Cate Ellink's Blog, page 46

Wildlife Wednesday - moths & butterflies

Butterfly MothMy camera took an amazing macro of this butterfly sitting on a leaf. It was a gorgeous orange colour inside the wings and I'd seen them flitting about but could never get a shot. Then this day, this fellow sat on the leaf for ages and let my camera get up close for a few amazing shots - I was amazed how much detail they show.

The other guy (black, triangular shape) was snapped right up high on the garage wall, so not such a great shot.

But having taken both these photos within a few days of each other, I thought I should check out the differences between moths and butterflies.

Both moths and butterflies are in the family Lepidoptera, which means 'scaly wings'. It's the scales that give the wings the colours and patterns that we see - and they leave the 'dust' on your fingers after you touch them. There are also 'skippers' which fall into this family, and skippers are similar to a butterfly.

Okay, so the differences:

MOTHS:
fly at nightrest with their wings held flat (like the black moth)duller colours have thread-like, or feathery, antennaThere are also wing, leg and pupa differences you can check it out here if you're interested in the more technical stuff)

BUTTERFLIES
fly during the daybrightly colouredrest with the wings held above their body (like the orange one at the top)have a thickened club or hook on the tip of the antenna, never 'feathery' (not sure if you can see the 'club' (thickened end) on the butterfly's left antenna in the photo - I could be seeing it because I know it's there)
There are a couple of exceptions to every rule...but these aren't a bad way to work out which is which.

Sunday Story - two genres

I'm branching out to write in two genres - Cate Ellink for erotic and I'll use another name for rural romance. It's always been my plan. My background is ag science, so writing rurals is where I started. I just sucked at third person and it's taken me more than a few years to work that out!! And rural romance doesn't go with first person (such a shame!).

So, anyway, my rurals will have no/little sex and not much swearing. This is because my family and friends can't cope with this side of me. I've always known that, have even made jokes about it, but I've been astounded by the contrast in the reactions of people lately.

I'm re-writing a rural for a print book. When I've mentioned this to a couple of close friends and family they've jumped out of their chair and hugged me in excitement. One went so far as to say, "Oh my God, now you'll be a real author."

I was a little offended (although maybe I'm just touchy). What have I been doing for the last 3 years?

It's lovely that people are excited for me...but I'm a bit taken aback that they can be excited for rural stories but not for erotic. I put the same amount of effort into a story, doesn't matter which genre it is. It's all the same process for me of writing, re-writing, editing, layering, re-writing, editing, layering. And in actual fact, it may take more to get the erotic right because sometimes crafting the emotion leading into a sex scene takes a fair bit of layering and tweaking to get it how I want it.

Maybe it's an e-book vs a print book thing...yet the Housewives are print and I haven't seen any of these people jumping up and down about that yet (and I won't be holding my breath either).

So, Cate Ellink will stay. No matter how hard this juggling act will be, Cate Ellink's stories are continuing.

Cate's a real author. I work hard to get her stories written. I've millions of ideas buzzing around and I want them to see the light of day. I want to experiment more and push boundaries and explore more ideas. I want to keep moving around in the fascinating world of erotic romance, with authors whose work I adore.

And somehow, even with no sex and no swearing, I'm going to try to give a little plug to Cate Ellink every time I can! LOL!

So if I'm a bit slack being Cate, it's because I'm torn in two now...but I'll remain around!

Wildlife Wednesday - Magpies

I have some Magpies who have been visiting all summer - 2 adults and 3 babies. They sit at the back door and give me a little song (or a lot of demanding chirps) to ask for some food. They come usually once a day, but never on a wet/overcast day (they must get enough food those days!).

There's a youtube video here of a magpie's song if you've never heard it (well, I hope there's song. My computer was silent even with the speakers on and sound up, so please let me know if it's a dud!). Birds in Backyards also have the magpie's call on their website here.

The juvenile is the one perched on my hammock (front) and has the grey flecked chest. The adult is on the fountain (the fountain came with the house and is a fixture) and has a solid black chest.


The Australian magpies are not related to the European and North American magpies - we just seemed to borrow the name due to the black and white plumage.

Okay, so I thought I had a family visiting, but after consulting Pizzey (my bird book) it tells me that magpies hold territories by groups that can vary from a single pair to six adults or more and immatures. The sex-ratio can vary but in breeding territories, females tend to predominate and a dominant male can mate with multiple females.

The difference between males and females is that the female is a bit greyer than black, can be a bit mottled. So that's not something I'm ever going to be able to pick! Anyway, I have a bunch of magpies visiting me and they're such fun! I've been hand feeding them mince and have no fear of those massive beaks anymore! I've got a few horrid shots of blurred bird and my arm but my Dad's visiting so I might see if I can get some better photos of feeding.

I think magpies are one of my favourite birds.

Sunday Story - Madam Bovary

[image error] I'm in a classics book group and our read this past month was Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I was kind of looking forward to this because I'd never read it but knew it was quite risque for the times.

Anyway, I had to look up about the risque-ness because I thought I might have had the wrong book! LOL. But no, it was right. This from Wikipedia: "When it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, the novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors. The resulting trial, held in January 1857, made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller when it was published as a single volume in April 1857. The novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of realism and one of the most influential novels ever written."

So...what I learned...holy hell we've become explicit with our risque novels! When Madam Bovary has an affair, I read 3 or 4 pages before I could work out if they'd actually had sex or not. This was what I should have taken as sex - "she gave herself up to him -". In another instance, I was sure they had sex, but the only indication was the list of towns that the carriage drove through with randoms shouts from inside urging the carriage driver to keep going.

I think the risqueness of the novel stemmed from the fact that Madam Bovary was an unhappy wife with a doting husband. This is what she thought of him, "But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave him." When she took a lover, initially she had great happiness - "She repeated, "I have a lover! a lover!" delighting at the idea as if a second puberty had come to her." - but it didn't last, she seemed incapable of love - even of her child.

It was an interesting read to see how far risque novels have come. Although there is a rather cyclical nature to erotic fiction. In the late 1780s the Marquis deSade was writing his rather explicit stories of sex and debauchery, which ended up with him imprisoned, so within eighty years, Fluabert was in a similar predicament (a court case, but not gaol) for writing about a woman incapable of love who took lovers, yet with none of the explicit sex we saw with deSade.

I'm glad I have the freedom to write explicitly. I glad I can describe body parts and actions without censorship. Love and sex is frightening to some. I'm thankful to those authors who fought so that we today have the freedom to write what we wish.

Phallic Friday - teasing

This week's fetish can be related to a D/s relationship but can also be just a thing that gets you off (or not!). It's teasing, particularly the kind that leaves you on the edge of orgasm but doesn't let you topple over.

I guess this fetish is related to anticipation. So the thing that gets you off is the part of your brain that loves the build up and the waiting (that is if you're the one being teased). If you're the teaser, you must get off on the ability to bring someone so close, yet not send them over - and that's a skill (as well as a nasty streak if you use it too often with a partner who doesn't get off on that!).

There's a real thrill with anticipation - that build up of adrenalin that makes you wonder if you're a flight or fight person but no matter which you are, your body is primed and ready for it. It leaves you breathless, wanting, giddy, excited, and waiting. It's a heady feeling - like that feeling of falling in love - and nothing else in the world matters except that feeling, that waiting. You're focus is so intense.

As the person watching, and causing this, it must be a thrill ride in itself, kind of like being a maestro of playing an instrument. You have the person so finely tuned and you know exactly how each chord will sound and strike, that you can play to the crescendo but never tip that over. That's masterful. Which is why I think this is so often used in D/s relationships - it is masterful and therefore perfect dominant play.

To orchestrate this well, you'd have to know the person, or be extremely good at reading people's signs and body language. You have no real margin for error because once you've gone too far with an orgasm, it can't be stopped.

I like this is idea, not only for a fetish but as an aspect to a relationship. The brain is such an important part of sex, and to be able to play with it so your anticipation is on a knife-edge is very very arousing. This is definitely appearing in the book...but I'm not quite sure how yet! I think maybe it will be something that someone does subconsciously at first until they realise how 'good' they are at teasing. It might thread through the whole story. Who knows...but it's fun thinking about it :)

Wildlife Wednesday - baby water dragon

Can you spot the baby water dragon?
A long time ago I saw an adult of these laying eggs (post here) and then some babies a little later (post here). Sometimes I spot a baby but the last few weeks there've been lots of babies in all sorts of amazing camouflages...but when they move you can see them!

Phallic Friday - D/s

Dominance/submission is listed as a fetish, so it's in my list. It'll play a large role in my story.

I think D/s plays a large role in a lot of fetishes - sometimes in an obvious way, and other times with more obscurity. I'm hoping I might be able to show that.

D/s can be done well, or done poorly. In some relationships the Dom/me can be abusive rather than dominant. In others, the sub can be controlling rather than truly submissive. I want to touch on some of these kinds of relationships, have a look at pairings that aren't right...when sometimes the couple don't know they're not right.

To me, it's a mental 'game' so much more than a physical one. And I'm hoping this story might be able to work on that.

Peri is a submissive who's not had a lot of life experience. She's curious about everything and trying to stand on her own, so she's ripe for learning, desperate for knowledge and eager to work out how she's going to fit into this new world. That gives me a lot to play with...I hope!

So there'll be a D/s theme throughout the whole story, but there'll also be D/s themes and characters in scenes within the story.

I think there are some writers who do fantastic D/s scenes, so I'll be reading and re-reading to make sure I can get the right kind of feel. One of the most amazing submissive voices I've read is the opening story in The Big Book of Submission. That story blew me away with the clever insight into the submissive mind. Stories like that give me somewhere to aim ... way way up high!!!

Wildlife Wednesday - spiders (with photo)

Mr E taped this awesome show that was on sometime ago called Spider House. It was a BBC program so not a lot of our spiders, but an unreal program just the same.

During the second part, they talked spider sex and babies. They showed lots of baby spiders emerging from their cocoon/sac, which maybe got my eye in for looking for baby spiders. It's the baby time of year and in the next two days after seeing the show, I found 2 babies. This one I managed to photograph, even if it's a completely weird image! Let me explain :)

The spider is on a mirror. So I got my little camera right up close, and got a shot of the spider and my camera. That part of my camera is 2 cm across, so the baby's little. And he looks really coloured here but to the naked eye, he was like a spider husk. That's how I found it. I thought it was the dead spider and I blew it, but it scurried away! I think it's a baby huntsman, we get a few of them in our house.

On the Spider House show, they showed lots of webs and discussed web building and even dissected a dead spider to examine the spinnerets inside it's abdomen. It was fascinating. I didn't realise that spiders produce at least 4 different types of silk that have different roles in web building and prey capture. There's really high tensile silk that makes the anchor points for the web, then a lighter silk to make the initial circuits to bed down the shape/space, then a tougher, stickier silk to weave the web, and also a different lighter/finer silk to capture prey and house their eggs.

If you get to see the show, it's really worthwhile. But if you're not fond of spiders, they do lots and lots of close ups!!

Sunday Story - Secret Confessions: Sydney Housewives

Release Date: 1st March 2015

Lana is in print!!!

The lovely people at Harlequin have bundled the 11 Sydney Housewives up together and launched us into print, in one gorgeous glossy book.

We'll be out in Target and Big W, selected Dymocks shops and other booksellers, on 1 March, for (I think) $15.99.

I've never seen a book I'm in, live in a bookshop, so I'll be a lot excited to see this...I might even take photos :)

No idea how they'll sell...but it has to help that the 50 Shades movie is out now (I hope!).

Good luck, girls!!

Phallic Friday - mutual masturbation

Mutual masturbation isn't a very weird fetish, is it? I've written these sorts of scenes before. In Deep Diving there's one, with some musculature dancing.

Wikipedia has a huge amount of info on the different forms of mutual masturbation, if you're interested you can go here.

I'm going to look at mutual masturbation in a D/s role, I think. I'm also going to use frottage in the D/s scene.

This is from wikipedia: "Frottage is the general term for the act of rubbing any part of the body, including the buttocks, the breasts, abdomen, thighs, feet, hands, legs and sexual organs against the sexual organ of another person; this is done whether naked or clothed."

This is a great way to extend foreplay, and I think D/s play can really highlight this. I'm not entirely sure how it will go, but hopefully it'll be hot and steamy - and maybe a little eye-opening for Peri who won't have seen anything like this before. Well, I think that's what will happen! This book isn't writing as quickly as Fridays are coming around - but at least I'm thinking about it and working out how these scenes might fit together (well, that's what I tell myself).