Interview: Jessica Clare, 'The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male'

Jessica Clare's The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male is one of the hottest books you'll read this fall. The smoldering page-turner follows Beth Ann, a marvelously relatable heroine who after making numerous sacrifices has achieved her dream of opening her own salon. Yet while her career is booming, her personal life is somewhat lackluster. On the mend from a lengthy dead-end relationship, she is determined to show everyone around her that she is capable of moving forward.

She gets that chance after she is lost in the woods one evening and finds herself being rescued by Colt, a dashing ex-Marine. Though the two initially clash, they quickly prove to be compatible in more ways than one. Steamy trysts and plot turns ensue — culminating in a tremendously satisfying conclusion.

HEA had the chance to ask Jessica, who also wrote The Girl's Guide to (Man) Hunting, about her fun, sexy new work.

Justine: You've described The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male as the steamiest book you've ever written. What made you want to try more-erotic territory?

Jessica: Just to see if I could, honestly! I found I had a lot of fun writing — ahem — the dirty-flirty stuff. We submitted the Bluebonnet books to Cindy Hwang (editor at Berkley Books) as straight-up contemporary, but all of my books are a little on the steamier side. She suggested that I rework my proposal with the Heat line in mind, and I waffled for a minute or two, not sure if I could go that steamy. But I love a challenge — or a dare! And this felt like a dare. And, honestly, it's been a terrific fit for me. I love it and it feels like I've found a "home" for the perfect kind of book that I want to write — fun, extremely frisky and romance-driven.

Justine: What made you decide to go with the title that you did?

Jessica: The original title for the first book was Sparks Fly (because of … campfires. Exciting, I know). We found out a few months before publication that there was another book coming out on the same day that already had that title. Uh oh! So my editor suggested we change mine to have less confusion. We brainstormed for something that would showcase the lighter feel of the books, and I think she suggested the first title (The Girl's Guide to (Man) Hunting). As soon as she did, I knew the second one just HAD to be called The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male. I kind of love that title. It's a mouthful, but it's awesome.

Justine: What's interesting about the book is that Colt and Beth Ann are attracted to each other right from the start of the story. There's very little "will they/won't they" tension. What made you take that approach when writing the book?

Jessica: I like a challenge! A lot of my "Why did you go in this direction?" sorts of answers are because I wanted to challenge myself. Every book presents a new sort of goal for me, so I try to give myself small hurdles to jump. Can I write a decent virgin hero? Can I write a believable virgin heroine? Can I write a revenge story and not want to clobber the characters over the head? Things like that. Care and Feeding started out because I wanted to see if I could write a "date" book. Most of my books take place over a very short window of time — like a week or so — so there's often a very quick and intense movement toward the happy-ever-after. I wanted to write a book where the characters actually dated. You know, like normal people! So I had to think of ways to move around the "will they/won't they" and it became more of a "is he going to (mess) up this good thing? Is she?" and it became more character-conflict based.

I think I read somewhere that the best relationships aren't because two people change to be together — being together simply makes two awesome people even more awesome. Or something. I'm sure that's a horrible paraphrase of the actual stellar quote, but you get the idea. Colt and Beth Ann are fine separately, but together they are awesome. I'm not a huge fan of two people miserable together until the last page, in which they passionately declare love (looking at you, Scarlett O'Hara) so I'm much happier building a relationship through the pages and perhaps exploring how they work through their obstacles together instead of separately.

Plus, it's an erotic romance. They kind of have to get together early! It's either that or you have 250 pages of buildup and then 50 pages of intense licking, and that just gets a little exhausting to think about, much less read.

Justine: You currently have a day job working in finance yet you've managed to write a great deal. How are you able to balance your vigorous schedule?

Jessica: Well, I'm not so good with the balancing, honestly! I tend to go full-tilt when I'm in a project, because I'm happiest elbows-deep in whatever my current obsession is. My husband is an extremely patient man and doesn't complain when the laundry piles up, the dishes are not done, and I'm in my pajamas at 4 in the afternoon, typing away.

Writing for me is like having a second job that just happens to be really, really fun. So I go to work in the morning, get home, write for a few hours, exercise/shower/sleep, start the process over. It doesn't leave a ton of time for other things. I sometimes go for a week without checking e-mail or social networking. I'm horribly behind on TV shows and video games (sob). I do my reading on the exercise bike.

I also like working on multiple projects at once (I know! Freak!) so I don't get bored or "stuck." If a project is not talking to me or if I feel stumped, I switch to a different one to "warm up." By the time I've spent a half hour writing on my side project, I can usually jump into the main project. As a result, I normally have two or three projects "stacked" all at once and I cycle between them when I'm feeling laggy. The side projects also double as a reward. If I get my 2,000 words I need to in my contracted project, I allow myself a bit of time to poke in one of my side projects as a treat.

Justine: You're a fan of various genres. How do you try to incorporate outside genres into your erotic romance novels?

Jessica: Yes! I love reading everything. I grew up reading everything from post-apocalyptic science-fiction to romance to fantasy to classics. My mother was a huge reader, so we'd grab a ton of books at the library and then just pass them back and forth. So because my reading taste is a little "everywhere," my writing is, too. My books with Berkley Heat are contemporary, so there's no monsters or vampires or space travel, of course, but I need a special "something" that makes me want to bury my face in the book and not come out of my writing cave. In my contemporaries, a lot of it is the push-pull of the erotic relationship and how it affects the characters, but I also think there's an element of adventure in them, too. It might be small, but it's still there, and I love that I can meld that sense of "adventure" into an everyday story, even if it's as small an adventure as getting stranded in the woods with a hot guy.

To learn more about Jessica Clare, who also writes under the name Jill Myles, visit JillMyles.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter (@jillmyles).

As a book, film and pop culture journalist, Justine Ashley Costanza has interviewed celebrities such as Steve Carell and Meryl Streep. She's also an avid reader of romance novels. You can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter (@Justine__Ashley).