Featured Interview With R.B. O’Brien
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts and earned an English literature degree and teach now. I haven’t gone too far from home. I love New England. Having traveled extensively. I always come back. Home is home.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Early on! I was the geek in the family, hiding books from my friends and cousins, who didn’t think reading was cool. I was fascinated with Hardy Boy Mysteries. Stephen King horror. But when I hit puberty, I always ventured to the darker side of reading. By college, I had acquired quite of few taboo books: Henry Miller, Pauline Reage, Anais Nin, Anne Rice, and Lolita has forever stuck with me. I have always written, but I got serious about it about three years ago, when summers off afforded me the time. I have hundreds of unfinished manuscripts, quite literally.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Of course I have to give hats off to EL James. I think she inspired many of us to see that our deeper, darkest fantasies aren’t all that deep and dark, and that it was time to let go and let it out. We are too uptight in America. Right now, I love the work of C.D. Reiss, Pepper Winters and the darker themes of Claire Thompson. I did like some of Sylvia Day’s earlier work in the series. Believe it or not, I am a huge fan of Shakespeare. I see the dark and erotic in every one of his works. He’s a genius. I also love Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights and George Elliot’s The Mill on the Floss is right up there. My favorite classic is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Temptation Natalie’s Edge 1 is the first book in a series of three that seemed to write itself. I’d get up in the morning, and the characters would speak through my finger tips on the keyboard, and when I was done, I didn’t even know the story they told until I read it.
It follows the relationship between former ballet dancer and now boutique owner, Natalie Smith, and passionate environmentalist, Michael L. Black. Natalie’s temptation is too great as she quickly descends into love and lust with this controlling, damaged, strikingly gorgeous man, who has trust issues and insecurities. He likes to dominate and tease her, and she learns to like it, need it, crave it, even as it causes her pain. Slowly, Michael, who didn’t think he was capable of love, begins to change. And while Michael has a dark side full of trust issues and insecurities, he has a tender, sweet, and kind side as well that Natalie hopes to nurture.
Their relationship is a highly charged, emotional one. Michael has a past that he keeps secret of his time abroad in Iceland. And Natalie has her own secrets she keeps. Through games and bondage, Michael learns Natalie’s body, her sensitivities, patiently, cruelly and lovingly at once, to render her vulnerable, at times helpless, and nothing less than dripping with need. And Natalie begrudgingly must admit she likes it. She likes the way it makes her feel, even if it goes against the feminist she thought she was. Her quick emotional surrender becomes a love that almost hurts, as she wonders what Michael feels for her. Will Michael ever be able to return the love she feels? Or is he too damaged?
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Thanks so much for the wonderful interview.
Thanks for taking time with us.