Tag Archives: the thousand and one nights

Danger Warning from Sommer Marsden

Today I’m happy to welcome back Sommer Marsden with another fabulous offering from The Thousand and One Nights anthology of Xcite’s Secret Library collection. Sommer is here to tell us about her hot novella, The Highest Bidder. The Highest Bidder is also available as a stand-alone novella on Kindle.

Danger, Danger, Gentle Constant Reader…

This will be a bit different than my normal goofy, slightly flighty blog posts. This one has a bit of, dare I say, emotions wound into it. Read at your own risk.

I’m supposed to discuss The Highest Bidder today, one of my favorite things I’ve written in the last year or so. Funny and intense with lots of sex. But so romantic I even set my own little (very repressed) girlish heart going pitter patter. I almost always have romance in my work, but not to that degree.

I think a lot of the romance and sizzle stems from  Casey having lost her husband and how much she needs to heal. My man was diagnosed Type 1 Diabetic about three years ago. Odd for a 40-something year old man, yes. But due to a birth defect that left his pancreas compromised it finally gave up the ghost. He went from ‘normal’ to insulin dependent pretty much overnight.

Scary.

I think of myself then and how scared I was to hear his diagnosis and how it’s still sinking in to me how he must have felt. I cannot imagine his internal reaction even though I have been with him all but seven days or so days for the last 17 years (you heard that right. we’ve spent *maybe* a week to ten days apart)

I chose to spotlight diabetes in The Highest Bidder because it hits close to home. It also allowed me to write my way out of the fear box. I admit, there are times when I still get very afraid and my brain goes to what I would do if I didn’t have my better half. Not to be icky, stick and gushy, but the man makes me whole. If I didn’t have him, I’d be lost.

I certainly can’t imagine ever falling in love again. Ever. I think I’d roll up the dating carpet and buy a cat. I can’t fathom ever experiencing again what I have with him, but I could certainly give that to my heroine. Because I’m generous that way 😉

Casey Briggs is funny and kind and sexy, she has a humongous heart and she also had a big-big love with her husband. But it’s time for Casey to experience something she hasn’t in a long time. Attraction, connection, and even lust. Good old fashioned, bone rattling lust.

It doesn’t hurt that Nick Murpy is a good guy. So good that he wonders if he can even live up to what it is Casey’s trying to accomplish—a big donation to the aide research of the disease that took her husband. It’s a bachelor auction, but clearly no one is going to bid big bucks on an average Joe like him.

So he thinks, anyway.

I just love when two good hearted people connect and fall in love, don’t you?

As for writing my way out of the fear box, I think I did an okay job. My mother lost my dad when he was 26. I can’t imagine. Not only losing my partner at such a young age but being left with a four year old. Death is hard to understand at four. It doesn’t’ get any easier as we age, though, in my opinion.

36 years later and I still miss my dad. And so does my mom. But she was lucky enough to meet someone who made her happy. They started a whole new chapter of life together. And over 30 years later, they’re still together and happy.

I took the fear I was working through at the time to start the story and then gave Casey the happily ever after that my mother got—because they both deserve it, don’t you think?

As for how a writer’s mind works…which is sort of what this blog was meant to illuminate…well, I could sit here all day writing and still never manage to explain it. I guess the best way is this: however it works and cranks out that story, is how it works. I’m just grateful every time it does its thing and leaves me with a new piece of work to show off and take credit for!

XOXO
Sommer

Where to Buy :

Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Library-One-Thousand-Nights/dp/1908262087/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343028411&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Highest-Bidder-Xcite-Romance-ebook/dp/B0087FZIK2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343028571&sr=1-1

Amazon.Com

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Nights-Secret-Library-ebook/dp/B007YUYXMA/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343028722&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=Sommer+Marsden+The+Thousand+and+One+nights

http://www.amazon.com/Highest-Bidder-Xcite-Romance-ebook/dp/B0087FZIK2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343028798&sr=1-1&keywords=Sommer+Marsden+The+Highest+Bidder

Bio:

Best selling author Sommer Marsden has been called “…one of the top storytellers in the erotica genre” (Violet Blue), “Unapologetic” (Alison Tyler), “…the whirling dervish of erotica” (Craig J. Sorensen),and “Erotica royalty…” (Lucy Felthouse for Blog Critics Books).

Her erotic novels include Restless Spirit, Big Bad, The Best of Sommer Marsden, Hard Lessons, and Angry Sex. Sommer currently writes erotica and erotic romance for Xcite Books, eXcessica, Ellora’s Cave, Pretty Things Press, Resplendence Publishing and House of Erotica. The wine-swigging, dachshund-owning, wannabe runner author writes work that runs the gamut from bondage to zombies to humor.

Sommer’s short works can be found in over a hundred (and counting) erotic anthologies. Her short stories have also been included numerous adult and romance magazines–both in print and online. Visit sommermarsden.blogspot.com to see what she’s up to.

Kitti Bernetti Dishes the Dirt Behind Her Novella, The Thousand and One Nights

The Story Behind The Story

It’s my pleasure to welcome Kitti Bernetti to a Hopeful Romantic to tell the story behind her hot novella, The Thousand and One Nights, the title story of another one Xcite’s fabulous Secret Library anthologies. Go ahead, Kitti! Turn up the heat!

 

The Thousand and One NightsThe whole world is going on about Fifty Shades of Grey. But erotic literature has been around for centuries, and has simply seen a revival with electronic devices. But, the 50 shades phenomenon has a different angle. It is primarily erotic fiction for women, written by a woman and has at its central core an all-consuming love story.

That was also the main brief for those writers asked to pen a novella for Xcite’s Secret Library. Mine, ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ which comes with two other brilliant stories is first and foremost a hot and passionate love story. (It will also be available as a FREE Kindle promotion as a single title called ‘Dark Nights’ from 15 to 19 August). My tale concerns Sebastian Dark, multi-millionaire who is being swindled by Breeze, a girl with a past. When Sebastian discovers Breeze’s treachery, he exacts his own special revenge – she must entertain him each night to save her skin. They start out hating each other but soon discover how much they have in common. Here’s an extract where they are getting it on up in the deserted balcony of the Albert Hall (yes, the Albert Hall! She has to come up with some seriously inventive places to make love to please an alpha male like Seb Dark):

‘… He opened his mouth and cried out as he felt the spunk forced up inside him shoot into her as she pumped mercilessly, opening her eyes and connecting with him, looking into his soul as she drove him, rode him, forced him to mind-blowing orgasm just as the drums thumped, the cymbals crashed, the might of the whole orchestra filling the Albert Hall drowned out his yells of orgasmic fulfilment.

He felt sleepy, exhausted, fulfilled. If the world ended in that second he would be a deliriously happy man. The bed was superb, gilded, over the top. The beautiful Albert Hall, rich and red, was extravagant, echoing the way he was beginning to feel about Breeze lying next to him. Ice Queen, she was not. He turned towards her supine beside him and noticed goose bumps. “You’re cold.” He gently covered her over, pressed the warmth of his body close to hers. A sudden rush of protectiveness engulfed him…. He didn’t want her to be cold, didn’t want her to be hungry or unhappy.’

Find Kitti and her book:

http://kittibernettis.blogspot.com

http://www.kittibernetti.moonfruit.com

Link to ‘Dark Nights’ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Nights-Xcite-Romance-ebook/dp/B0087G44XS

Link to ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ http://thesecretlibrary.co.uk/?page_id=8769