Just Erotic Romance Reviews Spotlight Interview

Will of the Wind
Charlotte Boyett-Compo

About a year ago, I was asked to review a book that was totally outside the range of my usual reading choice, which is saying quite a bit. As wide ranging as my taste was, I'd never dipped my toe in the dark fantasy/romance genre. Still, I said I'd do it and was presented with Charlotte Boyett-Compo's Rapture's Etesian and introduced to my first Reaper. Rarely had I ever been so captured by a book and her work quickly became a must-have for my bookshelves. It was captivating. The reader is immediately plunged into an environment that is almost more real than whatever cozy reading nook she has curled up in. Consistently, her work is creative, smooth and rich in detail and characters. And, those characters, both male and female, are splendid, larger than life creatures whose one true trait is loyalty to their mate. That's what Charlotte writes about- ferocity: fierce love, fierce loyalty, fierce warriors who will do anything to protect their great loves. More than that, Charlee, as her sweeping signature indicates, is also open, friendly and accommodating with her fans, with a witty manner and, obviously, a soaring imagination that doesn't seem to know any limits.

Can you tell us briefly about yourself for our readers?

I have been happily married to my husband, Buddha Belly, for almost 40 years now. We have two grown sons and two grandkiddies. We are the captives of five demanding indoor felines who insist on sitting on us every chance they get. We live in the Midwest among rolling hills, red-tail hawks and bald eagles, white-tail deer, foxes, possums, squirrels, raccoons and various and sundry assortments of song birds. BB built me a 12 X 24 office out behind our house off the deck where I do all my writing. I spend 85% of my day out here looking out across the hills and writing. I have a small tv on which I can watch General Hospital--the only thing I watch during the day--and there is no phone to interrupt me. I have a collection of about thirty wind chimes (go figure) as well as collections of gargoyles, grim reaper statues, and statues of Anubis. My favorite color is teal green. My fav perfume is White Gardenias, I LOVE mangoes, and I hate liver. My guilty pleasure is going to a big, sweeping movie like The New World and munching SweetTarts and Pepsi. I'm a simple person with simple tastes and dreams far too big to ever have them come to fruition.

When did you start writing seriously in order to become published and have you always wanted to be a writer?

From the time I was a little girl I've always wanted to write. I never thought it would be possible. I married right out of high school and had my first child eighteen months later. My family always came first but whenever I would find spare time--and there was precious little of that--I would write stories. I began writing professionally when I started doing book, movie and play reviews for one of gazillionaire Warren Buffett's newspapers out in Omaha. My first book, THE KEEPER OF THE WIND, didn't get published until after both my kids had graduated from high school and were in college so you can see it took me awhile. My husband refused to allow me to give up my dream of getting published. Without his support and understanding, believe me, it would never have happened. I owe everything to him.

Who or what has been a major influence on your writing?

What do you love best about being a writer?

The ability to spin tales. I enjoy entertaining people and having them enjoy the fruits of my creation. I love being able to sit down and fashion entire worlds from just my imagination and to bring to live the characters that will inhabit those worlds. I am very grateful for the gifts I was given to be able to do this. Not everyone is cut out to be a writer although everyone seems to think it is an easy thing to do. While it's true just about anyone can sit down and write a story, that doesn't mean it will be something other people want to read or will enjoy reading. To be a writer, you must have the ability to take your readers beyond the here and now and transport them into realms they will enjoy visiting. You have to be able to make your readers lose themselves in that new world and want to stay. If you can't do that, you're just doing a book report.

How does your family feel about having a writer amongst them and have they been supportive of your career choice?

They have always been very supportive of my writing. My husband reads everything I write just after I finish it. He is my fiercest critic and my dogged editor. If something doesn't work for him, it won't work with other readers and I'll work with it until he gives me his nod of approval. That happens rarely but he's always been right on with his criticisms. As for how my family feels about me being a writer, as long as the wash gets done, the supper gets put on the table, and the house is clean, they don't seem to mind that I'm a legend in my own mind.

You have garnered a number of wonderful reviews for your books. How do you feel about this?

I am always so honored when a reviewer likes one of my novels. I appreciate every good review I get and I always put at least a portion of it up on that book's reviews page. When a reviewer tells me he/she stayed up all night to finish one of my books because he/she couldn't put it down, I am in seventh heaven. I don't let bad reviews get me down. I don't obsess about them. I read them then put them directly out of my mind. Reviews are subjective and everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. Sometimes, though, you have to wonder what book a reviewer who's given you a bad review read because a lot of the time, the review doesn't mesh with what the book was about or the reviewer took something out of context and built something that wasn't there at all. Good reviews are to be cherished and a good reviewer is worth his/her weight in gold.

How do you go about writing books? Do you fly by the seat of your pants or do you outline your story first before writing it?

I've only done one outline and that was because the publisher insisting on having it. It was like pulling eye teeth and I hated every excruciating moment of it. I like to write as the muse strikes. I have always hated canned laugh tracks on sitcoms and using an outline to me is no different. I love to be able to veer off into unplanned directions. Even that torturous outline I was forced to do against my will and better judgment wound up veering far, far away from the real thing when all was said and done. I don't call it writing by the seat of my pants but rather at the will of the wind, allowing my creativity and imagination to flitter where it will.

What inspires your creative muse?

His name is Sean and he is very picky about what intrigues him. We may be listening to our favorite music--Celtic folk--and he'll hear a certain refrain that makes him sit up on my shoulder and pay attention. He'll kick my cheek with his little foot so I'll listen more closely to what he is hearing and together we'll start humming alone. A lot of the time, he'll hop down off my shoulder and take human form and start pestering me to write the idea he's given me from the music. Or it might be a particular scene in a movie or tv show that captures his attention and he'll begin to follow me around whispering ideas. He's a fast food junkie so I have to have a breath mint on hand when he starts doing that. There's nothing more annoying than a muse whose breath smells like Cool Ranch Doritos. Ugh! Since he's very fond of cinnamon, I can feed him an entire package of the breath mints and at least keep him quiet while I work on the idea he's given me. The thing with Sean is that he's very stuck on his own superior good looks, rock-hard abs, chiseled pecs, and hairy chest. He's been known to catch his image in a mirror and stand there for hours on end just admiring his sexy bod. Of course, I get a lot of work down that way so that's why I have a full-length mirror in my office. Now, if I could only get him to keep his black silk shirt and black leather pants on..<sigh>

The first book in your NightWind series was so successful, when can we expect the follow-up?

I've been working on the premise for the sequel for several years now and just haven't quite come up with what I want from this book. I want to bring Syntian Cree back and when I do he won't be in a good mood but it has to be the right way to bring him back. So far, the ideas I've had don't have the pizzazz of the original and it must be something very special before I submit it for publication.

You have a definite affinity for the wind. Why is that?

The last book in the DemonWind trilogy,EVILWIND,has been turned in to the publisher, Hard Shell Word Factory. Haven't heard back from them about a contract. If they don't contract it, I'll find another publisher. I've had too many readers clamoring for the novel for it to go unpubbed. It ties not only Kamerone's and Khiershon's tales together, it also ties Viraidan Cree's from BlackWind and Leksi Helios' from Rapture's Etesian. I think my readers will really like the HEA of this book.

You have recently contracted for a new series and the first book is supposed to be released under the title Spring Wind. Can you tell us a little about the book and when we can expect to see it?

This is a short story in the SEASONAL WINDS anthology with New Concepts Publishing so I'm not sure when it will be released. Hopefully this spring but we'll have to see. Spring Wind is about a werewolf cop who falls for a member of the rebellion and how he sets about making her his own. It is highly erotic and if you liked the cop/female motorist scene in Crash, you'll like this one!

Do you have any special plans for your writing future?

Something new you'd like to explore? I am in the process of creating a new kind of being upon whom I will be basing a series of books. I've almost gotten the who, what, and where of it settled on paper so now all I need to do is begin writing.

If your friends had to describe you, what would they say?

She's strange but she's harmless. Give her a Pepsi, salsa and chips and she'll behave. Just don't feed her after midnight or get her wet...

Is there one thing about you that your fans would find surprising?

I was born in Florida and raised in Georgia, was adopted at birth. My birth mother lived with my parents while she was carrying me. I don't know who she was but she had a son and two daughters somewhere in the South. My birth father died in a traffic accident before I was born and that was why she gave me up. I grew up an only child but didn't know I was adopted until about six years ago. I suspected it but until my adopted mother died, I really didn't know for sure and even after my mother died, my adopted father continued the 'lie' that I was their child. He denied me having been adopted even though I had written for a non-disclosure on my adoption from the state of Georgia. So somewhere out there I may have three siblings I will never know and who won't ever know me. Heck, there may even be more that I don't know about. Learning your entire life has been a lie is not an easy row to hoe, believe me.

What was your inspiration for Kamerone Cree of BloodWind?

On your website you recently included a lot of background information on your Reapers and it is absolutely wonderful background for your novels. It is also quite complex and detailed. What interested you in this mixture of scientific data and what seems to be Celtic lore?

When I was creating my Reapers, I knew I wanted them to be vampire/shapeshifters and I wanted to give an explanation to the readers of how and why they came into being. I wanted to make it seem plausible and not so farfetched a savvy reader would throw the book against the wall all the while yelling: That can't happen! I have an adopted daughter who got her PHD from MIT and she helped me with quite a bit of scientific explanation. As for the Celtic theme, I've always been fascinated by Celtic mythology and it just seemed to me that my Reapers should be Celtic-based. I used the dearg dul...Celtic vampire...as a basis and began fashioning a being I found sensual, sexy, and very powerful as a warrior and as a man. The more I researched Celtic lore, the more I incorporated characteristics and the Manx and Irish Gaelic language and words into the mix so it would have some basis of fact. Since I love all things Celtic, it was my way of honoring that race of people.  At a reader's request, I've also included background information on my Nightwind beings, as well. As a result, another reader wrote in to ask for a genealogy of the Reapers. Looks like I'm gonna be busy for a few hours.

What are you currently working on?

I just finished the fourth short story in an anthology I'm doing all by myself called SEASONAL WINDS. I now have to write the anchor story for that anthology. After that, I'll be starting a new Reaper novel called WINDWATCHER.

What is your best advice to aspiring writers?

Don't let your family or your friends ruin your dream. Those around us see us as we've always been to them and they critique us by what we've been in the past, not what we are striving to be in the future. We will always be the little girl or boy, the baby sister or brother, the wacky niece or nephew, the eccentric cousin with the pie-in-the-sky dreams, the silly fellow employee with the exaggerated sense of self-importance. They may say they are behind you, that they believe in you, but most of the time that's just to placate you. If they really care for you, they don't want to see you hurt so they give advice meant to help cushion the fall they believe you're going to have. It's hard for them to see you in any other light than the one by which they are judging you. They mean well when they give you their advice but you have to remember: If they could do what you can do, you'd be the one giving them the same old, tired advice of not getting your hopes up. Sometimes you will actually have a family, a parent, a sibling, a significant other, a friend who is truly behind you 100% and will do whatever it takes to help you achieve your dream. When you have someone like that, that's more than half of the struggle. Treasure that someone for their faith in you is worth more than all the coffee grounds at Starbucks! Yes, this business is cutthroat and it is hard and it is frustrating and it is heartbreaking and it can beat you but if you can ever crack the nut to get to the meat, it is a taste sweeter than anything you could ever imagine. Keep at it. Keep slamming that nut on the floor. Keep pounding away at it. Eventually, it will crack and once there's a crack in the shell, the treat is but a few tries away.

What do you think are the advantages (or disadvantages) of e-publishing?

You reach a niche market with e-publishing but you don't reach a large market with it. Until e-readers are as cheap as DVD players, you aren't going to have all that many people embracing it in a wholesale way. I like the idea of having books at command, being able to download something other than cookie-cutter claptrap in the middle of the night during a snowstorm and in your jammies. What makes e-publishing so rewarding is that you aren't at the beck and call of the big boys of publishing in NY. Those guys seem to think only a set kind of formulaic book appeals to the masses. That might have been true in the past but the world is changing. Of course, NY has jumped on the erotica bandwagon and is trying to make the world believe they started it. Sorry, but the mainstream thrust--no pun intended--for erotica began with Ellora's Cave. Tina and Patty aren't given enough credit for having started the trend. NY, as always, wants to take the credit all to themselves. They want to be able to pick and choose who the next star in that world will be. They are far too shortsighted in my opinion. There are a lot of really fantastic writers out here who can write rings around most NY contracted authors but those writers are being ignored. It's a shame. But that's okay, too, because those writers have e-publishing to get their words before those who truly appreciate it and not to those who wish to exploit them.

Now for the fun questions:

What sound or noise do you love: the sound of the wind makes howling around the eaves

What sound or noise do you hate: fingernails down a chalkboard

What is your favorite cuss word: Shit

If Heaven exists, what will God's first words to you be when you arrive at the gate: "You don't pay attention very well do you, little girl? What did I tell you about..."

I would like to thank Ms. Boyett-Compo for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer all my questions.  The coordinators and reviewers at JERR would like to wish her the very best and much future success. To find out more about Charlotte Boyett-Compo you can visit her website at www.windlegends.org

P. Grant March 19, 2006 Issue of Just Erotic Romance Reviews Newsletter

The Website Review

Charlotte Boyett-Compo URL: www.windlegends.org  Website Designer: Charlotte Boyett-Compo Rating: 4/5 Stars Reviewer: Aggie Tsirikas

Ms. Boyett-Compo's is the author of over forty books, with more scheduled for publication this year. Upon accessing her website it declares 'Enter the WindWorlds of paranormal erotica author', with a lovely picture of one of her dark and brooding Reaper WindWarriors. The website background is black in color, and is suitable to the 'mood' of the author's stories. What I found interesting was the patriotic colors used in a subtle manner. You're also welcomed by her two main characters from ShadowLord, the Reaper Cynyr Cree and his lovely wife, Aingeal, which you can read more about in the Novels section.

There are the usual sections for readers like her Bio, Novels, Contact, Links, Site Map, as well as her 2006 publishing calendar, information on her Reapers and about NightWinds. The 2006 publishing calendar indicates what a busy and prolific writer Ms. Boyett-Compo is, with stories being published by Ellora's Cave Publishing and their sister publishing house Cerridwen Press.

All of the links in Ms. Boyett-Compo's site work perfectly and I had no trouble moving from one page to another. The Links page is one of the most extensive I've seen. It lists her publishers, review sites, research sites, major bookstores, science fiction sites, and the list is endless. For ease of location I also recommend you visit her Site Page which outlines the relevant areas of interest.

One of the most impressive aspects about this site is the printable forms Ms. Boyett-Compo provides her readers in PDF format, which you can take to your local bookstore to purchase her print titles. She provides both a short form and a longer one, which includes a synopsis of each book. Another added bonus is the three free short stories to read; Whispers In The Wind, Something In The Wind, and By Will Of The Wind. What more can you want?!

Overall this is a detailed and interesting site you can easily spend a few hours just browsing and reading all about this talented author's work. A lot of detail, thought and work has gone into the design of Ms. Boyett-Compo's website. Go on and bookmark this site if you enjoy a versatile author who writes paranormal, fantasy, vampire, sci-fi and contemporary.

Aggie Tsirikas
Just Erotic Romance Reviews