AUTHOR INTERVIEWS: Stephanie Julian

Thanks so much for having me over for coffee, Sia, though I must admit I don’t drink it. So I’ve brought some hot chocolate. And Junior Mints.

I'm thrilled to have you visit Over Coffee again. I always have hot chocolate and teas. I remembered the Junior Mints from the last time you were here. :-) 

I’m really enjoyed reading What a Goddess Wants. You create such a fascinating world.

WHAT A GODDESS WANTS, the first book in my Forgotten Goddesses series.

This isn't your first book set in Etruscan mythology, though, is it?

When I first started writing WHAT A GODDESS WANTS, I was already deep into the two Etruscan series I've been writing for Ellora's Cave for the last three years. All of the books I've published, with the exception of SIZE MATTERS, have been set in this world. 


Actually, the world is the same one we live in; except there are whole communities of magic users normal people know nothing about.


The Etruscans are an ancient race of magic users including witches, werewolves, elves, fairies and deities. The first series I wrote, Magical Seduction, featured the elementals, the fairies and elves, and a witch. The second, Lucani Lovers, focuses on the lucani, the Etruscan werewolves.

Why Etruscans, rather than Greek or Roman?

I chose the Etruscans because there wasn't a lot of information known about this ancient race so I could play with the facts and twist them however I liked. I could take something that had a basis in fact and take it out of history and into the Twilight Zone.

But it also meant I was flying mostly blind. Unlike the Romans or the Greeks, I couldn’t look up a quick answer to anything.  Since I love to do research, this meant I ordered many, many, many books by Etruscan scholars, books not written for the casual reader. But in those 1,000-page tomes, I picked up lots of little tidbits that I could use in my stories.

Have you noticed that my goddesses wear red shoes most of the time? That’s one of those little bits I found in one of those books.

Most scholars believe that the Etruscans based their pantheon on the Greeks’ but, since none of those scholars can agree on where exactly the Etruscans came from or when, I chose to ignore that. Instead, I took what limited information I could find that didn’t mimic the Greek pantheon and expanded from there.

Let’s talk a bit about Tessa. Something I didn’t know and found intriguing is Tessa being a goddess with dual powers and duties.

Tessa in WHAT A GODDESS WANTS is the Etruscan Goddess of the Dawn. She used to lead the sun into the sky at the start of each day until that Roman bitch Aurora usurped her job. Tessa was pretty ticked off about that but she still had her duties as a Goddess of Childbirth. That’s another of those little tidbits I picked up.

Aurora cracks me up. I loved some of your secondary characters, like Sal, and I’d love to know more about him.

All of my Etruscan stories are linked; I was able to build a fairly large community with lots of characters who I love to revisit. For example, in WHAT A GODDESS WANTS, you’ll get to say hello to Salvatorus, who you might remember from SEDUCED BY MAGIC, SEDUCED BY TWO or EDGE OF MOONLIGHT.

You’ll also meet a new race of magical beings, the Cimmerians. Well, they’re not actually new. Robert E. Howard actually wrote about the Cimmerians in his Conan books. Yes, Conan was a Cimmerian, a fact Caligo, Tessa’s hero, grinds his teeth over constantly. Damn Arnold Schwarzenegger anyway.

I have so much fun playing in this world, creating a world within our world and revisiting characters throughout the stories.

And it shows in your stories, Stephanie. They’re fun to read. You said you have other series you’re writing. Anything new coming out in those series you’d like to tell us about?

As a matter of fact, I have another story in the Lucani Lovers series, GRACE IN MOONLIGHT, releasing July 20.

Thanks so much for having me over, Sia.

WHAT A GODDESS WANTS BY STEPHANIE JULIAN – IN STORES JULY 2011 

In his arms, her magic powers are on the rise…

Tessa, Etruscan Goddess of the Dawn, is desperately fighting off a malicious god, but her powers are weakening. She needs a hero and fast, because only sexual energy can give her strength. So she seeks out Caligo, whose sexual prowess is legendary…

 And she’s the only one who can bring him into the light…

Caligo is a fabled Cimmerian warrior determined to stay away from spoiled goddesses who trample heart after they've had their fun. But there’s something irresistibly hot and inviting about Tessa, and he knows he’s her only chance to escape the encroaching darkness…EXCERPT 

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My Review 

Stephanie Julian is the author of three erotic romance series with Ellora’s Cave. She is a member of RWA and Valley Forge Romance Writers and is a freelance entertainment and lifestyle feature writer. Stephanie lives in eastern Pennsylvania, where she is working on the next two books in the Forgotten Goddesses Series: How to Worship a Goddess (December 2011) and Goddess in the Middle (July 2012). For more information, please visit www.stephaniejulian.com.