Guest Blogger Treva Harte ~ Multi-talented Multi-tasker

I know it says Tuesday, but I wanted to make sure that we got an early start!

I'd like to welcome Treva Harte, Editor-in-Chief and one of TPTB at Loose Id and author of award winning m/m romance and other erotic romances with a paranormal twist.

Treva Harte lives near a city with many, many attorneys. Thanks to Loose Id and her writing, she can be a recovering attorney and now spends her time writing, editing, raising adolescents, taking care of an elderly mother and dealing with a hyperactive husband (who says he's just very energetic). She is also co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of the e-publishing companyLoose Id.
She and her husband both like writing in whatever time they have left, so they often fight over—sorry, since he is still a practicing attorney they NEGOTIATE—keyboard time. No wonder Treva’s particular brand of sensual romance is a bit offbeat and usually mixed with fantasy.
Treva is multi-published with several e-publishers in print and e-book, a member of RWA, WRW and PAN, and winner of the CAPA 2003 award in the “Erotic Fantasy Romance” category.

JB: First, thanks so much for taking time out from what must be an insane schedule to join me here. That leads straight into my first question: As EiC and owner of a large and growing e-book publisher, what made you decide to continue writing and how the heck do you manage to do all this?

TH: And thank you for letting me have this interview. My writing is what keeps me hovering on the fine line that separates the sane from insane. Or if it hasn’t, no one has dared to tell me yet. When all else fails in my life I go and create another world and let out the problems in a hopefully creative way.

How do I manage all this? Um, mostly if I don’t think about how much I do, things go much better. Until February of this year I was working my law job, writing and being EiC along with taking care of the family—and they require much maintenance. I can juggle a lot but I really was pretty much at the end of my rope…or maybe out of balls, if we want to keep the original cliché going and add a nasty innuendo. In comparison my life is now easy. I can allow myself a half hour walk every day to keep me going. This is luxury.

Mostly I just sit down every morning, figure out what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and then do it. If an emergency hits or there is too much, then whatever I can’t do waits until the next day. And if it slips my mind, I have people who can whack me and remind me I forgot to do something. Really, how else can you do anything?

JB: Although you have written other erotic genres, most of your books involve LGBT relationships and your most popular series involves werewolves. Why LGBT in particular and why paranormal?

TH: To be honest, I have only one story that is purely LGBT and that was a very short story called Hunted Down in my Alpha werewolf series. My other recent stories tend to have many pairings and relationships between many characters, including between men, a man and a woman, men and a woman, weres and non-weres…

Paranormal frees me to look at human relationships in different ways. Ditto LGBT. I’m always interested in the conflict within what is or what will become a loving relationship and using the two elements you mention certainly can change how you look at the nature of the conflict. Besides, it’s kinda hot.

JB: I always hate being asked the question who is your favorite hero or heroine in your books, so let me rephrase the question : Briefly, what do you like most about each of your heroes?

TH: Hmmmm. Someone once told me what my heroines are like and I was fine with that. Now I’m trying to think of what characteristics all my heroes have so I can figure out what I like about them.

I think most recently what I like about them is that they have very strong emotions that they don’t necessarily talk about but they learn to deal with as the story progresses.

JB: Putting your publisher's hat on, do you see any genre's popularity dying? And any guess for the next flavor of the month?

I’d have to talk purely as an epublisher because I can guess at what mainstream print publishers are struggling with and those tend not to be our issues.

High fantasy may not be losing popularity but it tends to not do well at Loose Id. I have some ideas about what stories may become more popular now that the economy is tough, but I eagerly await whatever the next hot trend will be. I do think that readers dealing harder times will be looking for different books than when things were good – whether that means escape fantasies a la Depression-era movies or more true-to-life stories with a HEA or something else.

If I really knew what would be popular next I would be making a ton more money than I do now. Loose Id is going to be open to changes in reader expectations.

JB: Are you working on any more werewolf stories right now?

TH: Indeed. I have another WIP to follow up on my last story. It’s tentatively titled Heal. However I may need to take a break from that because I’m discussing doing a story as part of another series for early next year. It will probably have nothing to do with weres and would likely be a contemporary.

JB: Are all your stories with Loose Id?

TH: No. I have two other publishers (thanks, Changeling Press and Liquid Silver Books!) I am currently with and I was published elsewhere before Loose Id came on the scene.

JB: Anything more you'd like to share with us?

TH: If you want to read about what I’m talking about in epublishing you can check with the blog I have with Margaret Riley of Changeling Press called Loose Change:
http://treva2007.livejournal.com/

If you want to know what I am doing with my writing you can check my newsletter:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TrevaHarte

And I’ll be hanging out at Gaylaxicon in Bethesda next weekend. Several Loose Id authors will be there so if you are, too, be sure to say hello.