Sinful Sirens blog hop prize draw winners

My first blog hop is complete, and it was certainly interesting to watch from this side - and nice to 'meet' a bunch of readers, new and existing.

The hop is now closed, and the prize draw has taken place (using the randomizer at www.random.org), and I'm just about to email the three winners with their pre-publication copies of the complete The Object of His Desire. For the record, the winners were lauratroxel, ldomjanich and one of the readers who mailed me direct.

And for all the rest of you, The Object of His Desire is published in paperback and ebook editions by James Grieve Press on 1st July; the four novellas that comprise the novel are also already available separately as ebooks.

Thanks for your interest!

Sexy extracts!

Erotic romance extract: A Woman Scorned by PJ Adams

They say revenge is best served up cold. Maybe. In Rebecca Swaine's experience revenge is best served up in a public place with a large glass of Pinot Gris.

Abandoned by her husband, seduced by his scheming best friend, Rebecca is not having the best of runs, as far as relationships go. But that night of revenge and passion was worth it all, the night when she got her revenge on a deceitful lover... the night when a stranger in a bar might just become more than a willing accomplice. A steamy, passionate story of love and revenge.

The fourth of four inter-locking tales of passion, risk and love: three women... one pivotal night... four temptations... Explicit erotic romance from the bestselling author of The Object of His Desire and The Wings of Desire.

Extract:

They say revenge is best served up cold.

Maybe.

In my experience it’s best served up in a public place with a large glass of Pinot Gris.

§

I prepared thoroughly.

A pamper session with Stephanie at Moore’s. Leg wax, Brazilian, eyebrows; a long, soothing facial; a full-body seaweed wrap and body polish. Between treatments I texted him the details.

I’m going to be so smooth!

He replied instantly:

Can’t wait

§

I want you. Now.

I bet he did.

I’m still at the spa. Stef’s just about to rub my naked body in aromatic oils.

§

My new favorite Aubade lingerie in a deep black and charcoal patterned tulle and lace, with black lace hold-ups. Jeweled, black velvet Kurt Geiger stilettos that I knew he loved. If he had his way, the evening would end up with me stripped down to that lingerie and the Kurts. It had been such a revelation to me, such a turn-on, to have a man like Simon Darby look at me in that way, react to my body in the way that he did. Such a surprise, after the last year or so of my stale marriage to Porter.

I’d felt reborn, under Simon’s appreciative, lustful gaze.

To finish, a simple black dress and a little Karen Millen clutch.

All new. I’ve just put the Aubade on, just about to pull up my stockings over my long smooth legs. Feels horny, just dressing like this.

I hoped he was hard. Hell, I knew he would be hard. One thing he had given me was some of my old confidence.

Send pics!!

No, no pictures.

Patience, darling. Patience.

§

He was a patient and skilful lover.

He had a way of holding himself deep inside you, gazing deep into your eyes, and – barely moving – taking you to the edge, right out of nowhere.

He had a way of keeping you there, at the edge. The subtle movements, the slight shifts in pressure, the pulse of his cock deep inside you. An incredible physical tease. A pressure building inside you so that when he finally took you over that crest your orgasm was so incredibly, magically intense.

No one would ever say that Simon Darby was not an incredibly skilled lover.

And no one who really knew him would ever say that he was not also an utter, lying bastard.

§

I hadn’t expected to be so turned on.

No one had ever told me that revenge could have that effect.

Exhilarating. An adrenalin rush. A sense of power, of liberation.

I hadn’t expected to get so damned horny.

§

He was there at the table when I arrived. I ignored him and went to the bar, just as I’d said I would. He was under strict instructions to sit there and wait.

“Pinot Gris,” I said, in answer to the barman’s raised eyebrow. “Large.”

The place was busy tonight. It was just as well that I’d booked the table.

My phone buzzed. I took a long drink of wine, and then opened the message.

You look beautiful

I did, I knew. Like I say, at least I have my confidence back.

Are you picturing me in that lingerie?

He was staring. I crossed my legs and toyed with my drink.

Hell yes

I left it a minute or two before answering.

Good. Because you’re not going to see it.

He didn’t get it. From where I was sitting it was hard to make out the details of his expression. Confused, I think; a brief flash of angry frustration at my games, too.

??

I ignored his message, and took another long swallow of wine.

I spoke to Ellie Jordan.

(...continues)

Four Temptations 4: A Woman Scorned is available from:

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• ARe
• Smashwords

Pollygraph (erotica author interviews): JE & M Keep - BDSM at the end of the world!

Why erotica?
My partner and I were just getting so frustrated that all of our favourite books faded to black. We’re big on fantasy and scifi, and it’s so hard to find a book that has explicit sex on top of an engaging story and awesome characters. We believe that sex is as important a part to character development – sometimes more so – than combat and really felt there was a lack of it outside of paranormal urban romances.

How did you get into it?
We started writing each other sexy letters when we were dating, and then progressed to World of Warcraft fanfiction. When we quit playing WoW, we started building our own massive worlds and it spiralled from there!

What kinds of erotica do you write?
High fantasy, science fiction, horror, contemporary, historical… We bounce around a fair bit, but all our stories have a lot of commonalities like that they tend to be dark and a bit twisted, and often are not romantic. Or, at least, not romantic in the Harlequin fashion.

What is it that draws you to the darker side of erotica?
I’ve never really been a fan of the boy meets girl, they fall in love, something tries to keep them apart, and in the end, love triumphs all type of storyline. I grew up reading V.C. Andrews and true crime stories, where relationships were wrong and taboo and ended in heartbreak. I’m not sure how much it affected me and how much is simply me, but that’s definitely the stuff I’m drawn to now.

My partner had a long unpleasant track record with such things in his own life, and claims that since we got together 13 years ago that it’s been all blissful romance, so he likes to write about the other side of the coin!

Why science-fiction and fantasy erotica? What does the speculative fiction part bring to your erotica, and what does the erotica bring to SF?
I think it spices things up a lot. There’s a lot of really amazing authors out there that can take the same contemporary story and make it fresh and interesting, but we’re not great at that. SFF allows us to explore a broader range of topics like sexual slavery, taboos, rape, etc. and to push the envelope without offending real life groups.

We also both strongly believe that sex has as much, if not more, of a place in SFF as violence. A lot of fantasy and scifi authors go on for pages about every motion of a sword or cast of a spell but the second sensuality is introduced, they get shy. There’s been so much character development missed out on because of this. Sex is such a window to the soul, I think.

Are you involved with the SF/F community, or is there little overlap between SF erotica and plain old SF?
There’s still a lot of wariness about erotica in general. Paranormal communities have embraced it, but Scifi still tends to be very set in their ways about what is and what isn’t scifi. There was this one episode of Party Down where two characters wrote a scifi script and it was ‘hard scifi’ and the sex slave/love interest dies and barely anyone cares. In the rewrite, they gave her a more predominant role and it became a lot better, but there’s still puritans who don’t like sex in their scifi.

I think it ties into a lot of gender expectations and roles, and so it’s complicated. The geek culture as a whole is kind of a weird place right now for women and female characters, but as more and more people embrace it, I think Scifi will become a much more welcoming place. First for romance, then for erotica.

Tell us about your experiences as an erotica author. What have the big challenges and successes been?
Our biggest successes are always hearing from fans. People who want to discuss our books, our characters, and what they want to read next is an amazing thrill.

The biggest challenge is the constant momentum and reaching our audience. We both know they’re out there, because we’re our own audience. We’ve spoken with a lot of people who really want this type of book – one that has a great story, strong and interesting characters, and doesn’t fade to black. It’s hard to connect with people if they don’t know that what they’re looking for is available, though!

Do the people around you know what you write? How have they reacted, or how would they react?
I’ve told a few people I write scifi/fantasy or romance, and they’ve all been interested in the same way that people have always been interested in writers. What a pleasant hobby! No one thinks we can make money off of it, and we tend to keep it on the down low that we’re making a nice amount each month. Though since my partner has quit his other work to focus solely on our writing, it’s really much more obvious now.

How does your collaboration work? Do you tend to have fixed roles in the writing team, or does it depend on the story?
Typically one of us will have a general spider-webbed plot written out, and then we’ll assume the role of certain characters, fleshing out their reactions. I think this is one of the reasons our books are so strong, and why we have such an even split of male and female fans.

We don’t skip over one character’s reactions, and we describe each character very thoroughly. It also allows our writing to be very responsive and dynamic, so it never feels like the story is forced.

As for fixed roles? No, though my partner is usually the one coming up with and detailing out the plots and pre-planning, I do plenty of that myself too. Especially when he’s feeling a bit burnt-out.

Does writing as a team bring an extra frisson to erotica?
I really think it does. It allows us to really focus on both or all characters and what they’re feeling, and how they’re acting. It lets us get fully involved in what parts we have to worry about, and then fills in the gaps really nicely.

Every time we write separately, our stories tend to be much shorter, and I definitely think it’s the lack of dynamic writing that adds to our descriptions.

What's your typical writing day?
We try to write a little bit every night, but weekends are our big deals. We’ve finished novellas in a good weekend, and finished short stories in an okay night. Typically we can do over 4,000 words in a few hours.

Tell us about your most recent titles.
Vile Wasteland was a novel we put out recently, set in a sort of dystopian future where humanity fled beneath the surface of the earth in great underground facilities to wait out some unknown apocalypse. The story follows the main character, Alex, a young woman on a mission to save her friends from dying of food contamination or starvation.

We definitely don’t hold any punches on the sex here, right up to the bitter-sweet end, but it’s mainly a work of speculative fiction or sci-fi that just happens to cover it all!

We also have Brought the Stars to You, a sci-fi romance. This novel is the first in a planned long series we have. Then there’s our love-at-the-end-of-the-world tale with BDSM, Bound as the World Burns.

Do you have a favourite, or favourites, among your stories?
I really love our longer novels. We have a bunch upcoming over the next few months, like False Shades which is a noir erotica. We had to do a lot of research into psychology and Freud and the different theories floating around in the 1920’s. There was a lot of discussion of sex at that time, and kinks, and why people develop certain sexual tastes so it blended really well together. I think it was likely, if not my favourite, the one I’m most proud of. It’ll be released later this summe.

And finally, what can we expect to see from you soon?
The Warlord’s Concubine, will be released June 1st, 2013. This was one of our more intense, emotional pieces of writing simply because the characters are very morally grey, and sometimes downright cruel, but driven by great aspirations and powerful emotions. They have reasons, of course, but we wanted to make sure the characters were still sympathetic and engaging for the reader.

It’s about a woman, Mirella, who serves as handmaiden to a princess when the princess’ city state is overrun by a brutal army. It’s led by an almost demonic looking man, whom the handmaiden instantly lusts for. He has power, and confidence, and she’s convinced he’s a god.

The story follows the relationship between the two of them as the Warlord tries to get the princess to marry him, solidifying his hold on the city state. It’s very much a dark romance story, with two anti-heroes at the forefront.

The Keep | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @jmkeep/@jekeep | Mailing List | Goodreads | Amazon US/Amazon UK

Sinful Sirens Blog Hop: The Object of His Desire prizes

The Sinful Sirens blog hop, 12:01 AM May15th to 11:59 PM May 20th, 2013.

July 1st 2013 sees publication of the complete The Object of His Desire. Previously published as a series of four ebooks, The Object of His Desire is a passionate erotic romance, where scandals buried away in the past lead to murderous intrigue in the present, in the intensely steamy world of the super-wealthy and powerful.

As part of the Sinful Sirens blog hop, my publishers James Grieve Press are giving away some prizes:

• Sign up to the PJ Adams mailing list during the blog hop to receive a free ebook copy of the first part, The Object of His Desire 1: Wanted.
• Add a comment to this post (including your email address and preferred ebook format from Kindle, epub or PDF) or contact me directly (by email at pollyjadamswriter at gmail dot com) to be entered into a draw: when the blog hop is over three winners will be randomly selected to receive a free advance ebook copy of the complete The Object of His Desire.
• Only one entry per person, but feel free to sign up to the mailing list for your free copy of part one and add a comment here to enter the draw!

The Object of His Desire

When Trudy goes to her estranged brother's wedding, the last thing she expects is one of those moments: a handsome stranger, their eyes meeting across a crowded room... a tempting, but dangerous stranger. Determined to find out more, she discovers that dark secrets bind him to her brother; she also learns that he's the kind of man who gets what he wants, and what he wants right now is Trudy.

Introducing her to the world of the super-wealthy, he showers her with designer clothes, shoes, and diamonds, whisking her off to dinner dates by private jet... what more could a girl want?

But as she finds out more about him, Trudy begins to wonder if she can ever love a man she can never fully trust. A man involved in murder and blackmail, who may just be using her as an alibi. Should she run or let herself fall for him? And will he give her a choice?

“Is there anything you don’t have?” I asked softly.
      He shrugged, spread his hands wide. “We have everything,” he said, simply. “We’re a wealthy family.”

Many thanks to Guilty Pleasures and Under the Covers, hosts of this blog hop!

 

Updated: How to Find Paid & Free Erotica, by Mercy Faulk now free!

UPDATE: 
How to Find Paid & Free Erotica, by Mercy Faulk, is now free at Amazon in the US. Hopefully Amazons in other countries will follow suit soon.

More details in my earlier post.

How to Find Paid & Free Erotica, by Mercy Faulk

Let's return to a favourite topic of mine: the ways online retailers hide away some, or all, erotica on their sites.

Mercy Faulk has just published a really handy guide to finding the hot stuff. Here's the blurb:

DID YOU KNOW EBOOK RETAILERS HIDE THE SEXIEST STORIES?
Have you been on the hunt for more sexy stories after reading E.L. James’ megablockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey but don’t know what to search for? Or maybe you’ve noticed that your favorite types of stories seem to be getting scarce? The reason is that iTunes hide the hottest stories but don't tell readers how to find what they’re looking for!
To help you find the kind of erotica you want, this guide will:
* Explain how to best use the search engines on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Kobo to find what you’re looking for
* Tell you about alternative sources for quality sexy stories
* Show you how to find free erotic ebooks
* Introduce to you some of today’s hottest authors
* Define the most popular erotica keywords and offer alternate words to search for
Pick this guide up today and start reading the stories you want most tonight!

13 May update: now free at Amazon US!
Mercy's guide is available at Amazon for a mere 99 cents, and should go free there before too long:

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• and it's already free at Kobo