Q&A With Larissa Ione 

Another Q&A this week is with the talented New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance Larissa Ione. Several of her books are a part of a series, novellas and short stories. Coming out soon is Immortal Rider. 

Q: Larissa would you like to tell the readers and I a little bit about Immortal Rider, and how you came up with the concept for the book?

A: Absolutely, but before I begin, I want to thank you for having me, and for all your patience! I had deadline after deadline slapping me upside the head and a lot of things going on in my personal life, but I’m finally able to breathe for a minute!

Okay, so Immortal Rider. It’s the second book in my Four Horsemen series about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One of the Horsemen, Limos (Famine) is female, and she’s the only one of her siblings who was raised in the hell realm of Sheoul. Her brothers, Thanatos (Death), Ares (War,) and Reseph (Pestilence), were all separated at birth and raised by humans.

The concept for the series, which is a spinoff of my Demonica series, came to me when I saw a billboard warning us that Biblical end times are here and the Horsemen were coming.

I…had questions. 

One of them was, “Are they hot?”

The answer was yes, and I started working on the series the next day. 

Limos’s book was a natural progression out of the first book in the series, Eternal Rider. Limos, having been raised in Hell by her evilest of evil mothers, has a lot of skeletons in her closet, and in Immortal Rider, they come back to bite her. Hard.

And while she’s getting bitten, she’s trying to keep her Seal from breaking (which would turn her into the evil Famine,) trying to defeat Reseph (whose Seal already broke, turning him into Pestilence), and fighting her attraction to a badass human male. The latter is the most important, because her virginity has been promised to Satan himself. ;)

Q: When did you know that being an author was your calling? Who in your life were the most supportive of your writing talent and goal?

A: I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a kid. I loved books, and I was always making up stories in my head. Once I was old enough to write, I started writing those stories on paper. Inspired by Jack London and Stephen King, I wrote a lot of wilderness horror!

As far as support goes, I am fortunate to have the full support of my family, and I always have. My father was a teacher, so he was happy to encourage my love of reading and writing, and my mom was my cheerleader. 

Now my support still comes from my family, but I also have the most amazing friends and husband who keep me going. It’s wonderful.

Q: What made you choose writing in the romance genre, especially the paranormal and contemporary romance? 

A: I’ve always loved paranormal/horror stuff, from movies to books (remember the above-mentioned Stephen King?) But romance? I have to admit that I thought it was silly until my Air Force roommate challenged me to read one. In return, I made her watch Star Trek, which she thought was equally as silly.

Well, the rest is history. I LOVED it. (She also loved Star Trek.) I started with historical romance and then branched out to contemporary, and when paranormal became popular, ooh, baby, I found my genre.

My first romances (unpublished) were actually historical. As my reading interests changed, I started writing contemporary romance and entering them into contests, where I did really well and which led to getting my work in front of editors. My first sale, in fact, was a contemporary novella. 

But where I really hit my stride was when I started bringing my love of the paranormal into romance. I adore the freedom to make up my own worlds and rules.

Writing for a living is a dream come true.

Q: If you were to experiment in other genres outside of romance, which genres would you explore and why?

A: I’m actually dipping my toes into women’s fiction right now. I’ve got a book in progress, and I can’t wait to share it with the world. 

Why? Well, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that personal growth is such a huge thing, and I want to dig into the kind of self-exploration (not THAT kind!) that life brings to us. I want to write about the importance of friends and finding out who you are. I don’t think women spend enough time doing that before they commit to others, and I think we’re way too conditioned to view change in ourselves as bad, even when it’s personal growth. Basically, I want to dig deep into non-romantic relationships and look at what makes us into better – or worse – people as we get older.

Q: Where is your favorite writing spot or spots where you sit down and plot, write and edit your work?

A: I write in two different places, depending on the weather. We live in Wisconsin, so most of my writing time is spent in my office, which I love. It’s very cheery, with yellow walls, a lot of windows, and a view of our woods and wildlife. Snowy days in my office with a hot cup of tea or cocoa are one of my life’s simple joys.

When the weather is nice, I like to write on the front or back porch. It’s great because I can be out in nature and keep an eye on our two very active dogs. If we can keep them outside and busy during the day, it means a quiet night! 

Q: If you’re working on new projects now, can you reveal any details?

A: Yes! I’m actually working on the sequel to the Demonica and Four Horsemen series. It’s set 30 years in the future and it features the kids from the earlier books, but all grown up. The first book, Legacy of Temptation, releases in February, and the second, Legacy of Chaos, is scheduled to release 6 months later. I’m super, super excited about this series. I’ve taken a break from deadlines and novels for a few years while we went through some big life changes, but things have settled down and I’m thrilled to be back at the keyboard. I think readers are going to be happy with the first book, which clocks in at almost 130K words, which is over 30K more than my next biggest book. I had a LOT to cover!

Q: When creating worlds and characters do you take pieces from real people and places mixed in with your imagination? 

A: I do. I love to travel, so I try to incorporate different settings, countries, and cities into my books. And I’m a huge history buff, so I enjoy expanding on unknown bits of history and creating my own version of events. And people…well; I borrow traits, personalities, and stories from everywhere. Real historical figures, fictional characters, and real people I know. There’s an endless supply of creative material out there!

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to your work? The entertainment industry is lacking in originality anymore. It wouldn’t hurt them to use more books as original content. 

A: I am 100% with you. Unfortunately, no one has the rights to any of my work. There have been a couple of nibbles, but they’ve fallen through for various reasons. I’m putting the energy out there, though!