Editor's Note: "Strictly Business" is available for pre-sale May 24th. Link may not work until then.

I would like to welcome Missy Lyons author of “Bareback on the Beach”, “Party for Three” and “Lynne’s Love Triangle.” Missy how long have you been writing romance novels? What led you to this particular form of art?

Thank you for inviting me to be here, Camile! I started writing my first romance book when I was ten, it was more like a fairy tale than anything with unicorns and fairies and one cute little prince, but I actually got published for the first time in 2006. So it’s probably safe to say I have been writing for most my life. However, I have only been published for the last 6 years or so. I have come from a family that encouraged creativity and my artistic skills, but since I loved to read it seemed natural to want to carryover that skill and try to write a book. (In my teenage years I could almost always be found with my nose buried in a book.) My father is a screenwriter and he was a big supporter when I first began to write. I stopped when I got married and focused on my family and my career. Then I had just been accepted to a nursing school and I was so excited about it, but with nowhere to put my energy yet, I came back to this creative outlet. I wrote about dragons and druids and kickass women that could wield a sword as good as any man and Dragon Heat was born. I didn’t finish nursing school, but I am still living a dream and I have never looked back.

2. Congratulations on your new releases. You are quite the prolific writer. Can you give us a hint as to what we will read in your new novel?

In Strictly Business, Susannah is being forced to find a stud to be the father of her children or she will lose her inheritance and access to her trust fund. Susannah is strong willed and career driven but she hasn’t been ignoring her love life because she wanted to, it’s all dried up because she is tired of guys trying to use her or make friends with her father. She really needs a man who will love her and she finds that man in an exotic Caribbean resort, but when her secret is out that she is really just after getting pregnant in the tabloids she isn’t sure he would ever welcome her back into his arms. 

3. Who is your most memorable character? Is this character based on a real life person?

This is a hard question to answer because it is hard to pick a favorite character. I remember all my books and all my characters. I like to give them quirks that make them memorable. For instance, Susannah in Strictly Business was kidnapped as a small child so she is now afraid of the flying and getting in large crowds gives her a claustrophobic feeling that terrifies her. Yet I think everyone can relate to the overprotective parents and a mother that wants grandchildren so her melodramatic mother isn’t all that special. After about five years of marriage, my mother-in-law became very blunt in how she asked me when we planned to have kids.

But my favorite character is always in the book I am writing as I am discovering their personality take life. I try very hard not to base my characters on anyone I know even if some similar traits may come out.  

4. What expectations or dreams do you have for yourself as an author?

I am not extremely career driven and happy where I am now as a primarily ebook author. I have a family with young children that demand a lot of time and attention but as they get to school age I hope to become more prolific and expand on some series that I have started but never finished. My real problem is that I don’t write fast enough. I feel like I am four books behind what I want to write.

I plan to reinvest in myself and continue to improve my storytelling skills with classes and by reading a lot and learning from other authors. I may never get to be a Nora Roberts in the romance business but I don’t want my fans to ever get bored. So I plan to keep my writing fresh and exciting.  

5. What projects are you working on next? Can you give us a sneak peek into the mind of a bestselling and highly regarded romance writer?

I have a couple things planned. I am working on a series of sexy shark shifters this summer after I finish up this Alien abduction story. It’s going to be a fun summer. *grins

6. Just for fun, what is your extreme self-indulgence?

Chocolate covered strawberries. When strawberries are in season, I love them and it’s what my husband got me for Mother’s Day shipped overnight from California. He can be such a sweetheart.

***And now for your reading pleasure, here is a never before seen snippet from Strictly Business:

Susannah flipped open her smutty romance book and pretended to not pay attention as the plane filled up with people slowly. She didn’t want to be forced into a conversation just to be polite to the person next to her and they would get the hint if she was nose deep in a book.

Curiosity got the best of her when her neighbor sat down next to her, however. She glanced up to see a very un-business like man. Sexy in a bad boy kind of way, totally not the kind of guy she’d ever go for, but sexy just the same and that dismissing glance he gave her was just cocky enough to know it.

It was not unusual for a Texan to be wearing a cowboy hat, but when he removed it to reveal his mussed brown hair, he was better looking if possible. Like he just got out of bed kind of messy. Damn, but that shouldn’t be possible.

Not that she cared. Nothing if the strange attraction she felt for this stranger would ever come to fruition. She was never that lucky, and he was so not her type it wasn’t funny.

This wasn’t the preppy boys who went to her country club and talked about the stock market. She imagined he’d be at home on the back of a motorcycle as he was here in a plane full of people. His black shirt clung to his chest, advertising a heavy metal band that she didn’t recognize amidst skulls and blood. A snake wrapped itself around his bicep. He had a tattoo for Christ’s sake.

This was not the type of guy she could bring home to meet mom and Dad at Christmas. He was good for one night of hot sweaty sex and then it would be austa la vista and on to his next conquest and she would be just as forgotten as yesterday’s news, but it would solve her little problem of finding a loophole to get control of her trust fund without a marriage proposal.

This guy was so far off her radar, he likely didn’t even recognize her name or her face from the weekly tabloids. So he wouldn’t have a clue she was one of the heirs to a fortune in oil and he wouldn’t be trying to sleep with her to get her money.

He just liked her because…because he must have felt an attraction to her physically. Which was a total turn on.

A heat swept through her body and straight between her legs as if that thought hit the magic on button. She clamped her legs shut and turned away from the man, noting he smelled as good as he looked.

Would he taste just as good?

God, what was she thinking? Crazy. This was just too crazy for words.  

Quickly, she returned to reading her book, hoping he wouldn’t notice the burn of her cheeks.

She tried to concentrate—honestly but his sweet aftershave infiltrated her defense and she found it hard to concentrate on her book with the heaving bosoms of the heroine and all the heavy breathing going on.

                                                

Hope you all enjoyed that little excerpt. Remember Strictly Business will be available for pre-order at 15% off May 22 and available to download May 31. You can pick up your copy here:

http://www.bookstrand.com/strictly-business

but you can see all my books available from Bookstrand here:

http://www.bookstrand.com/missy-lyons

Thank you again for having me out today Camile! Just for fun, I am going to the places that readers can find me online.

Blog: http://missylyons.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMissyLyons

Website: www.missylyons

Twitter: @missylyons