The story behind The Devil's Flower by Lisa Collicutt - The real Rose, the not-so-real Steele, and Lisa's Canadian motorcycle gang

I throughly enjoyed reading The Devil's Flower by Lisa Collicutt. It's got all the right parts of a hot paranormal romance. Rose is a running away from an abusive stepfather and has no place to call home. She frightened and vulnerable enough to need Steele's protection, but also very strong and dangerous in her own right. Steele is the perfect dark hero. Dark and threatening, but a hero on the inside. And can't help breaking out of his dark, protective shell to fall in love with Rose. And, when they find out that they're made to destroy each other, and not love each other, everything gets all the more complicated. A very sexy, and enjoyable read!

My newly found fandom will be proven by these completely fangirl style interview questions. Enjoy!

So, do you also ride? And if so, are you a member of a Canadian motorcycle gang of fallen demons?

Haha, I love this question! We sort of have our own unregistered motley gang (friends with bikes). No that's not a club name, just literally friends with bikes. My husband has had motorcycles since he was 7-8, and we've been together since I was 17, so I spent many years riding on back. Only a few years ago while writing The Devil's Flower did I become brave enough to get my own motorcycle. I rode it around the yard a couple summers and sold it this past spring, deciding not to get my license. I'm truly happy sitting on back –and I'm still the boss. I dream up so many story scenes during riding.

You mention in the dedication that Rose is based on a real person. Can you tell us more about the person who inspired Rose?

Rosalie Reeves is my nephew's girlfriend and a beautiful part of our family (on the inside as well as the outside). Because I had the title before the story, I needed a flower name for the main female character and almost picked Lily, but thought it might be overused. Then I realized the name Rosalie was right under my nose. The real Rosalie is also one of my first readers and fell in love with Steele.

What about Steele? Is he inspired by anyone?

Well, my husband would like to think Steele is inspired by him, but not so. They only thing they have in common is their bikes. Steele is the guy I would like to go off on a fantasy/book adventure with—as long as there was real life to come home to. I drew his character completely from my imagination, and wanted to write a motorcycle themed story, inspired by my own love of motorcycles, and thus—Steele was born. Incidentally; his name was originally, Darkstar. You can go on the Curiosity Quills website and read why I changed it to Steele.

Is Nowhere, Colorado a real place? If not, are there any other places that inspired your setting?

Nowhere is not a real place. I once was given a piece of advice that made a lot of sense to me. "Create fictional places; that way you can do whatever you want and not offend anyone." For The Devil's Flower I decided on the State of Colorado, because mountain vistas along highways, and backwoods river settings, were the sceneries in my head for this story. But even though Nowhere isn't a real place, a lot of research was required. I still like to pinpoint the fictional towns on the map. And this one is located somewhere between Pueblo and the Kansas border.

So...what happens next? What can we expect from book 2 in the series?

The Demon's Wrath begins two seasons later in spring. I wanted to give Rosalie and Steele significant time to build their relationship without us intruding J There will be some steamy moments between lovers, as well as high-speed outlaw danger and even some tragedy. And of course, someone is a little pissed and has a score to settle.

Visit the Curiosity Quills website to win stuff, like a The Devil's Flower themed necklace.