Hello Vashti and welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. We are pleased to have Vashti Valant with us today.

Vashti, welcome, please sit down and share some conversation with us. The readers would love to hear more about you and your writings. I like your name, but I must confess the only other time I have ever seen it, is in the Bible. It is a pretty name.

Hi, thanks for having me! Vashti is a pen name, and there's a story behind it. A friend and I were brainstorming names for our future daughters. (This was a long time ago.) I liked the name Vashti, from the story of Esther, but my friend said I couldn't name my daughter after a "bad girl" of the Bible. I thought, well, after all, why was she a bad girl? All she did was refuse to undress for a room full of strange men! The Bible doesn't say what happened to her, but I like to think that headstrong woman found a man she was happy to undress for eventually.

I noticed that Hothouse Orchid is out. Would you like to tell the readers a bit about this story?

This story is actually a futuristic telling of an ancient Irish myth. In the myth, a wizard makes a girl out of flowers for his nephew. But she doesn't love the nephew. She loves another man. In the original myth, she's punished by being turned into an owl. I felt she deserved better - after all, just because the wizard created her didn't give him the right to give her to whomever he wished. She had a heart and mind of her own.

My heroine is in the same situation. She's been created in a lab, with flower-petal soft skin, an exotic, genetically engineered love slave. A cruel old man has bought her, but she falls in love with the handsome renegade who is supposed to deliver her to her master. The problem is, he has a haunted past of his own, which has made him hard and cynical. He has to learn to see her as a person, not just an object, a sex slave or another job.

I loved writing this stoy. Much of it is tongue in cheek, but I really felt deeply about the characters too. I was so happy when I found out Hothouse Orchid had been nominated for an Eppie!

I notice on your bio, you have worn many hats, so to speak. If a reporter were to follow you around for a day, what exciting things would we learn about you?

It depends upon what day and year. At the moment, a reporter would mostly have to help me change a lot of diapers and try to keep up with the most mischievous little scamp in the world. A few years ago, a reporter might have had to trudge after me through jungles filled with gunfire, where I worked as a humanitarian volunteer. In another year or two? Who knows? I would love to do more traveling. I also like to try my hand at different jobs and hobbies, so I can write about them. That's why I've worked at things like "forklift operator" or "mermaid."

Is there any upcoming works in progress that you would love to share with us?

I have several books I'm working on. One is about a woman who accidentally stumbles across the plans of a secret agent. He thinks she is someone she's not, and kidnaps her. Fearing what he'll do if he finds out she's really not the superspy he thinks she is, she plays along, which of course only gets them both in more trouble - especially when the real villainess turns up. I also have a fantasy romance, a ménage, about a shapeshifting stallion and his knight/lover.

Where do you get your ideas for your books? Do they just pop in your head, or do you work with an outline, or go with the flow?

A bit of both. I usually start with a scene, often one of the sexy scenes. I have the characters, the emotion -the tenderness, the conflict and the lust - but then I have to back up and say to myself, whoa, okay, how did they get into this situation?

Do you have any hand in helping to decide the cover for your books?

I fill out a paper in which I offer suggestions to the artist. For my book Slave of the Goblin, I even found pictures of armor and helmets and swords and sent these along to the artist. I don't know how helpful this is - maybe not much! That cover is truly gorgeous, but the credit belongs to the artist. I know it's hard for artists because they don't read the book before they craft the cover art.

What is the hardest part of writing/the easiest for you?

Right now, the hardest part is finding the time to write. I work best with long stretches of uninterrupted time to concentrate. "Uninterrupted" and "toddler" are like matter and anti-matter, they cannot both co-exist in the same universe. I am still learning to adjust to that. I also have a tendency to start a new project before I finish the last one. It would be better if I were able to focus on one story at a time, but I tend to write five or six at a time, and whichever one I finish first is the next one I send in to my editor.

Name four elements you believe are important when composing a book?

I can't write a story until I have characters I want to spend time with, a world which fascinates me, and a central conflict to drive the plot. Once I have those, I can come up with the forth element, which for me is blocking out the action chapter by chapter. Some stories are wisps of ideas. They sparkle, but they don't yet have enough depth to fill a novel's worth of chapters.

When is the best time for you to write?

Time of day? Hm. Morning and late night. Normally, I'm nocturnal, but I have noticed there's something to be said to writing as soon as I get up. If I stop for breakfast, a whole herd of hours may stampede away before I can find my computer.

If someone endorsed you for President, would you accept the challenge?

Oh, heavens no. When would I have time to write?

You have been given a free vacation trip to either, Africa, Antarctica or Hong Kong, which would you choose and why?

It all depends on what I was doing - and who I was with. I would love to do more volunteer work in Africa. But if we're talking romantic getaway with my honey, I'd take a cruise to Antarctica. There's nothing else to do there except watch the penguins play and keep warm in each other's arms.

You wake up one morning to learn you have inherited a million dollars. What is the first thing you do with the money?

Oh, don't say "inherited" because I want all my relatives to live forever. I would much rather fantasize about a million dollar advance for my next book. I have already promised my husband, who is supportive of his crazy writer wife, that if I ever get a substantial advance, we'll pay down the mortgage on our house. Boring I know, but it would make me feel so good to help him feel we aren't going to be homeless in our old age.

What is your favorite restaurant that you can't be without?

My husband is my private chef. I would literally starve to death without his delicious meals.

What is your favorite musical instrument?

I am distantly related to a famous violinist and composer of the 17th century, and I love violin music - as long as it is played by anyone but me. I studied violin as a child, but couldn't stand to hear myself play. I have, alas, not inherited the musical gene from my famous ancestor.

There is a saying with a chip that no one can eat just one. You are told that you will be named after a food that everyone loves. What would be your food that no one can get enough of?

Oh, it would definitely have to involve some form of chocolate. Although the problem with that is I wouldn't be able to get enough either, and I might feel vain if people came to my house and discovered the whole cupboard filled with "Vashti's Chocolate Yummies."

Do you have another website other than, http://www.vashtivalant.com/ that you would like to share with your readers?

I am lucky enough to be this year's coordinator for a "tropical retreat for writers", Misque, which is held in a posh resort in Hawaii. I am going to be rubbing shoulders with two of my favorite authors, RITA award winners Robin D. Owens and Jennifer Ashley, who are the guest instructors. Any of you out there who are aspiring writers, I encourage you to invest the time and money in this exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have some top names in the field give you feedback on your writing. I personally anticipate I will learn so much from them, I am really excited at this opportunity. Misque's website is http://misque-writer.com/. I'm not mentioned there, I don't think, but I am the one running Misque's blog, http://misque-writer.blogspot.com/, so if anyone wants to chat with me, please feel free to stop by and say hello!

Interviewed by: Linda L.