Catching Up With Elisabeth Naughton

The Reading Cafe is happy to have Elisabeth Naughton back with us today. Elisabeth has taken time from her busy schedule to visit us and discuss her latest release, Enslaved,  which is her 5th book in her Eternal Guardians series and was released last week.

Let’s talk to Elisabeth.

TRC: Hi, Elisabeth.  Thank you for taking the time to visit us at The Reading Cafe, to discuss your new release “Enslaved”, as well as to give us an update as to what you have in store for us in 2013.

Elisabeth: Thanks so much for inviting me to stop by!

TRC: You have just released the 5th book in your Eternal Guardians series.  For those who many not have read this series, would you please give us a brief description of the  premise?

Elisabeth:  The Eternal Guardians are seven warriors descended from the seven greatest heroes in Greek Mythology. They protect their own realm (Argolea) and the human realm from threats born of the Underworld, in particular one evil goddess with a serious vendetta against the guardians. Each book centers around a different guardian, with an over-arching plot of good vs. evil tying the series together.

The books (in order) are:

MARKED – book 1 – Theron’s book (the leader of the Argonauts and a descendent of Heracles)
ENTWINED – book 2 – Zander’s book (the only immortal guardian and a descendent of Achilles)
TEMPTED – book 3 – Demetrius’s book (the darkest guardian and a descendent of Jason)
ENRAPTURED – book 4 – Orpheus’s book (Orpheus wasn’t originally one of the seven—he’s the brother of one of the guardians—but his story is so interwoven with the guardians that he got his own book. He is a descendent of Perseus.)
ENSLAVED – book 5, which released November 6, 2012 – Gryphon’s book. (the lost guardian and a descendent of Perseus – he’s also Orpheus’s brother)

TRC: You had mentioned when you were here last, that the 7^th book will be the last in your Eternal Guardians series.  Is that still the plan?

Elisabeth: Originally that was the plan. But things keep changing so I’m not committing to it! I do think book 7 will be a major turning point in the series in so far as the overarching plot goes. But I want to write books for each of my “guys” and there will still be a few to go by the time we get to book 7, so I’m leaving it open-ended at this point. Bottom line is this: if readers want me to keep writing books in the Eternal Guardians series, I will.

TRC: What have been some of the challenges or difficulties with research etc, as it pertains to  Greek Mythology and the Eternal Guardians series?

Elisabeth: I try very hard to work my plots around the stories from Greek mythology. Sometimes I run into trouble linking certain characters in my books to characters in the original myths. But the myths are so interwoven themselves, I’m usually able to work that out.

The hardest part – honestly – is the names! I’m very conscious of names in books and not making them too hard for readers to pronounce. Names from Greek mythology can be tongue twisters and they’re not all exactly sexy. For example, the heroine in ENSLAVED is the daughter of Zeus and Persephone. She’s an actual character in the Greek myths and I knew I wanted to use her in a book, but her name in all the research books is Melinoe. First problem I found was that this name can be hard to pronounce, but more importantly, I couldn’t see my hero calling her that through the entire book. So I got around it by having her change her own name. Melinoe actually means “light and dark” and she hates this connotation. So there’s a scene in ENSLAVED where she explains to the hero why she goes by Maelea now instead. (Plus I just liked Maelea better for a heroine’s name.)

TRC: ENSLAVED (released November 6th) is Gryphon and Maelea’s storyline.  Would you please tell us something about the premise?

Elisabeth: Gryphon is my lost Argonaut. His soul was sent to the Underworld to be tortured in book 3 (TEMPTED) and he was rescued in book 4 (ENRAPTURED), but he came back a changed hero. Gryphon was always the easy-going, fun guardian. Now he hears voices, he twitches, and he fights an evil foreboding that haunts his every move. His story is really about finding himself again, and the one woman who has the power to rescue him from himself.

LINKS TO ORDER: Amazon / Barnes and Noble/ The Book Depository

TRC: You have released a new novella series this past year-FIREBRAND.  For those who may not have read this series, can you please tell us the premise of the series?  Also how many books do you plan for this series?

Elisabeth:  The FIREBRAND series focuses on three djinn brothers who have been imprisoned by an evil sorceress. They’re sexy, fun and a little dark. The first book, BOUND TO SEDUCTION is Tariq’s book. He’s the heir to the kingdom of Gannah, but he’s been sentenced as a pleasure slave and is sent into the mortal world to corrupt the souls of human women to feed the evil sorceresses immortality. The second book, SLAVE TO PASSION, is Nasir’s story. It’s my gladiator book. Nasir is trapped in the Pits of Jahannam and fights daily to stay alive. He’s slowly losing himself to the fighting until a slave with the power to save him comes into his life. And finally, POSSESSED BY DESIRE is Ashur’s book. Ashur is the youngest brother, and the one most impacted by his imprisonment. He’s also the only one with the power to end the evil sorceresses reign for good.

There are three novellas planned for this series (at this point), but I may add more. BOUND TO SEDUCTION and SLAVE TO PASSION are both available now via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo. POSSESSED BY DESIRE is due out at the end of the year. I’m also super excited to announce that the Firebrand series recently sold to Germany. Egmont LXY will be launching a new line of short, erotic stories called Lust de LXY (release dates in Germany to be announced.)

TRC: I thought that WAIT FOR ME was one of the best novels I read this year.  Are you considering writing another standalone romance suspense novel?

Elisabeth:  I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed WAIT FOR ME! I have to admit that WAIT FOR ME is probably one of my all-time favorite books that I’ve written. It’s definitely the one that’s been with me the longest.

To answer your question, I’m actually in the process of writing the sequel to WAIT FOR ME, which will be Mitch & Simone’s book. I “sort of” gave them a happily-ever-after in WAIT FOR ME, but Simone never truly committed to Mitch. Turns out, there’s a reason for that. She has a past she’s been hiding for a very long time. One that’s about to cause all kinds of trouble for the happy couple.

TRC:  This is great news  🙂  I loved Mitch.

TRC: Would you like to share with us what you are currently working on, and what you have in store for us in 2013?

Elisabeth:  Right now I’m working on Eternal Guardians book 6, which is Titus’s book (tentatively titled SCORCHED). It will release in early 2012. I’m also working on the sequel to WAIT FOR ME (which is still untitled), and I’m in the process of putting together an all-new romantic suspense series loosely connected to a novella I wrote in the BODYGUARDS IN BED anthology, titled Acapulco Heat. 2013 will be a busy writing year for me but I’m excited about giving my readers new stories and new characters they can get lost in.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Elisabeth:  I’ll be attending a few readers conferences in 2013. If you’re in any of the following areas, stop by and find me!

February 8-10, 2013 – Olde City, New Blood Conference – St. Augustine Beachfront Resort, St. Augustine, FL

May 1-5, 2013 – RT Booklovers Convention – Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center – Kansas City, MO

August 15-18, 2013 – Authors After Dark Convention – Savannah Marriott Riverfront – Savannah, GA

Thank you, Elisabeth for giving us an update on Enslaved, as well as what we can look forward to in the future.  Congratulations on all your success in 2012.  It was a pleasure talking with you again.  We hope to catch up again in 2013.

To learn more about Elisabeth, you can find her at the following links:

Website: http://www.elisabethnaughton.com/
Twitter:
Facebook:
Goodreads: 

Elisabeth and Sourcebooks have graciously offered to give a member of The Reading Café a chance to win a copy of Enslaved.

1.  You must be a member at The Reading Cafe. If you are not a member, please register using the Log-In at the top of the page, or by using one of our social log-ins.

2.  If you are using a social log-in e.g. Twitter, please leave your email address along with your comment.

3.  Giveaway open to U.S. or Canada only

4.  Contest runs from November 11th – November 14th.