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Urban Reviews: Tell us about your latest book Always A Knight.
Wayne Jordan: Always A Knight is the third and final book in my THE KNIGHT FAMILY
trilogy and features the final sibling's story. Playboy
Russell Knight finds himself falling for aspiring songstress
Victoria Matthews and believes that she may just the girl to change
his playboy ways. However, as things begin to heat up between them, Tori is forced to choose between their growing passion and a shot at
stardom.
Urban Reviews: Where did the idea for the Knight Trilogy come from?
Wayne Jordan: I wanted to create a story about a family from my island, Barbados.
Since the history of my island is rooted in colonialism with sugar
cane plantations at its center, I thought it would be interesting to
create a prominent black family, which now owns a plantation, and
write stories about each member of the family. I wanted to
explore the family dynamic as well as intense love stories. I
write love stories, but in each story I want to deal with an
important issue. In One Gentle Knight, it was the black man
and fatherhood; in To Love A Knight I focused on a hero who was
blind and hadn't learn to deal with his blindness, and in Always A Knight, I wanted my hero to discover the important of family and
love.
Urban Reviews: What is it like being a male author writing romance?
Have you ever encountered any readers who doubted your ability to
write romance?
Wayne Jordan: At the least, it has been an interesting experience.
Interesting since I'm one of a select group of individuals and this
is even more noticeable when I go to conferences. And I
definitely get the doubters. I'm always amused when I hear
comments like “I read Always A Knight and it was soooo
good. I didn't know men could write romance. He was
actually able to get into the heroine's psych. Don't female
romance authors get into the male psych and do it well? But
I'm glad that author like R. Barri Flowers (a.k.a. Devon Vaughn Archer)
and I are able to tap into that sensitive place that is necessary if
we want to write romance.
Urban Reviews: What has been your craziest experience with a romance
reader?
Wayne Jordan: They haven't been many, but I a few years ago a female fan came
knocking on the door of my hotel room in the early hours of the
morning while at a conference.
Urban Reviews: What made you want to do romance instead of another genre?
Wayne Jordan: Simply, I love romance. It's my favorite genre; especially
romantic suspense. That's not to say I don't read other
genres. I'm a Literature teacher so my reading has always been
diverse. However, there is nothing more relaxing that reading
a good romance after a hard day's stress from teaching (Of course, I
have to skip some of the love scenes since they create their own
kind of stress)
Urban Reviews: Being from Barbados, how difficult is it for you to find
time to promote your novels?
Wayne Jordan: It's very difficult. I only get to do proper promotional stuff
when I'm in the US and I can only do that during the summer when I'm
on holiday or when I get leave from work (I'm a teacher) for
conferences. However, internet promotion has no end and I've
tried to be as visible online as I can.
Urban Reviews: What projects are you working on for the future? Is
the Knight family really gone for good?
Wayne Jordan: Why now, I'm working on the third book in my Buchanan Brothers
series which began with Capture The Sunrise and continued with
Embracing The Moonlight. This entry in the series is Daniel's
story. At the end of Embracing The Moonlight, readers
discovered that Daniel's wife had died in an accident and has
disappeared. Whispers At Midnight begins a few years after.
Daniel has finally decided to move on with his life, but the memory
of his late wife still haunts him.
And no, the Knight Family is definitely not gone. I'm planning
another trilogy which will feature secondary characters from The
Knight Family. Troy, George and Jared will get their stories.
Of course, I going to put the doctor-hating Sandra with Troy.
The sparks are going to fly!
Urban Reviews: Do you think there has been progress regarding people
respecting romance as much as other forms of fiction?
Wayne Jordan: I think there has been some progress, however, minor it has been.
But I honestly think that the only persons who really matter are
those who love romance. For me, the respect we get from our
audience is enough. Don't need snobs to validate what I read
or write.
Urban Reviews: What are your favorite authors or books?
Wayne Jordan: I love Brenda Jackson, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Cheryl St. John,
Maureen Smith, Rochelle Alers, Beverly Jenkins, Linda Ford, Lisa
Gardner, Tami Hoag, etc, etc. I host the Kimani area and
co-host another area on the
eharlequin.com community and I read from all the lines and have
favorites in each lines, so I could continue this list, but I'd be
here all night. My all time favorite books are Perfect,
Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, anything by Beverly Jenkins
and FOR KEEPS by Janice Sims. Along with romantic suspense, I love
the American Western Romance….I dreamt of being a cowboy when I was
young, so I devour books and authors in that genre.
Urban Reviews: Is there anything else you would like to share with us
about you or your books?
Wayne Jordan: I want to continue to write emotionally satisfying story with heroes
and heroines that readers can identify with. I consider myself
a strong, confident but sensitive male and the male characters I
create must have those qualities…even if it take 250 pages for him
to accept that he is sensitive and caring. I also want to make
readers laugh and cry and laugh again. If I've done that then
I know I've made some difference in that person's life, if it's only
for a moment. Yes, ago the great Judith McNaught said those
same works about her writing. I'm far from being ‘great', but
if I touch just one individual, then I know I've done a good job.
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