1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work?
Where to start, where to start… Well, people ask me all the time if Dana Littlejohn is my real name or a pseudo. Let me go on record and yes. It is my real name. I work a nine to five and my pay check comes in that name. LOL I cannot claim it though because my husband shared it with me. I have four children all over eighteen and a wonderful husband who loves my crazy edge that leads me to the stories I write. I write African American and interracial romances. They have crossed over and merged several genres, but all are erotic.
2. I use my own name too. When writing a new book, how do you decide on a theme, genre, or topic?
Anything can spark a new idea for a book for me. A picture, a comment, a conversation…anything and anything has! When my son returned from the air force I asked him what life was like behind the wings? He laughed and said, you don’t have a life when you’re enlisted only the officers do. That answered sparked the idea to one of my full length novels, Behind the Wings.
3. What do you think makes a book a page turner?
I think a great story with engaging characters make a great a story, but with that being said the idea of ‘engaging’ is different for everyone. I think if a reader can connect to the characters in some way, whether they see themselves in the character themselves or the situation, they become engaged.
4. How many WIP do you have going?
When I saw this question I drew a total blank. LOL I really didn’t know. I’m usually working on at least two stories at once sometimes three. It just depends on who is talking the loudest to get their story told that day. Most times I finish them back to back t submit them and usually they are totally different and are going to different houses.
5. At the moment I have three going. What other authors if any have influenced your writing?
I don’t get the chance to read as much as I liked to, but when I do I really like Bertrice Small. Her characters are strong independent woman with minds of their own. They get the same kind of men who appreciate them as is and absolutely adore them. I love that!
6. Would you share your links with us?
Sure! My website: www.danalittlejohn.net my blog: www.authordanalittlejohn.blogspot.com you guy find me on twitter and Facebook by authordanalittlejohn
7. We’d love to read an excerpt. Don’t forget to give us a buy link.
This excerpt comes from my latest release Releasing the Baggage. It is available at Secret Cravings Publishing. Here is the blurb.
Blurb:
Jerri Ivory was over divorce cases, but when your boss asks you to do him a favor... During the important case, her boss is killed and she becomes a suspect all while she is trying to get to know Felix, a man her friend Linda hooked her up with. With all the chaos and mayhem going on in her life, can Felix slow her down long enough to show her they were meant to be?
Excerpt:
Jerri smiled and relaxed in her chair. “This is nice restaurant. I’ve never been here before. Have you?”
“No. I had no clue where we should go, so I Googled for a good place for a first date. This place came up with four stars for ambience and four stars for food.”
“That’s great. We can experience it together.” The waitress came to take their order. Jerri waited for her to leave before continuing their conversation. “So, you said you haven’t been in a relationship in a long time. Does that mean you haven’t dated since your divorce?”
“Yes, but what I meant was I haven’t had a relationship since before my wife, but, that is also true. I haven’t dated since the divorce either.”
“Oh. Are you and your wife still friends?”
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying friends, but I wouldn’t call her my enemy.”
“So, what happened . . . if you don’t mind me asking?”
He hesitated.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, I completely understand,” she rushed out. “In fact, forget I even brought it up. God, I suck at this. I’m sorry. That’s not really first-date conversation, is it? I don’t know what I was—”
Felix waved his hand. “No, no, it’s okay. I was actually just wondering myself what happened.”
“Oh.”
The conversation paused when their food was delivered.
“I guess what really happened was we just grew apart. That’s the only thing I can think of. I didn’t know it at the time, but we had different agendas and were on different paths from the start. She didn’t want to do the work it takes to bridge the gaps.”
“So, it was all her fault, huh?” she asked skeptically.
“No, I’m not saying that at all. It’s never one person’s fault when two people are involved in a relationship.”
“So, you believe a marriage is a fifty-fifty thing?”
“Actually, I think it’s more like one hundred- one hundred. Each person should bring one hundred percent into their marriage, not fifty percent.”
Jerri sat quietly eating for a while contemplating his words. “Hmm, you sound like you didn’t want the divorce, Felix,” she finally asked.
“I didn’t.”
Her head snapped up. “You didn’t?”
“No, I don’t think you get married to get divorced. It’s supposed to be ‘until death do you part.’ I was willing to work on it, but she wanted out.”
She nodded and pushed her plate back. “Do you still love her?” She reached for her glass and, not realizing it was empty, brought it to her lips.
He chuckled at the look on her face when she realized it was empty and refilled it for her. “No, I don’t. I don’t think I had for a long time before she asked for the divorce.”
Jerri sipped her drink. “So, I guess that kind of makes you a little bitter toward the whole marriage thing, huh?”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not. She hasn’t poisoned me toward getting married again at all. I still think it’s a beautiful thing. As long as it’s with the right person,” he added. “She obviously was not the right person for me, and I wasn’t for her.”
“I’ve been privy to a lot of divorces—some decent, most not—and the one thing all those people have in common is none of them took their marriage seriously anymore.” She shrugged. “I don’t know, the whole thing has kind of soured me a little to the whole idea.”
Felix reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “I still take it seriously. Perhaps all you need is some positive relationships to combat some of that negativity you’ve been exposed to.”
Over the candlelight, their eyes met in a hypnotic trance. The same feeling had come over her when he held her as they danced that slow, sexy salsa dance. Something deep within the depths of those sultry honey colored eyes called to her. Jerri felt like she was falling, losing herself within those sensual golden pools. She tried to speak, but her mouth and her brain had momentarily lost disconnection. Her body was leaning across to him and he was doing the same. The sudden clank of the plates crashing into each other as the waitress came to remove the dishes brought her back to reality, making her aware of her surroundings. She chuckled away her embarrassment and sat back in her chair.
“So, Felix, are you always this charming or is this a ploy to get into my panties?” she asked playfully.
His blush was instant as he tried to laugh it away. “Charming? No, I’m just being me, but if you find that charming, then I’ll take whatever extras come with it.”
“I don’t know, Felix, you might not want to get into my panties,” Jerri said jokingly. “To push past the coohie cobwebs would be a hell of a workout, even for someone in as great a shape as you are.”
Confusion settled on his handsome features as he absorbed what she said, and then he burst into fits of laughter. “I don’t think I’ve heard that particular metaphor for abstinence before.”
Jerri nodded and picked up her glass again. “Well, unfortunately my friends keep me updated on such things.”
“Well, I think we’re in the same boat, then, Jerri. It’s been a long time since I had sex, too, years, in fact.”
“So, I guess that makes us both second-time virgins, huh? It’ll be like starting all over again if we ever hooked up.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be.”
Their eyes met over the candlelight again. An entire conversation passed between them without a single word being said aloud. Each one understood exactly what the other wanted and needed. Felix was the first to break the heavy, sexually charged silence.
“Check, please!”
Folks, Dana is giving away a promotional: t-shirt, a key chain, an ink pen and a baseball style hat to randomly drawn commenters during the tour (US and Canada only please). Follow her book tour and comment often for a chance to win. To follow the tour go to http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/09/virtual-book-tour-releasing-baggage-by.html
Folks, Dana is giving away a promotional: t-shirt, a key chain, an ink pen and a baseball style hat to randomly drawn commenters during the tour (US and Canada only please). Follow her book tour and comment often for a chance to win. To follow the tour go to http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/09/virtual-book-tour-releasing-baggage-by.html
