Aloha to Corrina Lawson, Geek Mom and Romance Author

During the RWA National Convention, I met Corrina Lawson, Geek Mom and Romance Author!  From her bio,

Corrina is former newspaper reporter with a degree in journalism from Boston University. She turned to writing fiction after her twins were born (they were kids three and four) to save her sanity.

Corrina is currently senior editor of GeekMom and a core contributor to its brother site, Geek Dad, both on Wired.com.

She also writes for Sequential Tart, a webzine about comics and pop culture written solely by women. Often you can find her hanging out on comic book writer Gail Simone’s forum on Jinxworld.

New England courtesy of Wikipedia

Kim:   New England!  What is your favorite sight, sound and smell? 

Corrina:  I live right on the edge of rural/suburban New England, which means I am two minutes from a grocery store and yet I have bears coming after my garbage. No, the bears aren't my favorite sight. :)

My favorite sight is the view from a local hiking trail, the Heublin Tower Trail (at this link).   You can see Hartford, CT and Springfield MA from there. It's an amazing view and the whole valley is right there in front of you. It's too bad it's a grueling hike to get up there!

My favorite sound ever is the laughter of my kids. But outside, my favorite sound is the running water of the stream in the local wildlife preserve. It's so soothing and perfect.

My favorite smell is lilacs in bloom. We had wild lilac bushes wild near us when I was growing up in New England and always picked them for my mom on Mother's Day. I have a couple of bushes planted in my yard now. They always signal home to me. 

Scott learned to surf in Kai e'e ...
and featured a girl geek.

Kim:  How you become an Internet Writer and end up on GeekMom? 

Corrina:  The short answer: I was screwing around on the 'net, wasting time.

The long answer: I used to be a reporter but once the kids were born, I felt very isolated. Then we got a computer in 1999, the year I was pregnant with twins. And I went to town with that!  

I ended up posting in a lot of comic book forums and then I found Sequential Tart, www.sequentialtart.com.  Girls! Who loved comics! I found my tribe. After posting some things in their forums, the ladies asked me to write for the webzine. I still do that occasionally but a few years later, one of the Tarts posted a notice about the GeekDad blog on Wired looking for new bloggers and they particularly wanted comic people and they would take women. Well, that sounded fun! So I applied and was accepted. (I think it was my ode to Jack "King" Kirby and Denny O'Neil that did it...) 

A couple of years later, the four of us women spun off GeekMom from GeekDad, set up shop on our own and ran the site independently for about a year, then Wired realized they should have us on board as well, so now the GeekMom Blog is on Wired.com as well. In the meantime, we put together a GeekMom book proposal, got a contract from Potter Craft of Random House, and wrote that! It will be out in October of this year. 

But, really, I was just screwing around doing what I enjoyed on the internet. Who knew *that* could be a career? I feel very, very lucky and blessed. 

Kim:  Tell us about your romance books!

Corrina:  Yes, I am a geek who writes romance! :)   As a geek, my books tend to have a science fiction/fantasy feel.  

My current book out. Luminous, is a novella in the Phoenix Institute series, which is the story of how superheroes are coming to light in our world. So it's urban fantasy with a superhero bent with a little bit of military men, since I spent two years at the Coast Guard Academy and I have a serious appreciation for those who serve this country.

My hero in Luminous isn't a soldier but another type of public servant, a police officer. I love Lt. Aloysius James. He's the one incorruptible cop in a fictional urban landscape which is suffering some serious hard times, like many of our urban areas are right now. Into his world walks a couple of things he can't explain: a monster who can tear people limb from limb with his hands, and a young woman determined to stop him but handicapped by the fact she's invisible. Which makes the sex scenes rather...interesting...touch was quite important in this story!

The next book coming out is Phoenix Legacy, which is the story of a Wolverine-like character who's quite cynical about life and can self-heal nearly any injury. The heroine is a woman from his past who would be happy to spit on his grave, save for the fact she's carrying his genetically-engineered child due to some nefarious scientists. I know this is going to sound weird, but I think it's a really sweet book deep down! It's a redemption story of someone who's lost his way. That will be out in November. 

Vampires and shifters are fun but they're just not my thing to write. But, superheroes, that I know how to write. :) 

I'm working right now on a steampunk detective romance with a Sherlock Holmes-style lead and a female Watson. Not sure when that will be placed for publication, however.

There is a list of my books at my site: www.corrina-lawsom.com with links to excerpts and all that. Luminous, being a novella, is about $2 on Amazon. :shameless plug:

Mahalo, Corrina, for joining us at SOS Aloha!   Elf, the Reading Addict, reviewed LUMINOUS on her blog at this link.  Corinna is giving away an ARC for LEGACY.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about geek toys - what's your favorite electronic gadget?

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments are open through Saturday, September 8, 10 pm in Hawaii.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, September 9.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

Hawaii Five O is wired with tech toys!