In the Spotlight: Jacob Z Florez

Jacob Z. Flores lives a double life. During the day, he is a respected college English professor and mid-level administrator. At night and during his summer vacation, he loosens the tie and tosses aside the trendy sports coat to write man on man fiction, where the hard ass assessor of freshmen level composition turns his attention to the firm posteriors and other rigid appendages of the characters in his fictional world.

Summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, provide Jacob with inspiration for his fiction. The abundance of barely clothed man flesh and daily debauchery stimulates his personal muse.

When he isn’t stroking the keyboard, Jacob spends time with his daughter. They both represent a bright blue blip in an otherwise predominantly red swath in south Texas.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

Never! My muse is always ready to write and never has any trouble being creative.

Yeah, I wish. With each book, I usually have at least a couple of moments where I feel lost or am unsure what direction to take next. It’s not really writer’s block. It’s more like a writing detour. When it happens, I get frustrated, but then I call my boyfriend or one of my best friends, and we talk it out. I don’t know where I’d be without them!

Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.

Ooh. Interesting question and challenge accepted!

Spell Bound takes places in the fictional town of Havenbridge, Massachusetts. It is the first book in the Warlock Brothers of Havenbridge series that will follow the lives of three brothers—Mason, Thad, and Pierce. Each brother will be the main character of his own book, and the books will chart their paths toward love as well as the underlying conflict that will span the first three books in the series.

Spell Bound starts with Mason, the youngest, who is having to deal not only with the arrival of a new kid to town named Drake, who pisses him off, but with the discovery of a dead body on the football field. Since the Blackmoors are a member of the protector covens, who protect the source of all magic from harm, it is up to them to find answers, and Mason’s journey to discovery takes him down dark paths filled with enemies hiding in the shadows.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I don’t know if I have any interesting quirks, but it’s definitely a quirk. I have to write in complete silence. There can’t be any background noise like a radio or television. If either is on, I’ll start singing or watching TV, and I won’t get anything done! I’m too easily distracted by shiny. I need to be in my own world if I want to get anything accomplished. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make me very popular when my daughter is around. She loves TV and music as much as I do, but thankfully she usually has lots of homework, so I use the quiet time while she’s studying to get some work done.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Spending time with my loved ones is what I do when I’m not working. I’ll hang out with my daughter, and we’ll watch scary movies together. Thankfully, she loves them as much as I do, and we can binge watch horror movies as if it’s our job. We cuddle on the couch, grab some snacks, and veg. It’s wonderful. I do the same thing with my boyfriend, but we don’t watch scary movies. He prefers to watch films with happy endings, where the bad guys get what’s coming to them. Although most of the movies he enjoys aren’t my cup of tea, I get to lie down in his arms. You can’t get much better than that in my book!

I also enjoy traveling. It’s such a wonderful escape, and it recharges my persnickety muse. He does a lot for me, even when I have to bribe him with Vodka and cookies, so he deserve to let his hair down, which is what we will soon be doing. We’ll be leaving on vacation to Provincetown, Massachusetts in a couple of weeks, and my muse will definitely get recharged. There’s a lot of fun to be had on the Cape and tons of eye candy just waiting to be devoured. If you’ve never been, you have to go. My muse highly recommends it.

How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

The first part of this question is easy. I’ve written 12 books, 10 of which have already been published. The other two are in the process of making it to print. The second part of this question is the most difficult. I love all my books for different reasons, and choosing a favorite is really hard. If I have to choose though, I’ll go with Spell Bound, my latest release.

It’s my favorite because it is something extremely different from what I’ve written in the past. Since it’s a paranormal/fantasy romance, I did an insane amount of world building to create the magical universe where my characters live. It took a lot of hard work, and there were many nights where I rode my muse hard and put him up wet, but I’ve been extremely happy with the result and with the reception the book has received.

The work’s not over yet, though. This is just the first book of the series, so there’s more work yet to be done. That’s one of the reasons I’m taking my muse on a vacation!

BOOK BLURB:

Mason Blackmoor just can’t compete with his brothers, much less his father. They represent the epitome of black magic, strong, dark, and wicked, and though Mason tries to live up to his respected lineage, most of the spells he casts go awry. To make matters worse, his active power has yet to kick in. While his brothers wield lightning and harness the cold, Mason sits on the sidelines, waiting for the moment when he can finally enter the magical game.

When a dead body is discovered on the football field of his high school, Mason meets Drake Carpenter, the new kid in town. Drake’s confident demeanor and quick wit rub Mason the wrong way. Drake is far too self-assured for someone without an ounce of magical blood in his body, and Mason aims to teach him a lesson—like turn him into a roach. And if he’s lucky, maybe this time Mason won’t be the one turned into an insect.

Not surprisingly, the dislike is mutual and Drake does nothing to dispel Mason's suspicion that the sexy boy with a southern drawl is somehow connected to the murder.

If only Mason didn’t find himself inexplicably spellbound whenever they are together, they might actually find out what danger hides in the shadows.

EXCERPT