Queer Books Unbound Birthday Extravaganza: Guest Post by Anyta Sunday

Posted January 26, 2019 2 Comments by Dale

Hello everyone! We’re back with a lovely post by Anyta Sunday and her Signs of Love series. Find out how she decided on which star signs to pair up!

Anyta also generously offered a set of 4 paperbacks of her “Signs of Love” series to one lucky winner! (This is an international giveaway!)
You’ll find the rafflecopter to enter the giveaway at the end of the post.

But now we’re gonna let Anyta take over!

How did the character signs and their development take shape? Did you create the characters and then find signs to help with the character building from there? Or did you build the characters around star signs and their traits? How did these things shape the books and their trajectory?

The idea for the Signs of Love came to me during a vacation in Scotland, shortly after the birth of my second son (a Taurus). I was realizing just how different he was from my older son (a Pisces)… I started wondering, how good of a fit are us two Leo parents with each of our sons? While reading up on personality traits of different signs, it hit me that in my romances, characters often fulfil a certain trope, and the character traits could be mapped to star signs!

So for the first book, the characters of Theo (the Leo) and Jamie (the Aries) already existed before I added the star signs to the mix. And Leo and Aries were just perfect for these two!

Starting with book 2, I slightly changed my approach and first chose the signs of this particular book before building the characters around their traits. I strongly believe that opposites attract, so I choose star sings that already have a lot of conflict in their traits…

In Scorpio Hates Virgo, Percy totally fits the bill for a Scorpio: intuitive, self-confident, reads between the lines, passionate, wary of the idea that true love exists, hates vulnerability, sexy, immensely curious, and highly imaginative. His love interest, Cal, is precise, reserved, embarrasses easily, rational, analytical, considerate, chivalrous, highly reliable, wonderfully sarcastic, can be very critical, sexually discreet, loyal.

Gemini Keeps Capricorn pairs Wesley with Lloyd. Wesley is a sweet, flirtatious Gemini – passionate, adventurous, and curious. He’s a masterful flirt, and banter comes naturally to him. But on the other hand, being alone does not come easy to him, as his poor RA Lloyd (the Capricorn in this story) has to learn on his many nightly visits. Capricorns are responsible and disciplined people, with self-control that borders on super-human. Even the flirtatious attempts of super cute Gemini Wesley are bound to fail with an RA like Lloyd – making a move on one of your residents would be a serious breach of the rules. And breaking rules is nothing a Capricorn takes lightly.

The latest book in my series, Pisces Hooks Taurus, is also big on the contrasts. The Pisces, Zane, is so romantic, so cheerful, and so full of life! Passionate and caring, he’s looking for true connections in his life. Friendship or love – he’s always all in. Beckett, the grounded, stoic Taurus on the other hand is down-to-earth and doesn’t believe in anything supernatural. Serendipity. Fate. Love at first sight. These things don’t fit his rational view of the world. He’s been hurt before, and that makes him even more cautious of any head-over-heels, spur-of-the-moment decisions—those only end in tears and drama. And drama just isn’t his jam.

With all my couples, I love how they drive each other crazy, but also how they complement each other – and I can’t wait to see what Cancer and Aquarius will get up to in Signs of Love #5, coming November 2019!

Anyta Sunday is a big, BIG fan of slow-burn romances. She loves to read and write stories with characters who slowly fall in love.

Some of her favorite tropes to read and write are: Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Clueless Guys, Oblivious MCs, Everyone (Else) Can See It, Slow Burn, Love Has No Boundaries.

Anyta writes a variety of stories, Contemporary MM Romances with a good dollop of angst, Contemporary lighthearted MM Romances, and even a splash of fantasy. Her books have been translated into German, Italian and French.

Member of Romance Writers of America.

Website | Twitter | Facebook
To receive a free e-book, sign up for Anyta’s newsletter here!

*Click the graphic to enter the rafflecopter giveaway*
Giveaway ends February 8, 12am CET!