Polly J. Adams's Blog, page 26

Pollygraph (interviews with romance and erotica authors): Matthew Stillman

Genesis Deflowered: equal parts holy scripture and blaspheming scandal.

Why biblical erotica?

I was helping my friend Jill Hamilton of the brilliant and hilarious blog “In Bed With Married Women” do some research on a piece she was writing about strange erotica. So I started digging deep in the bowels of Amazon. I found books about having sexy times with snowmen and making them melt, forced impregnation by leprechauns, lactation werewolf stories and the like. I had never written erotica or been a big reader of it and rolled my eyes at this particular stripe that I was finding even though it fit the bill for Jill’s piece. But I followed the “if you liked this then you might like THIS” path that Amazon sends you on.  I came across a book that was an erotic retelling of Mary getting pregnant.

I read the sample and, to my mind, it was awful writing. Cliche. Brimming with typos. Sloppy.

But the comments/reviews were amazing. There were not only lots of them but they were summarily glowing.

“This book made me feel closer to Jesus.”

“Now I know how scared and proud Mary must have been to have been approached by God this way.”

“To think that my Lord Jesus came from a union like that makes me feel good.”

I was amazed.

Something about the “message” of this book broke through to a segment of readers who clearly desired to connect their spiritual urges with their sexual ones.

I believe in that message very deeply – connecting the spiritual and sexual urges. I was confident I could do better. Though I am not religious at all I have a great interest in the impact The Bible has had on literature and culture. I have been a very amateur biblical scholar since college and I have great affection for the language of the classic King James Bible published in 1611.

Tell us more about Genesis Deflowered.

I worked really diligently to make the text I added to flow with and into the original text. So I was attentive to capture the style of the Elizabethan/Jacobean writers. With the help of an excellent editor, Veronica Tuggle, I used only words that were in use at the time and used Elizabethan grammar rules – which are different from ours. Knowing how deeply the KJV influenced the English speaking poetry tradition I tried to imagine that the version I was writing was the original and therefore embedded turns of phrase, rhymes, and fragments of poems from Donne, Keats, Swinburn, Suckling, Shelley, Byron, Tichbourne and many others to make it seem like these poets had picked up these phrases from a biblical source. I think using that poetic language helped the sweep of the narrative (such that it is) to move along and to read more beautifully.

But beyond that it is sexy as well. And it is sexy because it is restrained. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly something sexy about orifices that are sopping wet and organs that have been used to fuck someone being all hard. But there is so much of that out there. I wanted to go with the “less is sometimes more” approach and really cover new ground in the erotica space. “Genesis Deflowered” does indeed stand alone in that regard.

And you should see me at the readings I do. There is nothing like being at a reading of biblical erotica.

Is this erotica with a mission, or is it simply an idea that grabbed you?

Both. I think there is very little erotica with a specific mission (no pun intended) out there. So in that regard I am glad that “Genesis Deflowered” has a point beyond pure titillation. Though I am delighted if people find it exciting on that level alone. If masturbating furiously to the tender love story of Isaac and Rebecca gets you off or the blatantly homoerotic Jacob/Angel wrestling scene turns you on – hooray. But broadly speaking I get grabbed by missions.

A few years ago I thought “Why hasn’t there been a documentary that explains the origins of poverty? And why does poverty persist and increase despite our actions?”…so I wrote a treatment, got a company to say yes, got someone to pay for it and suddenly I was making a movie about a huge issue of global significance. And that film went to the Cannes film festival and I spoke at the UN about it and its ideas four times.

Why do you think spirituality and sexuality are, well, such uneasy bed partners?

Well, I would clarify and say that religion and sexuality are uneasy bedpartners because religion is a tool of civilization, of order, of structure, and of hierarchy. So anything that is disruptive to that structure is constitutionally not a match. Sexuality is about feeling desire and acting on it, playing with it, and experimenting with tension and release, hot and cold, hiding and being found. These are all types of polarity where a circuit of energy can flow. But all those things compromise the integrity of the vision of social control that all religions have for the societies and cultures where they reside.

And that control can bear amazing fruit in some ways – look at our world and culture – Amazing.

And that same control can and does deeply damage people and societies – look at our world and culture – Horrifying and sad.

Religion is living by books and the written word. Sexuality is written on the body.

Religion is black ink on white paper that you look at in repetitive lines.

Sexuality is curves and textures, sounds, smells and sensations.

I can go on, but as the events that were happening that formed the mythology of Genesis and the texts of Genesis there was a battle of ideas of monotheism rising up against cult like Goddess worship in that part of the world. So conflict with the feminine and the sensual is built in from the beginning. For more on this I highly, highly suggest reading the book “The Alphabet vs. The Goddess” by Leonard Shlain.

What kind of reaction have you had to Genesis Deflowered?

Mostly positive for those who are willing to push through the first jolt of “this isn’t written in normal Engilsh.” I have had many people who have said that this makes the Bible more readable and makes the stories make more sense because I have made the characters more human. And they are reading for the dirty parts. I have received a beautifully touching and thoughtful response on the nature of faith and desire from a nun in the Order of the Sacred Heart who really appreciated the book. I have had a former priest cry in joy at it.

But I also have had a few right wing tea party Bible thumpers yell at me on Twitter. But none of them read the book. But a little bit of press on Fox News will bring those people to you.

Do the people around you know what you write? How have they reacted, or how would they react?

In my mind promoting a book like this requires you having to stand behind it. So I have done that by using my real name and really working to put it out there. Unafraid to mention it in conversation. Mostly the reactions have been good, congratulatory, and amazed at the weird specificness of it. But my wife is English (from Sheffield) and her parents are a bit conservative and in a bit of a slow motion hard time and my wife really doesn’t want to get into it with them. Which is totally understandable. But all of my English family otherwise knows about it and they have cheered at the ambitiousness of it.

Tell us about your experiences as an author. What have the big challenges and successes been?

The actual book writing part was largely a joy and fascinating. Talking and writing about the book is great. The part that is really hard for me is the marketing part. That is not only a foreign skill to me but a book of biblical erotica requires a bit of a different pitch than your standard issue erotica.

Do you see yourself as a writer who specialises in sexuality, or do you write in other genres, too?

I’d preface this by saying that I don’t really think of myself as a writer. I am someone who writes. Maybe even writes well. But I don’t self identify as that most romantic of titles…(sigh) a writer.

I write a lot about self development and creativity at my blog stillmansays.com. But I am also writing a part of  presentation I’m making at the New York Federal Reserve in a few weeks on reforming the property tax code.

And I have written thousands of hours of scripts for television shows about food – I used to run program development at Food Network (a US cable network).

But at the moment I am writing biblical erotica and have something to say about that. And I love doing it and can see myself writing in this fashion for some time – especially if I break into a space where there is a real desire for it in a segment of the public.

What is next for you?

I am working on Exodus Deflowered and hope that this book is successful enough for me to merit working on down the entire Bible. Also I have recently discovered that steaming eggs for 9 ½ minutes in a steamer as opposed to boiling them makes superior hard cooked eggs with a shell that easily peels off on any kind of egg, new or old and never tears the white. The pressure of the steaming puts just enough space to get the porous shell to separate from the egg.

Genesis Deflowered

Where many see the Bible as the pathway to Heaven, others say it should be covered in a brown paper bag because it is so, so filthy.

There are hundreds of sex acts implied in the first book of the bible. How has nobody ever described how each of them would have played out in biblical language?

If the writers and translators of the Bible had been a little less prudish we might have an entirely different relationship between sex and religion than we have now. In Genesis there is sex before marriage, threesomes, incest, group sex, kinky fetish cuckolding, gay sex and more. Isn’t it time that you read the Bible for the dirty parts?

Using the seminal King James Bible in its Elizabethan English as spring board,”Genesis Deflowered” makes the beginning of the Bible come out as a sexy, readable and fun erotic novel.

“Genesis Deflowered “: equal parts holy scripture and blaspheming scandal.

Purchase links

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble
Social Media Links

Matthew Stillman’s Stillman Says

Matthew Stillman on Twitter

 

New: Seduced by Moonlight – seven stories of explicit paranormal erotica by Polly J Adams

A collection of seven explicit stories of paranormal erotica from the bestselling author of Bad Girls, The Billionaires’ Sex Club and Taken to the Edge.

‘The Lady in White’

When Lily and Denny decided to spend their wedding night at Clovely Hall they didn’t bargain on an encounter with the ghost of a murdered Victorian bride. A passionate gothic tale of love and sex, and putting old tragedies to rest.

‘Sleeping with the Past’

Estella Haynes is an architect specialising in the restoration of historical buildings, and she uses her work to help escape from her stifling, dull marriage. But when an overnight stay in Copford Hall leads to a steamy erotic dream encounter with the dashing Mr Huxley her life and lusts are reawakened. Can passion resonate from one century to another? And can her intense sexual adventures with Huxley set her on the course to fulfilment?

‘Letting Go’

She almost turned and left, but she couldn’t.

She was drawn to him.

She had to be here.

She had to join him.

She couldn’t let him go.

Ever.

…Intensely passionate and erotic… a story of love, loss and sexual abandon.

‘The Touch’ – a four-part serial

Ruth lives in the Hall with the mysterious Sisters. They have powers, and they have ways of influencing the world. They have ways of getting what they want. When Ruth sees Saul working with the stonemasons on the village church, young, stripped to the waist, fit and tanned, she knows what she wants. Refusing to use her own magical powers, Ruth sets out to win Saul on her own, without any help from sisters Anna and Esme. But if she can’t use supernatural Charms and Enchantments, just what can she do to make him hers?

The contents of this book were previously published in separate volumes: The Lady in White, Sleeping With the Past and Letting Go (collected as Raising the Dead); and Touched, Touched Again, All Come Together and Virgin Territory (collected as The Touch).

 

Excerpt from ‘The Lady in White’

Lily had stayed in her wedding dress throughout the day and on into the evening. She had an outfit for the evening reception, but in the end had decided not to change. The wedding dress had cost a fortune. She’d had it modified so that it was perfect: cinched in at the waist, the bodice cupping her breasts so that there was a hint of serving girl, a hint of slut, just the right balance between sexy and demure new bride. Best of all, she loved the way the layered skirts hung like a waterfall. Despite her mother’s best efforts, she had never wanted a big meringue of a wedding dress.

She’d known she had it right when she walked down the aisle at St Mary’s. Denny had turned and looked … and then: double-take. His eyes had opened just a little wider, his lips had parted.

She loved that look. The “I’m going to take you right here, right now” look.

It was a physical thing at first, the attraction. Denny was a Slater, and you didn’t mess with the Slaters. When she’d started going out with him her friends had been aghast. You never cross the Slaters, and so when this infatuation ended she would be in trouble. And if it didn’t… if this thing really lasted… then she would be a part of the Slater clan.

But that look in his eye.

She knew of the family. She knew them well enough to be able to put names to most of them, and to know the local gossip about which were currently in prison or court.

But that first night in the King’s Arms… The glance across the crowded bar and then – that double take. The look.

He’d left it half an hour before approaching her, and then he’d threaded his way through the throng, put a hand on her elbow, leaned in so that he was close to her ear, and asked what she’d like to drink. Not if she wanted a drink, but what she’d like. No one turned down a Slater.

But what she had first taken for arrogance, she’d come to realise was just how he had learned the world worked. He’d seen how his brothers behaved and just naturally followed. In reality, he was the soft centre of the family, an artistic boy fiercely protected by the clan.

She’d learned all that later, a process of chipping away at the brash posturing, peeling away the layers of Slater he’d pasted over himself for self-preservation.

That night, that first night… She would have gone with him right then. Gone outside, allowed him to drag her into a car or into a dark alley. She wanted to feel his hands on her, wanted that urgent, desperate exploration. She wanted to taste him, wanted to feel that fuzz of evening stubble scraping across her face, across her breasts.

More than anything, she wanted to fuck him, hard and fast.

She’d never felt like that about a man before. Not so urgently, not so suddenly. Normally she needed seducing. She needed wooing.

But Denny… he had wooed her with that look, that touch on her elbow.

She’d forgotten he was a Slater.

She just wanted him.

(continues…)

Available from:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes and Noble

#adultfiltered by #amazon

I’ve written here before about censorship, adult filters and the like, and I’m sure I’ll do so again.

Right now, if you’re an erotica writer you’re probably aware that Amazon are cracking down on adult content. Previously they had the unpublicised adult filter: a book tagged as adult would be unavailable in general searches – to find it in an Amazon search you had to search from within the book pages. I never understood the logic of this: it makes sense to have some kind of safety mechanism so that minors don’t stumble across Fucking Mom in Her Sleep, but do they think kids don’t search within the book section…?

Now, rather than using a fairly-applied adult filter that gives users (and parents) choices over whether adult material appears in search results, the ‘zon are just applying the existing filter mechanism more enthusiastically.

All of a sudden, writers like me find that a large part of their back-list is now filtered, and therefore harder to find. It pisses me off, and I’m sure it pisses off any readers who are aware that they are being manipulated in this way. Unfortunately, most readers don’t know what’s going on.

Don’t get me wrong: as I say, I actually support the idea of a filter mechanism that is open about what it offers and puts users in control. What I don’t like is the application of a filter by stealth, unevenly applied so that it’s pretty random whether a particular adult story gets filtered or not.

Right now, I’m adding a label to the book-listings on my website: ‘Filtered by Amazon’, and using the hashtags ‘#adultfiltered by #amazon’ in Tweets about my blocked books. It probably won’t achieve anything, but at least it makes me feel a bit better

Oh yes, and the wonderful Selena Kitt has written about the filter – and worse, the blocking of some titles – over on the One-Handed Writers blog.

New: Equal Partners (Working Girl 2) by Polly J Adams

Beth Masters has been lucky in her life so far. She comes from a good family, and has had a stable, protected up-bringing. She has good friends, and she’s avoided a lot of the pressures faced by most girls growing up. She’s worked hard and got into a good New England college. And now, in Bill Grady, she has a man who is not only gorgeous, generous and a phenomenal lover, but a thoroughly good person.

If there are limits to his generosity, Bella is yet to find them. Indeed, it turns out that he’s willing to share just about everything.

Working Girl: One woman’s journey from small-town virgin to part-time hooker. From the bestselling author of The Billionaires’ Sex Club and The Wings of Desire.

 

Excerpt:

This time, though, it was different. This time he turned her so that she was against the window and then he dropped to his knees. She eased her legs apart and arched her back, anticipating that first wet pressure of his tongue parting her lips. Sure enough, there it was, that first touch, the pressing and parting, and then his tongue pressing inside her. His hand was there, too, the thumb pressing gently on the hood of skin covering her clit, rolling from side to side as he fucked her with his tongue.

God that was good! Even now, when they’d fucked and played in so many different ways, he had plenty of new things to do with her, and now, within only a few rolls of his thumb across her clit, she was right on the edge.

Sensing this, he eased off, then started to lick along the folds of her labia with long sweeps of the tongue, dragging right back across the sensitive skin of her perineum before starting again.

Each time, his tongue swept a longer track, until he was licking between her buttocks, his tongue following that dark valley, gentle at first, then pressing more and more with each stroke, until its tip was sliding right along the crack, gliding across the opening and then returning to swirl around it.

She’d never felt anything like that before. So unexpected, the delicious physical sensations mixed with a sense of taboo. This was somewhere you didn’t go – especially with your tongue!

Now he had her ass firmly in his grip, holding and parting her buttocks so that his tongue could flick and swirl and then, finally, press deep, slipping inside, fleshy and wet and hot and then sliding back out. Again, he pushed deep with his tongue and then he found a rhythm, and it felt like one long, continuous wetness, and God but he’d taken her right back to the edge of orgasm again in a way she had never anticipated!

That was when he stood and the length of his shaft pressed against her ass and it was wet and slippery. He had planned this, then… Either that, or he just happened to have some lube lying around his office.

He started to slide against her, his dick and balls following the crack of her ass, pressing between her buttocks, so slippery and wet against her.

“Now, babe,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ve wanted this since day one.”

(continues…)

Equal Partners  is available from:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes and Noble

All I want… erotica and erotic romance recommendations

The Mistress (An Adult Mystery Erotica) by J.E. & M. Keep

Free: 09/18-09/22 “I know I shouldn’t be so curious about you, but you make it so tantalizing to know more.” SEDUCTION Eva Perkins is a beautiful and educated student of Freud. She’s lusted after by her professors, and has no qualms about seducing them. Especially if it helps her future career. When her favourite lover, Dr. Gregory Sinclair, invites her to his wife’s lavish soiree, she’s only too excited to run off with him after the meal for some adult fun. MURDER She can still taste her lover’s mouth on her when she finds his wife’s body lying in the snow. Dr. Sinclair would never let her stumble across something so horrific if he were the culprit, but with a house bustling with people, who can she trust? As Dr. Sinclair is led away in handcuffs, Eva is the only one that can prove his innocence. However, it will involve revealing their affair, and give Dr. Sinclair a potential motive. MYSTERY Each passing second gives the murderer more time to cover their tracks, and to keep her silent. Darkness lurks in the hearts of her colleagues and professors, and the more she learns, the more urgent her search for the killer becomes. Her life depends on it. Eva Perkins is a smart female protagonist who will stop at nothing to clear her lover’s name. This sexy thriller will keep you gripping your seat and clenching your thighs with its heart-pounding suspense and breath quickening sex. An action-packed and very racy mystery novel set in the flapper era. For lovers of romantic suspense.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Breaking the Office Intern by Polly J Adams

You know that moment? The one where suddenly everything changes, when the power shifts. When a man who has been domineering and in control is suddenly anything but. When he’d do anything for you not to stop doing that thing you’ve been doing. That moment. That.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Maybe Fate by Cynthia Brint

No matter how you fight, fate still comes knocking. But what happens when you rebel against it? A full-length New Adult paranormal romance, focusing on the wonder of destiny, the beauty of love, and the way it sweeps us up with unstoppable, hungry claws.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Leap of Faith by Michelle Cary

Content with her life as an Ultimate Extreme Wrestling Vixen, Lexi Blackwell isn’t looking for love, but when rising star Logan Lanier sets his sights and his heart on the pretty little vixen what will she do?

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Sliding Into The Abyss: Episode 1 To Spank, Or Not To Spank by Echo Chambers

It all started simply enough, an overheard exhibitionist fantasy, a witnessed tryst involving a light spanking and sex in front of an imaginary audience. Then came the offer they couldn’t refuse: repeat the scene in front of an actual audience and you can save your jobs – and the business of Fran and Lou Evans, their kind-hearted bosses.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

New – Working Girl 1: Breaking the Office Intern by Polly J Adams

You know that moment? The one where suddenly everything changes, when the power shifts. When a man who has been domineering and in control is suddenly anything but. When he’d do anything for you not to stop doing that thing you’ve been doing.

That moment. That.

Working Girl: One woman’s journey from small-town virgin to part-time hooker. From the bestselling author of The Billionaires’ Sex Club and The Wings of Desire.

Extract

You know that moment? The one where suddenly everything changes, when the power shifts. When a man who has been domineering and in control is suddenlyanything but. When he’d do anything for you not to stop doing that thing you’ve been doing.

That moment. That.

§

Beth Masters hadn’t set out to seduce anybody. For starters, she just wasn’t that kind of a girl, or at least, she hadn’t realized she was.

She was a good girl, from a good, small-town, church-going family. She’d studied hard to get her place at one of the better liberal arts colleges in New England, and she worked hard to make the most of it. There’s a point where good borders on dull, and that’s pretty much where Beth had pitched things until that day.

Even the summer internship was worthy, bordering on the dull…

Deller and Grady were an ethical marketing agency, and those aren’t three words that often go together. Their tag-line was to the point: ‘We work with good people to make sure everyone else knows they’re good.’ Deliberately just a little bit wordy and awkward in an Aw shucks kind of way, it said exactly what Deller and Grady did.

Beth chose her outfit carefully, that first day: clothes appropriate for the company where she would be working for the summer. A simple gray blouse and charcoal pencil skirt; the sheer black hold-ups and a knockout pair of patent-leather slingbacks that went with the skirt. She tied her long blonde hair back in a simple pony-tail, tidy and efficient. The little black thong was for Beth alone, not for anyone else. It was what she liked to think of as her little bit of naughty, something that made her feel good. Whenever she was talking to someone and she could tell they were thinking what a nice girl she was – and she was – she would know that underneath her polite exterior there was that little bit of naughty.

And maybe that was her undoing…

(…continues)

Breaking the Office Intern is available from:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

Cover reveal: the Working Girl series, by Polly J Adams

Coming soon to ebookshops near you:

You know that moment? The one where suddenly everything changes, when the power shifts. When a man who has been domineering and in control is suddenly anything but. When he’d do anything for you not to stop doing that thing you’ve been doing.

That moment. That.

Working Girl: One woman’s journey from small-town virgin to part-time hooker.

A four-part series from the bestselling author of The Billionaires’ Sex Club and The Wings of Desire.

Chasing Trends – guest post by Michelle Cary

I’ve been writing for a long time. Ten years to be exact. And in those ten years I’ve seen a lot change within the book industry. The big six publishers shunning e-books and their authors, then eventually, with no other choice, begrudgingly embrace the e-book boom. I’ve seen the RWA snub their noses at e-book authors and indies alike, only to finally giving validation to those same authors. I’ve witnessed the fall of Borders books and the current demise of Barnes and Noble.

Through all the changes there is one element that’s stayed constant. Trends! When Harry Potter first shattered the market, readers saw a flood of new books follow as authors tried to chase what they perceived to be the next trend. Some books were good, some weren’t, but as readers voraciously consumed Harry Potter, they were willing to try other authors and titles in an attempt to feed the Harry Potter need.

Most recently the craze was billionaire stories with brooding damaged heroes and innocent, naive and sometimes clumsy heroines. You can thank Fifty Shades of Grey for this trend. Again, as these books opened new readers up to a genre they hadn’t ever experienced the demand for similar stories rose and some lucky authors rode the trend and came out winners. Just look at Sarah Fawkes’ ‘All He Wants’ series.

Even in some of the author groups to which I belong, there is speculation and discussions among authors about whether one should chase the trend and what the next big thing is going to be.

Personally, I’ve never been one to follow trends. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with chasing trends. I just don’t do it and honestly, it’s probably to my detriment. Still, as much as I try to see my writing as a business, the sad reality for me is that my writing is very personal. I can’t just on command tell a story about werewolves, or bigfoot (think Virginia Wade), or vampires or anything else, unless I want to write about it. I tried once with one of my Ginny Michael’s titles, to write a vampire story. It fell flat on its face. Personally I think it’s a horrible story, because my heart wasn’t in it.

When I first started writing, a fairly well established author game me some advice that I still live by when it comes to my writing. Write what interests you. Write what you love. If it happens to fall into the current trend then great, but if not…don’t sweat it. So I write about what I know and what I love. As my tastes change, so do my stories, but I write for the love of the story with the hope that maybe…just maybe one day I’ll be the one to start the next big trend.

One last thing… I want to give a big thank you to Polly for having me on her blog today!

Check out my latest story entitled ‘Leap of Faith’ available September 10th at Loose-id.

Content with her life as Ultimate Extreme Wrestling Vixen. Lexi Blackwell isn’t looking for love. Considered a legacy in the business because of her legendary father, she’d well respected and liked by many. She has only one focus and that’s her career. Years ago she fell in love with a fellow UEW supers star only to suffer a lot more than just a broken heart. Unable to completely cover from the hurt, Lexi swore never to travel down that path again.

Professional wrestler Logan Lanier is a rising star in the company. He’s spent years working to reach the top and excels at everything he does. Once in the big leagues Logan quickly realizes just how lonely the existence can be. Feeling a connection with Lexi, he sets his sights and his heart on the pretty little vixen. He knows she’s been burned before and is determined to do whatever it takes to prove that not all men (or wrestlers) are created equal.

Can Logan win her trust and ultimately her love, or will the cruel hand of fate strike again?

AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 10TH @ Loose-id

Check out Michelle’s Facebook page and website for information on her books, contests and much more.

 

 

All I want… erotica and romance recommendations

Sometimes a Shadow Collection by Emmie Udall

All three Sometimes a Shadow stories in one handy volume! Sometimes a Shadow – The Meeting Sometimes a Shadow – The Slave Auction Sometimes a Shadow – The Disaster When Valerie Mitford meets incredibly rich Maximilian Vonderburg, he introduces her to a world of kinky sex, international finance, and murderous intrigue. With his charm and dominating ways, Max shows her the secret side of the kinky rich and famous. Politicians and actors, bankers and rock stars, all with their hidden, and some not so hidden, kinky lifestyles. Max knows them all. Some are friends, some are enemies. One wants to destroy him and his entire family. Seduced sexually and financially into becoming his personal assistant, does Valerie dare explore her own kinky fantasies without losing herself or her heart? Approx. 33,000 words.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

My Alpha Ex Brother in Law Bound by Jenny Jeans

Lisa thinks she’s crazy having feelings for her dead fiancée’s twin. But her ex-brother-in-law Gavin is alive and Travis is gone. When she sees Gavin, she gets a taste of what she lost. And she can’t stay away. Gavin despises being a substitute for his long dead brother, who was not all he seemed to be in the “great” department. Gavin just wishes his voluptuous ex sister-in-law Lisa would see him and not Travis. Finally, Gavin won’t take it any longer and he becomes determined to shake up his curvy ex sister-in-law, to make her feel only him and see only him. He has secrets she could never guess at, but when he brings his ropes out he forces her to submit … and she becomes captive to his will. He breaks her open the first time. But if she comes back on her own, then he will, bind, rope, and bound her to his rough desires, until she calls him Master.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

A Little Too Broken by Brad Vance

When Jamie walks through the door of the Humane Society, it’s not just an animal who needs rescuing that day. Tom is there to adopt another service dog into the Canine Comrade Corps, but it’s Jamie his heart goes out to. But each man turns away, walks away, from the potential pain, the rejection, the knowledge that it’ll all end in tears…

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Pulse by Brooke Jaxsen

He’s the one guy that doesn’t want her or the problems that comes with dating a girl like her. She’s the one girl he can’t stay away from, the one he can’t stop himself from saving.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

The First Alpha by KA Taylor

Adam has waited an eternity for his mate. After three thousand years of searching he’s almost lost hope that he’ll ever find her… almost convinced himself that God has forsaken him. A tale of love against all odds; of betrayal, scheming and intrigue, and of two souls linked together across time.

Amazon US – Amazon UK

Character interview: meet Willem Bentinck-Stanley from The Object of His Desire

I meet Willem Bentinck-Stanley in a smart little wine bar, tucked away in the back streets of London’s Soho. I get there early, he’s bang on time, pulling up in a chauffeur-driven limo. He finds me at my window seat instantly; we’ve never met before, but my friend Trudy Parsons had warned me that he would have had me thoroughly vetted before agreeing to meet me.

Indeed, that he agreed to meet me at all was something of a miracle: as I’ve already discovered in preparing for this interview, the Honorable Will guards his privacy most effectively. For a man to have almost no online presence is rare these days; for a man with Bentinck-Stanley’s high profile and rather shady past to be so invisible is quite remarkable. I must state at this point that Will – let’s call him that; his full name is so cumbersome and stiff – has stipulated certain subjects I must not raise in this interview, and that if they do crop up I am not to document them. I should probably also state that I don’t like being pushed around and I’ll write what I damn well like.

He pauses in the doorway for an instant, eyes scanning the room, and then he sees me, nods, and approaches. He’s about six foot tall, slim with square shoulders and an easy athleticism in the way he walks. His jaw is thick with dark stubble and his black hair is tousled and in need of a trim. He wears his tie knotted tight but pulled loose, the top button of his shirt undone.

And his eyes. Trudy has warned me about the eyes: dark eyes, moody eyes, but so sharp that when they fix on you you’re pinned to the spot. Predator eyes, she called them. He’s the kind of man who dominates any gathering, without even trying; Trudy told me about that, too, but it’s not the kind of thing you really understand until you see it in person.

“Ms Grayson?” he says, stopping by my table and reaching for my hand. His grip is firm, in control, and I mentally kick myself for my immediate melting response. I’m not a girly woman, and I don’t respond to powerful men like that; no really, I don’t!

He sits opposite me, raises a finger and immediately a waitress is at our table taking his drink order. I thank him for agreeing to see me, and he smiles. “I don’t do interviews,” he says. “I have no need of the attention.”

“So why the exception for me?”

“Trudy vouched for you. She can be very persuasive.”

It’s a reasonable answer, but even from such a short encounter I can tell that Will isn’t a man who is easily persuaded to do anything.

“Trudy’s great, isn’t she?” I say. My aim is to build up a personal bond from the start to set him at ease, but he sees through it immediately.

“Ms Parsons is unlike any other woman, but I’m not here to discuss my acquaintances.”

He takes a sip of his single malt, while I struggle to find another approach. He is polite, charming even, and he totally throws me off my usual professional approach.

“She’s just an ‘acquaintance’?”

He raises one eyebrow and says nothing.

“Sorry, erm, let me see.” I feel such a blushing fool before him. I’m not usually like this. Damn it, I’m never like this! But somehow he makes me feel like a schoolgirl, blushing and stumbling over my words. As a journalist I meet plenty of good-looking men and I never act this way. I glance up and he’s smiling, as if he enjoys my awkwardness. That’s when I realize that he’s playing me. He’s the one who mentioned Trudy, after all.

“What’s the story behind the exhibition at the Walker?”

“My family has a long association with the arts,” he says. “Constable painted the grounds of our estate in Norfolk. Rembrandt was a friend of the Dutch side of my family. We have one of the most distinguished private collections in the country, and it’s been an interest of mine since an early age. I grew up thinking it was normal to have a van Gogh hanging on your wall; when I came to understand how privileged I was, I decided that at some point I would find ways to share that privilege. This exhibition is part of that endeavor.”

“It’s a very public thing to do for a man who guards his privacy so effectively.”

He shrugs. “I stay behind the scenes,” he says. “Apart from this interview I will not be taking part in promoting the exhibition, and I trust that you will stick to our agreement that we’re only meeting in order to provide you with background information: this is not about me, it’s about the exhibition.”

“Of course,” I say, and oh my but he has a sharp, steel edge when he’s laying things out like that. He’s a man who likes to control things, clearly; and from what I’ve heard that extends to his private life, too.

“You really are very good at staying behind the scenes, aren’t you? Is that because of your work?”

He takes another sip from his drink, gives that enigmatic smile, and seems quite prepared to sit through any length of awkward silence rather than answer me. Yes, I know: his people have warned me about the No Go areas for this interview. We’re not to talk about his relationship with my friend Trudy; I mustn’t ask about his work with the Foreign Office, or the intelligence services and his contacts with foreign governments; and I must, most certainly, avoid any mention of…

“Or does it go back to the Sally Fielding scandal?”

Sometimes it pays to drop a bombshell into the middle of an interview. It breaks through those protective layers and gets a real reaction. It’s a high-risk approach, but then I like to think that my interviews are never dull.

But sometimes the bombshell is just never going to work, and I really should have known that Bentinck-Stanley was bomb-proof.

Those eyes. They fix me now. He’s impossible to read. And his presence is almost over-powering. He takes a long draw at his whisky now, and then another and his glass is empty.

Then he stands, nods, and walks to the door, the interview over.

He’s set out the ground-rules and I’ve broken them, but I’m not here just to do his PR. He’s an intriguing man with a history, a man who protects himself fiercely and also he’s a man who is seeing a very good friend of mine and I worry about her.

So there it is, my interview with the Honorable Willem Bentinck-Stanley. Over before it had ever really started. Unpublishable, of course: there’s only about one paragraph in there that sticks to the safe topics his people have set out.

It really isn’t like me to be so unprofessional, and I’m frustrated that I haven’t been able to dig beneath the surface and find the real man, but then this was no ordinary interview, and Willem Bentinck-Stanley is clearly no ordinary man.

[This character interview was first published at Drugs Called Books.]

The Object of His Desire by PJ Adams
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?
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.
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