Interview– Willa Edwards

CTR: Let us welcome Willa Edwards to our special winter holiday Book Brew event! First, please give us a bit of information about the book or books you’re sharing today. At least ISBN, Publisher and buy link please! Also provide the genre and heat level if applicable.
How does the book or books tie in with our theme of winter holidays around the world?

WE Naughty List is my first ever publication, being released on Christmas Eve with Cobblestone Press. It’s a spicy Contemporary Romance about two friends that have loved each other for a long time, and with a little Christmas risk they may finally be able to find there way to each other, for good. This story is very hot. Readers beware.

Here’s the blurb. Eric has been in love with Callie since the day they met, one month after someone else put a ring on her finger. Since her engagement ended Eric has been biding his time, waiting for her to be ready. Until he finds a naughty list of Christmas wishes hidden between her couch cushions with his name on the top.

He’s willing to do anything to make Callie happy, including take on the role of dominate Santa Claus and spank her to blow-your-stockings-off orgasm. But is she ready for everything he wants? Does she want his love?

Eric and Callie have been friends for years, together they’ve built traditions. They’ve combined what they both believe and love about the holiday, sharing with each other. That’s the beauty of holidays, combining traditions, love and beliefs that had been passed on to us by the people that we love, from our ancestors from past lands, and blending them with those we adopt from the new friends and love ones that enter into our lives. New traditions are always being created, growing and evolving all over the world.

CTR: Where can our reader friends find out more about you and your writing? Please share your web site, social network pages, blogs or any other contact areas you maintain.

WE: I am on facebook, off and on, when I’m not at the evil day job or under a deadline. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100000708705071 When I’m not posting about my writing, I talking about my two furry babies and all the crazy things they do. At only six months olds and with their cat curiosity, they’re always getting into trouble worthy of mentioning.

You can find out more about my works in progress, including the sequels to Naughty List and learn more about me at my website, www.willaedwards.com. You can read about all my future blogging events, which I have quite a few upcoming, under the contests and events page.

I’m also a participating in a contest going on this Christmas as part the Nocturnal Nights blog. The winner will receive 12 books, some ebooks and some signed paper backs. All you have to do is answer the questions each author poses in their post. You can find all the information about the contest at http://tabithablake.blogspot.com/p/nn-christmas-contest.html.

CTR: Tell us about what your favorite holiday gift or memory.

WE: I don’t know of any gift that stands out in my memory, that was never really the point of the holiday, not even the point of the gifts. What I remember about the holidays is spending time with my family, anticipating the gifts, and way to much very good food.

I remember one Christmas my brother and I snuck down stairs to check out all the gifts after ‘Santa’ had dropped them off. My grandfather was sleeping on the couch only feet away but that didn’t stop us from checking out all our Christmas presents. In my family Santa doesn’t wrap the presents. He delivers them. He has enough to do. He doesn’t need to add wrapping to this list. Though now I believe it was really my parents that didn’t want to do any more wrapping. So we could see all our presents from Santa, and we shook all the presents that were wrapped to see what they might be.

We giggled and had fun, yet grandpa never woke up. As far as I know our parents never found out (I better hope they don’t read this interview). It’s a great Christmas memory I’ve always cherished between my brother and I, filled with the excitement and thrill only children can have on Christmas.

CTR: Was there a gift you totally lusted after as a kid or teenager and never got? Did you maybe get it for yourself later or come to realize it wasn’t as cool as you had once thought?

WE: The only gift I asked for over and over again was a puppy, real not stuffed. Whether I got the doll I wanted or the book I asked for that Christmas would be forgotten by the next. But I wanted a puppy much more than any book or toy, so it persisted.

My parents never would have given me dog for Christmas. Another furry member of the family it’s too big a decision to make a Christmas present. We did eventually get a puppy, and when I was picking up poop, and chewed up markers or homework, it didn’t seem as cool a gift as I once thought it was. But I still loved her more than anything. She was a great dog, with one of the sweetest dispositions I’ve ever seen. Some moments may not have be the best, but over all she was a blessing.

CTR: Do you go all out with decorating and making a special festive meal or do you prefer a quieter sort of celebration? Have a favorite holiday recipe to share with us?

My family is relatively small. I only have one brother, and we live far enough from family we don’t try and travel to them on that day. So we’ve always had relatively small intimate holiday, though we still had a huge meal and brightly decorated house to celebrate in. But recently my brother married his college sweetheart, the middle child and only girl of six kids, some of whom are married and have kids of their own. I think all our quiet holidays are gone.

CTR: Do you think we’ve become too commercialized and maybe taken some of the traditional or religious meanings away from our holidays such a Hanukah and Christmas or do you think more secular emphasis is appropriate in these modern times? Have some old traditions perhaps outworn their relevance for today? How about the idea of setting aside more to give to charity and the less fortunate, especially in these difficult times, and cutting back on gifts and parties?

WE: My family has decided this year to only buy one gift for each other, instead of getting into the overindulgence that this season encourages. We all already have everything we need. We don’t need to spend our time, money and energy over buying for each other when we don’t need any of it. We are going to instead focus on spending time together and enjoying the holiday.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to give the money, I would have spent on my family, to charity or invest it in myself and my writing career. But I won’t be giving the money to charity around Christmas. If I give the money away it will be in March or April. Charities get a million donations at Christmas time, I’d rather give the money when they really need it, and it can be a special surprise, instead of rolled up in the craziness of holiday giving.

CTR: Thanks for being part of our special holiday event and please come back whenever you have a book to share that fits the theme or just to visit with us!!