THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Brothers of Ash and Fire Series by Lauren Smith
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The series is a dragon shifter paranormal romance series!
The first three books are about 3 Russian dragon shifter brothers and how they find their true mates among mortal women.
The fourth book is about their long-lost uncle who finds his mate.
What is the sub-genre and
trope? Did your characters lead you to this genre or was that decided
before the story began?
It’s paranormal romance series with fated mates, enemies to lovers, virgin heroine, and kidnap fantasy tropes.
Funnily enough, this entire series came from one sentence I’d written in a novella that I was shopping to a publisher. They loved the novella but were obsessed with the idea of dragons and how dragons lusted after virgins and asked me to write an entire series about it, so I did!
Are you more character or plot-driven?
Character-driven. Stories are about people. I want readers to feel immersed in a world, but not obsessed with minute details when it’s really the characters that matter. A good character will naturally unfurl a good plot to with it.
With many main and secondary characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?
I’m so hilariously old school. I write down a name, age, eyes, hair, parents, job and other basic details on notebook paper and keep it in a folder to refer to as I write.
I know from previous interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?
Yes, in the 4th book my heroine surprised me. She was already the daughter of the hero’s enemy, but later she revealed she was the reincarnated mate of the hero who’d been killed by that Enemy—yes, the enemy who would soon father her reincarnated soul as a child. Talk about issues! It made for great conflict.
Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?
Nope. I never write about people I know. My characters always come from my head.
Are any of the female POVs based on anyone you know?
Nope. Same as above, I always let my characters form in my head.
Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?
Sometimes sex scenes can be hard. When I’m tired and mentally just not in the mood, it’s hard to get into “sexy mindset”.
What is your favorite book in the series?
It’s impossible to pick. I love each of them because they are all so different from the others.
I know that we aren’t supposed to have “favorites” as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?
It’s really impossible to choose. I love the bad boy rurik, I love the bossy billionaire Grigori, and the kidnapping Jewel thief Mikhail as well as Vasili the broken-hearted dragon who went to sleep in an ice cave and was lost to the world for 700 years before being woken up by his new mate.
Who is your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?
If I have to pick favorites, it’s always the couple I’m currently writing. So Tasha and Vasili. They are a perfect enemies to lovers romance, yet they don’t learn they’re enemies until midway through the book. Then it becomes a fated mates romance. I always like to challenge myself when I write so their story is quite emotionally complicated.
How do you get inside these character’s heads to find their perfect HEA?
I really just slip into my characters fairly easily and it was not at all difficult to do.
What scene in this book/series sticks out the most for you? Why?
I think the scene where she learns the man she’s coming to love is the man who’s family killed her father, and conversely in that same scene, where the hero discovers the heroine is the daughter of the man who killed his first mate. It’s a great dual betrayal feeling.
Were any of the books harder to write than others?
This one is pretty hard to write because of the complicated “reincarnated soul” angle for the heroine and making it believable that the hero would fall for a new mate who is really his old mate but not even the reader knows it yet.
This question is if you write in MULTIPLE POVs not just the hero and heroine - I love the multiple POVs in a book. It’s not just the hero and heroine, but we get inside the heads of multiple characters throughout this series. I feel that it gives the story further depth. Do you think you will write another book or series following this multiple POV outline?
Always. I don’t think I’m capable of writing a story where there’s just one POV. It would be too limiting and too boring.
How long did it take you to write this book/series?
I wrote the first three books in 2017 and 2018. This fourth book came much later due to issue with the publisher and other books in other series needing to come out. It’s hard to justify writing a book when sales aren’t great due to an issue with the publisher.
How did you come up with the title for your book and series?
The heroes are dragons so the series is Brothers of Ash and Fire, which are two things that connect dragons. Then this fourth book, The Lost Barinov Dragon is about the uncle of the three brothers who went missing.
If you met these characters in real life would you get along?
Probably. I’m easy going. I don’t get along with people who aren’t passionate about anything in life.
Did you know in advance that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the characters in book one demand their own story?
I knew I would write the trilogy about the brothers but I had no idea I would write a story about their uncle.
If your book/series were made into a movie, which actors do you see as playing your characters?
Oh wow. I guess I hadn’t thought about this. I would love to see Henry Cavil play Rurik, Chris Hemsworth play Grigori, Liam Hemsworth play Mikhail and Chris Evans play Vasili.
Can you give us a hint as to what we can expect next? Whether a new book and series or a sequel to an existing series? Can you share a small tease?
I’m actually working on a retelling of the Labyrinth where a dark fae prince steals a heroine away to his realm and bargains her innocence against being able to get free of his labyrinth. I haven’t written anything yet otherwise I’d give you tease.
Bio:
USA TODAY Bestselling author LAUREN
SMITH is an Oklahoma attorney by day, who pens adventurous and edgy romance
stories by the light of her smartphone flashlight app.
She knew she was destined to be a
romance writer when she attempted to re-write the entire Titanic movie just to
save Jack from drowning.
Connecting with readers by writing
emotionally moving, realistic and sexy romances no matter what time period is
her passion.
She’s won multiple awards in several
romance subgenres including New England Reader’s Choice Awards, Greater Detroit
BookSeller’s Best Awards, Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Quarter-Finalist,
and a Semi-Finalist for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award.
Writing as LAUREN SMITH:
WEBSITE FACEBOOK FACEBOOK GROUP
Writing as EMMA CASTLE:
WEBSITE FACEBOOK FACEBOOK GROUP
Check out my interview with Lauren Smith
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2021/08/interview-with-lauren-smith.html#more
Blurb:
He’s one of the last of a powerful but vanishing bloodline …
Grigori Barinov is the eldest in an ancient line of dragon shifters and the guardian of his family’s lands and fortune. Sworn to protect their history and magic, he won’t rest until he neutralizes any threat to their existence.
When he discovers an ancient manuscript that exposes his family and their dragon lineage has fallen into a mortal woman’s hands, he knows he must get the book back by any means necessary.
If that means seducing a nosy American woman with an intoxicating scent, he is more than willing to carry her off to his palatial home deep in the heart of Russia.
She’s the one woman who could expose him to the world…
Madelyn Haynes has never fit in. As an adopted child she grew up in a loving home but never felt as though she belonged.
Plagued by mysterious dreams she’s had of a silver scaled beast ever since she was a little girl, she is convinced dragons are real.
While in Russia working on her PhD in mythology in order to escape the ridicule from fellow professors, she unexpectedly crosses paths with the sexy and dominating Grigori, and after just one night with the man whose eyes seem to burn, she starts to change inside.
Isolated in the Russian wilderness Grigori calls home, Madelyn can’t help but fall under his sensual spell, yet something deep inside her calls out that she can’t trust him.
She has to show the world dragons are real to salvage her academic reputation, even if it means costing her the heart of the dragon she’s falling in love with.
Blurb:
He’s a dangerous jewel thief… she’s the gem expert standing in his way...
Mikhail Barinov knew he F’d up, five hundred years ago. His ‘one job’ as part of a Russian family of imperial dragon shifters? To protect the family hoard of jewels.
But a dazzling virgin—who just happened to be the Elizabeth I, the Queen of England—tricked Mikhail and stole the jewels. But now he has a chance at redemption. The jewels have been found five centuries later.
The only problem is they’ve been turned over to gemologist, Piper Linwood. She’s sexy, smart, ripe for seduction—but if centuries of exile taught him one thing, it’s never trust a beautiful woman.
Piper Linwood can’t wait to get her hands on her latest project. But hot damn she never expected how badly she’d want to get her hands on the dark, brooding man she sees at the museum.
Of course, she didn’t know he was a jewel thief. Or a dragon shifter. But all that becomes abundantly clear when he takes the jewels and her then flies (yes, flies) to his ancestral castle.
While all the alpha-male stuff is what fairy tales are made of—and frankly sexy-as-hell—the fact Piper disappeared with Mikhail has her labeled as his partner in crime. Now she must choose.
Will she betray him to save her career? Or will she stay and become the dragon’s greatest treasure?
Blurb:
The huntress becomes the hunted.
Charlotte MacQueen is tired of being told what to do. Stay in school. Don’t hunt dragons. Don’t have sex. Blah, blah, blah. Her overbearing brothers mean well, but they are seriously killing her social life.
Life as a chemist is about as exciting as watching water boil, so for one night, Charlotte is going to walk on the wild side.
And to top it off, she’s going to bag her own dragon and show her brothers once and for all she’s more than their baby sister. She just never expected to fall for a dragon.
The player gets played.
Rurik Barinov's days are spent defending his family’s homeland from rival dragon clans. His nights, deliciously spent indulging in carnal pleasures of the flesh, a hoard of women available at the nod of his head. Drinking, dancing, and sex keep his hot-blooded warrior dragon in check—but just barely.
The last thing he wanted was love…until she walked in the club— living, breathing sex poured into a tight, red dress. With one kiss, and one look into her vulnerable eyes, he’s lost. Now his impenetrable heart has been, well, penetrated, making him vulnerable.
And the worst part? She’s the little sister to his sworn enemies. When Charlotte becomes a pawn against Rurik in a ruthless dragon clan-war, he’ll have to work with her brothers (yes, the dragon hunters) to save her. Unless they kill him first.
Blurb:
Tasha Bellamy never expected to get lost in a snowstorm in the Swiss Alps, nor did she expect to fall into a cave and find a sleeping dragon…literally.
One touch awakens the black dragon and he transforms into a gorgeous, ancient, Russian warrior named Vasili.
She soon learns that Vasili has been missing from the world for more than seven hundred years after going on a quest for a dragon stone. But the quest cost Vasili his mate, and driven mad with grief, he sealed himself inside the cave to die.
Tasha can’t help but be drawn to the stormy-eyed dragon shifter and soon learns that her future and Vasili’s are entwined with his far more than she ever could have imagined when he tells her they are possible true mates.
Unable to resist falling for the noble-hearted dragon whose touch sets her body aflame with desire, she yearns to heal his broken heart, but a revelation of her past might tear them apart.
Start the series now!
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