Who is Maya Banks? Give us the low down.  I’m the most boring person on the planet. I live in a cave. I like routine. I have a twisted sense of humor and am very likely to be amused by things normal people wouldn’t. I always joke and say that my readers would be surprised at how shockingly conservative I am (based on what I write lol) I’m easily traumatized by the TMI department and there are some things I can go my entire life without knowing. Really.

Softly at Sunrise, a KGI novella comes out 8/21. Tell the readers a little about it. From the very start, the reader response to Ethan and Rachel was overwhelming. Just a few weeks after that first KGI  book released, I started getting emails from readers asking if I was ever going to revisit the couple and give readers a glimpse of them further down the road when Rachel was better on her feet and their relationship wasn’t as emotional and as raw as it was when she came home after being a prisoner in hell for a year.  I absolutely did intend to revisit them, but I wanted to wait until they’d had time to mature in their relationship and have some distance from the first book.  Since there is a gap of time in Shades of Gray (KGI #6) from the start of the book to the end, I figured it was the perfect time to catch up with Ethan and Rachel.

The KGI series centers around the six Kelly brothers, who all have served in a different branch of the military. That is a lot of alpha in one family! Who is more fun to write – the alpha males or the females that they fall in love with? That’s actually really hard to decide. I know a lot of readers love tortured heroes. Not to say I don’t love them too, however, my personal favorite are tortured heroines. I love, love, love a female lead overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to get their kickass happily ever after and I love seeing how they strengthen over the course of a book.  So I guess I’m going to go with the heroines and say that they’re my favorite because I have a LOT of fun writing them and getting into their heads and I have to say, I particularly enjoyed writing P.J.’s story!

Softly at Sunrise is a self published novella. Did you enjoy the process of self publishing? Is it something your readers will see more of in the future? Yes and definitely yes. I’ve loved it so far. I had to wait for just the right opportunity and I was determined that I wasn’t going to half ass it or put out a “meh” product just for the sake of having something self-published out there. It was VERY important to me to do the right project and have it be something I was really excited about.  I definitely have more stories in the works. Theirs to Keep will follow Softly at Sunrise and it will release October 16^th. It’s the first book in the Tangled Hearts Trilogy and I hope to release the second and third early in 2013.

The KGI series is just one of the many series/books you write. What is coming up next for you? I have the first book in a new Scottish historical series that releases September 25^th of this year. It kicks off the Montgomerys and the Armstrongs series and instead of being a trilogy, I have plans for more than three books. Right now I see six, but we’ll see how it goes! As mentioned above, I also have more self-published projects in the works and so I’ll be focusing on the KGI series, the Scottish historicals and I’m also still doing one trade paperback release for Berkley a year. My April 2013 slot will be for Colters’ Gift, the 5^th book in that series and then starting in May 2014, I’ll be kicking off the spin off to the Sweet Series.

Thanks Maya! Softly at Sunrise will be available as an e-book tomorrow, 8/21.

Kindle  l Goodreads

For more information, visit her website.