Polly J. Adams's Blog, page 36

Free erotica: Private Party, or when I hired my best-friend stripper for my husband

Sometimes it's easy to make a book available for free, but sometimes it takes forever.

In the case of one of my earlier stories, Private Party, it's been both...

The book went free at amazon.com a year ago, since when it's been downloaded tens of thousands of times, picked up some excellent reviews and spent several months in the erotica top 100. But for some reason Amazon UK didn't follow suit.

Not until today, that is. At last, this one's free in the UK. It's short and explicit, and I hope it serves as a good introduction both to my Girls' Club confessional erotica stories, and to my erotica in general. Here's the blurb:

When Jack's stag party is cancelled, his new bride Mel is determined to make it up for him. So she arranges a private party: a quiet night in, some drinks, and a stripper for just the two of them.

A Girls' Club story from the author of Easy as One, Two, Three and Letting Go.

Note: this story contains explicit adult content. Lots of it.

Private Party is available for free from:
Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Things that make you go Ooh! in the night

It happened to me yesterday, one of those moments that make you go Ooh! Things were getting hot and steamy, I was wearing next to nothing, and...

No, not that! I was at the gym, just lying back and relaxing in the sauna after a good workout, and things in my head suddenly fell into place like pieces of a jigsaw, and damn, but I didn't have a phone or notebook to hand! So I did what I always do: I started reciting the key points over and over in my head so that they'd stick until I could get to the changing room and make notes on my phone.

Those moments are magic, the real high points of the creative process.

Right now I'm working on the third of four volumes of my The Object of His Desire erotic romance series. There are lots of story strands going on and I've reached the point where I need to draw some of them together in this instalment and set up the drama for the final one. Sometimes it's just a matter of hard graft: working things out, consciously crafting the story.

But sometimes...

Sometimes you're lying in the sauna and your subconscious does the work, throwing all the pieces of jigsaw in the air and then watching as they miraculously fall into place. Last week I was lying in bed, struggling to get to sleep, and it happened then. That time I had my phone to hand, so I just reached over and wrote the ideas down so I wouldn't lose them when I slept.

When you're a writer, sometimes things really do make you go Ooh! in the middle of the night.

Getting behind your favourite authors

No... I didn't mean that!

You know that thing when authors start to pick up momentum and suddenly get a much higher profile? Sometimes that's the result of a concerted marketing effort, but more often than not it's just a matter of an author hitting a critical tipping point.

It's the buzz that gets going when a new book is out, the chatter on Facebook and Twitter, the chorus of "Oh, have you read...?"

Keen fans - what marketers call power users - can make all the difference. They take it upon themselves to go out to bat for their favourite authors. They write reviews, they get the buzz going in social media, they tweet and retweet; they mention new books to friends and relatives and even to complete strangers; they talk about "their authors" with pride and affection, and they feel that they're playing a key role in helping their favourites get that next book out.

And they are. They make all the difference. Every time someone posts a positive comment, or recommends a book to a friend, that's so much more valuable than anything an author or his/her publicist can do. It's for real.

So what can you do to help your authors? Here's a quick checklist, in no particular order.

Post reviews.
You don't need to write a long, in-depth essay if you don't want to. All it takes is a sentence or three: why you liked this book and a bit of context (you liked it because you liked X, or because you like books about Y). Amazon and Barnes and Noble make it easy to post reviews.Blogs.
Do you blog? If so, why not post an entry on books you've been reading? Or how about posting about books that have just come out that you can't wait to read?Facebook.
Statuses about what you're reading can be great for getting book buzz going, as can commenting on other people's statuses, Liking authors' pages and so on.Twitter.
Another place to mention books and authors. Why not follow your favourite authors and retweet their book tweets? For the record, I'm @pollyjadams.Goodreads.
I've put this in a category of its own because Goodreads is a bit of an odd one. Occasionally it seems to generate a culture of bitchiness, which is a shame, but it makes good reviews here all the more valuable for an author.Tagging at Amazon.
Each book's entries at Amazon has space for readers to add tags that they think describe the book; this helps other readers find the kinds of books they like.Online forums.
Amazon has forums for readers to discuss and recommend books, and there are plenty of other places around the internet where you can do this.Word of mouth.
Most of the above is just high-tech word of mouth, more ways of telling friends about books and authors they might enjoy.Mailing lists.
Lots of authors have mailing lists where fans can keep up with their work, pick up freebies and bargains, etc. If you're keen to spread the word, then a mailing list is often the best way to get the news first....and I'm sure there are many more ways. This is where fans are so much better than authors: you guys get excited about books and want to share that enthusiasm, and you come up with all kinds of ways to do it. Authors? We just sit down and write stuff.

So what kind of erotica / erotic romance writer am I, really?

I've written about this subject before, and will probably do so again. It's only natural, after all, for a writer to constantly stand back and evaluate their work. For me, also, working in genres with so many sub-categories and kinks, I'm always fascinated to try to work out where I fit in.

This time, my ruminations have been prompted by a discussion with fellow authors, and also by this tweet from the wonderful Christa Wick:

Classy, sassy, sexy - check out @PollyJAdams at amazon.com/Polly-J-Adams/… & get Letting Go #free amazon.com/gp/product/B00… #erotica #kindle

It's interesting to see an evaluation like this from a fellow author. Classy, sassy, sexy? I'd go with that.

My stories can be very explicit, and all about the sex - definitely sassy and sexy. But equally, I love to write stories with rich backdrops, fully fleshed-out characters, and plots I hope the reader will care about - particularly with my Knee-tremblers and Indulgence series, and under my erotic romance pen-name, PJ Adams. Often these stories feature classy, sumptuous backdrops: the rich and enigmatic owner of the Indulgence sex club, the wealthy ruling class families in PJ Adams' The Object of his Desire. It's natural for me to write about these settings: they interest me, for a start, but also it's my background, too.

So... I'm a posh bird with a filthy mind. Maybe that's what kind of writer I really am: classy, sumptuous, indulgent, capable of sweeping romance but equally capable of utter filth.

I kind of like that. I think it fits. I think it's me.

A quick writing update

It might appear to some that I've been a bit quiet of late and that's kind of true: lots of real life stuff has got in the way of writing for a while now.

The other factor is that increasingly I've been writing longer stories. There's a stable market in erotica for short stories of around 5,000 words, and that's an area I like to work in: a nice length to develop a story, but also just the right length for someone who, to get right to the heart of the matter, wants to get off on a story. For this market, 15,000 words is too long - imagine the arm-ache!

But recently I've been drawn to longer stories and serials. At this length there's space for characters to develop and for strong stories to emerge.

One consequence of this is a very practical one. Longer stories take longer to write, and so my publications have become more spread out. The stories in my The Object of his Desire series, for example, are 15 to 20,000 words long, so that when the series is complete it will add up to a complete novel. Even my Billionaires's Sex Club series, where the action is a bit more full-on, are twice the length of my other stories.

It's fun to do, and I'm getting stuck into volume three of The Object of his Desire right now (although I did take a break for a 5,000 word, more explicit, story called Lizzie and Cara Make Three ).

What next? The fourth and final instalment of The Object of his Desire should be out before Christmas; the third and final instalment of The Billionaires's Sex Club will be out around then, too. In the new year there will be compilations of both series, so you can get the complete story in one book. I also have plans for a couple more series to work on over the winter, both of them my take on the alpha-male/billionaire story that is so popular right now.

Hasn't the billionaire thing gone its course by now, though?

Probably not immediately, with big traditional publishers desperate to bring out books in the Fifty Shades of Grey category (watch out for the fantastic Sara Fawkes, due from St Martin's press soon). But yes, it'll probably fizzle out at some point.

But alpha males? Surely we all have space in our lives for a man who knows what he wants and a woman who finds that intensely horny? In our fantasies, at least!

Pollygaph (interviews with erotica authors): Alexx Andria

Why erotica?I have a naturally sexual nature and as my trad career progressed, I realized my love scenes were getting hotter and hotter. When my editor had to keep putting the brakes on my love scenes, I realized that perhaps I ought to try my hand at erotica and see where it takes me. This November will be my 1-year anniversary of writing erotica and I'm having a blast. I'm definitely in the right place.

What kinds of erotica do you write?
My tagline is, "From the mild to the wild and everything in between," which is appropriate for my style. I like to experiment with different genres but I have noticed that I have a fondness for strong Alpha men who are just a little on the rough side. I like to mix in a light BDSM, nothing hard-core, but a nice slap on the ass is always nice.

Tell us about your experiences as an erotica author. What have the big challenges and successes been?
What a blessing this has been...I truly believe I've found a good niche, one that I was born to write. In my trad career, I write contemporary romances for a major publisher and I love that, too, but erotica allows me to really stretch my writing talents. I'm still relatively new so I'm still building my fan base and testing the market but overall, it's been such a wonderful ride. I think the biggest challenge is structuring a story arc within a tighter page count. I enjoy the short story format and serialized format, which requires a much tighter story arc than a 85,000 word novel but I'm loving it.

Do you write in other genres, too?
Yes, I write contemporary romance for a major publisher and I dabble in paranormal romance as an indie.

Do the people around you know what you write? How have they reacted, or how would they react?
At first I was very tight lipped about the fact that I write erotica, but now I don't really care who knows. I'm proud of my work and love to share. As far as reactions go, everyone has been supportive and dare I say, no one has been really surprised! I'm a bit of a playful flirt and anyone who has partied with me knows that after a few drinks, I get a little touchy-feely. LOL (My husband keeps an eye on me when we're out and about!) So, the reactions have actually been very supportive. I've even had a few of my trad fans cross over to my erotica pen name thanks to the popularity of 50 Shades. Everyone wants to read about Teh Dirteh.

Tell us about your most recent titles.
Currently, I have 36 titles, of which I have several series that are doing well; however, my best selling series is my Billionaire Brothers series followed closely by my Breeding Prophecy series. The Billionaire Brothers is a contemporary story about twin brothers who purchase a woman for their pleasure but nothing is as it seems in the Buchanan world. The Billionaire Brothers series is a hot, hot read but there's a bit of a plot weaving its way through it, too. The Breeding Prophecy is about a werewolf clan and an epic prophecy that rules all their lives. It's truly fun to write and I'm writing the final installment now.

Do you have a favourite, or favourites, among your stories?
Oh goodness...my favorite is always the one I'm writing right now ;-) (That's Nora Roberts' standard answer for that question and I think it's pretty spot on!)

How do you normally go about writing an erotic story? Is there much, ahem, research involved...?
Life is research, isn't it? ;-) And who doesn't like researching anything that has to do with sex?

Do you have any favourite erotica authors?
I'm still new to the game but I've found a few authors that I feel are on top of their game who provide a good story, such as Katie Cramer, Christa Wick, Aphrodite Hunt, Kelly Haven, oh goodness...the list is ENDLESS! So many talented writers out there...I also enjoy contemporary and historical authors who can pen a hot love story such as Karen Marie Moning and Elizabeth Hoyt just to name a few off the top of my head.

And finally, what can we expect to see from you soon?
I am very busy writing the final installment of the Breeding Prophecy, which is followed by the Billionaire Brothers and the final installment of my One Naughty Girl series. Then, it's onto the next series, which I haven't quite nailed down yet. The ideas are there but I have to do a bit more research before I commit.

Thank you for the opportunity to share with your readers. Anyone interested in learning more about me or my next release can go to my website at www.eroticalexxandria.wordpress.com or sign up for my newsletter!

More from Alexx Andria:
at Amazon US at Amazon UK

Erotica extract: Lizzie and Cara Make Three

When Cara tells her best friend that her husband Steve has always wanted a threesome, she should have known what would happen...

Returning home from work, Steve finds Cara and Lizzie sitting out in the summerhouse, on their second bottle of Pinot Grigiot and talking about what they would do. It's all a bit of fun, of course, not something they would really do - particularly because Lizzie's husband is due home soon. But that doesn't stop them talking, and when talk becomes act Steve finds that his birthday has come a week early.

Explicit erotica from the bestselling author of The Billionaires' Sex Club, Bad Again, and the Danger Fucks series.

Extract:
“So yes, you’re right,” went on Lizzie. “Tim’s due home soon. It wouldn’t be good if he was to come out here and guess at anything, now would it? But there’s no harm in talking, now, is there?”Steve took another sip of his drink, and Cara wondered what was in his head. Was he really thinking there was anything to this? And  if so, how did she feel about that?There was, of course, nothing to it. It was just a bit of fun. A big old tease.“Talking?” said Cara, now. “No, no harm in talking. So how would it go, this fantasy of yours, Steve?”Poor Steve, bless him. He’d come home from work, done his best to seamlessly slot into a drinking session that had been going on all afternoon, and now he was being asked to talk about his horniest of fantasies when at any moment Lizzie’s partner was going to turn up.“Erm... it’s never gone quite like this,” he said.Lizzie did that thing again. She opened her eyes wide, turned them on him, and said, all soft and innocent, “You mean.. you mean you don’t fancy me? You fantasize about a threesome, but... but not with me?”“I...” He didn’t know what to say. Unlike Tim, who would just blunder on, Steve knew when he was outnumbered, and he knew damned well he could be outnumbered by Lizzie alone. And he knew damned well when to shut up and not just dig himself any deeper than he’d already been dug.“Are you saying you really wouldn’t be turned on if I leaned over now and kissed Cara, open mouths, one hand at the back of her head, the other running down over those stunning breasts, cupping them, squeezing them, my thumb finding a nipple? That wouldn’t work for you?”Poor thing.He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know where to look. He didn’t know how to hide the massive erection straining at his pants.And he didn’t know that Lizzie and Cara had already acted out almost exactly that little fantasy only a short time before he’d got home from work.(continues)

Lizzie and Cara Make Three is available from:
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009X1KE44/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20 Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009X1KE44/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21

Erotica review: Anything He Wants #1: The Meeting by Sara Fawkes

At last, with a few days away on vacation, I've had a chance to catch up with my reading, and top of the pile was the book so many people are talking about, Sara Fawkes' Anything He Wants.

Why are they talking about it?

Well for starters, after dominating Amazon's bestseller lists in its indie incarnation it was snapped up by a major publisher for print and a new e-edition.

And then, of course, there's the whole Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon: erotic romance where a vulnerable woman gets involved with a super-rich alpha male with a fondness for a bit of rough stuff. But for me, that's where the comparisons should end. While 50SoG is undoubtedly a page-turner, the characterisation is often frustratingly thin and the sex is pretty few and far between.

Fawkes' characters, on the other hand, have greater depth, a young temp working two jobs to pay the bills, a powerful boss who is accustomed to getting exactly what he wants. And while the story works well as a developing romance with a darker twist, the sex... well, there's plenty (more than I'd actually expected; not that I'm complaining), it's integral to the growing relationship, and it's hot.

There's little wonder that Fawkes has become one of the most talked-about erotica/erom authors around. There's the bestselling chart success, and the big book deal, of course. But, more than anything, we talk about her because she's good. I can't wait to get started on the rest of the series.

Erotic romance extract: The Object of His Desire 2: Pursued

Trudy Parsons is in a good place. A young American, educated at Yale, now living in London where she's a successful professional, working in one of the city's oldest publishing companies. Not only that, she's being pursued by two hot, rich and highly eligible bachelors, men accustomed to getting exactly what they want. Lavish romantic gestures, the finest in designer clothes, shoes and diamonds, private jets to whisk her off to foreign dinner dates... what more could a girl want?

But pursuit comes with a price, as Trudy finds out about the dark history her two admirers share. A history, it seems, they can't escape.

Should she be drawn to men like this? Should she choose one of her suitors and succumb?

The much-anticipated sequel to the popular The Object of His Desire 1: Wanted.

Extract:

“Just because... just because of what happened,” I said, over a cappuccino in a Caffe Nero just around the corner from my Covent Garden office. “Just because of that... well, don’t you start thinking that anything has changed, okay, Charlie? Don’t you start thinking there’s an ‘us’ again, okay? That’s over. That’s thirteen months over, okay?”
Charlie. I’d lived with Charlie for close to twelve months, in the small Islington apartment I still called home a little over a year later. The last I’d seen of him as he was leaving was that nimble sidestep and duck as the ashtray hurtled past his ear and made a nasty hole in the inner wood panel of the door.

Charlie. Honey-blond hair, sharp blue eyes, and, as I discovered when I bumped into him again at Ethan’s wedding, a man who still had the easy knack of being able to wrap me around his posh little English finger. A man who knew all the buttons to press, all the vulnerabilities, all the weaknesses.

A man who could spend an hour seducing me and I’d only worked out that was what he was doing when he had me up against the church wall, his thigh hard between my legs, his hand crushing my left breast.

That was where the knickers came in, or rather where they left.

I’m a professional woman, a commissioning editor at a venerable British publishing imprint. I have a Yale education, I come from a respectable New York family that had moved out to a large Connecticut home when I was little. I had been brought up to be strong, and to know my place in the world.

So why was my self-esteem at such a low ebb that when I went to Ethan’s wedding I wore suck-me-in Magic Knickers to keep everything slim and firm? I’d felt safe wearing them because I just knew nobody would ever get to see them.

So... that grinding, the leg between the thigh, the rush round to the back of the church where we were out of sight, the wandering hands, the pressing bodies... that thing that happens when two people realize just how desperate they are for rude, raw sex...

That.

Well suck-me-in knickers that go up to at least your second rib simply aren’t made for rude, raw sex. Too
much beige, for starters.

So I did what any resourceful girl with a good education would do. I pinned him to a gravestone, blindfolded him with his tie, then whipped off the Magic Knickers and hurled them as far away from us as I could manage.

And so it was that, some time later at the stately home where my brother’s wedding reception was being held, I found myself running away from the heir to the family estate in high heels and no knickers (not that Will knew that – I’d stopped his wandering hands before that point), feeling incredibly vulnerable and more than a little confused by the rush of events.

And now, a few days later, I found myself sitting in a Covent Garden coffee shop gently explaining to my ex-boyfriend that just because we’d got it on like wild animals at the weekend– “...don’t you start thinking that anything has changed, okay, Charlie? Don’t you start thinking there’s an ‘us’ again, okay? That’s over. That’s thirteen months over, okay?”

He sat there, both hands wrapped around his cup as if he was trying to warm them even though it was still August and in the mid-eighties outside, and he smiled that lazy smile of his, and I knew he wasn’t listening. Or, more likely, he was listening and laughing because, arrogant schmuck that he was, he simply chose not to acknowledge what I was saying.

You know that kind of conversation? I’d had so many of those with Charlie during our year together. All those trivial exchanges where he’d got his way and ignored anything I might want or think... That’s the kind of thing that almost always culminates in an ashtray flying through the air, or at least it does in my experience.

But Charlie wasn’t always like that, or so I was learning. On the day of my brother’s wedding I’d seen a whole new side to him. The man had hidden depths. He had, God damn it, sensitivity. Now how had I missed that before?

Since our folks had died eighteen months ago, Ethan and I had been the only family we had. We may not have been that close in the last year, but we were still family.

When I’d gone to the wedding I’d wondered why Charlie was being so attentive and why I was so edgy. It had taken a touch from Charlie, him leaning closer and saying, “I understand.” And then finally I got it: there was Ethan marrying into a family with a large network and ancient traditions – if he had found a new family did that mean I risked losing all I had left of my own?

Charlie.

Irritating, smug and surprisingly sensitive Charlie.

“There is no ‘us’,” I said again, as he sat there cradling his coffee and outside in the street London rushed past in all its glorious variety.

§
So... at what stage does denial become futile? And at what stage would denial get laughed out of any court in the country?
There is no ‘us’.

(continues...)

The Object of His Desire 2: Pursued is available from:
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-object-of-his-desire-2-pj-adams/1113481841Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009QN3QXA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QN3QXA/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Object-His-Desire-Pursued/book-zY6ej4hXYEmkS3SzzdaU2w/page1.html

"Hot Double Team Teacher Action"

How lovely to stumble across this review at Amazon, for one of my Danger Fucks stories: not only a great 5* review, but written by Terry Towers, a fab erotica author. Being praised by your readers is wonderful, but when the praise comes from a writer of Towers' calibre it really makes your day!

Towers' review is headed "Hot Double Team Teacher Action", which says it all, really, as the story is based on a friend's account of a situation she very nearly got herself into at a parent-teacher evening at her local school...

To Sir, with Lust is available from:

Amazon (US)Amazon (UK)Barnes and NobleKoboand other good ebook retailers