BOOKS+COFFEE: It looks like you’ve written in quite a few romance genres over the years. Do you have a favorite?
MARTEEKA: –I think Sci-fi/paranormal will always be my favorite, but I’ve learned to love contemporary over the last several years.
BOOKS+COFFEE: Why did you decide to write biker romances?
MARTEEKA: –Good question. I don’t really know. I read a few and enjoyed them. They kinda turned me on so, naturally, I wanted to make my own. Basically the same reason I started writing sci-fi/paranormal. 😉
BOOKS+COFFEE: Where do you find the inspiration for your stories?
MARTEEKA: –all over! Songs. TV shows. Movies. Other books. Real life situations. What ever strikes me as interesting or full of drama or sexy… I can find inspiration anywhere.
BOOKS+COFFEE: Do you have a hero of your very own at home? How did you meet?
MARTEEKA: –*Grin* I do. We’ve been married 25 years. Together for 26. We met at a local cruising spot in our home town. He’s five years older than me and he’s the best hero any girl could have!
BOOKS+COFFEE: When you aren’t writing, what do you like to do?
MARTEEKA: –Usually, I like a movie in the background. Something I’ve watched a thousand times and know every line by heart. It’s like white noise, I guess. But I can break away and watch for a few minutes and not have to worry about where I am in the story.
BOOKS+COFFEE: Do bits and pieces of your real life end up in your stories? Have any of your villains been inspired by real people?
MARTEEKA: –ALL the time! Heroes/heroines and villains have all been inspired at one time or another by someone I know. Usually in vague terms, but yeah. It happens. I’ve also killed several people in fiction. All I can say is, beware. MUHAHAHA
BOOKS+COFFEE: When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? How long did it take for your first book to be published?
MARTEEKA: –I knew in the third grade I wanted to be a writer. I wrote a Halloween story for my reading class (we all did) but the teacher read mine out loud. She said I had a “beginning, middle, and end” and it encouraged me to continue. My high school English teacher wrote in my annual she hoped to read one of my stories as a published author before she retired. Well, she did, BUT it was probably not the kind of story she envisioned. Lol
In 2004, I submitted my first story to Changeling Press. It represented the very first novella I completed. They sent it back to me for revisions and I resubmitted. They accepted me and the rest is history. I’ve been published by a couple different publishing houses, as well as having self-published several books, but I’ve always come back to Changeling. It’s my home. 😊
BOOKS+COFFEE: What’s your favorite genre to read?
MARTEEKA: –romance. Any romance. Well, raunchy romance. 😀
BOOKS+COFFEE: Any advice for aspiring writers out there?
MARTEEKA: –Keep writing. Just… keep writing. Learn from experienced authors in classes or in groups. Keep writing. Then, when you’re done, start writing again.
Now, let’s talk a little about your current book…
What’s the title of your current release and is it part of a series?
Red is part of Salvation’s Bane MC. It’s book 9 in that series.
Who published Red?
Changeling Press
Do you know what cover artist designed your cover? Have you worked with them before?
Some heifer named Marteeka Karland. She’s a bitch. 😀
Was there something in particular that inspired you to write this story?
I wanted lots of raunchy sex. The heroine’s back story came later. I made the hero in the roll of older man who’d been in a relationship previously and had a defunct relationship with his wife and son. The heroine was a spunky little scrap who was more of a tomboy than she was sexy. She’s tough but vulnerable and needed a protector. Turns out she wanted her protector as her lover as well.
If there’s one thing a reader will take away from this story, what do you hope it is?
I hope they find the characters complex and flawed. Red’s a real jackass sometimes, but Rosanna isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I hope the reader can relate to them. That they seem real.
Any funny stories (or something memorable) you can share about writing this book, or something that sparked the idea for it?
I kept running into songs I couldn’t get out of my head. Rosanna is named for that fucking Toto song, while she likens Red’s mood to a Roller Coaster of Love. (Red Hot Chili Peppers or Ohio Players) Naturally, they made their way into the story.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Rosanna: Salvation’s Bane’s been good to me — more of a family than I’ve ever had before. And I want that. But I’m not a kid anymore, and I know what I want. Red. I need him to see me as more than just another mechanic. No matter how good I am, working beside the man is never going to be enough. I’m going to break him down. Get under his skin, until he realizes I’m a grown-ass woman, and I know my mind.
And if that bitch of an ex of his doesn’t leave us alone, she’s the next thing I’m gonna break.
Red: I’m headed for a special hell. Rosanna knows her way around cars, I’ll give her that, and she looks sexy as hell with a wrench in her hands and a spot of grease on her nose, but she’s just a kid. I know she’s got a past she can’t or won’t talk about, and she may think she’s all grown up, but she’s younger than my son, Anthony. Pretty sure that makes me some kind of a pervert.
And now that Anthony’s the assistant DA, he’s got a bee up his ass to take me down. Be damned if I’ll let him take Rosanna with me. I should send her far away from me and this life, but one kiss is all it takes to pull me under. I could no more give her up than I could give up the air that I breathe. I’d kill to protect her. And from the looks of things, I may have to.
Get it at Changeling Press
ABOUT MARTEEKA KARLAND:
Erotic romance author by night, emergency room tech/clerk by day, Marteeka Karland works really hard to drive everyone in her life completely and totally nuts. She has been creating stories from her warped imagination since she was in the third grade. Her love of writing blossomed throughout her teenage years until it developed into the totally unorthodox and irreverent style her English teachers tried so hard to rid her of.