Justine Davis--EPIC Finalist!

I'm thrilled to welcome Justine Davis back to the blog and announce that Lord of the Storm is a finalist for the prestigious EPIC award in the Science Fiction Category.

Shaylah Graymist, ace fighter pilot for a brutal intergalactic Coalition, is given a slave as a reward for heroism in battle. The incredibly virile slave named Wolf wears a collar which controls him completely, allowing her to make him do anything she wants. Yet Shaylah has an old-fashioned belief in love and refuses to take advantage of him. A tense friendship grows between her and Wolf, along with deep desires he refuses to admit. The Coalition destroyed his people. He won't betray their memory. 

When Shaylah returns to battle, Wolf rebels and is sold to a prison colony. She frees him, and together they journey to his home planet. As she learns more about Wolf, she begins to question her loyalty to the Coalition, and the passions between them burn out of control.

Find out more here: Lord of the Storm

Jan: What is your definition of romance?

Justine: Ironically, this question really stopped me. Since you said romance, and not love—two different but related things—the words that come to mind are thrilling, balancing act, too fast or too slow. All parts of the process, I think. Nothing matches the thrill, the balancing act between your life Before and your life Now, and wavering between wanting to jump ahead and being afraid enough to want to slow down. . .it's all in there. But just recently I read a quote from the greatest baseball announcer of all time (there is no arguing this, sorry) Mr. Vin Scully who, when encountering someone on the way to a wedding, said, "Ah, marriage. The most optimistic of man's endeavors." I have to agree.

Jan:  What’s on your bucket list?

Justine: The main item on my list is to live long enough to tell all the stories I want to tell. That's also unachievable, so I'm not sure what that says about me.  

Jan:  You’ve won FOUR RITA awards from Romance Writers of America and are a Hall of Famer to boot!  When you first started writing, how did you define success?  

Justine: That could have a long answer since I started writing. . .well, as soon as I could write. Before that I told stories in my head. I thought everyone did. Later I would write endless sagas, because I didn't know how to bring things to a close, and because those people were my friends and I didn't want to leave them. I think that's why I love romance, because I know my people are happy and I can picture where they are now and smile. I love it when I get mail asking how/where characters are now, because it means they're as alive to that reader as they are to me. But I digress. . .  I think the first real success for me was when I wrote a story that had an actual beginning, middle, and end. It was only eighty pages, but it was a triumph. I took that thing out and just looked at it often. When, thanks to the encouragement of my husband and a new computer purchased with a small inheritance from a much beloved aunt who shared my love of reading, I began to write with an eye to publication, I told myself I wanted to sell my first book by the time I was thirty. I was a bit late on that, but in my thirties was close enough.

Jan: In your spare time, you knit and enjoy photography.  What sort of writing schedule works best for you to balance your world?

Justine: I'm still looking for that balance. I've found having a dog that requires attention and walks is crucial. Otherwise I'd be in my office all day and half the night. My schedule is completely reversed from what it used to be. I used to be the proverbial night owl. (hence the graveyard shift) I would get off at 8AM, go home and sleep from nine to about one or two in the afternoon, get up and write until 9PM when it was time to start getting ready for my duty shift. My brain didn't really kick into gear until evenings, and at midnight I was just hitting my stride. But when my husband became ill everything changed, I had to hit the ground running first thing in the morning. Over the next three years my inner clock got reset, and it seems to have stuck. I'm up and working by six most mornings, often earlier. About 1ish the dog reminds me she exists, and it's off for a long walk. And wherever I go I take my phone to make notes, so I guess I'm never really not working in some way.

Jan: What's next for you?
Justine: Besides new Cutters, I've just signed to do a book in the Whiskey River series for Tule Publishing. I'll get to write in a world created by two long-time writing friends, Eve Gaddy and Kathy Garbera. It's been a long time since I've gotten to write a pure romance, and I'm looking forward to it. 

It's always a pleasure to visit with Justine.  Please scroll down to the Rafflecopter and enter for a chance to WIN a copy of LORD OF THE STORM!!

FIND JUSTINE DAVIS: 

Contact: Justine's email

Website: justinedavis.com

Facebook:  JustineDareDavis

Twitter: @Justine_D_Davis

Pinterest: pinterest.com/justineddavis

                               Blogs: justinedaredavis.wordpress.com

a Rafflecopter giveaway