Hello! My name is Alice Renaud, and I love stories. Short stories and long stories, funny stories, moving stories… I love them all but my favourites are romance and fantasy stories.
Why romance? Well, we all want to be loved, and I’ve always been a romantic at heart. I’m very lucky, because I have been happily married for 14 years and I thank God every day for my husband. Yesterday, he cooked fish and rice, and he remembered that I like butter on my rice, so he put a dollop of butter on it before bringing me my plate. It’s little gestures like that that I find madly romantic, rather than the big “flowers + diamonds + champagne” (though they’re nice too, when you can get them!)
And why fantasy? I grew up in Brittany, Western France, and spent my childhood holidays in Wales, west of the UK. Those are ancient lands, where the Celts took refuge from the Romans, then the Saxons and other assorted invaders. Their stories endured, and I grew up reading them. King Arthur. Tristan and Isolde. The Mabinogion. Myths, monsters and legends. Then at the age of 12 I read Tolkien, and I was hooked. I wanted to write stories like that.
I loved them all: Elves, Dwarves, witches, heroes, afancs (water monsters), torrent spectres, the giant Cat of Anglesey… But I loved above all the romance elements. Even in the Lord of the Rings, my favourite character was Eowyn. Feisty, and in love with a man who doesn’t want her… until she meets her real love.
I started to write and publish romantic short stories in magazines in 2008. After a couple of years I decided to move to longer fiction. I tried my hand at contemporary romance, but my heart wasn’t in it. Which is a bit of a problem when you’re writing romance! My heart yearned for legends and magic. So I moved to paranormal and fantasy romance, and this year in January my first fantasy romance novella was published by Black Velvet Seductions. It’s the story of a shape-shifting merman, Yann, who falls for a human woman, Alex. Mermen are forbidden from marrying humans, and Yann faces the toughest choice of his life, between his loyalty to his family and Clan, and his love for Alex. It is the first book in a trilogy inspired by the landscapes, history and legends of Brittany and Wales. The second book in the series, Music for a Merman, is due out later this year.
I’ve always loved witches too, and I’ve just finished writing a short story for a supernatural romance anthology, Mystic Desire, to be published by BVS this fall. My story, “The Sweetest Magic of All” is about a young apprentice witch, Sapphire, and a sizzling hot warlock, Aaron, who travel back in time to find an amulet. I’ve enjoyed writing it so much, I’m planning a whole new series centred on time-travelling warlocks. I love history too – my favourite periods are the Middle Ages and the seventeenth century. I did a lot of research on witchcraft and the witch trials for my story, it was fascinating.
I hope you will give my books a try! Here are the Buy Links:
Amazon https://amzn.to/2QglyeI
Others https://books2read.com/u/31xw7a
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AliceRenaudAuthorRomance/
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Happy reading, and I hope life treats you well and sends you lots of love and good stories.
It’s different take instead of mermaids the focus is on a merman. Nice interview!
Carol
Thank you Linda, Dee, Babs, Suzanne, Callie, Gibby and Ric for commenting, your support means so much to me! Here’s to magic and monsters and sexy supernatural men!
You should see what my warlock does to the shape shifting mermaid in my third book!
A true pleasure to read your fascinating background. I am looking forward to reading both your novella and your short story. My very best to you.-L.J.
We’re all so glad you grew up with the magic of ancient lands in your soul and a love of romance, Alice! Looking forward to your story in Mystic Desire!
Lovely post 🙂
Good interview Alice. I loved A Merman’s Choice. The book was written with such skill and passion, I was hooked from page one. I’m sure book two in the series will be a phenomenal read too.
Suzanne, your words honor Alice and all authors. Thank you very much.
Alice,
Nice interview. It makes sense that you write fantasy romance after all the books you read on that subject when you were growing up. And why you do it so well. Until now I’d never heard of the giant Cat of Anglesey.
Callie
I’m with you and Alice both, Callie. I love all Medieval Literature, but the Celtic tales are my favorites. Thanks for commenting.
What a lovely interview. I love any man that can cook! It was interesting to read about your writing history. I cannot wait to read your novella and your short story in the anthology. I like to say I am a witch at heart.
What a lovely comment, Gibby. Thank you.
Always a pleasure finding out more about an author, I read the book and thought it was a great story. I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of her latest book and it is every bit as good. I can’t wait to read her next one.
Ric
Thank you for commenting Richard. I agree. I love learning about the people who write the books I love.
Thank you Rue for hosting me and my merman!!
Alice
Having you as a guest is a pleasure, Alice. Thank you for being here.