Romance Novel Sluts

Posts Tagged ‘elisabeth naughton’

Thanks so much to the Romance Novel Sluts for having me here today! If I can’t be at RT (sob!), hanging out with all of you is the next best thing.

My first paranormal released this week. Marked—book one in my new Eternal Guardians Series—is loosely based on Greek mythology and is centered around a race descended from the heroes of Ancient Greece. I love pulling from mythology, building on the old stories and twisting them around to fit my plots. But mostly I love twining the powers of the gods and heroes with my modern day characters and seeing where it takes me.

There are so many books and stories that have influenced me and this series. The Iliad with its backdrop of the Trojan War and its focus on the struggle between Agamemnon and Achilles; The Odyssey which describes Odysseus’s epic journey home after the fall of Troy; The play The Medea, which chronicles the witch Medea’s broken heart when the hero Jason abandons her for another woman; and Dante’s Inferno which takes you through the seven levels of Hell (Okay, this one isn’t Greek, it’s Roman, but the Greek and Roman myths were closely intertwined).

That’s not to say modern stories and authors don’t influence me as well. I LOVE Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. And I could watch the movies again and again. (My poor husband gets really tired of the movies, but I’m in bliss when I’ve got an entire Saturday to do nothing but watch one after the other.) C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe was probably one of the first fantasy novels that captivated me, and since then I’ve been sucked into series like JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark Series and Larissa Ione’s Demonica books. I love adventure and danger, other-worlds and epic battles. But if a story has a strong central romance, then I’m in heaven.

For me, characters really are story, so every book that calls to me isn’t just a fabulous tale of heroic wars and fantastic quests. They’re filled with relationships that don’t let go even when the story is through—between friends, between lovers, between parents and children. Those are the elements of a story I remember long after the last page is turned. The paranormal/fantasy elements are really just the window dressings that make the story that much more interesting. And seriously, what’s not more interesting than seven foot seething daemons and snarky conniving gods? Hopefully readers think nothing. Because that and more is what you’ll find in MARKED. (Along with a steaming hot romance, of course.)

What’s your favorite fantasy/paranormal book or story? And are there any classics that call to you?

I’ve got a copy of Marked to give away to one lucky commenter today. And if you want to learn more about me, Marked and all my other books, visit me at www.ElisabethNaughton.com.

-Elisabeth