Welcome Sindee Lynn

Good Morning Sindee. It’s lovely to have you here today. The sun’s shining; we have coffee, so tell me, what drew you to write in your current genre?

I love vampires and I always have. Ever since reading Anne Rice almost twenty years ago. When vampires began showing up in my romance novels which I also have a passion for it was the best of both worlds combined. I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a romance writer since I was 13 and it made sense to write what I love to read.

Wow, you certainly know where you were going from a young age. So, are your vamps rip out the throat blood sucky ones, or vamps with a heart?

Definitely vamps with a heart. I love the whole sappiness of a romance novel and I love the contract between a blood sucking vampire – a being who can kill you with little to no effort being brought to his knees by a mere human woman.


I like the sound if that. I’m a romance writer by nature, but I’ve also written paranormals, non fiction and teaching modules! Like to be diverse lol How many novels have you written and are they all in the same genre?

That’s like a trick question because I have written several novels. Are they all published - no. Are they at that point where I feel confident in sending them off – no…. Lol. But I did take a chance on sending out two of my books: Prince’s Donor and Changing the Rules. They are at opposite ends of the genre spectrum. Prince’s Donor is a vampire romance and Changing the Rules is contemporary interracial.

Now that is diverse! I have a few novels sitting on my laptop too. Hopefully they might see the light of day before I die lol I’m not a plotter really. I have an idea how the story’s going to go, but I let it take its own course usually. So how much time do you spend on plotting etc before you start writing?

I’m not a plotter either. I don’t sit and plan out every step of the book before I begin to write it. It’s never been a process that’s completely worked for me. What I normally do, is when an idea comes to me, before I write it down it has to keep coming back. And in order for it to go in my idea box I have to have a viable beginning, middle and end. That way when I do sit down to write it I know where I’m going. And that process varies greatly.

A girl after my own heart. That’s near enough what I do! Great minds think alike , huh! I have a handbag size laptop, so when it’s nice I take myself off to the beach (its not far from me) and write. Where do you do most of your writing?

In my bedroom on my bed. I prop my laptop up on a pillow, put my headphones in and just let it take me away. It’s funny because when I’m really in my zone, my daughter has to send me a text or call me on my phone because I don’t hear her when she calls me.

Now that’s funny. If I’m in the office on my computer, and my husband is on his computer too, we email each other lol he says tea and I usually email back ‘its your turn’ lol When I think back, I know that I’ve written some ‘stinkers’ in my time!! Cringe worthy short stories full of pov errors etc. So come on, fess up, looking back, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

Lol … hands down my very first book I submitted to Ellora’s Cave an e-book publisher. It was awful. The storyline wasn’t completely thought out, the characters were vague and they were correct in rejecting it because it seemed unrealistic. When I sat down to read it a few months back because I plan on doing some major revisions to it, it’s amazing to see how far I have come from then to now. At least I think I’ve grown and my writing as well.


So now we get to the part I enjoy. Tell me about your latest release.


Prince’s Donor… it’s a vampire romance that began as a simple idea. I wanted to write one that was different from others that I had read and I wanted to create a world that would take readers away for a little while. So I began with asking myself what would be the perfect setting for vampires. “What if there was a place they could go to find a human donor to supply what they needed to survive” and there it was.

Prince Syrian is waiting to take his place as the next King of Vampires when he discovers that his human donor has been cheating on him with his cousin. His father, to prevent bloodshed, sends Syrian away to Washington State to handle negotiations for a vampire family out there. While there Syrian finds himself in need of blood and sex. He’s on the verge of what’s called blood lust – meaning it’s been a while since his last real feeding. So he goes to the donor database he helped create and finds Jenna James. Now Jenna has given up on the idea of a vampire ever knocking on her door in need of blood and sex. It is after all the reason why she signed up for the program. Being with a vampire has been her secret fantasy for years. But it’s been four years so she’s pretty much made up her mind not to renew her donor card when her doorbell rings and on the other side is her fantasy.

Where on earth did you get your idea for that? As I mentioned before, I read a lot of vampire novels. The good the bad and the in-between. Sometimes they are a lot alike with regards to how they get their food and how they fall in love with humans. I wanted to write a vampire book, but I wanted to do something completely different. So I began Like I do with a lot of my books or thoughts – I started with the ‘what if?’ exercise. What if vampires lived in a perfect world? What would it look like to them? And it came to me – it would look like a place where they could live free to be them and where they could get their nourishment – thus the donor database was born. Think about it. A whole list of humans whose sole purpose is to provide a race with what they need to survive. That’s a vampire’s perfect world.

So where can we go to keep up with your news?

My website is a work in progress. I plan to have it up and running in the next two months – it’s one of my personal goals for this year. But in the meantime they can “friend me” on face book under my legal name Cynthia Yates, Richmond Va.
They can also keep track of me from my publishing company’s website: www.passionatewriterpublishing.com

I know I’ve had enough rejection letters to paper my walls. How do you deal with them?

It used to be hard – like when I first started writing, but I realized that if someone was taking the time to sit down and actually explain to me why my book wasn’t working, I needed to pay attention if this was the field I wanted to be in. Now I can’t say I have always agreed with them but I have read each and every one of them and thanked them all. You have to put it in perspective. It’s a part of the job and it’s meant to make you better at what you do.

I always say constructive criticism is always worth having and like you say, we always can learn from it! Now we come to one of my pet peeves. While we writers struggle so hard to get recognition, What do you think about celebrities writing books and getting instantly published?

Lol … I don’t read them myself but if they feel as if they have something to say then who am I to stop them from saying it.

Have you any advice about getting an agent?

I have read a lot of different reasons to get one or reasons not to get one… but for me I’ve decided against it. At least for now. For some people it might be the right decision and if I get to that point, crossing my fingers, where I have publishing companies begging me to come write for them (lol) then I will absolutely consider getting an agent. But for now, I don’t think I need one.

I wish they were begging for me lol I have a few critique partners who give me an extra eye for my work.. Who do you rely on and why?

I have thought of finding a critique group or partner but I just haven’t had the time. So for now I rely on myself and in reality I think I’m probably tougher on myself than someone else might be.

My favourite part of writing is when I get to the end and its all slotted into place. What’s yours?

Creating new worlds to take my readers to. It’s my favourite part of reading when I was younger and even now, I love sitting down with a good book and just escaping for a little while.

I love the creating part too. Sometimes you can just get lost in your imagination. A whole new world that you’ve just created. How do you get past all the frustrations that come with trying to be a successful writer?

When I figure it out I will let you know…. LOL …. It’s hard work honestly. The amount of time you have to spend in creating your work, proofing your work, revising your work .. not to mention putting your work out there. The rejections that might comeback. And all doing it while holding down a full time job with families, like many of us do, it’s hard. So I’m going to say it’s still a work in progress learning how to cope.

I think you have to really love writing to be a writer! Like you, most of us still have our ‘day jobs’ So when you’re not writing what do you like to read?

I love all romance novels. But my absolute favourites are vampire/shifter romances, Inter-racial romances and Big Beautiful Women romances.

Big beautiful women romance? what’s that about? I’m intrigued.

Books about plus sized women, like myself and my heroine, Jenna, in Princes Donor. I don’t think we get enough love, if you will, in romance novels. So expect to see a lot of plus sized heroines in my books.


To get totally off topic lol what actor/actress gets your pulses racing?

Keanu Reeves – hands down ..always has and always will… people may not think he’s good looking but for me he is just sexy and that smile and the whole I’m just hanging out attitude… lol… I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

Well, that’s all from Sindee. Her chilly self, will be around today to answer any of your comments.