Ménage a May: Inked Magic by Jory Strong (Interview/Giveaway)

We're kicking off Ménage a May with erotic romance author, Jory Strong!

Lexi: Welcome to the blog Jory! And welcome to Ménage a May! 

JS: Thanks so much for inviting me!

Lexi: Your book Inked Magic fits right in with our theme this week. Did you know going into this book that you would have such a strong love triangle? 

JS: No, it kind of surprised me J But I’m loving it, because it's very different from my other ménages and I’ve written a lot of them. They are actually my favorites to write.

Lexi: You are an erotic romance writer, so people picking up your books should expect erotic romance. Do you ever wish you had added more or less sex into your writing?

JS: Never less, but definitely more. I just finished reading the actual, final printed version of Inked Magic to get my head into the sequel, which begins where Inked Magic ends. As I was reading, I found myself wishing I’d extended the sex scenes, though when I turned it in, I felt like I had just the right balance between sex and everything else going on in the story. The truth is, at least for me, I can always find something I would improve on if I were to go back and revise an already published story. I keep my sanity by making each one the best I can make it at the point where I have to let it go and move on, accepting that with time and growth as an author, I’ll see where I could have done something better if I’d only recognized I needed to do it.

Lexi: The storyline for Inked Magic is incredible; so much has been combined into this one story. You have elves, mobsters, mystery, thriller, and a very well written heroine. Did you go into the writing of this book knowing you would be using so many different facets to create Etain's world?

JS: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, I knew going in what I wanted. Often I don’t see the entire picture, just the big points, but comparing the synopsis I submitted when I proposed this story to Berkley, to the end product, there is no deviation.

Lexi: Speaking of your heroine, Etain, did you do any research on tattoos before writing about her and her job? Or maybe you have some tattoos and speak from experience?

JS: No tattoos for me, not because I don’t want one, but because I haven’t settled on a design I’m going to love for years to come—and then there’s the complication that I’m a total sun lover, meaning anything placed where I can see it (namely my arm, which is where I’d want it) is going to fade. Meaning I did a lot of research for Inked Magic, more than I’ve ever done before.

Lexi: Book one leaves the reader hanging a little bit, I am very excited for book two. When is it due to be released? Are you excited with how it is turning out? Any spoilers you care to share about Etain?

JS: By the time this post goes live, I’m hoping (read: fervently praying) that the first draft of the sequel will be done, done, done! Right now the working title is Inked Destiny, though that’s not official and won’t be until my Berkley editor signs off on it. No release date yet. I’d guess next February, but that’s just a guess based on the Inked Magic release month. And yes, I’m very excited about it!

No spoilers, but I will share a little excerpt…

***

Eamon shrugged, producing a ripple of muscles beneath his very expensive shirt. “I am lord here.”

“Careful,” she said, touching a fingertip to his lips, a flutter going through her belly when he pulled the finger into his mouth for a quick suck as his gaze dipped to nipples that ached to have him do the same to them.

Two could play this game.

Her hands went to the front of his shirt. “This needs to come off.”

He made no move to help or hurry her as button by button she opened the front of it, exposing smooth golden skin. He trembled when she circled pebbled nipples, inhaled sharply when she covered them with the eyes at the center of her palms though she didn’t need them to see what they had between them. Like to like, the call of it was an ever increasing compulsion she had no will to resist.

He spread his legs and she stepped into the space he’d created. Her hands moved upward, sliding across his collar bones and then down to his biceps, closing around them to the extent she could. “This is where the tattoos will go, like something a Viking would wear, except instead of fashioned gold it’ll be my ink.”

“A fitting analogy,” he murmured. “Truth is distorted over centuries and with the merging of one culture into another. The Vikings once called those of us they glimpsed gods. The Aesir, though the name was a broad labeling encompassing a number of the supernatural.”

Aesirs. She didn’t want to delve into the reasons he’d named his place what he did. But she couldn’t resist whispering, “A god huh? Don’t expect me to worship you except like this.”

She kissed him, teasing him with lips and tongue and hands that had already learned the how and where he liked to be touched. His desire rebounding, ratcheting up her own until they were both breathing hard, the craving for more heightened by the impossibility of having it right now.

***

Lexi: Ahhh! I want more! Though great excerpt to share Jory!

Just for fun, if there were Team Cathal and Team Eamon shirts, which one would you wear?

JS: Cruel, cruel question J What if I switch off each day? Given the scene I’m currently working on, I’d have on my Team Cathal shirt.

Lexi: Or maybe you could have a special one made with Team Cathal on one half of the shirt and Team Eamon on the otherside with "me" in the middle.

Thanks for stopping by Jory!

JS: You’re welcome! And here’s a question for the giveaway… 

I’ve admitted this in previous blog posts, and it probably is no surprise anyway considering what I write, but I’ve always had ménage fantasies. They go way back to my first crushes in 3^rd grade, innocent versions where I daydreamed about being married to two boys at the same time and the three of us living together. What about you? A lifelong fantasy? A recent fantasy (thanks maybe to discovering erotic romance)? Or, interesting to read about as something different, but NOT a personal fantasy?

With the touch of her palms to the skin of a crime victim, San Francisco tattoo artist Etaín can see the faces of the guilty and draw them. Changeling elf but unaware of it, at odds with her police captain father and FBI agent brother, magic and gift have put her in the path of two compelling men.Cathal Dunne, the son of an Irish mob boss, needs Etaín's help finding the rapists who left his cousin for dead. Eamon, a powerful elf lord, is determined to make her his consort-wife.Her gift once made permanence impossible when it came to a lover. Now, as she approaches the transition to fully Elven, her survival depends on keeping two. One of the men is willing to share her. The other isn't-until the search for a sexual predator turns deadly, and only by paying magic's price will there be any future at all.

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http://www.jorystrong.com/

~*Giveaway*~

Jory has been a great sport to stop by during our Ménage a May event and answer some questions, but she has also offered a giveaway for Inked Magic! To enter fill out the RaffleCopter below and then answer Jory's question. Contest open to Worlwide. Additional entries are available but not required. Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway