top of page
Blog: Blog2
Writer's pictureDr.TonyaNagle

Interview with Rituals & Runes Author, Roxy Matthews


Find your next book boyfriend in the pages of this limited edition collection of paranormal romance and urban fantasy tales.

You can read about one of those book boyfriends in this author interview with Roxy Matthews. We'll be talking her upcoming book, Unlikely Trio, which comes out only in the Rituals and Runes Anthology.

Author: Roxy Matthews


Book: Unlikely Trio


R&R: Wonderful to have you today. What is the inspiration behind the talking monkey in your story?


Roxy: That’s actually a funny, alcohol-induced story that starts with a cover deadline and me not even having a story yet.


So, here I am, sitting on the living room floor, my laptop on the coffee table, Canva loaded, and a cooler in hand. I had two people I really liked from earlier cover-hotty searches and got to work creating. They fit well together, the background was colorful, the title brainstormed and accepted with a shrug of ‘why-not’. But something on the cover didn’t look right.


Ahhh, there’s a space there that I could fill. Takes a sip of bubbly. Why not a monkey, like a spirit animal or something? I have a small one. Let’s see.


Plops said monkey in empty space. BAM!

Hey, why not a talking monkey?


And the rest is history. Lol.


I have worked with prompts in my life before, when I was early ‌in my writing career, flexing my creative juices. So I could do this, right?



R&R: That's pretty funny and I bet it adds some excitement to the story. Are any other talking animals in your stories?


Roxy: Hmm… good question. I feel that Unlikely Trio definitely raised the bar for me in my storytelling comfort zone. I’ve done magic in my Pale Bay Treasures series, have hit tender points in some, if not all of my previous pieces, even time-travel in a sci-fi short. I’ve always enjoyed crossing boundaries and genres, but to bring bits of humor and pieces of emotion together with that element of magical realism was not only fun, but intense. As for talking animals, never, aside from my shifter pieces.



R&R: Stories with talking animals do push the boundaries of human imagination but that's also what makes them neat and engaging.


What is your favorite beverage, and what fuels your writing?


Roxy: Favorite beverage is definitely coffee. Swap that to a cool drink in the evenings, and I’m a happy author.


R&R: Coffee is definitely a must for a lot of us authors. And time to relax fuels the imagination.


If you had magic, what type would you want to have?


Roxy: I’m probably the most curious person you will meet, a people watcher at heart, so definitely the magic of super hearing. :) Not a valiant magical request, but it would appease my nosey-spirit.


R&R: Great balance of satisfying your curiosity but still keeping your distance. You could get some incredible material for books!


What personal item would you want to have if you were stranded on a deserted island? This island has everything you have for survival already.


Roxy: Definitely my bed. It’s outfitted with several layers of foam, the softest sheets known to man, a thick duvet and soft, lavender infused pillows… need I say more?



R&R: Sounds heavenly.


If you could go back in time and meet someone, who would you meet and why?


Roxy: Oooh, just one, eh? Tricky. I would have to say, Ed and Lorraine Warren. I am a huuuge fan of things that go bump in the night, and their basement is loaded with them. I’d love to hear the stories firsthand while they give me a tour.


R&R: What books do you have coming out that are not involved in the anthology?


Roxy: Betrayed, the third piece in my Eternal Enemies shifter series will release in August 2022 in the Shift Happens: A Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Anthology which I am super excited about.


After that, I think I will be taking a break for the rest of the summer, then I have a few more stories for the shifter series, and a side-secret-project I’ve been working on… we’ll have to see come fall. ;)



R&R: Love it!!


Would you rather read your writings to an audience of ten people who love you or to 10,000 people you don’t know?


Roxy: Definitely 10,000 strangers. Then if I bomb the entire thing, I can go home and pretend it never happened. People who like me, I’ll still have to face after. Lol.


Understandable. Thank you for the interview. Ahead we have more information about Unlikely Trio, and a juicy snippet from the book.


Book blurb:

Trinity Masters knew better than most—that time was fleeting, yet infinite… with the right spell, of course.

For sixteen years she hid in the shadows of the home she was raised in, secretly learning the ways of the warlocks. Armed with the final strands needed to complete her spell, Trinity takes a headfirst leap into the past, only to end up facing the present.

Oscar never had a one-day bathroom-stall fling get under his skin as much as the one he had with Trinity Masters. Daughter of the Puck clan, she intrigued him, yet made him wary, especially when he finds out she used him for a time-travelling spell meant to bring back the dead.

Face to face with the demons of Trinity’s past and present, Oscar must decide which time to save and which to end, or forever be caught in an endless loop of pain and death.

Excerpt:

“The name’s Oscar.”

She stopped, turned.

“I didn’t ask.”

He shrugged. “I know, but I like to know the names of the women I pleasure in dirty bar bathrooms.”

Her eyes rounded, perfectly sculpted jaw dropped. When she pulled it back, looked around them, then glared those dark brown eyes on him, he struggled to not rip her up off the floor and take her back to that damn bathroom.

Around them, the bar had returned to its usual rowdy atmosphere of drunken, or on their way to, warlocks of all clans. All but Puck’s. All but hers.

His curiosity as to why Puck’s daughter walked in the bar once, let alone twice now, was eating at him. But he was more enamored by her then he expected considering it was he who had the ability to make any woman melt into a puddle of sex at his feet.

Somehow, this woman was turning the tables on him.

She took several steps closer, shifted the heels to one arm, reached the other out.

“Trinity.”

He took her hand, felt the heat emanating from her, shook it.

With a half-cocked grin, he watched Trinity change before him. Her irritated stance shifted and the beauty on her face at that moment nearly took his breath away.

Damn this daughter of Puck’s had some magic. And he was so fucking lost in it.

“Oscar?” She tilted her head. “That doesn’t sound like a warlock name.”

He stifled his laughter at the look of innocent confusion on her face.

“Neither does Trinity.”

When her expression pulled back, head straightened, he knew there was something she was hiding, something she didn’t want known. She was everything he expected in a witch from Puck’s clan, yet she was somehow different.

What was she hiding? That she was Puck’s daughter? Hell, he already knew that.

He scoured the bar, not a patron was paying them any mind, instead drinks flowed, men laughed, glasses clinked, and hollers of an impending fight impregnated the walls of the bar.

The part of him that knew he could delve into the deep recesses of her mind to know the answer held itself back. There was something about her that was alluring, that made him want to know her the old-fashioned, magic-free way.


Author Bio:


Roxy Matthews, a member of the Silverleaf Writers Guild, is a self-published author of full length novels in the Romantic/Suspense and Fantasy genres. In 2018 she was named one of Canada's Best Writers of the Year by Polar Expressions Publishing.

Her work has been featured in several anthologies, including ‘The Way Through’ by Polar Expressions Publishing, The Charmed Writers Flash Fiction Anthology 2019, Naughty Night's Press' Sweeter Than Chocolate: Valentine's Day Anthology, and Sultry Shifter Nights: A Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Anthology.

Roxy's dark, twisted side can be read under her alternate pen name R.M.Sackville, where she tests the boundaries of taboo with Dark Fantasy, Sci/Fi, and Thriller pieces that include novellas, novelettes, and short story collections that delve into the dark and twisted. Her work has been featured in Suspense Magazine and LitFest Magazine.


Where to find her:



Get more magical & paranormal-themed stories like this in Rituals & Runes!




6 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page