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Krissy Daniels writes dark and beautiful romances about damaged men and women finding love against the odds. She shares insight how she finds inspiration all around her (including the inspiration for her the fabulously titled How to Kill Your Boss). And we totally nerd-girl out about Joanna Wylde.
Find Krissy online:
Check out her Truck Stop series
Episode Transcript
Elle
Krissy Daniels joins us today on Steam Scenes. She is the author of the Truck Stop series. Love how to kill your boss love that and the apotheosis series. Chrissy is a writer by night and a salesman by day she lives in Seattle with her husband, children and too many four legged furry monsters. The only thing she loves more than curling up with a steamy romance novel is cozying up to her desk and writing her own sexy adventures to share with others. Yay. Thank God. Welcome Chrissy. Thank you for being here.
Krissy
Thanks.
Elle
It’s great to have you.
Krissy
And I’m excited.
Elle
So am I! Okay, I guess we’ll just get started. When When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?
Krissy
I love this question. I have been writing since I was a little grade school since I could write since I can hold a pen. So I was writing stories not necessarily romance, but they always had, they always had a couple and a happy ending. So I guess maybe it was romance.
Elle
I think that qualifies.
Krissy
I had a great school teacher, I think it was sixth grade. And she encouraged story writing. And she would say okay, your homework tonight is a is a one page story about playing in the snow. And I’d come I’d come back the next day with a 10 page story. She was great. Because she would edit them and she would type them out and then type them up, put them up on the board for everybody to read. And she was my first real encouragement, like you should, you should keep doing this. And so I, you know, I didn’t take it seriously. I played around with it in high school in junior high. I had a girlfriend and we used to take turns when we do the I don’t know if there’s a name for this. But you she would write a sentence or a paragraph. And then I would write a sentence or a paragraph.
Elle
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think it’s like shared, right? I it has a term, but I can’t remember what it is.
Krissy
Yeah,yeah. And we would write stories that way. And we would do that for hours. And they go on for days and days and days. And I wish I had some of those still, because they were funny, we would get really silly and funny, but I never thought I never, you know, ever considered like, Oh, I can write a book. You know, I never, I just never even occurred to me.
Elle
Well, eventually it must have so like when did when did you say wait a minute, maybe I should write a book?
Krissy
Yeah. So when I had my children, they were really close together. And I was home with them. And that’s when I sat down. And I was like, you know, I have time to write now. I should just do it for fun. Just sit down. I had actually a scene come into my head. And so I just sat down one day when they were having their naps. And I just started writing. And then months and months and months and months later, I had a book done. And I didn’t honestly think I could do it. But really I did. And it was terrible. It was horrible. You know, because I didn’t I didn’t know anything about you know, writing and rules and grammar or anything. I was terrible. But Rebecca Zanetti. Are you familiar familiar with her?
Elle
Who was it again?
Krissy
Rebecca Zanetti?
Elle
No.
Krissy
Okay. Well, we went to high school together. And she’s a New York Times bestseller. She’s got like, 50 books out right now. After I finished mine, I had just discovered that she had some books published. And so I read them and they were so good. And so I reached out to her and I was like, Okay, I finished a book. What do I do? And she was great. She just, you know, told me to join my local RWA chapter and as many groups as I could and which I did. And three months later, I had a publishing contract.
Elle
Whoa!
Krissy
It was kind of crazy.
Elle
That’s pretty extraordinary. How long ago was this?
Krissy
I think I reached out to them in 2011 and maybe signed in 2012. And then I think it came out in 2014, A Flame did, so…
Elle
That’s pretty extraordinary. And that was your first like your first one.
Krissy
Yeah, that was my first one. That was terrible. I can’t go back and read it, but it’s out there.
Elle
I mean, but it wasn’t so terrible. You know, somebody picked it up. It couldn’t be that bad.
Krissy
No, it was Lyrical Press picked it up and actually I loved them. They were great to work with but I think it was Kensington that bought them out. Yeah, but it was, yeah, it was good and How to Kill Your Boss came shortly after that.
Elle
I love that title. I just love the concept of that.
You know, it’s funny I was I was working full time at this job. And my boss was a little crazy. He was really paranoid and kind of it wasn’t a healthy work environment. And he lost it one day and he fired me. He screamed at me. I didn’t even do anything. I just walked out from the from the restroom. And he screamed at me. And, and I didn’t, I didn’t stand there and take it, I yelled back. So he said, Well, you’re fired. So I went home. And that’s when I started writing How to Kill Your Boss. That same day. Because I needed to purge.
That’s pretty fantastic.
Krissy
That’s how that one started.
Elle
So I’m guessing you always knew you were gonna write like you’ve always written romance. That was your genre. Like that was it. What drew you to it?
Krissy
I need my happy endings. My happily ever afters. I can read a bunch of genres. I enjoy other genres. But I always I get frustrated when there’s not a couple, especially when there’s a couple in the book and you want them to be together. And then they’re not. I get so frustrated. So that’s why I love the romance genre. I need my happily ever afters. Lke the Twilight series was so frustrating for me. Because No, you know what, let’s talk about that later. I’ll talk about that later. That’s the sex part.
Elle
I like I’m like, I’m ready. I’m like, Yeah, yeah, I’ve only I mean, I will disclose you might have to school me a little bit. I only read the first book. That was it. And so and I haven’t even watched the movies. When I try….And I’ve talked about this before. So regular listeners, forgive me. I’m repeating myself. When I’ve tried to watch the first movie every single time. I’ve watched it. I fallen asleep.
Krissy
Oh, yeah. It’s not super exciting.
Elle
Within like the first 20 minutes, I’m out. And it’s not like it happened the first time and I was like, Oh, well, maybe I was just really tired. That happened a second time. And I was like, Oh, well, okay, maybe it’s not really me. And then I was like, let me try it one more time. Third time. I was like, Nope, can’t watch. Unless I’m insomniatic, then then I should you know,
Krissy
That’s funny.
Elle
Okay, so we’ll, we’ll hold that. I’m gonna make a note that Twilight.
Krissy
Yes. All right. I was thinking about the sex. Yeah, but I, I just need I the romance. I try to read other genres. And I just I always go back to romance because I just need that satisfaction at the end. Right?
Elle
Well, I mean, clearly you you kind of like your work trends towards that sort of romantic suspense. And kind of dark, which I love. And romance. So when you’re reading other genres, do you tend towards like darker books?
Krissy
Yep. Yeah. I’m Pam Godwin is my favorite dark romance writer. I don’t know if you’ve read her.
Elle
No, but I’m going to look her up.
Krissy
Oh my lord, she’s so good. And she’s one of those there’s a couple authors, Pam Godwin is one of them. That when I’m stuck in my writing, or I’m just feeling like it’s just you know, sometimes when you’re writing that first draft, it’s just boring, boring, boring, it’s just and you don’t know what to do or where to go or how to fix it. And so I’ll go back and read some of her books. And it just gets me back into that creative, gets my creative juices flowing, because she’s so good. She’s just so good with like, you get so immersed in her books, in the emotions and you feel like you’re in there. She’s so good at just pulling you in and making you feel it, you smell it, you know, taste it, and you feel for the character. Like it’s just, I don’t know, I just her work is so good. But it’s dark and what I love about it is it’s dark and you’re cringing and you’re hating these dark characters, these bad guys, but, but you’re also loving them because she writes them so well. And then there’s always this great twist at the end. But yeah, I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little, little twisted myself, but I love that dark romance. I’ll read that above anything first, you know, if I have the chance,
Elle
What is it about the darkness? Do you think that sort of attracts you?
Krissy
I don’t know, maybe because it’s a little taboo. And, um, it’s a little taboo. And I’m not. Not on the surface anyway. It’s my, it’s my dark side coming out.
Elle
I love that response, a little taboo, and I’m not.
Krissy
You know? I don’t know, I don’t know what it is. I think it just, it just gets me. I mean, I’ve read some dark romances that are bad, like, they just go too dark, and that I don’t like, you know, the rapey and that kind of thing. But
Elle
yeah, that’s it. See, that’s where I feel like there’s such a delicate line, and I would be so afraid to write on it. You know, what I mean, where you can go a little bit too far in one direction? I mean, I think it also depends on the editor.
Krissy
Yeah, I think that helps a lot. Yeah.
Elle
You know, because I’ve had, you know, even just attempting to write an alpha male, right, I’ve had editors come back. Actually, one of the editors that I use for my urban fantasies I tried to work with for one of my romances. And he just was like, slash the whole thing up, and was like, this is like, borderline abusive. And I’m like, actually, no, he’s kind of an alpha male… And I don’t think that I write terribly alpha male characters, like I don’t feel like they’re like…they can be decks, but they’re not like, these big time alphas that you really, you know, so I was kind of like, looking at the notes being like, oh, maybe I need to find somebody romance specific. But there is a fine line.
Krissy
There is and if you’re getting an editor that not used too it, especially the darker stuff, or the heavier stuff, yeah, they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna appreciate that. When I’m writing dark, when I go into a dark place, like I go dark, and I always end up having to change it and lighten it up a little bit. But I just let myself go, I like to just get down and dirty. And, and I know, I’m going to change it later. But it’s just kind of fun to let that out and put it on paper and, and get it out. And, you know, I do it knowing that it’s gonna probably get changed or cut.
Elle
I would actually love to see some of those early drafts.
Krissy
Yeah, I should go back and read some of those.
Elle
You know, I mean, like, put it out there as sort of like, you know, deleted scene because I am very curious, like, you know, how do you how dark can you go? And how do you know when to pull back?
Unknown Speaker
I’ll pull back when I, so I have one. Oh, crud, I’m sorry, I can’t think of her name. blogger. She was like, my first the first blogger that reviewed Aflame. And she reached out to me, and she was just in love with Aflame and, and we became friends. And, but when I put out Tango Stop Tango, the first one, she couldn’t review it, because it touched on some themes. Abuse, a little bit of abuse, which, to me, it was nothing in the book, it would kind of just talked about past abuse and cheating. And, because of her life experience, she couldn’t read the book. And so I always try to keep her in the back of my mind when I’m doing the dark scenes. And think, Oh, is this something she could handle? She’s kind of my gauge. I know, that’s a little weird. But I don’t want to turn readers off. I mean, if I wanted to market my books as dark romance, then I could really go dark. But I don’t know that I want to do that. And I don’t know that I am capable of doing that. Like, I just don’t. I don’t know.
Elle
Yeah, I mean, I haven’t I don’t think I’ve read enough of the genre where I could you know, where I could even sort of differentiate between like a dark-ish romance to like a truly dark romance. I just haven’t read enough in that in the genre. Although after reading your Truck Stop Tango series, I probably will.
Krissy
Well, that’s mine’s like, compared to this. Yeah, I wouldn’t consider it dark. I mean, I touch on some darker themes, but I wouldn’t consider it dark. But
Elle
So when you sat down to write your because I’m assuming I’m gonna assume because I haven’t read it that Aflame was your first book. It did have some steamy scenes on it correct?
Krissy
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Elle
Okay, so what was that like writing the first one?
Krissy
Okay, so I’m gonna go back to Rebecca Zanetti. Because when I was reading, I hope she doesn’t hear this. Because when I was reading her books, and this is this was just me being young and stupid, and I was reading the sexiness and I was like, Oh my god, I could do so much better than this. These are kinda boring. And then when I sat down to try to write them, I was like, Oh my god, this is hard. This sucks. Like, it’s hard to write them and write them good. And not just, ah, you know, he touched me here, he grabbed me there, he you know… Right away, I’m just, you know, it’s hard to, to put feeling and emotion into it. And it’s, they’re the hardest things for me to write. And now actually, when I’m writing, I just when I’m doing the first draft, I’ll just, I’ll write the scene. And then I’ll just put in parentheses sexy time here. And I’ll go back and do all the sex scenes later. Like, because it slows me down. I get stuck on them. And it’s hard to make it, you know, different than every other one. And, you know, but yeah, so my first ones, and there there was a lot of them because, because me being like, in naive and not really knowing much about writing and stuff I, I put a lot of, I just, I thought that Oh, that’s what they needed a lot of sex for me to sell books. So I put a lot of sex in, actually in all of them. Because I thought that’s what I needed to do. You know.
Elle
Well, I mean, some books when you do read the romance, you know that some books do have a ton of sex scenes in them, and some not so much. And I know with my, when I first started writing, I erred on the side of too much. And now I feel like I don’t put enough in and I’m always like, okay, where can I add another?
Krissy
Right? I know and why do we battle with that? Why can’t it just go with like, this is how the story is going. And it doesn’t need it here. It doesn’t need it here. But why do we feel like we need to put that in there, you know, if it’s not fitting in the story, but I’m the same way. I feel like oh, there’s not enough sex, people aren’t going to keep reading.
Elle
I do think as much as as much as it is about the characters and the emotional roller coaster ride you take them on and all of that. I mean, I do think that people enjoy reading those moments, you know, and I think you know, and I don’t think that it’s necessarily the pornographic aspect, so much as it is the emotional aspect. I mean, I’m just sort of very curious to sort of see what part of our brains get kind of turned on, excuse me, from reading something pleasurable like that, like do we have? What’s that sort of experience going on, neurologically for us because there’s got to be something?
Krissy
Oh, I’m sure there is. Yeah, that’s, I’m sure there’s probably studies out there about it, we should probably find out. Maybe I’ll do that today when we’re done. I’ll do some research.
Elle
Well, you’re the first one I’m telling like, this is coming. I’m coming out of the closet, and actually going to school to study this.
Krissy
Oh, you?
Elle
I’m going back to school so that I can write better sex.
Krissy
Awesome. I love it.
Elle
I’m going through a relationship…. well, basically like a how to be a sex coach class. I mean, like, just like, but it’s really more about relationship relationships and intimacy coaching and stuff like that. That’s not something I necessarily want to do. But I just was like, as a writer, I was like, you know – romance writer in particular – was like, this is kind of fascinating.
Krissy
Yeah. And wow, how, how smart is that to do that? Now I’m gonna have to go read your your sex scenes before and after.
Elle
I’m very curious what’s going to happen to them. Absolutely. The before and after. I mean, at the very least, I hope I get more positions. Are you like that? Do you like read and you’re like, oh my god, did I just do missionary again?
Krissy
Well. Yeah. It’s kind of coming up with new stuff. Let’s see. They did it on the stairs, last time they did it in the shower. They did it on the kitchen counter. Where else could we go?
Elle
Since you leave them, right. And I love that you do. And I wish that I could. But I always feel like and this slows me down. Like, I am so slow when I can bang out 1000 words, and like two hours, an hour and a half. But when I get to that intimate scene, like I’m done for the day, like you’re just gonna…I’ll get 300 words, if I’m lucky. Yeah, I’m the same way. So like, since you save yours to the end?
Krissy
Uh huh.
Elle
Do you find that that, like, you’re just able to turn and burn it out? Like, how do you work? You have to, like, separate it like on like, I gotta do this and then move on do this and then walk away? Like, how do you do it?
Krissy
Okay, so sometimes, if the scene’s right and my moods right, I can do it. But like, you know, but like you said, I do a sex scene and I’m kind of done. But what I found that works best for me. If I go back to one that I had skipped, I knew I need to put one in there. By that time, I kind of know the characters a little better and their background. Like my first draft, my characters are pretty, pretty basic. There’s not too much, too many layers there. But then, you know, by the second or third time I go through, then they’ve got more layers. And they’ve got reasons for why they’re doing this and that. And so then there’s more feelings involved and motivation. And so that helps me, but you know what, I’ll do I’ll sit in the dark or all closed my eyes, and I just start typing. Like, I find that if I’m staring at the screen and trying to write it, I can’t do it. So I just close my eyes and start typing and just whatever comes out comes out. A lot of times I change it, sometimes it’s really good and I just have to fix a few things. But that’s what works for me. I don’t know why it works. But it does. And just closing my eyes. I don’t know why. And then a lot of times, I’ll find that my fingers were on the wrong keys. Nothing I typed made sense. And I then I have to start over.
Elle
That was kind of what I was in the back of my head going, oh man, I wouldn’t even be able to read what I wrote if I did that.
Krissy
It’s happened. I’ve done that quite a few times. I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s because I can get more emotion that way when I just blocked out everything around me. But
Elle
One writer that I interviewed for the podcast….this was really cool. And I need to sort of do it is she figured out early on like what her characters smelled like they like she gives them like a signature scent. And then she’ll go out and get something that is like a fragrance or a body lotion or a soap that is theirs. And so when it comes to writing the steamy scenes, she will like pick that up and smell it and sort of have that sort of as kind of a trigger for her to really get into it.
Krissy
Yeah, that’s a good idea. I never thought about that.
Elle
Yeah, I was like, that’s cool. And I need to I need to do that.
Krissy
I know I’ll have to try that too.
Elle
So like when you guys see me at CVS in the soap section with my nose pressed my masked nose press to the soap you know what I’m doing?
Krissy
Oh, I love it. That’s good.
Elle
So okay, so you write these dark really great I mean I have to say that Truck Stop series man I was like I started reading it I was like holy shit this is so good. So good. I like was so in it. I was so absolutely in and I was just like this is a great story. And I love the setting. I love the way you paint the setting. The characters are phenomenal. I mean it’s just it was just such a great like triggered all the good buttons in me and I was like this is a really really great read. And I’m guessing you don’t come from that world. I could be wrong.
Krissy
I based it is I based it off my hometown, Whisper Springs. I didn’t call it a grew up in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and but there’s a lot of authors that write about Coeur d’Alene.
Elle
Joanna Wilde.
Krissy
Yes. Oh my She is my one of my top five faves.
Elle
Why did she stop writing? Um,
Krissy
I don’t know why but I don’t know that I can say.
Elle
Okay, never mind. I’m sorry.
Krissy
I don’t know that she’s done. I don’t know her personally, but we have some mutual friends, but yeah, I don’t know that she’s done writing. But…
Elle
She’s just paused?
Krissy
Yeah, paused. Yeah.
Elle
Oh man. I hope she is, I love her series.
Krissy
I hope she’s coming back because that woman and you know, we were going to talk about favorite sex scenes like, all of hers are my favorites. She writes the best.
Elle
Yes. That she is really good at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I guess yeah her work is pretty dark but I never felt like it was that dark and I think maybe because she does intersperse a lot of humor in her books as well. Like she’s able to put that in. But yeah, it’s, it’s, um, she’s fantastic. So what was it like growing up there?
Krissy
Oh, my gosh, well, it’s a small It was a small town. It’s grown a lot. It was, you know… I grew up in the 70s and 80s. And so, and I’ll be honest, I kind of lived in La La Land. I was one of those little girls that grew up dreaming about marrying a guy and being a happy wife forever. Like, I didn’t care about school, about what was going on in the world. You know, I was kind of, I don’t know, I was kind of living in a fantasy world, I think, and I was super shy. Anyway, the town, it was great. It was a great place to grow up. I wish I could have raised my kids there honestly. But when I was growing up it was there was like one or two black kids in our high school. It was pretty predominantly white. And you know, I in Truck Stop Tempest, I deal with the white supremacy a little bit. And, and that was, there was a group in Coeur d’Alene when I was growing up that I kind of base that off of because as a as a young child they were there and it was kind of scary for me growing up watching them and I had friends that they harassed and scared. And anyway, so that’s kind of how that came about in Truck Stop Tempest,
Elle
That’s really fascinating that you grew up there because I had heard that it that area is absolutely beautiful.
Krissy
It’s so beautiful. And I was on the lake. Like, I spent my summers on the lake, at the beach. Um, we didn’t have a boat ourselves. But all my friends had boats. So we were I was either out on the boat with my friends or I was on the beach all summer long. And that’s what I don’t like about Seattle. You can’t do that here. You know, my kids didn’t learn how to swim, you know, out in the lake, they had to take them to a swimming pool.
Elle
You got to the Y. Yeah, I think I did hear like, it’s absolutely beautiful. And that but then there’s also that undercurrent of, of tension. And it’s apparently become kind of strange from what I had read, because there’s a lot of wealth from places like Seattle that come there to pay for like vacation homes.
Krissy
Yeah, Seattle, California. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of wealth over there. Yeah, and kind of Tango and his dad are kind of based on a family there in Coeur d’Alene.
Elle
All right. So it’s kind of curious where the inspiration knowing that you lived in Seattle where the inspiration for this kind of small truck stopy town, you know, came from so Yeah, super fascinating.
Krissy
Yeah, yeah. His family’s based on the family that pretty much owned the town when I was growing up. I’m not sure how it is right now. I don’t get home very often anymore.
Elle
So do you have a moment? I guess when we’re talking about that favorite steamy moment and literature? I’m guessing you’re gonna pick it from Joanna’s book.
Krissy
I was actually.
Elle
Which one?
Krissy
I wish I would have I would have looked it up before we started. But and I don’t remember which book it is, but it’s the scene. And I think it’s at the beginning of one of the books. And he’s doing her doggy style. And he’s trying to do anal. And she’s young. And her dad kind of made her go in with the club and be a club whore.
Elle
Oh, was that from Silver Bastards?
Krissy
I can’t, maybe it is.
Elle
I think that was the first Silver Bastards.
Krissy
And I wish I would have looked it up before we started, but I didn’t. But I just I love it because here he is. He’s, you know, this big biker dude. And he’s trying to, you know, just get his rocks off and he doesn’t realize what she’s going through, you know. And I just love it. I love how she writes the sex scenes because they’re so…they’re gritty, and they’re real. And it’s, you know, not, every time the girl has sex, she’s having an orgasm, or you know, especially the virgins. You know, she’s just really real and raw. And I love that. And I actually, we were at a conference and she did a she did a talk on, on writing sex scenes.
Elle
Oh!
Krissy
Which was really, really fun. And she, there’s a book, oh, gosh, I’m sorry, I didn’t write this stuff down. I should have but…
Elle
No, it’s okay.
Krissy
She recommended a book that she uses that you know about sex and to help her write her scenes.
Elle
Oh, if you think of it, canyou email it to me?
Krissy
I actually, I actually messaged her a couple years later and asked her to remind me what the book was. And I I don’t know if I ever ended up buying it or not, but I’ll find it and I’ll send it to you.
Elle
That’d be great. I’m very curious what she recommends.
Krissy
I just love how real her scenes are. Yeah, they’re pretty unreal. And that’s another thing with Pam Godwin too. Her sex scenes are really, they’re not all, you know, pretty and fluffy. The emotion that goes into it. And it’s not always pretty. And sometimes coming from ugly, an ugly point, an ugly side, but you feel it like you feel it. It’s not always good. But it’s always right for whatever the scene is,
Elle
Right. I’m always so nervous to write those, like, I’ve got one in my work in progress that I’m working on. And it’s sort of like after it’s done. The heroine just sort of says, Well, now that we got that out of our systems kind of washes their hands of it. And I’m, and I’m and I keep looking at that scene. And I’m like, I don’t know if I can get away with this. I don’t know, you know, and I mean, I don’t write really, I mean, my stuff is edgy, but it’s not dark by any stretch of the imagination. It’s really not, um, I guess angsty is the word. Um, you know, not edgy, angsty. And I wonder like, Can I get away with that? Can I get away with her saying that feeling that and not having? Although that’s more like the lie, she tells herself? Right? Because there’s definitely an intimate connection there between her and the hero? Yeah.
Krissy
Yeah, I think you know, what, if it’s the character, you definitely can get away with it. If it fits the character in the scene. But, you know, maybe, maybe you have to let the audience know a little bit that that’s just her covering up for something or whatever. Right? fooling herself? I don’t know. It’s tough. The one I’m writing right now is this is tough too I’m having a really hard time deciding if I want to put those sex scenes in or not, because the couple is, they’re neighbors. And they had a one night stand. But they keep coming back to it. And I was like, how much of this can I get away with before the people are like, knock it off? You guys either get together or stop having sex? You know?
Elle
Well, that’s it. Right? That’s the balance that we’re trying to find that can be really hard.
Krissy
Yeah. And see, my I think a lot of my hang up is, is I grew up really naive. And, and even now, I’m still really naive about sex and how much sex people are having in real life. And, like, I hear things at the day job. And, like, people, I’ll go out with the girls and they’ll be like, you know, so and so and so and so or are there they’re doing it and I was like, what, you know, like, they work together? How can they do that? And, you know, my kids would would come home, they’re all out of school now. But they would come home from school and tell me about stuff that happened at school in the bathroom. And I was like, people do that in high school? You know, it was for me. I thought like, I’m really naive. So it’s that’s kind of where my challenges writing sex scenes like how you know, I, I always start out with the woman being this timid little, you know, creature that’s, oh, yeah, go ahead and kiss me. You know? Like, t’s hard for me like, I really had to force myself to make the woman strong and, and sexy and because I’m not like that. So it’s really a challenge for me.
Elle
Well, it’s funny that you said that because I was like sort of going, well wait, your female characters are very strong.
Krissy
It’s hard for me but it it’s fun like Ada in Truck Stop Tryst. She’s my favorite character to write female characters, right? Because I, she’s so totally not what I am. You know, she’s total opposite of me. And so she was my favorite to write because she’s just, you know, badass, and she loves sex and she’s not afraid to admit it.
Elle
That’s so cool. Okay, so we should probably dive into some of these steamy scenes. Now you sent me two from Truck Stop Tempest, which is the first the first book. No, no, it’s the third book. I’m sorry. Yes, the third book. And we have our two characters Tuly and Tito, you know. Yeah. And I you sent me I wanted I reverse the order that you sent me Tito’s first and Tuly’s. Is it okay, will it make sense still, if I reverse the order of these?
Krissy
I don’t think so. I don’t know if they’re even the same moment?
Elle
I don’t think they’re from the same moment. So yeah, I don’t think so. All right. Cool. So I just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t like a reason that you like, put them together that way because I kind of wanted to read Tuly first before jumping into Tito because there’s the way that you it’s talking about writing male point of view and female point of view. And I think you do male point of view so so well, and it’s not something that I do, although I’m trying to.
Krissy
It’s fun.
Elle
But I’m like, yeah, trying to I’m trying so hard to
Krissy
You know, do it on the side for fun if you never put it in you, you know, tried.
Elle
Okay, so um, oh my god, this, ah, it deleted my notes. When I moved it around, it deleted my notes. Now I’m like, oh, shoot. Well, okay, so I’m going to do this a little bit on the fly. Alright, bear with me. When I move things around. It actually ended up because I was I made my notes. And then I was like, Oh, you know, I want to read about and before so I don’t forget, I was like, let me reorder this. And when I reordered it, it took all of my notes away. Oh, no. Yeah, that’s Oh, my God. Okay. All right. We’re good. Okay. All right. So here’s the first bit and we’re in to Tuly’s point of view right now. I stroked him from base to tip again and again high off the thrill, the anticipation, the desire rolling and building inside me. My bruised body ached with new cause my wounded spirit warming and healing under the sound of his moans his lustful breaths his greedy lips wounded battered weak to Lee didn’t exist in Tito’s embrace her fragile shell replaced with with that of a woman wanted a woman cherished a woman worthy, unbreakable in the arms of a man like Tito. I loved this. Like I loved this. Okay, so what’s going on here? What what is what has led up to this scene?
Krissy
So I think Tuly had, so she escaped from a white supremacy. And her father had her in an arranged marriage kind of, and she had just escaped an attack, I think from her. The guy that she was supposed to marry, was trying to get her back. And I think she fought him off. And so Tito was was out of town, but he just got back if I remember right.
Elle
And what was their relationship beforehand where they – Tito and Tuly – did they just met What’s their relationship?
Krissy
So there’s, she’s liked him from the get go. He’s dark and rough and gruff. And he likes her too, but he afraid of commitment, afraid of hurting her, you know, he sees her as this pure white soul and he’s gonna ruin her. If if he’s with her, but, you know, they’re, they’re, you know, obviously super attracted to each other. They’ve had they’ve had sex before. This point, I believe, but yeah, they have sorry. And anyway, she just grew up thinking she was born to be bred, born to be married, and not enjoy sex or love or anything like she grew up in this. Her father was a leader of a white supremacy group and, and her job was to make babies for them and marry this guy that’s going to take over the takeover someday. So she’s kind of opening up and realizing, hey, I can, I can have feelings and emotions and I can enjoy this and I can you know, I can feel wanted and loved. And that’s her kind of, like, just coming out of her shell.
Elle
I mean, I just kind of loved how the act of sex builds her up, just being with him. You know, where she’s saying, you know, wounded, battered, weak Tuly didn’t exist with him, like he. And it’s sort of like, his ability to kind of tease that like it exists in her. But he has got the ability to sort of tease that out of her. And he’s able to do that through this sort of physical the physical moments between them,
Krissy
Yeah, he does through those cuz he gives her power, which I love because she was taught you don’t you don’t talk back to the man and you don’t talk back to men. You do what they say, you know, and so I think he realizes that and he’s really good. Have a good at, you know, not letting her her be that weak. woman like that looks down to the ground when a man approaches her, which is what she was taught to do. So yeah, I love that. I love that about them as a couple. He doesn’t let her do that.
Elle
Yeah, okay. This was I mean, this was just here’s another sort of like, amazing moment. Oh my god, I love this book. He slid a hand down my waist across my hip and lower still until he cut my socks applying pressure on the sensitive nub. He toyed brushing soft strokes across my folds, teasing the entrance, rubbing slow circles with his palm all the while suckling my breast and slow aching poles. I tried to watch and transfer the roles of each carved muscle on his in his chest, shoulders and arms. The heavy lidded gaze of his eyes the contrast of his large frame over my slight build. I tried to watch but the pleasure slammed through me like a crashing wave. And I threw my head into the mattress arching against his mouth, his hands his heat. I fisted the sheets at my sides bucking and trembling under the overload of emotion. His ministrations traveled down my torso, marking every inch of skin as he promised with lips and touches and nipples and raspy exhale. exhales Oh God, he was undoing me. inch by inch. Okay, see, this doesn’t read like you struggle at all with scenes because this is effortless. Like, I am just like, how does she write this it’s so beautiful, you know? I’m not even thinking like, what position are they on? How do you?
Krissy
Yeah, so it’s hard. I try not to think about the position. I thought about what’s going on in their head more than anything. And, and before that scene, he had told her he sees like, cuz cuz the other guy had touched her. He’s like, I’m, you know, I’m gonna wipe every memory or a touch from him off of you. You know? So? Yeah, I just, that’s this is another I close my eyes and just go moment.
Elle
Right, right. I mean, when you close your eyes, and you can like, um, forgive me if I’m going like TMI? Is it playing like a movie in your head?
Krissy
Kind of like a movie. I close my eyes. And I feel like I’m I just try to be in the scene and, and like, what, what I would What? You know where she’s coming from? How would she react to this or that? Yeah, you’re right. It is kind of I never really thought of it like that. But I kind of is kind of plays like a movie in my head. And I just tried to type it out.
Elle
Because the one thing that I’m sort of, hyper aware of when I was, you know, reading through your work, it is definitely how the emotional aspect is intertwined with the physical always. And so, you know, like, like, and it’s something that I’m sort of trying to force myself to do more because sometimes it feels like okay, here’s the here’s here’s the sex. And now here’s the emotion. Entwining the two makes it so beautiful and powerful. And like you said, You’re not thinking about, are we still in missionary position? is this? are we standing like, you know, you’re not thinking about the positions.You’re just thinking about this beautiful moment?
Krissy
I know. Yeah. See, for me, that’s so much more exciting to read than just the actual physical parts. I find myself now when I’m reading books, skipping over the physical sex parts. Unless it’s, you know, a really emotional thing. I don’t I get bored with it now. Because it’s just, you know, there’s so much of it. And you do get bored of the same thing over and over. So I try to get more emotion in there. And I feel like that’s important. You know, unless the scene calls for them just having like a quickie with no emotion. They’re just doing a quickie to get it done or something, you know?
Elle
Right, right. No, I think that that’s a great point. Because more and more, I’m sort of like, I’m just kind of, like a lurker and reader groups on Facebook and stuff. And, and a lot of, I’m seeing more and more readers saying, they’re just skipping over the sex scenes. And that’s, you know, and that’s where you go. Oh, interesting. I wonder why.
Krissy
Yeah.
Elle
Okay, so this is just two little bits. They kind of are close to each other, but they don’t go together. But I thought that I’m just going to read them together because like, they’re like, the first one is so short. They’re both shorts. Okay. The world stops spinning when our eyes met. He’d never looked so beautiful cheeks flushed, lips parted, eyes, dreamy and drinking me in. Okay, now I’m jumping down a bit. Still chuckling, Tito rolled the condom on and sunk into me, filling me with heat and pleasure and gentle bliss. I melted into the bed, absorbing his thrust soaking up his kisses, getting lost in the way he loved me with his body. Love me with his body. So that to me is the essence of, of a sex scene of an intimate scene of what we should be writing. Like, all the time, is the way that these people are loving each other with their bodies. I was like, Oh my god, she hit in this one sentence, she hit it.
Krissy
That’s important in that book, because Tito can’t actually say he loves her. He can’t say it. But he does everything you can to show her.
Elle
It was so beautiful. Like, you know, and her sort of also talking about how he’d never looked so beautiful. And what he looked like, through her eyes, which I never quite thought about, like that part of it. And then she’s, you know, and how much that leads to that feeling of that sort of almost overwhelming feeling. So I just thought this was beautiful
Krissy
Thanks.
Elle
And then we get to Tito. And not like this. And like, it’s, this was so cool. How you wrote the male point of view, how you wrote the female point of view. It’s so different in terms of the writing and the style. And it works so well. And I and I, it’s like, just like man how do you do that? Because like I said, I’m trying to write the dude and it’s so hard so friggin hard.
Krissy
It is hard. Men and women talk different and they think different and that’s what I try to remind myself when I’m doing the male point of view.
Elle
Okay, let me read this bit. It’s um, it’s a bit long, but let me so bear with me, okay. She smelled like bleach and french fries tasted like minty lip balm. Damn, I wanted to ravage and dirty her, clean her up and start all over again. I broke the lip lock, then move down to her ear, her neck licking biting and marking that salty skin. Her fingers curled into my hair pulling tight. I grabbed her hips yanking her harder against me grinding my erection against that perfect spot between her legs. A ridiculous sexy noise rose from her throat setting me on fire in the car now or I’m taking you right here for the world to see. Tuly leaned back on on her arms, chest heaving, lips swollen taking me in. My eyes, my scar my chest. When she raised her gaze again to mine she mumbles Yeah, hell, why not? And pushed me away. That damn little bunny opened my car door, crawled behind the passenger seat kicked off her shoes, then shimmy out to her khakis. Fuck yes. I wet the moisture off my mouth with the back of my hand. The seat of my Mustang was cramped as hell but I managed to sit and work my jeans down my hips. The second my cock sprang free that feisty little bunny straddled me. She grabbed the back of the seat lifted her ass and slid that slick tight pussy down the length of me. What? Okay, so I thought it was like the language, the words used, the rhythm of the language, like all put me right into his head. And so different from her so different.
Krissy
Yeah, well, I feel like it has to be that way. Because men don’t get all flowery and, you know, their…men just don’t talk or think like that, you know, they’re more like, just get the job done. You know, like, yeah, this is we’re gonna do it.
Elle
Fuck, yeah, we’re gonna do it.
Krissy
Yeah, so and, you know, this scene is is a good one. It’s one of my favorites, because she’s kind of trying to get him to open up to him more, and he won’t. And she, she told him he needs to, but he’s thinking, we’re gonna have sex, everything will be fine. But, you know, obviously not. You’ll see after the end of the sex scene, but yeah, I just I really, I have to write them different. I just, I hate reading books in the men and women talk the same. And, and think the same. And I just, you know, men are. So we’re too different, and I try to make it as, as real as I can. Or as how I see men and how they talk and how they act. And, you know, what they’re thinking about.
Elle
I guess too, again, which it’s that balance, though, right? Because if you put them so far over the edge, like, I guess what sort of grabbed me is that he’s able to be who he is, in terms of that sort of, like, maybe not so sensitive, you know, but yet he, you still get that he really cares about her. Yeah. You know, and so I think managing that balance is really tricky. And you do it really, really well.
Krissy
Thanks. I try.
Elle
And I’m like, what, how? You know, and I, I’m like, how, how is she doing this? It’s really extraordinary. Okay, so last little bit, particularly right here. This jumped out at me. I’d been so wrong. That girl wasn’t a timid little bunny. She wasn’t a beast either. She was a tempest, a fucking force of nature, coming in slow and steady, surprising, refreshing, caressing me with her brisk wind, then striking hard with everything she had. Tearing my world apart from the roots and leaving me in total devastation. Whoa. Like so much more. I mean, if you you know, if you were questioning if it was more than a physical thing before like, no laid bare right here. In this sort of very masculine Tito way.
Krissy
Yeah.
Elle
How the hell do you capture that?
Krissy
I had fun with that scene. I because I wanted him to suffer because, you know, he wasn’t opening up to her. And so she told him you got to open up to me or, or there’s nothing. And nobody’s really talked to Tito like that before. You know, everybody’s kind of scared of him. And, and so it was hard for him to hear. So you know, he needed to be ripped open, a little bit laid bare.
Elle
How do you get into the male head space when you’re when you’re writing? Like, how do you do that?
Krissy
I do many, many drafts and many, many rewrites. Like that scene, I probably I probably rewrote that scene 100 times. I just I just try to think the way a man would think I guess I don’t know. I go back to my husband a lot, just the way he talks and reacts to things and I don’t know. I don’t know how I do it. I just do it. I mean, I’m not one of those people that can push out a book every three months. You know, it takes me a good year, six months to a year to get the first strap down and then and then I do a lot of revising and rewriting and I don’t know, it’s I just really tried to put my, my head in the male point of view. And I pay attention, like, I pay attention a lot to the way men talk and talk about women and when they think nobody’s listening,. That’s one thing I love about that I still have a day job to go to, and I’m surrounded by men in this office. And I’m just listening to them all day long. And it’s kind of funny, just the way you hear them talking. And then the way the women are talking, so I pay attention.
Elle
Yeah, yeah, I guess. Because I’ve, I think it’s interesting that there because I found like, if women walk in the conversation shifts.
Krissy
Yeah.
Elle
So I’m sort of surprised that you’re able to kind of be that fly on the wall, maybe because it’s at work, and they don’t think about it.
Krissy
I think so. Yeah. I think so. And, you know, even my husband, I love him. And he’s always got his buddies over. So I just, I do a lot of listening.
Elle
A lot of creeping up on the door.
Krissy
Or, you know, even when we’re all out at the bar, or whatever, you know.
Elle
yeah, but I’ve, like, I’ve been out with my husband’s friends, and they kind of clam up.
Krissy
Oh, my husband’s not like that. We should thank him for the male point of view scenes, cuz he’s, he, he’ll say what he feels. And, you know, a lot of his friends are the same way.
Elle
Ya, no, they clam up. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m in New England, and everybody kind of clams up here. It’s like, but we do, you know, stiff upper lip, like, you know, like, we’re still British or something. So no, this was, um, so, so gorgeous. And I know, like, from reading through the series, the other thing that really jumped out at me is that the men also sound different from one another, too. l think one author in particular, who shall not be named because I love her. I love her books. But I always feel like when she’s in that male point of view, the guys are pretty interchangeable. And I could drop one guy into another book and like, sort of swap out the heroes. And there wouldn’t you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Yeah. And and I feel like your heroes are all very differentiated.
Krissy
I try to do that. I try to think about like, their background, their education, how they grew up. Like, Dane, for example, you know, he grew up living in a trailer with a biker gang surrounding him, and they’re all pretty educated, and his dad’s a psychopath. And, you know. And I try to think about I don’t want to say anything bad about the town I grew up in, but they talk different than we do here in Seattle. And I just try pull on memories of people grow like I grew up with and how they talked and how they were raised and how they grew up. And so yeah, for like Dane, I, I wrote him different. He was easy to write different just because he had a different experience,
Elle
Right.
Krissy
You know, and Tango grew up, he was the Golden Boy rich boy. So I had to write him a little different. And he had Spanish speaking parents, and you know, nannies, and he grew up with Tito, but Tito grew up in New York. And so he had a different experience.
Elle
Well, I think that that’s also like, super interesting, too. Because I was like, you know, when you’re writing characters in a series, right? This, this has been my kind of struggle is that so far, the guys, and even to a degree, the women too their experiences and their life experiences are all pretty similar. Right? So like, like, for example, like the first two in the series, I’ve got sisters, and I’ve got brothers. And so their experiences are all pretty similar. And so it became a bit of a struggle to make sure that the voices are being differentiated. You know, so that it’s clear that the voices are not the same for the other, you know, for the other ones, but because I was writing female point of view, it was more, you know, it was definitely more ugent that the women that the women don’t sound the same you know, certainly. But still even writing the conversations like I had to make sure that one brother didn’t sound exactly like the other you know.
Krissy
It’s tough. I mean, I I tried to like have a motivation in the back of my head for like… So with Tito what made it easy for me with him to do just a simple change that made a big difference I felt like was instead of saying fucking he says fuckin because I didn’t want to really write a New York accent necessarily. But to the reader, it would sound like fuckin instead of fucking you know, if that makes sense. So I don’t know if you if, if you picked up on it, we’re reading Tito story, but he does. It’s always that IN instead of ING. So just little things like that can make a huge difference.
Elle
You know, it’s funny that because I didn’t pick up on that, but you’re right, because it didn’t or consciously I didn’t pick up on it. But it became that sort of staccato the rhythm of his voice. Yeah, versus fucking you know, which is super interesting. Like even something that small that tiny. I’m totally stealing that tip.
Krissy
It makes a big difference in even when you’re writing the character, you’re thinking, you know, you’ve you’re thinking differently than already just from that one little change.
Elle
Right, right. Oh my God, this has been so cool. It’s been such a treat. So um, where can readers find you? Where do you live online?
Krissy
I’m at Chrissy daniels.com I Instagram I you know, I gotta pull up my Instagram because I don’t know what my thing is/
Elle
Chrissy Daniels books I’ve got before.
Krissy
Do you mind telling the listeners where to find me?
Elle
Do you prefer one way over the other? I’ve got I this will be in the show notes on all of your all of your locations.
Krissy
I should know them by heart, but I don’t.
Elle
And I know that love was your most recent release. When did that come out?
Krissy
That just came out in…Holy crud. It’s September. Wow. Okay. All right. It’s pretty new. You know what I gotta pull that out too. This is terrible. I wasn’t prepared for you. I’m sorry. I’m going to look it up right now because it’s gonna bug me. Anyway, yeah, that this came out. And that was a little lighter on the sex. There’s some sex in there. But, um, I actually had to go lighter on this one with the sex because of the story line. And the couple doesn’t really get together till halfway through. So that was a fun challenge too try to figure out when they could have sex and try to make that their sexual tension without actually having sex. But, oh, June 30. It came out on June 30.
Elle
Oh, okay. So it’s, I mean, it’s been out it’s definitely less than a year though. . Does this tie in at all to Truck Stop?
Krissy
Yeah, at the end some of the Truck Stop characters show up.
Elle
Okay. Yeah, I was curious about that.
Krissy
Yeah, it’s not connected. It’s not connected, but I just had fun kind of throwing them in there.
Elle
I love revisiting I was sort of like, you know, how can I I’m actually thinking about writing a second series that’s going to spin off of my LA Rock Star series. So in so you can have like the kind of like Joanna did with Reapers and Silver Bastards, where they will coincide sometimes even though they’re in their own worlds.
Krissy
Right. It’s so much fun when they do.
Elle
Yeah, yeah, I absolutely love that one series do that. It’s like one of my favorite things.
Krissy
I feel like I need to go back and read all her books now.
Elle
I know me too. I was just thinking that I was absolutely just thinking that. I think it’s time to give Joanna’s a reread.
Krissy
Definitely.
So Krissy, thank you so much for doing this. It was been an absolute pleasure. And please, next time you have a new release, like, give me a holler so that we can talk about it.
Okay, thanks so much. This was fun. I’m gonna go check out your books now.
Elle
Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.
Krissy
Take care.