5 QUESTIONS FOR... EVELYN VAUGHN

Today the Sizzling Pens Gals have another wonderful guest interview.
We're thrilled to welcome Evelyn Vaughn

Evelyn Vaughn actually goes by "Vaughn" -- or Von, short for her non-writing name. She's been writing stories since she could put words together (and has suspicions about past lives), and first published--with Silhouette Books!--in 1993. Since then she's written 17 novels, including Rita-award-winning AKA GODDESS of the short-lived and much-missed Silhouette Bombshell line. Vaughn teaches Creative Writing and Literature for a Tarrant County college, and lives in Texas with her dog, cats, and imaginary friends.
Her brand new Silhouette Romantic Suspense KNIGHT IN BLUE JEANS is on shelves NOW! You can contact her at Yvaughn@aol.com

1)How many manuscripts did you write before you sold one?

Actual, completed, professional-ish manuscripts? I'd written one, a medieval piece of historical "faction," and shopped it all around, and almost sold it to Berkley... but not quite. Then I found out about Silhouette starting the Shadows line, and wrote Waiting for the Wolf Moon, which was my first sale. But if we're talking how many books I finished? I also wrote two other "novels," one in junior high and one in high school, and started untold books without finishing them in college and afterward.

2)Which book was your hardest to write and why?

Probably my hardest book to write, physically, was Say Goodnight Gracie, back in 2003. I'd gotten a new, full-time job several months earlier, took on extra work, and ended up with pneumonia. I can still remember keeping my laptop beside me in bed so that I could add bits and pieces to it. Contact, in the Athena Force series, was spiritually difficult to write because my Dad had just died, and I was still in mourning--but I saw writing as a way to get through the worst of it and, being part of a continuity series, the deadline couldn't have been postponed. And from a standpoint of just plain doubting my skill level, this month's book, Knight in Blue Jeans, was most difficult. Did you know that I stopped writing for several years after the Silhouette Shadows line closed? Apparently I had the same need after Bombshell closed, but I was still contracted for two books, which needed to be moved to a different Silhouette line (thank goodness for Silhouette Romantic Suspense!) Also, I'd just spent several years training myself to NOT write a standard romance novel, and to push the romantic elements into subplot, and now had I had to relearn how to write good romance. I must have started that book ten different times (sometimes with just a few pages, or a scene, and sometimes with full chapters) before I got the beginning that made the book!

3)What do you think is the most difficult thing about being an author?

Wow--what a loaded question! People probably already know that, similar to acting, writing is a high-paying profession only for the lucky few. And they probably know about how much discipline it takes (not my strong suit!) So I'm going to answer something different and say: the time delays. When I would most like to talk about my story and characters is when I'm writing them. I crave feedback during the creative process. But the fastest most publishers can turn around a mass-market paperback is seven or eight months, so by the time my book comes out and readers can talk to me about it, I've usually fallen in love with another couple-in-progress... about whom I wish I could chat :-)

4)What authors have most inspired your work?

I really loved Phyllis A. Whitney's young-adult mysteries when I was growing up; I'm sure she strongly affected my work. Mercedes Lackey's and Tanya Huff's urban fantasy novels inspired my more paranormal efforts. Most recently, I've been inspired by Elizabeth Peters' and Suzanne Brockmann's ability to write a long series.

5)What are you working on now?

I am currently finishing the sequel to Knight in Blue Jeans, but I warn you--it's not yet scheduled, because I'm still writing very slowly! Its working title is Underground Warrior, and it's the story of Trace and Sibyl from Knight. After I finish that? I'm out of contract, so I get to write anything I want, and then try to sell it. The only problem will be deciding which of the many stories buzzing around my head is the one I'll settle down with!

And now an excerpt from KNIGHT IN BLUE JEANS

Arden found herself watching Smith.
Carefully, though, so nobody would notice.
She’d generally avoided him during their youth, despite their fathers’ friendships. Smith had been too full of himself, too loud and boy like—trouble on two feet. Only when they began moving in the same post-college circles did she really start watching him, still more annoyed than intrigued. His cocky immunity to her charms—and she wasn’t foolish enough to deny them—had bothered her. The more caustic run-ins they had, the more she assumed their dislike to be mutual. They couldn’t seem to spend ten minutes in each other’s company without finding something to disagree about… which eventually proved downright fascinating. By the time he’d bitten out a sudden invitation to a party, like a dare in the middle of a fight over nothing, she’d been so surprised that she’d stuttered out agreement before she was completely sure what had happened. And then….
Then the attraction that flared up between them, no longer held back by their pretense of mutual enmity, had almost consumed her.
How long had she already been in love by then?
It wasn’t just that he was handsome, though he was. She noted the long line of his back now, the pull of his shoulders under his faded brown T-shirt, worn to a softness she could only imagine under her fingers. She noted the defined muscles of his tanned, bare arms, his elbows on his jeaned knees as he leaned nearer Greta to hear the story. The brush of his too-long brown hair across his neck. That action-hero profile. The stubborn, uncompromising jaw—far more recalcitrant than his daring grins let on—which she could remember kissing the tension out of one night, while his hands had done sinful things across her….
She shifted uncomfortably in the loveseat, crossing her ankles, her feet still bare. Smith’s gaze slanted momentarily in her direction, dancing with mischief as if he knew just what she’d been remembering, before returning to Greta.
Oh… sugar. They should have slept together and gotten it out of their systems, but she was a six-month-minimum girl and they’d kept breaking up at five-and-a-half months, then starting over at least three times. Maybe she’d been afraid to surrender that last bit of control, or afraid the reality couldn’t match the anticipation, which—good God in heaven! That last time, they were a day from six months and she’d honestly looked forward not just to making love, but planning a future with him.
And then? The phone call.
She should have dated more seriously since their breakup, but none of her gentleman callers had, well… challenged her. Not like Smith. Which should have been a good thing, but apparently was not.
He claimed to want to protect her, which shouldn’t make her feel quite as gooey inside as it did. The warmth of his body, so close to hers in this un-air-conditioned home, was bad enough, without her mistaking stalking for affection. He’d come back—which, as far as reasons to like him went, was even worse.
He didn’t deserve a second—or was that a fifth?—chance. She couldn’t respect herself if she gave him one. Not that he’d even asked. What if he didn’t?
Arden felt far more threatened by Smith’s return than by any Comitatus.