Tag Archives: Bianca Sommerland

A Cast From the Past with Bianca Sommerland

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I’m very excited to welcome the amazing Bianca Sommerland, who will be telling us about her ‘cast from the past’ in the Story Behind the Story of  Deadly Captive. Welcome, Bianca!

KD Grace is one of the wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in my journey as a published author, but she’s the first to ask me a question that really stopped me short. She asked me whether there were personal experiences that inspired part, if not all of my novels. My automatic thought was no, of course not. I’ve been inspired by dreams, by pictures, by music…but my own life? Which of my novels could I actually say was inspired by my own life? Rosemary Entwined, about the descendant of a succubus and her nest of seven men? Deadly Captive, with the woman who’s lost her past and has no one but her fellow prisoner, Joe, to count on while she tries to survive degradation and torture?

Yeah, my life’s just not that interesting.

But when I thought about the question, I took another look at my stories and found certain personalities sticking out, certain qualities that reminded me of people I’ve known. Family, friends, lovers. The characters are all familiar to me because they are the best and worst of real people. Joe, for example, is the grown up version of a boy I had a crush on in high school. He could be so mean, but then he’d suddenly show a bit of kindness and that’s all I would see. My imagination painted him as a tough hero who would be tender with the woman he loved. Of course, in reality he was a player and a jerk and I’m kinda happy he saw me as one of the guys (even though I wished otherwise at the time). Years later, my muse took all I dreamed the boy could be and paired him up with one of my strongest heroines.

I believe many authors find the casts for their stories from their pasts. Only, some of the best memories aren’t Polaroids, or even portraits. They’re like abstract paintings, evoking only emotions. Kinda cool, because you can interpret them however you’d like 😉

And yes, my interpretations are a little twisted.

Deadly Captive Blurb:
Lydia awakes, bound and blind, to the whispered urgings of a man who has his hands on her. His words confuse her at first, but she soon understands they are both in the middle of a performance that will determine whether she remains in captivity or dies. The crowd must be entertained, and her cellmate makes sure it is.

Forced submission is not the only horror Lydia endures. She has no memories of life before her imprisonment, and Joe, her cellmate, is her only comfort as the powerful creatures that hold them captive torture and debase her. Together, she and Joe cling to the will to survive long enough to break free and seek revenge. Their desire to sustain one another triumphs over their wardens’ efforts to destroy them. There is no pain, no suffering, that can tear them apart.

Beyond their cell, their love is tested. Can they hold strong in the face of the challenge of the new powers they have gained along with their freedom?

Excerpt from Deadly Captive:

My eyes teared, but my gaze never wavered. “Right back at you. I didn’t sign up for your games.”

He eased his grip on my hair. “Neither of us signed up for any of this, Lydia. I wanted to make sure I could trust my cell mate.”

“Of all the . . . .” I shook my head. “Please, I need to know. Some kind of morbid curiosity, I guess. Why in the world would I fake memory loss? What purpose would it serve?”

With a shrug, he rested his arm on my shoulder, still loosely holding my hair. “It would be a clever sympathy card.”

Damn it, he’s right. I felt the tension ease from my body, no longer feeling very combative. “How do you know I’m not faking it? If I was, it would be pretty stupid to acknowledge my name.”

“No. Actually, it wouldn’t have proven much. It might have made me suspicious, more than I already was. It would be strange that you’d remember your name, but not your own face. I was hoping your reaction would be revealing.” He closed his eyes and dropped his head. “It was, but not in the way I’d hoped. The loss is worse than I thought. There wasn’t even a glimmer of recognition.”

Grazing my teeth back and forth along my bottom lip, I glared at his chest. “It could be an act.”

Fingers under my chin, he tilted my head up. “No, Lydia. You couldn’t have faked the fear I saw. You thought it was one of them.”

I jerked away from him and clenched my fists at my sides. “I’m not afraid of them.”

“Yes, you are. You’re not a stupid woman, Lydia.”

The way he said my name sent a chill down my spine. I dug my nails into my palms.

“Stop.”

He frowned. “Stop what?”

“Saying my name like that.”

With a wicked smile, he hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and rocked on his heels. “Lydia.” I swung my fist at his face. He knocked it aside and caught my wrist when I tried again.

“Lydia.” He backed me into the table. My hip knocked the empty plate and it clattered on the floor. Sitting me on the edge of the table, he trapped my face between his hands. My breath caught, and I pressed my eyes shut, expecting him to slam his mouth on mine. It could hurt; my lips were still sore.

His tongue gently traced the crease of my lips. He combed his fingers into my hair and tugged until I tipped my head back. Then, he kissed me so tenderly I opened my eyes and stared at him.

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Why do you look so surprised?”

Why? I licked my bottom lip and tasted the saltiness of his sweat. Delicious. My eyes dropped to the moisture beaded on his chest. I leaned forward. He tightened his grip.

“Well?”

I groaned. “I thought you’d be rough.”

“You keep looking at me like that, and I will be.”

Deadly Captive Buy Link: https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/269
Blog: http://imnoangelauthorsblog.wordpress.com/

Thanks for being my guest on The Story Behind the Story, Bianca, and thanks for the hot excerpt from Deadly Captive. Sounds like a must read to me.

Empty Nest, Tea With Medusa, and Questions of My Stability

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The nest is temporarily empty, as most of you already know. Those of you who don’t must have been on another planet when it happened, otherwise you would have heard the shouting all over Facebook and Twitter and anyplace else I could shout it from. The Pet Shop is now out the door and in the gentle but firm hands of the good folks at Xcite. And yes, I feel a bit bereft.

Has there been a celebration? Weeell, not exactly. That is unless you call more writing ‘celebrating.’ It occurred to me as I sent The Pet Shop out into the big wide world with a flutter in my heart and a lump in my throat that I really don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not writing. Since the tender farewell, there have been blog posts, there have been reviews, and there has been the odd short story, which after spending so much time with my Pets just seem, well, so short

Today, after a walk over Pewley Downs into town, I had a pot of tea with Medusa. Here’s me writing fast and furious while she tells me about her sculpture garden, all dark and mossy and mysterious. I walked back home with the weather threatening rain, all the while she whispered her story seductively in my ear. Then there was an idea for a post about how to write sex floating around in my head, which Medusa elbowed out of the way none too gently. And back behind the hedge row I could just catch a glimpse of the Lakeland ghosts waiting, not very patiently, for their turn.

I just wrote a post about emptying the brain from the busy-ness to make room for the imagination. But in my case, the imagination seems to be taking up a lot more room than I allotted it. Or is it just me, too scared NOT to write?

I should probably take some time to bask in the afterglow, maybe go out for dinner and a movie with hubby, but try to tell that to Medusa. I won’t lie, there are times when I wonder if I’m alright. There are times when I wonder if maybe it’s just not normal to spend so many happy afternoons and evenings…and mornings with people who only exist in my imagination. Am I unstable to eschew a night out so I can write more words? And anyway, even if I do go out, Medusa and the ghosts and the gardener who uncovers rude statuary in an overgrown garden, they all come along with me and crowd around the dinner table and shout in my ear during the film.

All of this makes me wonder what would actually happen to me if I took a break from writing — I mean really took a break. It gives me a headache to think about it. Okay, there is reading, and I really like that. But I can’t possibly read and not think about how the book was written, and what inspired the author. And then there are all the ideas with which that book inspires me. You get the picture.

I can’t really count walking as something to do when I’m not writing, because there’s always the ghosts in the hedgerows and the couple going at it in the back of the stables and Medusa, of course. Then there’s gardening. Well, gardening by its very nature begs rude stories. And there’s something about compost and growing things that just can’t keep from inspiring creativity.

Come to think of it, it really doesn’t matter what I do. In my head, I’m still writing. When I bang on the piano, well, there’s this romance I’ve partly written down that involves a pianist and an astrophysicist. No, seriously. Even when I’m ironing or doing the washing up stories are pouring into my head. Sometimes even when I’m asleep and dreaming.

Now that I think of it, maybe writing IS the celebration for finishing The Pet Shop. It works for me, and Medusa’s happy with it. And my long suffering husband came to terms with my writing obsession a long time ago. He just goes with the flow. So maybe there’s no need to take a break from writing after all. Whew! I feel better already!

Besides the Empty Nest, Here’s the Latest

The week started out with a really fantastic review of The Initiation of Ms Holly, on the eBook Addict Review site.

*I can honestly say that this book has turned me into a K D Grace junkie I cannot get enough of her writing.

*…This is a must read.

On the 23rd, the lovely Lisa Fox interviewed me on her website, and we talked about why I think Freud is right about sex. Imagine that, me talking about sex! It was a lovely chat.

It’s been a week of fab reviews and happy dance sort of news. The Romance Reviews awarded The Initiation of Ms Holly a five star review AND Top Pick status!  I can’t keep my eyes of the lovely Top Pick badge on Holly’s page of my website.

The lovely folks at Coffee Time Romance also gave The Initiation of Ms Holly a fab review, weighing in at four cups. We’ll take it!

“The Initiation of Ms. Holly is so hot I am still tingling a day after I finished reading this novel. This spicy number will heat you up and keep you fully charged for days to come.”

On the 30th, I got the chance to visit the lovely Bianca Sommerland at I’m no Angel Author’s Blog. And, since it’s getting on that time of year again, I talked about compost…well writing compost, at least.

On the 31st, I had a lovely talk with the fabulous Lindsey Townsend at The British Romance Fiction Blog. I discussed using all of the senses in writing.

No doubt there’ll be gardening and walking and maybe a little telly on the side, even spending some time with friends this weekend, but it’s a pretty good bet that none of that will happen without Medusa and the gang close at hand.