Interview with OPAL CAREW

Hey there readers of the world. Welcome to this new blog where you'll get sizzling reviews from sexy books, free books written by yours truly,  giveaways and reviews from hot-wild-minded authors... Like today. Today I'll be interviewing one author who is better than EL JAMES and who will

"Make your friend down there feel like a stripper."

But for those of you who don't know who miss Carew is... Wake up. I've included a bio of here below as well as the interview. Keep scrolling down.

Opal Carew is the NYT & USA Today bestselling author of dozens of sexy, erotic novels from ST. Martin's Press. She doesn't stop there, Opal releases quite a lot of novellas and short stories over the year that will make your heart literally explode. She also writes sensual books under the name Amber Carew and hotter books (I didn't even know that was possible) under the name Ruby Carew. She lives in Ontario Ottawa with her husband and has two sons. She loves crystals, dragons and nail polish.

1. What prompted you to start writing?

I had been working as a consultant in the high-tech




industry for a long time doing software development for businesses, and I put my career on hold to have babies. When I was at home taking care of my oldest son, I began to read romance novels.

I’ve always been a creative type and I found I longed for different kinds of stories than I was reading. Not that I didn’t enjoy what I was reading. I did! But I had an idea how I’d like to see certain types of characters develop, and I wanted a closer look at how the characters’ intimate relationship grew, since in those intimate moments we are the most vulnerable. I thought I’d give writing a try and see where that took me.

2. How did it feel when your agent sold TWIN FANTASIES to one of the great big publishers?

I was shocked and delighted! It was a fast and furious journey! I like to tell people I was an overnight success… after fourteen years of trying! J

Emily Sylvan Kim from Prospect Agency called me on my 24th wedding anniversary to tell me she’d like to represent me. That morning she sent TWIN FANTASIES to Rose Hilliard at St. Martin’s Press. I had always wanted to be with St. Martin’s, so I was really happy that my book would get in front of an editor there. Emily called me in the afternoon and told me Rose was reading the book. I thought that was just a polite thing to say which really just meant Rose had acknowledged receiving it. Emily called a couple hours later to say Rose loved the book.

I was pumped then, but Rose had to take it to the senior editorial staff. The next day, Emily told me that Rose’s senior editor had read the book and actually missed her subway stop because she was so caught up in it! But then she told me they needed to convince Marketing.

I’d been in a situation before with TWIN FANTASIES where an editor at a different NYpublisher liked the book but the Marketing department thought it was too niche so they didn’t buy it.

Later that week, I was off to a readers’ conference. (I was published with a small ePublisher at the time.) I actually got the call at the conference that Rose wanted to buy the book, and she offered me a three-book deal!

The rest of the conference included phone calls between my agent and my new editor. I went to the St. Martin’s Spotlight at the conference and met Monique Patterson, the senior editor who’d read my work and she told the whole audience the story about missing her subway stop.

All around, it was a pretty exciting event! And from receiving that first call from Emily, to actually having a contract offer, was only four days!

3. Can you tell us about "Blush" (my favorite erotic novel) and the next novel "Bliss"? How did it come about when you wrote them?

Blush is about a woman who can’t orgasm, the man who is in love with her, and the Tantra master who’s teaching a course the couple wants to take together to help Hannah with her problem. Before the course starts, however, the couple breaks up.

It gets really fun when Hannah meets the Tantra master, J.M., not knowing that’s who he is and they start dating, while in the meantime, her ex, Grey, takes the course and asks J.M. for extra help so he can win Hannah back. Neither of the two men realizes they’re both in love with the same woman.

Bliss, a standalone sequel to Blush, continues the Tantra theme by throwing together two characters with radically different ideas about sex and love. Kara is a sex columnist who thinks desire is purely physical and steers clear of any romantic notions about love, whereas J.M. believes sex is a spiritual union that brings lovers together body and soul.

How did these books come about? Blush was my third book and erotic romance was still very new on the market. My editor thought it would be interesting to do something about Kama Sutra or something about the ancient sensual arts. My husband and I had studied Tantra and recently been on a weekend retreat to learn more about it with a small group being taught by a couple who are experts in the field, so I thought writing a book about Tantra would be perfect.

4. What did it feel like when you reached the NYT Bestseller list?

I had hit USA Today a few weeks earlier and that had been a huge thrill. It was as part of a boxed set and I had an explosion of emails while all the authors shared our excitement.

Weeks later, when I found out I hit NYT on a different project, it was a huge emotional burst of adrenaline, and then I actually shed tears! My husband just watched with a huge smile on his face.

BTW, said husband sent me a huge bouquet of roses on the USA Today hit. When I hit NYT, we gathered together our two sons, and my friend (and promo assistant) and we all went out for a special dinner to celebrate!

It was the most exciting day of my life, second only to making that first sale to St. Martin’s.

5. Can you tell us about the MASTERED BY series? How did your inspiration come for these hot novellas?

I just love writing Domination/submission stories, so the idea of doing a series with that theme just made so much sense. I hope to start a ménage series in the near future. 

6. Did you have the titles and ideas for each novella when you started to write PLAYED BY?

I did come up with a number of them at the beginning, but haven’t used all of them. I had to change Mastered by my Stepfather to Mastered by my Guardian because of a conflict with a St. Martin’s book I was writing.

I should clarify that I came up with the idea of the series as I was writing Played by the Masterand already had the title and cover for it. That’s why the title doesn’t match the others. Just as well. Mastered by the Player just isn’t a great title! Lol!

7. Was Mastered By Her Captor intended to be a sequel to The Captive?

The Captive is the 4th story in my Red Hot Fantasies series about 5 women living out their sexual fantasies. I started to write it just after finishing The Office Slave series, a spin-off from the 3rd story of the Red Hot Fantasies series.

I really wanted a story for Mr. King because I’d fallen in love with him during the course of the series and wanted him to have his HEA. Thus, I decided to have Erik King be the hero of The Captive.

Since the Red Hot Fantasies stories are short (novelettes), and are about the woman’s fantasies, it wasn’t going to be enough to do justice to Erik’s story, so I decided to continue where they left off in Mastered by her Captor.

8. Can you tell us about the next (and presumably final) installment in the Mastered By series?

With having so many releases for St. Martin’s Press last year, and trying to finish my other series (and start some new things to keep my work fresh), I’ve had to put Mastered by the Billionaire aside for longer than I had hoped, so I don’t really have enough information to share with you. I don’t have any other Mastered By stories planned right now, but I might wind up doing some in the future. (As I mentioned, I do love the Domination/submission theme!)

9. Which is your favorite book in the series?

That’s a really tough one. I love Sheikh stories, so Mastered by the Sheikh is a consideration. It’s such a poignant story. Mastered by the CEO has some really funny moments I love. And I think Played by the Master is a fun romp in general!

But I think I’d have to say Mastered by her Captor is my favourite, because I love captivity themes (so sexy!), and I have a soft spot for Mr. King.

Just to let your readers know, I’m currently creating audiobook versions of this series. The first three are available now… and the narrators voice is sooo sexy!

Here’s a link to a sample of the audiobook for Played by the Master:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXKKG0VoCt0&

10. What are you working on next for St. Martin's Press?

The next book to be released by them is A Fare to Remember on April 4th. (It was inspired by the movie An Affair to Remember.) Stevie has given up on love and just wants a simple life driving her taxi. But her plans are turned upside down when gorgeous billionaire Reid Jacobs steps into the back of her cab.

HEAT is the book I just finished writing for them, which will be out on June 6th. It’s about a woman who is taking photographs for a calendar of sexy firefighters. Her first love was a firefighter and he died, so she doesn’t want to get involved with a firefighter again, but Simon and Carter are too hot and charming to resist.

The book I’m writing right now is X Marks the Spot. Here’s my short description of it:

Abi has been in love with Del for years, but things stopped them from acting on their mutual attraction in the past. Then she wound up marrying his best friend, Liam. Now they’re both free, but Del clearly feels she’s off limits.

This weekend, her brother is getting married and that’s triggered Abi to decide it’s time to take control of her life and find her own happily-ever-after. With Del.

While they’re away at the lovely country inn where the wedding will take place, she intends to use her strongest weapon—the intense attraction between her and Del—to turn things around.

The plan is simple. She’ll slip into Del’s bed and seduce him.

The problem is…. she winds up in the wrong bed!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a release date for this one yet.

11. What erotic category is your favorite?

My favourite is contemporary erotic romance. More specific than that, I love ménage,Domination/submission, captivity themes, sheikhs, and I do like science fiction erotic romance, too.

Okay, guys! That was an interview with Opal Carew which was in the making of a month. It was really fun to interview her and I definitely recommend checking her books out. Watch this space for an early review of the first DIRTY TALK book as well as the whole MASTERED BY series review (I had posted them on an earlier blog but will be reposting them out here). I'll also ask Ms. Carew if she'll allow a giveaway of a free eBook of Dirty Talk but this may vary. I will be reviewing some Tina Folsom and I'll ask her to do an interview as well.

I hope you guys are having a wonderful Friday and hopefully, you'll read some sexy books click the following below to read some Opal Carew:

Amazon

iBooks

Kobo

Nook

Opal's Website

Opal's Blog