Tour: Sapphire by Jeffe Kennedy (Interview)

Today I'd like to welcome author Jeffe Kennedy over who is joining us on a tour for her erotic novella, Sapphire!

Hi, Jeffe, and welcome to Reading Between the Wines! Can you start off by telling us five fun facts about you?

I always wish people would ask me for boring facts. I have plenty of those! Since you’re all about the wine, I’m going with wine-related facts.

1)      Right now I’m drinking Smoking Loon Zinfandel. A lovely wine for the price.

2)      I drink Zin in the winter and Chardonnay in the summer. And champagne on holidays.

3)      If I’m feeling spendy, I drink Seven Deadly Zins and Seven Heavenly Chards. Yeah, I know – I’m not all that spendy.

4)      Drinking wine and reading is the best way to spend an evening.

5)      When I travel, I often will buy a glass to drink wine from, because I hate to drink wine from plastic.

You write erotica under the pen name Jennifer Paris as well as Jeffe Kennedy; what was the lure from romance to erotica? 

Actually, the name change is kind of a one-off thing. I thought for my erotic story Petals & Thorns, I should do a different name, but Angela James, the executive editor at Carina press, who published Sapphire, convinced me that I could be all-Jeffe, all-the-time. It’s much easier not to have a sekrit identity.

Can you share with us a little bit about your new release, Sapphire, please?

Sapphire is a very sexy book, about a BDSM relationship that pushes the personal boundaries of the hero and heroine. For me it’s an emotional story about letting go and walking the edge of what a person can take.

Are you able to explain the title, how does it tie into the book?

“Sapphire” is her safe word, which Kirliss gives her for the color of her eyes. Taylor is a driven woman, very stubborn, and refuses to give in by using the safe word. There comes a moment when she concedes – but it’s not what you expect.

Did you have to do any kind of research while writing this novella?

I read a lot, but really this story comes from the emotional exchange between the characters. They told me what I needed to know.

What has brought M. Taylor Hamilton and Adam Kirliss together?

A business deal. They’re both top in their fields, hard line negotiators. Under the skin, they are a lot alike.

Did the inspiration for the character, Taylor, come from anyone in your own life?

I might be a teensy bit driven, like Taylor is. I’m not a competitive negotiator like she is, but I know what it’s like to be the one who’s in control all the time – and to be interested what it’s like not to be the one in control.

Who do you picture, if anyone, as Adam?

He’s very clear in my mind, but I don’t really base my characters off of living and breathing people. Maybe a younger Pierce Brosnan with light brown eyes?

Did either Adam or Taylor give you a hard time while writing this novella?

Not really. The story is all from Taylor’s point of view, so Adam Kirliss was a bit harder to get to know. But, in the end, he’s a more straightforward person than Taylor is. She’s spent so much of her life protecting herself that she’s got a very hard and shiny exterior. I always knew she’s a softy inside, though. So is Adam, for that matter.

What’s next for Jeffe Kennedy?

I have a non-erotic novel coming out in June called Obsidian. It still has sexy elements, but that’s not the core of the story. In fact, the heroine, who is a neuroscientist who accidentally ends up in Faerie, has to make sure not to have sex, in order to thwart Rogue, a manipulative Fae who wants her to bear his child.

Thanks so much for joining us today Jeffe!

Thank you for hosting me – who brought the wine?

To find out more about Jeffe and her books visit her website, to learn more about Sapphire and read an excerpt make sure to visit her page for Sapphire, and to connect with her socially just visit her pages on Twitter and Facebook!  To see my 4-wine glass review of Sapphire lick 'here'.