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OLIVIA CUNNING - Author |
Olivia
Cunning is a New York Times Best Selling author hailing out of Texas who writes
“Erotic Romance that Rocks”. Not only is
she a successful writer, she grasps the true essence of the live music
gig scene in the world of rock and metal.
During July of 2012, I was on a book trail to read something new, my book buddy
recommended that I check out “Backstage Pass” (Olivia’s first novel in the
Sinners On Tour series about their guitarist Brian “Master” Sinclair). When I
read the blurb I thought “ok, fictional rock band with a romantic twist…could be interesting,
let’s see”. I wasn’t really prepared for what I read! I laughed, I cried, I
gasped, I rolled my eyes and found a band that I wished were real! (The mind is
a fascinating thing ya know). Since then, I quickly
moved on to Rock Hard (the second book in the series about Sed, the vocalist of
Sinners). Then I checked out the other band in Olivia’s life…Sole Regret. DAYUM!
Olivia’s
writing is not only very captive, easy reading and funny, but also grasps the
passion in musicians and glimpses into the lives of excessive rock stars.
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Q 1 |
What inspired you to
write a contemporary erotic romance series about rock bands? |
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A |
I have always been a
fan of rock music. I’ve followed the genre since I was a teen. My walls were
once plastered with posters of all the rock stars I lusted after. There were
a lot. Who doesn’t dream about some sexy musician falling for them? The great
thing about writing fiction is that you can control the outcome and everyone
lives happily ever after. |
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Q 2 |
Why did you decide to
create fictional bands like Sinners and Sole Regret? |
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A |
These guys live in my
head. I just like to bring them out to play every once in a while. Also, when
I started writing rock star erotic romance, there were very, very few books
out there that had rock star heroes. Or maybe I just couldn’t find them. Now
I see them everywhere. So I guess I’m not the only one who loves a naughty
romp with a rock star. Fictional, of course. |
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Q 3 |
For those who might
not have checked out your novels, can you tell us a little something about
your two series “Sinners on Tour”
and “One Night With Sole Regret”? |
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A |
Sinners
on Tour is a
series of five full-length novels. In each book, a rock star meets a woman
(or a woman and a man in one case),
falls in love, and they live happily ever after. There is one novel per band
member: lead guitarist, vocalist, bassist, drummer and rhythm guitarist. One
Night with Sole Regret is a serial series of novellas. They’re shorter. Each
one spans a single night. A rock stars meets a woman and there are hints
toward a relationship at the end of each volume, but that doesn’t mean I’m
not going to mix things up in future instalments. Each band member will be
featured in multiple novellas. The thing I like about the Sole Regret series
is that all the stories intertwine, but since we’re moving through lead
characters quickly and returning to the same characters in future volumes,
you really get the story from a lot of different viewpoints. So Sinners is my
experiment in how to make two people find forever love relatively quickly.
Sole Regret is my experiment in how to mess with rock star characters and
their lives over a longer period of time. Eventually. I’m still working on
that series. |
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Q 4 |
Is it true that
Avenged Sevenfold inspired you for writing about the Sinners? How did that
come about? |
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A |
That is true. I was at an Avenged Sevenfold concert when I got the idea for
Backstage Pass. I didn’t plan for it to be an erotic work of fiction. I
planned for it to be a typical romance novel. Waiting for Avenged Sevenfold
to take the stage after Papa Roach, I was sitting in the stands near the
stage watching these two young “ladies” attempting to get backstage passes
from a member of the road crew. They were very persistent. Poor guy was
trying to do his job and they wouldn’t leave him alone. I started to wonder
if these two ladies really thought that a member of the band would fall in
love with them or if they realized the band would just use them for “fun”,
if at all. And then I wondered if the ladies would even care that they were
being used. Someone should do a study on groupie psychology, I thought.
Maybe the researcher would be a smart, but sexy career woman and she’d
follow the band around
doing her study and she’s so different from the “groupies” that the band is
accustomed to that one of the band members really does fall in love with her.
And that was my original premise. I didn’t expect the rock star and the
research psychologist to go at it like rabbits tripping on Ecstasy. It is
what it is. |
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Q 5 |
Hot
Ticket is the 3rd
instalment of the Sinners on Tour
series which focuses on the bassist Jace Seymour, and we also have drummer
Eric’s story to look forward to. Did the stories evolve unintentionally or
was it always your plan from the get go? |
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A |
A little of both. Sinners on Tour was not a series when I first started
writing about it. It was just going to be one book about the lead guitarist
and that was it, but once I got to know the band members, I realized I had to
find someone for each of these guys to love because they are such great,
three-dimensional characters. So I decided each of these band members needed
his own kink. Lead guitarist likes toys and experimentation. Lead singer
likes public displays of affection. Bassist is into BDSM. The drummer is a
voyeur. And the rhythm guitarist is the horniest bisexual creature in
existence. Once I figured that out, then I had to figure out what kind of
woman would not only put up with their “tastes” but actually get off on it.
It’s been like a box of puzzle pieces. They’re all in the box and I reach in
and find a piece, but is it the piece I need? Can I figure out where to put
it? What does the finished product look like? Now that I’m done with it, I
think it works. It all fits together and eventually the theme of the series
revealed itself. Family. It doesn’t have to be the people you are related to
by blood, but it’s made up of the people you can count on. |
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Q 6 |
What is the most
challenging aspect of writing? |
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A |
Writing. Just sitting
down and writing. That little blinking curser in my word-processing program
gives me nightmares. Because if it’s blinking, I’m not writing anything. |
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Q 7 |
On your website,
you’ve posted playlists for each Sinners book so far. How much would you say rock
and metal music influenced you on creating your characters and their stories? |
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A |
On a scale of one to ten, music has influenced my work at a ten. Either a song reminds me of a scene, inspires a scene, allows me to visualize a scene, makes me think about what I’m trying to say or just gives me some great background sound to listen to. The character Jace, for example, was completely inspired by the song Pain by Three Days Grace. Also if you follow the lives of musicians, you will notice that there is quite a bit of music lore in the books. Not necessarily the exact same situations, but a lot of that is intentional. I hear about a musician face-planting in the pit while stage diving. Hell yeah, that’s going into a book somewhere! |
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Q 8 |
Are there any
particular musicians you had in mind as inspiration when writing about these bands? |
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A |
Sinners were inspired
by Avenged Sevenfold, musically and in a lot of cases physically. I don’t
think they’re much alike personality-wise, however. Also, I always hear Sully
of Godsmack singing when I’m writing about Sinners’
lead singer. Sole Regret wasn’t really inspired by anyone. I made them up
from scratch. |
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Q 9 |
In your Sinners on Tour series, you dedicate
each book to a deceased musician, for example Backstage Pass is dedicated to Dimebag,
Rock Hard to Kurt Cobaine, Hot Ticket to
Cliff Burton and Double Time to
Randy Rhoads (Wicked Beat tbc). Why did you choose these particular musicians?
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A |
They were all
musicians who I feel have greatly influenced other musicians. They
contributed a lot to the genre and all of them were lost to us while still in
their prime. I was emotionally distraught over each of their losses and
always wonder what additional great things they could have done if they were
still with us today. Wicked Beat is dedicated to James Sullivan. |
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Q 10 |
Which book of yours
would you most like to see made into a movie? And why? |
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A |
I honestly can’t
imagine any of my books as a movie. Too risqué for the big screen. Plus, I’m
sure the director and actors would get everything wrong and I’d yell at the
screen the entire time. |
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Q 11 |
Tell us about your
first concert experience. Which bands did you grow up listening to? |
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A |
The first concert I
went to or the first concert I actually wanted to go to? My first concert was
Styx. I was six years old. It was an outdoor concert in Germany. I think
there were 500,000 people there. We were up on a bluff. I’m not sure if we
had tickets but we could see the show. I remember loud music, lots of lights,
a “funny smell” and some strange grunts and rhythmic slapping noises coming
from a nearby tent. Yeah, I know what all that means now, but didn’t then. The
first concert I went to that I wanted to go to was Motley Crue
and Whitesnake in Tacoma, Washington. Great show. I
remember that Tommy Lee’s drum kit was in this cage that rose off the stage.
Trippy. My dad is a huge classic rock fan, so I grew up on everything from
the Doors to Black Sabbath. I also remember him listening to a lot of
Journey. Probably because my mom liked them. In my teen years, I was crazy
about hair metal bands. My favourite was Guns ‘n’ Roses, but I loved them
all. Couldn’t get enough. |
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Q 12 |
A lot of people make
prejudgements on erotic romance novels. What would you say makes yours different
from the rest? |
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A |
I let men be men. I
sometimes read romance novels and think, wow, this “hero” is just a chick
with a dick. Real guys don’t talk like that. *eye roll* I have a lot of male
fans. So guys enjoy my books too. That’s a bit different. |
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Q 13 |
Please can you share
with us your future projects and upcoming releases? |
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A |
I’m trying to get more Sole Regret novellas written and then I’m going to be
working on a Sinners’ spin-off series about a related band called, Exodus
End. Exodus End has quite a few mentions in the Sinners on Tour books,
because the rhythm guitarist of Sinners and the lead guitarist of Exodus End
are brothers. Plus, at the end of the Sinners series, Sinners is going on a
world tour with Exodus End. Makes sense to continue from there, right? |
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Thank you so
much for taking the time out to do this
J You rock lady \m/ and I can’t wait to
read what you have in store next.
| Check out some of Olivia's books. | |||||||
| Sinners On Tour Series | |||||||
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| One Night with Sole Regret | |||||||
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