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In the News: Chameleon

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Ashe Barker - Contemporary Romance Cafe feature

Chameleon – a story of risk, faith, and sizzling desire.

  • Where do you get your inspiration from?
  • Do you write from your own experience?
  • If I talk to you will I find myself in your next book?

These are all questions I get asked as an author. The answers – Everywhere. Sometimes. Probably.

Ashe Barker - Blog Tour Stop at Butterfly-o-meter

Chameleon was a lot of fun to write, and something of a journey for me too. I started out with a fairly clear notion of what my heroine, Fleur would be like. A traditional Moroccan woman, true to her culture and the values that go with it. I quickly came to realise though that she is much more than that. This is the essence of the story, the layers or cloaks that people wear at different times, in different places, in order to fit in.

Ashe Barker - Female First feature

My current release, Chameleon, is set in Morocco, in the beautiful city of Marrakesh. It opens with a chance meeting in the foothills of the Atlas mountains when a sophisticated mining engineer encounters a lovely Berber peasant – or so he thinks. He soon realises that Fleur Mansouri is not what she seems. Far from it. His little human chameleon is constantly changing, adapting to her environment so fast she makes his head spin.
 

Ashe Barker - Beyond Black and White feature

As a white author, it was something of a challenge to write an interracial erotic romance where the heroine is both a submissive, and the black partner. The power relationship in a Dominant/submissive romance is already a delicate balance and is right there at the forefront of the story and, of course, the politics of multicultural societies can so easily become entangled in that. Ultimately, though, this story is about two people who love each other, and their ethnicity is of no relevance to them.

Ashe Barker - Exclusive Author feature

There is a contrast here of Moroccan and Western lifestyles. How much has seeing the world influenced your stories?

A lot. I’m fascinated by people, by cultures, and by language. I learnt French and Italian at school, and as an adult I’ve picked up Urdu, Punjabi and Turkish. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but I can get by. The thing that strikes me most is the close link between a language and the culture it evolved from. That’s especially true of the vocabulary – we develop the words for the things we feel a need to talk about.

Chameleon Book Trailer

Ashe Barker - Interview about Chameleon

Ashe Barker - Interview about the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon

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