?”
He took one hand off the wheel and rubbed
his arm. “It’s a better punch line than Paris, France.”
“Which is sort of where I wanted the dart to
land,” she admitted with a regrettable laugh that took the unfortunate form of
a snort. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he quickly said. “I’d say that
sort of thing happens a lot. You know, random darts landing in unfortunate
places. Did you give yourself a do-over?”
“Yes I did, but you’ll never believe what
happened.” How boring am I? Someone stop me, please. There’s no shame in
comfortable silence. “Never in a million years,” she babbled on. “Guess.”
“It landed in the same exact spot,” he
guessed.
“Yes! You’re good at this.” Wish I was. I wish I could stop talking.
“I thought about guessing Paris, France,” he
said, “but again, Mystic Springs is a much better ending to—”
“An otherwise boring story?” I know it’s rude to interrupt, but he did it
to me—twice.
“Not at all.” He
smiled. Again. Warm. Brilliant. Kind. “It’s a charming story.”
Thank you SOOO much, Kelli, for hanging out with me and sharing with us.
Kelli is also offering an ebook copy of Hair of the
Dog to one lucky commenter. Leave her a comment and your email address. Monday, June 25th we will pick a winner.
