Happy June to all our Pen Dames readers! We are starting a new feature this month ~ Guest Author Interviews! We're excited to introduce you to some of our favorite authors and hope you will love their books as much as we do.
Our first interview is with the fabulous Sydney Brianna, who will give away a free ebook of her novel, Druid, to one lucky reader. Just contact Sydney at one of the links listed below (Website, Facebook, etc.) and tell her you heard about Druid from the Pen Dames. She will select one commenter to receive a digital copy. Hurry! Contest closes one week from the date of this post.
Sydney writes steamy romance mixed with epic fantasy and combines contemporary times with historical eras. How can she do that? Magic, of course!
Here's the blurb for Druid:
Through his work with a protective agency of immortals, the Custodes Pacis, Cináed spent centuries looking for the heir that would deliver the world from Ragnarök. His skills as a Druid Master prepared him for everything about this mission, except one thing: finding Scarlet. The mortal who turned out to be much more than just a being with a special lineage to gods.At forty years old, civil engineering and gardening was about as exciting as it got for Scarlet. Surprises were a thing of the past, or so she thought, until the day her new purpose came strolling through her office door. The choice was hers. Save the world without him, or watch it fall away nestled in the arms of the millennium-old Druid Master worth risking everything for.
Love, and an apocalypse. Why not?
Pen Dames: What books were your favorites as a child?
Sydney: I read classics, mostly. Dickens, Dumas, Austen, Poe, Shakespeare, and the like.
Pen Dames: How and when did your writing journey begin?
Sydney: I’ve dabbled with writing over the years, but I didn’t become serious about it until I had my hysterectomy in 2018. The first couple of weeks of my recovery, I must have DNF’d (Did Not Finish) seven Romance books that I started. None of the heroines were relatable. It was a topic of discussion between me and my thirty-something reading friends prior to my surgery, but after I had the procedure, it was glaring…and irritating. I couldn’t get away from the twenty-something virgins. As a forty-year-old mother and wife, at that moment, I wanted to read about heroines like me. So, I decided to write them. I write paranormal stories, and all of my immortal characters transition in their late thirties, early forties. My characters have pasts. They are a testament to the fact that older is smart and sexy.
Pen Dames: What genre is your book? What do you like about writing in that genre?
Sydney: Paranormal Erotic Romance.
Paranormal Romance gives me the space to explore my imagination. To create grounded characters who are relatable, yet spectacularly different. To craft a world of fantasy where one can escape the humdrum of everyday life.
Erotic Romance writing gives us a
chance to claim sexuality and be proud of it. I love the ability to create a
gateway for someone else to feel welcome without judgment in their desires to
imagine scenarios that may not ever happen to them. Sex is an important part of
the human experience, and Erotic Romance gives us the permission to explore
love and lust openly. It’s quite freeing to write it.
Pen Dames: Is your book part of a series or a standalone? If it is part of a series, briefly describe the series.
Sydney: Druid is part of the Custodes Pacis series, which is Latin for Guardians of Peace. The series follows a team of seven immortal warriors from different cultures, races, and time periods. They are a special team working against the destruction of Earth’s inhabitants from different religious apocalypses.
While the fantasy plot unfolds for our paranormal characters, each book also highlights a different love story, with Druid focusing on Cináed and Scarlet.
All of my lovers vary in appearance, species, and origins. Scarlet represents a thick, forty-something mother whose son has moved on to college. She is a successful, professional divorcee, who has thick thighs, and yes, had a hysterectomy; and our millennium-year-old Scottish Druid warrior can’t get enough of her.
Each book features a smart, strong, and relatable bad-ass heroine.
Pen Dames: What writing projects do you have on the horizon?
Sydney: I have published two of the seven books in this series, with the third coming on July 31, 2023. My goal is to publish one every three months until July 2024. Beyond that, I have notes logged for three standalone books.
Tiktok: @sydwritessmut
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