The Winter Storm: Interview with Katherine Deane, Renee Rose and Casey McKay

We heard from Katherine Deane last week and this week, I've got all the ladies who put together The Winter Storm here answering some questions. What a collaboration, here we go.. 

Natasha Knight: What was the process of collaboration?

Renee Rose: Katherine Deane came up with the idea of us each writing our own fairy tale romance that takes place at the Spa NK Fetish Lodge.  We chose our characters and went to work. When we put it all together, we had to make sure the characters all seemed distinct enough. We had some coincidental similarities we had to edit out.

Katherine Deane:  Also, Renee came up with the brilliant idea of putting the stories together, instead of just being separate stories. (I’ll be honest, and say it scared the crap out of me at first. :) ) And Casey  came up with the awesome title and the idea of making it into a series!

Natasha Knight:  I’ve read the book (loved it!), but for our readers, why don’t you each tell the quick synopsis of the storyline you wrote for The Winter Storm:

Katherine Deane:  Thank, Natasha! Jillian is a spirited young village woman who is  going to a Matchmaker, with her brother (Jake), so they can both find mates.  After  Jake gets hurt, and they are attacked by wolves, a handsome , dominant man (Bertram, owner of the Lodge) saves them.  He introduces many different forms of spanking to Jillian, and helps her find her inner submissive.

Casey McKay: Coral is a mermaid in human form hiding at the Spa “NK” lodge from her checkered past. She made a bargain with a sea witch in order to turn into a human for the prince she fell in love with. The prince broke her heart and Coral went into hiding. Now she works at the lodge tending to the aquariums and nursing her broken heart. She's determined never to let anyone in again, that is until Jake Hill falls into her life.

Renee Rose;  Faye Godmeyer, is a human/fairy halfling who doesn’t know how to use her powers and believes having sex will cause her to lose them. She tangles with her hunky shifter landlord after she accidentally turns his feet into flippers.

Natasha Knight: The Winter Storm was a collaboration between all three of you. What was it like working as a team?

Casey McKay: I have no idea what I am like to work with. Hopefully my co-authors found the experience to be as enjoyable as I did. I think the biggest challenge was our schedules. It was challenging finding times where we could all be online at once to talk things over. Emails helped because then we could just have a continuous conversation over a period of time, but trying to have a 'real time' discussion was tricky! I think the night we were trying to figure out how we could merge the book together into one story instead of separate mini stories I was actually at a bar with my husband having a burger. I was texting with Kate while she was messaging with Renee online. I came dangerously close to going over my text limit that month, but we figured out the direction we wanted to take the book in.

Katherine Deane: Hehe, I remember those nights.  Casey kept texting me, saying “I can’t text anymore. I’m over my limit. Ok, what do you think about doing this?”   while Renee and I argued (the fun kind of arguing, of course) online, about how many different POV’s and character stories there were in the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.  

Renee Rose:  Casey is very easy to work with until you call her hero a wimp. Then she goes roller derby on your ass. Katherine is the task master--she kept us to a tight schedule, made us edit out our excess “bits” and “smiles” and had the vision that tied it all together.

Casey: Jake is not a wimp! He’s a sensitive soul!

Renee Rose:  Jake is totally hot, and definitely not a wimp.  I was kidding, remember?  Still kidding…  (take the skates off, Casey--sheesh!)

Katherine Deane: LOL, about the editing. Those emails were mainly to  get my own booty in gear.  “Gah! I  just found 150 “smiles” in the document!”   Oh, and as long as we are comparing editing notes… I should have kept track of how many times Renee threatened me with “booty”ly harm every time I screwed up  the dialog tags.  :) I think I saw a vein popping out of her head, when she started “yelling” , “You can’t ‘smile’ a statement!  You can’t hug a statement. Period. Exclamation Point! Come on!”   Hehe, I think I finally figured them out. (And alas, no, she really did not threaten to spank me. But that would have been a nice promo video for the book.

“Renee Rose spanks Katherine Deane OTK because of her sloppy dialog tags!”

Natasha Knight:  Can you talk a little bit about the draw of mixing fairy tale characters and spankings? How did you come up with that and how does the end result compare to your initial idea?

Casey McKay: Mixing fairy tale characters and spankings just seemed natural. Fairy tale characters are always doing ridiculous things that should get them spanked. Slaying dragons, eating poison apples, getting lost in enchanted forests- they are all filled with opportunities for a spanking! The initial idea was Kate's but I jumped on that one quick, it was brilliant and I wanted to join in the fun too.

Katherine Deane: I agree with Casey. (No surprise :) ) I think all fairy tales need a good spanking- or three!  And to be perfectly honest, this was a huge compilation between all three of us.  We took turns playing off each other with ideas. (You should have seen our chat sessions. We completely ran over each other when we got talking fast! It would have been fun to watch from the outside!)

Natasha Knight: What was your favorite part about writing The Winter Storm?

Renee Rose:  Having a hero with flippers for feet gave me a lot of opportunity for silliness.  Also, It was so fun when we started mixing our storylines--when my characters joined up with theirs for dinner and the “Sea Witch” scene.

Casey McKay: I think my favorite part of writing The Winter Storm was making my story my own. Yes, I wanted my little mermaid character to be the recognizable little mermaid we all know and love so I threw in some familiar characteristics (has a lot of sisters, makes a deal with a sea witch, fell in love with a prince). Then I checked the original version of the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson, did you know that the little mermaid turns into sea foam at the end of that story? The prince falls in love with someone else and in order to turn back into a mermaid she's supposed to kill the prince. Instead she kills herself and turns into sea foam. Depressing much? And not at all empowering for females.

I decided to make my own version. Coral's story is what would have happened to the little mermaid if she didn't get her HEA and didn't decide to turn into sea foam over it. 

Katherine Deane:  Working together to make the scenes fit was so much fun! There were a few times where one of us would need another author’s character to borrow for a specific scene. I almost spit wine on my laptop when Casey had Redd jump up and down screaming about “ Coral losing her VJ card”. Hilarious! 

Natasha Knight:  Some of the side characters seemed quite developed, like Cindy/Stepmother (She’s submissive Cinderella by day, and the domme Stepmother by night) and Redd the Slayer. Will they have their own Ever After Chronicles?

Katherine Deane: YES!!! Ok, these characters were supposed to be tiny, side characters that added to the story line. But holy heck, they just started demanding more action. They are definitely getting their own stories! Cindy will get to finally come to terms with her conflicting sides, while also getting lots of “play time” of course; and Redd- she is going to explain how her “daddy” came into her life. There is no sexual activity between her and Bertram, but she may meet the man of her dreams who will open up her sexual side so she doesn’t keep thinking of sex as (in her words) “a disgusting and ga-ross activity!”

Natasha Knight:  Can you talk about the age play in this story?

Katherine Deane:  In this story, there is a bit of sweet AP (non sexual in context), between Bertram and “little” Redd.  But I have left Redd open for sexual activities with a potential lover in her own book later. Since she is a not a major character in this book, I kept Redd’s AP scenes to two awesome spanking scenes in which her “daddy”, Bertram, punishes her thoroughly for some poor behavior.

Natasha Knight: What is the draw for adding spanking into your books in general?

Casey: The draw for adding spanking to my books? Well, I think I always add spankings to every story in my head anyway, so when I am writing a story I don't feel like I have to think about where to add the spanking- it just happens. It's what I like so it's what I write.

Renee Rose:  Ditto-- I mean JINX! (we actually all three share one brain, must be why we’re friends…)

Katherine Deane:  Hehe, double jinx! In my mind, spanking belongs everywhere!

Renee Rose, Casey McKay and Katherine Deane (in unison):  THANK YOU, NATASHA!! 

* * * *

In a world where fairy tales and real life collide, in which truth is sometimes stranger than fiction and romance and fetish are the norm, a winter storm forces a cast of characters to converge at a unique lodge, and three interwoven tales are set in motion.

Jillian and her brother narrowly escape a wolf attack, thanks to a shapeshifter, Bertram. As the owner of the lodge, Bertram opens Jillian’s eyes to a whole new world filled with spanking and so much more. Will she keep fighting her submission, or allow herself the chance for true love?

Coral is a fugitive—hiding from herself, her true desires, and the sea witch to whom she owes a great debt. She fears showing real emotion and letting herself be free, but Jake Hill’s dominating presence beckons her to yield to him—not just her body, but her heart, mind and soul. When the sea witch demands retribution, though, she may lose the one man she has come to trust.

When Faye blunders while casting a spell upon her landlord, he claims her as his slave until she can undo the magic, and she finds herself subject to his firm discipline. As her attraction to him grows, Faye fears she will give in to the handsome shifter and forever lose her maidenhood, and consequently her powers and the ability to fix her mistake.

Even as all three women struggle with surrendering to the dominant men they have fallen for, each finds herself on a journey to discover her true self. Can they find a way to yield to love without losing themselves in the process?

Publisher’s Note: The Winter Storm is an erotic romance novel that includes spankings, anal play, sexual scenes, age play, exhibitionism, elements of BDSM, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.

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