Today, Meraki P. Lyhne has agreed to stop by the QSF site for an interview – Meraki P. Lyhne is a Danish author with a love for the paranormal and space opera. She has been writing space opera since 2007, but paranormal erotic romance is a newer love. Closing the door to her writing-den, she delves into elaborate stories and researches ancient religions, mythologies, and arts of the world to be inspired, so she can create new creatures of the paranormal.
Thanks so much, Meraki, for joining me!
Queer Sci Fi: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
Meraki P. Lyhne: In the seventh grade I wrote a short story which I just for kicks handed in to my teacher. He gave it back the next day and told me I should pursue writing. I didn’t think a lot of it until my oldest brother sent me a signed copy of his debut. That’s about the time I figured out what my teacher had meant.
When I discovered I was good at it? Well…Dunno, I’m still striving.
QSF: How would you describe your writing genre?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Always with a psychological or existential theme. It doesn’t matter what genre I try out, and I write almost any or attempt any just to evolve.
QSF: Why do you write?
Meraki P. Lyhne: To live. I can’t not write. I need the constant puzzle in my head, making a plot twist just right or make the characters evolve just right.
QSF: Cats or dogs?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Both. I have two of both.
QSF: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
Meraki P. Lyhne: My first published work was a sci-fi short story for a contest. It was published in a magazine. It was a prompt and I was never satisfied with it. Short stories have never been my thing and probably won’t ever be. I feel too limited by it—too limited by length and characters.
QSF: What’s your writing process?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Daydream and drink coffee, jot down notes while drinking coffee, researching while drinking more coffee… Coffee is actually a common and repeating character in my books, and only one has ever noticed it and she noticed because she doesn’t drink coffee. Oh, yeah, I procrastinate a bit, too. When I write, and get into it, I write after a schedule. And drink more coffee which in these times tend to get cold in my cup.
QSF: Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
Meraki P. Lyhne: I haven’t worn shoes for 7½ years now no matter the weather.
QSF: Are you a plotter or a pantster?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Complete pantser who’d love to claim I plot once in a while, too. When I finally do plot, the characters laugh at me and take the story in another direction.
QSF: Coffee or tea?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Think we covered this one LOL
QSF: What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
Meraki P. Lyhne: Other than writing book 6 in the Chronicles of an Earned series, I’m actually mounting a big project at the moment. It’s the first in a self published series about Incubi which contain some dark stuff, M/M/M, and some dub-con. I wanted to push myself in another direction. Didn’t think my publisher would be interested in it from their guidelines on what to submit and NOT submit so I decided to make it a learning experience in more ways than one.
I expect it out later this year as it’s already with the editor and the cover artist has been put to work. The only thing left is all the bureaucracy with ITIN and Amazon and…I have a list somewhere of things to do before that, but it just keeps getting longer.
Curious minds can look here: https://merakisworld.wordpress.com/untouchable-beauty/
And now for Meraki’s new book: Marked by Shadow:
Unwittingly, Nathan unlocks a spell and becomes the master of a man enslaved by shadow.
While sorting through an old estate in the basement of an auction house Nathan finds a gold bracelet with strange markings on it. He recognizes it as an ancient language and reads the inscription out loud. This makes him the master of a man, Lucien, cursed into shadow by the Thule society during WWII. As this whole new world of the paranormal is revealed to Nathan he finds both love and a fierce loyalty in the man now bound to him—a loyalty he is going to need as the ones who made Lucien into what he is wants him back. And they are willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
The third book in Chronicles of an Earned
Buy Links
Excerpt
Someone came through the door, so Nathan made his way around the racks to see who it was, expecting it to be Stephanie. It wasn’t. It was a guy he had never seen before.
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah, you can,” the guy said with an accent and moved toward Nathan. Five feet short, the guy pulled a gun and Nathan’s mind just reacted, making his body explode into a series of quick maneuvers to disarm the man before he punch-kicked him into a wall. The guy looked absolutely shocked and scrambled to get up.
“Stay down,” Nathan said, holding the gun as he had seen cops do on TV. It felt foreign in his hands. The door opened and Nathan jumped, thinking the guy had backup, but it was Stephanie. She first noticed the guy on the floor as the door almost hit his legs.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Get in here, close the door!” Nathan shrieked. She did, confused, and finally, she noticed the gun in his hand.
“Nathan, what are you doing?”
“He came in here and pulled this in my face, I have no idea who he is!” Nathan looked at the foreign thing in his hands and found it frustrating to hear how high pitched his voice sounded.
“Give it to me,” she said and reached for the gun. He handed it over, feeling more comfortable using his body as a weapon. Not that it was any good against a gun outside of a leg’s reach. She turned while checking the clip, looking like she had done this many times. She then pointed the gun at the man. “Start talking, buster! Why are you here, pulling a gun on my assistant curator?”
“He knows,” the man said and pulled up his sleeve, revealing an embedded bracelet.
“Same tattoo? That’s it?”
“Oh, he knows it is not just a tattoo,” the man sneered. Nathan looked at his watch, then around the shadow filled room. In the back were some old soft glow lamps on tripods. “And he knows what the time is, too.”
“Shut up! Unless you’re gonna say something useful,” Stephanie said, glancing Nathan’s way.
“How the hell do you know about guns?” Nathan asked, hauling the tripods into place.
“I grew up in Texas, IDPA.”
“What’s that?”
“It means International Defensive Pistol Association. It means I can shoot the dick off an ant from the length of this room.”
“Wow,” Nathan muttered while getting the last tripod into position and plugged it into the extension cord. He flipped the switch and stood in the middle of the lights, checking for shadows. There were none. “Okay, back into this circle, Stephanie.”
“Why?”
“Because once the sun goes down we want to be out of the way. This room is gonna be transformed into a fighting arena.”
She looked at him puzzled but did as he said, still holding the gun at the guy. He stayed in his seated position, smiling.
“Hope you trained yours well. I know I did.”
“Lucien, are you ready to jump the other Shadow?” He immediately felt the draft and there was eagerness in it.
“Lucien? As in your boyfriend?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah…back to back here. Don’t, and I repeat, don’t shoot the handsome, naked, dark-haired guy.”
“Naked? Where?”
“In ten, nine…” the guy began.
Author Bio
Meraki P. Lyhne is a Danish author with a love for the paranormal and space opera. She has been writing space opera since 2007, but paranormal erotic romance is a newer love. Closing the door to her writing-den, she delves into elaborate stories and researches ancient religions, mythologies, and arts of the world to be inspired, so she can create new creatures of the paranormal.
At Extasy Books: http://www.extasybooks.com/MerakiPLyhne
Blog: http://www.merakisworld.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Meraki-P-Lyhne
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MerakiPLyhne