Interview: Jay Crownover + Rule

I'm so pleased today to welcome new adult author Jay Crownover to the blog to answer a few questions about the first book in her Marked Men series, Rule. I finished Rule a little while back (my full review will be posted next week) and couldn't email Jay fast enough to express my love and request an interview. I want to thank her for taking the time to answer all my questions, and if you haven't had a chance to read this one, I hope you add it to your lists!

Let’s say you decide to make an appointment with Rule for a new tattoo. What would the tattoo he created for you look like?

Lol…I don’t really have room for any more and I just filled up the bottom of one arm with my book inspired tattoo so that’s out. I dunno something that reflected change and taking risks. That’s what Rule was for me…a big ole scary risk! Hmm maybe an eagle head or something that represents freedom. He gave me freedom to just do what a I wanted and not be scared to be reliant on someone else for anything ever again…so yeah maybe that, plus it would fit with all my other traditional style work :-)

If, as a surprise for Shaw, Rule were to ask Jet and his band to play a dedication song to her, what song would he choose?

You’ll have to keep reading the series…I just finished a scene where this exact thing comes up so I’m not gonna give it away. Let’s just say the song is for a very special day in Rule and Shaw’s life.

What’s one quirk or habit of Rule’s that he’s unaware Shaw knows about and might be embarrassed by if he knew?

That his hair color choices aren’t random. It changes a lot because it matches his mood or his mindset. At the end of Jet we see him with green hair, that’s because green is happiness and he’s stoked he just moved in with Shaw.

If Remy had the chance to see how Rule and Shaw are together at the end of the book, what would the first words out of his mouth be?

“Finally”. Or maybe “Make each other happy.”

They are his 2 favorite people in the world he would just want them to take care of each other and finally be together.

You write very appealing and absurdly attractive "bad boys". Who is your all-time favorite bad boy character (book, TV, or film)?

Well I love Jax Teller and Opie from Sons of Anarchy, Ryan Gosling in Drive was amazing, and I like all the guys in the Black Ice series Anne Stuart wrote years ago.

Being a bad boy is subjective to me, I never look at Rule or Jet and see a “bad boy”, I see young men comfortable in their skin, okay with what life has handed them and living life on their own terms. I think the outer trappings get them lumped into that bad-boy category but it really isn’t the case.

We are treated to the alternating point of views of both Rule and Shaw in their story. What’s one challenge each of their perspectives presented for you as a writer?

Well I’m not a boy so getting the male thought pattern and reactions to sound authentic and true to a 20-something year old man can be difficult. Making him sound like Rule and not just some generic young guy can also be hard.

With Shaw it was making her sound, and feel like her own person, not me. Her thought patterns and her reactions are her own, but I caught myself making her talk more like me than I meant which I had to go in and adjust.

It’s a girl’s night for you, Shaw, Ayden and Cora. What are a few of the activities your night will consist of?

Prolly drinks some Bud Light for me…shots and silliness for them. They use girls night to commiserate about the hard-headed, hard to handle men in their lives so I’m sure that would be on the agenda.

Looking forward to Jet, what’s a song title or lyric that gives us a little taste of what’s to come for our next couple?

You can’t always get what you want by The Rolling Stones.

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RULE

Shaw Landon loved Rule Archer from the moment she laid eyes on him. Rule is everything a straight-A pre-med student like Shaw shouldn’t want—and the only person she’s never tried to please. She isn’t afraid of his scary piercings and tattoos or his wild attitude. Though she knows that Rule is wrong for her, her heart just won’t listen.

To a rebel like Rule Archer, Shaw Landon is a stuck-up, perfect princess—and his dead twin brother’s girl. She lives by other people’s rules; he makes his own. He doesn’t have time for a good girl like Shaw—even if she’s the only one who can see the person he truly is.

But a short skirt, too many birthday cocktails, and spilled secrets lead to a night neither can forget. Now, Shaw and Rule have to figure out how a girl like her and a guy like him are supposed to be together without destroying their love . . . or each other.

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JAY CROWNOVER

I’m a native Coloradoan and if you live here you know why that is a source of pride.  I love all the things Colorado has to offer and that is why I choose to set my books in this familiar setting.  I try to write about things I know and am familiar with which is why my stories feature plenty of rock and roll and body modification.

I’ve been in the bar industry since I was in college and I spend over forty hours a week watching the interaction between men and women in a unique way.  I think my 9 to 5 job offers me valuable insights into how relationships start and evolve in a social setting.  I love it.

I like to write New Adult novels because I remember being in my early twenties and thinking I had it all figured out only to be proven wrong time and time again.  When I look back those were the years that defined who I am today, and good or bad those decisions untimely set me on my current path, so that’s what I like to explore in my writing.

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