Welcome to The Forbidden Bookshelf, Nara!  Your latest release is the very hot capture romance, SNATCH ME.  What compelled you to write this book?

Capture romance is a compelling genre, but challenging to write without crossing politically correct lines. Prior to writing Snatch Me, I mulled the possibilities, trying to come up with an idea that would include the element of being carried off by sexy stranger. I think that’s the heart of capture fantasies, the longing to be swept up and carried away by a sexy man. For my capture romance, I wanted another layer. I didn’t want a helpless, but feisty heroine carried off by an all-powerful man, so I added the element of catch-me-if-you-can and then carry me off to a have-your-way-with-me adventure. I wanted the hero to work hard to get his woman which led to me writing a story with a very modern twist—the capturing takes place in virtual reality.

What type of research did you do for this book? Were you surprised or shocked by anything you learned?

Because Snatch Me was destined to be part of the Sex Bytes, cyber-romance series, I went to Second Life for research. Some people call Second Life a game. The CEO, Rod Humble, calls it a shared creativity tool. It’s a basically software that allows users to create a 3D fantasy world that other avatars can visit, interact with and role-play inside. Think of it as a painting of cityscape with people on the street. Now imagine you are one of those people on the street and you can walk around inside the painting. You can go inside the buildings, or buy a hot dog from the vendor on the corner. That’s Second Life. Much like an artist can paint any world they choose on a canvas, users can create any world they want in Second Life. Then they can step inside to admire the view, or role-play with each other, pretending the fantasy of their choice is real.

I did my research in the role-play worlds that focused on capture role play sex games. And I kept my focus on the ones where males captured females.

I was surprised to discover that women outnumbered men in the games, often by as much as three to one. Also, this is a choice. You wear a digital tag indicating you are available to be captured. You can choose to enable software that would give the captor total power over you, or you can leave the default program in place that requires he get your consent to everything that happens. And even with all those safeguards in place, you can safe-out of any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable. We’re talking a consensual power-exchange here, not rape.

I was pleased to discover that the men I talked with find capture role-play difficult. They can’t just toss a woman on the ground and have it. They need some sort of connection, a little romance. One guy admitted it was just a role he played to please the women, not a true interest. I asked why he played the game, then. He said, because it really turns the women on. All of the men said after capturing someone new, they usually started interaction with something simple like the gift of a rose, or a massage, and then they discuss fantasies and limits before the real game starts and the players revert to their roles.

What draws you to the BDSM genre?

Love and trust come easier to some people than others. Holding hands, dancing, kisses in the moonlight are as far as some lovers need to go to connect. Then there are others who want to take trust to another level, or who find it hard to let go and be loved, or who have a daily life so spirit-crushing that they need a way to escape. These people need romance with teeth in it, need sex that makes them forget everything but what is happening in the moment, need love that digs into their shadows and challenges them to be stronger. I think BDSM meets all of those needs and lets me write the complex characters I enjoy having in a story.

Why did you include a menage element in SNATCH ME as well?

I want to give women the fantasy of having two, or more, delicious men focused on what their woman desires sexually and needs emotionally. Women spend so much time in the role of caretaker. At the end of the day I want them to be able to curl up with one of my stories and escape into a fantasy of being cared for.

What can readers expect next from you?

I just signed the contract and started the final edit stage on Blind Heat, the second in my Pantherian Passions shifter series. The hero is a shifter, revered by his people, a millennial being. He falls in love with a young woman who finds him forgettable. Even after a night of intense passion, she fails to recognize him the next day. When he figures out she is face blind, a condition with no cure, he offers to cure her with erotic rituals that will teach her to see with more than her eyes. What he doesn’t expect is that she will be able to see past the man to the beast within. I have congenital face blindness, so this project was special to me. Look for that to be coming soon from Ellora’s Cave.

I just sent final edits in on Spirit Walkers: Curse of the Cypress Witch. That’s an adventure video game for women with romantic elements. Look for that to be coming soon from Big Fish Games. This one’s G-rated :)

And I’m in the final series approval stages of a multi-author series about a mystical manor. My book will be a selkie tale. This one is not G-rated. That’s as much as I can say about that project at the moment.

Where can readers find you on the web?

Blogs:
My personal blog: http://naramalone.com
The Passionate Reads group blog http://passionatereads.com

Virtual Worlds:
I use the name Nara Mistwood in all of the virtual worlds. Feel free to friend or IM me. Drop in for a visit to any of the following locations and make yourself at home if I’m not around.

Second Life: This is the most polished and complex of the virtual worlds. You can find me at Nara’s Nook: La Coste 165, 64, 23

OsGrid:I think of this as the wild west of virtual worlds. It’s populated by virtual pioneers experimenting with ways to use the technology for work, play, and education. You can find me at NarasNook

Kitely: This is the easiest world to access. If you have a FaceBook ID you can simply log in with that and you’ll appear inworld in an avatar body ready to go exploring. I keep virtual replicas of the settings from my stories at Kitely for readers to walk through, interact with or use for role play. You can access any of them through this page on my blog: http://www.naramalone.com/p/naras-worlds.html

oOoOoOo

From the moment Jolie discovers the Quarterz, a virtual post-apocalyptic world for capture role-players, she can’t resist the challenge. She’s chosen a hard game, where sexual submission to a captor is expected, demanded, no quarter given. She uses the challenge to escape real life and feels a sense of kinship to a world like the Quarterz, a society too broken to fix.

Mack created the Quarterz and took a gamble when he secretly lured Jolie there. He suspects he and Jolie share sexual interests that neither can admit in person. Now he has to hope that time in the Quarterz can help Jolie cope as she struggles to rebuild her life. He has to stand back and allow her to find her way in a game where he’s not always the captor. But when the game is over, he’s determined to be the one who wins Jolie for real.

Excerpt from SNATCH ME:

The door, right in front of me now, popped open and I had a hand over my mouth and another arm around my waist before I could scream. In the little bit of light cast through the door I could see I’d dropped into some kind of torture chamber, complete with chains and stocks.

“You can make a bunch of noise and I’ll have to share you right here with the guys from upstairs, or you can stay quiet and I’ll beam us out of here to someplace more pleasant. Your choice.”

I went still. He dropped his hand. When I stayed quiet, he took that as assent and we launched into a sickening spin that I thought must be the way it felt to get sucked through a black hole.

We emerged on a dock. Going from solid to vapor and back again has the same effect on your brain as a shot of whiskey. I staggered when he let me go. His hand at my elbow steadied me enough that I could turn to get my first look at the face behind the powerful arms that had snatched me from the container. I recognized those steel-blue eyes, that superhero body instantly. I wondered if he remembered me.

“New girl,” he said. He said it like it was a chore.

It wasn’t a question so I didn’t answer.

“You know the rules?”

“You caught me. I’m yours to use, in whatever way you choose. When you’re done I’m free to go. Like fishing.”

“Fishing?”

“Catch and release.”

“That’s just about right. You missed one thing.”

I waited.

Snatch Me–Sex Bytes Exotika

About the Author:

Whether it’s a shapeshifter romance exploring the primal power of the wild feminine, or BDSM romance where love digs into a character’s shadows, Nara believes romance should open the door and push lovers into a new dimension: sexually, emotionally, and sometimes physically.

Nara Malone is an award winning novelist and poet. As a freelance journalist and writer, her feature profiles on women entrepreneurs and her romantic short stories have been published in newspapers, magazines, and digital publications.

Nara lives on a small farm in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. When she’s not writing, she loves to run, hike, bike, and kayak. Every story she tells incorporates her love of animals, nature, and adventure.

Giveaway Details:

Nara will be giving away a $10 Ellora’s Cave GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour! Please leave a comment or question for Nara (and your e-mail address) on this post to be entered in the giveaway. Click HERE for her complete tour schedule. The the more tour stops you comment on, the better your chances of winning. Good luck!