Thursday 26 April 2012

Beautiful, sexy, Brighton



I thought it would be nice to do a series of blog posts about some of the locations I featured in my Secret Library novella, The Thousand and One Nights. One of the locations was Brighton, England. At the end of the pier is a great little fun fair looking right out over the sea. One of the scariest rides there takes you up, up, up very slowly and then drops you at a thundering rate downwards so you leave your heart and soul behind you. As well as being erotica, my novella is a love story and that's one of the locations my hero and heroine Breeze and Seb begin to loose their hearts to each other.

Brighton really came to the fore with the patronage of the Prince Regent who used to wine, dine and generally indulge himself at the Brighton Pavilion.The Pavilion is a monument to extravagance a bit like Brighton itself which exists mainly as a pleasure palace.


I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of Brighton. Next time it will be St James's, one of the smarter parts of London, also featured in The Thousand and One Nights.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Why Fifty Shades of Grey is good for us



So, everyone in the UK's finally talking about 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by British writer E L James. First of all, I have to put up my hand and say, 'no, I haven't read it'. Yet. I may well do one day but as I have a to-be-read pile that is fifty books high I'm not sure when. A friend who's read it says that it starts off really well although she felt the first in the trilogy was the best and the other two didn't quite live up to the promise.

But hey, who am I to carp? Would E L James care two beans what I or my friend thought? No, because her book is a thumping, runaway, total utter freaking SUCCESS. Good luck to her! But the best thing about 'Fifty Shades of Grey' for erotica writers is that it's brought it right into the mainstream. We've been writing erotica for years. She's written erotica that has raised its profile to such a point that an interviewer was asking her in great detail on no less an august show than Newsnight a couple of days ago about fisting and other unusual diversions. People write erotica, people read erotica (thank goodness readers that you do), the secret's out! So, thanks E L James for ratchetting erotica up the greasy pole of publishing and bringing it out of the shadows.

Saturday 21 April 2012

My first feel of the Secret Library



It's not often that you can rave about the feel of a book. True, I do have a few treasured tooled leather books in my collection. You know, the ones where you can run your fingers over the patterns in relief, and where you turn to the frontispiece to find that wonderful swirly marbling in rainbow colours. But mostly these days, a book is a paperback and there's no temptation to trail your fingers across it or put it to your cheek. That's where the Secret Library books come in. With their black velvet covers, overlaying pastel gloss they are totally and utterly sensuous - and that's before you've even read what's inside.

I'm currently reading the works of my stable mates, Primula Bond and Sommer Marsden and very saucy they are too. Here's what Amazon has to say about the three novellas that come under the one title, The Thousand and One Nights. Three passionate novellas from The Secret Library range that offer essiential, sensual reading. The Thousand and One Nights Kitti Bernetti When Breeze Monaghan gets caught red-handed by her millionaire boss she knows she s in trouble. Big time. Because Breeze needs to keep her job more than anything else in the world. Sebastian Dark is used to getting exactly what he wants and now he has a hold over Breeze, he makes her an offer she can t refuse. Like Scheherazade in The 1001 Nights Seb demands that Breeze entertain him to save her skin. Can she employ all her ingenuity and sensuality in order to satisfy him and stop her world crashing about her? Or, like the ruthless businessman he is, will Seb go back on the deal? Out of Focus Primula Bond Eloise Stokes s first professional photography assignment seems to be a straightforward family portrait. But the rich, colourful Epsom family father Cedric, step-mother Mimi, twin sons Rick and Jake, and sister Honey are intrigued by her understated talent and she is soon sucked into their wild world. As the initial portrait sitting becomes an extended photo diary of the family over an intense, hot weekend, Eloise gradually blossoms until she is equally happy in front of the lens. The Highest Bidder Sommer Marsden Recent widow Casey Briggs is all about her upcoming charity bachelor auction. She doesn t have time for dating. Her heart isn t strong enough yet. But when one of their bachelors is arrested and she finds herself a hunky guy short, she employs her best friend Annie to find her a new guy pronto. Enter Nick Murphy handsome, kind, and not very hard to look at, thank you very much. And he quickly makes her feel things she hasn t felt in a while. A very long while. Casey s not sure if she s ready for it the whole moving on thing. But as she prepares to auction Nick off, she s discovering that her first hunch was correct he's damn near priceless.

Well, let's hope that's whetted your appetites. Available in all good bookshops as they say....... Also available as e-books from Xcite and Amazon

Thursday 12 April 2012

Thanks for inviting me to the party....

Hi - this is my first blog post. What has taken me so long? Well, I've been writing, writing, writing - tons of short stories for Xcite's huge range of print and e-books. The latest novella is for their Secret Library range - a raunchy little number called 'The Thousand and One Nights'. I'm waiting for the author copies to land on my desk any minute now......

But readers often ask me where do you get your ideas, what inspires you, how can you write in so many different genres, what are you going to do next, who the hell are you? So many questions that I thought the best way to answer them was to do a regular blog, so here I am. But this won't just be about writing because I do occasionally peer over my glasses, look up from my computer, stick my nose out into the cool air and even venture out tottling on my high heels into the outside world. I'm lucky enough to have been born in London where I still live and like Dr Johnson said anyone who's tired of London must be tired of life (I paraphrase but I hope the great man would have forgiven me). So occasionally this blog will look at the place I live, the places I visit and I hope it will entertain the odd person (and even the normal ones, ha ha) who occasionally stumble upon it.

After all, what is the purpose of a writer if it is not to entertain......