As an avid reader of romance, I have a wide selection to choose from. Dark romance being one of them!
This year I discovered a new series that piqued my interest, and surprise, surprise… I LOVED it. So, I said to myself ‘Girl, you need to read this before everyone else.’ I wasn’t the first to read it obviously… But I felt special doing it on my readathon weekend; seven books in four days! a record to behold.
I actually still feel like the luckiest… Because out of ultimate curiosity, I wanted to get a peek into the world of dark romance writers, I decided I would skip my social anxiety for one stretchy five minutes and ask for a written interview!! And you guessed it… I got the interview!
Now, the Perfectly Imperfect series really made me think about some things… mainly how can my standards get higher than they already are, but mostly, how did I get so lucky to get to read a series with smooth writing, impeccable humor, strong characters, and protective morally grey men. And who doesn’t like those!
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen.. and all the maniacs out there, like me, with endless love for psycho male characters and dark romance, and oh for sure some drama… Here’s a little sneak peek into the mind of the mastermind, the One and Only Neva Altaj!
Who is Neva Altaj? Give a little bit of a background for new readers, and new fans...
- Hello! I'm a mom of two girls ( 4 y.o. and 9 y.o.), divorced, an avid reader, and a cat lady :D and in my spare time, I wrote mafia romance novels.
How did the idea of writing the series come to your mind?
- It just somehow… happened, I guess. It started as a hobby. I started writing to clear my mind, and only after I had 3 books written it came to me that maybe I could publish them ☺ I still use my phone to write my books, usually after I put the kids to sleep. It’s almost like a therapy- a way to escape the reality.
Were the characters inspired by someone? Or maybe something that happened that made you say... okay, it's time for me to write this and put it on paper?
- I never have a specific person in mind when I write my characters – the form in my head while I write. Most of the time while I’m writing, I don’t even know what’s going to happen next. Writing is very similar to reading in my case.
Could you give us a sneak peek into the plot of the upcoming books?
- Book 9 will feature Kai who’s a hitman, and Nera (I can’t reveal much about her without spoilers, sorry). This is an age gap, stalker romance that focuses on the characters and their journey.
Out of the men of the series, who's the favorite? Or more like.. fun to write?
- My absolute favorite male character is Salvatore :D I guess I love my men morally grey. And I had the most fun writing Drago because it was super funny seeing his character struggle to “solve the puzzle” which is Sienna. She was truly making him crazy and I enjoyed writing them.
Are we gonna see a second-generation series?
- No solid plans for now, but anything is possible.
What are some of your favorite tropes to read? And some of your favorite books?
- While I write mafia romance and of course love reading that genre, my absolute favorite is paranormal romance. It’s hard to pick one book, but my auto-buy authors are Nalini Singh, Patty Briggs, Ilona Andrews, JR Ward, and KM Moning.
Are there any new projects? (Apart from the two books coming up this year)
There will be 2 more bonus scenes: Daddy Sergei (it's about that tank he’s been trying to get since book #2), and a bonus with Drago and Salvatore ( still don’t have the title for that one).
When do you plan on a singing event? And where?
I only attended one signing event so far, in Istanbul. My Turkish publisher invited me to visit their publishing house and to sign books at the book fair and I couldn’t say no. It was an amazing experience. As for future signings, I don’t have anything specific in plan. We'll see, I guess.
Finally, I wanted to ask something that I wanted to know personally:
Have you ever been to Morocco? What do you of it as a country?
I’ve never been to Morocco, but I hope I’ll get the chance to visit in the future. I’ve always been amazed by Moroccan architecture and I would love to see the Marrakech and the rest of your beautiful country one day.
To this, my short, but sweet interview with Neva ends, and to be honest I learned so much about her, her thought process, and her writing style in a behind-the-scenes kind of way… I got more excited to read more of her books to come, and get myself to enjoy them fully, as I know she will write fascinating stuff in the future…
BOOK ART
I hope you all enjoyed this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it (Literally writing with the biggest smile on my face, I’ll probably scare the ghosts in this place). I hope you all hop into the wild world of reading all sorts of books and certainly give Neva Altaj’s world a try.
Stay Safe…
