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.
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?
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 Tea – coffee
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:
*squees*
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Elyzabeth. :)