Tag Archives: guest blogger

Napping…It’s Not Just for Nanas by Bibi Paterson (@BibiPaterson)

tourbutton_tiedtoyouWhere do you get your best ideas? In the bath? By going on a walk? Well for me they tend to come just when I am about the fall asleep so whenever I get stuck with my writing I tend to take a nap. I might not necessarily sleep, but for the hour that I lay there I let my brain roam free. Sometimes it is just a swirly mess of thoughts and images but other times it will settle on a dialogue, or a plot point.

As there is no typing involved you can imagine things in real-time and see where the plot goes. Sometimes it will flow in one direction and will get to a situation I don’t think is right and then I will back up a bit to see if I can explore a different direction. Other times the idea will just flow and I will be itching to get up and write down everything that has just gone through my head. The best part of my method for me is that because I have never typed my random thoughts down I don’t have that guilt over deleting chapters when they don’t work.

And I even get my own personal bedtime story which is fun when you are working through kinky scenes like the ones I wrote for my new novel Tied to You.

Teaser-1Excerpt:

“We’re leaving,” Alex states in a tone that brooks no argument. I merely nod in reply and let him lead me to the cloakroom to fetch my wrap, and then we are sitting in the car, being driven home. The tension between us is thick, yet neither of us has said a word. I glance up at Alex under my eyelashes and see his jaw clenched and an expression that I can’t fathom in his eyes. Every fibre of my being is hyper-aware of Alex’s masculinity, and a dull throb sits between my legs. I squirm in my seat, trying to find a little relief, when suddenly I am aware of Alex’s scrutiny. His eyes bore through me, yet the expression on his face remains a neutral mask. A smirk appears as he runs his eyes over my body and I find my nipples hardening under my dress.

We have no sooner pulled up in front of the house than Alex is pulling me from the car and into the house. The door slams shut behind us and for a moment we both just look at each other, lost in the inevitable. And then Alex speaks. “Turn around, Olivia.” The command is issued in a low, gravelly voice, completely at odds with Alex’s regular teasing tone. The use of my full name startles me, and before I can think further, my body is already obeying. I stand still, my eyes staring up the stairs, as we stand in the frigid hallway, and I wait with bated breath. A few moments pass and all I can hear is our breathing.

Suddenly I am aware of Alex’s arms coming over my shoulders and unhooking the cape at my throat. It slithers to the floor, and for a heartbeat, the world stops spinning on its axis. I shiver as I feel Alex’s warm breath on my neck as, ever so slowly, he pulls down the zip of my gown. “Put your arms out and hold on to the end of the bannister,” he instructs gruffly. I comply without rational thought, quietly awaiting his next command. The single movement has my dress pooling at my feet as I lean forward to grip the smooth wooden post. Large, agile hands skim down my sides until they rest on my hips and I am very much aware that my arse is now in the air, the angle of my body on my heels offering direct access to my damp, aching pussy. The hands follow a leisurely pace down the backs of my thighs and calves, until they reach my ankles. “Lift your foot and then the other,” Alex orders. I comply and he pulls the dress out from around my feet, discarding it in a heap by the front door.

Teaser-2I glance back down at Alex, but immediately he notices. “Eyes forward,” he barks, and I whip my head back around, my heart thumping in my ears. The cold of the hallway has raised goose bumps over my skin and I am shivering ever so slightly. I feel Alex stand behind me, heat radiating from his frame making the cold more tolerable, and then I hear him shedding his own clothes. My body is feeling ultra-sensitive, and the moment his hand snakes around my waist and deft fingers find my clit, I let out a low groan, as the warmth starts to spread across my pelvis. His pelvis pushes into my arse and I can feel the huge length of him grinding between my butt cheeks. Suddenly, Alex’s other hand is grabbing my breast, pulling it from the confines of my strapless bra and, almost painfully, squeezing my nipple. Teeth nip at my ear and neck as he forces my head back, my back arching as I try to maintain my balance.

“I don’t make love,” Alex hisses into my ear. “I fuck, I root, I shag…but I don’t do soft and I don’t do sweet. Do you understand, Olivia?” I nod my head, a thousand conflicting thoughts swirling around my head. “If you want this to stop, you need to say so now…” he trails off and waits for my answer. My brain is telling me that this is all a bit weird, that this is not what I want, but my treacherous body has other ideas and so I keep silent.

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Tied To YouTied to You (Book blurb)

Olivia Walker has just hit rock bottom. About to lose her job and become homeless, she can’t see a way out of the mess her life has become until Alex Davenport enters her life with a proposal she is in no position to refuse.

Wealthy and arrogant, Alex is used to getting whatever he wants and he has set his eyes on Olivia. For months he has watched her, waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself to make her his, and finally it has appeared. But Alex is hiding a secret, one that he is determined to protect until, one day, Olivia makes a discovery that sets her on a course of self-discovery. Together they explore Olivia’s submissive side, pushing boundaries and taking her on the wildest ride of her life.

But when Olivia’s past threatens to expose Alex’s secret lifestyle, the time for truths and full disclosure is at hand. Can Alex let go of the fears that have bound his true nature? And can a couple that fell in lust find their own happily ever after?

Warning: This book is intended for mature audiences as it contains explicit sex scenes and BDSM themes.

Buy links:

Amazon (US)     http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NN50KZE

Amazon (UK)     http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NN50KZE

iBooks                  https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/id925073550

Kobo                     http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/tied-to-you

Nook                     http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tied-to-you-bibi-paterson/1120440715

 

Bibi-PatersonAuthor Bio:

Bibi is a former marketing executive and mum to a gorgeous little girl currently residing just north of London. She recently spent a year living it up on the beaches of Western Australia and her hobbies include consuming copious amounts of coffee and chocolate, building cardboard castles and creating stories in her head.

Inspired from a young age, her love for literature started with Enid Blyton and her Secret Seven. Since then a voracious appetite for books has brought her a world full of heroes, love, murder, betrayal and the odd vampire thrown in for good cause.

Having long admired those brave enough to put pen to paper, or in this modern age of computing, keyboard to screen, she has finally started telling the sexy stories that she has been keeping locked up in her head all this time.

http://www.bibipaterson.com

https://www.facebook.com/bibipaterson

https://twitter.com/BibiPaterson

http://www.pinterest.com/authorbibipater/

http://instagram.com/bibipaterson

GIVEAWAY!

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Emerald Talks about SAFE, Her New Collection of Erotic Stories

Emerald SafeThanks so much for having me today, KD—I’m so delighted to be back at A Hopeful Romantic talking a bit about my brand new short story collection, Safe!

When I first submitted a short story collection for consideration to 1001 Nights Press earlier this year, it was as a manuscript that contained seventeen stories, six of which were new and exclusive to the collection. I knew the book as a whole would be considered erotica and would not be marketable as erotic romance. This was mainly because of how a few of the stories ended.

As I’ve shared now a number of places, I interpreted Sharazade, the proprietor of 1001 Nights, as coming back with the suggestion that the manuscript be divided into two books. Essentially, upon our agreeing to do so, what I had submitted became two collections divided generally along the line between the erotic romance pieces and the erotica pieces. If… Then: a collection of erotic romance stories was released in September and has ten stories, including two of the new ones the original manuscript contained. (I got to go back and add three previously published stories I had pulled from the full manuscript due to length concerns. Yay!) Safe: a collection of erotic stories came out October 15 and also comprises ten stories, four of which are the remaining new tales from the original manuscript.

I feel much appreciation for Sharazade’s recognizing that the manuscript I submitted may work better as two books. Since I knew the intention with which I had written each story was along a similar line that made them all fit together for me, it is true that the outward tone and direction of some of the stories seemed different from a number of the others. Basically, I feel Sharazade was correct that the volume could be pretty distinctly divided between the erotica and the erotic romance stories.

I was and am aware that the audiences for erotic romance and erotica are different, and while I have seen the term “erotica” seem to be used as synonymous with “erotic romance,” I personally see the two as distinct and consider such a conflation a misnomer.

Probably the most tangible difference distinguishing erotic romance from erotica, as I see it, is the requirement of a happy ending. In my understanding, anything labeled “romance” (of whatever sub-genre of romance it is) must have the requisite happy ending. I completely understand this requirement of the romance genre as one that both draws readers and that readers expect. I also respect it and feel no desire to mislead anyone into reading something that may not interest her/him/them. I am delighted that I have a collection specifically for a romance-reading audience that embraces the personal connection and conscious commitment of romantic relationship in the context of erotic writing.

More subtly, I actually perceive the happy ending requirement of romance to be a happy ending of a rather specific type: that in which the main characters, who have been or are romantically involved, are implied to continue or remain that way (contentedly!) for the foreseeable future. Characters in my erotica, for example, may well end up happy as well, but it’s often had little to nothing to do with any kind of ongoing or developing relationship between them. Their sexual interaction may have left them quite content, but they may feel no desire to continue that interaction or develop a romantic connection. Many stories I’ve written have had these kinds of endings, and there are some with this type in Safe as well.

Perhaps most atypical of much of the contemporary erotica I have read, however, Safe also has stories that do not have particularly “happy endings” as they have often seemed defined in literature. And here there may be some readers of erotica as well who digress in preference from this occurrence. To some readers, as I have interpreted it, erotica is for purposes of arousal, and some don’t consider a serious or poignant ending to lend itself to such.

I can understand that perspective—though I will admit I don’t share it. For me, erotica (both reading and writing it) is for more than arousal. In writing erotic fiction, I aim to explore the human condition, connection, experience, and evolution via the force and energy of sexuality (one that is, it seems to me, to be reckoned with!). I experience Safe as an embodiment of my aim to do this.

Emerald Safe3As such, there are a few stories in <>Safe that do not end neatly and/or with contentment and satisfaction. At no point did I write anything for Safe (or do I feel compelled to write anything in general) that ends tragically or wrenchingly simply for shock value. That is not at all the point. Rather, the stories “end” as the closing of what we have glimpsed of the characters lives, and sometimes what appears to be going on in those may encompass challenge, pain, and/or loss.

I don’t want to give the impression that all the stories in Safe end poignantly—they don’t (from my perspective, anyway!). A few of them, as I see it, do. Personally, I understand the desire to read something I know is going to turn out a way that won’t likely elicit a challenging emotion in me. I have sought out that kind of work in the past and felt that way often. As an author, however, I also appreciate exploring what appears to me to authentically reflect the facets of human experience that come through me as I’m working. As I see it, that is one of the fundamental purposes of art.

Ultimately, the aspiration in me in writing every story in Safe was to explore and display the power of sexuality to heal, connect, awaken, and elicit growth. This is how I see the purpose and power of sexuality in life, and as an author of erotica, that is what I am aiming to write. Sometimes the result may seem uplifting, and sometimes it may seem painful. Sometimes, as in life, if we pay a particular level of attention, we may see both at once.


Blurb for Safe: a collection of erotic stories:
In this collection of ten erotic stories, attraction, heat, and connection serve as catalysts to take characters to places of climax, revelation, transformation, and abiding – sometimes all at once. From hypnotizing dreams to life-changing tragedies to moving on after the end of a relationship, Safe explores the power of sexuality in its myriad forms and manifestations.

“To Make It That Way” shows older woman Cole taking young Zack on a seductive and wild ride, exposing him not only to a considerable sexual education but to more subtle life lessons as well. “Power Over Power” channels the intense energy of a martial arts session, while “Hers to Keep” offers Leslie a surprising lesson in so-called “casual” sex.

Polyamory, masturbation, and BDSM all make appearances in <>Safe, as do scorching vanilla sex and budding romance. These stories reveal how eros has the power to bring us back to ourselves, propelling us ever deeper into the journeys of both sex and life.


Excerpt from “To Make It That Way” in Safe:

Cole’s eyes glinted. “Sex,” she said, “has the potential to encompass and represent all human experience. All the nuances, all the understood and not understood, may be experienced through sex. And that means there’s a whole realm of it we’re not going to understand. It’s beyond our common forms of understanding.” Her eyes bore into me like steel. “But it’s not beyond our experiencing.”

After a moment she broke her gaze, and I noticed I started breathing again. I also noticed my cock was rock-hard.

“The key,” she said, lifting her water glass from the end table near where we stood, “is in awareness, respect, openness, authenticity. We don’t have to understand it all, as long as we’re aware of ourselves. As long as we respect our partners. As long as we approach with openness what is happening between us. And as long as we are authentic in our dealings, our experiences, our examinations. If something is uncomfortable, examine that and see what it teaches you. If it feels inauthentic, stop doing it. ”

“That wouldn’t account for a lot of abusive situations where sex is concerned,” I countered. “Lots of people may think they’re aware of and like what they’re doing, but it hurts someone else or is even criminal.”

“Yes,” she agreed, setting her water glass back down. “But that means at least one of those pieces is missing.”

I pondered that, as she didn’t appear inclined to expound. She moved toward me and caught my mouth with hers, and I caught my breath at the suddenness, at the heat that zipped through me like lightning at her touch. She backed me up against the couch until I fell onto it, my hands groping her breasts. Pulling my cock out of my jeans, Cole dropped her head and sucked with fervor, going after my cock like she was possessed, as though she was taking something from it she needed.

With a final pump, she paused, running her tongue up the length of my shaft. Her cat-like eyes gazed up at me, hard lust and a hint of something else glowing in them. Abruptly she stood up on the couch, towering over me as she pulled off her shirt and stepped out of her jeans. Underneath them she wore an impeccable red lingerie set, glimmering bra, thong, and garter belt with rhinestones embedded around the rims and matching stockings. I caught my breath.

Cole didn’t need lingerie, but she sure knew how to use it.


SAFE BUY LINKS:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

iBooks
Kobo
Scribd


Emerald safe2About Emerald:
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured or are forthcoming in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, Logical-Lust, and Sweetmeats Press. She is an advocate for sexual freedom, reproductive rights, and the rights of sex workers, and she serves as a Facebook group moderator and assistant newsletter editor for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW). Her first single-author books, If…Then: a collection of erotic romance stories and Safe: a collection of erotic stories, are out now from 1001 Nights Press.

Emerald links:
Website: http://TheGreenLightDistrict.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Emerald_theGLD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EmeraldAuthor
Google+: http://plus.google.com/+Emeraldauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/652859.Emerald
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/emerald
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/EmeraldAuthor/

Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester: A Story of Power and Class in the Edwardian Country House

tourbutton_fiftyshadesofgreenMy story in Fifty Shades of Green, “Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester and the Walled Garden,” gets its inspiration from the English landed gentry and their country house.

At the basic level walled gardens are a common feature of the English country house, though they are rather more traditional in their choice of rose gardens and formal flower beds than Lady Sally’s more risqué version with its poisonous and prickly plants. It struck me that a walled garden would make a great setting for a BDSM gardening story because it’s an enclosed area offering privacy where somebody could get away with anything, as Lady Sally does in the story!

There is also a genre of writing, both novels and screenplays for film and television, associated with the Edwardian country house. Why the Edwardian period in particular? Well, readers have the hindsight the characters cannot possess because they know a generation of husbands, brothers and sons are about to get slaughtered in the trenches of the Somme and other First World War battlefields. This gives the period an added poignancy. It also means the Edwardian period was the last hurrah for the English aristocracy. Ok, it may have taken many more years before we finally shook off our fore-lock tugging submission to the landed gentry but after the First World War things could never quite be the same again for the aristocracy.

So, into this world steps my character, the strict dominatrix Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester (the name is an amalgamation of two real East Yorkshire landed families). On one level the story is pure kinky fun in which my over-the-top kick-ass dominatrix reinvents her walled garden as an outdoor play area to punish her submissive slaves.

But Lady Sally is also a parody of the country house genre and the behaviour of the aristocracy during perhaps the last period when they could get away with anything. She dominates, punishes, humiliates and screws her gardener, Jack Buckingham, just as the English aristocracy has screwed us for centuries. Yet, in a strange way, Jack is complicit in his submission and humiliation. He really wants it and rather enjoys being dominated, which I think mirrors our fascination for the aristocracy.

In a short comic scene in the story, Lady Sally gets excited about introducing a water feature into her garden and threatens to piss all over her gardener, which is pretty much what the ruling class has been doing to us, and still does—though it’s more likely to be a banker or global corporation these days doing the pissing.

Yes, of course the story is still written as a piece of kinky BDSM fun, but it’s also a story about power, both personal and class.

Lady Sally features in other short stories by me. “Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester and the Silk Merchant of Samarkand” appears in Beltane Fire (Xcite Books) and another story, “Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester and the Automaton Horse,” has been accepted for publication.

 

—Slave Nano

 

Excerpt from Fifty Shades of Green, “Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester and the Walled Garden”

Jack felt more comfortable now the conversation had turned to gardening, “What did you have in mind, your ladyship—formal flower beds, a rose garden, a vegetable garden, exotic fruits? There are lots of possibilities for a walled garden.”

“Ah, well, there you are, Mr. Buckingham, I do have some quite specific ideas for the space. Perhaps it would be easier to take a look and I can talk you through some of my plans.”

As they made their way to the walled garden they must have appeared a strange group, Jack Buckingham in his tweed jacket, waistcoat, silk cravat and bowler hat perched on his curly brown hair along with the transvestite French maid and, leading the way, the formidable figure of Lady Sally, her hour-glass figure restrained in skin-tight rubber.

She unlocked the door in the wall and opened it.  The garden was in a sorry state. Jack reflected that it would take a lot of work to clear before he could even begin any planting. But it was an excellent space and he could see it had enormous potential.

“The plans, Victoria,” ordered Lady Sally, at which command her maid produced a roll of papers from within her petticoats.

Lady Sally laid them out on a tree stump and began to expound, pointing to her sketches.

“In this corner here I want colour. I thought some foxgloves against the back of the wall here, probably in purple and then some oleander in clusters of red, pink and white just here. And a laburnum tree in the corner there.  And I want some deadly nightshade. I simply love belladonna and its black berries, dark as night, just like me!”

Jack laughed, “You’d best be careful, Lady Sally—all of those plants are poisonous.”

“Oh yes, of course, I know that!”

“You want them to be poisonous?”

“Absolutely. I understand digesting small quantities can increase the heart rate and some even have hallucinogenic qualities. Do you have any further suggestions, Mr. Buckingham?”

The gardener was a little taken aback but fortunately knew something about which flowers had poisonous qualities, “Well, narcissus would be good or lily of the valley and chrysanthemum. But you have to be careful with chrysanths because even touching them can cause itching and irritation.”

“Really, how fascinating. Well, I simply must have some chrysanthemum then . . . some orange and yellow will be good too.”

Jack was intrigued and not a little alarmed at Lady Sally’s predilections.

“Here,” she said pointing along another length of the wall, “I want a willow tree and then some bamboo, cane and rattan.  Can you obtain some mature plants as I’ll want to use them straight away?”

“Use them?”

Lady Sally took up her whip, flexing it in her hands, and fixed him in the eye, silently conveying her intent for this area of the garden.

“Oh, I see, yes. Well, I should be able to get some mature ones.”

“Different sizes and flexibility? I’ll need them all to hand, you see.”

“Well, yes, I know an excellent market garden where I source anything rare or unusual. They’ve never let me down.”

“The mature tree in the centre of the lawn can stay but then I would like a small vegetable garden over there with carrots and courgettes.”

“Just those, wouldn’t you like more? I can lay out a proper vegetable garden for you.”

“No, that will suffice. I’m only looking for vegetables of a certain shape. And I want some chilli plants as well.”

“That’s not a problem, your ladyship. I can propagate them in a greenhouse and transfer the fully grown plants into your garden.”

“Excellent. Now, over here,” Lady Sally said gesturing toward another corner, “I don’t want to clear all of the nettles, you must leave a largish patch of them and the thistles too. And then what I’d really like is some giant hogweed against the wall, a holly bush and some poison ivy . . . but it must be poison ivy.”

“It’s not native to England, your ladyship, but I can find some and see if it’ll take. It causes a painful itch, though, and the sap from hogweed stings. I got some on my hand once and it really burnt.”

“Oh, excellent. I’m most pleased, Mr. Buckingham. You clearly know your plants and wildflowers. Just imagine when some of these come into contact with the most sensitive parts of the male anatomy.”

“You’ll certainly have your slaves squealing then,” chuckled Victoria.

“Indeed. Oh, just talking about it is making me excited. I’m so impatient now. I can hardly wait.”

“Sorry, Lady Sally, but do you mean to use all of these?”

“Why, yes, of course! Have you not realised, Mr. Buckingham, I want the walled garden for my outdoor play area. It will be my little garden of pain!”

 

Fifty Shades of GreenBlurb and buy links

Fifty Shades of Green is a garden of naughty delights!
Within our pages you’ll discover:
– Virile gods and their mortal conquests.
– A community garden’s secret (and very dirty) fertility ritual.
– An Edwardian dominatrix living out her sadistic garden fantasies.
– Student/teacher lessons in horticultural hotness.
– Young lovers seeking the help of green witches.
– A beautiful, blind priest who helps an injured traveler.
. . . and so much more.

Peek inside the garden gate.

(You know you want to.)

A dozen racy tales await.

Fifty Shades of Green is a collection of twelve delicious and erotic short stories with gardening themes. What you’ll find in these pages is hotter than the hottest pepper on the Scoville index of heat! And smart, not smutty. Well . . . maybe a little smutty.

 

To Buy Fifty Shades of Green (it’s on sale, just for you):

 

Amazon.com UK

Amazon.com US

 

Author Bio and Link

Slave Nano is a writer of erotic stories with dark and exotic content often drawing on the themes of female supremacy, BDSM and fetish, frequently in fantasy, paranormal or historical settings. His short stories and novellas have been published by Xcite Books, House of Erotica and in Smutters and Coming Together anthologies. His full-length erotic novel, Adventures in Fetishland, a bdsm/fetish reinvention of Alice in Wonderland, was published by Xcite Books in 2012. You can find out more about Slave Nano and his writing on his website at http://www.slavenano.co.uk

 

 

FREE Sample Stories!

 

To sample two free stories from Fifty Shades of Green visit our Garden Shorts website.

 

If you sign up for our newsletter you will be sent “Seed” (our sexy story about a community garden’s secret fertility ritual).

 

To read “Phallus Impudicus,” (a tale about the horny god Pan’s visit with a lonely gardener) just click on the Fifty Shades SAMPLE! tab

 

 

The Meat Hall by Lily Harlem (@lily_harlem)

thingsthatgohump300x200Thank you Kd for inviting me to Things That Go Bump In The Night it’s great to be here at this spooky time of year. I’ve brought with me vampires and shifters from my new novels Bite Mark and Claw Mark to get today’s party started. They’re pretty hard to handle, certainly temperamental and I’ve also found them to be unpredictable and demanding, but hey ho, that’s just what happens when you’re a writer and you dream up these super-human beings to play with!

Aimery is the first vampire to be introduced in Bite Mark (read this one first!). He’s a vampire lawyer and our heroine, Beatrice initially sees him walking in Smithfield Meat Market with his nose high as though enjoying the smell of the blood lingering in the air. I liked the idea of that, when I started writing, a vampire who hangs out where there is the scent of blood the way we’d hang out in a flowery summer garden enjoy the aromas.

old smithfield marketSmithfield Market is a real place in London, UK that’s been trading meat and meat products for over 800 years. I’ve been here on several occasions as I used to work nearby. It’s not a place for ladies though, it’s rough and tough and the guys here start work at 3 a.m. and shut up their stalls by lunchtime. There is bartering and arguing and money is referred to in an unusual way – £20 is a Score, £25 is a Pony, £100 is a Ton, £500 is a Monkey, and £1000 is a Grand. All good fun! I haven’t been inside for several years now, though the sounds and the smells and the images of huge hunks of meat being sold to restaurants and shops has stayed with me, even though it was only somewhere I passed through. Some places are like that, don’t you think, they stay with you.

It was walking past the market one morning a few years ago that I got the idea for these novels. It was early December, the cold was nipping my cheeks and fingers and the air was thick with fog – pea soup Londoner’s call it. There weren’t many people around but those that were appeared to be eerie shadows in the distance, every footstep intensified by the dampness all around. I was glad to duck into a nearby pub that opens early to cater for the market workers and get a nice pot of tea. But still, me being me, my imagination set to working and Bite Mark was born as I stared out of the window at the misty world.

Bite Mark ends on a cliff hanger which is where the sexy shifters come in. I hadn’t planned this but because of the introduction of The Carlton Pack (a group of mysterious wolves the London based vampires are fearful of) there was more story to tell and I had to tell it.

butchers hook and cleaverI hope you’ll check out Bite Mark and Claw Mark and meet Aimery, Ryle, Isaac and Caleb. They’re not afraid to take what they want and will fight for what they need and Bea is the lucky lady caught up in all of that. And if you ever get to Smithfield Market, do pop into The Butcher’s Hook and Cleaver for a little tipple and listen to the raucous chatter. You too might be inspired!

Lily x

 

shivers and tinglesOh, and if you’re around on Halloween then check out the Brit Babes Shivers and Tingles Facebook Party! It’s going to be great fun with contests, gossip and sexy pictures and steamy excerpts from all The Brit Babes.

 

bite markBite Mark

Life in London as a butcher girl is hard enough, but when my best friend Denny went missing it became miserable. So stumbling into the Worshipful Company of the Ancient Order while searching for him was like a breath of fresh air. Especially because sexy, sophisticated Aimery promised to help me.

But Aimery’s friend Ryle wanted in on the action. My head was spinning, my body reacting to theirs whenever they were around. But I had questions: What was their obsession with my rare blood type? How did they always appear when I needed them? And how old were they?

Learning the truth about my lovers brought new fears and delights. They could take me higher than I’d ever gone before, show me pleasures I’d never imagined and were prepared to kill to protect me. Being mortal had never been so much erotic fun—or so deliciously dangerous.

 

ClawMarkClaw Mark

This book is a sequel to Bite Mark; to ensure full enjoyment of this book, please read Bite Mark first.

Being married to two sexy vampires is as exciting as it is dangerous. One minute I’m on top of the world, the next I’m running for my life. But it’s okay with Aimery and Ryle at my side—they’ve sworn to love and protect me and keep me satisfied until I’m old and tray.

But when everything crashes down, literally, I can see no way out of the darkness—death my best option. Until two unusual men come bounding to my aid.

Gentle Caleb and prickly Isaac have secrets. They’re full of passion, desire, love and lust and their isolated lives are weaved with mystery. But I know what they are. I’m also craving some serious satisfying, a distraction from my dilemma, and it seems these guys are up for the job.

Will my life always be turbulent, terrifying and tempting beyond belief? Nothing is certain in a world of vampires and shifters.

 

Buy Links

Bite Mark

Ellora’s Cave | Amazon | Amazon UK | Goodreads

 

Claw Mark

Amazon | Amazon UK | Goodreads

 

lily-harlemLily Bio

Lily Harlem lives in the UK and is an award-winning, best-selling author of contemporary erotic romance. She writes for publishers on both sides of the Atlantic including Ellora’s Cave, HarperCollins, Totally Bound, Xcite and Sweetmeats Press. Her Hot Ice series regularly receives high praise and industry nominations.

Before turning her hand to writing Lily Harlem worked as a trauma nurse and her latest HarperCollins release, Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse, draws on her many experiences while nursing in London. Lily also self-publishes and The Glass Knot and Scored have been blessed with many 5* reviews since their release in 2012.

Her novel, Breathe You In, a super-sexy romance with a twist that will not only heat you up but stay with you for years to come, was named a USA Today Reviewer’s Recommended Read of 2013.

Lily also co-authors with Natalie Dae and publishes under the name Harlem Dae – check out the Sexy as Hell Box Set available exclusively on Amazon – The Novice, The Player and The Vixen – and That Filthy Book which has been hailed as a novel ‘every woman should read’.

One thing you can be sure of, whatever book you pick up by Ms Harlem, is it will be wildly romantic and down-and-dirty sexy. Enjoy!

 

Lily Links
Website http://www.lilyharlem.com/
Blog http://www.lilyharlem.blogspot.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/lily_harlem
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lily.harlem
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/LilyHarlemAuthor
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/lilyharlem/
Raw Talent http://rawtalentseries.co.uk
BritBabes http://thebritbabes.blogspot.co.uk
Hockey Romance http://www.hockeyromance.com
Newsletter Subscription http://www.lilyharlem.com/newsletter-subscription.html
Hot Ice https://www.facebook.com/hoticeseries
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/106837751333678531161/posts
Harlem Dae http://www.harlemdae.com
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4070110.Lily_Harlem

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Split by Kristina Lloyd (@kristina_lloyd)

thingsthatgohump300x200Three and a half of my five novels have happy endings. Spoiler alert: Split is not one of them. It’s not even the half.

Published in 2007, Split veers wildly off the trad romance track and instead borrows from the traditions of horror, incorporating the ghostly, the gothic, the eerie and the uncanny. There are no werewolves, vampires, monsters or zombies; no guts and gore or scares to make you scream. It’s quietly unsettling and oppressive. Or as one Amazon reviewer puts it, a “freaky little story with a ritualistic vibe.”

Wuthering Heights was one of the inspirations behind Split, and the action is set in an isolated village deep in the Yorkshire Moors. The people who live in Heddlestone, my imagined village, have different ways, different values. My protagonist, Kate Carter, abandons her boyfriend in London and moves to the village, unable to defy a inexplicable compulsion to return after briefly visiting on holiday.

split_kristina_lloyd“I longed for Heddlestone. I longed for its clean air, the space, the sight of those stark, blasted moors with their folds and secrets, and a sense of something lingering. I still feel it now I’m living here. I go out walking, climbing up and down, the wind roaring in my ears, and it feels as if something’s out there in the enormity, waiting for me.”

Kate takes a job in Heddlestone’s local puppet museum and soon falls for Jake, puppeteer and museum owner. Split is told from Kate’s POV, and written as a confessional journal she’s intending to send to the man she left behind, an attempt to explain her bizarre, hurtful actions. The book begins:

“My story starts last autumn. I want to set it down because I understand now that I’ll never be able to leave this place. And I want you to remember me as a good person.”

With its narrative format, Split shares similarities with my latest book, Undone, although the journal style is less overt here. There’s a twist in the tail too and plenty of kink, especially bondage and powerplay. Jake is a gentle, quiet, commanding dominant, and the sexual theme finds echoes in his profession. He creates puppets and marionettes, and he controls them, pulling their strings. Kate describes him as having “a sure, sensitive presence permeating my every day” and says,

“His hands are big enough to trap mine in a fist; light enough to sculpt, carve and paint, to shrink the living, breathing world down to a tiny focused stasis. His is such a delicate mastery.”

The trouble is, despite herself, Kate is also attracted to Jake’s brother, Eddie, a boorish, teasing bruiser and landlord of The Griffin, the village’s sole pub.

“There’s a cold intimacy to this place and the brothers have drawn me closer to its dark, disturbed heart, They had me from the start, Jake with his beauty and that clever, careful mind, Eddie with his arrogance that gets me right in the groin. Even now, I don’t know who I prefer.  I’m split between them, relishing both but trusting neither. Lust has taken me to some strange places but none stranger than this.”

If you’re someone who likes to cosy up with a book full of bad weather, creepy dealings and hot, kinky sex, you might enjoy Split. If escapist sunny beaches, sunny dispositions and happy ever afters are your thing, then I recommend you stay well away.

Happy Halloween, folks!

Split on Amazon UK :: Split on Amazon US

 

Kristina Lloyd writes erotic fiction about sexually submissive women who like it on the dark, dirty and dangerous side. Her novels are published by Black Lace and her short stories have appeared in dozens of anthologies, including several ‘best of’ collection, in both the UK and US. She lives in Brighton, England.

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