Author Barbara Monajem

Last year, I focused on the Daphne contest’s unpublished finalists, Ann Charles and Polly Iyer. This year, I’ve interviewed published finalist Barbara Monajem for her novel, Sunrise in the Garden of Love & Evil. Please welcome Barbara to WWK.

EBD: Since I’ve never entered a novel contest before, I’m unsure of procedure. Do authors submit their books for consideration or are they nominated?

Barbara: We submit them – or at least that’s the case with the contests I’ve entered. It’s much like entering an unpublished contest – entry form, fee, and fingers crossed!

EBD: Under what category of the contest is your book and why?

Barbara: Paranormal, because Ophelia, the heroine, is a vampire. She’s not the usual undead type, though – I don’t find the idea of undead appealing. (Bad breath! Smell of rot!) Ophelia is a hereditary vampire. She grew fangs at puberty and became sexually irresistible, and it’s made life crazy, to say the least.

EBD: Can you give us its hook?

Barbara: Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana, from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls in the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O'Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed...

EBD: How will winning a contest help an already published novel and its author?

Barbara: There are two advantages to entering a contest. One is that the judges have to read your book (g), so you get new readers, and if they like the book, they may want to read more. The other is that if you final (and especially if you win), your name and book title will be found in many places as a result – on writing loops, on website announcements, in magazines such as Romance Writers Report and Romantic Times. This differs from contest to contest, but the main thing is that the more often a reader sees a name or title, the more likely it is to stick in her mind.

EBD: The book is available in print and electronic versions. How do you like your publisher, Dorchester Publishing Company, and Love Spell, its imprint?

Barbara: Dorchester is undergoing a major reorganization at the moment. They switched from mass market paperback to e-book / trade paperback the very month my second book, Tastes of Love & Evil, came out. That was disappointing, because the trade paperback will not be out until this fall (a year late) and an anthology I was scheduled to be part of has been postponed. But apart from this, they’ve been great, particularly my editor, Christopher Keeslar, who’s delightful to work with.

EBD: I understand that this book is the first in your Bayou Gavotte Series, and that the second book of the series is now available as an eBook. What’s the title and hook?

Barbara: Here’s a blurb for Tastes of Love & Evil:

Rose Fairburn is on the run. Her vampire nature can’t protect her from everything, especially not herself. Now, when she should be worried about escaping her past, she can only think about one thing. Her kind can’t live without blood or sex. Love they must forego.

Jack Tallis can slake her thirst. Tall. Handsome. Trustworthy. And not a man alive can resist a vamp’s allure. But…Jack can. And he has other secrets, like why underworld hit men are on his trail. How he can vanish into thin air. Love suddenly seems possible, but the shadows hide mysteries darker than Rose can even dream, and all will be revealed in the fetish clubs of one strange Louisiana town…

EBD: You also wrote an award winning historical novel. Tell us about this book. Will you continue to write in both genres?

Barbara: Notorious Eliza is a Regency e-novella published by Harlequin. Here’s a brief blurb:

Patrick needs a respectable new wife to be a mother for his daughter.
Notorious Eliza paints nudes to support her young son.
They should resist their mutual attraction. (They don’t.)
They dare not fall in love. (They do.)
And they must not marry…for Eliza’s most scandalous secret will surface and destroy them all.

Another historical e-novella, The Wanton Governess, will be out in August. Here’s a blurb:

In exchange for a few days’ shelter, dismissed governess Pompeia Grant pretends to be the wife of a man who spurned her years earlier. James Carling, the man in question, is in America, so he’ll never know. And it’s only for a couple of days. And she’s helping a friend, so she’s doing a good deed… But the next day, James comes home.

I have written the third book in the Bayou Gavotte series, and will be writing at least one more. I’m currently working on a couple more Regencies for Harlequin, both of which are sequels to The Wanton Governess.

After reading Sunrise in the Garden of Love & Evil, I can attest that Barbara’s writing is hot and spicy so you may want to sip a cool Mint Julep while reading this Southern flavored novel. Look for Barbara on Facebook, on Twitter @BarbaraMonajem, at her webpage.
E. B. Davis