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Today we have a real pleasure to present you an interview with Olga Goa, a romance books fan and a romance books writer! Read the Q&A to get to know Olga a little bit better and request Olga's debut book FATEFUL ITALIAN PASSION in our giveaways. 

What are you reading now, Olga?

Quintessentially Q by Pepper Winters 

Tell us a few words about yourself - whatever you want to share about your personal and professional life.

I was born in Russia, Moscow. I was always too attached to literature in my younger years, and my big dream was to share my creativity with a lot of people. I like to read romance and especially dark romance where things are so close to real life and make the readers sympathize with the book’s heroes. Such genre inspired me to write my first dark romance novel FATEFUL ITALIAN PASSION that I published in August 2017. It became the hardest and the most emotional work in my writer’s life. But I am happy that I did it, and I am totally satisfied with it. It’s my most favorite labor to which I dedicated my soul and heart.

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In my free time, I like to listen to music or watch movies, play the piano, read books, and enjoy walking in the forest. Especially the last one inspires me to write about a lot of things. It’s a big inspiration for originality—a source of obtaining the best ideas of what to write. I also enjoy traveling around the world, because a new place makes me fantasize and create new plots for upcoming books. I am so passionate about my works and plan to create a lot of stories, even in Teen Fiction or maybe another genre like Thriller.

Was there one event that inspired your decision to become a writer?

I suppose it was the books that I read. I said to myself, “Why not try to write down the ideas in your mind and share them with people?” And I was happy to see that readers on Wattpad liked my books and some of them reread them when they have a free minute.

Can you tell our readers more about your books and series you’re writing?

Now I am working on continuing the series of my first novel that I mentioned before: “FATEFUL ITALIAN PASSION” (FIP) and my new novel “CLUB DRUNKEN CHERRY” (CDC) that I published recently, in March 2018. My second book “HOT SHORT STORIES” (HSS) 1^st Collection came out in November 2017, and I also have some plans to publish the continuation of HSS – 2^nd Collection.

FIP is a part of Veneziani Family Series I planned to start a long time ago, Spring 2013 precisely. I really attempted to narrate the story about a broken man and an orphan girl who were abandoned by their parents and didn’t experience true love. They lived in a grey world not seeing any bright colors until they met each other. They don’t know what will happen to them and how they will solve their problems, but they are really liked each other. Readers must find out for themselves: do my characters love each other? Didn’t they cross that line where people cannot really live without their soulmates? These series show the difference between LOVE and PASSION, and at the same time show how hard is it to live with a man who has a mental disorder. I gave a hint to readers about the character’s state, but I didn’t let the cat of the bag. I want my readers to be puzzled about the reason why one of the main characters behaves that way and also find out for themselves the key to his emotional temper. I do hope that readers will see what I try to tell them between lines and will be attentive to my own reasoning about LOVE and other events that happen to the main and minor characters as well.

CDC is a part of Fighters with Darkness Series that open the most gloomy world of the mafia, their deeds, and their power. I tell a story about the sex club where everyone can do what he wants and ONLY if a member of this club breakes the rules would he answer for his deeds. This book shows the most disgusting and at the same time scaring facts of our life, things that we don’t want to know because they are so terrible. This story also explains how the education of a little boy can influence his own life and how important it is for parents to love and be mindful of their attitudes towards their child. Some people don’t ponder over this but think that their children don’t need a good education and other good things in life at their youthful age. Life is a complicated thing, but we have to teach our kids how to survive and not to show them cruelty or indifference. I am absolutely sure that without love and support, kids will never choose the right way, only some of them will if they have the strength inside. I also continue the theme of love and hate in these series as I did in FIP. But here you can see how people can sacrifice their own lives to save other people, how sinners want to be righteous men and how secrets can destroy or damage our lives.

HSS was created just for fun on Wattpad. I never thought that these series could garner 2 million views. It was really not expected. In making this collection, I wish people can forget about their problems and just enjoy hot steamy stories that can paint the stressed days off with love, explicit games, and even laughter. You can imagine anything with the heroes of HSS, and be anyone you want to. I think these series is a good therapy for our mind and body. 

Your titles are all about romance. Why have you chosen to write in this genre or did the romance genre chose you?

I started studying psychology and philosophy a long time ago while I was in the school. I was interested in human relationships and enjoyed to explore more things about them. I read a lot of articles about people’s emotional state and was glad to study it myself and explore. I was never fond of science, fantasy and other genres that could make me start a book based on them. I think Romance will always affect people minds because a man consists of a body and a soul. Without the soul we are nothing, we are unable to live. That’s why people are always curious about that genre. We get used to sense adrenaline and hyper emotions. This is our nature, and we cannot deny it.

I have also thought about writing a horror story someday. But I am not sure if I won’t add romance to it. The romance was and will always be my favorite genre.

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Do you consider changing the genre or will you follow the writing path?

Never say never – the great proverb of humanity. So I think someday I may change the genre if I will discover all the themes of psychology that bother me nowadays.

Do you have any writing tips on how to write a perfect love story?

Yes, but I think every author chooses the best ones for himself because it depends on his experience and his personality.

My main tip on how to write a perfect love story is TO BE A UNIQUE AUTHOR. It means: do not copy other stories or copy scenes even because it won’t speak well of you if you are a writer. This idea of writing will not give you more fans because they will compare you with bestseller authors that have already written stories like you did and they wouldn’t see your originality. Although if you picked the same theme that another author discovered in his story, but you decide to show it from another point of view, such an idea can be a ticket to reach more readers and gain popularity. But I think that a good story is only born when an author knows what he wants to say to his readers. He must know WHY HE’S WRITING HIS NEW BOOK. If he doesn’t have any purpose why he needs to write? I suppose it’s better not to write anything at all if he has no message to convey. A great story must impact on the people and makes them participate in a thinking process. Readers must be immersed in a plot that forgetting it after reading won’t be so easy. The best story is the story that makes people reread the book, again and again, searching for verities on how to live and even how to love.

Who is your favorite bookish love couple?

I cannot reply. This is such a hard question that came as a puzzle me at the moment! Ha-ha! I have a lot of favorite couples that could be taken from the books by Sylvia Day, Pepper Winters and much more. Even from classic – Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, etc.

What are you doing when not writing?

Sleep! This reply can be really weird lol, but writing takes a lot of time in my life. Anyway, of course, If I have free time – I watch the movies, listen to music, walking, traveling around the world (if I have the money) and relax.

How do your love stories emerge? Where do you get your ideas and inspirations from?

Basically, from my head. They emerge like a movie that has no “stop” button. I put the main details of the stories on a paper because our memory sometimes can let us down. You know it yourself. My fantasy helps me to write my new stories and give me more ideas. I am like a director of a movie that wants to create a masterpiece. Stories that my friends narrated also help me in my writing, plus I might have got a big inspiration from what I watched already or would see. Other inspiration may come from books, music, video clips and movies. All of them have such a good emotional base that anyone who can feel it can create as many stories as his mind can imagine. There’s one thing you must have – endless fantasy!

What are your writing plans?

BIGGEST! I plan to finish FIP series because I have already made sketches of the continuation of Milano and Veronica love story that has a working title “INDIAN LOVE.” That book will also be a part of Veneziani Family Series. Another new book comes after “Indian Love.” I would round off CDC series this year but, I don’t know what my readers would want from me – the end or another book in that series; we shall see. I will finish HSS this year (I HOPE SO because writing three books at the same time is not an easy thing). I may continue HSS collections if I have more original ideas and a strong urge from my readers. Soon I will publish the story that I wrote a long time ago, but it’s awaiting its time to see the light. It will be a mix of fantasy and dark romance, so I am fascinated to show it to my readers. I have a plan to finish other sketches of the new stories; these are some of my secrets for now. I want to impress my readers so much that they couldn’t imagine what I will invent and present before their eyes. I like to shock them in a good way ;)

Who are your favorite authors and genres? Have they influenced you and in what way?

Dark Romance is my favorite genre of literature, so I enjoy reading books by Pepper Winters that I already mentioned. I adore her creativity and her writing’s style; it is so captivating and intriguing. I have read books written by Silvia Day, E.L.James, Christina Lauren, Sylvain Reynard, J.E.Malpas and much more that have influenced my style as well as my plots. It ’s so hard to name them all; they are so unique and unsuppressed, so I am afraid to miff them.

I love classic and modern literature. I enjoy reading books by my author friends that I met on Twitter and Facebook. Some of them influenced my writing as well, and their advice helped me to see myself from their point of view.

Please tell us about your day and your writing habits. Do you write every day, and for how long?

My day is full of job and writing. Sometimes I even forget to eat three times a day, but if I do, I will certainly eat at night. I am so devoted to writing that sometimes I think – it’s total madness! I cannot sleep if the scene came to my mind; I must finish it. Maybe that’s why I sleep about 5-6 hours in a day. But I am aware of the need to relax when putting the finishing touches on my books. This calls for a celebration for me, and I do buy something tasty and appetizing to please myself so that I will have fun in full. When I decide to rest from writing, it could be between 1-2 or 3 weeks. I need to come back to my stable in a relaxed state to start writing a new story. I think this is a good vacation for my brain.

I write in my free time between 1-2 hours in a day. Sometimes when I don’t have much work to do the next day, I could write up to 5-6 hours. I am a freelancer, following this routine helps me to be in form and to relax when I want. I don’t have plans on how and when to write, because whenever I compel myself to write, things don’t always turn out so good. Books would become boring, and this is not my way of doing things because it demotivates me. So I write when the inspiration comes.

You’re Russian. Can you please recommend top 3 Russian books to our readers.

Of course I can. If it is Classic – I can recommend Mikhail Bulgakov “Master & Margarita,” Leo Tolstoy “Anna Karenina,” Alexander Pushkin “The Blizzard” (Or Snowstorm) (Metel in Russian). These three books will really blow up your mind and heart. I love them.

From modern writers, I can recommend Sergey Minaev “Duhless,” Boris Akunin “Turkish Gambit” etc.

Three titles for a holiday break?

Sleep, music, sea.

Paper book or ebook?

Paperback is the best. It gives you more emotions when you hold the book in your hands; it would seem like you are touching ‘eternity.’

Selfie time! Please share your home library photo. And your writing spot, as well :)

Well, I recently carried out some repairs in my apartment, and all my books were taken to different places. My sincerest apologies for that. Maybe later I will put them up on display in my blog ;)

This is my writing spot! ;)

 Thank you, Olga! 

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