J. Rose Black - Dark Secrets, Tormented Pasts and Forbidden Desires

J. Rose Black weaves stories about obsession, redemption, and the transcendental power of love. From her early days writing fanfiction for a passionate following of international readers, to crafting novels with her own characters, Rose has always been drawn to broody protectors and plucky, no-nonsense women ready to fight for what they believe in.

When Rose isn’t deeply immersed in her latest manuscript, she’s working in cyber security and thwarting the next generation of internet bad guys. Out of the office, she’s #Shipping with friends over her favorite, swoon-worthy couples, heading to the gym to battle the great evil that is Unmovable Baby Weight, or complaining about her husband’s addiction to 3D printing. Also: nagging her children to eat something other than cheese. As our Author of the Day, she tells us all about her book, Vengefully Yours.

Please give us a short introduction to what Vengefully Yours is about.

Vengefully Yours tells six heroes' stories - of meeting that once-in-a-lifetime woman, of longing for that connection with her (despite their differences / the obstacles between them), of finally realizing that connection, overcoming present challenges, and ultimately vowing to protect her with his life. Each story hits its beat in succession: Meet, Pine (long), Reunite, Overcome, Protect.

Why short stories? What drew you to this format?

I had a few reasons for my madness:

1) many of us struggle to find time to read amidst our busy day, so why not supply something short that could fit in between the things we (busy moms / young professionals / dads on the go) do? I think the audiobook version will help even more on this account.

2) If time is a commodity, how does a relatively new author compete for those precious minutes? I thought well, people could try something I wrote with minimal risk/investment. I'm only asking a person to read a few dozen pages at a time.

3) I write a variety of (sub)genres. I'm hopeful that through reviews and comments (you can always email me!), people will be willing to give me a glimpse into which stories they find most entertaining. Whether it's hardboiled detective fiction (with romantic elements) or the darker assassin romance; so far, the military romance with disabled vet Honor "Mac" Cormac seems to be winning the day. But, Stark Homecoming and The Nightmare have some action and adventure. And then Stellan and Dash have their own versions of a dry sarcastic humor, so I try to mix some of that in as well.

Obsession, redemption, and the power of love are central themes in your stories. Why do you find these themes important to write about?

I think in any good love story, one of the two (or both) has to be a little obsessive - not in a crazy stalker kind of way. But there's a completeness of dedication beyond 'self' that's required, especially when an author throws a slew of obstacles at them. And while I'm not good at Hallmark-movie type endings, I think we, as people and part of society need to have hope - maybe now, more than ever - that love is still the greatest power on Earth. That it will find a way to overcome darkness, division, despair, (self) doubt. It makes us stronger - as humans, as individuals, and as couples / families / communities.

Which story is your personal favorite in this collection?

You're asking a mother to choose between her children? LOL

If you would have asked me back in January when I first started working with my editor (Elizabeth), I would have said "Angel of La Seine". I do love hardboiled detective stories and the mob v law battle over the casino boats is really a fascinating and largely unknown part of history.

And "Behind the Eight Ball", I would have told you was my least favorite; I almost crossed it off the list to go in the collection a half-dozen times. There was something missing, and neither of my beta readers nor the editor seemed to think anything was wrong. But, to me, there was something, just not quite right.

And then finally, as I was listening to the audiobook recordings, freaking out about flashbacks, I decided I needed to rip Eight Ball apart and try again. And now, if you make me pick one, that's my favorite. Don't get me wrong, Maxen (The Nightmare)...is such a complex and interesting character, and the quasi-neurotic totally obsessed Stellan (Stark Homecoming) - he's a lot of fun. And Rye, my heart bleeds for poor Rye (and he and Larissa need some *ahem* alone time with more than kissing on the menu).

But, there's just something about Honor and Aurelie (Behind the Eight Ball) that really speaks to me - a little above the others.

Do any of your characters ever take off on their own tangent, refusing to do what you had planned for them?

Wait, what? My characters? Pishaw. Never. They're so well-behaved, they wouldn't even dream of not doing exactly what I planned from the start.

I'm joking - they do it ALL THE TIME!

Me: Hey, I know, let's write something fun and flirty and-- Why are we in space, now? Hello, who said you could GO TO SPACE? You're supposed to go to the BEDROOM, THAT WAY.

Yeah, no. A short friends-to-lovers story set on a slightly futuristic Earth has turned into a 3-book trilogy. No one listens to me. I'm just here, struggling to keep up.

Your scenes are very descriptive and moody. How do you go about settting the time and place in your stories?

Setting is something I work at; it's not really a part of my first draft. My first drafts are largely about the dialogue. What I can hear the characters say to each other, along with some key 'beats' in the scene. Then, in the rewrites, I work through feelings and emotions - how to convey that. With the setting being developed either alongside those emotions, or even later, as I do my best to make sure I have sights, sounds and smells in each scene. I think knowing how the character whose POV you're in - knowing their emotional state helps with the perception and description of the setting.

As for how we got there in the first place? Like if you're asking me why is The Nightmare set in London, for example. I guess I kinda figured that's where Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty would be (probably unimaginative of me, considering). Eight Ball is set near a Navy base because that's where Honor would be. La Seine and A Fool to Hold You are Los Angeles 1940's era stories in quasi homage to Raymond Chandler - who wrote hardboiled / noir detective fiction set largely around LA. I picked 1937 for La Seine because I wanted to write about those casino boats - and by 1939, the government was raiding them, arresting the mobsters running them.

I don't know if that particularly answers the question, but I think the TL;DR version is that the characters and the plot dictate a lot of that. There are times, for example, that I'll have an idea about something - and then have to look up where (or when) something like that is most likely to exist or occur. That's likely how I end up writing a lot of different (sub) genres - especially in cases when the setting becomes its own character, dictating style and other genre-specific nuances.

What are you working on right now?

I have somewhat quietly thrown my hat over the wall and listed "Losing My Breath" for presale. It says October, but I'm targeting late September. It's being reviewed by betareaders right now, but there are a couple of scenes missing, I think. So, aside from a couple of guest blog articles, and my own blog articles, I'm trying to get LMB to the editor in July.

And then I've got the short side story "The Tell" that will be available next week - as a free download on my website. It follows "Angel of La Seine" (+ extra scene in the back matter).

I'd like to get a few other things up and available as well. There's a side story that's drafted - of Honor and Aurelie (Eight Ball), and then I wanted to try to get a few romcom short stories up in advance of "Losing My Breath". I've been spending quite a bit of money on covers, lately (I can't wait to share the one for Losing My Breath! Mallory at Rock Solid Book Design did such a fantastic job!). And of course Frina did the covers for Vengefully Yours and The Tell, and those are amazing as well.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

I've been writing for a long time, but Vengefully Yours is the first thing I've officially published. Which is why I'm working fast and furiously to get those free side stories up and available on my website. You can find me there: https://jroseblack.com. I'm also on FB Messenger and Discord regularly enough. But my website blog is where I'll be posting character profiles and trailers, the cover reveal for Losing My Breath, those kinds of things. Join my newsletter and I'll send updates direct to your inbox (bi-weekly & quarterly - for different types of content), and you can always reply to the newsletter to ask me anything. I love supporting other authors, I'll answer questions for anyone reading, consider requests (I will always consider them and do my best), share anything of my self-publishing journey that someone is curious about. I like baby pics, cute dog and cat pics (or birds); funny tech-nerd memes (no puns, please).