Author Spotlight: Annika Martin

I love fun, sexy books, taking pictures of my cats, 90’s grunge music, saving animals, long baths and See’s chocolate suckers. I also enjoy hanging out in Minneapolis coffee shops with my awesome writer husband. I’ve worked a surprisingly large number of waitressing jobs, and have also worked in a plastics factory and the advertising trenches. My garden is total bee-friendly madness. I also write as RITA-Award-winning Carolyn Crane.

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Random Questions:

• If you could tell your 18-year-old self one thing, what would it be? Relax and don’t worry about what other people think.
• What is your favorite restaurant? There’s a cuban place down the street with amazing coconut shrimp, and they have fruity prosecco drinks. Yay!
• Where is your favorite or dream vacation spot? I’m a beachy vacation girl (Maybe because I live in Minnesota?? So anywhere with sand and sun. I love swimming in the ocean!
• What do you eat and drink while writing? I drink coffee and eat little healthy snacks…unless it’s night, and then I might bet sucking on Sees chocolate suckers.
• Where were you born? In Wisconsin
• Are you a very organized person? Not naturally, but I’m trying to change my ways.
• What is your favorite TV show? The Americans
• What’s your favorite way to waste time? Twitter 

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This or That:

• Vodka or Rum? Vodka
• Summer or Winter? Winter
• Toilet paper: Over or Under? Under (so the cats don’t unroll the whole roll!)
• Christmas or Halloween? Halloween
• Cookie or Cake? Cookie
• Beach or Mountains? Beach!!!!
• Phone Call or Text? Text
• iOS or Android? LOL iOS
• Football or Basketball? Neither
• Bath or Shower? Bath
• Sneakers or Sandals? Sneakers
• Day or night? Day
• Fire or ice? Fire

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Book Related Questions: **SPOILERS AHEAD**

• You are a kind of new author to me. I have only read your Criminals and Captive Series. I will ask specific questions about that series and then I will ask general questions about some of your other books. OKAY!!

• Prisoner was such a good book. Where did you come up with the idea for this book? Hey, thank you so much! Skye and I imagined writing about a hero would be a true “Junkyard dog”—that was our vision. Going kind of to the edge with a wounded, dangerous hero.
• Grayson, you want to hate him but it’s so hard to. How difficult was it to write his character as a dark prisoner but someone you could still fall in love with? I can only speak for myself, not Skye, but I think what made it easier was that he was real to us. Even though he does very wrong things, he has a real past and real feelings and his own code of honor that maybe doesn’t match with society’s, but he follows it. I think the more deeply a reader understands a character, the harder it is to have a simple emotion about them, whether that is hate or love.
• There was a very dark scene in this book…….that some would call non-consensual. Did you ever think about removing this part from the book? We wanted to be true to how this character would act.

• Moving on to Hostage…Brooke was 16 the first time her and Stone crossed paths. Why not have them cross path when she was older? The story takes place over a span of time, so that both characters have time to grow. They don’t have a physical relationship until later, but we liked putting somebody rough like him with a vulnerable heroine who would bring out his protective instincts early on.
• Stone, my heart hurt for him. At times I hated him and at times I loved him. Why was he so obsessed over Brooke? He sees goodness and beauty in her, and she also represents a childhood he never had. He wants her, but he also wants to prtect her from himself in a way.
• This book has been called: Raw. Abrasive. Haunting. Innocent. A beautifully damaged kind of dark that sucks you in and won’t let go. What challenges did you face co-writing these books with Skye Warren? I love writing with Skye! I feel like our styles blend well, and she is so smart and fun and easy-going. I think the only challenge is that we each have such busy careers that it is hard to match up our schedules to write more books faster.

• Your other books:
• The Dark Mafia Prince series….what makes these books different than other Mafia books? That is such a hard question to answer because it seems like a normal mafia book to me! I guess it just has an Annika Martin spin to it…darkness with a tiny bit of humor?
• Most Eligible Bastard…..where did the idea for this book come from? Back in the 1990s, there was this hotel hieress, Leona Helmsley, who left her fortune to her dog. I guess it always stuck in my head!
• Taken Hostage by Hot Bank Robbers series….what can readers expect from this series? Well, I’m not going to give any spoilers away but another book will come sooner or later.

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Random Ending Questions:

• Is it hard to write duel POV? It can be a bit harder because you have to find the voice of the character, and it’s harder to keep secrets from the reader. LOL!
• Who are your one-click authors? I have so many! I really love Rachel Grant, Toni Anderson, Molly O’Keefe, Meredith Duran.
• Do you write full-time or part-time? Full time.
• If you had to write yourself as a villain in one of your books, what type of villain would you be? LOL. Maybe a wacky one!!
• Do you feel authors should put trigger warnings in their books? I feel like the best trigger warnings are reading the reviews.
• What can you tell your readers about for upcoming books? I’m working on another romantic comedy right now – it will feature Mia from The Billionaire’s Wake-up-call girl!

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Last Question:

• What would you like to say to your readers? A huge thank you!! My readers mean the world to me. They really do!
  

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Books by Annika Martin: