Portia Da Costa's Blog, page 5
January 1, 2016
Mini Habits
In 2016, I'm trying to motivate myself by using a system called Mini Habits. This amounts to setting ridiculously tiny goals for myself each day. They're so small that it's almost impossible to achieve them... and once they're completed, kidding myself that I might as well just do a little bit more, while I'm about it.
The system is outlined in this book and on this web site. I read the book recently, and immediately knew it could help someone like me, who's struggling with motivation. It's one of the most useful books I've read in a long time!
As part of the Mini Habits adventure, I'm reinforcing them by awarding myself stars on a Mini Habits calendar each day, if I manage to:
Write 100 wordsRead for 15 minutesThrow away one piece of clutter/junkSee, I told you they were very small and achievable! And I've got my three stars already today, and it's only 2.24pm.
ps. blogging isn't included in my Mini Habits, but I'm going to try and do that a bit more often too. :)
December 31, 2015
Happy New Year!
© Paulus Rusyanto | Dreamstime Stock PhotosSorry about the rather scrappy image. Was trying to rustle something up quickly in a graphics program I've never used before. :)2015, at least the latter part of it, has been a bit of a fallow time for me, due to health and other issues. I haven't written very much of anything, really, for quite a few months. I'm trying to get back into it, but it's proving a bit of a challenge. Very much in the 'if you don't use it, you lose it' vein... I don't think I've quite lost it, but I'm going to have to work hard to get back into regular productivity and creativity.
I do want to write. And I think I can, once I regain a bit of mojo... but I don't quite know what to do with what I write when I've written it. Publishing is forever shifting and changing, and authors have to be smart and savvy and adaptable, and work very, very hard. Harder than they've ever worked before. Which is tough for a lazy old throwback like me! LOL
I'm going to write something... but most of the publishing avenues that I hoped to pursue seem to be either closed or drastically diminished. There's self publishing, of course, but after several years of grappling with it I'm just not sure I'm really cut out for the indie route.
So... I don't really know what 2016 holds for me, but I'm going to try and face it positively, and to rediscover the habit and the pleasures of writing. Even if what I write doesn't get published.
October 6, 2015
Hiatus
For a little while now, I've been taking a break, not only from blogging, but writing fiction too. At the beginning of August, I just felt overwhelmed by it all, and I decided that I needed a rest to deal with various health and other issues. And I'm still resting...
But fear not, I hope to be back into the fray soon, to finish a WIP and to write new stuff. Hopefully I'll be well refreshed by my chillout period. And when I do start writing again, I'll probably do a brief blog post about it.
ps. yes, I deliberately chose Comic Sans for the graphic. If it's good enough for the geniuses at CERN, it's good enough for me! LOL
July 9, 2015
UK re-release of HOTBED... and THE TUTOR!
My Black Lace novel HOTBED is released today in the UK in a new print version! HOTBED is a very naughty book, rather kinky, and not a romance. It's what I'd call a 'woman's journey of sexual discovery' title, so probably not for readers who prefer a clear romantic structure, although the heroine Natalie does end up in relationship at the end! :)
Pride comes before a fall... but what if the descent becomes the wildest ride of your life? Two sisters - Natalie and Patti - become rivals when they challenge each other's daring on a dark, downward spiral where nobody is quite who or what they seem, and where transgressing sexual boundaries is the norm.
Read an excerpt here!
Another of my older titles, THE TUTOR, was also reissued in the UK recently. Like many of my earlier books, this one isn't an out and out erotic romance either, but probably has more romantic elements than HOTBED. The heroine Rosalind does experiment a little bit... but she ends up in a happy relationship with David, a gorgeous younger man, at the end!
When Rosalind Howard becomes Julian Hadey's private librarian she soon finds herself attracted by his persuasive charms and distinguished appearance.
Julian is an unashamed sensualist who, together with his wife, Celeste, has hatched an intriguing challenge for their new employee. As well as cataloguing their collection of erotica, Rosie is expected to educate Celeste's young and beautiful cousin David in the arts of erotic love. Having led a sheltered life, the young man is simmering with youthful passion.
In luxurious surroundings Rosie finds herself drawn into increasingly decadent scenarios where experimental sex is on the menu and like-minded libertines read the rewards of unbridled desire.
Read an excerpt here!
Pride comes before a fall... but what if the descent becomes the wildest ride of your life? Two sisters - Natalie and Patti - become rivals when they challenge each other's daring on a dark, downward spiral where nobody is quite who or what they seem, and where transgressing sexual boundaries is the norm.
Read an excerpt here!
Another of my older titles, THE TUTOR, was also reissued in the UK recently. Like many of my earlier books, this one isn't an out and out erotic romance either, but probably has more romantic elements than HOTBED. The heroine Rosalind does experiment a little bit... but she ends up in a happy relationship with David, a gorgeous younger man, at the end!
When Rosalind Howard becomes Julian Hadey's private librarian she soon finds herself attracted by his persuasive charms and distinguished appearance.
Julian is an unashamed sensualist who, together with his wife, Celeste, has hatched an intriguing challenge for their new employee. As well as cataloguing their collection of erotica, Rosie is expected to educate Celeste's young and beautiful cousin David in the arts of erotic love. Having led a sheltered life, the young man is simmering with youthful passion.
In luxurious surroundings Rosie finds herself drawn into increasingly decadent scenarios where experimental sex is on the menu and like-minded libertines read the rewards of unbridled desire.
Read an excerpt here!
June 21, 2015
Her Secret is available now!
HER SECRET is out as an individual title now!
Lover from her past…
Jamie Lennox is the first man that Susannah ever loved, but now he’s different, dangerous and more devastatingly attractive than ever before. Their reunion is passionate and perverse, a thrilling exchange of power and pleasure. Can this lover from Susannah’s past become the master of her future?
Excerpt and buy links here! [all your favourite outlets should be available in the next few days]
April 21, 2015
MASTERED 2/Her Secret - out today!
Lover from her past…
Jamie Lennox is the first man that Susannah ever loved, but now he’s different, dangerous and more devastatingly attractive than ever before. Their reunion is passionate and perverse, a thrilling exchange of power and pleasure. Can this lover from Susannah’s past become the master of her future?
Her Secret is available as part of the fabulous MASTERED 2 boxed set from the following outlets:
Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
iBooks :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Also from :: Barnes and Noble :: Kobo
Check out the full sizzling lineup of MASTERED 2 here
Excerpt of HER SECRET:
Attending a wedding reception, reunited lovers Susannah and Jamie have decided to spend the night together, and are on their way up to his room in the lift…
***
Within the blink of an eye, we’re alone in the metal box, going up. It’s just a short ride, and all Jamie does is dust a strangely courtly kiss in my knuckles, looking up at me intently over them. What’s in his mind? What’s he planning? Apart from the obvious.
He’s a strong man. A man confident in his own skin. He wears black and leather. He’s almost the cliché of a dominant master, from what little I’ve gleaned about such things.
His mouth is firm and his eyes control me. My stomach flutters at the idea. But there’s an almost angelic softness to his thick, glossy black hair that brushes his shoulders.
Perhaps he is a Hells Angel after all?
I want to leap forwards and kiss his lips, but the lift door opens, and he leads me out and along the corridor to his room. He doesn’t speak, but his beautiful eyes and his imperious body language say everything. Once in the room, he pulls me into his arms, and I melt towards him, powerless. The strap of my bag slides off my shoulder, and it drops to the carpet. I don’t seem to have the will to pick it up; everything is for Jamie, my total concentration as he cradles my head and brings his mouth down on mine in just the way I wanted in the lift.
It’s as if we never parted, yet somehow he’s gained twelve years of manhood and potency and self-belief. His tongue pushes between my lips immediately, bold and muscular and subduing. The taste of him is champagne and overproof alpha male. The kiss is like an engine turned on inside me. Wanton, I press myself against him...
‘Very nice,’ he growls against my mouth. ‘Very keen. I like that.’ He nips at my lower lip, his teeth closing in perfectly gauged dominion. ‘Don’t ever hide your desire from me, Suzie. Don’t hold back.’
The kiss begins again, but more so. Much more. Jamie the mature man is far more voracious than the younger Jamie. He knows exactly what he wants and he’s taking it. A little fear grips my heart. What have I got myself into? I’m not sure I can control this situation, but then, why would I want to? If I want to experience the games of BDSM that I know my friends play, willing submission is the key to it. Even if there’s no pain involved, there’s power. His power.
Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
iBooks :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Also from :: Barnes and Noble :: Kobo
© 2015 Portia Da Costa
NB. HER SECRET will be available later in the year as a single title.
February 17, 2015
January 28, 2015
How to Seduce a Billionaire - out now!
My latest billionaire book is out now! HOW TO SEDUCE A BILLIONAIRE is alternative take on the relationship between a rich, Alpha male and a virgin. I do hope you'll like it, and come to love my characters Jess and Ellis as much as I do. They're both fun, yet complex characters and they love sex. Even virgin Jess, who's been longing to meet a man who can make her fantasies into reality...
Here's the blurb...
Twenty-nine year old virgin Jess Lockhart has had to put her life on hold due to family commitments, but now it's time to break out and start enjoying sex and love. Trickily for her, years of artistic dreaming and fantasising about her first ever lover have given her impossibly high standards where men are concerned. She's not about to do the deed with just any old male that crosses her path. He has to be Mr Right, or at the very least Mr Sex, right for now, and a super special, superior example of his gender. Nothing less will do...
Ellis McKenna has all the credentials to be Jess's 'Dream Lover'. He's gorgeous, accomplished, capable and a fabulous lover, and he also just happens to be the scion of a family whose international assets can be counted in the billions. He's perfect Mr Right material, apart from one thing... the thing that makes him Mr Wrong for any woman wanting a relationship. Ellis is a grieving widower who's sworn never to love again. He wants sex, yes, and plenty of it, as a way to forget his pain... but his deeper heart is locked away by regret and sorrow.
Can this unusual couple put aside their issues and enjoy a simple seduction? Or will life's complexities put a spanner in the works?
Read an excerpt here
DIGITAL EDITIONS
Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
iBooks :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Also from :: Kobo :: Nook UK :: Sainsburys Ebooks
PRINT EDITIONS
Amazon :: UK :: US :: CA
Also from :: Waterstones :: W H Smith
December 19, 2014
An Anglo-French Christmas Message
GrumpyCat has nothing on our 'Monsieur'! LOL
December 4, 2014
Suite Seventeen is open again!
Yay! SUITE SEVENTEEN is published anew in the UK today with a brand new and very dramatic cover. This is one of my favourites of my own books. I love it because the heroine, Annie, is a woman in her forties, not a young slip of a thing, and the hero, Valentino, is very special and unusual, and in some ways not at all like the usual Alpha male dominant. You'll have to read the book to understand his most particular foibles… ;)
Here's the blurb:
When vibrant, forty-something widow Annie Conroy spies her new neighbours having kinky sex in their back garden, she decides it's time that she too woke up and smelt the erotic roses. And where better to begin her daring adventures than the luxurious Waverley Grange Country Hotel, and its hidden den of iniquity: the chintz-clad but wickedly pervy Suite Seventeen?
Under the stern but playful eye of exotic master Valentino, Annie quickly discovers the shocking hidden depths of her own sensuality, and surrenders herself body and soul to his outrageous games of power. But when the Waverley's entire future hangs in the balance, and Annie has the means to help save it, dare she gamble on going one step further... and giving her heart to the mysterious man who's come to control her?
Here are the buy links. 4th of December is the UK publication date for the new print version, but the print version isn't released in the US until 27th January. The digital versions are already available, but may have the old pink/purple cover.
Kindle :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Epub from :: Nook :: Nook UK :: Kobo :: Waterstones
iBooks :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU
Print :: Amazon US :: Amazon UK :: Waterstones :: W H Smith :: Books a Million
