For today’s Author Spotlight, I’m very excited to be joined by the wonderful C.P. Harris! We talked writing about gray areas, toxic relationships, possessive MCs and being the opposite of fluffy.

So, without further ado…

First things first, please introduce yourself!
Hi everyone! My pen name is C.P. Harris, but my friends call me Tina (long story lol). My day job consists of crunching numbers, even though math was my least favorite subject in school. I’m a mom to 16 YO twins, and between that, my day job, and my zeal for living a full life, I often don’t get to write as much as I’d like. 

One of my many dreams is to become a successful screenwriter, and I’m currently turning my debut, Surviving the Merge (Chadwick #1), into a screenplay. I have the HBO Max and Netflix logo on my vision board. I definitely see this as a mini series on one of those platforms. 

Tell us a little bit about your writing style.
I write MM romance that specializes in hurt/comfort and possessive mc’s. So you’ll always get a bit of both in my books. To what degree depends on what the characters tell me. 

I focus a lot on the gray areas of my characters. The not so pretty things that make us human, that make us relatable. Even if you’ve never gone through the challenges that my characters have, you understand their pain, joy, jealousy, insecurities etc… because it’s what we’ve all experienced even if we only admit it to ourselves.

My writing is on the opposite spectrum of fluffy (fingers crossed that one day I can churn out something light lol). 

Describe your books in only three words.
Raw. Emotional. Toxic. 

What are you working on right now?
I’m currently working on an enemies to lovers story for a dark mm romance anthology, These Deviant Ties, that releases in December. You can find out more about the anthology here.

The mc’s are heads of rival mafia families and have minor roles in my full length work in progress. I’m having a lot of fun creating their story, but I can’t come up with a title, so join my Facebook group to take part in coming up with a title 🙂

Out of all your books, which one are you most proud of?
That’s tough. Probably The Boy Who Loved Wicked. I wrote it through a bad case of writer’s block and burn out. I also had to tap into the most vulnerable parts of myself to write it. I was Phoenix when I was 18, and I had a Mr. Wicked in my life. I had to relive a lot of emotions from that time. I cried over my laptop keys many days writing Wicked. It’s also the only book of mine that I don’t second guess. I don’t care how others feel about it, I know I did well.

What or who (or both) has influenced you most as a writer?
The human plight. The ugliness of it. My past toxic relationships, dysfunctional families.

Characters like Nina Garrity from The New Husband. What makes her stay when red flags are falling in abundance from the sky? 

Camille Preaker from Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects changed my life and got me working on a thriller I’ve had in my head for years.

This is what inspires me and where I see my career as a writer going.

What inspired you to start writing?
Not finding what I was looking for, honestly. Figured I’d have to write it myself. Then I had a dream about an androgynous stripper who was having an affair with his husband’s alter. I woke up and immediately started writing Surviving the Merge. 

What’s your writing process like? Do you have a typical “writing day”?
My process sucks. I spend most of the time on the internet, and then end up with a couple paragraphs after being at my laptop for hours. I’ve got to do better lol.  

What comes first for you – the plot or the characters?
The hint of a plot. Always the opening line, the conflict, and the end. I guess the characters too, because I’m envisioning them within the initial idea. But I’m a panster, and I never have a handle on who my characters are until the revision process starts. That’s when I fine tune their traits and make sure that who they are remains consistent throughout the story even as they grow. 

What’s a book that you wish you’d written?
Hands down The Captive Prince trilogy. I reread it all the time. I just love it, and I hope to be at that writing level one day. Laurent is the most complex character I’ve ever read.

If you could only write one trope for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
The possessive mc lol. I hate it in real life, but it’s such a turn on in books. My readers might get sick of me, because I just gotta squeeze it into everything I write.

What would be your three desert island books?
Is it cheating if my choices are series? 
– The Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat
– The Venery Series by Suanne Laqueur 
– Book of Orlando by Laura Lascarso 

If one of your books could be made into a movie/TV series, which would you choose and who would you cast?
Surviving the Merge. I have no idea who I’d cast! That’s going to be the hard part, or someone else’s job lol. 

Anyone know of any actors with a lean dancer’s body, long, ashen hair and beguiling green eyes that could play Justin?

Or a dark and intimidating latin sensation that could play the overwhelming presence of Damon? 

I’m open to suggestions 🙂

What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Do you have a secret passion or hobby that we don’t know about?
I love traveling and having girl time with my friends. I’m simple that way. No hidden talents 🙁

Finally, what’s your favourite dinosaur?
I’m going to say T-rex because it’s the only name I know.

After strolling aimlessly in search of her purpose, a dream one April morning helped the puzzle pieces click into place for C.P. Harris. That dream turned into her first novel Surviving the Merge. Now securely rooted in her destiny, C.P. has no plans of looking back and every intention of fulfilling her life’s calling– if her teenage twins and her cats will let her. Romance is where her heart is, but she has plans to spread her wings across genres.

You can find more about C.P.’s work on her website, as well as following her on BookBub and Instagram. You can also join her Facebook group, C.P.’s Gray Areas, for more news and updates.