Tag Archives: Moorita Encantada

Double Whammy Launch Party, Kinky World Book Night & All the Latest

Double Whammy Launch Party

kd-ef2-buttonIt’s my pleasure to invite you all to a very special launch party. Four Novembers ago when I began a project then entitled Love Spells for National Novel Writing Month, I never imagined that experiment in writing a novel, an erotic novel, in one month would lead to the completed Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy in Spring of 2013. And this coming Saturday, the 20th of April, in London at Sh! Women’s store, is the launch party for that final book of the trilogy, Elemental Fire.

And you’re all invited!

This launch party is special in a lot of ways. First of all, I’ll be sharing it with my dear friend and fabulous writer, Kay Jaybee, who will be giving you a sneak preview of her new novel, The Retreat, which is book two in her Perfect Submissive Trilogy.

There’ll be sexy readings from both Elemental Fire and The Retreat, and I have it on fairly good authority that Grace Marshall will be making her first appearance at Sh! to join in the fun and give you a naughty little taster from her latest novel, Identity Crisis.

Besides the usual sexy readings, there’ll be fizz, food fun and fabulous giveaways. And the company will be of the highest and naughtiest calibre.

If all of that’s not enough to entice you, how can you resist anything happening at Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium with all the fabulous toys, corsets, lingerie, books and everything you could possibly want to take the sexy evening home with you afterward.

If you’re in the London area next Saturday evening, come party with us at Sh! as we celebrate the many guises of erotica and romance. Of course the evening is FREE of charge. You’re our guests! Here’s the link with details: Sh! Women’s store And be sure to either call Sh! and let them know you’re coming or email. Space is limited.

BookOfTheMonthElemental Fire, Sh!’s Book of the Month

And to celebrate the launch, Sh! has made Elemental Fire the Sh! Book of the Month! Sh! has always been a dear friend and a great promoter of my work. I’m very pleased that my novel has this place of honour for the month of April. Check out what the very discerning Sh! Babe, Jo, has to say about Elemental Fire!

Xcite Kinky World Book Night

By the time all the fun ends with dancing in the street Saturday night, Kay Jaybee, Lucy Felthouse and myself will be in such a fantastically naughty mood that we won’t be ready to stop partying. Fortunately for us, we won’t have to! We’ll be headed off to Cardiff on Monday for Xcite’s Kinky World Book Night, and I’ve been hearing through the grapevine that Xcite’s newest member, Lauren Thomas, really knows how to throw a party.

Kinky World Book Night will be on 23rd April at Fire Island in Cardiff. Xcite have booked out the whole top floor, which is three rooms. The party begins at 5 PM with drinks. Then at 6:00, doors open. Entry is FREE along  with a complimentary book.

image003At 6:30 the Ann Summers room opens – open until 8:30pm.  Kay Jaybee, Lucy Felthouse and I will all be reading and following up with a short Q&A, then there’ll be an open mic with five minute slots for anyone who would like to read. I have it on good authority that anyone who runs over their five minutes will be paddled.

If you’re in the Cardiff area Monday night the 23rd, come and join us for more fun and filth with a chance to meet the writers and some of the behind-the-scenes folks at Xcite who get our naughty stories out there for the world to see.

Party in London or party in Cardiff, or both! I promise a filthy time will be had by all.

Grace Marshall, Xcite’s Author of the Month

Grace-Marshall-websiteI’m very pleased to announce that Grace Marshall is Xcite’s Author of the Month for April. This means Xcite will soon be posting an interview in which Grace tells all, which will be great for catching up on all her latest gossip. But it also means a whopping 25% savings on all Grace Marshall books for readers, so the fun is shared with everyone. I’ll keep you posted about the naughty interview, but you can take advantage of the fabulous discount on Grace’s books any time during the month of April.

 

Burlesque Meets Mythology: Teaming Up with Moorita Encantada

KD: When the lovely Moorita Encantada approached me with the idea that we collaborate on a ‘burlesque play’ based on one of my stories, I was totally intrigued and more than a little bit intimidated. I had seen her perform and was bowled over by the innovative, edgy quirkiness of her burlesque performances. She had heard me read several times and had read some of my work, and the idea of collaborating with her and creating something totally different was very exciting.

Moorita: This project was born out of a beautiful clash of two types of artistic sensitivity – that of a writer, and that of a performer. I love KD’s writing for the way she uses erotica and sexuality as key to understand the magic and mystery of a human being. I have a similar approach to burlesque and cabaret: it’s a sophisticated tool that can be used to uncover deep human truths while being very accessible and simply hugely entertaining!
Moorita EncantadaHaving met through Erotic Meet and hit it off immediately, we spent quite a bit of time discussing what a “burlesque play” could look like and what it should involve. We asked ourselves what were the foundations of burlesque (e.g. musicality and humour), and how we could best use them in the context of a theatrical play. We also felt that the genre was often banalised by critics and unambitious performers alike. We took it on as an exciting challenge to explore the true potential of burlesque as an art form.
KD: Once I got brave enough to actually put words on the page, I pulled together some ideas in a three act format. Since I’ve never written a play before I’m still scrambling to understand such a different style of writing while imagining a story that will lend itself to burlesque and to the stage. One of the first decisions we made before our official meeting was that most of my existing work was too long or not really what we were had in mind for this project, so we chose a mythological theme and let our imaginations run wild. We had dozens of email conversations over the rough draft that was beginning to take shape, with Moorita shooting ideas back at me and sharing pieces of music she thought might work along with ideas about the costuming the motivation of our characters.  At last we felt  we were ready to meet. We had our first serious brainstorming session a week ago Friday in London at Home House, a private club with a very welcoming, very creative atmosphere. In a long evening over lattes and, later, cocktails, our Coctails Flaming Passion 8 Feb2013 1st meetingplan began to take shape.
Moorita: I loved how, without failure, we were constantly winding each other up creatively and coming up with ideas and solutions that were a step or two ahead of the original concept. If all this happened during the very first meeting, I just can’t wait to see what happens next!
Also, we seem to be just on the same page in terms of artistic boldness, which is great. We are equally out of our comfort zones and just loving the ride! Based on experience, best ideas tend to come from people who are good enough at what they do to allow themselves complete freedom to indulge in wacky experiments. If that’s the winning formula, we’ve already won 🙂
KD: My job is to get the story down and make it exciting for the audience. That’s always a writer’s job. But in a novel, I have only words to get that story  from my imagination to the reader’s. Moorita, however, sees my word pictures as performances, as that combination of dance, music, costumes, drama and comedy that give the audience a multi-dimensional experience. What writer wouldn’t want to see her story brought to life on a stage? And when Moorita and I met for the first time, the ideas she brought for what that performance would look like made the way I pictured our story come to life and move in directions I wouldn’t have thought of without that added dimension of performance.
Moorita: Since KD is an amazing writer, I have no doubts that the script itself will be of top quality. She already enriched the story with amazing ideas taken from her literary practice, experience and education. I just can’t imagine putting this together without her wisdom, vision and passion for the written word.
My challenge will be to make this workable in the context of the stage, with all its limits and opportunities. Obviously, people involved in this project as performers and their individual skills will be crucial, which is why selecting the right cast is one of the most important points on my agenda. Next, we need to put all sorts of things in place – hopefully with help of an experienced theatre director – to pull this very ambitious project off the ground logistically.

KD: Moorita, I have to say at the moment, I’m most looking forward to getting a solid story written and ready to stage. It’s all there in my head, and thanks to our brainstorming session, the vision is so much clearer and more exciting. I can’t wait till our next meeting.

What are you most looking forward to in the process?

1st planning meeting Home HouseMoorita: The launch of the play itself and the way it will open up other, unexplored avenues for cabaret and burlesque. I can visualise the opening night, filled with curiosity and expectation.. I know it will give me a tremendous satisfaction and will be the beginning of possibly the most interesting period of my artistic development
Next challenges are finalising the script, casting the right performers and finding a fabulous venue to host us. The main objective is to produce something that will be innovative and original while being accessible for a wide audience, and very professionally executed. It’s great that just by spreading the word amongst our friends, we are already receiving plenty of support and collaboration offers from artists of different kinds. These partnerships will be important going forward and have to be thought through carefully. We would like for this project to give many talented people an opportunity to showcase their work and benefit from exposure it will give them.
KD: Moorita and I decided that as we work to create our burlesque play we’ll document our creative process on A Hopeful Romantic.  Also because it’s a joint effort and something new, we thought it would be fun to keep it an open experience to share with friends and readers. Journeys are always more fun shared. As for our project, we’ll be giving more details as the process unfolds. But for now I’ll just say we’re taking a story from mythology, bringing it forward in time and twisting and turning it until you won’t believe what you’re seeing … or hearing.