Today we get to know author Erin Ashley Tanner who shares her love of all things Marilyn Monroe, reveals the book that made her want to be a writer, and lets us in on her Dirty Little Secrets.
Welcome, Erin. Tell us three things we might be surprised to learn about you.
- I am an amateur genealogist who traced both sides of my family tree. My dad’s to the early 1800’s and my mothers to white ancestors from Massachusetts in 1798.
- I am an avid collector of Marilyn Monroe and The Little Mermaid items.
- I’m a little bit of everything: Black, Irish, Middle Eastern and Native American.
With such a diverse genealogy, that must be fun. Like solving a great mystery. In which genre(s) do you write?
I’m a multi-genre author. I started off writing paranormal or urban fantasy romance. Currently I’m writing contemporary romance with heavy suspense but I want to try my hand at a little of everything in the future.
What book(s) made you want to become a storyteller?
The novel that made me want to become a storyteller was Jackie Collins’ Dangerous Kiss. At the time I read it, it was the most recent of her Lucky Santangelo series and I fell completely in love with it. I loved her writing style. It was an engaging read. I loved the plethora of characters she had from all races and backgrounds, but most of all I loved that she had written a kick ass heroine that took no mess from anyone.
Seems like that love of kick-ass heroines has filtered into your stories. Congrats on Dirty Little Secrets, your recent release with Samhain. Tell us about the premise of your story and its kick-ass heroine.
The premise behind Dirty Little Secrets is that we meet this beautiful young widow, Ava Hill, who is doing like most women these days, trying to build her own legacy and raising her child. But Ava’s had a rough go of life. Her husband Joseph, was a mob boss who recently died. There is an interesting backstory of how they met, but I won’t spoil that. Now Ava finds herself really free to live her own life and then her comes Dominic Sambarino who claims to be Joseph’s son and he wants his share of everything Joseph left behind. Naturally he and Ava are at odds. She actually attacks him with a baseball bat when they first meet. So you have this two strong personalities going at one another, and we all know where there’s smoke there is fire. The way this two come together is pretty interesting. Needless to say they both soon find themselves having to work together to face their pasts when secrets are revealed.
What was your favorite (or least favorite) scene to write in the book?
My favorite scene in the book to write was the bathroom scene on the yacht. The sexual tension really flowed and when they came together, talk about hot.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
Well at the current moment I’m working on a contemporary romance series with stronger mafia ties and revising a possibly historical romance to send to my agent. I also have another novel with Samhain called Devious Little Lies that will be releasing next year so stay tuned.
Thank you for being with us, Erin. We wish you many sales!
