Welcome Author Erin R. Flynn!

ABOUT

ERIN R. FLYNN

erinrflynn@hotmail.com

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | BLOG

Growing up on the northwest side of Chicago, Erin is a loyal Cubs fan, but she also admits to being a die-hard Green Bay Packers girl. From target practice to candle making, she enjoys an eclectic list of hobbies that feed her outgoing and creative personality.

Feeling unfulfilled with her life in corporate America, Erin decided to pursue her true passion, and her first novella was published in May 2010 under the pseudonym Joyee Flynn. To date, she has published over 70 books in the erotic romance genre, and her dedicated readers eagerly await each installment to her numerous bestselling series. Wanting to give her characters a bit more action, mystery, and adventure, Erin decided to branch out from romance and her Joyee pen name to create successful, strong, independent women with a paranormal twist.

Living near the Rocky Mountains, Erin spends her days curled up on the overstuffed chair with a Mountain Dew and her 8 year old Weimaraner, Marius, at her feet, telling the stories her characters whisper in her ear.  Her love of the written word hasn’t changed much over the years. The only difference is that she no longer has to hide in her closet to read after bedtime.

THE TURNING [DR. KELLY MURPHY]

NOW AVAILABLE!

BUY NOW

Graduate medical school, start competitive internship, don’t get cut from the program, become a surgeon. It was a great plan. One Kelly Murphy loved and had dreamed of most of her life… And it was blown to hell in a night with an uninvited bite.

Now she’s missing three days of her life, trying to handle her freaked out best friend and parents who called the police when she went missing, all as she realizes she’s not the same person she was before. She’s different. Like has fangs different.

When he shows up on her doorstep claiming to know what happened to her, Kelly’s not sure that makes things any less confusing. But at least he can guide her, right? Either way, she has a plan and a choice she didn't make won’t stop her… Even if she might have the urge to bite her patients from now on.

EXCERPT

“Kel, what the hell happened to you?” my mom asked. I could tell she was holding back tears.

“I don’t know. I remember going to the bar after my last exam. I saw Nicole, and she handed me a shot to take, I slugged it back, then I woke up here dying of thirst. Everything in between is a total blank. It’s not hazy details, or fuzzy—I’ve got nothing. Nicole called me and woke me up this morning and she filled me in that I’ve been missing and how long I’ve been gone. Can you guys call the police or whomever you have searching for me and tell them I’m found?”

“Are you going to the hospital? Did you check for bruises? Never mind, we’re coming over,” my dad rattled and then hung up the phone. I wanted to laugh; some things never changed, but it wasn’t a laughing time right now. I sat on my couch with my pop, wondering where I had been.

Checking my phone, I saw I had a lot of missed calls. Chugging the pop didn’t seem to help my thirst so I finished that and got a bottle of juice. That wasn’t working either. Thinking it was odd, I yawned and realized I was really tired. I laid down just to close my eyes for a minute, but promptly fell asleep.

The knocking at the door woke me with a start and hearing my parent’s panicked voices made me immediately go to open it. It seemed I was there instantly.

Wow, I must be still out of it because I don’t usually move that fast. As I opened the door, I could swear I heard something that sounded like two heartbeats. Staring strangely at my parents as they came in, I just dismissed it. They must have been very anxious from not knowing where I was and had rapid heartbeats.

“Kelly, oh my god, you really are okay!” My mom started gushing as she came in and just about tackled me with a massive hug.

“Mom, I’m fine. I swear,” I whispered, glad for something familiar when I was freaking out.

“Jen, let the girl breathe, you’re choking the air out of her.” I looked up at my dad to say thank you and realized I saw something I hadn’t seen for years. He was crying. “Are you sure you’re all right, Kel? I think we should take you to the hospital to get checked out and—ah— well, get a rape kit done.”

“Dad!” I said, completely shocked. My dad and I had never discussed anything like that before, not even a birds and the bees talk. “I’m sure nothing like that happened, Dad. Everything is, well, kind of as it should be. I mean there’s no way when I was drugged or whatever, taken, that I was raped. I have no bruises or cuts and not a button out of place.”

As I was talking I was drawn back to my mom. She smelled great, sweet even. I sat down next to her, and I know she was talking, but I wasn’t listening to a word she said. I just couldn’t get over how great she smelled. I just wanted to eat her up!

Until I bit my tongue. “Ouch, damn that hurt!”

“What, are you okay?” Mom said, looking panicked again.

“Yeah, Ma, I’m fine. I bit my tongue, hang on it’s bleeding.” The next instant it seemed I was in the bathroom.

“Wow, Kelly, you sure are moving fast these days,” my dad yelled from the living room, but there was a twitch of nervousness in his voice. Now why would that make him antsy?

“Got to keep up with the docs at the hospital,” I said, trying to laugh it off. The blood from my tongue tasted so good in my mouth it was starting to weird me out. I opened my mouth to see how much damage I had done. What I saw made me think I was hallucinating. 

“Holy shit!”

“What? What’s wrong?” my dad hollered from the living room. I heard him start to get up.

“Dad, don’t get up. I’m fine, just tripped.”

“How did you know I was getting up? You can’t see me from there.”

“I heard you,” I said dismissively. I wasn’t as concerned about my hearing as I was with the teeth I thought I saw in my mouth. I opened my mouth and looked in the mirror again. How the hell did I all of a sudden have, well, fangs? I touched them, just to make sure. Could it be a hallucination if you could touch them?

“I didn’t make a sound. How did you hear me?”

“I heard the floor board creek and it was where you were sitting.” Okay breathe, I told myself, just breathe slowly and deeply. As I relaxed, the fangs seemed to shrink back into normal teeth. Well shit! Did that just happen?

“Kelly, he didn’t make a sound. You’re starting to really worry me.” I could feel the concern from my mother, and it snapped me back. In the next instant I was standing right next to her. “Crap, Kelly, how did you get over here so fast? You scared the shit out of me. You seem so pale, but your skin is flawless. Did you start using a new moisturizer?” I gazed at her in utter dismay, and my look must have said everything because she got up and walked to the window. “You’ve got to open these blinds more often, it’s not like you are a vampire living in a coffin.” She laughed as she said it but it hit me like a ton of bricks and then she opened the blinds.

“Ahh, Mom, close them! The light is killing me,” I said a little louder than I meant to.

“Are you all right?” My dad said with a raised brow, but I was too busy focusing on what my mom had said—vampire.

“I’m fine. I just need to get some rest,” I replied, trying to hint that they should leave. I had a lot to think about, and the sound of their hearts beating was drawing me closer to them. I was just so thirsty I didn’t know how much more I could take. After what my mom said I was scared to think why I was so drawn to them.

Crap, I watch way too many horror films!

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

Thinking back on your first book, is there anything you would have done differently?

Funny that’s one of the questions asked… Since this was my first book ever written even if it’s like my almost 100^th published between the two names I write under. Yes, there were a TON of changes made from the original version. On the plus side I’ve become a much better author in the years since I wrote the book. The negative was the amount of editing of course. Apparently I had a thing for “!” marks. Dear god they were everywhere. People were just shouting their fool heads off and freaking out over everything! That or they were all really excited all the time!!!!!

What do you feel is the hardest part of the writing process?

Titles, blurbs, and naming characters. It’s too confining for me! I’m used to saying what I want or telling a story in an unlimited amount of words. Then I have 150 or less to tell what the entire book is about?! It makes me want to break out into hives like I’m taking the SATs again and going to screw it all up and people will hate it because I said the wrong thing. The titles are the same. So much is implied by a title. Does it capture the feeling of the book enough? Will someone think there’s another meaning behind it I didn’t intend? And look how often people pick on names. I’m always so worried I’m going to miss a hidden “Bart-ism” where when you said the name out loud it actually sounds like something else. Or I’ve done what every author has and picked out a name thinking it sounded great, realizing later it did because I’d heard it before. That just sucks. You never mean to do it but there’s no way to keep up with ever name you’ve ever heard and not use them! It’s just very stressful. I always joke that I wish someone else could do that part for me.

How do you know you’ve written a good book?

I can’t stop. I just can’t stop writing. It’s almost a physical pain to go to bed or walk away from my laptop. Stopping or being interrupted is like the TV going out during the last ten minutes of the season finale of your favorite show where you just want to whine in the corner.

How do you keep your characters and stories organized?

Well, that’s a little crazily complicated. The short version is there’s a folder on my external hard with 68 files in it and I’m not quite done yet. The long answer is there’s a database with every character I’ve ever named, main and minor, that’s broken down into series so I don’t have duplicate main characters as rarely as possible, and try to have few repeat minor ones even in a series. Then there’s a rules list, minor character specs chart, and a main character one. There’s more but that’s actually just for Joyee books. I haven’t even gotten to doing ones for my Erin series yet.

Have you ever gotten writer’s block? How do you get past it?

No which probably just jinxed myself, but not yet. I’ve gotten stuck on trying to figure out whether I should go left, right, veer one way or another, loop de loop, or flip a bitch. For me I don’t sit down to write unless I know what I’m going to say so I rarely sit and stare at the screen and if I do for more than a few minutes I walk away. I always saw writers block like a stopped up drain. You forced something down that there shouldn’t have been or wasn’t ready. If you’d just gone with the flow, it wouldn’t have happened. So that’s what I do. Doesn’t mean I won’t think about it to death if I’m working through something I just won’t sit down to write until I know my direction.

What is one of your biggest pet peeves?

I have to pick just one? Hmmm, people who don’t realize they’re dumb.

That one person who constantly talks to you like you’re 12 or mentally slow and you just want to bang your head against the wall for several reasons, mostly that they’re so dense they don’t get they’re the idiot between the two of you.

It’s kind of the same, but the people who just don’t get what your real relationship entails. I love my fans. And even as I’m picking on some of them, it’s a small percentage of them. But as I’m switching my personal FB Joyee page to private and started the author page, I was sending individual private messages, reminding them about the page and that I was making the account private. Then I’d unfriend them. Some of the responses I got were just insane! People I’d NEVER spoken with, heard of, or would have known their name if my life depended on it messaging me about my betrayal and how could I do that to them. OMG?! They friended me on FB… That is NOT the same as being my live, in the flesh friend who knows my phone number, address, and been to my home.