Sourcebooks Tour: The Wolf Who Loved Me Lydia Dare (Interview/Giveaway)

Today we get to sit down, open up a nice vintage and talk to author Lydia Dare. Or should we say author's Lydia Dare, who happens to consist of writing team Tammy and Ava.

Lydia Dare, a great name for an author. How did you two come up with it?

LD: It was harder than naming children. First, we had to agree, which is difficult to say the least.

We’re very different, and have very different likes and dislikes. However, we agreed that the name needed to sound historical. Lydia Bennet was a love of both of ours, so the name Lydia was fairly easy to settle on. The last name was a little more difficult. But Dare seemed to fit us both. Then we had to get the approval of our editor and be sure the domain name was available. We also checked to be sure that there were no porn stars or criminals with the name. That was the hardest part!

I can only imagine how much fun it would be to collaborate with another author and friend. Have you been writing together long, and how many books do you try to complete a year? LD: Our first year, we wrote almost four. We were cranking a book out about every two months back then. But things get a little more difficult once you have a few books in your backlist. There are blog tours, rewrites, edits, proof copies, publicity, and everything else attached to prior books while you’re writing a current one, so it’s taking much longer to finish a single book now than it used to. We’re also working on some individual projects that take up some of our time.

The Westfield Wolves series is the perfect combination, historical and paranormal blended together. What made you decide to combine these two genres? Tammy: We were actually sitting at a conference discussing what we were each working on. I told Ava about an idea I had for a historical paranormal book, and we started to discuss it. I realized quickly that Ididn’t have nearly enough knowledge to write the history, but Ava did. She knew the rules and societal structure of the time, and was equipped with the knowledge about the period that I didn’t have. I had been writing paranormals so I had that part under control. So, we sat there and named the characters, decided an overall plot and that was how the first Lydia Dare book was born.

One scene that stood out for me from The Wolf Who Loved Me was when Madeline’s father confronts her and Weston. The raw emotion he shows is exactly what I imagine my father would be feeling if I were to disappoint him. Have either of you ever disappointed your father to this degree? Tammy: I certainly hope not! If I have, he hasn’t told me!! My dad is my biggest champion, someone I’ll look up to no matter how tall I grow, and I’d hate the thought of ever disappointing him.

Ava: Oh, I probably have disappointed my father from time to time, when I was much younger. You know a poor grade on this, having a smart mouth. But nothing on this level. I did marry a guy my father didn’t approve of like Maddie, and I so wish I’d listened to him. Often fathers do know best.

I fell in love with Lord Dovenby and his cavalier humor, do you have grand plans for him (please, please, please say he will get his own book!)? Tammy: We’ve actually discussed writing something for him, but don’t have any plans to do so currently. Don’t worry – you’re not the only one who fell in love with him! We did, too! (However, Ava hated Lucy Reed, so I doubt you’ll ever see her again, unless it’s for the sole purpose of Ava killing her off.)

Ava: Oh, I hated Lucy Reed. I kept getting rid of her and Tammy would write her back in. I think I hated her more than Maddie did. (But I felt for Maddie – who is the closest character to myself I’ve ever written.) So I was affronted by Lucy at every turn on Maddie’s behalf. As for Dovenby, he is delightful. I’d love to do something with him one day. We’ll have to see.

(So glad to hear you loved writing Dovenby! And Ava I share your hatred for Lucy, it will be fun to see how she is dealt with.)

Wolfishly Yours comes out November 1^st of this year and will be book number six for the WestfieldWolves series. Do you have a certain number you will try to reach with the series?

After The Wolf Who Loved Me, you’ll get to read about Grayson and Archer Hadley, Wes’s brothers.

Thanks Tammy and Ava for stopping by and giving us a glimpse into Lydia Dare! Congrats on the new release and we can't wait to see more from you soon!

THE WOLF WHO LOVED ME BY LYDIA DARE - IN STORES APRIL 2012

Regency England Has Gone to the Wolves!

Lady Madeline Hayburn Has Money Problems...

Specifically, she has so much of it that she's dogged by fortune hunters, including her bewilderingly attractive, penniless neighbor, with his wild nature and uncouth manners...

Weston Hadley Has An Identity Crisis...

Specifically, he's just turned into a wolf while Madeline was watching. Now it's up to the regal lady to tame the wild beast... if she can...

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Lydia Dare is the writing team of Tammy Falkner and Ava Stone, who have written two paranormal historical romance series. Both Tammy and Ava are active members of the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers and live near Raleigh, North Carolina. Together they are working on the next book in their new paranormal historical series as Lydia Dare, Wolfishly Yours, set to release in November 2012. For more information, please visit http://www.lydiadare.com/.

~*Giveaway*~

Sourcebooks is offering The Wolf Who Loved Me to two readers who reside in the US or Canada! To enter, just leave a comment on this post about your thoughts on disappointing your Father or how awesome an idea it was to mix paranormal and historical. Then fill out the RaffleCopter below with your name and email address. Additional entries are available but not required. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway