Hello everyone! Yesterday I had the honor of participating in the book launch party for Black Velvet Seductions’ new anthology, ‘Desire Me Again’ (which features one of my stories). Here… is my interview!
Eileen Troemel Hi Virginia!!! Thank you for joining me!
Virginia Wallace Thank you for having me! I’m grateful to be here.
Callie Carmen I’m looking forward to reading your story. It has to be the first one that I read in Desire Me Again because I have grown so fond of the way you write in your blogs.
Virginia Wallace Aw, you’re the best! But you already knew that!
Eileen Troemel What’s the heat level of your story?
Virginia Wallace Uh… One? My focus is more on the strained relationship between husband and wife. There’s some mention of sexual tension, but that’s about it.
Eileen Troemel Nothing wrong with that at all… and probably a bit more realistic.
Callie Carmen For sure because they aren’t getting along. I’m betting the writer in you doesn’t allow you to be oblivious to those around you.
Virginia Wallace No. I mean, what are people for if not inspiration?
Callie Carmen Yes.
Eileen Troemel Is this a contemporary romance story?
Virginia Wallace It is, set in modern-day Virginia Beach, VA, USA. It’s also a fantasy. I used the werewolf myth as an allegory for the differences in culture and upbringing that often drive a wedge between married couples.
Eileen Troemel That sounds fascinating!
Annabel Allan Was there a specific werewolf myth you found intriguing?
Virginia Wallace I kind of used the modern ‘monsters walking hidden among us’ myth, rather than the monstrous, full-moon driven werewolf. It seemed to fit better.
Eileen Troemel That makes perfect sense.
Callie Carmen I can only imagine the tension between families. Them worrying about it working and such. Does that cause major problems?
Virginia Wallace Only if you count being eaten alive as ‘major’…
Annabel Allan You seem to like the horror/darker stuff! Is that something you try to incorporate in your writing?
Virginia Wallace ALWAYS! The only exception, perhaps, is my upcoming novel ‘When the White Knight Falls’… but even that one’s got some dark spots. I suspect a better description for my work would be not so much ‘dark’ as ‘brooding’.
Gibby Campbell How about humor? Do you like to incorporate it in your writing? I see it often in your posts.
Callie Carmen Me too.
Virginia Wallace It’s funny, I tend to flip-flop. My shorter pieces tend to take one tone or the other – dark, or light-hearted. My full-length novels, though, do have running threads of humor.
Eileen Troemel What inspired this story?
Virginia Wallace I drafted it out in 2004 (originally featuring vampires). But it kinda gathered dust until about 2010 or so… when I was newly married, and slowly beginning to realize how much work being married was. That prompted me to dust the story off, and breathe new life into it.
Gibby Campbell Yah, marriage can be a drain on the creativity. Or an inspiration. It all depends.
Virginia Wallace And that’s what I tried to put in the story. Marriage is a blessing, for sure… but it ain’t always easy, and there are (hopefully rare) moments during which it feels like the ultimate curse. You just gotta push through it, you know?
Gibby Campbell I do know! I can’t wait to read the angst!
Eileen Troemel I think the first year of marriage is the toughest… especially if you haven’t lived together…
Eileen Troemel Okay – I gotta ask – When do you like to write?
Virginia Wallace (Pasting Annabel Allan’s earlier response to the same question) I like writing around 12am-5am. It’s when everything is inky and black and totally silent. I live in an area that you can always hear cars and kids, people yelling, so at night, especially around the Witching Hour, it’s totally serene and I get my best pages done.
Virginia Wallace Told you (I’d copy Annabel’s response)!
Annabel Allan Virginia Wallace LMAO I totally expected you to cut and paste it!
Virginia Wallace Great minds, you know…
Eileen Troemel I had to (ask)… LOL
Callie Carmen Here come the whips and chains.
Callie Carmen Do you ever watch shows like Dead Files? If so, do you get any of your dark character ideas from shows like that or the type of movies that you watch?
Virginia Wallace Films are everything to me… and I love all different kinds. I’m an animation nut (which probably explains my juvenile sense of humor), but yes… I like the dark stuff. My favorite TV series is ‘Tales from the Dark Side’, and my favorite series of movies is ‘Underworld’. ‘The Crow’, ‘Natural Born Killers’, and ‘The Lion King’ are also faves. And being a romance writer, I suppose my favorite romantic film is ‘Serendipity’.
Eileen Troemel If you could choose any location for writing – money and time not an issue – where would you want to write?
Virginia Wallace Honestly? Right where I’m sitting. If I’m in some super-spiffy exotic location, I don’t feel like writing… I just wanna enjoy the location. Writing is an escape, at least for me… so why write if I’m somewhere that I don’t feel like leaving?
Callie Carmen Great answer. I tried writing on a couple of cruises it didn’t work.
Eileen Troemel Do you plot out your books?
Virginia Wallace Short stories, never. I just carry them in my head for a week or two, just mentally polishing the story up in my mind. When I start writing it’s over pretty quickly. Novels I write character outlines, the finished ending, and a very loose outline. As I write towards the ending, I periodically adjust the outline to fit shifts in the story line. My writing is only structured in a very, very loose sense.
Callie Carmen Do you enjoy doing the marketing that is involved with being published? The ads, the communications like now?
Virginia Wallace You kiddin’? I freakin’ dote on it, ‘cuz I’m a TOTAL ham!!!
Callie Carmen Yes you are.
Callie Carmen I like your ad too. You must like the graphic part of it too.
Virginia Wallace I started out as an artist, from a very young age. My teenage years were the transition period, when I slowly realized (through playing Dungeons n’ Dragons) that I could express myself more thoroughly through storytelling than art. But yes, I’ve always kept my art chops up!
Eileen Troemel What part of writing don’t you like?
Virginia Wallace PROOFREADING!!! And because I hate it, I suck at it. I finally bowed to reality: My books go through hired proofreaders before they’re submitted.
Eileen Troemel What’s next for you?
Virginia Wallace Well, my novel ‘When the White Knight Falls’ should be out this winter, and my story ‘Orion’ will be featured in ‘Cowboy Desire’ early next year. In the meantime, everyone is welcome to stalk me at the following links:
Follow me on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051882828372
On Twitter at @VirginiaKWalla1
On MeWe at https://mewe.com/i/virginiawallace1
On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-wallace-63b2731b1/
Or follow my blog at http://www.virginiawallace.com
To order ‘Desire Me Again’ on Kindle or in paperback, click here:
The interviews run by @EileenTroemel on the Romance Books Sweet & Spicy group page were wonderful. Here is my review of Virginia’s story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review by Author Callie Carmen for the fantastic story Renewing Forever by Virginia Wallace
“He liked staring absently skyward; it reminded him of how small he really was, and how utterly insignificant his problems were. Somehow, understanding how little he mattered made his little piece of the world more manageable.”
It was thoughts like those in Renewing Forever that kept me turning the pages. There were several special moments in this story between a husband and wife living life and trying to figure it all out. Who knew it would be so hard to make a marriage work. I guess when you knowingly marry a blood thirsty shape-shifting beast, you have a clue you’re in for one heck of a ride.
Will David and Jillian once love birds communicate instead of keeping their feelings pent-up inside? Or will Jillian and her werewolf family tear David apart? Be sure to read this story which is part of the wonderful Desire Me Again Anthology. It was so worth learning the answer to those questions.
Whoooa… I’m speechless!!! THANK you for the review! 🙂