Monday, September 3, 2012

Monday Author Interview with Charlene Keel



Today we have the lovely and talented Charlene Keel with us and I’m excited. Talk about a font of knowledge! She’s a riot, too. So let’s get on with this interview. Hi Charlene. Describe yourself in three words.

Loving. Fearless. Honest.



Best three things to be. So now here’s a hard question. Cast your book. Tell us who would play the main characters in a movie and why.

Hmmm. First, I have to pick one! I write all kinds of novels, although I’ve been told that my sexiest are too “literary” to qualify as erotica by today’s standards—I guess because instead of lots of four-letter words drawn from street vernacular I go for more poetic descriptions. Not that I have anything against horny-porny phrases; I just feel that with so many words to choose from, I can be more creative and still be hot.

My books include my version of erotica (FourPlay Girls, a collection of short stories first published in Playgirl), a women’s mainstream (Come Slowly, Eden) and a historical romance (The Lodestone) all available from Amazon as Kindles.

If a movie were made of my sexy historical, The Lodestone, I’d want Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) to play Cleome because she’s gorgeous, talented and has red hair; and for Drake, it would have to be Matthew MacFadyen, with whom I fell in love after seeing his smoldering portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.


Gotta love when you fall in love with the way an actor plays a characters and can translate it into your books. So much fun. What’s your favorite love scene from a movie?

Call me old fashioned but nothing can compare with the scene in Poldark, the old BBC television series, when Demelza (Angharad Rees) seduces Ross (Robin Ellis). I have all episodes on video and have watched them so many times the tape is stretching out. I was greatly saddened to learn that Ms. Rees recently passed away. With her brilliant portrayal of Demelza, she will live in our hearts forever.

Hmm. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that, so will have to check it out. I love the BBC shows. What’s your wildest fantasy?

Going to the Academy Awards to accept my Oscar for Best Screenplay based on any one of my books, with Matthew MacFadyen or John Barrowman (or both!) as my escort.

I love it! If you were to lose one of your senses, which would you rather lose and why?

Probably my hearing because I could learn to read lips (although I’d miss music terribly). Couldn’t do without my sight, though, since I’m afraid of the dark!

Interesting way to look at it. I’m not afraid of the dark, but you make a good point. What is the naughtiest thing you did as a kid?

It was probably also the best thing – I stole one of my mom’s cigarettes (she liked unfiltered Pall Malls) and went into the bathroom and tried to smoke it. It turned me three shades of green and I was sick for two days. I never tried smoking again.

That’s a good way to cure yourself of a curiosity. I can imagine. Unfiltered! Wow. Now for some fun and quick questions. We like things slow and hard, btu fast and furious is just as fun. Boxers or Briefs?

On me – boxers. On him – briefs.

Hee hee. Top or Bottom?

Before I turned 40 – Top. After 40 – Bottom (facial wrinkles and bags fall forward and you don’t want him to see that)!

ROTFL. Great way to put that. I love it. Pajamas or nude?

Him – nude. Me – very sexy nightgown.

YAY! Hairy chests or smooth?

Smoooooooth, please.

Another girl who likes ‘em smooth. TYG! Alpha or Beta?

Me – Alpha (as the matriarch of my clan). Him - Alpha Male Bad Boy!

Do you want to know more about Charlene Keel? You know you do! Here’s her vital web stats:

www.charlenekeel.com Follow her on Twitter: @CharleneKeel

Here’s the info and buy links for her books:

The Lodestone



Innocent Cleome Parker is unprepared for Drake Stoneham, an arrogant gambler who wins her grandfather’s tavern in a card game. Her mother is an invalid, and Cleome must keep a roof over her head, at any cost. As the illegitimate offspring of a madwoman, Cleome has always been an outcast but she convinces Drake to hire her as innkeeper, and drawn irresistibly to him, she fights her desire. Their daring adventures take them across 1830s England, plunge them into political intrigue in Italy, and inflame the passion between them, drawing them together again and again.


FourPlay Girls

This unique collection of four sizzling short stories first published in Playgirl Magazine will leave you breathless. Lucky Seven is an erotic mystery with one twist after another; Shooting the Works takes you inside a bordello where the hunky male staff caters to women customers; Good Help introduces you to a female business tycoon looking for a male assistant who can satisfy her every need; and Legend of the Cherry Blossom Sleeve tells a story of seduction in exotic, ancient Japan.


Come Slowly, Eden



Two southern women fight to survive in the permissive society of the 1960s. Julie, a beauty born to the best of everything, is so proper, so lovely and so hungry for love. Amanda is a tough little ecstasy machine working her way through FSU as the campus prostitute, servicing state legislators and local political leaders. First published in 1975, Come Slowly Eden was banned in Tallahassee, Florida—the author’s hometown—because it exposed such a dirty little secret. In this new and improved version, characters are more developed and the tantalizing, titillating sex scenes are greatly expanded.


And now for that all-important bio:

Teen Magazine published one of my first short stories when I was in my early twenties and I went on to write over a dozen novels and how-to books. My work in television includes episodes of Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island. I’ve also written screenplay adaptations of novels, including Patricia Hagan’s Love and War, Rebecca Brandewyne’s The Jacaranda Tree and Peggy Webb’s Where Dolphins Go; and I produced (for Romantic Times) the first annual Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant, which became the model for Oxygen’s Mr. Romance.

In addition, I’ve worked as editor or managing editor for various magazines including Playgirl, and I ghostwrite books and screenplays for doctors, celebrities and corporate moguls. Currently I’m co-authoring The Tracks, a new YA supernatural trilogy, with J. Gabriel Gates, for HCI Books. The first installment, Dark Territory, was released in July 2011. Ghost Crown, the second book in the series, just hit the stands and we’re hard at work on #3: Shadow Train. And we’re getting a lot of interest from producers who want to make it into a TV/web series.


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