Awesome Romance Author Isabella Laase
Looking for a great romance author to read? This week my guest is fellow Wild Rose Press author Isabella Laase.
For my interview, Isabella shares what it’s like to escape the PG zone and write naughty romance.
Please welcome Isabella Laase…
Hi Zara…thanks for letting me take the opportunity to talk about myself!
A little bit about myself…ummm…It’s tough to write a biography when you are hiding behind a veil of naughty romance novels. I didn’t even tell too many people about my first book until it was out for a week or so and sold some copies on its own. The strategy is pretty much the opposite of what marketing you are supposed to do, but one really has to stop and think twice about revealing to the world things you don’t mention in pleasant company…I mean…can you look your coworkers in the eye after they read THAT!
Generally, I have been married to the same guy for a long time, and we spend our time watching our little dogs chew toilet paper. I might have a few grown up kids that don’t particularly want to be acknowledged, and I have spent a lot of money lately buying things on Amazon for a baby that shares my DNA and thinks I am wonderful.
What do when I am not writing… I’ll let you know when I stop. We love to travel and I love history, so the opportunity to write a naughty romance novel set in a critical historical period for the United States really appealed to me. The writing part of the job is time consuming, but the marketing side was a huge amount of work, and it’s easy to make a full time job out of it. Combine that with the full time job I already have and the family, house, gardening, exercising, laundry etc. of daily life and there isn’t a lot in my outside circle.
The most interesting place I have visited…We are travelers! I have been to forty six different states and seventeen countries. We drive, cruise, fly and walk every chance we get. I live life with the idea that God only gave you one shot at this thing, so you need to do it right. Thailand was probably the biggest shell shock for me. I was twenty-one-years-old and it was my first time on a plane to a third world, tropical country.
How did I choose my genre…Naughty historical romances…a little spanking and restraint stuff…even a touch of BDSM… Wow… a lot of people didn’t see that coming from me. I think that you approach a certain age in your life, and you just say screw propriety. Why stay hidden behind the PG rating for your entire life? Our daily existence IS the average fiction novel, so when we decide to devote a few hours to a book, why shouldn’t it be outside of our comfort zone? Push some edges; break away from what is acceptable, and you will find that your own life has more joy and meaning. I think you also adopt a little more serenity for your personal challenges when you have a secret passion that is just a lot of plain fun.
Would I do anything different…I am not a patient person and there is a little OCD in me. When I decided to write, I wrote and edited three full length novels in one year, plus numerous short stories, plus the draft for three others that I rejected to the “needs work” folder on my computer. I created webpages, Facebook pages, wrote short stories, and book reviews on similar genres, but I needed the vindication of a published novel. The success and positive feedback from Tamed by the Virginian is what convinced me I wasn’t writing garbage that only my mother would buy…BUT if I took it slower, established the author’s following first…waited for each of the books to gain momentum…I might have been able to look at it all from a different point of view.
Marketing… I was not prepared for this, and I think taking my time to establish the persona for the author would have been an easier step. My book was due to be released within hours, and I had nothing except a pen name that googled easily…there was nobody else with that name when I chose it! I had the skills to start a Facebook page, find the right groups for the genre, find author friends who wanted to support me, and monitor my sales with a slightly imperfect Novel Rank app. I learned how to set up author pages on Amazon.com, Amazon.com.uk, and Goodreads.
I also found a few websites that specializes in the naughty short story and submitted a few. They are getting good reads and at the edge of my comfort level for writing, but they are REALLY tame compared to some of the other stories on their site. It has been a little personally challenging for me to see some of my competitors, but the last short story I wrote had almost 10,000 reads in a week with a connector to my book. If only a handful of them moves to Amazon to check it out, it was worth it, but some of the other stories on the website are a bit disturbing, even to me!
I also started a blog on Blogspot. If I had played my cards right, I would have learned word press last year, cut back on the writing a little, and had a full blown webpage going by the time the first book was released.
I think the strategies have worked. Out of the three novels I have finished, Tamed by the Virginian was published in August 2016, and I am very pleased with the consistent sales for the last three weeks. It was as low as 7,000 in the Amazon ranking for the first week, but for the last week it is between roughly 10,000 and 20,000 in ranking. It is enough to get it a top 100 spot for Time Travel Historical Romance and it occasionally drops below the top 500 for Historical romance in all of Amazon.
Upcoming work…. Training Tia is due to be released in the fall of 2016. It tells the story of another smart sassy woman who has to adjust to a whole new life when her mate reclaims her from the human world to teach her submission at his powerful side. It is funny and light, and I am looking forward to marketing it now that I have some platform established.
I am also stretching beyond my comfort zone a little and working on a BDSM series that I hope to see published in the spring. I am trying to write the realistic novel where the women make informed decisions about their sexual preferences, but they are not weak victims in creepy relationships with total masochists.
Given the positive feedback from Tamed by the Virginian, I have outlined a follow up book with similar historical details about a young girl who is forced into a marriage and travels to the wilderness of Florida during the British colonial control in the late 18th century. I am hoping for publication in the summer of 2017…
and no…I haven’t had writers block yet… Writers exhaustion…yes. I make a point to walk away from it every hour when my fitbit tells me I have sat too long and remember to take the occasional day off to refresh my focus.
The novel never published…On the total opposite spectrum of naughty romance novels, I completed a coming of age, literary fiction piece that I totally love. The experience of writing the first two naughty ones truly has made me a better writer and I have no regrets, but I would love to see this one get published. It is much harder to break into this genre than the naughty stuff, but my query letter to agents can now include the success of Tamed by the Virginian, and hopefully, the equally as successful launch of Training Tia.
Am I in the book… yeah…I had to answer this one. I think that anytime you write a book, there are elements from every aspect of your life. The kid in the grocery store says something funny and it sticks with you when you are writing the next chapter. I love the character Jory from Tamed by the Virginian. She is tough and capable, but she also needs to grow up and learn how to trust family. She is not me…
I make it pretty clear that the genre I have chosen is a fantasy world because that is what a good book should do for us. Take us away from our everyday existence and look at something else. Otherwise, I would be writing a book about folding laundry and emptying the dishwasher.
Tamed by the Virginian by Isabella Laase
Eighteen-year-old Jory Logan has made more than her share of bad decisions, but things come to a head when she is involved with a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Facing a long prison sentence, she decides to play along with a mysterious woman who claims to be able to offer her an alternative to jail. According to this seemingly powerful stranger, Jory must spend four years in the past, learning the lessons she was never taught in her own life, and then she will be free to return to the present day with a clean slate.
Though she agrees to the woman’s offer, Jory does not truly believe such a thing could be possible, and thus it comes as a shock when she awakens in Virginia in the year 1785. Alone and utterly unable to fend for herself in a world so different from her own, she is relieved to be taken in by frontiersman Nial McKay and his brother. She soon discovers, however, that life on a farm is hard work and disobedience, disrespect, or failure to carry her own weight will earn her a sound spanking on her bare bottom.
Nial is determined to keep his relationship with Jory chaste and proper, but as time passes he is forced to admit that he is falling in love with the beautiful, spirited girl. Can he bring himself to claim her as his woman rather than his ward, or will his hesitance cause him to lose her forever? And when her four years is up, will Jory be forced to leave everything she has grown to love behind in the past?
Publisher’s Note: Tamed by the Virginian includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.
Excerpt
Jory needed answers. “What do you want from me? Can’t you just let me walk out of here? I promise I won’t do anything like this again. I have some good friends in New York. We were foster children together, and they aged out of the system. I just need a few bucks and nobody has to worry about me.”
Afia scowled. “No, Jory. There needs to be a consequence for the choices you made. This is a hard lesson, but we all must face our punishments.”
Jory was disgusted. It was pretty easy to scold about lessons when half a life in prison wasn’t in front of you.
Jory and Afia sat in silence while she absently picked at her food. A twenty-four-hour news channel showed the images of a hurricane forming in the mid-Atlantic, but Jory paid little attention. Afia said, “Do you ever wish you could go back in time?”
Jory had a long history of county-provided psychologists and knew the answer they wanted to hear. “Oh, yes, if I could go back in time I would do everything differently. I wouldn’t have skipped school or stolen from people. I wouldn’t have gotten caught selling the pot for that kid from the high school. I would definitely have stayed away from the stolen car. I would have gotten my diploma, so I wouldn’t even have met Peter and…”
As Jory listed her transgressions, she slowly processed how many horrible things she had done. When the image of the dead clerk formed in her head, her voice couldn’t go on. She also couldn’t figure out one single way to make a different choice, even if she were given the chance to do it all over again.
Afia said quietly, “We always have choices, Jory. Sometimes we can’t see them, but they are always with us. What if you could choose something very different right now? Your mother left when you were very small. Those were the years that should have taught you right from wrong. Time travel could give that all back. It could even put you in a whole new life and a whole new place. You could change histories. Have you ever thought about it?”
Jory assumed Afia was speaking hypothetically and jumped at the opening. “Oh, yes, going back in time would give me the chance to do it all over again and not make the same mistakes. I have truly learned from all of this.”
“Would you go back to a distant time, Jory? Would you go back someplace strange and unknown for four years if you could return with a clean slate?”
“I could easily do four years of probation. Especially if I could get to my friend’s house.” Despite her verbal sincerity, she knew she would be off the grid the minute the crazy old bitch turned her back. Jory’s excitement grew with the idea she could start over in a different city.
“No, you don’t understand,” said Afia. “I mean truly go back two hundred thirty years to a distant past. Could you live your life with different people, morals, and resources? Could you start over?”
Jory’s heart sank when she realized the woman was plain crazy. She wondered briefly if she was dangerous too and moved a little further away before she spoke. “You’re seriously fucked up, lady. Why the hell did you bring me here? Are you trying to harass me or turn me into a hooker or what? Leave me the fuck alone.”
As Jory got up to leave, two uniformed police officers came into the diner. Torn, Jory lowered her eyes to avoid contact and sat back down.
Afia looked serious. “This is your choice, Jory. Now. I can wave my hand, and the officers will recognize you as missing from the courthouse because people are already looking for you. They will transfer you to an adult prison for twenty years. Or you can take my hand and we will walk out of here. We will get into my car, but you will not get out until you are in your new life. At the end of four years, you will come back to this spot. Nobody will recognize you and your crime will be omitted from the court system. You can go to your friends in New York or wherever else you chose.”
Jory seriously considered turning to the two police officers for protection, but she didn’t want to move back to custody any more than she wanted to listen to craziness. In confusion, Jory closed her eyes and looked into her heart for the answer. She felt her hand grow warm under Afia’s gentle touch, and her mind raced through the last few months. She thought about the dead clerk on the floor of the small convenience store as the blood trickled silently from his head like it was reaching out to her soul. The screams would forever be ingrained in her mind, but it had taken her months to remember that it was her own hysteria that filled the memory. Guilt rose to her throat in an attempt to suffocate her, and she felt her stomach clench tightly in response.
Behind her were foster care, unstable relationships, and regret at the decisions she made. Ahead of her was more uncertainty and years of adult prison. The police officers were her ticket back to that horrible life. “If only you could get me that far away from here. It’s too bad that that nobody can fix this.”
Afia took her hand. “You can trust me, Jory. You can trust your own choices. Do you like the path you are on, or are you interested in a different one?” Tears formed at the corners of Jory’s eyes. Nothing could be as bad as her past. With the biggest leap of trust in her life, she took Afia’s hand and followed her out of the diner.
They drove quietly out of the city and into the surrounding countryside. As they approached Lancaster, she asked Afia if she meant the Amish countryside for the new path in the past. But Afia just laughed and said, “That is not what I meant, Jory. I mean two hundred thirty years ago. Not a few miles away.”
Her last memory before darkness settled around her was the comfort of the orange SUV while Afia chatted about new chances and opportunities. Jory grew strangely tired and curled into a small ball on the front seat. As the cab grew colder and Afia’s voice became distant, Jory’s mind began to flash through her past. Images of her mom, social workers, foster care providers, friends, judges, and teachers all began to fly around in her head, and she felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Eventually, the world went black.
Buy Links
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE
Learn more…
Visit Isabella Laase at her blog or on Facebook
