Jul 31, 20215 min read

Lucy Smoke Author Interview

“If you could build your own harem using the characters from any of your books who would you choose?”

So, if we’re ignoring what the characters would want or be okay with—I’d want Ian (from Sweet Possession), Dean + Abel + Brax + Luc (from Sick Boys), Aaron + Levi and maybe Noaz (from Sky Cities), Texas and Grayson… you know, I feel like this is just me listing all of my male characters. I’d totally have a few of the girls in there too. Avalon—as long as she doesn’t know I’m her creator because I don’t wanna die.

Obviously, I, too, have the #whychoose problem haha.

“What are your favorite writing snacks?”

I’m on a health kick right now, but when I’m not, I LOVE gummy bears and mints and Twizzlers. I love anything gummy.

“Do you listen to music while you write? If so do you make specific Spotify playlists for each book?”

I listen to music all the time. When I walk and sit and sleep and yes, definitely when I write. I’ve got multiple secret playlists for books and sometimes songs overlap and sometimes the music is actually very different from what I like to listen to when I’m not writing.

“Do you picture someone special while writing a killing scene?”

Are you asking me if I kill people? For legal reasons, I have to say that everything within my books are fiction even the people that I kill. *side eyes*

“What time of the day do you usually get your writing groove on?”

It has actually changed. I’m a night owl, so a lot of my writing still does get written at night time. I prefer to write anytime between the afternoon—early morning (early morning meaning before 4am).

“What made you choose Lucy Smoke and Lucinda Dark for your pen names?”

So, I’ve always hated my “real” name and I’ve always been a fan of the name Lucinda. I’ve planned to have the name Lucinda in a pen name since I was a teenager (yes, it’s partially from the TV show Charmed). Lucy is just a shortened version of that. “Smoke” comes from my actual last name. “Smoke” is just my real last name translated into English. Lucinda Dark is just a work off of my original pen name (Lucy Smoke). I wanted to keep the two pen names similar so that readers would be able to recognize them both and know they were me while also separating them based on genre.

“What are currently your favorite tropes to write?”

Right now, my favorite tropes to write are Dark Romance, Reverse Harem, Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Hate to Love, Forced Proximity, as well as … a few other tropes that I’m keeping under wraps until the series are revealed/announced.

“If you had to live in one of your book’s worlds which would you choose and why?”

That’s really hard. I love a lot of worlds, but I don’t know if I would WANT to live in my worlds because there are a lot of dangers there. I think the SAFEST world would be the Break series or Iris Boys world. The most exciting might be the Barbie: The Vampire Hunter series and the MOST dangerous (but also probably the best sex ever to be had) is the Sick Boys series.

“What do you love about being an author? Do you have any favorite memories since becoming one?”

I’ve always wanted to be a writer—an author. Well, okay, I didn’t initially realize my desire to be an author/writer until I was 10. Before that, I wanted to be an actress, but I get stage fright and my parents at the time convinced me that it was a ridiculous dream. Apparently, I have a thing for ridiculous dreams because I went to romance author next but hey, I made this one come true so … ridiculous dreams for the win!

Favorite memories—making USA Today bestselling author in my first year. Releasing Pretty Little Savage (words aren’t enough to express how nervous and frightened I was to publish that. My editors, PA, and close friends will attest that I was convinced it was going to bomb). Meeting readers who actually think I’m cool (WHAT?! ME? I’m like … the weird kid who’s got an overactive imagination, but people seem to think I’m … funny?). This whole thing has been a wild ride, honestly, and I find myself so often just like stopping and being like “Holy crap. This is my life. This is my REAL life.” I get to do what I love to do. I get to travel. And when readers genuinely enjoy my books and tell me how some of them helped them in their journeys, it makes all of the stress and anxiety and struggle worth it.

“Do you ever worry that you’re on a special list of people the FBI keeps an eye on due to your search history? What are some of your most sketchy searches?”

I kind of hope so. Personally, I’m hoping to meet my future husband via the FBI. At least, I’ll know he has a great job and good benefits. LMFAO. Sketchy searches? Well, I do research death a lot. Those aren’t the weirdest, but probably would be the most concerning for the FBI to actually look into. You know, like … what is the lowest amount of blood you can have in your body and survive. What are the repercussions of bullet wounds. Ways to hide a dead body. Etc. The normal stuff, I guess.

“Are you a cover buying addict? Has a cover ever inspired one of your storylines?”

100%. I wish I wasn’t, but I absolutely get inspired by certain covers. I’ve held onto quite a few covers before because there’s a story waiting to be told there and I just don’t have the time yet.

“What’s one character from your books that just pissed you off and refused to cooperate with you?”

Okay, so confession time—Avalon was the most difficult character to get started. I rewrote the beginning of Pretty Little Savage more than 20 times. That is NOT an exaggeration. It is also something I’ve NEVER done before. So, I’d say her. She pisses me off and she continues to piss me off because there’s really no controlling her. She does what she wants, when she wants, with whom she wants and fuck anyone else who tries to tell her to do differently. Despite that, however, she’s now the character I’ve become the closest to. She’s everything I wish I was.

“If you had to kill off one of your main characters who would get the axe and why them?”

I don’t think I could kill off one of my main characters. Not … because of any reason *I* had. However, I could see some stories where there were moments when a main character could have died and it would’ve made sense. But I would never have WANTED to do it. And the great thing about being in charge of my stories, I don’t HAVE to do anything if I don’t WANT to.