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A Conversation with Layla Reyne, Author of SINGLE MALT (Agents Irish & Whiskey #1)

Welcome, Layla! What 5 things should readers know about you?

  1. I’m a North Carolina native currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area. My bi-coastal experience, with travel in-between, is reflected in my stories. In Single Malt, you’ve got Aidan, whose Irish family resettled in the Bay Area, and Jamie, who was was born and raised in North Carolina before moving to San Francisco. Moreover, series settings hop between San Francisco, Texas and North Carolina.
  2. As a mechanic’s granddaughter, I’m fond of fast cars, and forever regretting the 1964½ cherry red Mustang convertible I passed up as a teen when I didn’t know any better. Vintage American muscle cars are my weakness!
  3. I’m a foodie. Food will always be featured in my books and on my social media feeds. #SorryNotSorry for making you hungry.
  4. Ditto whiskey and coffee, if that wasn’t obvious from the book titles and my characters’ fondness for both.
  5. My grandmother sat me in front of All My Children at age three, my parents in front of Hill Street Blues shortly thereafter, so guess what I write… Romantic Suspense. I love suspense with a heavy dose of unresolved sexual tension that leads to romance. Translation: Readers are going to get plot-heavy stories from me, with action and things that go boom, kissing and sexy times, and some cliffhangers too. That’s the structure I learned, the one I love, so fair warning!

LOL! We have been warned!

 

Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

I was introduced to romance and suspense at an early age, which later matured into my own tastes for action and suspense with a romantic twist (e.g., The X-Files, Castle, etc.). When I started writing, first in fanfiction then in original fiction, romantic suspense was a natural fit. Before Single Malt, I wrote a male/female romantic suspense that was an RWA Golden Heart Finalist. While that manuscript ran the contest circuit and through the query trenches, I wrote Single Malt. Already a fan of male/male romance, Irish and Whiskey came to me from the start as two male leads, and after enjoying the male point of view more in my previous manuscript and in fanfiction, I followed where inspiration led—to a continuation series with these two complicated men who deserve their shot at happily ever after. As for the plot itself, I live in Silicon Valley—cyber-everything is a way of life—and after test driving a certain electric car, I couldn’t get the cyberterror angle out of my head.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing 🙂

 

How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?

Does the book I wrote in grade school about the family dog count? That was probably the first thing, LOL. But writing really took off for me in high school, mostly as a rebellion against math and science (and yet, I married a scientist, joke’s on me). Two things spurred the then-hobby on: a twelfth grade writing portfolio, for which I wrote an Epilogue to Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse, and discovering The X-Files and the glorious world of fanfiction. I read and wrote extensively throughout college, including a student television stint, then was diverted a bit by my other career, before fandom and fanfiction pulled me back in, only this time it wasn’t a hobby for long. Original ideas took hold and now my debut novel is published. Hooray!

Ah, fanfiction! Good times…

 

What are you working on right now?

Editing AIW3, developing ideas for AIW spin-offs, and writing a male/male contemporary sports romance. It’s a juggling act, especially with my day-job, but I wouldn’t trade living my dream for anything!

Wow! Can’t wait!

 

What can readers look for from you in the next year?

All three books in the Agents Irish and Whiskey series – Single Malt, Cask Strength, and Barrel Proof – will be released in 2017. Yes, I left readers with a wee bit of a cliffhanger (Okay, a big one), but it’ll be short wait times between books to find out what happens!

Good to know! Nothing worse than having to wait a year+ to find out how the cliffhanger ending will be resolved…

 

What are you currently reading, and what are your thoughts about it so far?

Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh. My e-shelf, while 99% romance, crosses subgenres and pairings. I’ve loved the Psy-Changeling series since I inhaled it the summer before last, and I’m loving my dive back into it. The pairings are compelling, the mythology well-built, and living in the Bay Area, I especially enjoy the reimagined San Francisco her world is set in.

I STILL need to read Nalini Singh…but I keep hearing good things; I think I’m going to have to bump her up the TBR list!

 

If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?

Widowed FBI agent falls hard for his new, handsome cyber agent partner while investigating cybercrimes and his late husband’s murder.

Perfect! Thanks so much, Layla!

 

About the Author:

2016 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist, Layla Reyne, was raised in North Carolina but now calls San Francisco home. She enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline fueled suspense and heart pounding romance. When she’s not writing stories to excite her readers, she downloads too many books, watches too much television, and cooks too much food with her scientist husband, much to the delight of their smushed-face, leftover-loving dogs. You can find her online at http://www.laylareyne.com/.

Connect with Layla: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

 

Title: Single Malt
Author: Layla Reyne
Series: Agents Irish & Whiskey
Genre: M/M Romantic Suspense
Release Date: February 27, 2017
Publisher: Carina Press

 

Synopsis:

Eight months after the car crash that changed everything, FBI agent Aidan Talley is back at work. New department, new case and a new partner. Smart, athletic and handsome, Jameson Walker is twelve years his junior. Even if Aidan was ready to move on—and he’s not—Jamie is off-limits.

Jamie’s lusted after Aidan for three years, and the chance to work with San Francisco’s top agent directly is too good to pass up. Aidan is prickly—to put it mildly—but a growing cyber threat soon proves Jamie’s skills invaluable.

Jamie’s talents paint a target on his back, and Aidan is determined to protect him. But with hack after hack threatening a high-security bio-containment facility, time is running out to thwart a deadly terrorist attack. They’ll have to filter out distractions, on the case and in their partnership, to identify the real enemy, solve the case and save thousands of lives, including their own.

Available now: Carina Press | Amazon | Google Play | Kobo | iTunes| B&N| Goodreads

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Becky. This was a fun interview! Thanks so much for inviting me onto your blog and for hosting 🙂

  2. It was fun 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting, Layla! Good luck with the series–can’t wait to read it!

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