Jo Davis talks Spy Games

interview by Suzanne

A Lair favorite, Jo Davis returns, this time to talk sexy Spies with Suzanne. As always any conversation between these two involves alcohol, sexy men and good stories! Pull up a lounger and see what's up this time.

Suz: So, welcome back to the Lair, Jo! It’s always great fun to have you join us, and of course it’s always a good reason to share drinks… Sven has become quite the Mojito mixologist these days.

The sound of liquid pouring and then two glasses clinking fill the nearly empty bar area

Suz: Many of the Bandits are working in the writing caves, but I’d expect one or two to pop up for these lovely drinks, soon! This time you’ve brought us a very naughty book to read. I Spy A Naughty Game is the second book in your erotic spy romances, the SHADO Series. And might I add just how much fun I had reading it? Yummo!

In this book we get to meet two more agents for SHADO, Blaze Kelly and Emma Foster. Can you tell everyone a little bit about them?

Jo: First, it’s great to be back! I always enjoy visiting with the Bandits. What a fun group!


As for Blaze and Emma… Blaze is our tough, sexy agent who’s nursing a broken heart. He’s a Dom who’s into the D/s lifestyle and the woman he loves just couldn’t handle it. Emma is a disguise/makeup artist for SHADO. She still loves Blaze, but doesn’t believe she’ll ever be able to fit into his world to be what he needs—a submissive who will melt at her master’s touch, obey his command.

Suz: In I Spy A Naughty Game, you walk your readers through the world of Dominants and submissives. How do Blaze and Emma fit into this world?

Jo: Blaze is a natural. He’s the epitome of what a Dom should be—firm and in control, but always aware that his sub’s safety and happiness comes first. He wants Emma to learn to trust him and know that the D/s lifestyle isn’t some wild free-for-all that’s all about the master’s needs, but about the sub’s needs. Emma is having a difficult time letting go to completely trust him, and isn’t sure she ever can. Besides, she’s pretty butch and feels she has to be just as tough as the guys to work at SHADO. How can she ever feel feminine?

Suz: What if any difficulties or goals did you have when writing about the D/s lifestyle? Any research you might’ve done?

Jo: Let me say I’m not personally into the lifestyle (grin), but that world fascinates me. I do read BDSM erotica and erotic romance, but I felt that wasn’t enough to go on to write about Blaze’s universe. I did some research and found some well-known D/s Masters online, studied their house rules and “mission statements” if you will. I learned that there are actual, definitive types of Masters for each type of sub and that it’s important for the two to be well-matched, and to have a written contract that spells out their commitment. One Master I found was perfect to model Blaze after, with his belief in loving dominance and respect for the sub. I went with it.

Suz: Has it been an easy adjustment for Emma?


Jo: Not at all. Emma fancies herself a tough chick, and she is. But she has a soft, feminine underbelly, a part of her craving dominance, that she’s terrified to expose to Blaze.

Suz: How does their relationship and need for the D/s lifestyle come into play within the external plot of the story?

Jo: Michael Ross, SHADO’s troubled leader, taps Blaze and Emma to go undercover as man and wife to infiltrate a group of rich investors who are supplying money to a home-grown terrorist organization. This organization is now under the control of Robert Dietz (from book 1, I SPY A WICKED SIN) who has escaped, and SHADO must stop Dietz before he and his group transfer a stolen weapon of mass destruction out of the country.

Dietz’s investors meet at a D/s club to conduct their meetings and play. Blaze and Emma have to get into their group and hopefully learn where Dietz is hiding the weapon. Forced into this situation (it was either participate or agonize as another female agent took the job as Blaze’s sub), Emma’s barriers come down…one naughty game at a time.

Suz: Things get shaken up at SHADO as a result and we’re left hanging with more questions than answers, (not very nice m’dear), so does this story arc carry over into the next book, I Spy A Dark Obsession?

Jo: Now, Suz dear, you know I’d never leave you hanging! NAUGHTY GAME is a complete stand-alone and the only plot point left unanswered is when Robert Dietz will finally get what’s coming to him, and who will deliver the long-awaited justice. You’ll have to wait until March 2011 when I SPY A DARK OBSESSION is released to find out! That story is a ménage and features Michael Ross, Bastian Chevalier, and Katrina Brandt.


Suz: Let’s take a minute to talk about your firefighters. When is the next book coming out?

Jo: Ooh, I’m so glad you asked! RIDE THE FIRE will be released on December 7 and finally gives my readers Captain Sean Tanner’s story. I’m sad to see this series end, but I believe my readers will love Sean and Eve’s story. Sean battles his way back from the depths of hell, and there are some powerful, emotional setbacks and triumphs along the way. He’s also blindsided by the knowledge that the accident that killed his family might have been deliberate… Have a box of tissue handy, folks. This one even made my editor cry!

Suz: (My apologies, blogger was not cooperative and this image does not do the sexy cover justice!!)

Dear Bandit Buddies, please be sure to join Jo and I in December as we have a VERY special treat planned for all of you when we discuss the fifth book in the Station Five Firefighter Series, Ride The Fire.

Jo: So I have a question for y'all and one commenter will receive a signed copy of I Spy A Naughty Game. Which fictional spy gets your motor running? If any spy hero could step off the pages and ask you for a hot date, who would it be and why?

"I Spy" A New Series by Jo Davis!

interview with Suz

We're welcoming my very good friend, Jo Davis, back to the Lair today, not to talk about firefighters, but SPIES! I've been looking forward to the debut of this book and bringing Jo here to give us the details. Be prepared dear readers, you'll need a fan and the air conditioning to help you get through reading this erotic suspense series!

Suz:With your latest foray into the world of Erotic Suspense you've delivered a new series for our readers to devour. Care to give us a look into the world of sexy spies?

Jo: The idea for the SHADO Agency series resulted from my love of spy thrillers. I'm a fan of James Bond and the BOURNE thrillers, and just about any spy story out there. When faced with creating a new series, I thought what fun it would be to write a spy series, and seriously turn up the sexual heat to scorching levels?and the SHADO Agency was born. My visit this previous summer to the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. fueled my imagination even more. What an intriguing world of disguise, subterfuge, and danger! There was no way I could resist.

The mission: Seduce…and Eliminate.

Jude St. Laurent is a former assassin for SHADO, a covert homeland security agency. After a mysterious accident causes gaping holes in his memory, he embraces his career as an artist, pouring vibrant, colorful life into his erotic paintings, and he often seeks solace in the arms of his subjects. But when he’s haunted by visions of the past, he turns to his new personal assistant for help—and she knows just how to make him forget.

Lily Vale is not what she seems. An agent as deadly as St. Laurent , she uses sex to manipulate her targets—and always gets her man. When she’s sent on a mission to kill Jude, she’s startled—and aroused—to find that he’s not the monster she expects. As Lily succumbs to Jude’s decadent sexual lifestyle, one wicked sin at a time, she realizes that there’s more to this case than meets the eye—and if she’s going to save them both, she’ll have to found out who’s pulling the strings.

Suz: The book starts off with a bang:

Prologue

“Sweet Christ.”

Elbows on the ratty desk, John Sandborn dropped his face into his hands. In the wake of this terrible exercise of connect the dots, he’d be goddamned lucky if he didn’t wind up at the bottom of the Atlantic. In five different oil drums.

Because a traitorous, murdering bastard was coming for him. No doubt about it.

If he had a whisper of a prayer of avoiding a grisly fate, he had to work fast.

Clicking the X in the top right corner of the laptop’s screen, he closed the classified file and opened another. Fingers flying, he activated a program he’d hoped never to use, but was damned glad he’d put into place. Next, he composed a simple coded message a ten-year-old couldn’t decipher, yet not so difficult a trusted operative couldn’t, either.

“Okay . . . got it.” He blew out a deep breath. It wasn’t perfect, but would have to do.

Last, he opened his e-mail and hit Send. He waited, every muscle tense, while the new files, along with the classified one, shot to six different destinations and burrowed into six different hard drives. A high-tech worm that would make any hacker cream in his shorts—and just might save his ass.

Action complete.

Sandborn attacked the keyboard again, clicking rapidly. His instincts screamed Get out, but he didn’t dare leave the last two tasks undone.

Precious seconds were whittled away, scraping his nerves raw, as he accessed the script file he’d written to initiate the virus that would destroy his hard drive. The final box popped onto the screen, and he executed his CTRL+F+U command.

Sandborn gave a grim chuckle at the double entendre in his chosen three-finger salute and wiped the sweat from his brow. Time to make like a ghost.

The door to his motel room burst open, hitting the inside wall like a gunshot. Sandborn spun, the SIG from the desktop already in hand, arm leveling at the leader of the traitor’s cleanup crew.

Too late. A pop split the air, and pain blossomed in his chest. He stumbled backward, managing to get off a shot, the explosion deafening in the tiny space. The leader went down with a grunt as Sandborn trained his gun on the second man, tried to squeeze the trigger. And couldn’t. His arm fell limp and useless to his side.

The second man crossed the room, a smirk on his ugly, pockmarked face. Cold overtook the pain, spreading from Sandborn’s chest to his limbs. Numbing every muscle. Looking down, he stared in fascinated horror at the dart embedded in his left pectoral.

He swayed, speaking quickly. His life depended on it. “Tell your boss I know everything. I put safeguards in place, and he’ll never find them without me,” he rasped, the drug freezing his vocal cords, fast. “If I die . . . the whole world will know . . . what he’s done.”

Sandborn’s legs buckled and he slumped to the floor, completely nerveless. Aware, but paralyzed, along for the ride and at their mercy. A nightmare.

A pair of heavy-soled leather boots appeared in his line of vision as the second man paused, obviously peering at the laptop. “You smart-ass sonofabitch,” Crater Face hissed.

John Sandborn’s last image was a snapshot of the man’s right shitkicker rocketing toward his face.

Suz: WOW! Jude St. Laurent, the hero of I SPY A WICKED SIN, is a very damaged hero. What is it that makes wounded men so sexy and how did you come about giving him the flaws in this story?


Jo: I think there's something about a tortured or damaged hero that brings out the caring and nurturing side of a woman. At least that's true for me. I want to fix it, make it all better-but not before he's put through the wringer. With Jude, I knew from the beginning he was blind and had holes in his memory due to the villain having his mind swept. (Think Bourne Identity) I said to myself, "A blind former assassin/spy? Are you nuts? He'll be such a difficult hero to write!" But it didn't matter. Jude was what he was, period. As with all my heroes, once he introduced himself to me, that was it. And on top of memory loss, can you imagine having one of your most relied-upon senses denied you, while becoming increasingly aware that you're not what you believed and that your life is in terrible danger? The challenge was too much fun to resist.


Suz: In I SPY A WICKED SIN Lily Vale is a very beautiful operative of SHADO. What is her area of expertise?

Jo: Like Jude, Lily is an assassin, and she's posing as Jude's new personal assistant. Her job in this case is to locate computer files that Jude hid regarding the theft of a weapon of mass destruction, a theft he was supposedly instrumental in pulling off. Then she'll eliminate him. Lily uses her sex appeal to bring down her targets in a much more?hands on manner than most agents. In particular, she's very proficient in using poisons that don't leave a trace?


Suz: A Jo Davis erotica wouldn't be complete without a ménage. Liam O'Neil is the third member of this trio. Is he also a spy for SHADO?

Jo: No, our sweet Liam is Jude's in-house chef, companion, and sometime lover. He's a young man with a big, open heart and almost stole the story from my clutches before I quite knew what happened. I adore Liam, and completely balked at a suggestion while writing the book that I kill him off! SO not happening! I hope readers love him as much as I do.

Suz: Since I SPY A WICKED SIN is the first of this series, will we be seeing these characters in the other books?

Jo: The two characters that will carry over from the beginning of the three-book series are handsome SHADO leader Michael Ross and the villain, ex-SHADO right-hand man and traitor Robert Dietz. The first two books in the series will have a conclusion, but Michael and Dietz will have their final showdown in the last book. Also, book two will introduce someone very important to Michael's story.

Suz: And I can't have Jo Davis in the lair without asking? WHEN will we be seeing the next firefighter book?

Jo: I'm so glad you asked! Tommy Skyler's story, LINE OF FIRE, will be released on May 4, 2010! The team's youngest hottie will get his story, and it sets up an explosive plot for the final book, RIDE THE FIRE, Captain Sean Tanner's story coming in December! In Tommy's story, lives will be irrevocably changed. Think of these last two books in the series as dominos falling, setting off a chain reaction?

Suz: Jo, thanks for being here today. We love having you with us. Do you have a closing question for our readers?

Jo: Sure do, Which type of action hero is your favorite in books, TV, or movies (cop, firefighter, Navy SEAL/other military, spy, etc.) and who is your favorite action hero of all time?

Jo will be giving away a signed copy of I SPY A WICKED SIN to one of our commeters today!