We welcome Canadian author Charlotte Copper to Romance Spinners for some fun.
As a young girl, Monda was placed into the tutelage of Mistress Teevac. Trained to use her empathic skills and educated in the ways to please a man, Monda is on her way to her new mate and master when her spaceship crashes. Rescued by a handsome space lieutenant, who literally makes her heart race, Monda’s eyes and heart are opened to new possibilities.
When Lieutenant Patrick Lancaster looks at the exotic Monda, he sees beautiful not alien. With an instinct to protect her and the desire to have her, he’d be honored to call her his own, but the starts have something else in mind. Or do they?
Let's have a chat with Charlotte:
HWK: I'm a sucker for Science Fiction. What made you consider an SF theme in connection with something as contemporary as candy hearts? (I love how Monda considers them 'candy prophecies'.)
CC: I had most of the story written, but I was having trouble pulling it all together and finishing it. When the call came out for the Candy Hearts series, I took another look at my WIP which at the time was called Purple Skies, and all the pieces just fit into place. As you say, I would never have thought to put something like candy hearts into the original story. I’m glad you think it worked, thanks.
HWK: Monda speaks English very well for an alien. Was this part of her general training or something specific? Does it have anything to do with her destined master and mate?
CC: Now, Heidi, you’re putting me on the spot for questions I was able to avoid in my book! In the simplest of views, I just thought of humans as having been scattered across the universe, and while that means they could have taken and/or developed any language, being English speaking myself, it just made it easiest. It was definitely something I took great leniency with. Had the story been longer, I was definitely considering the fact Monda had been trained in the “main” languages of the universe, but I felt my choice of English was rather biased since we have so many other ancient and beautiful languages here on Earth.
HWK: What kind of parallels do you see between Science Fiction's visionary nature and Romance's HEA (Happily Ever After)?
CC: I think it comes down to hope. Hope that we aren’t alone. Hope that there is a future beyond just what we can see. And I’d like to think (hope) that if aliens did come to earth, that they wouldn’t come to overthrow us, but that they’d come to learn and share and work together so that we all live happily ever after.
HWK: What values do stories with Happily Ever After offer to our society?
CC: I going to cheat on this one and say “see above”…hope.
HWK: You wake up one morning to discover that carbohydrates as a food source have disappeared. No more bread, rice, potatoes, corn, etc. How would this affect your diet?
If that means that Coke and chocolate now become food groups, then I’m all for it. Of course, I’d miss my morning Miniwheats.
HWK: Preach it! If you could convince the world of ANYTHING, what would it be?
I’m assuming you mean besides the fact that Coke and chocolate should be food groups? People need to put aside their hatred, accept the fact that everyone is different, and embrace those differences. They say it takes a village to raise a child, I think it takes a child to raise a village. Our children are born without racial prejudices. If we saw the world through their eyes, we would be color blind to the world’s differences and we would have a future of friendships, everyone-in-the-class-is-invited birthday parties, and rainbows.
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