Indie Support Sunday: Jaye Viner

Jaye Viner is a new-to-me author and after going through this interview, I’m very ready to dive into her books. Writing speculative fiction as well as diving into horror, fantasy and science fiction, publishing romance happened after a buddy read. While Jaye enjoyed the book she read with her friend, she was looking for something else. And when that didn’t come up in her searches, she wrote it for herself. It may not be published, but it kickstarted her writing career.

Thus was born the Elaborate Lives series that follows Larisa and Quinn, and as Jaye describes it, has the spiciness of Fifty Shades with “ a stronger, more mature, female main character who fights tooth and nail to get what she wants.” The four book series is now complete, but Jaye says that there’s still so much of Larisa and Quinn’s story she wants to tell.

In the meantime, she has a dark fantasy Peter Pan retelling that releases July 22nd—The Island of Dreams—and lots of great plans for future stories! 

BEING AN AUTHOR

What’s the best and worst part about being an indie author? 

The best part is being able to have complete artistic control at every stage of the process in writing, designing and publishing a book. The worst part is that selling books is immensely difficult. Even with traditional publishing less than 3% of books make money. And gaining the visibility needed to sell books without a publisher is almost impossible. The success stories make it seem possible for everyone, but that’s not true.

Why did you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route?

My debut novel was traditionally published. I learned a lot from that experience and I also realized that for all the money I spent trying to support that book, I could have done much of it on my own. I felt I could self-publish and produce a book just as good as what had been done with my debut novel and do it on my terms. 

ROMANCE AS A GENRE

Why did you choose romance as the genre to write in? What is your favorite thing about the genre?

Romance found me. I never planned to be a romance writer. But strange things happened during the pandemic. I did a buddy read romance with a friend and thought about a story I might enjoy reading more. Then, I couldn’t find that story, so I began to write it just for myself. That book hasn’t been published, but the book I wrote after it became the first of the Elaborate Lives books, which blends the BDSM spiciness of Fifty Shades with a stronger, more mature, female main character who fights tooth and nail to get what she wants.

If not romance/subgenres of romance, what genre would you like to write in?

Most of the writing I do is in speculative fiction. I’ve written, and continue to write, horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

What are some tropes you want to write in the future?

I’m toying with small town, second chance right now and love how different it is from the enemies to lovers angsty vibes of Elaborate LIves.

YOUR BOOKS

What inspired your published stories? How and when did you come up with these stories and plots?

My debut novel, Jane of Battery Park, began at a writer’s conference where the keynote speaker encouraged people to write what scared them. And then that summer I had a pretty intense spider invasion incident in my apartment. The Elaborate Lives series came a little more organically. I had characters from a previous novel and I wanted to explore their backstory. That backstory became four novels! I think more often than not, I have an idea or a character, and I write to explore.

Can you briefly tell me about your books?

Jane of Battery Park is a closed door romantic suspense in the vein of Romeo and Juliet with the Juliet character being a woman living in hiding from her husband who is part of a terrorist organization that puts celebrities on trial for their sins. And the Romeo character is the has-been heartthrob younger brother of a blockbuster movie star who has been targeted by the terrorists.

And then my Elaborate Lives series is a steamy, sexy, high glamor light BDSM contemporary romance that gets steadily darker as the series goes on and the two main characters, Larisa (a celebrity therapist) and Quinn (a movie director) learn to stop hiding from each other and reveal their secrets. They’re high angst, high drama, and revel in this larger than life storytelling that happens in Hollywood, especially spy thrillers. (Hopefully that doesn’t give too much away).

How much of yourself do you put into these characters?

Every character probably has something of me even if it’s unconscious. In Elaborate Lives, I gave Larisa my mid-twenties crisis of feeling that I was behind because all my friends were getting married and I was single. And I gave Quinn my feeling of alienation and needing to hide my true self in order to succeed as a professional.

I have uncomfortably large boobs for my body size. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever written a woman with small boobs. And I’m disabled, so even when I’m writing able bodied characters, I’m writing from a world-view of disability and trying to make space for that perspective in romance.

Is there one common element that readers can find in all your stories?

My personal motto that I use to keep myself motivated when things are hard is that I want to expand the possibilities of what a story can do and expand what kinds of characters are doing all the things. In that sense, even when I’m writing what looks like a straight romance, the world the characters inhabit has larger norms that include a wider variety of people than just straight people. Similarly, I don’t always write disabled characters, but I’m always going to write worlds that expand on and challenge assumptions about how the world is supposed to be. My characters are not always easily likeable or easy to understand. That is true of every book I write.

What’s next on the bookshelf for you? Anything you can tell us about a future project?

I’m revising the second book in the Immortal Dreamers duology. I’m toying with a small town fantasy romance about a wedding destination town run by fairies. And I’m thinking about the future of Larisa and Quinn from Elaborate Lives. I think there’s more to the story there. Four books isn’t enough for them.

When you write these stories, what are you hoping your readers will feel?

I’m hoping readers will feel challenged. That’s probably not a popular answer. But stories are so important for what they teach us and I think a book can be entertaining while also doing other things. My books do a lot in the ‘other things’ category. I always hope when people are surprised or put off by something they’ll pause to think of why it was written that way and hopefully expand their world a bit. 

For instance, some early reviewers have not enjoyed the FMC of The Island of Dreams having a strong sex drive. That’s fine. Maybe it wasn’t necessary for the story. But I was interested in a working girl from Victorian London who is used to looking for and enjoying sex, being trapped on an island where the only adult male she can access has tried to kill her. Women’s sex drives don’t get nearly enough attention in novels, but for some readers they are writing her off as a likeable protagonist instead of thinking about what it would mean to be a woman like that in a situation like that.

AUTHOR’S CHOICE

• Paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks or audiobooks

• Contemporary, fantasy, historical or romantic suspense

• Single or Dual POV

• Standalones, series or standalones in a series

• Open door, ajar door or closed door romances

• Music or silence when writing

• Plotter, pantser or plantser

• Water, tea, coffee or….wine?

• Cold or warm weather

• Write better in the morning, afternoon or night?

• Illustrated or photo cover?

You can find Jaye on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. You can also buy her books directly, signed and with swag, as well as sign up for her newsletter via her website.