Melodee Aaron was born and raised in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri where she spent many long hours 

on the front porch of her great-grandmother's house as the old woman practiced the ancient art of 

storytelling. Her life having spanned the time from before cars and airplanes all the way through seeing 

men walking on the moon, "Grammy" had a unique perspective. Her stories blended old-time values with 

modern life in a way that made the stories and the characters come to life.

Melodee knew, even as a child, that she too wanted to tell stories.

Emotionless sex for the sake of sex and turning people into simple sex toys. These are the apparent goals of 

pornography.

But the films from Midnight Interludes are erotic romances, not pornography.

That gives Valerie little consolation when she makes the casting call. Desperate and out of options, she 

closes her eyes and makes the leap.

A vampire stalks Roland's dreams. Immortal, terrifyingly beautiful, seductive, and a deadly predator, Elektra 

moves between the shadows of the mortal world and nightmares.

And he must capture the love and horror on film. When Valerie walks into his office, Roland knows he has 

found Elektra. Running on instincts, Roland closes his eyes and makes the leap.

As the cameras roll, attraction and passion between Valerie and Roland builds, adding to the lust on the 

set.

Welcome, sensual romance author Ms. Aaron, to Love Romances and More. We are excited to have the 

opportunity to speak with you and learn more about your work.

How long have you been writing; was it something you have always wanted to do?

I guess that depends on how you define writing. I learned to write, thanks to my parents, at about age 3. 

I wrote my first "story" for Grammy when I was about 4. As I recall, it was about 12 words and 3 sentences.

I started writing seriously a little later in school. By age ten, I was writing stories on a regular basis and essays 

nearly weekly on one topic or another.

I have a number of articles, short stories, and novels published under pen names in a wide range of genres, 

but science fiction has always been my first love.

What inspired you to begin writing in the first place? Does the same thing inspire all of your writing? 

The thing that really got me started as a storyteller was my great-grandma. Her name was Fanny, but I 

always called her Grammy. Grammy was the typical old hillbilly woman. She smoked a real corncob pipe 

and the nastiest tobacco you can imagine! I learned later that it was actually chewing tobacco! But she 

did all those old things, like making bread and soap; she churned her own butter; and sat in an old rocking 

chair on the farmhouse porch and told stories.

I can still hear her voice in my head weaving its magic as she grabbed the listener in the first few dozen 

words. After that, you couldn't walk away until the story was finished.

That memory still inspires me, but it's not the only thing. Many of my stories get a spark from current events. 

Some from the same sort of things that inspire standup comics...the silly things we all do from time to time.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?

I seem to always be writing!

Mostly, I like to be outside. One of the things in Casting Call for Love that readers will notice is that Roland 

has a fascination with the night sky and stars. That is taken directly and 100% from me in reality.

About once a month, I drive out to the deserts east of where I live and just cuddle up in the back of my 

pickup truck and watch the stars.  It's even better when you have someone to watch the stars with you. 

Yeah, watch the stars...that's the ticket!

Often a writer’s first book is the toughest to write. Was this true for you? If so, what helped you get through

it?

In the erotica romance E-Book world, my first release was For the Love of Payne (August 2006 by Siren 

Publishing). This book was very easy for me to write. It is actually a sub-set of a much larger work 

(non-erotica) that is still unpublished.

And I mean MUCH larger work. It spans some 12 billion (yes, billion!) years and is spread over more than 

2 million words and 19 large novels. It's not quite ready for submission or release, so those hard-core science 

fiction fans will have to wait a while for that!

The hardest book for me to write in the erotica romance genre so far has been Casting Call for Love. 

I sometimes think I may have made Valerie and Roland just a little too real. They both wanted to do things 

differently than I had in mind. Sometimes I let them have their way, but other times I had to reel them in a 

bit.

Do you usually outline your stories before you write, or do you "go with the flow"?

I rarely have a formal outline. On the other hand, I always have "notes" about the story and characters. 

The notes on the characters can be very detailed. For example, I know Valerie's great-grandparent's names.

In the Ike Payne Universe, the setting for The Polyamorous Princess, For the Love of Payne, and Desert Heat, 

I have family trees for the major characters back to 1500 AD despite the fact that the stories take place 

some 4,000 years in the future.

For me, having a detailed character history is the only way to make the characters come to life. They aren't 

just 2-dimensional cardboard cutouts. They are as real as you or I.

Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any

influenced your writing?

I love to read, and I read in many different genres of fiction and a lot of nonfiction as well.

Picking a favorite author is hard, but when I roll it together with the idea of writers who have influenced 

me, the list gets very short.

On the top of that list is Larry Niven. Unless you're into hard-core science fiction, you may not be familiar 

with the name, but in that genre, he's a legend. He blends a little social commentary, humor, science, 

romance, and great stories all together.

Congratulations on your release of CASTING CALL FOR LOVE. Could you tell us how this project came 

about?

The idea for Casting Call for Love came to me over dinner one night.

One of the co-owners of one of the largest "adult video entertainment" companies in the US lives not far 

from me, and we were having dinner with a few friends. He was fussing about the views and positions of 

some of the public about his product, and pulled me into the boat with him. As he talked, it became clear 

he's worried about the political environment today and how that may impact his business.

As far as I know, he doesn't have any plans for taking the road that Roland followed. If he does, he owes 

me a finder's fee!

I went home that night and didn't sleep a wink. By morning, I had the idea for Casting Call for Love fleshed 

out and started writing.

Your book, CASTING CALL FOR LOVE, is the story of a May-December romance between an actress and an 

adult film director. What influenced you to write a story with this back drop? Was a lot of research involved?

As I said, the idea came from a real-life person I know.

Going into the project, I knew a lot of publishers would run screaming from the room both because of the 

May (woman)-December (man) romance and because of anything connected to the adult film industry. 

But that's really me and my style.

I hate rules, and I actually enjoy breaking them. I always have.

In fact, two publishers turned down Casting Call for Love just based on the synopsis; As soon as they saw 

the words "Porno Industry", that was that. Twilight Fantasies, however, actually read the manuscript and 

fell in love with Roland, Valerie, and Elektra.

I believe the readers like stories that break the rules of the genre. They are ready for someone to push the 

limits and, at times, jump far beyond them.

Anyone who has read For the Love of Payne will know how I toss the formula for erotica romance in the 

trashcan. Ike has three different lovers in the first 4 chapters before she even meets the hero.

There was a lot of research, but luckily I have a friend in the business that was able to help. I even took up 

a good deal of his staff's time talking to them and spending some time on the set.

That was, um, interesting.

I found that your characters came to life for the reader; could you tell us a little about how you develop 

your characters? Is Valerie’s character based on someone you know? Roland’s?

I'm often asked, as are all authors, what I consider more important: Characters or Plot.

My answer is both.

You can have a great plot, but without great characters, the overall story falls flat.

You can have amazingly detailed characters, but without a tight and consistent plot, the story is boring.

I develop a detailed history for my characters. A family tree or full genealogy, if you like. I find pictures of 

people I think the character looks like. I get to know them intimately.

People who have watched me write probably think I'm mad. I laugh out loud when my characters are 

happy. I cry when they're sad. I tend to throw things when they get angry, too. I won't tell you how I react 

to the love scenes!

Valerie is made up of several people I've known. Mostly, though, I think there's a lot of me in her.

Roland also has some of me in him, but mostly he's this sort of dream person I've had running around in my 

head for a long time.

Overall, my characters also break a lot of the rules, too. If you look at the Ike Payne Adventures, the hero 

Devon is very atypical. Frankly, he can be a bit of a klutz. He doesn't always do the things you'd expect of a 

hero. He's not a big tough, testosterone-dripping ultra-alpha male. He's a real man, doing the best that he 

can to deal with the fact that he's head over heels in love with Ike. But in the end, like any good man, he 

always comes through.

The love scenes in CASTING CALL FOR LOVE are very erotic but are not short on romance; do you find it 

difficult at times to write love/sex scenes? How do you keep from losing the romance in the explicit scenes?

I'm glad the combined romance and eroticism came through for you. I've seen a good number of books 

and stories in the genre lately where in the love scenes themselves, the romance seems to fall off.

No pun intended!

When I write a love scene, I try to put myself in the scene. I want to feel the romance and the pure sexual 

pleasure at the same time. After writing, reading, editing, reading, throwing it all away and starting over a 

few (dozen!) times, it starts to work.

Of course, it involves a lot of research...was that out loud?

You are also writing sci-fi/futuristic romance for Siren Publishing. Could you tell us a little about those 

projects? 

Science fiction is my first love when it comes to genres.

Siren currently has For the Love of Payne, Desert Heat (both in the Ike Payne Adventure series), and 

The Polyamorous Princess (in the same universe, but not really a part of the series).

As I alluded to earlier, the Ike Payne Universe is based on a large project that isn't ready for prime time yet. 

In a nutshell, and it's pretty nutty, the story deals with the Emperor and his family starting in about 1500 AD 

and moving forward in time many billions of years.   Some of the things in the Ike Payne Universe that are left 

a little fuzzy, like the fact that the Emperor and his family are immortal, are dealt with in that larger work.

I'm not sure if that work will ever be published. It's huge and would have to be read in order, start to finish, 

to make sense. We'll see.

Your Ike Payne Adventures are very popular with readers and reviewers, what are your plans for the series?

Honestly, I'm still a little shocked at the popularity of The Polyamorous Princess in particular. It just keeps 

hanging in there on the Bestseller Lists in both E-Book and print versions at Siren and Amazon.

Desert Heat is not far behind, either.

There is definitely more coming in the Ike Payne Universe.

Have you ever suffered from "writer’s block"? If so, what did you do to get out if it?

I've always felt that the best way to get out of writer's block is to avoid it. Grammy said an ounce of 

prevention is worth a pound of cure!  I avoid writer's block by working on several projects at the same time. 

When I hit "the wall" on one story, I just set it aside and work on another one.

The biggest problem with this for me is when I start getting ideas for all the projects at the same time! 

Then I don't sleep for a few days.

Are you working on anything right now and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?

There are two major projects I'm working on right now...

The first is in the Ike Payne Universe. I'm working on a series of novellas that will follow an exploration ship 

through a number of first-contact encounters. This will be a little different for many people. While on the 

surface, they look like there is a fantasy aspect (vampires, were-what-have-you, and other paranormals), 

the stories are 100% pure hard-core science fiction. And just for the readers who don't know, 

were-creatures violate the laws of conservation of energy.

I'll leave the how part of making this work to the imagination for now.

The second project is a series of sequels to Casting Call for Love. In these stories, we'll still have Valerie and 

Roland very much in the forefront, but Elektra comes out of the shadows. Literally.

Any final advice to aspiring authors?

The biggest thing I can offer to aspiring authors is to not give up.

In the erotica romance genre, I have 4 published books and several more under contract. In other genres, 

under pen names, I have many more published works.  But my stack of contracts is much smaller than my 

stack of rejections.  

Learn from the rejections. Polish your skills. And submit your work again.

Do you have anything to add?

This is a very exciting time to be in the publishing industry. There are changes on the wind, and to be a part 

of that thrills me.

As the E-Publishing side of the business matures and finds its place, the readers are the ones who will win.

I'm blessed to be here at a time when, maybe, I can make some small contribution to the enjoyment the 

readers can take from my stories.  All I can ask is that just one person out there is able to escape their 

day-to-day life and step into my world  for a while. I hope to offer them some excitement, some intrigue, 

more than a little passion, and maybe even help them learn something new at the same time.

Thank you so much for visiting with me, Dee.

Keep Loving! 

Thank you Ms. Aaron, for joining us at Love Romances &More. We look forward to reading more of your work, 

and for your continued success.

Melodee Aaron’s website: http://www.melodeeaaron.com/

Melodee Aaron’s books at Siren: http://www.sirenpublishing.com/melodeeaaron/