Born This Way by Poppy Dennison

Literary Nymphs Interview

Title:  Born This Way

Author: Poppy Dennison

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Genre: Gay Paranormal Romance

Release Date: June 19, 2013

Do you write in more than one genre?

When I first started writing, I heard the advice “write what you know”. I’m a paranormal fan through and through, so the majority of my books will be paranormal. Maybe one day I’ll venture into new territory!

What if any, is the hardest part of writing for you?

There are challenges in every part of the process for me, but honestly editing gives me hives. Okay, so not literal hives, but man do I struggle through the editing process! Sometimes I feel like a two year old, stomping my foot, crossing my arms over my chest, and saying “I don’t wanna!” The thing is, I have amazing editors who are almost always right and once I get over my little tantrum, I make the changes and my readers end up with a better book. But oh, do I resist those changes at first.

What inspired the story?

Born This Way was inspired by the idea of a mixed-breed animal and what that would mean in the paranormal world. I’d seen a picture of a liger on a social media site, and was intrigued by both the size of the animal and the implications of a liger’s existence in the first place. With a lion father and tiger mother, a liger shouldn’t exist—doesn’t exist in nature—yet they do. I combined that with the idea of a stubborn human mate, and Hart and Dayton were born.

Blurb:

Dayton Whitmore injures his arm playing basketball with his lion-shifter friends, and his best friend asks Dayton to check on her estranged brother Hart while he’s in Atlanta visiting a specialist. Though Dayton and Hart were never close, he grudgingly agrees.

Banishment from his pride meant Hart Sherman could never see his family again. His liger heritage—a tiger mother and lion father—was a thorn in his alpha father’s side. He always planned to go back for Dayton, the man he knows is his mate, but he uses his career as an entertainment attorney as an excuse to avoid risking Dayton’s rejection. When Dayton shows up unannounced on his doorstep, Hart wants nothing more than to claim him.

Knowing what it means to be a lion’s mate, Dayton isn’t in any hurry to make a lifetime commitment. To convince Dayton he’s serious, Hart must come to terms with the circumstances of his birth—and find a place in the pride for them both.

EXCERPT:

Hart let Dayton keep talking. Let him pretend Hart was in heat. He was, in a way. He’d never gotten Dayton’s smell out of his mind. He smelled like summer, something sweet and fresh and hot. No one else had ever affected Hart like Dayton. He’d known since his first heat that Dayton was meant to be his. He’d also known there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it at the time. How could he provide for his mate when he had nothing to offer? No job, no education, and no pride to belong to.

Now, though, he could take care of his mate. He stripped off his own shirt as Dayton babbled behind him. He had to get the scent of the rest of the pride off his mate. Dayton didn’t know, didn’t understand what it meant, but Tawny did. His sister knew what her best friend was to him. Had known for years and had sent him here to be claimed.

She’d even been nice enough to cover him in other scents so Hart wouldn’t be able to resist. Not that he would have been able to anyway.

Dayton leaned up against the tile wall and held his arm close to his side.

Hart grumbled, the animal inside stirring even more to life. Hurt. His mate was hurt, and he hadn’t been there to stop it, to help. He ran his fingertips down Dayton’s arm, the golden skin breaking out in goose bumps at his touch.

He didn’t want to scare Dayton away but couldn’t let him leave without his marks on him, his seed inside. He knelt at Dayton’s feet, his head even with the shorter man’s chest. He needed to touch and taste, needed something other than scent to hold on to.

“Hart, what are you doing?” Dayton’s whispered words penetrated the haze of lust surrounding him.

“Going to take care of you now.” He licked the sweaty skin of Dayton’s stomach, the heat from outside causing him to feel warmer than usual.

“Delicious.”

“Aww, Hart. That’s just wrong, man. I’m a hot mess.”

Hart laughed. “Yeah, you are.”

He traced his fingers down to the button on Dayton’s khaki shorts. He looked up, met Dayton’s startled gaze as he unfastened them, and slipped the fabric over Dayton’s hips.

The bulge hiding beneath Dayton’s white boxer briefs filled him with hope. He nuzzled in, feeling the firm length grow even harder under his touch.

“You want me. I know you do.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, look at you. But we probably shouldn’t do this, Hart. Tawny will kill me.”

About the author

A sassy southern lady, Poppy Dennison developed an obsession with things that go bump in the night in her early years after a barn door flew off its hinges and nearly squashed her. Convinced it was a ghost trying to get her attention, she started looking for other strange and mysterious happenings around her. Not satisfied with what she found, Poppy has traveled to Greece, Malaysia and England to find inspiration for the burly bears and silver foxes that melt her butter. Her love of paranormal continues to flourish nearly thirty years later, and she writes steamy love stories about the very things that used to keep her up all night. If her childhood ghost is lucky, maybe one day she’ll give him his own happily ever after.

You can find out more about Poppy’s books on her website

http://www.poppydennison.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poppy-Dennison/270574609631110?ref=ts

Twitter https://twitter.com/PoppyDennison

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5108648.Poppy_Dennison