I've heard a number of readers complaining that they are struggling to find a decent romance out there--that the quality has gone downhill.  I think this is why I try new books and switch genres from time to time.  This month a new, witty author, Rowena Cherry, is hitting shelves.  I spent plenty of time snickering over her answers, and hope you will too!

Welcome to Roundtable Reviews.  It is such an honor to have you join us.  This November, your book FORCED MATE will be hitting store shelves.  So far the response to this book, a winner in Dorchester's New Voice Contest, has been fantastic.  Can you tell us what the book is about?

May I start by saying that it is entirely my honor to be talking with you today.  Thank you for inviting me.

What is FORCED MATE about? You ask.

Jennifer Dunne described FORCED MATE as the ultimate Beauty and the Beast story, and my editor at DORCHESTER (Alicia Condon) calls it an outrageous take on the traditional abduction fantasy.

My hero, Tarrant-Arragon has the ever-popular nobleman’s dilemma you find in Regency romances, only I raise the ante a little.  Tarrant-Arragon is a god-Emperor’s only son and heir, and he is a djinn with some pretty spectacular powers when he chooses to use them.

He needs to produce at least one legitimate son to secure the succession, therefore he has to marry or “take a mate,” as he would put it. 

There are a couple of sometimes-fatal flaws in the Royal bloodline, so he wants the best possible breeding stock for his heir's mother, and he wants to be certain that his heir is his son.

The young woman he selects—partly because she has some psychic abilities that he’d like added to the royal gene pool—is his sworn enemy, has powerful protectors, and is engaged to his best friend (who really is NOT his best friend).

Oh, and she has been brought up with modern day Anglo-American values.  She is not about to embrace a civilization where galaxy-going Fleets set their watches by the Empress’s menstrual cycles.

Had you always wanted to write or did the urge come later?

Always.  I love to write.  Words and meanings fascinate me. My problem is that I write to amuse myself.

I think I started writing stories when I was perhaps seven or eight.  I used to write vaguely sexually coercive poetry, sew it into little books and give it to a (female) second cousin.  I also wrote petits histoires in French which I inflicted upon my French teacher.  I cannot remember why.

Not that I have spent the last 40 or so years of my life attempting to get published.  For the longest time I was happy to write long letters to entertain family and friends...stream of consciousness material, on what I was feeling, seeing, and by which I was currently amused.  Then, one day, a publisher friend of my husband’s (and thus a recipient of my Christmas letters) told me that I ought to write.

And I write, as opposed to running a Rush Limbaugh type talk show, because my *best* thoughts bubble below the surface when I talk.

Besides, often my “best” thoughts need editing. A five second delay (or whatever it is) wouldn’t be enough to remove the gorilla testicles from my conversation. 

(Although actual gorilla testicles are remarkably small.)

 How did you come up with the idea for this book? 

I have warned you that I love to play with words and meanings, haven’t I?  No?  Well, please forgive me for playing the pedant with your question.

There was no one idea for the book. It's a stew of ideas.  Ingredients include, in no particular order:

 Henry VIII's penis armour; meeting Chuck Jaeger and Fabio at the 1993 Indy 500... that year I got to ride in one of the corporate pace cars; my interest in dowsing which I developed after meeting a fascinating man while I was playing chess with the wife of the man who directed the Flash Gordon movie (the one with Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin); reading excellent publications such as Discovery, Men’s Health, Scientific American, Popular Science; reading theories such as those of Erich von Daeniken that all our ancient gods and mythological heroes were aliens; watching Animal Planet and Discovery channel—and picking up gems such as that lions mate every fifteen minutes non-stop for two or three days; various events in my corporate ex-patriate life; having a friend who was in the bar scene of the first Star Wars; seeing Siegfried and Roy's Vegas show in the late 1990s... an elephant urinated on stage.  They made that disappear the old fashioned way.  All sorts…

I had to laugh at the comment about Henry VIII's penis armor.  Just a few weeks ago, I was trying to explain it to Jen.  Those who have been to the Tower of London know what I'm talking about, but for those who haven't, I did manage to find a decent picture that will sum it up.

What was the road to publication like for you?  Was it long and tedious, or were you one of the lucky few who found it to be a breeze?

Long.  But not tedious.

Do you write by a set schedule?  What is a typical day in your life like when you are on deadline?

Forgive me, but I am going to answer these two questions obliquely.

The Baader Meinhof terrorist group was still recent threat when I went to live in a corporate compound in Germany’s foothills of the Taunus mountains in the early 1980s.

 We were taught never to publish or keep a set schedule, never to drive the same route anywhere.  Sometimes on corporate business trips, we got driven around by some of those frightfully glamorous-dangerous, heavily-armed mercenary types.

I will say about deadlines...I aspire to beat them.  If I have any say in setting them, I like to be realistic, and then add a cushion.  Often, I do beat deadlines.  But, life happens and family comes first.

Did any authors inspire you love of writing growing up?

I've always been an eclectic reader, loving Georgette Heyer, Asimov, Tolkein, Shakespeare, George Orwell, Harry Harrison, Terry Pratchett, Jo Beverley, Tom Clancy, the poets Tennyson and Browning… The list goes on, but I won’t. 

I was reading Writer's Digest (September 2004 issue) yesterday and there is an article (Crossing Over) about why a fiction author should try writing a non-fiction book and vice versa.  If you were to write non-fiction, what topic most appeals to you?

Well, I would have liked to write a grammar book, but I couldn't possibly do a better job than “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.”

My next choice of non-fiction writing?  One day I will probably either ghost-write my husband's autobiography or write his biography.

I have written corporate presentations (speech stuff) but that sort of writing does horrible things to my literary style.

 Besides, one cannot throw in a joke about testicles... Although, now I come to think of it, I did once write a serious corporate speech that featured a goat's goolies.  They illustrated it—it was a slide presentation—with a very well hung and indignant-looking goat in rear elevation.

 Never mind!

Most authors are hesitant to pick their favorite character from their own work.  Instead, can you share some of your favorite characters from other authors' works?

I have no hesitation whatsoever. At the moment it is Tarrant-Arragon... given that I cannot really talk about Tarrant-Arragon's grandfather Djohn Kronos who was supposed to be a villain until he figuratively grabbed me by the hips and demanded to be a hero, too.

So, one of these days I have to find The god-Emperor Djohn Kronos someone to love him.

My favorite character from other author would be Georgette Heyer's Duke of Avon.  My idea of a hero—in real life as well as in fiction—is heavily influenced by some of her heroes.

What are you working on next?

 I’m working on the sequel to FORCED MATE.  Provisionally it is titled Insufficient Mating Material? (with the question mark). Insufficient Mating Material is another chess title.

It would be a spoiler to say too much, it being a sequel.  In a nutshell, the hero has a bioluminescent tattoo on his penis (which, being bioluminescent, lights up in the dark, or when stimulated just right) and it gets him into a lot of trouble.

 And, by the way, between November 1st and December 31st there is a world-wide, write-in contest of skill and creativity involving this tattoo.  Details will be posted on my website  www.rowenacherry.com.

 Thank you very much for taking the time to interview me, and thanks to my
readers for their interest.

Thanks to Rowena!  It has been so much fun!