Erotic Romance

INTERVIEW and giveaway: E.L. ESCH

May 16, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 8 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes E. L. Esch whose debut novel Beauty in the Breakdown was released in October. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of it.

E.L. has recently signed the contract for her second book. I asked her to tell us about it.

“It’s a contemporary adult romance about a man named Red who’s recently been released from prison. Unspeakable things happened to him there, and now he finds himself free but without a job, money, and family. His sister hates him, and he’s not too keen on her either given past issues. Red thus finds himself alone and miserable. He feels the eyes of strangers on him wherever he goes, silently judging him for a crime that should never have been labeled as such. Desperate for any sort of solace, he find himself in a shady bar one night downing the driest cocktails on the menu. There he meets Silo, a fellow ex-con who understands him a lot better than Red thinks.”

She’s been writing since the fourth grade, but didn’t start to look at it as something she would like to pursue until her sophomore year in high school–and she wrote what would become her debut novel when she was seventeen to eighteen years old. She’s now nineteen.

“I am for sure still learning the ropes of the genre and the writing world as a whole, but don’t underestimate the young ones,” she told me with a smile.

“Are you a plotter or a pantser?” I asked.

“Definitely a pantser. I’ll put together extremely vague notes about the overall story plot, but when it comes to the details I just stand up and run with the words. Some might think this makes a story difficult to start, but I don’t think so. I will admit I usually go back and rewrite the beginnings of my stories several times though, probably because of this. Still, I like when the story comes to me as I’m writing it. It keeps the stories fresh to me, instead of already knowing what’s going to happen next.”

E.L. always starts with her characters’ overall personalities as opposed to physical traits when she writes.

“Are they outwardly cold with a hidden soft center? A player who hides behind smiles because he/she is afraid of commitment? After figuring this out I usually try to figure out if they have any special or unique physical traits related to their lives like a scar from a fall off a bike or a burn mark from an accident…stuff like that. Then I’ll focus on hair, skin, and eye color and the more basic traits,” she told me.

“If you were on the staff to have a book adapted to movie, what would you pick?” I wondered.

“I think I’d be happy to see almost ANY erotic romance book adapted into a movie, especially a M/M or F/F one. Society can handle it. We’re big boy and girls, right? So why not? I think it’d be a breakthrough in the movie industry. There’s plenty of awesome erotic romance stories out there with great characters and romantic plotlines.”

“How do you personally distinguish between pornography, erotica, and erotic romance?”

“To me, pornography is a blatant display of sexual activities to titillate an audience. Erotica deals primarily with sexual subject matter but encompasses a wide array of mediums such as art, writing, etc. Erotic ROMANCE is a story or idea that deals largely with sexual subject matter but has an ever bigger romantic base to it. It’s primary focus is not the sex, but rather the romance behind it. In my opinion, anyway.”

About the Author: I can mostly be found staring into the screen of my PC or laptop into all hours of the night, hyped on caffeinated soda and likely procrastinating something important by losing at Internet Checkers or browsing the web (The day I win a game of Internet Checkers is the day I can write more than a few pages at once without procrastinating). When I’m not doing that, I’m either out being my nerdy self or, of course, writing. I’ve been writing since the fourth grade, and have no plans to stop. To me, one of the greatest pleasures in life is being able to create worlds and characters whose lives I can share with others.

Website: http://www.e-l-esch.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorE.L.Esch
DeviantArt: http://nagathia1.deviantart.com
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6545783.E_L_Esch

Luke Martin Cleary isn’t out of the closet to his brother, and that’s always been okay since he isn’t involved. Then he meets Rowan, a fragile man with a dark past and one hot body. But Rowan’s heart and body are broken and guarded, and it’s going to take a lot of love to touch someone so completely untouchable. Literally.

Rowan Wilheim Nails is a man in pain. Ever since an abusive falling out with his ex-boyfriend, he’s developed a phobia of being touched by another person–a phobia of being hurt again. So when Luke and Rowan meet at a bar and end up at Luke’s apartment later on, Rowan is skeptical of spending the night in Luke’s bed. There’s only one thing he can do to make touching Luke’s skin bearable–get drunk.

Luke hates Rowan’s coping method, but how can he help change it when he doesn’t understand Rowan’s situation? By getting involved, he decides, even if that means divulging his secret to his brother. And so Luke begins breaking Rowan and his walls down, slowly and tenderly and maybe a little more roughly in the bedroom, but definitely without hurting him again. No matter how long it takes or how untouchable Rowan claims to be, Luke is determined to heal Rowan so that one day there’ll be nothing between their hearts but each other’s skin.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: E. L. Esch, Giveaway

INTERVIEW and giveaway: Silence O’Shea

May 15, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 1 Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Silence O’Shea whose latest book UK Kink was released last month. Leave a comment on today’s interview and you might win a copy of UK Kink.

“UK Kink is about a troupe of British male dancers and one very lucky lady,” Silence told me with a wink. “The guys are turning out to be pretty full of personality. I might just have my first series on my hands.”

Silence’s debut His Right Hand was was actually started in 2011, but she quit writing for a while. Two years after she began it, she dragged it out, dusted it off, and realized it was time to finish it.

“I did so in less than three days, and it was self-published less than three weeks later. I knew I was a speedy writer, but I surprised even myself,” she told me. “I don’t believe in setting unrealistic goals, in any area of life. There’s no point in setting a grand, unattainable goal that might have the power to defeat me when I don’t meet it. I believe in setting small goals that are like steps to the grand one. So I set a very simple goal of 250 words the first time I sat down to write. I kind of got in the proverbial groove and ended completing more than a third of my 22K novella in just a few hours. That kind of groove might not last, but I’ll take it while I can!”

The hardest part of writing for Silence is the discipline required to do it.

“I can do anything you ask me to do, or my parents ask me to do, or my boss asks me to do,” she said, “and do that task for hours with no complaint. But writing is something I do for myself, and I have a hard time doing anything just for me. I’m working on it.”

“How do you develop your plot and characters?” I asked.

“I sit down and write,” she said with a laugh. “That’s literally it. I start with a plot reasonably developed in my brain and I write starting with line one. I always keep an extra page after the one I’m presently on for ideas that pop into my head, dialogue or devices I want to employ later, when the time is right. But otherwise, the story develops and the characters grow very much as I’m writing them.”

She admits to being very typical in her leisure pursuits. Reading, spending significant time with family and friends, traveling, playing with her pets, and enjoying the outside are all things she enjoys doing.

“I’m not typical in regards to shopping; I’d rather poke my own eyes out,” she assured me, laughing. “But that said, a good bookstore or antique shop will always lure me in.”

“Ebook or print?” I wondered. “And why?”

“Ebook, for practical reasons. I’ll always love print books; I have pretty impressive e- and print libraries. But in regards to self-publishing, there are significant costs involved, and of the publishing options, e-publishing not only will get your book into the hands of readers faster, but it’s the more economical option. I’m also conscious of the fact many readers might appreciate the fact they can hide any racy covers behind that Kindle or nook or tablet screen.”

About the Author: Silence O’Shea lives in a tiny woodland town in the extreme Northern U.S., where the lusty locals generate enough heat to melt the polar ice caps. Some people love to share their exploits—and Silence is a superb and trusted listener. She’ll never spill secrets, but that doesn’t mean she can’t use the naughtiest bits and most colorful characters as inspiration for her work.

A lifelong reader and newbie author, Silence is open to any and all input from fellow booklovers. Advice, suggestions, support, compliments, angry fists of rage raised to the sky…any feedback is appreciate, so please drop her a line. She’s a friendly sort who wants to hear from everyone. And again…a great listener.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silence.oshea
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SilenceOShea

Babysitting a British dance troupe isn’t one of Caitlin’s career aspirations, but before she can say “male strippers”, she finds herself the newly appointed caretaker for the Fire from Lancashire. Keeping five gorgeous guys on task is hard enough; living under the same roof with the luscious lads is near torture, especially when one begins starring in her naughtiest fantasies. Too bad about that “no fraternization” clause in her contract…

With a single kiss, Cait went from sweet caretaker to must-have sexual conquest. Oliver wants the voluptuous beauty badly, contracts and clauses be damned. Then one of his mates comes up with a way for Oliver to get his cake while the rest eat too. Their employer might fire one man for ravishing Cait…but certainly not all of them. Right? After one taste, Oliver knows she’s definitely worth the risk of finding out.

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Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Giveaway, Silence O'Shea

INTERVIEW and giveaway: Christie Butler

May 13, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 2 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Christie Butler whose latest book Apres Ski was recently released. Leave a comment on this interview for a chance to win a free digital copy of the book.

She’s currently working on a sequel of sorts to her next ebook that’s being released, Private Viewing.

“It adds a fourth person to the threesome in Private Viewing,” Christie told me. “Hopefully my editor will love it!”

Christie has always loved a good mystery and, whenever she would start a new one, her main goal was to figure it out before the big reveal at the end. She was rarely successful, but she paid a lot of attention to the writer’s tools, imagining how she could craft a story of her own. Eventually, she grew brave enough to sit down in front of her computer and give it a try.

Christie usually writes in the evning, because she has a day job, She’ll curl up on the couch with her laptop and start typing. The plot normally comes first with her, then she invents the kind of characters she thinks would be involved in that scenario. And, since it is erotic fiction, the plot is driven by fantasies–Christie thinks about what she sees and reads that turns her on and go from there. If she gets stuck, she’ll stop for a minute and pour a glass of wine. If she’s still stuck after that, she puts the work away.

“Usually what happens is I go to bed and either find a solution as I’m dropping off to sleep or wake in the middle of the night with a good idea,” she told me.

Often her endings don’t turn out exactly the way she had planned when she started writing the story.

“It’s close,” she admitted, “but there seems to be some detail that ends up different.”

She confessed to me that it’s tough coming up with titles for her books.

“Either I think of one right away or I really struggle to come up with something. I think of the main theme of the story and then try to come up with some sort of play on words.”

“When did you first consider yourself a writer?” I asked.

“I’d finished my first manuscript and submitted it to untold literary agents. They all turned me down. I decided then that if even if it never got published that it was still an accomplishment. I had actually written a book.”

Finally I asked, “What advice would you give an author who wants to write erotica?”

“Read a lot of it. When I first started writing it, I would get a little squeamish about the explicit terminology—just typing it! I just had to get over it and reading other author’s books really helped. I know some people recommend reading it out loud to help you get used to it. Not gonna happen for me!”

About the Author:

I am a lifelong midwesterner, but I have traveled extensively. I love good food and drink, good movies, and spending quality time with my lovable dog. I love to read books of all sorts, except science fiction and fantasy. My favorites are mysteries as well as, of course, romance. I’ve always been a daydreamer, creating stories in my head, so I’ve recently taken on a second job and started to write some of them down. I was thrilled when I found out that Ellora’s Cave was interested in them.

http://www.christiebutler.blogspot.com

Chelsea, a starving artist who works a ski lift to pay the rent, is dismayed to find she has fallen for a good friend—a friend who happens to be the biggest player in town. Jud is gorgeous and sexy, but she also sees the man inside and finds him irresistible. Chelsea is ready for a man in her life to create enough heat to start the spring thaw. Can she outshine his many admirers and convince him to give her a chance?

Jud is a proud member of ski patrol but he’s been biding his time until he achieves his dream of working at a big publishing house. A lover of women, he never wanted to keep one around for long. Until now. Chelsea’s smart and thoughtful and suddenly he finds her sexy as hell. Done with his womanizing ways, he wants only one woman, naked and in his arms. And he has to work quickly, before the season ends.

A Romantica® contemporary erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Christie Butler, Giveaway

INTERVIEW: SAURA UNDERSCORE

May 10, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 1 Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Saura Underscore whose debut book Indie Radio 113.9 has recently been released.

I asked her about her unusual pen name.

“Saura was the female principal character in my very first finished novel. She was a warrior and I put in her personality everything I wanted to be that I wasn’t. So I took her name the first time I had to use a nickname (long time ago, when the internet was invented), and I’ve used it ever since (going as far as to think of changing my real name for ‘Saura’, but deciding not to do it out of respect for my parents’ choice),” she told me. “When I first came into the ‘Slash’ world, I wanted to make ‘Saura’ my username, but it was already taken, so I decided to add something to the name that would make it unique. I turned out to be ‘Saura_’. Every time somebody wanted to mention me they only wrote ‘saura’ and I found myself saying things like ‘It’s “saura_”, with the little thing underneath’. Later on I discovered that ‘the little thing underneath’ was called ‘underscore’. So, yeah. Hi. This is Saura Underscore (Saura_).”

Saura told me that her mind has always been full of stories–to the point that she would dream them when she went to sleep. She began writing them down to get them out of her head–it’s a necessity that keeps her mind on the sane side of silly. It also helps her resolve many real-life problems by giving them to a character that deals with things a lot better than Saura thinks she can.

“Writing is, in fact, a way to escape, a way to make dreams come true, to have adventures that I would only be able to dream ever having, to succeed in everything, even when I know a real person wouldn’t do it,” she told me.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?” I wondered. “If so, what do you do about it?”

“For some reason I seem to be very inspired when my real life gets extremely troubled or busy. The first time I had a writer’s block I tried with all my might to write down every single story I had in my mind, but that only lead to a lot of first pages but nothing else. I’ve had terrible writer’s block since my kid was born, because my life got into the kind of ‘very busy’ that didn’t even allow me to turn my computer on. But this time I simply allowed my mind to wander, to dream in peace and find those new paths for my roles to follow. After a nearly 4 year spam, I’m writing again, filling page after page of one single story that, with luck, one day would see the light.”

Saura has many authors she enjoys and that have been important and inspirational for her. However, she almost never buys a first book because of the author.

“Only when I’m done with an amazing story do I look at the name behind those amazing words that had made me travel long and far. And it’s then that I try buying more of those lovely author’s books,” she said. That’s how I found Noah Gordon’s stories (I didn’t know who the guy was when I read The Doctor for the first time), or even when I read Storm Island, I had no idea who Ken Follett was and that he was the same author of the Pillars of the Earth! The one and only author who started being a name (and a friend) before her books got any fame was Zahra Owens, whose work has inspired mine in the m/m romance gender.”

Saura feels that for her own writing, a good native beta reader and an even better native editor is crucial for her writing. She’s from a large town near Madrid, Spain, so she’s not a native English speaker–however, she always writes in English. She never writes in Spanish and then translates them. Naturally, though, sometimes the grammar is a bit off and the work of native English speakers help her with those types of problems.

The fact that her first language was Spanish has also led to some embarrassing moments. She shared one of them with us.

“It’s so embarrassing I don’t think I should share it, right? Oh, but I’m shameless so I will! We went to visit some of my husband’s friends in Boston a few years ago and I had never been to the United States before. I had also never used my English with native speakers, and I was very shy. I also had a terrible cold. Now, for you to understnad– ‘having a cold’ in my native language is said ‘estar constipado’… Yep, that’s right. When I said to my husband’s friends that I was sorry I was feeling so ‘constipated’, they laughed so hard! I didn’t know what I had said until I looked at my husband and he translated the real word for me. Oops.”

When Saura was growing up, she wanted to be a fighter aircraft pilot. And a writer. And a singer. And an actress. Then she wanted to be a journalist so she could meet fighter aircraft pilots, writers, singers, and actresses.

“I am an English teacher that has never worked with children,” she told me. “I’ve worked as a graphic and internet designer and nowadays I translate novels which is honestly the job I’ve liked most.”

I asked her to tell me about her family.

“Spanish families are big. You sure you want to learn about them all?? I have a wonderfully supportive husband, a four- year-old kid, divorced homophobic parents (which makes thing a lot more interesting because I have to hide the fact that my first published novel ever is a gay romance), and very loving parents-in-law. I have seven nephews from newborn to nine years old. I could go on with the aunts and the rest, but I think it’s okay to stop here already!”

“What is the hardest part about writing for you?” I asked.

“There’s this moment for every author in which you have it all planned: it starts like this, it goes through these important moments, and it finishes like this. And then it happens that one character one night does SOMETHING that wasn’t planned at all and it’s so really interesting, so ‘something the character would do, of course, how haven’t I thought of it already’, that completely changes your carefully planned story. Those moments until you manage to create a new way to finish, new important moments to pass through, and try to insert those really nice ones you previously had, are the most difficult parts to write. Well, that and the first sex scene. That’s hellish as well.”

Finally, I asked, “What advice do you have for someone who wants to try to write erotica?”

“Try and make it real. I’ve read a very hot and nice moment in a shower, in which the hot water lasted for all the four pages the two characters were ‘at it’ underneath the spray. Or the characters had made love for a really long time on a chair. I mean: be real. You can’t have two grown up men on a chair for half an hour moving their hips without getting really tired and losing their rhythm. At some point they’d end up on the floor because it’s way more comfortable. And the hot water only lasts for a while (and there are a lot more comfortable places where to make love in the house, really). So I think my two cents about this would be: try it first. If it’s okay then go and write it down!”

About the Author: SAURA UNDERSCORE (Saura_) was born under a dictatorial regime, only daughter of the typical tight-minded family. Taught to be revel at a progressive school, she never learned to cook, sew or spot-clean, but as soon as democracy arrived she participated in as many demonstrations defending women and gay rights as she could, which earned her several disinheritance threats from her father.

Her head has always been full of birds and dragons (at the same percentage), and she soon learned to set them free using her writing.

In her teenage stories you could always find a gay reference, but still Saura always thought that something was amiss. That Prince Charming didn’t have his whole heart on it. It wasn’t until she discovered Prince Charming and his squire at it on the barn of her mind, that she realized what exactly was the right thing to write.

She learned English and all about “slash” on the internet, and she travelled all around the world. She has friends from the six continents and it’s said she could travel the world finding one good friend to have lunch with, in every country.

http://www.sauraunderscore.wordpress.com

https://www.facebook.com/saura.underscore

https://twitter.com/sauraunderscore

Jacob Timber is hopelessly crushing on very private radio personality Ethan Moore—host of the most famous Indie music radio show on London’s 113.9, the Jukebox Hour—but being in love with a voice isn’t much different than being alone. Jacob’s not even sure the man is gay.

Jacob is so infatuated that all he wants for his birthday is to meet his crush in person—and he gets his wish. With Ethan and Jacob, it’s love at first sight.

But do dreams really come true? Despite how he feels in Ethan’s arms, Jacob doubts it. He knows he’ll never be happy with a man who pretends to love him, only to bring his true girlfriend to public events.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Saura Underscore, Saura_

INTERVIEW and giveaway: Cassandra Carr

May 9, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 5 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Cassandra Carr whose latest book Should Have Known Better was recently released. Although it’s new to the public, it’s not new to Cassandra. In fact, it’s the first book she wrote and there have been some significant changes from that first manuscript.

The heroine, Sarah, was originally a CIA agent. Much of her character arc revolved around her former work on an anti-terrorism task force. “Unfortunately, she wasn’t coming off as bad-ass CIA agent I wanted her to be,” Cassandra explained. “She sounded whiny, and no matter how many times I revised it just wasn’t working with her in that profession. I started thinking about what other professions would use the skills she’d need working for the hockey team and came up with mathematician.”

Leave a comment on this interview and you might win a copy of the book!

Cassandra is currently working on the second book in her male/male series–following the first book, See the Light. Readers will get to find out more about Jason and Patrick, but she’s keeping the rest of the storyline under wraps for now. She’s about halfway into it and, if all goes well, it will release late summer.

She wants to have new releases every few months and writing, for her, just comes down to sitting down and pounding away at the keyboard. Even she, though, was surprised to discover how quickly she can write. Momentum, the third book in her Buckin’ Bull Riders series went from concept to submittal in thirty days.

She is fortunate to be a full-time writer. She was laid off from her part-time day job in March 2010 and, rather than look for another job, just devoted herself to her writing. She had already joined RWA in March 2009 and went to a writer’s conference a month or so later. Her mother is also a writer–Cynthia Racette– and, on Fridays, she and her mom go to a cafe to write that makes Cassandra’s favorite food–NY-style pizza.

“If I could have NY-style (thin crust) pizza and Pepsi every day it still wouldn’t be enough,” she admitted. “I’m trying to break my Pepsi habit, as I’ve lost about 15-20 pounds in the past six months, but it isn’t easy. The cafe makes the most delicious cheese pizza. I’m not a big fan of tons of stuff on my thin crust pizza. Just give me plain cheese and I’m a happy girl.”

Cassandra uses a pen name and I asked her how it came about.

“Cassandra is one of the names my hubs and I considered for our daughter. I was doing my pen name right around the same time as I was pregnant and then taking care of an infant so using one of the names we liked but didn’t use seemed natural. Carr is my mother’s maiden name chopped off. I liked the way it sounded together – Cassandra Carr.”

“How do you come up with the titles to your books?” I asked.

“Oftentimes the title just comes to me. I don’t like writing without a title, even if it gets changed later. For the Buffalo Intimidators series, readers who are paying attention might see that all three titles are Foreigner songs. Why on earth would I do that? Actually, it wasn’t intentional. I was listening to the song ‘Head Games’ as I was writing the opening for the first one. It made me giggle to have one of my heroes say ‘I can’t take it anymore!’ as the first line of the book, since, of course, that’s one of the lines in the song. Then I decided to name the book Head Games, I suppose partially because it did fit the plot and partially as a private joke. Cold As Ice and Double Vision are the other two and both titles do work for their respective stories.”

I asked Cassandra to describe her writing space for us. “My writing space is anywhere I have time to write. At home I sometimes write on the couch sometimes. I also have a lovely desk, but when my neck and shoulders are bugging me it’s not as comfortable as the couch,” she said with a wink. “Sometimes I write at a local grocery store which has a huge cafe attached to it. I write at Panera, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble – the list goes on.

“As far as my desk goes, I have a twenty-three inch monitor that my hubs (an IT guy) bought for me a couple of months ago. He also built me a mouse shelf. Right above my monitor is a large area where I keep some of my swag, plus address labels, stamps, and the like. I’ve got a couple of pictures that I bought in Hawaii on other shelves, as well as print copies of Buckin’ Bull Riders book 1, Impact, and both 2013 and 2014 Ellora’s Cave Cavemen calendars. To the side of me there are two stuffed bookshelves and piles of larger swag, as well as a bunch of bags I use when going to conferences and the like. Hubs isn’t thrilled about the piles, but there’s nowhere else I can put all this stuff. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”

Finally, I asked, “What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?”

“Finish the book. Don’t start another one until you’ve finished your current book. There are tons of writers with two chapters of this and five chapters of that. You can’t sell chapters,” she assured me with a wink. “And then after you finish the book, revise and revise and revise until the story shines. Then ask somebody with no emotional attachment to you to read it. Your mom might be a huge romance reader, but will she tell you if the story isn’t working? Maybe, maybe not. Mine would, but remember– she’s a writer too.”

About the Author: Cassandra Carr is a multi-award winning erotic romance writer with Ellora’s Cave, Siren Publishing, Sybarite Seductions, Decadent Publishing, and Loose Id. She lives in Western New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words. When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out online. Cassandra is the co-founder of two successful group blogs, Romancing the Jock and Dirty Birdies, and participates in several others as a contributor. Recently she was re-elected president of Western New York Romance Writers.

For more information about Cassandra, check out her website at http://www. booksbycassandracarr.com, “like” her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/ AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ Cassandra_Carr.

Sarah Jenkins, a math geek and hockey fanatic, is thrilled when the NHL hires her as an advisor for the Buffalo Storm. She gets to marry her two loves in this perfect job.

Sebastian St. Amant is a young hockey player looking to make the jump from the minors to the big leagues. His lifelong dream is within reach, but he needs to convince the Storm’s management and coaches he’s ready.

When Sarah and Sebastian meet, sparks immediately fly. Both want to succeed, but neither can ignore the growing attraction and a relationship is out of the question—Sarah’s an influential staff member and Sebastian’s a player, not to mention over ten years her junior. But the impossible becomes the necessary when they can no longer fight their attraction. As everything crashes around them, the strength of their relationship is tested. Will it weather the storm, or should they have known better?

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Cassandra Carr, Giveaway

INTERVIEW: JENNIFER KACEY

May 7, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 1 Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Jennifer Kacey whose latest book Together in Cyn will be released next month. She’s also turned in the second book of the series–a Christmas BDSM/Menage that will give the reader a taste of Jackson and Skye, who will more than likely be featured in Book 4 of the series as well. Nick, introduced in Together in Cyn, is a very big part of the Christmas story as well–he and Jenna, will be Book 3 of the series.

Jennifer uses a pen name because she wants to insulate her life and family from the crazies that are out in the world–and she hopes to be well known enough one day that people see her books and know her name. Also, Ellora’s Cave, the publisher she really wanted and ultimately signed with, had two author columns on their website. Column One, on the left side, was A-J; Column Two, on the right, was K-Z. K was right at the top and, if you click on it, Jennifer Kacey is the first name.

“My husband is very good at marketing,” she explained, “and if I’ve learned anything from him it’s to take advantage of getting your name/platform out there in every way you can.”

The first erotic book Jennifer ever read was Wicked Pleasure by Lora Leigh–also the first menage book and where she found the genre she wanted to write in. She claims that as her favorite erotic book of all time. Her favorite author, however, is Joey W. Hill for her Knights of the Boardroom series.

“It is hands down the best BDSM writing I’ve ever read. On a five flame scale she writes at around a million! Hot, sexy, fantastic stories,” she told me. “Damn now I want to go read them again!!!”

“What other authors do you think write excellent erotic fiction?” I asked.

“
OMG I love this question! Here are a few of my favorite Erotic Authors – Kele Moon, Sabrina York, Maya Banks, and JR Ward.”

She hates the term “Mommy Porn”–told me that it grates on her nerves.

“I don’t have a problem with porn at all,” she said. ”Love the stuff. It’s hot and sexy, but I know a lot of people don’t agree. Adding the term Porn to any Romance gives it a very negative connotation. Just because it’s heavy or descriptive with the sex doesn’t make it sleazy; it makes it fantastic!!”

Jennifer rarely suffers from writer’s block, but it has happened once or twice. When it does, she gets up from her computer and walks away to go do something else.

“That way the characters/plot/conflict I’m stuck on can mélange in my head, even just subconsciously. Once I got stuck not on storyline, but character arc. I just couldn’t get into one of my characters’ head to finish a scene,” she told me. “I thought back on one of my favorite BDSM Dom’s I’ve read, found the book, found my favorite scene and re-read it. It had nothing to do with the same storyline, and he had a completely different arc, but alpha is alpha and got me in the zone to find what I needed to finish.”

“What comes first,” I wondered, “the plot or characters?”

“Characters, characters, oh so mouthy characters. I have notebooks everywhere so when one of them starts blabbing at an inopportune moment I can write it down and they’ll shut it so I can get on with the rest of my day.”

When it comes to her titles, she normally starts with a working title just to have something to call it instead of Book #426.

“Then as the story progresses something will jump out and grab me and it’s like the final piece of a puzzle being put in place. Sometimes the title is there before even the first word is written in the manuscript. Together in Cyn didn’t start out that way,” she told me. “I had a title I loved, but it was too close to another EC title so we had to change it. My editor actually came up with TIC and I love it so much!! It has more than just a hint of naughty as well as a very big nod to ménage!”

Jennifer has a full time job she spends at least 55 hours a week at as well as being a wife and mother, so she has learned how to balance her time.

“I am a very good manager of my time,” she assured me. “I can get more done in an hour than a lot of people can get done in a whole evening, and focus is the key. I try to stay on task and not day dream or lollygag. I also try to take at least one night off per week to just do something fun with my family. Watch a movie, go out to eat, etc. Keeps me rejuvenated.”

“What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your books?” I asked.

“That edits can make them SO much better, and I’m not talking a tiny bit better, I’m talking HUGELY better. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t go the self published route. I know a lot of people have had really good success with that, but I wanted someone else just as dedicated to making my books AWESOME as opposed to ho-hum good. I’ve heard a lot of authors talk about edits being horrible and drudgery, but I’ve learned so much editing this book that will make my writing better and better. That’s so fantastic and I want to kiss my editor right now just talking about it!!!”

She didn’t actually want to be a writer, though, when she grew up. She wanted to be a high-risk obstetrician.

“That’s it. No other career path. No other options, just a bee-line from A to Z. One week before my MCAT, I had a life changing epiphany. If I did something that led to the death of a mama or a baby could I live with that? The answer was a resounding no. Funny how close you can get to a goal and the very act of not reaching it can change the rest of your life for the better. If ever something doesn’t go as planned this is the experience I always look back to. I remember that an unanswered prayer is sometimes the only answer you need.”

I asked her what her favorite and least favorite foods were.

“Favorite food right now is Lemon Bliss ice cream from Blue Bell. That stuff is like crack! I could sit down and eat the entire carton if you left me alone long enough. Umm… Least favorite – cheese. Just typing it turns my stomach. I’m allergic to it and didn’t know it for years. When you’re feeling sick to your stomach and want something soothing what do you make? Grilled Cheese. When you’re having an awesome family meal what do you load up your baked potato with? Cheese. I was literally killing myself one meal at a time. So glad to know what I’m allergic to now. Feel like a new person!!”

“Have you ever eaten a crayon?”

“Ick no! Never eaten paper or glue or any of that stuff. I’m a texture girl over flavor. It’s gotta feel right in my mouth before I swallow it…and yes you can take that however you would like,” she said with a grin.

Finally, I asked, “How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?”

“Every author’s voice is very unique and I love that. My stories, my characters, my way to tell a story is very different than anyone else’s. I think that’s why romance is so popular to begin with. The general theme is love and a happily ever after. If you gave 100 different authors the same title they would each write a very different book. It’s what keeps readers coming back for more day after day. Plus I really like a lot of sex in books. I’m not an ‘oh he caressed her bosom and she swooned’ kind of author. I’m more the, ‘her breath caught in her throat when they filled her for the first time’ girl. I’ll tell you exactly how she felt and how many times she felt it.” She smiled. “Every author is so different and you just have to find the ones that speak to you.”

About the Author: I’m a transplanted Texan who loves books, and sunshine, and crafty things. Writing is an obsession, and I can’t believe people are going to read my books. I thank my lucky stars daily at the good fortune that is my life, and vow not to take anything for granted.

Book Page

http://www.jenniferkacey.com/index.php/books/together-in-cyn

My author page on EC

https://www.ellorascave.com/index.php/authors/index/author/slug/jennifer-kacey

Book Trailer Video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iamccnEVoKc

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/people/Jennifer-Kacey/100002469553420

Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/JenniferKacey

Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jenniferkacey/

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16370223-jennifer-kacey

A small book sitting out on a table shouldn’t incite fear in anyone.
But what if that book was your diary and you learned your two best friends, men you have ached for your entire life, have just read every last word? Pages and pages filled with dark fantasies and forbidden dreams so explicit they leave nothing to the imagination.

And what if those two friends were included in every last one?

This is exactly where Cyn Andrews now finds herself.

Stuck somewhere between wanting to hate Jared and Chris Kennedy for violating her privacy and just plain wanting to be stuck somewhere between them. She could never choose only one brother, so she’s kept her feelings buried for more than a decade, and a past mistake has kept her silent and alone…until now.

Everything she’s ever wanted may have just been handed to her in the form of an invitation to The Library. Not just a building filled with books, but a members only BDSM club the brothers own and have kept hidden from her for years.

Is it pity or desire that fueled the invitation?
What other secrets have they been keeping from her?
Can she protect her heart and face her biggest fear while discovering the art of submitting to two Doms?

It’d be a sin not to find out…

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Jennifer Kacey

INTERVIEW and giveaway: LEXI POST

May 2, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 12 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Lexi Post whose newest book Masque was recently released by Ellora’s Cave. Leave a comment on this interview for a chance to win this lovely Venetian mask made it Italy.

Lexi starts with the characters and, because she writes erotic romance inspired by classic literature, she also re-reads the orginal story. Masque was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” Then she decides who, or whose ancestor, would be the focal point of her story. She also pulls the characters’ backgrounds and emotional baggage from the original story.

I asked her to tell us something about Masque that’s not in the blurb.

“Oh, but there is so much to tell! There is a villainous ghost who will do anything to keep from crossing over because where he is headed is not as fun as staying in the Abbey. I also have ghosts that become more solid as the moon turns full and they disappear completely when it is a new moon. And of course, I kept the 7 colored rooms that Poe had in his story, but instead of entertainment rooms, I made them Pleasure Rooms. After all, this is erotic romance,” she said with a wink.

Lexi has just sent her editor To Bea Rappaccini, which was inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Lexi’s Bea is as poisonous as Hawthorne made his, but she can expel those poisons through intercourse.

“Unfortunately, this makes long-term relationships a bit difficult since she causes the men to become ill,” Lexi explained. “In fact, she already put one man into a coma! So when she falls for former logger, Zach, things get interesting. I hope my editor likes it. I’m crossing my fingers.”

“Do you use a pen name?” I wondered. “If so, how did you come up with it?”

“Yes, I do. Lexi is the name I grew up with and my family still calls me that, except my siblings who call me Lex. I wanted to use a name I would actually turn around to when called. All my names have changed throughout my life for various reasons, so picking any one of them would have worked, but Lexi sounded sexy, you know? Then came the hard part… what last name to pick. Like I said, I had many to choose from, but I finally decided upon my biological father’s last name. I had a wonderful father growing up, but I thought it fitting to use my biological father’s last name for my erotic books. After all, as my mom will tell anyone, it was a hot, torrid love affair that produced me!”

Lexi joined the Valley of the Sun Romance Writers in 2007. She had left her full-time job and decided she wanted to write full-time and only work part-time. From that time on, whenever she met someone new, she always introduced herself as a romance writer.

“It was empowering and a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she told me. “Of course. I was armed with the wonderful statistics the Romance Writers of America always provided for when I encountered those who would put down our genre. Back then, I would boil it down to ‘If it wasn’t for romance, your bookstore couldn’t afford to remain open.’ Now I take a different tack. ’Why is good winning over evil and love overcoming obstacles a bad thing? We have the news reminding us the opposite can be true every night. Why is that better?’”

I asked Lexi to describe her writing space for us.

“I am very lucky. The only one I have to share my writing space with is my cat Giz. My husband bought me a warm, L-shaped oak desk for my birthday one year. On one side, it rises to six feet, all bookshelves. The shorter end of the L fits below the window, which gives me a beautiful view of the Caribbean ocean. I’m not kidding. We decided it was too cold for us in Phoenix, so we sold everything and now rent a small house on the beach here in the Virgin Islands. And I mean ON the beach. There is only 50 feet of sand separating us from the ocean! Actually, the beach is my second writing space. I have discovered that sitting in the sun with my eyes closed lets me see scenes in my head without people thinking I’m strange. Simply sitting on the couch with the television off will garner strange looks from family and friends. Trust me, I know.”

The hardest part of writing for Lexi is The Black Moment.

“I hate torturing my characters, but I make myself do it. Take my hero in Masque. Even before the story opens, Synn has claimed the guilt for killing 73 people by bringing the Red Death into the Abbey (Pleasure Palace). Then to make matters worse, when the constable opens the gates and finds Synn alone and 73 graves, he shoots him. But a higher power has placed Synn in stasis as long as he stays within the Abbey walls. This is where he has been for 150 years, trying to help the 73 ghosts of the people he killed cross over.

“Imagine the hope that grows inside him when Rena Mills buys the Abbey to turn it into a haunted bed-and-breakfast. He is so engrossed in moving her through the Pleasure Rooms to complete the Masque and free his friends, that when she discovers his betrayal, he is unprepared for the devastation of losing her. I hated writing that moment. He’d already been through so much and for so long. Even writing about it makes me squirm.”

When Lexi writes her first draft, she writes for two months straight every day.

“My best time of day is 10:00pm until 2:00am. That is when I am most creative. I also like it completely silent, so it’s a good thing I like that time of night. All I can hear then is the waves. After finishing that very rough draft, I leave the work alone for a month before starting revisions. I do revisions during the day, along with incorporating feedback from critique partners, and polishing. I like to have multiple stories in different stages so that I always have something to work on depending on the time of day.”

“What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?” I asked.

“I’m not sure that I have one beyond finding inspiration in classic literature for erotic romance. That is somewhat . . . unusual. I’ve always loved reading and was introduced to the classics long before romance came along. Okay, let’s strike the ‘long before.’ I loved literature, but what always disappointed me was the sad or ambiguous endings. I wanted the stories to end well. However, I don’t rewrite the classics in an erotic romance way, mainly because the classics are classified as such because they are amazing stories as they are. I prefer to be inspired by them. With Masque, it was the thought of how would the person (if it was a person) in Poe’s story feel to have been the one to kill everyone in the Abbey? And those seven entertainment rooms of Poe’s, well they would have to be Pleasure Rooms with a different experience in each one if it was going to be erotic. With To Bea Rappaccini, it was how would a woman, who was as poisonous as she was beautiful, survive today if she could only release her poisons by having sex with men, yet keep from killing them. Then of course, she would fall in love with one man and that would get very complicated.”

“How did you do the research for these books?” I wondered.

“First, I re-read the story I want to be inspired by. Then I research the time period and figure out how it will relate to my story. That is usually a lot of internet search. And, of course, there are the names which I generally find in my reference books (Synn came from there), though sometimes the names come from strange places. For Rena’s ex-fiancé, I couldn’t decide on a last name. Then I was grading a paper on Fredrick Douglass’ autobiography and it hit me. Since Rena’s ex lived in Maryland and was not one of the ‘good’ characters, I decided he should have the name of the family who owned Frederick Douglass, which was Lloyd. Then there is my characters’ motivation. I have a colleague who teaches psychology and I run my hero’s and heroine’s motivations by her. In fact, just this week I was chatting with her about a work I will be starting to write next month. Unfortunately, he told me I needed more to the hero’s background. So more sitting in the sun time for me. Well, someone has to do it. There are the wonderful loops and chapters I belong to as well. When I get stuck, I throw out my question on those and there always seems to be someone who has an answer or a place I can find the answer.”

I asked Lexi to share the scariest moment of her life with us–riding out a microburst while on her houseboat in Arizona.

“You never really know how you will react when confronted with a fearful event. It was 12:30am and I was just shutting down my computer. I was in my office, which was on the lower level, where part of the room is actually under the water. The winds came out of nowhere. No forecast of this weather phenomenon. People describe microbursts as upside down tornados. I didn’t know that was what it was, but the boat started rocking really badly because the waves, even inside the marina, grew huge. Fast. My husband woke up and came into the living room. I was still in my office, holding up this six-foot bookshelf above my desk. Having the tallest boat on the lake also meant we had the heaviest, and within minutes a couple of the ropes holding us to the dock broke, but we had ten on her, so we were still safe . . . sort of. My husband grabbed some life vests and threw one to me. He couldn’t reach me because some furniture had toppled over. It was the first time I ever put a life vest on because I thought I needed it.

In no time, two more ropes broke and the waves started picking our houseboat up and slamming her down onto the dock. Each time cabinets would open and dishes would come flying out and crash against the opposite walls. Statues toppled, plants crashed, the pocket doors slammed with each hit. I lost count after 70. We had 80mph sustained winds for 90 minutes. For an hour I stood in the doorway of my office, one hand braced against the jamb, my other braced against the bookcase, holding it against the wall. If it came down, I wouldn’t escape injury. For that hour, I was afraid. I kept saying ‘Please stop. Please stop. Please stop.’ And then I hit that breaking point. Like I said, you never know how you will react when afraid. Something inside me had reached its limit and anger burned hot. My chant became ‘Stop it. Now!’

“The microburst left as quickly as it had appeared. One houseboat had sunk, another was halfway down before the marina crew got pumps into it and saved it. Ours was considered totaled by the insurance company. When the water had calmed enough, my husband moved a piece of furniture so I could crawl out by going under the spiral staircase to the floor above. Our hull had held, having been built out of airplane aluminum, but the dock, well, let’s just say ‘mangled’ would be putting it mildly. The benefit I got out of that as a writer was what I felt will always be with me, and it is great fodder for that emotion in stories.”

About the Author: Lexi Post spent years in higher education taking and teaching courses about classical literature. From the Medieval work “The Pearl” to the 20th century American epic The Grapes of Wrath, from War and Peace to the Bhagavad Gita, she’s read, studied, and taught great classic literature.

But Lexi’s first love is romance novels. In an effort to marry her two loves, she started writing erotic romance inspired by the classics and found she loved it. Lexi feels there is no end to the romantic inspiration she can find in great classic literature.

Lexi lives with her husband and cat in the Caribbean where gorgeous sunsets, warm weather, and driving on the left are the norm.

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Rena Mills plans to turn an abandoned abbey into a haunted bed-and-breakfast to prove she can be successful without her ex-fiancé. What she finds inside is Synn MacAllistair, the distinguished, self-proclaimed Ghost Keeper. Her dreams soon fill with sexual cravings for him. But are they dreams?

Synn, born in 1828, is determined to free the souls of the resident spirits, blaming himself for bringing the Red Death that killed them. When Rena steps into the old Pleasure Palace, he’s sure he can take her through the after-midnight Pleasure Rooms and stoke her passion to complete the Masque so the souls can cross over. Her innocent fire makes him crave more, but it’s far too late for him.

As Rena begins her erotic journey, her heart becomes more involved with every sensual caress until she discovers by completing the Masque she would lose her ghosts. Synn’s betrayal wars with her compassion for her ghostly friends. Torn, she must make a choice between her financial security and freeing seventy-three trapped souls. Either way, she could lose her Synn.

Masque is available at:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Ellora’s Cave

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Giveaway, Lexi Post

INTERVIEW and giveaway: JESSICA FREELY

May 1, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 7 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Jessica Freely whose latest book Alex in Wonderland was recently released. Leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of one of the books from Jessica’s backlist.

Jessica Freely is a pen name. She had a publishing career in science fiction and YA before she branched out into m/m romance.

“Not everybody was on board with this new direction in my writing and I needed a way to frewe myself from my own insecurity and the judgements of others,” she told me. “Jessica Freely just came to me.”

Jessica’s lived in the Detroit area her whole life. Except for the time she was in college, she’s never lived more than two miles from Woodward Avenue.

“I love the city in spite of and sometimes because of it’s many, many problems. The people here, who have stayed through everything, are a really determined, energetic and friendly breed. It’s a big small town,” she explained. “You get to know people. I like how deep my roots are here. The city is engraved in me and we’re part of each other. And it’s always fun when you go out of town to announce that you’re from Detroit and see the reactions you get.”

She’s been writing since one Christmas night in 1985 when she sat down and started writing the first story she would eventually submit to publishers. She was 21 and in college studying for a computer science degree. By the time she graduated, she knew she wanted to be an author. She worked in her field for six months then quit. She’s been working part-time jobs and writing ever since.

She’s currently revising the next installment in her Freedom Series, which began with Unlawful and is a spinoff from her fall release His Own Devices.

“In this new book, Undaunted, Larke and Droje are on the run from Corporate Security, trying to get to the movement safe house before they’re caught and tried for treason,” she told me.

Jessica has an office in their home; she painted it yellow, so it’s sunny even in the winter. She sits in a recline with her laptop on her lap, even though she admits it’s terrible ergonomically. She has a large bulletin board on the wall in front of her on which she’s pinned images that strike her fancy–like a gigantic collage. She finds it helpful to glance at it when she gets stuck.

“I divide my time between my office and a local coffee shop where the staff and I have an agreement that they won’t give me the password to the wifi,” she told me. “I probably get most of my actual writing done there.”

Jessica gets up in the morning and meditates, then she goes and works out. From the gym, she goes to her local coffeehouse, has breakfast, and chats with friends until about 10:30 am, then she settles down and writes until about 2 pm. She will go home, walk the dog, and answer emails and so on. Her husband comes home, they eat dinner and watch a little television. Around 8, she’ll go back to work until 10 or 11 pm.

Her worse habit is that she’s a terrible perfectionist and very detail oriented–she’s always struggling with the urge to tweak what she’s written. She’ll even do this if she doesn’t have a whole draft written yet.

“I get sucked into the details of a scene and rewrite it, spending hours on it only to discover later that it needs to be cut,” she confessed.

“What was the scariest moment of your life?” I wondered.

“My husband and I took a trip to Belize several years ago and we stayed on a little island right off a coral reef. We were warned not to swim out there because there was a current that could carry you out to sea. I was snorkeling close to the island and I saw a beautiful fish and I followed it. Suddenly the bottom dropped away and I saw all kinds of coral and big fish, and I realized I was on the reef. I started swimming back but the island was moving away from me sideways. I have never felt so small and vulnerable in my life. I started panicking and hyperventilating and I realized if I kept it up I’d die for sure. So I forced myself to calm down, pick a strand of seaweed in the direction I needed to go, swim to it, pick another, and swim to that. It was probably only about twenty minutes but they were the longest of my life.”

About the Author: Jessica Freely can’t resist a wounded hero. As a reader and a writer, her favorite stories are of soul mates finding redemption in each other’s arms. Married to the love of her life in a beautiful relationship based on mutual goofiness, Jessica also warps minds as an instructor in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. Her dog, Ruthie, doesn’t seem to care that Jessica’s an award-winning and best-selling author in multiple genres. She just wants to play tug of war with Jessica’s pages.

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What can go wrong in a sex club? Plenty.

Fresh out of a sexless relationship with a manipulative, two-timing boyfriend, Alex enters the notorious sex club, Wonderland, looking for action. But between the dungeon of dubious Doms, the malfunctioning steam room, and the “alien” go-go boy with glow-in-the-dark everything, it’s beginning to look like Alex will never get laid again. Then a mysterious masked man gives Alex the dance of his life—and more—only to disappear without a trace.

Try as he might, Alex can’t find the man who swept him off his feet. But when the night is through, and the masks are cast aside, Alex makes a startling discovery. What he’s been looking for all night, and maybe all his life, might be the biggest and best surprise of the night.

Buy the book

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Giveaway, Jessica Freely, M/M

INTERVIEW and giveaway: MICKIE B. ASHLING

April 30, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 39 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Mickie B. Ashling, whose latest book Fire Horse was recently released by Dreamspinner Press in both print and digital formats. Leave a comment on this interview to be entered into a drawing for the winner’s choice of either format of Fire Horse.

Fire Horse is Mickie’s 13th full-length novel and is set in the rarefied world of high goal polo, where players are paid an amount commensurate with their handicap rating. A huge amount of research went into this novel, but the big plus for Mickie was her personal experience with a handful of young men who played the game.

“They were brothers and cousins of schoolmates, and I became involved through association. I wore the fancy dresses, attended the victory dances, and listened to the gossip that accompanied each win,” she said. ”Fire Horse also spans 35 years, from 1976 to the present, and touches on certain aspects of being gay in the eighties when a wrong decision could mean the difference between life and death.”

She’s close to finishing the sequel to Fire Horse; in fact, by this time she may have already finished it. She didn’t want to give any hints as far as the plot goes, because she doesn’t want to spoil the experience for anyone reading the original novel.

The most difficult of all her books for Mickie to write was her Basque trilogy: Loving Edits,Tono, and Momentos: Mick’s Journey. She wrote it in memory of her mother who died of ALS. The main character in the trilogy also has ALS.

“It sounds like a depressing read, but it’s really a celebration of life,” Mickie told me. “Most everyone who’s read the books has come away with a sense of hope.”

Mickie is her real life nickname, but the rest of her name was created for her writing.

“Ashling is a variant spelling of the Gaelic Aisling, which means dream or vision. I wanted something that had to do with the creative process and what could be more appropriate than being a dream-maker,” she explained. ”Plus, the numbers were right. I believe in numerology, and after I counted all the letters in my penname, I ended up with the right numbers.”

Mickie’s first novel Horizons was published in April 2009, but she’d been posting free stories on the internet since 2006 under another name in the Queer as Folk fandom.

“I know there’s a certain stigma related to writers who’ve made their start in fan fiction, but I’ve never kept that part of my literary history a secret,” she said. ”Some of the biggest names in publishing started their careers writing fan fiction. Case in point is E. L .James who wrote 50 Shades of Grey. It’s a great way to hone your craft, gain confidence, and receive instant feedback. My loyal readers gave me the courage to submit my first novel for consideration. Although I no longer write fan fiction, a lot of my stories are still around, and I’ll get an occasional email from a happy reader.”

The day she posted her first story on LiveJournal was the day she first considered herself a writer.

“I agonized over that send button for a good hour before gathering my courage,” she admitted. ”It was the most terrifying moment of my life, but when I got my first comment from an excited reader I was thrilled. It finally felt real.”

Mickie told me she has a hard time with social networking.

“I know it’s critical to a writer’s success, but it’s one aspect of this profession I don’t care for,” she told me. ”I would much rather do a one-on-one email exchange with an interested reader than make a random post on Facebook. I’m happiest when I’m holed up in my writing cave and being productive. I would rather hire someone to do my promo.”

She’s very disciplined when it comes to her writing. She realized years ago that if she wanted to accomplish anything, she would have to set a writing schedule and stick to it. She has a stressful day job, so writing at night isn’t an option–she’s too tired by the end of the workday. So, she does her creative writing early in the morning before she leaves for work–from 3:30-5:30 every morning.

“Thank goodness I can get by on 6 hours of sleep,” she told me.

”

What is your most embarrassing moment?” I wondered.

“

I went to a week long writer’s workshop at Kenyon College in Ohio. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, but the finale involved a public reading. Each student had to get up and read a short piece we’d written on our first day of class. I had no idea this was going to happen, so when we were asked to write something short and fast we were comfortable with, I wrote a gay sex scene. When my teacher asked me to read this in front of 500 people, I almost passed out. She said, ‘If you’re not comfortable reading something you’ve written, then perhaps you shouldn’t be writing in this genre.’ Them were fighting words. With a little fortification in the form of Chardonnay, I stood there and read my scene. You could have heard a pin drop, but when I was done, there was a huge applause and I became an instant celebrity on campus. The soccer mom who wrote erotica,” she said with a smile. “Nonetheless, it was my most embarrassing moment, and I shudder whenever I think about it.”

Another embarrassing moment came with her first novel–it was about a football player, and she was so immersed in the love story she sort of bleeped over the football timeline that was integral to the plot.

“It never occurred to me to check my facts even though I had five men in my life who played the game,” she admitted. ”They would have pointed out the mistakes in a minute. Then again, convincing my straight sons to read a gay romance would have been a stretch. I can’t wait to get my hands on the book and do a thorough re-edit. Perhaps I’ll get a chance if it ever goes to a second edition printing.”

“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?” I asked.

“Explore the sex stores in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the Castro, San Francisco. I was writing a novel in the BDSM genre and wanted to see some gay sex paraphernalia. You should have seen the look on the salesman’s face when I asked to see a cock ring. It was priceless.”

Finally, I wondered, “W

hat advice would you give a new writer just starting out?”

“Never, ever go to a review site expecting a pat on the back. Reviews are mainly for readers and very subjective. Someone once told me that being newly published is like giving birth for the first time. Nobody wants to hear they have an ugly baby. It hurts and can be absolutely devastating if you don’t have the right mindset. Once in a rare while you’ll glean something constructive from a less than stellar review, but for the most part, they are one person’s opinion, and you know you can’t please everyone. If you are morbidly curious, and can’t stay away, do not engage. I can’t stress that enough! It’s a lose-lose situation and you’ll end up with a reputation as a misbehaving author who’ll have to beg for future reviews.”

About the Author:

Mickie B. Ashling is the alter-ego of a multifaceted woman raised by a single mother who preferred reading over other forms of entertainment. She found a kindred spirit in her oldest child and encouraged her with a steady supply of dog-eared paperbacks. Romance was the preferred genre, and historical romances topped her favorites list.

By the time Mickie discovered her own talent for writing, real life had intruded, and the business of earning a living and raising four sons took priority. With the advent of e-publishing and the inevitable emptying nest, dreams were resurrected, and the storyteller was reborn.

She stumbled into the world of men who love men in 2002 and continues to draw inspiration from their ongoing struggle to find equality and happiness in this oftentimes skewed and intolerant world. Her award-winning novels have been called “gut wrenching, daring, and thought provoking.” She admits to being an angst queen and making her men work damn hard for their happy endings.

Mickie loves to travel and has lived in the Philippines, Spain, and the Middle East but currently resides in a suburb outside Chicago.

You can contact her at mickie.ashling@gmail.com or leave a comment on her blog at http://mickiebashling.blogspot.com.

Preston Fawkes is ten the first time he meets fifteen-year-old Konrad Schnell at the San Antonio Polo Club. Captivated by the mystique surrounding the sport of kings, Pres vows to learn the game at the hands of his newly acquired friend and mentor. The hero worship soon grows into something deeper, but the friends are separated when Preston goes off to boarding school in England.

The relationship that follows is riddled with challenges―their age gap, physical distance, and parental pressure taking precedence over feelings yet to be explored. Although their bond goes deep, they deal with the reality of their situation differently: Preston is open and fearless while Konrad is reticent and all too aware of the social implications of making a public stand.

Their paths intersect and twine, binding them as tightly as a cowboy’s lasso, but fate may alter their plans. How will love overcome the divots in the turf as they gallop toward the future—one where obstacles no longer stand in their way?

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Giveaway, Mickey B. Ashling

INTERVIEW and giveaway: H K Carlton

April 29, 2013 by The Long and Short Of It 23 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes H K Carlton, whose erotic time-travel book, Lost Time, is going to be available in print next month! This is exciting news for H K, since having a book in print was one of the goals she had set herself as an author. Leave a comment on this interview, and you might win a copy of this book.

The inspiration for this story was a collaboritive effort–there was not one thing. H K’s publisher put out a Halloween call, a friend of hers went on the vacation from hell, and H K loves anything and everything UK.

“It was a perfect literary storm,” she said.

But, it was her first story that inspired her to seek publication. She had always written for her own pleasure–she didn’t share her words with anyone, not even her sister who is the person she normally shares everything with.

“It wasn’t until the idea for You Found Me came to me and the characters would just not leave me alone. I had dialogue floating around in my head. I had to put it down on paper, just to get it out. When I finished, I knew that it was something special, something a little different than anything else that I’d penned to that point,” she explained. “I asked my sister to read it, knowing, good or bad she would tell me the truth and with her encouragement I started approaching potential publishers. And that began my journey.”

Since then, she’s written six books that have either been published or soon will be. She has another out on submission. And she also has six in a family saga series that she’s not yet submitted, along with several other works in progress. I asked her which was her favorite.

“It’s difficult to pick a favorite. It seems whatever I’m working on at the present is. But my first book Swap will always be special because it was my first book ever accepted and published. You Found Me is because it was my first book and the one that sent me on this writing journey. I really enjoyed writing Lost Time, it was one of those pieces that was just a joy to write, not only creatively but it was also something I’d never tackled before. And The Devil Take You, I love because my hero Gard, is not a typical hero at all. He’s really not a nice guy. It’s different, I think. You end up loving the guy even though he is terribly flawed. I also enjoyed all the research for this one. Being a historical romance, I really had to do my history homework and tried really hard to keep things like wardrobe, dialogue, architecture and the geography for the time as authentic as possible.”

H K tries not to write in the same sub-genre–she likes stepping out of her comfort zone and writing something new. Her first book Swap was contemporary erotic romance; Lost Time is time-travel, and Streetlight People is ménage à trois. She’s also recently signed a new contract with eXtasy Books to write her first m/m story. She has also written two historical novels, You Found Me and The Devil Take You.

“And this is why my blog is entitled Pick a Genre Already, because I just can’t stick to one,” she explained.

“What is something you’d like to accomplish in your writing career next year?” I wondered.

“I have a contemporary family saga series that I would like to see in print someday. Next year would be awesome. But realistically I think it might be a while. I’ve learned a few things since I first penned it and I think I should revisit it and put some of that newfound knowledge to good use. I also think everything happens for a reason and maybe it’s not the right time but I eventually think it will find a home too.”

Half of H K’s published books have a British/Scottish influence–her mother is British and her paternal great-grandfather was Scottish, both immigrating to Canada as teens. H K has always been fascinated by the history of England and Scotland.

H K’s favorite contemporary author is Karen Marie Moning. She started out reading the Highlander Series and then moved onto the Fever Series. Charlotte and Emily Brontë are the authors she admires the most and can read their works over and over again, followed closely by Charles Dickens.

“What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?” I wondered.

“I think my most interesting writing quirk is that I tend to tell myself parts of the story, while I’m trying to go to sleep at night. Like a bedtime story, which goes way back, I guess, I’ve always done that. I come up with some of my best ideas and dialogue then, but the hard part is remembering all that good stuff when I wake up in the morning. I like to keep paper and pen right beside the bed so I can jot these things down, but my husband gets a little snarky when I wake him.”

Finally, I asked, ”

What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?”

“Don’t give up. Keep trying. Keep learning your craft. If at first you don’t succeed go back and make it better. Your work will eventually find a home. I also think authors should write out of what they think is their genre. I thought when I began writing seriously, that historical romance was what I wanted to write and that it was ‘my genre’. But I have found a love for writing erotic romance. And I challenge myself to write in as many different sub-genres as I can. Sometimes your greatest success can be somewhere else and not what you have boxed your creativity into. ”

About the Author: H K Carlton is a Canadian author of erotic, historical and contemporary romance. She resides in Ontario with her hardworking hubby, lovely teenage daughter and will also admit to having two handsome grown sons. She loves to read and write.

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Within this frame, his curse is time…

Hannah Keys thinks she’s setting off on the trip of her dreams, but after one mishap after another—beginning with her best friend abandoning her in the airport and ending with the man of her dreams dead—she’s renaming it the vacation from hell.

When Hannah Keys discovers a four-hundred-year-old portrait in Wales, she is intrigued and somewhat saddened by the handsome Highlander portrayed by the artist’s masterful, lifelike strokes. But when she runs into the majorly hunky model for the painting—in the flesh, in the middle of the night—she learns first-hand all about masterful strokes when she shares a night of medieval passion with him.

Lockhart Munro has been cursed inside the portrait until he meets Hannah Keys. For four hundred years, no one has heard him or seen him, let alone touched him. The one woman who can do all these things may be the key to his long-awaited freedom.

But if Hannah sets Lockhart free from his prison, will she be cursed to spend the rest of her lifetime without him?

Or perhaps freeing Lockhart will be just the beginning…

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews Tagged With: Giveaway, H K Carlton