Thursday, July 25, 2013

TnT Confidential: Iyana Jenna and Release Me



Hi everyone! I'm running late today but I'm here and I have a great author with me! Iyana Jenna is in the spotlight and she brings her  latest release, m/m romance Release Me.



Taking a break from dealing with his father’s clients on legal matters, Nicholas Haynes went out to the sea on his yacht—only to find a man floating in the water. The man was still alive, much to Nicholas’s relief.

Gregory Phillips was a private investigator and his last job almost turned him into fish food if not for Nicholas. Little did he know that the main suspect in his case was one of Nicholas’ father’s clients. When Nicholas insisted on taking care of Gregory after the incident that almost killed him, can he trust Nicholas enough with his life?



Welcome to In A Dream Beyond, Iyana! You've visited before but this is your first interview with me, therefore I must ask:

When did you start writing and why?

First off, thank you for the opportunity to visit again and for the interview, Elyzabeth. And again please forgive my senility. :)

To answer your questions, I started ‘really’ writing around 2002 because what I was looking to read was not available out there. So I wrote it myself.

What's your favorite part of the writing process? Least?

This is not too easy to answer. I like starting a story and I also like the time when I get so immersed in my story that I can go anywhere and do anything but still thinking about the next scenes I’m going to write. It’d be like a daydream and I will be daydreaming all day. The least favorite part will be finishing a story. It’s always quite difficult for me to finish it. It’s like dragging or something. I think I’m the type who likes to start doing things but not finish them. :)

You've written YA novels and Erotic romance, what differences and what similarities (if any) do you find between these genres?

YA books will be less explicit, I think, and even sweeter although my adult ones are also sweet. I also find YA lovely to write because with the characters still being so young, they are still searching for identity, wondering if what they have is right or wrong. With adult stories, the characters are less doubtful about themselves, at least in my stories. There are a lot of similarities. They are all romance stories that tell love tales between the characters. It’s just the way they express the love that is different.

Let's talk about your recent release titled Release Me, where did your inspiration for this novel stem from?

I love watching movies and from them I often get ideas for my stories. It’s the same with this book. I guess I just watched a certain movie that made my story have a mixture of mafia story, thriller, murder, and love.

What's your favorite scene from this novel and why?

I mostly loved the time when Nicholas first ‘met’ Gregory, i.e. when he hauled Greg out of the sea. :)

In three to five words, why will we fall in love with the main characters of Release Me?

“God! Did I hurt you?”

Now, how about a quickie?

Favorite time of day
- after midnight
Coffee or Teacoffee
Sweet or spicy- spicy
Beach, woods or city- woods
Left or right- all
Top or bottom N/A
Best song to make love to – Brown Eyed Girl
A personal anecdote

I don’t know if it’s an anecdote or not. But because of these writing and publishing things I mostly devote my time and energy to, I kind of lose interest in anything to do with teaching. There will be an international teaching conference being held in my university next month and while people are either involved as committee members or presenters and participants, I stay away from it as far as I can. Every time a friend asked me if I was going to attend or not, I’d say I wasn’t interested. I’m still not. But on Monday this week, my boss suddenly came to me. She said because of an event that’s going to happen at the same time with the conference, our director will not be able to go there and they’ve decided that I will go. Well… To attend only, perhaps that’s okay. But then I found out that I’m also going to present something there on behalf of our director. Excuse me??

Hmm, I guess that’s not an anecdote. It’s more like a satire. :D


How about an excerpt?
  
Stanley Haynes threw the newspaper, and it landed with a slap on Nicholas's plate. The headlines blared at Nicholas as though his father had shouted at him.

Heir to US Banking Chain Wedded?

"You ever plan to tell us about this, Nicholas?"

Nicholas glanced briefly at his mother sitting across from him, but she kept stirring the cooling coffee in her cup. Nicholas could see a smile flicker in her eyes. He shrugged.

“Come on, Dad. You know it was impossible for me to talk about it before everything was done.”

“Are you saying you don’t trust me, or your mom—” Stanley threw a glance at his wife, and his eyes widened. “You knew about this?”

She threw her hands up.

“God, no, honey. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“All right, all right.” Stanley took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Is it that Phillips guy?”

“Of course. Who else?” Nicholas grinned.

His mother went back to stirring her coffee. Her voice was calm when she asked, “When was it, Nicholas? How come both of us didn’t know anything about it?”

“A moment after Greg was released from the hospital.”

“Wow. That fast?”

Nicholas chuckled. “Yeah. Now you can’t accuse me of being a playboy anymore.”

“That’s good, dear.” His mother took his hand, and Nicholas squeezed hers gently. “So those journalists—they just found out the other day?”

“They’ve just seen this ring, that’s all.” Nicholas lifted his left hand and eyed the simple platinum band around his ring finger.  Gregory had exactly the same kind of ring around his finger.

****
A month earlier
It was the lulling sounds of the waves and the gentle breeze above the vast, boundless ocean that Nicholas loved most. He could spend days, even weeks, drifting seemingly without any course and purpose on his boat, all by himself. After months dealing with his father’s clients about legal matters, he was always desperate for some time alone. Sometimes he just couldn’t understand why he had to work twice as hard as the other employees in his father’s bank when he was his only son. However, most of the time, he just couldn’t see it any other way. His father was not the type to want to spoil his family. Everyone had to earn what life had given to them. Nobody was allowed to simply ask and receive.

Today, though, he ended up not alone.

BUY LINKS:


A little about me:

 Iyana lives in Jakarta, a city famous for its traffic jams, a lot of cars and motorcycles, and people selling stuff on the roads. You can spend two hours on the road going to a place you can reach in half an hour in a normal situation. Thanks to the traffic jams, though, Iyana can come up with a lot of stories, mostly shorties, as she prefers to spend the time during her trips writing into her cell phone rather than sleeping.

Iyana loves kitties. Right now she has five of them. Their names are Larva, Nyil, Cil, Mermood, and Horus. When she doesn’t write, she plays with them, or they would play with her when she writes.

Iyana loves teaching. She teaches English and her students range from elementary school kids to college students to employees. She enjoys working with them all. Teaching is so much fun for her.
Find Iyana here:



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