Hello Deirdre and welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. It is good to have Deirdre O’Dare with us this morning.

“Love in a hotter shade of green”...on the front of your website, I like that. I noticed that you are enthralled by the history and customs of the Celtic. I also noticed that you are currently at work on a book set in the gorgeous red rocks of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. I have been there and have to admit that sight is spectacular.

Does most of your writing also have a touch of the Celtic in it?

I was looking for a tag line when I decided that Deirdre O'Dare would be the name I'd write my hotties under and wanted to get the Celtic idea in there so we have the proverbial forty shades of green--well, one is h-o-t! I also use green heat or green fire now as well. My other pen name is Gwynn Morgan which is Welsh and most of my ancestry is Irish and Welsh.

My three favorite heroes are cops, cowboys and Celts so in that respect, yes. A lot of my heroes will have an Irish or Scots surname but so far I have not written a lot of stories set in the old world Celtic countries or built on Celtic folklore. But I do think my gabby style--I know I tend to be much too wordy -- is a direct genetic thing from my Irish ancestors. I've lived almost all of my life in the southwest US and almost of my contemporary works are set in that area. Setting normally plays a key role in my stories, almost another character in some ways. I grew up in the Verde Valley where I could see those beautiful red rocks every day and I've been wanting to set a story there for ages. Then this idea came to me! I'm very excited about it. It's going to be 'rural fantasy' with a strong paranormal aspect and is very hot!! The working title is simply He. (Anyone remember H. Rider Haggard's ‘She’?)

I would like to hear about Daring Delights. Would you like to discuss that book with your readers? I believe the characters in this book live on the edge.

Daring Delights is an anthology of six of my contemporary stories, all hot! The first four are rodeo tales. I grew up on a ranch where my family raised and trained Quarter Horses, Appaloosas and saddle mules. Cowboys have always been special to me and these days rodeo is one of the last bastions of the old west traditions. I think danger and action are strong aphrodisiacs so my characters ride hard in the arena and out of it as well . The first three stories are loosely linked as three girl friends all find the man of their dreams among the cowboys. The other one had been in my mind for some time after I saw a pickup with "Cowgirl Up" stenciled on the rear window. Tabitha popped out to be that cowgirl and told me her story.

The other two are law enforcement stories. My late husband had been a police officer and deputy sheriff and my middle son is the senior sergeant in the county jail so I have some strong ties to that community, In fact Jack in To Protect and ...Seduce is a belated tribute to my husband. We did live next door to each other and met through another Jennifer, my step-daughter. The rest is pure fiction but hey, art imitates life and vice-versa! Armed and Amorous started to come to life after I watched the second of Sandra Bullock's FBI movies; it is totally different and Kerry bears little similarity to Sandra's character but once I had the title, the story just kind of grew like Topsy. I might mention that Roy, who is a secondary character in this tale, gets his own story in the third of my Canine Cupids collection, Saved By Sam, which will be out in November!

Deirdre, how would you describe your day once you awake?

I have a pair of four footed alarm clocks that begin to get antsy if Mama is not up when the sun rises! I crawl out and give them a small breakfast and then relax with a cup or two of coffee while my brain wakes up. After a few small household chores I spend 2 or 3 hours skimming email, doing promo related things and some writing. Around 10:30 I make a run to the post office and then it's lunch time. A lot of my day is involved with my dogs and their routine. I am owned by two Australian Shepherds who are very much creatures of habit! Usually my writing time is split into two sessions, a shorter one in the morning and then my main one in the evening after supper when it is quiet and the phone does not ring very often etc. My goal is a minimum of 1500 words a day which does not seem like much but sometimes it is the equivalent of a trip to the dentist plus giving birth to get that much done! Other times it just flows as fast as my fingers can fly and the time gets completely away from me. Usually one day a week I 'goof off' and try to do something completely different--I love to be outdoors so may do yard work or go on a day trip since I am blessed to live in the middle of some wonderful scenic high desert that still has some undeveloped places to visit and explore. That gives me a lot of inspiration.

From what do you derive the most inspiration for your writing?

I've had stories in my head all my life since I've been an avid reader since I was about five years old and knew from childhood that I wanted to write. Suffice to say that is a l-o-n-g time! As I mentioned I've lived most of that time in the southwest and this area is so full of exciting history, diversity with the Mexican, Anglo and Native American cultures, gorgeous scenery and folklore that ideas just never run out. A combination of characters and setting usually form the starting point for my work and then it grows in layers as the characters tell me their tale and I transcribe it. That's the only way I can explain the process. Since I've always been fascinated with love in its many forms, I suppose it was inevitable that I would write romance or at least that everything I write has some kind of a love story in it!

What does your working space look like?

I have a small bedroom in my home that serves as my office. Since it was once shared with my late hubby, there are still two desks and I have two computers though one sits idle a lot. It's my backup and has Windows 98 so it will run some old programs I still like to use at times. There are two 4'x8' bookcases crammed with books on many subjects--Celtic history, western history, writing how-tos, a bunch of new age and self help topics, railroads (another passion of mine), and just odd things that seemed interesting. My fiction is in other rooms BTW. Two walls are paneled in diagonal wood strips, one has a mural of dark evergreens and lower deciduous trees in fall colors and one is painted white. The former closet has shelves full of office supplies. Two four drawer file cabinets sit at one end of the back-to-back desks. At the other end is the table for the peripherals like printer, scanner etc. Two windows look out to the east across my front yard and I can see the Dragoon Mountains beyond Tombstone in the distance. I live twenty miles west of Tombstone, honest! I have a couple of calendars with hunky guys--one of cowboys and one of guys in uniforms and a few other pictures and knick-knacks that have special meaning to me including a scale model 1957 Ford Thunderbird. Outside there is a 1966 T'Bird that I am very slowing working on getting restored in hopes of driving it to a high school reunion in a few more years!

What is next for Deirdre, any works in progress?

I always have things in progress! I plan after Saved by Sam for two more Canine Cupids stories. One features a Golden Retriever SAR dog and the other a team of Huskies in a sled dog race like the Idatrod. For those who are not familiar with these tales, they are all man-love stories where a dog or dogs are instrumental in getting the two guys together. The series started with Doggone Love last March, then there was The Maltese Terror in August. Saved by Sam comes out this month. The other two will be in 2008. I'm also working on a story that features Brandi who was a secondary character in Doggone Love which will probably be a part of an upcoming Amber PAX collection Double the Pleasure. It is called Eres Tu--Times Two. Yes, she gets two guys!! Also nearly done is a nostalgia tale set in the 1950s called Dude Ranch Nights about a New York socialite and a guide/guest ranch owner. And of course He. Then I am committed for several stories in various PAX collections for 2008. Gwynn will have a book out in February from Awe-Struck, a cop-romance called January Gets Her Gunn which was co-written with my husband before his death and I finally finished and submitted. And a poetry collection is coming very soon from Eternal Press under Gwynn's name. Its title is Walking Down My Shadows. Me, myself and I stay busy.

When you begin your stories, do you do an outline or just start writing as the mood strikes?

I hate outlines! I was one of those rebels in school who wrote the paper first and then the outline if one had to be turned in! Since I feel the characters tell me their tales, there is really no way I can outline ahead. I try to keep things moving in the right direction and have a very general sense of where a story is going but do I get a surprise now and then. If it were all outlined in advance it would be so dead to me that I could not write with any excitement or inspiration at all.

Do you dive right into your characters and become a part of the story?

Well, in a way I guess. They are all totally real to me and before I get very far, I would recognize them if I met them on the street and we could pick up a conversation at once about what had already gone on in the story. I hate to let them go, too, when I come to the end! I suppose most writers put something of themselves into everything they create and I am sure I do also, and I do live each story vicariously while I write just as I do when I read a really good book that ends up in my keeper bookcase.

What is your favorite hobby when you take a break from writing?

I love to do things with my hands so I make jewelry--mostly beadwork now but I have done lapidary and silversmithing. I sew, quilt, sketch, color in color books (yes, they do have some that are not kiddie cartoon style!), and like to be outdoors hiking, bird watching, taking photos and target shooting. I even have an 8" Celestron telescope and love to do some very amateur astronomy. I read when I can--often in bed at night now that I am single -- and like to listen to New Age, Celtic, folk and ethnic music. I call myself a Renaissance woman and refuse to limit myself to one or a dozen interests, hobbies, genres or much of anything!

Do you have any unfinished projects sitting around?

Oh, don't get me started LOL!! My house is full of them, also the garage. One drawer of my file cabinet is nothing but ideas. fragments, partials and such of writing projects. I am sure I will never live long enough to finish them all, but it does get me up each day and keeps me going, that and my "fur kids."

Rico is mostly black with blue merle collar and Belle is a classic blue merle with copper points. They are my babies and my assistant muses! (Wonder why I'm writing stories with dogs in them? Three guesses!) And yes, I do have grand children too, and most of them read, thank goodness.

Is there another website other than www.deirdreodare.com that you would like to share with your readers? Perhaps a blog or a myspace?

I am working on pages for My Space and Bebo. And I mean to get a blog going soon! I do have a page at Books We Love and also at CoffeeTime. My alter ego who writes milder (not erotic) romance, Gwynn Morgan, also has a site and a page at BooksWeLove. And we both have Yahoo newsgroups. deirdredares@yahoogroups.com and gwynnmorgannews@yahoogroups.com

Let’s have a little fun, shall we: Fill in the blanks concerning some of your favorites

Dessert - Schwan's Caramel Cashew ice cream, deep dish apple pie ala mode, any and all death by chocolate treats!! Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!!

City - San Francisco; Tucson; Kansas City, MO

Season - Fall!!

Congratulations! You just won a year off from work to travel anywhere in the world and write the story of your dreams. Where do you go, what type of book do you write, and what’s the title?

The book would be either a several-generation family saga or a reincarnation tale that would start in the British Isles--as would I on my travels --and go to Australia and New Zealand, as I also would, and then come back to the southwest US to end it up. Right now no title is coming to me; one would once I got started on it though. Or if it were possible for a civilian, I would go out into space and write my own Space Oddessy.... Wouldn't that be cool?

If you had the chance to see your books in a movie, who would you like to play the leading roles?

I picture different actors and actresses in different ones of my books and stories. I have about fifteen titles at Amber Quill right now and Gwynn has nine novels with several different publishers. Since I love older movies, most of my favorites--like me LOL--are getting past the age of playing the youthful heroes and heroines I've written, though. I visualize most of my cowboys as looking like Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott and Vigo Mortenson or a blend of all three! My Native American heroes all seem to resemble Adam Beach and somehow Steve McQueen pops up in there among my cops etc. because my first love could have been a stand-in for him! It was almost uncanny. The heroines all look like I always wished I did--with great figures and beautiful faces although the hair color and such varies a little. Somehow, I don't see them as clearly as I do the guys, though. Wonder why???

Thank you so much for sharing time with us today, Deirdre. It has been a pleasure Deirdre, and I wish you the best with your writing.

Thanks so much Fallen Angels and Linda for having me. It's been great fun and I hope your visitors will enjoy it as much as I have! I could talk all day about stories and other fun things but I guess it is time now to hush and let someone else have a turn.

Interviewed by: Linda L.