Day 8 of my 12 Day giveaway extravaganza continues. I’m giving away a free electronic ARC of my latest novella, SIREN SONG or one of my backlist titles to one reader every day for twelve days. All you have to do is answer the question of the day. (Extra points if you tweet or blog or facebook about the giveaway.)

Question: One of the pitfalls of writing paranormal romance is that your heroes can end up having some very strange characteristics that might turn a reader off. Perhaps her heart does not race at the idea of fanged, vampiric necrophilia. Or perhaps the idea of a werewolf hero seems a little bit too close to the bestial line. In the case of Siren Song, I had to deal with the potential of a big fishy tail…does anyone lust after a scaled hero? I think I found a clever way of sidestepping the potential romantic disaster–my erstwhile Naval Academy professor is very sexy–but what are your turn-offs when it comes to paranormal creatures?

Every now and then, a review will make me blush. This one from Chris Jones at Fresh Fiction certainly did:

Alright readers, find a quiet little spot, grab your favorite beverage, and prepare for a treat. Stephanie Draven is a very talented writer, and you will not want to put this book down. When you open POISONED KISSES, you are entering the rich world of mythical War Gods and their offspring… Kyra is a heroine with attitude, searching for meaning and a true purpose for her life… Stephanie Draven is fearless in her writing. She draws you in, leaving you at the crest of the wave wanting more…This book has everything, and I hope she has many more stories for us. She has a new twist on the paranormal, and I greatly enjoyed it. This will be the book you tell your friends about.

Cross-posted from Minding Spot Blog

As a new author, I don’t get asked a lot of questions aside from, “Who are you, again?”

But in those rare moments when a reader blinks up at me with adoring eyes, the question that almost inevitably issues forth is, “So, where do you get your ideas?” This is not only the most frequent question, but also, to my mind, the weirdest. Because doesn’t everybody get ideas? It’s not like you have to go shopping for them, right? They usually pop up unbidden somewhere inconvenient, like in the shower. So, what I assume people mean when they ask me this question is, how do I come up with the unique combination of paranormal creatures, hot button contemporary issues, and naughty sex play that makes up the Mythica series that I write for Harlequin Nocturne.

It’s the combination that’s important, because each of the ideas I’ve come up with separately aren’t as spectacular all by themselves. Oh, I know. I’ll write about a daughter of a god who has daddy issues. Or, what if I write a book about a girl who can see right into people’s souls. Or what if I write about a guy who can take on the appearance of any person who has ever hurt him, and he uses this ability to get revenge? Or what if I write a love story about two people who have abandonment issues and use it to parallel the famous story of Calypso and Odysseus? Taken on their own, these ideas might not be able to support a whole story, but mix them together, and that’s when I start to sound like I’m creative!

The truth is that I wanted to write a series that didn’t have vampires or werewolves or more traditional paranormal creatures. I wanted to go back to basics, take our most ancient myths, and update them. I didn’t have to invent a hydra–a serpentine monster with a thousand heads who couldn’t be defeated, because any time a warrior cut off one of those heads, two more would grow back. What I had to do was put a human twist on it. Thus, my hero was born–a man who could take on the appearance of anyone who had hurt him. And because he’s a tortured hero, lots of people have hurt him. He’s a modern day arms dealer, an adaptation of the hydra into what we would think of today as a monster.

To get to that point though, I read ancient mythology. I love the old stories, and they really spark the imagination. I also like to scan the news. When I was writing POISONED KISSES, there were a lot of stories about arms trafficking in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I think romance readers–like most other readers–want to learn a little something every time they pick up a book, but they don’t want to be hit over the head with it. To that end, I like to embed a little awareness of the world into my books.

Another source of ideas for me is reading other people’s books. I like to see what other authors have done, and done well. Sometimes I’ll even pull out an old journal of mine from before I found my own happily ever after, so that I can remember what it was like to be single and looking for love. Ideas are everywhere. In the past and in the present, and one of the things that I’ve enjoyed in writing for Harlequin Nocturne is the encouragement I’ve received to write truly innovative romance.

So I guess my question is, where do you get your ideas?

I thought I was prepared for it. After all, I’d had work published in magazines before. I’d had months to get familiar with my Harlequin book cover. Goodness, it’s been more than a year since I finished the story and sent it in. I’ve had plenty of time to adjust to the idea that I’m going to be a real author (whatever that is) with books for sale wherever books are sold.

But when I walked up to my front porch this afternoon and saw my box of author copies, the clouds parted, rainbows appeared, birds sang, and unicorns pranced through my front yard. I would have let out an undignified squeal, but my neighbor and his adorable sons were standing right there, so I had to try to play it cool. That lasted about thirty seconds before I found myself foisting a copy upon him. I doubt he reads romance, but I couldn’t help myself!

Then, I went inside, took some time to compose myself, and curled up on the couch with a book. My book. Yet, I was looking at it with new eyes. I nervously turned it over and read the back cover copy–which I had never seen before.

From the heights of Mount Olympus to the depths of the underworld, new author Stephanie Draven spins a story of fate and seduction…

Not a bad start, I thought. I would read this book.

I carefully open the cover and peek at the first page. A hot and steamy excerpt. Eek, did I write that? Oh, and look at all those superfluous conjunctions I hadn’t noticed before. I flip to the Dear Reader letter, in which I discover a missing comma in the first sentence. Okay, there are going to be errors. I tell myself to stop looking for them.

Somehow, I’m still grinning like an idiot. This might be because my name is at the top of every other page. Or it might be because these are my words, my story, my sweat, and a few of my tears. It’s not the first book I’ve written, but it’s the first time I’ll ever see a novel of mine in print, so I savor it.

I love e-books, but the sensation of actually holding the book in my hands is different than seeing my stories on my e-reader. I hold the book close and fan through the pages, delighting in the feathery texture against my thumb. I hold it close and sniff it. Paper and glue and ink. But it’s more than that. I am acutely aware that I’m holding in my hands the culmination of years of hard work. I’m also holding in my hands all the sacrifices my family has made to get here.

I’m holding countless queries and stamps and envelopes. I’m holding all the rejection letters and all my late night fears that I just wasn’t good enough. I’m holding the critiques and workshops and the kind comments of those who told me not to give up and the not so kind comments of those who told me I was wasting my time.

That’s a lot of emotional weight for one little book to carry. Somehow, it manages. I used to tell myself a story that one day I’d be published. I had to keep telling that story to myself until I believed it. Now I do.

I notice the little tagline under my series decal and laugh.

Mythica: Myths that come to life and love…

That’s about right.