Portia Da Costa's Blog, page 3

A TOUCH OF HEAVEN returns to Earth!

A TOUCH OF HEAVEN is my sensual paranormal romance novella about a gorgeous, mysterious stranger who entrances a forty-something woman who's beginning to have doubts about her own attractiveness. Patrick is house-sitting next door... or at least that's what Miranda hopes he's doing. If not, he's the most handsome, delectable squatter she's ever set eyes on!

TOUCH was originally published by Samhain Publishing a few years ago, but now I've self published it and it's available again at the usual outlets.

Here's the blurb:

Pleasure with a perfect stranger can be divine...
If Miranda Clay believed that angels exist, they’d look just like her neighbours’ new house sitter. Golden hair. Golden, naked skin. Muscles that are poetry in motion. Is it ridiculous that even his feet are beautiful?
When mysterious Patrick turns his heavenly blue eyes toward her and smiles… Well, how can a red-blooded woman resist his friendly offer of a soothing massage? But pretty soon his therapy to ease her forty-something aches and pains turns into an exquisite touch of pleasure, a storm of bliss that leaves her boneless and sighing.
But when Miranda reaches for Patrick to return the favour, he stays her hand—and reluctantly reveals his almost incomprehensible secret. He’s an angel on an earthly mission of kindness, and though he’s always longed to live a full, if messy, human life, he’s never been tempted to violate his unbreakable angelic code. Until now.
Soon, the deeply-in-love couple face a perilous decision, and Patrick will have to risk everything—even the prospect of extinction—to keep the woman he adores in his arms.

Buy from Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Also available from :: Nook :: Kobo :: iBooks
~~~  Try an excerpt here...  ~~~


NB. thanks to Carolan Ivey for her help with the blurb

New short story release - HIS PRIVATE DANCER

Looking for something short and sexy and told from the male POV? Well, look no further!


HIS PRIVATE DANCER - a decadent tale of saucy burlesque
With a front row seat at a private burlesque show, Mr Curtis finds himself bewitched and seduced by the gorgeous Madame X.
As the silken gloves and feather boa go flying, the mysterious beauty works him up into a fever of desire with her steamy, exotic moves.
Will there be an encore? An even hotter show?
Buy from Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AUp.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 2.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #e4af09; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #454545} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #454545; min-height: 14.0px} span.s1 {color: #0000EE}
Also available from :: Nook :: Kobo :: iBooks

FAR FROM PERFECT - new edition - 99c/99p until 27 August!

My sensual contemporary romance, FAR FROM PERFECT, is being given a new lease of life, courtesy of Entangled Publishing!

To celebrate, it's available at a special low price of 99c/99p until 27th August 17. Anna and Nick's story is pretty hot stuff, though I say it myself, but if you buy it this week you get it both hot *and* cheap!
FAR FROM PERFECT... what it's about A night of earthshattering lovemaking left Nick Lisitano wracked with remorse for taking advantage of Anna’s innocence. He knows Anna deserves deep, enduring love, which is not something he can offer her. He’s managed to keep his distance until now, but his father is ill, and he knows just what will bring his family together and give his father peace. A wedding. His wedding. To the lovely young Anna.Four years ago, Anna Felgate gave her virginity to the man who held her heart—long-time family friend and legendary lover, Nick Lisitano. That one night branded her for life and ruined her for any other man, but Nick has been cold to her ever since. Until now that is, when he comes to her with a crazy plan…a proposal…of marriage.Anna knows she shouldn’t agree to Nick’s plan, but how can she refuse the man who holds her heart.

Read an excerpt here Available from :: iBooks :: Kobo :: Nook :: Entangled PublishingAmazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU

Lessons and Lovers - now in print!

LESSONS AND LOVERS

Lover after dark…
By day, he's the perfect personal assistant, bodyguard, chauffeur… by when the lights go down, he's a devastating sex machine, using his hands, his lips and his breath-taking body to drive his employer to the very limits of pleasure.
Wealthy young widow Hettie Miller loved her husband, but night after night, she's tormented by desire. Lonely and confused she turns to Starr, her faultless servant, the man whose cool reserve and discretion hide the wild, hard-driving soul of a sensualist.
But does Starr really care for her, or is he simply performing his duties, as supreme between the sheets as he is elsewhere? Hettie hopes for more… because she's falling, and Starr's rocking her world.
Read excerpt here
Now available in print from:
Amazon.com :: Amazon.co.uk :: Barnes and Noble

Seasons Greetings!

A very Merry Christmas &a Happy New Year!

All the Accidentals, together at last!

"The passionate love story of independent off-beat Lizzie and her gorgeous multi-millionaire, John Smith, every woman's idea of the sexy older man."

The Accidental Call Girl, The Accidental Mistress and The Accidental Bride have just been released together as a digital 'boxed set'!

***
From being mistaken for an escort...

When Lizzie Aitchison meets John Smith in the Lawns Bar of the Waverley Grange Hotel she doesn't realise at first that he thinks she's "working". The chemistry between them is dynamite from the very first glance exchanged across the room, and she can't resist the allure of his fallen angel face and the way his lean body looks in a sharp business suit. Pretty soon, she's playing a dangerous game with him. John's a no nonsense guy who seems to be set on engaging an escort for sex rather than simply meeting a pretty girl to chat up in a bar, and if that's the only way she can get this gorgeous, irresistible man, Lizzie decides to act the part. Over just one drink, she becomes "Bettie", the high class call girl...

To agreeing to live with the man she loves...

Having met under unusual circumstances when he first mistook her for a high class call-girl, Lizzie Aitchison is now enjoying a passionate relationship with brooding multi-millionaire, John Smith.
However, haunted by the demons of a past he won't talk about, John seems unable to offer her more than a no-strings-attached affair. Generous to a fault, he still holds his secrets close.
Can Lizzie pierce his emotional armour, or will she never be anything more than a rich man's mistress?
To taking the ultimate step, and wearing his ring...

Now living together, Lizzie and John enjoy a state of blissfully uncomplicated pleasure, and an increasingly tumultuous sex life in their luxurious new home. Physically they're a perfect, loving match...
But John is still a man of emotional secrets, and when an old flame from the past turns up unannounced, his and Lizzie's relationship is suddenly thrown into question... even though he's asked her to marry him and join his aristocratic family.
Despite his proposal, Lizzie still finds it difficult to tell exactly where John's heart really lies and whether he's able to abandon the past and start anew. In the craziest of circumstances, she accidentally fell in love with him... but will it be just as easy to accidentally lose him?
***
The entire steamy, emotional saga in one juicy hit is now available from:
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Kobo

Slings and arrows

Blargh! I'm poorly, and I have been for a week and a bit now. I feel better than I did, but this bout of what I suspect is Swine Flu, has really knocked me out of the great groove of productivity and positivity that I've been in recently.

There's not a lot I can do about it. I'm not one of these super focused, super determined writers who can push on through in situations like this. I just have to give in and wait out the virus, hoping that it doesn't dig in too hard and linger with me too long.

So, I'll be cosseting myself, keeping warm ad hydrated and rested for a little while yet, and I'm hoping it won't be too long before there are more reports from the Dumpster Office of Doom and updates on the progress of Her Lover's Secret.

Meanwhile in the Dumpster...

Here's a photo of the Dumpster Office of Doom that shows real improvement!

I now have a desk. With a phone. And a lamp. There's still a mass of stuff to sort and get rid of, but it's sort of homey and more comfortable in there. I have a basket chair to sit in, with a proper back rest and a lovely purple velour seat cushion on order, as well as a pink faux suede footstool. I'm starting to go in there to eat lunch and read, as well as to shred paper and decide what to throw away. Haven't really worked, as such, in there yet, but I'm moving towards that.

I think when I make some more significant progress in the clearing out, and possibly get rid of a huge table that's still in there, and replace it with something smaller, I might indulge in a comfy office/gaming/recliner type chair too. I've bookmarked a few likely ones on Amazon.

Writing progress is still very stately. I don't have the attention span and focus I used to have [and I didn't have much at the the best of times] so my word count, though daily, is very modest. I'm still working on Her Lover's Secret, filling in the gaps I left in the first draft. I wish I could write faster. I wish I could spend more hours a day on it. But I just can't, at the moment. So I plug on at a very steady rate, and hope for the best.

Writing?

As you know, I've been writing a thing called Thing, a sort of generally romantic women's fiction non-plotted writing exercise just to keep my hand in. I've done about 8K of this 'thing' so far, and while I like it, it's not really going anywhere as, of course, it has no real structure, no angst, no conflict, and none of the other things that constitute a good piece of fiction. But, I'm not writing it to sell. I'm writing it to keep writing, in the hopes that soon I'll return to writing something readers will actually enjoy.

However, I'm now starting to feel inklings of an urge to return to the project I was working on when I stalled, which is a sensual romance romance novella, #4 in my Secret Pleasures series. It was called The Boss's Secret, but I've decided that doesn't really fit right. Lawrence, the hero, is more than Rachel's boss. He owns the company and quite a few others. I see 'boss' as someone that a character interacts with every day, on site, whereas Lawrence is a distant, lofty figure who only very occasionally might visit her workplace. So, a new tentative title is Her Lover's Secret, which I think is evocative and fits the story better.

Her Lover's Secret started out with one hero template, and now has a different one, probably just as unlikely. He's a gorgeous man, but not conventionally so. As Lover's Secret is an older hero story, he has white streaks in his hair, and he's in his late forties. He's also about 6' 7" tall!

Above is a draft cover I designed for Her Lover's Secret, but I'm not sure I'll use it. I may even go mad, and get a pro designer to do me a cover. It's rather difficult to find cover images when you have a very specific looking hero with silver streaked hair, so you generally have to go with a 'headless' cover in these cases. And show his chest rather than his face and hair! LOL

'Lawrence'

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Dumpster Office of Doom

Well, here it is, The Dumpster Office of Doom!

I'm sure you'll all think this is a 'before' picture, but it's actually taken just now. LOL I'd estimate about 50% of the 'stuff' has gone, but as you can see, the task ahead is still monumental. Even when I've got rid of as much as I can, arranging what remains in a usable fashion is still quite a job.

But, having said that, this room has been accumulating books, paper, DVDs, CDs and all manner of other crud for around 30 years now, so it was never going to be an endeavour achieved overnight to sort it out.

But I'm getting there! :)

ps. Back in 2010, I said I was going to sort this disaster out... but it's taken me this long to do something!

http://wendyportia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/dumpster-office-of-doom.html