Author Interview w/Excerpt & Giveaway - The Need by S.L. Hannah

The Need

by S.L. Hannah

GENRE: erotic thriller

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BLURB:

Stood up by her boyfriend, she goes home with a woman…

Straight-laced coed Angie has never felt daring enough to…experiment. Until tonight. The skin around Heather’s lips is soft, unlike the stubble Erik lets grow in, and the night unfolds like an erotic dream, tapping into an unexplored part of Angie’s body and mind.

But Heather’s seduction turns into a nightmare when Angie wakes up tied to the bed and is told she can’t leave. Alternately seduced and tormented by her lover-turned-captor, Angie is pulled ever deeper into a twisted world of pain-for-pleasure and multimedia exploits. As the stakes rise, both women give into a desire for connections neither has had, and Angie’s struggle to escape becomes a bigger dilemma: Would she leave if she could?

Winner of the Golden Palm Contest for New Adult Romance, this erotic thriller dares to explore the darker side of our fantasies and their sometimes unintended consequences.

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EXCERPT:

Her taut frame is sandwiched between an attractive couple. They don’t look much older than me, but they look fashionable and carefree, like they belong in a place like this. She’s suggestively pushing back and forth to the DJ’s evocative beats, letting her blonde mane bathe in the crest of the girl’s neck, until the guy grabs it and pulls it back, like he doesn’t want to get left out of anything. Their hands wander freely. It’s almost as if they’re not on a dance floor, but in a bedroom. Doing it standing up. She pulls the girl in tightly. She’s commanding. How I wish I was.



I turn my gaze back to my near-empty drink and the cell phone next to it. Still no response from my boyfriend to my voicemail and several text messages and it’s almost midnight. Where is he? I swirl the ice cubes in my glass.



He knows I’m not really into nightclubs. The drinking, the posturing…it makes Erik feel like he’s part of a squad. It makes me feel like I don’t fit in. But I don’t want to disappoint him, or myself. I can’t spend all of college immersed in books. These are supposed to be the defining years of my life, brimming with experiences that you reference forever, experiences that help you figure out who you really are.



I look back up at the mirrored wall. She has this look on her face, like there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. As if time has stopped just for her, so that she can feel every tensed, slick muscle, hear every throb of desire. Will I ever feel that?

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Talking with author S.L. Hannah!  

What is your writing environment? 

In my day job, I mostly work from home, so when it comes to writing fiction I need to leave the house, or I’ll just stay in work mode.   

I have a couple of favorite coffee shops near my house that I rotate for my writing time. Even though it can be busy at a coffee shop, I plug in my headphones, find a song that’s perfect for the scene that I’m about to write and tune out everything else. I turn off my phone, and I rarely ask for the internet password, unless I have to do some research. The internet and phone can be so distracting in my house, that I consider it one of the perks of leaving. Plus, there can be some good people watching, which also helps me zone into my writing.

Who is your perfect hero/heroine and why? 

I love Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Her character, Catherine Tramell, is the perfect blend of sexy, smart, and crazy.

What authors have caught your interest lately and why? 

I just picked up Lucky by Jackie Collins. The heroine I’m currently writing in my erotic novella, Hard Trigger, has a similarly intense past that brings her into the sordid, high society of Mexico City and the novella covers a lot of ground, both geographically and historically. I’ve also never read Jackie Collins, the queen of romance and scandal. This seems an opportune time. 

What type of book have you always wanted to write? 

I always wanted to write something like Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell, and with my Sex, Life, & Hannah book series, I’ve gotten to do just that.

Top 3 things on your bucket list? 

1.    Hit the New York Times Best Seller List.

2.    Spend an entire summer traveling North America in a motorhome.

3.    Visit the Great Pyramid of Giza – the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence.

How did you get the idea for this particular novel? 

Particularly for The Need, I was inspired by the screenplay my husband wrote. The Need started out as a spec script that my husband was hired to write in 2009. Unfortunately, the financing for the project fell through, which happens a lot in Hollywood. My husband shopped the script to a few more interested producers and agents, but that certain bit of magic that you need to make a movie come to life did not materialize.   

I loved the story. Two strong female characters that get twisted into this dark love affair…it was the distraction I was looking for at the time (late 2012), so I asked my husband if I could adapt his screenplay into a book. He loved the idea, and in 2015, The Need was born.

What is your favorite scene in your new release? 

My favorite scene in The Need is when Angie is finally given the chance to escape Heather’s loft, her emotions for Heather overcome her need to escape. Here’s an excerpt from that scene:  

I reach for the blanket at the foot of the bed and pull it over her shoulders instead. 

“I envy you, Angie,” she says, a pained look on her face. “You’re about to burst from your cocoon. A young, beautiful butterfly with all the offerings of the world at your fingertips.” 

I tug the blanket across her chest, covering the key. 

She descends to one side, her head hitting a pillow. “Some of us do more with that than others, but we never get a second chance.” She curls into a ball again, this time more comfortable, and closes her eyes. 

I look from the fallen star to the barrier blocking my freedom. She needs me. In more ways than one. Can I be so cruel as to abandon her now? 

A draft at my back beckons me to reconsider and I turn towards the wall of windows. One is cracked open, and as I walk towards it, I can see the puddle of water it’s formed on the concrete floor. I crank the handle so it closes. 

I can’t burst from my cocoon without her.

What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available? 

I am currently working on an erotic novella called, Hard Trigger. It’s a story about an assassin that is having a love affair with the son of a rival Mexican cartel only to discover he’s on her hit list.   

Go to: www.slhannah.com and sign up for my newsletter to get all the updates for Hard Trigger.   

 

What do you like to do when you are not writing? 

I love music; live music, listening to music on my record player, playing music, going to a club and dancing to music. Whenever I’m at an event and I look around at all the diversity in the crowd, it gives me hope for humanity.  

What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know? 

I am a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot and I used to ferry aircraft.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

S.L. Hannah was born in Poland, grew up in Canada, and moved to Southern California to pursue her love of single-engine airplanes. The Need is her first erotic thriller. The manuscript won the 2013 Florida Romance Writers Golden Palm Contest for New Adult Romance, and is an adaptation of a screenplay about a woman struggling to free herself from her lover’s physical and emotional binds. Buzz about the break-out novel calls it “one powerful piece of writing…creepy as hell.” S.L. Hannah lives in Los Angeles, CA. When she’s not writing fiction, she continues to solve the aviation problems of the world.

Links:

http://www.slhannah.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sexlifeandhannah

https://twitter.com/sexlifehannah

https://youtu.be/ojJ211LAQFs

https://www.instagram.com/sexlifehannah/

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Buy Links:

Amazon * ARe * Kobo * B&N * iTunes

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GIVEAWAY:

S.L. Hannah will be awarding one commenter a paperback copy of The Need (U.S./Canada only for book) and one commenter a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway