Contemporary

Character Interview: A’yen from My Name is A’yen @rachelleighgeek #RLFblog #SciFi

My Name Is A’yen 

About the Book

Title My Name Is A’yen
Genre: science fiction
romance
Author Rachel Leigh
Smith
Book heat level: PG-13
They’ve taken everything from him.
Except his name.
The
Loks Mé have been slaves for so long, freedom is a distant myth A’yen Mesu no longer
believes. A year in holding, because of his master’s murder, has sucked the life
from him. Archaeologist Farran Hart buys him to protect her on an expedition to
the Rim, the last unexplored quadrant.
Farran
believes the Loks Mé once lived on the Rim and is determined to prove it. And win
A’yen’s trust. But she’s a breeder’s daughter and can’t be trusted.
Hidden
rooms, information caches, and messages from a long-dead king change A’yen’s mind
about her importance. When she’s threatened he offers himself in exchange, and lands
on the Breeders Association’s radar. The truth must be told. Even if it costs him
his heart.

Buy This Book

Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1120027890?ean=9781501424267&itm=1&usri=9781501424267
Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/my-name-is-a-yen

Interview with A’yen

Tell us about yourself, please.
Well, I’m thirty-one,
an only child, have no clue who my dad is, and I’m a slave. That’s what the law
says anyway. Thing is, though, I refuse to be one. I’m a person, same as you. Doesn’t
matter I’m a different species. I still have a brain, intelligence, and dreams.
Just like humans. I damn well never gave my permission to humanity to make me a
slave.
What is it that you want, but cannot have? Authors
call this the conflict of the story.
To be free and make
my own choices. I can’t have it because I’m a slave, and the only way for my species
to not be a slave is to be dead. It’d break my mom’s heart if I died, though when
my story opens I’m tired of life and don’t want any part of it.
Then there’s the whole
bit with Fae pushing at me and me not being ready to let go of my dead lover. She’s
so different from him, and doesn’t always see me as a person. When she started uncovering
things that prove this planet once belonged to my people, someone in the expedition
started threatening her. Me being the idiot I am I did the only thing I knew how
to do: sacrifice my choices to save her.
What’s your internal limitation? Meaning, what
is it about you that makes it so you cannot do what it is you need to do during
this story?
I’m invisible to most
people. Then there are a handful who I wish didn’t see me. See, I’m viewed as less-than.
Something for others to play with, with no regard for my feelings and needs. So
I’m a bit of a recluse, to keep people from seeing me and wanting things from me
I have no intention of giving them. I know I need to stand up for myself, but that
doesn’t mean it’s easy.
I’m also not used to
standing on my own. For the last twenty years I hid behind the man who owned me.
He was also my lover. He wouldn’t let anyone mistreat or abuse me, and he loved
me with all his heart and soul. I was a person to him, the person who held his heart.
Then he died protecting me. I don’t like being alone, but I also don’t want people
around me. I think you humans call that being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I don’t trust easily,
because humans see me as a thing to possess. The men of my species are both feared
and lusted after. By everyone. I chose of my own free will to sleep with a human
male, but most of us don’t have any choice at all about whether we warm a human’s
bed.
What’s your external complication? In the story
world your author created, explain what it is you fear most.
Ooh, lady. You go deep
here. What I fear most? Being alone. See, I know what it is to be loved to the point
of sacrifice. And I won’t settle for anything less. But to do that I have to let
people get close to me. Which I’m not good at, as evidenced by the many ways I push
Fae away from me and try to lock her out of my heart.
The one time I let someone
all the way into my heart, I lost him. With him I was never alone, even when it
was just the two of us.
I also fear being used.
It steals your heart and soul one piece at a time. The expedition members see me
as dangerous. They don’t care I have skills they need. They try to put me into their
box of what my species is supposed to be: free labor. Except I have a skill and
a trade they need.
You can probably guess
at this point what I do in the story. I isolate myself and let myself be used. To
keep my loved ones safe. Because they’re worth it. Love means nothing without sacrifice.
Tell us about your significant other, that person
who makes living worthwhile.
Ah, Fae. She’s everything
light and beautiful in my world. She’s an archaeologist and one of the few who think
I should be a free man. It’s a beautiful thing. When she looks at me I feel real,
more than property. Like I matter. I’m not invisible to her, nor is she afraid of
me.
What would that person say about you?
That I’m stubborn, don’t
know when to keep my mouth shut, and that I complete her.
Are you happy with the way your story ended?
Why or why not?
I totally am! I got
the girl, found the planet my people once called home, met my dad, learned to stand
up for myself. And the story’s not over. Finding our home is the first chapter.
Getting it back is the real struggle.

About the Writer

You have the length of a tweet (140 characters)
to describe yourself as a writer. Let’s see what you can do.
I write romance for
the hero lover.
Why did you choose to write about this character?
I didn’t! He chose me
then wouldn’t leave me alone. I dreamed him one night and the very next day dove
into his story. I haven’t left it since.
Was there anything you discovered about this
character that was a surprise to you?
Yes. He’s bi. I suspected
it when I was working on the opening chapters, but it still surprised me when he
confirmed it and showed me how much he loved Wayan Mesu.
Why do you write?
I can’t not write. Stringing
words together is as important to me as oxygen. I went through a dry spell a few
years ago, because of circumstances in my life, and it was awful. The not being
able to write made everything so much worse.
What do you want to write next?
I’m finishing up the
first draft of A’yen’s Legacy #4, Heart of Winter. After that I have edits on book
three. After that’s done I’m diving into A’yen’s Legacy #6, Essence of Loyalty.
Are any sequels planned for this book?
Not just planned. Written.
Book two, The King’s Mistress, releases January 20, 2015. Book three, To Save A
Life, will be out in the spring. Four and five are written, and I’m brewing on six,
seven, and eight.

Author Bio

Rachel Leigh Smith writes romance for the hero lover. She lives
in central Louisiana with her family and a half-crazed calico. When not writing,
which isn’t often, she’s hanging with her family, doing counted cross-stitch, or
yakking about life, the universe, and everything with her besties. There may also
be Netflix binging . . .
She’s an active member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade
and Romance Writers of America. You can sign up for her newsletter at her website.

Author Social Media

The Romance Lives Forever blog features authors and new books from all genres.