Did you know know that Harlequin Escape is one year old this week? We’re celebrating this momentous occasion with a week filled with interviews, reviews, and excerpts, plus awesome giveaways, here on Steamy Guys After Dark and on our sister site featuring YA: Swoony Boys Podcast!
Today, we’re chatting with Vanessa Stark, author of Room Service:
***INTERVIEW***
Thanks for having me 🙂
It was so much fun! I wrote it after returning home, full of inspiration, from an amazing romance writers conference in QLD (my first). Natasha, the heroine in Room Service, popped into my head fully formed and bursting with conflict – she is a virgin and a bestselling erotic romance author!
Natasha Raven, bestselling erotic romance author and virgin (who doesn’t write her own sex scenes), needs some sexual experience – fast – when she’s asked to share her naughty writing secrets at a writers conference. Can hot, hotel-staffer, Jace, help her out? Or does he have an even deeper secret than Natasha!
I loved writing the scene where Natasha pretends to be an experienced lover. I really felt for her because I knew how difficult it must have been to ‘play’ this role with the childhood upbringing she’d experienced. Also, the scene was a huge turning point for Natasha, character-growth wise.
They seem to form organically inside my mind and allow me snippets of information as the story develops. Weirdly enough, I often continue to learn more about them long after the story is written.
Jace is a hot, young, hotel staffer who has the power to melt knees with just one glance! Strong, gorgeous and also a gentleman, Jace seems perfect in every way. But is he harbouring a secret even darker than Natasha’s?
I think they are so much fun to write, so I don’t dread them at all. But I do cringe when people that I know have read them!!!
Curious, romantic, happy
I have always wanted to write. The first story I wrote was about Skeletor (from He-Man), titled ‘Blue Blood’ when I was 7 yrs old. However the first actual novel I wrote was a historical romance. It’s full of cringe-worthy sex scenes, and awful dialogue. But it was fun and made me want to do better 🙂
I have a favourite daggy cardigan with missing buttons that I always wear during the winter while I write. For some reason I feel like a ‘real’ writer when I slip it on. Also, I need a hot drink of some sort – normally coffee but sometimes Earl Grey tea.
Write the story you would love to read.
I’m so frightened by the idea of getting writer’s block before a deadline. But luckily, deadlines actually work for me by giving me a concrete goal. Plus, I always pop a bottle of bubbly in the fridge as a reward for when I finish a project.
It is difficult sometimes. Like most writers, we all have children and/or pets, partners, parents, jobs, houses etc. There are times where writing has to be put aside, but there are also times when, even if you should be doing the washing, or the dishes, or sleeping, the story lures you and you cannot help but write. I live for those moments, when the rush of writing overrides even tiredness!
That I once slept in a garden shed, in London, with three travelling-friends 🙂
I swoon over so many characters I find it hard to choose just one. But I loved Flynn from Rachael John’s rural romance, Jilted and Max from Sarra Manning’s You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.
I have a lot of projects on the go including a sequel to Room Service, and a hot, contemporary romance starring a sexy, Irish-Italian hero.
What is my favourite food? Croatian soup – it’s a beef broth with noodles that my mum makes. I can eat five bowls of it in one sitting!
You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. It was so much fun!
***About Vanessa Stark***
Vanessa Stark lives on the coast of Western Australia with her husband, their three chatty children, and three calming goldfish. When she is not writing, Vanessa can be found at the local bookstore where she works part-time.
***About the Book***

Published by Escape Publishing on February 1, 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 45
Goodreads Buy the Book
Although she is a bestselling author of erotic romance, Natasha Raven has never penned a sex scene. Her sister, Liza, was responsible for the sizzle in Natasha's books – until she passed away only months ago. Now Natasha must write the scenes herself. Trouble is, she hasn't a clue what to write and being a virgin doesn't help. When she is invited to speak at a conference workshop titled 'From Your Sheets to the Page,' Natasha panics. But a suggestive wink from a young hotel staffer named Jace gives her an idea. But will she go through with it? And is Jace all that he seems?
***GIVEAWAY***
Good luck and be sure to check out all the other interviews and reviews we’ve got going on to celebrate the first Birthday for Harlequin Escape!