TWILIGHT THURSDAY

The Moonlighters Welcome Lydia Nyx

Please welcome Lydia Nyx into the Moonlight. Lydia Nyx is the author of Fire in the Desert which was recently released by Noble Romance Publishing. Other works written by Lydia Nyx are Merger and The Game in Spain, also from Noble Romance, and Impasto and Le Ankou, both from Torquere Press.

Now, it's time to create a little mayhem and get to the good stuff by revealing all of Lydia Nyx's deepest darkest secrets in the moonlight. LOL Yeah, you wish! ;-D Grab your favorite wicked drink, sink your teeth into something decadent, sit back, relax and enjoy getting to know Lydia Nyx.


MLM: The holidays are fast approaching and things always seem to get busier during this time of year. Do you have a relaxing technique that helps you de-stress? If so, please share, because this is advice we all need!

LYDIA: My stress around the holidays comes from my 'day job' (or in my case, night job). I'm a waitress in a popular upscale restaurant and December is always our busiest month: lots of Christmas parties! I love my job and getting to hang out with all the festive people around this time of year; however, we also have bands five nights a week and it's always a party, so my way to de-stress is the opposite of everyone else's—I DON'T party! There's nothing better to me than a night not on the town. New Year's Eve is the final hurrah and it's always such a relief when it's over, knowing things will go back to normal after one last, huge party. Customers always say to me, "this must be the funnest place to work!" I tell them it can be fun, but you only think a constant party atmosphere is fun because you don't work here!


MLM: Not everyone celebrates Christmas, but most of us still have traditions we participate in, such as attending holiday parties, decorating your house, baking cookies, etc. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

LYDIA: My mother was a big decorator—she would put garland and tinsel on anything that would hold still. I ended up being the same way, decorating anything not alive (and sometimes alive—oh the poor cats), but I only did this while my son was growing up. Now that he's an adult, I don't decorate at all and I'm not much of a holiday person. Not to say I don't enjoy other's decorations or the way they decorate the streets around here: I quite do!


MLM: In the south, holidays are centered around food, with huge meals and lots of baked sweets. Do you have a favorite holiday recipe you'd like to share with us? If not, how about an all-year-round favorite recipe?

LYDIA: Not a holiday recipe, but a friend once taught me how to make a Diet Coke cake and it's marvelous. It's quite simple: you need a box of chocolate cake mix, a 12 oz. can of Diet Coke, fat free Jello instant pudding, and fat free Cool Whip. Instead of making the cake according to the directions on the box, simply put the Diet Coke in the cake mix and bake. For the frosting, mix up the pudding (use skim milk), mix with the Cool Whip, and frost! It tastes incredible and it's very low fat and calories!


MLM: Oh, my, that's sounds wonderful and so easy to make with my kids! Have you ever made your own holiday presents and/or decorations? If so, what were they? Were they successes or failures? Did you have fun while making them?

LYDIA: I am not a crafty person at all, trust me! Everything is going to look much better if I just buy it at the store.


MLM: If "Santa Claus" could bring you any gift you wanted, what would be your ultimate gift? (Please refrain from saying "money" because who doesn't want more of that!)

LYDIA: Happiness, fulfillment, and (even though it's bending the rule a bit) financial security for all the people I love and care about.


MLM: Odd question, but my 9 year old thinks Rudolph and the reindeers "guiding Santa's sleigh" have GPS navigation. So, if you could give Santa and his sleigh any one modern technology, what would it be and why?

LYDIA: Laser beams! Then if he ended up in an area with a lot of snow (like here) and the roofs were covered, he could just melt it right off!


MLM: Fantastic gift! Now, let’s get to your writing, Lydia Nyx, what genre do you write and what is the draw for you?

LYDIA: I write male/male romance and erotica. I've yet to make a clear 'niche' for myself in that genre, but I'm starting to work my way toward being a rather rare species: I want to be an erotic horror author. I've always been attracted to horror novels and darker themes like gothic, noir, urban fantasy, and paranormal. My story 'Le Ankou' with Torquere Press is historical horror and I've just had a story accepted by Freaky Fountain Press titled 'Maleficent' which will be out in the new year and is erotic horror/noir. I like the darkness! Since I write male/male, I'll be in a niche within a niche. I've always enjoyed writing male/male over straight romance; it just appeals to me more.


MLM: If you could describe your writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? Please delve into the core of your writing to tell us what word or phrase you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story.

LYDIA: Differently twisted—it's the motto I use on my website. I adopted it because while my work can be considered 'twisted,' it also has many unusual elements coming together to—hopefully—make it interesting. Like I said above, if I'm writing horror, and making it erotic, and it's male/male—you've got a pretty differently twisted product there!


MLM: With the current movement to encourage people to give books as gifts, what, in your opinion, makes your story unique? What makes it stand out among all of the other books out there?

LYDIA: Continuing the theme above, I would say it's the blend of different elements. I may attract some readers just curious as to how I make everything work together!


MLM: Do you prefer throwing snowballs or serving hot cocoa? Does that show through in your writing? If so, how?

LYDIA: Definitely serving cocoa—I am not an outdoors person and I hate the cold! This shows in some of my characters, but oddly enough, I do write a lot of 'outdoorsy' elements. That's what research is for. 'The wild' is pretty to look at, but I don't want to be out in it!


MLM: If you could give any of your characters a holiday gift, which character would it be and what would you give them? Why do they deserve this gift?

LYDIA: I would give Keegan Richards from 'Fire in the Desert' a novel of his own, so he'll stop talking about how much he should have one! He really is interesting and he does deserve some spotlight time I suppose…


MLM: Who decides what your characters do, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one stuffing the stocking?

LYDIA: I try to tell my characters what to do, and then they frolic about and do whatever they please, like a group of unruly preschoolers. I try to make just a general outline when I'm planning a story, because I know the muse will come along and fill in most of the details as I go—saves me a lot of wasted effort thinking I know what I'm doing!


MLM: What character did you have the most fun creating and why?

LYDIA: In my upcoming novel from Torquere Press, 'From Morocco to Paris,' one of the lead characters is a gregarious, saucy, infuriating man named Davey Alexander. He's everything I wish I could be: outgoing, confident, owns himself, and knows what he wants at all times. He was so much fun to write, especially since the other leading man was so opposite him they achieved sublime comedic interaction. I usually have two types of characters: ones I want to be when I grow up, and ones I want to grow out of being.


MLM: If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why?

LYDIA: I have a gay urban fantasy I'm shopping around at the moment, entitled 'Black Shore of the White City,' and one of the characters, Sam, I would love to meet if he were real. He's fierce and over-the-top and if he walked into a room he would probably knock you over with his very presence.


MLM: Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

LYDIA: Jordan Maleficent from my upcoming story 'Maleficent' with Freaky Fountain Press. He's a nightmare and if you meet him, you'll never be sane again.


MLM: If you were interviewing yourself, what is the one question you would ask yourself and please give us the answer to that question?

LYDIA:
Q: If you weren't a writer, what would you be?

A: An artist. I can't imagine life without creativity.


MLM: Thanks so much for joining us, Lydia Nyx! It's been a treat getting to know you better!

Website: http://www.lydianyx.com
Buy Link: https://www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.aspx?i=175

Any other links/sites you wish to offer readers so they can find you on the world wide web, such as buy links for other books, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lydianyx
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Lydia-Nyx/100001226228308
My currently published works: http://www.lydianyx.com/?page_id=48





BLURB:

Garrett Thomas is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists. When he gets a tip a dragon—the holy grail of his field—has been spotted in the Sahara desert, he jumps at the chance to locate and document this elusive creature. As further incentive, his old college friend—and lover—Keegan Richards is currently on an archeological dig in Egypt.

Keegan possesses a powerful supernatural ability called the Mystic. When Garrett sees his old flame after a year of separation, he finds not only has Keegan’s power increased so he has full command of the element of fire but he’s grown a thousand times more beautiful and exotic. After Garrett has a strange and erotic dream about him, Keegan inexplicably grows cold and tries to send Garrett home with his mission unfulfilled. Garrett stays in Egypt, however, and when he finally enters the dragon’s lair, he finds what he’s looking for—but not the way he expected.


EXCERPT:

Two weeks before venturing to the desert, Garrett received an email from a colleague who told him a group of nomads saw what they claimed to be a dragon in the Egyptian Sahara. Garrett, one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists—a title meaning little, according to his father—jumped at the opportunity to investigate such a claim. No known lizard-like creatures in deserts grew to the size described, so even if the animal wasn’t a dragon it was certainly a new species. In a magnificent coincidence, he received a letter from Keegan a week before the email saying he was on his way to Egypt. Garrett hadn’t seen him in nearly a year and hoped he could contact him when he arrived in Cairo. Contact him he did, and Keegan agreed to lead him into the desert with a band of nomads who had taken him on as a sort of shaman. Garrett was ecstatic at the news. His own adventures with strange creatures paled in comparison to Keegan’s tales of the world—though, the strangest creature Garrett ever met, really, was Keegan.

By evening, Keegan had bathed, eaten, and spoken with the people, who’d gathered around him like children around a storyteller. As Garrett sorted through his pack—carefully examined for scorpions beforehand—in the tent he and Keegan shared, Keegan entered. Garrett wore a sweatshirt and jeans, as night in the desert could get very cold. Keegan seemed unaffected by the temperature. He wore linen pants, a pair of sandals, and nothing else. Garrett wondered if his power kept him warm.

“Cold?” Keegan asked with a smirk. He knelt by his own pack, his back to Garrett. A tattoo crawled down his spine, starting somewhere beneath his long, sun-bleached hair and extending downward to the top of his pants, the work exquisitely intricate, an interwoven design of many colors. A torch outside the tent flap cast flickering light on Keegan’s skin, making the colors shine iridescent. The lines moved with the subtle flexing of Keegan’s muscles.

“That’s new,” Garrett said.

Keegan looked over his shoulder. “Huh? Oh, my back?” He looked away. “Yeah.”

“When did you get that done?”

“A few months ago.” He rose and turned. He held a shirt but didn’t immediately put it on. The torchlight twinkled off the twin rings through his nipples. Those were new too. Garrett tried not to focus on how attractive he was, even more so than when they were in school together. Garrett had a job to do, after all—even if he had come there hoping for a little something else.

“Still working on your canvas I see,” Garrett said. “Every time I see you it’s a new tattoo or piercing. You’ll never get a job in the real world.” He said the last bit with a mock-fatherly tone.

Keegan rubbed a hand over the snake around his arm. “I don’t think I’m going back to the real world. As much as I love archeology, I’m leaving the field.”

Garrett looked at him in disbelief. “You are?”

“There’s much more to this world than we ever imagined at Cornell.” Keegan pulled his shirt on, a plain white t-shirt, so tight it clung to the sculpted landscape of his chest and abs. “I think you know that better than anyone, Garrett. I can’t work in a structured system anymore.”

“What about your travels? Your adventures? You couldn’t give those up; I know you! You want to see the world.”

“The world is bigger than what I can see now, working under measly grants.” Keegan grew stoic. “You shouldn’t have come here, Garrett.”

Garrett’s bewilderment increased. “Why not? This is what I do. And besides, I get to see you. I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“It’s dangerous.”

Garrett laughed sarcastically. “I’ve been handling dangerous creatures for a long time, Keegan. A dragon? That’s the holy grail of my field! My grants come from people with “special interests,” but if I found a dragon and could document it? The scientific community would come crawling back to me to apologize! I wouldn’t need to beg on the doorsteps of eccentric millionaires.”

Keegan shifted his jaw. His gaze met Garrett’s, the gleaming blue depths of his eyes capturing the torchlight, and then he looked away. “I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said.

“Keegan, I know what I’m doing.” Garrett rose, smiling, and grasped his shoulders. Indeed, he felt warm. “Trust me.”