Guest Post and Giveaway: Rachel Grace

Please join me welcoming Rachel Grace to Debbie's Book Bag today. Rachel is here to promote the release of the first novel in her new Elemental Steam Romance series, Geared for Pleasure. I asked Rachel to tell us a little bit about the differences between writing steampunk novels and writing erotic paranormals. The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Rachel's novel, see details at the end of the post. 

GEARED FOR PLEASURE is the first in the Elemental Steam series. There are two contiguous storylines, Earthly Desires and Fiery Temptations, Dare and Phina’s stories respectively.

For those who don’t know, I’ve written 20+ books under the name R.G. Alexander, 98% of them paranormal. I have a thing for the supernatural, ancient mythology and world building. (and threesomes, but that’s another story)

I have to say, in part because of my writing voice as that other author *wink* I didn’t set out to write the classic “steampunk”. I wanted my own world to play in. Because of that, I not only renamed the genre for this series to “clockworky steampunkitude”, I also gave myself a lot of extra work…and some wiggle room to create. To add to that, I had very specific characters in mind, since my series, from its inception, has been an homage to my author group, The Smutketeers.

The differences. Where do I start? A lot of it started in my own mind. Steampunkitude is about specifics, details. When I began to think about the world, I thought about everything. I thought about where the civilization was, and why. The structure of the world was important, as was the technology created to adapt to it.

Theorrey has a caste system, a small slave trade, and a lot of really annoying rules that some of my characters have followed…but most have a tendency to break. But all the structure, all the hierarchy, is necessary to create in order to show how its all an illusion, if that makes sense. I had to get to what was truly going on beneath the surface. So I had to create a surface. A big one.

That took a lot of post-it notes.

Like many of my paranormal worlds, I drew on a lot of ancient mythology and folklore. Egyptian, Arthurian, Persian, Hindu, and of course, all the legends surrounding alchemy and immortality. This book is chock full of mysteries and intrigue that will not be entirely resolved until the next. Don’t hate me. I told you, it’s a BIG world.

And then there are the machines. I think for me, it was one of the most interesting differences. What a paranormal being could do with abilities inherent to their species, these characters had to do with minerals and machines. There is a touch of magic to it, I mean, this is me we’re talking about…but it’s the magic of science and the foundation of Theorrey itself, mixed with a touch of destiny.

The scarab spies and the hummingbird messengers from The Khepri (you’ll find out who he is soon)…even the dodge for the Deviant. I spent a lot of time talking with my husband aka The Cookie aka my own personal science fiction expert, to see if the ideas in my head were feasible. He was very supportive and incredibly helpful, as excited about the world as I was. I don’t know if I could have done that particular bit of research without him.

I suppose, after all this babbling. The biggest difference is that with paranormal, my comfort zone, I can draw from my own knowledge base…with Geared, I went outside of my box, and discovered an amazingly complex and fascinating world. One I wanted to continue writing. One everyone had to force me to stop writing or it would have never released on time J

The biggest similarity? The people. Even in a different world, people still fight, cheat, steal…and would do anything for love.

I hope everyone enjoys it. Thank you so much for inviting me!


If you’d like to know more about the characters and my inspiration, visit me at www.rachelgraceromance.com
If you want to know about my alter ego RG Alexander, visit her at
www.rgalexander.com
And if you want to see first hand the women who started it all, visit www.smutketeers.com

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Geared for Pleasure by Rachel Grace.

~ You must be GFC follower or an E-mail subscriber to participate.
~ US and Canadian Addresses only!
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST March 23rd.

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