SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH PAIGE TYLER
Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today Best-selling author. What makes her paranormal romance explode off the page are sexy, super-charged heroes and their strong heroines. In her upcoming book she returns to her wildly popular X-Ops team series. This series often features out of control alpha shifters and the women that dare to tame them! But in her latest book, Her Fierce Warrior, her heroine is the shifter. Ohh! I can't wait!
Having been a big fan of her series, I had to ask her details and see what new surprises she has in store for her loyal readers.
1) Have you always wanted to write romance?
Paige Tyler: I started writing romance when I was nine or ten years old, scribbling out stories about the cats around my house having adventures. Of course, there wasn’t a lot of romance going on at that point. Everybody knows that cats are girls and dogs are boys, and that cats and dogs don’t get along. Or at least that’s what I thought when I was a kid! The romance parts came later when my doll Susie Homemaker married my Green Giant doll. You know, the guy on the can food labels?
All through my teens, I wrote story after story in notebooks just for fun. It wasn’t until I started working as a teacher and realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life that I seriously pursued a writing career. I simply knew I had to be a writer. It was what I was born to do.
2) What appeals to you about writing paranormal romances and in particular your super studly shifter heroes?!
Paige Tyler: While my New York series (SWAT and X-OPS) are focused on shifters, it seems that I’ve always been drawn to the paranormal. Vampires, zombies, ghosts, ghouls—there’s something attractive about having a whole new world to work with, setting up your own rules and going in a completely different direction than anything else out there. Paranormal lets you do that.
Shifters are just a subset of that paranormal world. Mixing animal abilities with human emotions is intriguing and works really well with the covert operations (X-OPS) and law enforcement (SWAT) worlds I write about. Having characters that get to see the world completely differently than you and I because of their animal senses makes for great situations that people love to read about. It also doesn’t hurt that the animal aspect of these characters allows for some awesome kick-butt action!
3) How do you get ideas for your stories? Is it difficult to create authentic military and special ops stories seem realistic?
Paige Tyler: I write with my hubby. He’s retired Army and helps keep me straight on the military stuff. Once you’ve built the world your characters live in—a covert operation organization that pairs humans and shifters (for X-OPS), or a SWAT team made up completely of alpha werewolves (Special Wolf Alpha Team, aka SWAT)—the stories almost write themselves.
As we’re coming up with the stories, we ask ourselves questions, like where would the Department of Covert Operations (DCO) find a partner for Ivy Halliwell, a shifter who has failed to mesh with her first two partners (also military guys, by the way)? Well, they’d probably go looking in the Special Forces world for a Captain named Landon Donovan. Hmm, that sounds intriguing. I wonder how this SF guy would handle Ivy the first time he saw her? What kind of missions they would go on?
As far as realism, that’s about the rules you set up for your world. Establish up front what the shifters/werewolves can and can’t do, and don’t violate those rules.
Getting the military stuff right is about focusing on those few details that create the feel for the environment you’re in—the thump of the explosion, the recoil of the weapon in the heroine’s hand, the short and savage violence of a hand-to-hand combat. We like to give the reader enough details to let them put themselves in the scene, then back out and let them do the rest.
4) I have to say one of my all time favs is your first X-Ops books, Her Perfect Mate. Instead of a shifter hero you feature a female shifter. Where did you get the inspiration for Ivy? Will she be making a cameo in your newest book?
Paige Tyler: Thank you so much! We created feline shifter Ivy Halliwell specifically to pair her with Special Forces Captain Landon Donovan. We made her a feline shifter because we love the stealth and agility she adds to a covert operation team. From there, the true essence of who Ivy is developed based on her background.
Her story starts with her current partner refusing to listen to her and ending up dead. Plus, she’d had a previous partner who was a piece of crap. How would a woman deal with situations like this? How would any shifter behave in an organization where the first cardinal rule is to kill your shifter partner rather than let them be captured or compromised? Who would Ivy become in this kind of world? It’s easy to believe that she’d have to become tough if she wanted to survive. But she also has a sensitive side, too.
X-OPS is a unique series in that it revolves around Ivy and Landon. Even though they’re not the hero and heroine in the books that follow, they play a part in every book in the series, if not as point of view characters, then as key components. Ivy in particular is extremely important in my newest release, HER FIERCE WARRIOR.
5) Speaking of your latest X-Ops book, Her Fierce Warrior is coming out this March. Will your female shifter, Minka be as bada## as Ivy? What can you tell us about her?
Paige Tyler: Minka Pajari will definitely be as bada## as Ivy, but in a completely different way. Not every female character can be (or should be) Ivy. As everyone who has read the first three books in the series knows, Minka was a young woman grabbed up by the psycho doctors from Book One and experimented on. They turned her into a monster (as far as she’s concerned). She’s a gentle soul who never wanted to hurt anyone. But now there’s a hybrid creature living inside her and when that creature takes over, it can be very violent, and all Minka can do is sit there trapped in her head and watch.
That is, until Special Forces soldier Angelo Rios comes along. There’s something about him that calms the beast and Minka’s greatest hope is that he’ll be able to help her get control of this monster inside of her, maybe even make it go away. But then Dick Coleman (the deputy director of the DCO) gets involved, and Minka finds herself in a position of needing the beast as much as it needs her. That’s when the real a## kicking starts!
6) How many books do you have planned for your X-Ops series and your Dallas SWAT series? Will all of the SWAT team find their mates?!
Paige Tyler: X-OPS is fourteen books, fully exploring the broad storyline arc of the Big Bad in the DCO, the person (or persons) behind all the conspiracy and hybrid stuff going on there. All I can say about this fourteen book plan is that the stuff going on behind the scenes at the DCO is far more twisted than anyone has guessed so far, and there are going to be romantic relationships between lots of couples the readers haven’t even met yet! But by Book Fourteen, the series will come full circle, closing out the story that started with Landon and Ivy.
As for SWAT, yes, there will be sixteen books, with each member of the team finding their mate. But as you’ll start seeing over the next few books, the series is going to get more complicated as the werewolf mythology is rounded out and threats from outside Dallas start to pull many of the stories away from the typical SWAT duties.
7) As I mentioned before, I love your female shifter heroines -Ivy and Khaki. Is it easier to write about male shifters than female? Or is it just that there are more men are in the military and police department? Do you think you will ever have a series about a kick a## female team?!
Paige Tyler: I love them too! It’s why I write them. It’s not easier to write male shifters, but I’ll be honest, sometimes it can be easier to get people to accept an animalistic man than it is for them to be comfortable with a woman who might do the same things. So, maybe I’ll write a series about a kicka## female team sometime, but you’d better believe that the guys they fall for will be a match for them.
8) Oh, yes! I have to say, I always feel very connected to your characters. When you write, do you imagine yourself as the main character sometimes? If you could be a shifter what type of animal would you be and why?!
Paige Tyler: I like the idea of having some shifter abilities, and when you write a character, a little bit of you goes into them (it’s impossible to not let a little of your personality leak into a character you write). But really, I’m more likely to be a bunny shifter than a kick-butt cat shifter. In dangerous situations, I tend to either freeze or run the other way. At least if I were a bunny shifter, I could run faster!
9) What new books do you have in store for your fans? Can you give us a sneak peek?
Paige Tyler: Well, you already know about HER FIERCE WARRIOR, Book Four of the X-OPS Series. That releases March 1st. TO LOVE A WOLF, Book Four of the SWAT series releases June 7th, but you can pre-order now in ebook and paperback at Amazon, Nook, and iBooks. This is the book where you’ll finally get to see Cooper’s story. Then later in 2016, Book Five of X-OPS, HER ROGUE ALPHA, releases September 6th, and Book Five of SWAT, A WOLF UNLEASHED, releases December 6th. Readers can keep up with X-OPS and SWAT by connecting with me on social media, as well as signing up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bM8ykT
Now, here’s a sneak peek at TO LOVE A WOLF (SWAT 4)
HE'S FOUND THE ONE...
SWAT officer Cooper Landry is certain Everly Danu is The One. The problem is, she has no idea what Cooper really is. And as much as he wants to trust her, he's not sure he can share his deepest secret...
BUT CAN HE KEEP HER?
When Everly's family discovers Cooper's a werewolf, her brothers will do anything to keep them apart-they'll kill him if they have to. Everly is falling hard for the ridiculously handsome SWAT officer, and she's not about to let her brothers tell her who she can love... Until Cooper's secret is exposed and she discovers the man she thought she knew is a monster in disguise.
10) This has been such a treat. Thanks so much for the sneak peek. I can't wait for them to come out! I always look forward to reading your books. Paranormal romances with shifters are my all time fav :) and you write the best ones. Thank you so much for spending time with us here!
Paige Tyler: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been so much fun! Thank you for being a fan!
Interviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club
For Additional Information about Paige Tyler check her out at:
http://paigetylertheauthor.com/
AND for Free romances at her website:
http://paigetylertheauthor.com/XOPSShortStories.html
http://paigetylertheauthor.com/SWATShortStories.html
Recent and Upcoming books by Paige Tyler:
Her Fierce Warrior -March 2016
The woman tensed. As anger and fear ricocheted across her face, her eyes changed from red to green to brown in a dizzying display like nothing he'd ever seen.
Every instinct in Angelo's body screamed at him to lunge for his weapon. Instead he set his feet for impact, blocking her slashing claws. Unbelievably, after a few moments of struggling, she went still, all the fight gone...
Minka isn't sure she should trust the sexy Special Forces soldier who found her. Subjected to horrors, on the run from scientists set on locking her in a cage, Minka is terrified of the monster she's becoming...and somehow, Angelo is the only one who can calm the beast inside her and make her feel safe.
But can she trust the way he makes her feel when she's not even sure she can trust herself?
In the Company of Wolves -Dec. 2015
There's a new gang of criminals in town who are organized and ruthless in the extreme.
When Eric Becker, along with the rest of the Dallas SWAT team, ends up in the middle of a
shootout, he immediately senses werewolves-a lot of them. Turns out, the new bad guys are
a pack of wolf shifters.
In a spray of gunfire, Becker comes face-to-face with the most gorgeous woman he's ever
seen. Becker does the logical thing. He hides her and leaves the scene with the rest of his
team.
Jayna Winston has no idea why that SWAT guy helped her, but she's glad he did. Ever since
she and her pack mates got mixed up with those Eastern European mobsters, everything
had pretty much fallen apart.
So what's a street-savvy thief like Jayna going to do with a hot alpha-male wolf who's a police officer
Wolf Trouble -Aug. 2015
He's in trouble with a capital T...
There's never been a female on the Dallas SWAT team and Senior Corporal Xander Riggs prefers it that way. The elite pack of alpha male wolf shifters is no
place for a woman. But Khaki Blake is no ordinary woman.
When Khaki walks through the door attractive as hell and smelling like heaven, Xander doesn't know what the heck to do. Worse, she's put under his command
and Xander's protective instincts go on high alert. When things start heating up both on and off the clock, it's almost impossible to keep their heads in the
game and their hands off each other...
Hungry Like the Wolf -Jan. 2015
INTRODUCING SWAT: SPECIAL WOLF ALPHA TEAM
They’re tight.
They’re on target.
They’re as alpha as men can get.
The Dallas SWAT team is hiding one helluva secret…they’re a pack of wolf shifters.
The team of elite sharpshooters is ultra-secretive, and also the darlings of Dallas. This doesn’t sit well with investigative journalist Mackenzie Stone. They
must be hiding something, and she’s determined to find out what.
Keeping Mac at a distance proves impossible for SWAT team commander Gage Dixon. She’s smart, sexy, and makes him feel alive for the first time in
years. But she’s getting dangerously close to the truth—and perilously close to his heart...
Her Lone Wolf -Nov. 2014
Leaving him was Impossible...
It took everything she had for FBI Special Agent Danica Beckett to walk away from the man she loved. But if she wants to save his life, she has to keep her distance. Now, with a killer on the loose and the stakes higher than ever before, the Department of Covert Ops is forcing these former lovers into an uneasy alliance...whether they like it or not.
Seeing her again is even worse…
The last thing Clayne Buchanan wants is to be shackled to the woman who broke his heart. She gets under his skin in a way no one ever has and makes him want things he has no right to anymore. All he has to do is suffer through this case and he can be free of her for good. But when Clayne finds out why Danica left in the first place, everything he's tried to bury comes roaring back-and there's no way this wolf shifter is going to let her get away this time.