In the Hot Seat: KC Burns/Contest Alert

CONTEST ALERT: KC Burns is giving away to one lucky commenter a copy of her new release, Trompe L’oeil. So leave your email address so we can contact you in case you win with your comment.

Hi and welcome to my blog, KC Burns. Please make yourself at home and grab a drink from my hunky cabana boys, Zeke and Jake.  So tell us a little about yourself.

Ooh, cabana boys!  And drinks!  I’m KC Burn and I’m going to have a lovely time here, I can tell.   Thanks for having me here, Raine.

Q: What genre do you write and for what publisher(s)?

I write gay erotic romance for Loose Id, Carina Press and I recently contracted with Dreamspinner Press.  I write sci-fi, paranormal and contemporary… for now.

Q: Tell us about your latest/upcoming release. What inspired it?

My latest book is from Loose Id, called Trompe L’oeil.  It’s about a man who’s been cursed to live inside a painting.  As for what inspired it?  Well, my editor mentioned voyeurism, and I came up with some poor guy who is an unwilling voyeur to a number of sexual escapades.  It has a happy ever after, though, because I can’t bear not to write one.

Q: Who are some of your favorite characters from your books? The hardest to write? The easiest?

My favourite (and easiest) character is probably Adam from my MIA books.  He’s one half of the romance in Wolfsbane, and has a significant secondary role in Blood Relations.  I had a dream about him, and suddenly he was easy to pop down on the page, as real as anything.  The hardest to write was (in truth, the character from my upcoming Dreamspinner release – I‘ve never written such an angsty piece before), but the second hardest was Maxwell from Trompe L’oeil.  Trapped in a painting and unable to interact with the man of his dreams… he was far more complicated and difficult to write about than I expected when I came up with the idea.

Q: What do you do when the muse decides to take a holiday or become really difficult? How do you try to coax them/she/it/he back to the drawing board?

I’m actually quite lucky in that I’ve never had this happen yet *knocks on nearest piece of wood-like object*.  I think if it were to happen, I’d probably have a marathon reading or TV watching session to recharge.

Q: Is there a genre you haven’t tried yet but plan to in the future?

Well, I guess I’d have to say historical, although it will have paranormal elements.  I have a *plan*, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be the second or third book on my docket.

Q: If the world was to end tomorrow, what three things would be on your bucket list?

Stuff still “to do” on my list?  Or stuff that I’ve ticked off already?  Actually, most of my list is travel-related.  I’ve seen the pyramids in Egypt, Chichen Itza in Mexico and London, England.  I’ve also been published (HUGE list item <g>).  Stuff yet to be checked off — I’d love to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Lindesfarne in Northern England (site of one of the first Viking raids) and Morocco.

Q: You’re on a remote island with a handsome man, a computer, and a “mysterious” source of electricity to power your computer. What do you do?

Huh.  I guess I’d wear the man out, then use the computer to write — there’s no “mysterious” source of WiFi, is there?  I have to admit, my own handsome man often takes a backseat to the writing.  I can‘t not write!

Q: What comes first for you: Setting? Storyline? Characters?

Hard to say.  Most of the time I envision a particular scene somewhere in the middle, and I have to figure out how the characters got there and how they’re going to get out of it to get their happy ever after.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as your main characters?

Well, I almost never make any connection between my characters and celebrities, but Cooper from Blood Relations was partially inspired by Sendhil Ramamurthy (from Heroes & Covert Affairs).  Although I’m completely laughing at the idea of anyone making movies of my books.

Q: What do you have coming next? Anything you want to tell us?

Coming next… a lovely angsty contemporary called Cop Out from Dreamspinner Press.  Should be out late 2011.  It’s the first contemporary I’ve ever written, but I do love it.

Q: If you came with a warning label, what would it say?

Does not like to share.  I don’t know if that’s the best one, but it’s the one my hubby complains most about.  He attributes it to the fact that I’m an only child.  He could be right.

Q: What else would you like readers to know about you or your work?

I’m Canadian, from Toronto (although I live in Florida) and that perspective definitely influences my writing.  Aside from that, I may write romances, but I’m not a romantic or sentimental person in my real life.  I hate to cry and I don’t like romantic movies.  Ummm… a bit of a contradiction, I suppose, but I really prefer my romance books to have happy endings whether I’m writing them or reading them.

Q: Where can we find you on the web?

Web: www.kcburn.com

Twitter: @authorkcburn

And thanks again, Raine, I’ll enjoy hanging out with the cabana boys for the rest of the day!

I’ll leave you with a blurb for my newest book, Trompe L’oeil (http://www.loose-id.com/Trompe-Loeil.aspx).

When Maxwell, a Depression-era artist, spurns the attentions of his sponsor, he ends up cursed to live out eternity in a painting.  The man who cursed him delighted in playing the exhibitionist for Maxwell, and by the time the old man dies, Maxwell longs for his life and body back but he’s pretty sure he never wants to watch anyone have sex ever again.  Until he discovers who his new owner is.

Tyler isn’t sure what to do with a life-sized painting of a nude man, but it was a gift from his sister to ease the pain of a disastrous break up and subsequent coming out.  The gorgeous subject of the painting disappeared without a trace decades ago, rumored to have been killed by the painting’s previous owner in a jealous rage.

Becoming more and more fascinated by the man in his painting, Tyler uses his resources as a history professor to solve the mystery of Maxwell’s disappearance.  He finds himself spending more time in his bedroom, talking to the painting, researching and aching to know the man in person.   Maxwell falls under Tyler’s sweet spell, discovering the thickness of canvas might be an insurmountable distance to cross.