Calm Before the Storm
(Episode 5)
by Larissa Ione
Secrets, Sex and Scandals …
Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.
Marcus Alvarez fled Storm when his father’s drinking drove him over the edge. With his mother and sister’s in crisis, Marcus is forced to return to the town he thought he’d left behind. But it is his attraction to a very grown up Brittany Rush that just might be enough to guarantee that he stays.
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An Exclusive Interview With Larissa Ione:
~ with Jillian Stein of Read Love Blog
I loved your installment of the Rising Storm series, Calm Before the Storm. I was struck by how seamless the transition was from one author to another. Was that a difficult task?
Thank you so much! And no, I didn’t find the transition to be difficult at all. But to be fair, the main characters I was assigned, Marcus and Brittany, were mostly untouched by other authors. These characters were pretty much blank slates that I got to play with. As far as the other characters and the storylines, I did try to match the tone and personalities set up by the authors who came before me, but with any luck, I was able to put my own spin on a few things!
What did you think when Julie Kenner and Dee Davis approached you with this awesome and different project?
Honestly? I was wondering who bribed them! As a mainly paranormal author, I know I wasn’t the obvious choice for a project populated by humans and set in a small town in current-day Texas. But thankfully, these wonderful ladies had faith in me, and they must have known about my deep-down love for soaps! Now if they’ll just let me kill someone off or bring in a secret, long-lost twin, I’ll be in heaven! 😉
What were some of the soap-style shows you watched, or still do?
I watched General Hospital, All My Children, and One Life To Live for decades. I still catch up now and then. I also enjoyed the nighttime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty, and Rising Storm very much has that “feel.” Love it!
How much fun was it coming up with some of the drama these characters have to deal with? (insert evil laugh)
(Sees your evil laugh and raises you a sinister cackle) Oh, man, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Some of that fun was sending emails to Julie and Dee with threats of killing someone off or bringing in a secret, long-lost twin (I might be a little obsessed.) I just really enjoyed being able to write characters who you love to hate and who have that over-the-top soap villain quality, as well as characters who are more down-to-earth and relatable. It was a fun mix of real-life angst combined with drama you can only find in a soap opera!
Biography:
Larissa Ione is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. An Air Force veteran, she traded in a career as a meteorologist to pursue her passion of writing. She now spends her days in pajamas with her computer, strong coffee, and supernatural worlds. She believes in celebrating everything, and would never be caught without a bottle of Champagne chilling in the fridge…just in case. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her U.S. Coast Guard husband, her teenage son, a rescue cat named Vegas, and her very own hellhound, a King Shepherd named Hexe.
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