by Emma Ray Garrett Marie Treanor This month's Time Out features the fantastically blessed Marie Treanor. Her City of the Damned and Dragul series are a couple of the best urban fantasies I've read and her talent with eroticism makes them that much better!

ER: Hi, Marie! Thanks so much for taking Time Out with me this month! I'll just jump headfirst into the questions. We're often asked why we decided to be writers. My question isn't why, but rather when did you write what you consider your first story? What was it about?

MT: Hi, Emma Ray - I'm always game for time out. Great to be here! Hmmm - I think I wrote my first recognizable story when I was about six years old. It was all about a princess and a wicked fairy and I made my friends perform it as a play

I suppose my first publishable story was about three or four years ago - a romantic ghost story about a librarian and the spirit of an ancient Scottish king.

ER: *heart speeding up* Oh, yeah, I lust after a Scotsman every time!! Speaking of lusty feelings, ROFL, I love, love, love post-apocalyptic settings for fantasy/urban fantasy/paranormal stories and I have to say your Dragul series is one of the best built, most lovingly detailed I've read. Where'd the idea for the first book come from?

MT: Aw, thank you The Dragul grew out of the City of the Damned stories, which were more obviously post-apocalyptic. After the third one, I began to imagine what the City inhabitants might find when they left the City and re-discovered the deserted areas of the country. I thought it might be fun for them to encounter a race even stronger than the City mutants, and once I'd decided to make the Dragul live so close to nature, I drew a lot on Celtic traditions.

ER: That's part of what I love so much about the series - the werewolves and the vampires aren't the biggest paranormals on the block, LOL! Okay, so coffee is very popular among the writing crowd. If you drink it, how do you take it?

MT: Constantly! Strong and with just a little milk. I'm so addicted I can't even get out of bed in the morning without at least one cup!

ER: I hear that, LOL! Give me the caffeine or leave me the heck alone. If you could manifest the perfect place to create, what or where would it be?

MT: I think it would change with my mood! At the moment, I hanker after a deserted, sandy beach, somewhere warm, with the sea just lapping at my toes... Of course there would have to be a nice bar and restaurant somewhere close by for later

ER: Oh, when you get there, send me a ticket, ROFL! What do you do for fun and relaxation?

MT: I read - and write, weirdly enough I love good food and wine with friends, walking on the beach, watching old black and white films...eating chocolate (sh-sh!)

ER: Classic romances: which would you choose: Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice?

MT: Oh dear, I love both of them! And I think there's a place for both the melodrama and the more genteel and witty romance. Depends on my mood, I suspect!

ER: Movies: action or romance?

MT: I like both at once : Like the old Errol Flynn films, and The Princess Bride, of course...

ER: I adore The Princess Bride - though I'll admit I watched it the first time because of Peter Falk, *g*.Do you have any good advice, LOL? It doesn't have to be writing related, just something you find yourself using often.

MT: Like - "it won't get better if you pick it"? : "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is a particularly useful one...

ER: Both very good bits of wisdom : Okay, so that's the end of my questions. Here start the good parts, LOL. Would you please, please share some super yummy bits from one of your books? The hotter, the better 'cause we readers can't get enough of the steam *WEG*!

MT: Thanks, Emma Ray, it's been fun Always happy to oblige with the steamy excerpts! How about a bit from my most recent release, Rogue Warriors 2: Soldier? http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=909

The dragon is close by. She can feel its presence, so she's unafraid of the man. It's Sorin in all his black leather, looking sexy and untouchable. The untouchable bit annoys her. She wants to wind him up, tease him as she did before until his cock grows big and he wants her. Then she'll strike him, laugh at him.

She's quite safe to behave so badly. The dragon is near.

Reaching out, she takes Sorin's hand. It's big, but slender, warm, his fingers long and sensitive. Deliberately, gazing mockingly up into his eyes, she carries it to her breast.

It feels good, too good, even though the hand is as passive as his face. She moves his hand for him, caressing herself with his palm, rubbing his fingers back and forward across her nipple, elongated and proud now through her combat vest.

Something changes in his eyes. His gaze drops from hers to her chest and instinctively she follows its direction. Her dark hand covers his pale one, which is cupped over her breast. Slowly, she lets her own hand fall away. His stays where she left it, large and sexy on her breast, and the sight of it there suddenly overwhelms her with excitement. Heat rushes to her pussy, where moisture pools.

His palm moves, softly kneading. Her nipple presses into him, and he flicks his thumb over it once, before continuing with the larger caress. The effect is electric. Juices overflow, trickle down her legs. She is trembling, and when she glances at him now, he smiles.

He has a beautiful smile. It lightens his dark, serious face, allows a glimpse of the true character beneath. But it's also predatory and she likes that. She likes that a lot.

She shouldn't, of course, because she's teasing him... isn't she?

His hand is warmer, unbelievably intimate. When she glances down again, her vest is gone. He is caressing one naked breast with his hand while the other stretches toward him, begging for a caress of its own. He doesn't give it.

The movement of his hand is growing increasingly bolder, wilder, more sensual. She's fascinated by the contrast of their skin, pale, almost white fingers moving sensuously, knowingly, on her dusky breast. She feels aroused to breaking point, as if she could come just by the stroking of his fingers there. He flattens his hand, holding his palm straight so that it barely touches her nipple at all. Slowly, he moves it, and that lightest, sexiest of touches brings a moan of lust to her lips.

His hand closes again, hard but not hurting, and when she gasps aloud he covers her mouth with his. She's swept against his leather clad body; the big, rigid shaft of his cock presses into her, strokes her between the thighs until instinctively she parts her legs farther and rubs her clitoris against it.

Now she's going to come. Nothing can stop it. She opens her mouth wide under his, taking his tongue, giving her own, accepting the orgasm as a gift she has no right to but which she can't stop and wouldn't if she could...

It makes her moan and gasp, wild, involuntary animal noises curiously un-smothered by his mouth as he goes on kissing her and kissing her...

ER: Wowza, I need a fan and a cool drink *BG*! Thanks so much for sitting with us this month, Marie!

On another note, I'm sure a lot of you are aware of the catastrophic flooding that ravaged parts of southern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, and northern Missouri in the month of June. As a resident of one of the towns seen all over the national news, I can tell you it hasn't been pretty and many people have lost everything they had and more.

I'd like to send out huge thanks to all of you who have sent letters of hope, helped in aid relief, and prayed for the survivors. We're a strong people here, but the amount of help, hope, and compassion that we've received is immeasurably powerful support for those of us facing the devastation left behind by the floods. Thank you, thank you.

Emma Ray