Today we have Julie Kenner to answer a few questions alongside the release of The Tower, the first book in her new series, Billionaire Brothers Grimm!

Welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into writing?

Sure!  The short answer is that I have no idea what got me into writing because wanting to be a writer is literally one of my earliest memories.  But to make a short answer long, I can remember banging out “stories” on the typewriter in my dad’s home office when I was about four.  (They were collections of letters with spaces between them, and I’m pretty sure I only “remember” because my mom showed them to me years later.

I edited the high school newspaper for all of my high school career, and then started out in journalism in college, but I knew it was creative writing I wanted to do, so I switched to film, thinking screenplays.

{picture a montage of school here, and JK being unsure who she is or what she’s doing. As the montage ends, she has graduated early from college…still clueless}

I was clueless how to BE a writer, so I stumbled around for a while and…as one does…decided to take the LSAT on whim, which was the first step to law school. Which, in case you’re wondering, does not leave much time on the side for trying to write stories. I wrote a lot of poetry. And papers. And a rather solid law review article on copyright and colorized movies. And another one on an interpretation of some case law that I remember literally nothing about. (Who says you can’t flush your brain when you change careers!?)

But I digress…

Anyhoo, I ended up practicing law in Los Angeles, thinking maybe I’d get back into that screenplay writing thing again, what with being in LaLa Land. But I realized I really wanted to write books. I did a few false starts with historical thrillers and legal thrillers, but I was working in the 90s at Huge Freaking Firms and that leaves little time for writing. Or for having a life.

Because of that Wanting a Life thing, I moved to a smaller firm in Orange County, and one day I was having lunch in the break room with a friend. And—damn the girl—she didn’t want to talk because she was reading. Turns out she was reading romance, and to shut me up, she gave me a Julie Garwood book.  And I was hooked.  I was also listening to Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth during my very long commute, so my first attempt to write was historical.

Here’s the problem: I don’t have a head for history, and this was before the internet. And I didn’t have time to go to the library to research the type of sword the hero had or what the heroine’s home would look like, or how the hero would pay the errand boy, etc etc.

So I griped about all that to my Break Room Friend, who gave me The Look, and said (literally), “Jules, you know there are contemporary romances, too, right?”

Color me shocked. Like, really. (I mean, I’d seen Harlequin romances in grocery stores, but somehow the synapses weren’t firing.)

So she reached into that magic bag of hers and pulled out a Vicki Lewis Thompson Harlequin Temptation. I believe it was Mr. Valentine. (I still love that book, and I adore Vicki, who is now a friend!).

I read it in one evening and was hooked on Temptations. Heroines like me with careers. Hot guys. And a word count of around 50K, which was a lot less than what I was thinking about for a historical.

At that time, Romance Writers of America had “first chapter contests,” so I wrote one about an underwater archeologist and a documentary film maker. (Y’all, that is not fodder for a first book. Trust me).  It won nothing…but Brenda Chin at Harlequin was one of the judges and she liked my voice. Her feedback was that I needed a “sexy premise”…so of course I took that as I challenge.  I wrote Inventing Alexander,  which has a very Remington Steele sort of plot (you can Google it, those of you too young to remember Pierce Brosnan back then…ahhhh).

Ok, I’m back. Anyway, Brenda bought it. It was renamed Nobody Does It Better (and was my very first book, followed quickly by The Cat’s Fancy, a paranormal for a different publisher about a cat who’s in love with her master, so is magically transformed into a human…but can only stay that way if he falls in love with her.

A few books later, I wrote a proposal for a book about a Demon-hunting Soccer Mom (Carpe Demon) that was optioned by Warner Brothers and Chris Columbus even before it was published (It is still working its way through Hollywood). I wrote the demon books (no sex) and romance (yes, sex) for several years, having a great time writing sexy books, but not SEXY books.

Then 50 Shades came out and my publisher for a paranormal series I’d written asked if I could write a book “like 50.” They asked me because even though my books weren’t that sexy, they knew I could write sex. And I was a fast writer. This conversation was, I believe, in late August and the book released January 1—so, yeah. Fast turnaround.   I hadn’t yet read Fifty, and told them I wouldn’t because I didn’t want E.L’s words in my head, but I live on Planet Earth, so I knew enough to write a book in that space. I did a synopsis which they loved, then wrote the book, which they loved (and so did I) and they actually called while I was finishing it to ask if we could turn it into a trilogy. (Um, YEAH).

Many of you probably know that I’m talking about Release Me, and that is how Damien and Nikki were born. (And there are WAY more than 3 books now!)

I fell in love with the characters and the genre and a “deeper” way of writing, which is pretty much the vibe I’ve continued with ever since, including in my newest series – the Billionaire Brothers Grimm—of which THE TOWER is the first.

Phew. That was a lot! Hopefully somewhere in there I actually answered the question!

Are there any books that have really influenced you as a writer?

Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Mr. Valentine because it led pretty directly to me selling my first book to Harlequin. Beyond that, I’m going to have to say no, but only because I can’t narrow it down. I can’t remember ever not reading, and every book that sucked me in influenced me. I always had a book with me, sometimes two. (How cool is it to have entire libraries on your freaking phone now???). So everything from Nancy Drew to Stephen King to Shakespeare to Agatha Christie, to Greek Mythology to The Cat Ate My Gymsuit and anything Judy Blume ever wrote. Honestly, even though, one particular book doesn’t stand out, I guess they all worked together as a team in my head, LOL!

What do you enjoy most about writing contemporary romance?

Oh, that’s a hard one. I’m going to go with, “I don’t have to know the difference between the Victorian era and the Regency.”

What inspired this series in particular?

Darcy Burke (If you haven’t ever read one of Darcy’s books, you are missing out. She does know the difference between those periods, btw). We were at a writing retreat in 2024, chatting on our last full day while drinking wine and looking out at the ocean and I was saying how I was bouncing around ideas for a new series–she and I had bounced around some ideas for my Fallen Saint series, so the gal knows her stuff and I was happy to grab whatever wine-induced help I could get! I was giving her the vibe I was looking for and somehow she came up with riffing off fairy tales. But I shot it down because it sounded paranormal, and I was looking for contemporary romance. We started talking and bouncing more and somehow ended up at the idea that the heroes were brothers who were descended from the original Brothers Grimm. So thanks again, Darcy!

What is your favorite aspect of the dynamic between Sasha and Liam?

Oh, that’s such a juicy question! It’s hard to pick just one thing with those two, because their journey is so twisty and complex. But if I had to narrow it down, I’d say it’s the delicious tension between protection and possession, and…I won’t say more so as to not give anything away!

Can you tell us about your writing space? Where do you do most of your writing?

I used to work all over the house on my laptop, but I’ve gotten addicted to my second monitor. My office was intended to be a formal dining room, but we had them put doors on when they built the house. I look out over our cul-de-sac (and the front yard) so I see the birds at the feeder, squirrels, neighbors, and all the local cats.  I have shelves all along the top of three walls and they are covered with my books (I’ve run out of room!!!!) and I have some original cover art for some early books, a mock-up cover that an editor made me after I had my first daughter (It’s a Harlequin Temptation cover with a guy who looks like my husband holding a baby), a framed announcement of my engagement from Variety (I was working for a producer at the time), and a memory board filled with stuff from my writing life and pics of my kids.  And a lot of clutter. And filing cabinets that really need to get busy and come to life while I’m sleeping and file things. I saw Beauty and the Beast. I know what furniture does after dark….

What helps you when you have writers block?

Whiskey.

Oh, wait. No. That just makes me sleep. Honestly, going back and reading one of my books in the same series. Or if it’s a new series, any of my own books that have a similar vibe. I don’t usually get blocked, but when I do, it’s usually a voice-push I need, not a story-push. And when it’s a story push, I binge watch Buffy until I’m disgusted with myself for doing nothing but watching Buffy and eating Alyssa cookies. Then I play Phone A Friend or Corner The Husband so as to bounce ideas.

What are some things you are really enjoying reading right now? Books, TV, foods, etc.?

Romantasy is big on my Loving To Read list. Tracy Wolff is a friend and she gave me Crave before it came out, and I loved it. I’d been so busy I was slow to hop on that genre but I’m well-in now! So much…that I might be writing one myself. Ahem. More later on that <G>

As for TV, I haven’t gotten into anything new recently. But I can talk Buffy re-watching until the cows come home. (Do the cows really leave and then come home? Do they take luggage? Why not leave and go exploring? These are the things that keep me up at night …)

As for foods…World’s Most Boring Eater, right here. But my newest slightly weird but yummy thing is to heat up black beans, then air fry Egg White Bites and mix them into the beans with Picante sauce. (I warned you. Weird eater.)

Also, Alyssa cookies. OMG, they are the bomb. We eat so many of them (they are actually healthy!) we should be getting kickbacks.

Of course, if you know me, you know  that my go-to, entirely non-nutritional food product is … coffee!

And as we all (probably) know, the best thing to do with coffee is to settle back with a good book…. (Or with your computer open to a blank page to write that next good book!)

XXOO

JK

Want to know more about The Tower?

She’s forbidden. He’s untouchable. Together, they might destroy each other.

Sasha Reed is a prisoner in a gilded cage. Controlled by her ruthless father, she’s his most valuable possession—hidden from the world, silenced by fear, and desperate to escape. But when her frantic attempt at freedom ends in failure, Sasha turns to the one man her father despises most: Liam Grimm.

Liam is merciless, brilliant, and the outcast of his powerful family. With ice in his veins and revenge in his heart, he doesn’t rescue damsels, and he doesn’t make deals. But Sasha is different—a pawn he can use in his war against her father. To him, she’s a weapon wrapped in silk and fire. To her, he’s the devil offering freedom at a price she might not survive.

The terms are cruel: her trust, her submission, her body, her soul. As Sasha falls deeper into Liam’s dark world, the line between captor and savior vanishes, leaving only raw, unrelenting desire. He promises to destroy her chains, but in doing so, he might shatter her entirely.

The Tower is an edgy, sensual, and steamy enemies to lovers billionaire romance with explicit content intended for mature readers only!

Meet J. Kenner:

J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.

Though known primarily for her award-winning and internationally bestselling romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #1 internationally, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy, and paranormal mommy lit.

JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A four time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy).

In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.

You can find her on her website, as well as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, BookBub, and X.