Harper Bliss's Blog, page 28
February 26, 2016
NEW RELEASE: French Kissing: Season Three
Ah, time to say goodbye to my ladies. Honestly, when I started French Kissing, not even I knew I had so much drama in me (perhaps my wife had an inkling.) These characters have suffered, but they’ve also kept me entertained for 400.000 words (1000 pages!) Season Three is the final season and I think I’ve done a pretty decent job closing all the story arcs. And, for once, no more cliffhangers! It’s emotional, intense, sexy and suspenseful until the very last page. I dare say I’m a little proud of this mammoth achievement. (I think we all know I have my roots in shorter fiction and short this is not.) I’m ready to move on, but part of my heart will always remain in Paris. I bid Juliette, Nadia, Claire, Margot, Steph, Dominique and even Marie Dievart a fond adieu… and I’m ready to start on a new series.
I need to thank my wife for rebranding the entire series and for streamlining convoluted plot ideas with me. I also want to thank everyone who has emailed me about this series and let me know that they were rooting for these characters. It’s all a bit bittersweet, but mostly, it’s just been one hell of a ride. Thank you for joining me on it.
French Kissing: Season Three is now available from Amazon. Here’s the blurb and the links:
BEWARE: MILD SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE PREVIOUS SEASONS & INTEND TO!
Paris… City of lights, City of love… City of drama!
It has been six months since Dominique and Steph came out publicly. How has the video affected their lives and how is Steph coping with becoming a public figure? After her motorcycle accident, Margot is going back to work at the hospital, but she’ll have sexy neurosurgeon Marie Dievart to deal with on a daily basis. Meanwhile, Juliette still has babies on her mind. Will she be able to persuade her new bride Nadia that it’s not too late for them to become mothers? And will Claire be able to keep a shocking secret she has been living with for the past few months?
The third and final season of French Kissing will deliver the answers to all these questions… and then some!
Friendships will be tested, old attractions will flare up, long-suppressed emotions will finally have to be dealt with and… a presidential election is on the line.
Warning: This title contains sensual language, ladies making love, excessive wine consumption, but no more cliffhangers.
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AUS
Amazon DE
Add it to your Goodreads shelf >>
The paperback will be available next week. The separate episodes 1 to 10 are no longer available, only the 2 boxed sets for Season One & Two. If you don’t shop on Amazon, you can get the boxed set of episodes 1 to 10 and (separate) episodes 11 to 14 from Apple, Kobo, B&N & All Romance. Links below.
Episodes One to Ten
Episode Eleven
Episode Twelve
Episode Thirteen
Episode Fourteen
(The retailer links will be added as they become available, but should all be online within the next couple of days.)
Enjoy!
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Latest releases: French Kissing: Season Three, Seasons of Love and Release the Stars
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Want Hired Help AND Summer's End for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>
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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl
February 13, 2016
NEW RELEASE: Best Lesbian Erotica!
My turn on the Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary Blog Tour! You can rest assured I’ve been waiting for this day for a loooong time! 
January 28, 2016
GIVEAWAY: Signed paperbacks of French Kissing
I finished revising French Kissing: Season Three yesterday and, I swear to God, I had a few tears rolling down my cheeks as I went over the very last chapter of the very last season. It’s a very climactic, emotional chapter for sure, but I’m not really in the habit of making myself cry by reading my own writing. 
January 25, 2016
New paperbacks (and a few other things)
We (and when I say ‘we’, in this instance I actually mean my wife who does SO MUCH behind-the-scenes work) figured out a way to speed up the paperback creation process and Seasons of Love is available in print already! You can get the paperback version only from Amazon from now, but other retailers like Barnes & Noble and The Book Depository should follow soon:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Meanwhile, the print version of Release the Stars has arrived as well. Links here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
And… after going ‘wide’ (it’s how it’s called now) for less than a week, we’ve decided to enrol Seasons of Love in KDP Select and make it available for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Honestly, it was a no-brainer after the sales figures for Release the Stars came in earlier this week. That book has done so well for a humble lesbian romance and I’m under no illusion that it would have performed (anywhere near) the same without the push KDP Select provides. The extra visibility a book gets when enrolled in the program is priceless. I’m all about reaching as many readers as possible and, for now at least, being exclusive to Amazon seems to be the way to go. Here are the Amazon KU links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AUS
Amazon DE
Big thank-you to everyone who has already bought Seasons of Love! The book is doing well and the reviews are blowing my mind! (I don’t know how I’m going to follow up on this one either…) (Maybe with a huge dose of lesbian drama in French Kissing: Season Three…)
January 14, 2016
NEW RELEASE: Seasons of Love
My crazy plan (publish 13 full-length books in 13 months) continues. My brand new novel is out today and, again, it feels like a dream come true. If you’ve read any of my work, you might have noticed I’m a sucker for a May/December romance. It’s a recurring theme in my stories, but I’ve never taken it quite this far.
It’s easy enough to write a novelette like Summer Heat or a flash fiction piece like Rather, which focuses heavily on the erotica aspect, but (let me tell you) it was something else entirely to have the characters deal with the consequences of their attraction. This is what I’ve done in Seasons of Love.
The main character, Alice McAllister, is a very set-in-her-ways woman in her fifties. She’s a little uptight, obsessed with work and anything love-related is not very high on her to-do list. Until she finds herself having to share a holiday home in the gorgeous Algarve with her business partner’s daughter, Joy. Joy seduces her and Alice is left to question EVERYTHING.
I know I always say this, but this is my favourite book I’ve written so far. I also believe it’s my best. I can’t put my finger on what happened while I was writing it, but, perhaps, telling the story from the point of view of Alice allowed me a freedom I haven’t previously experienced while writing. Needless to say, I had so much fun putting this middle-aged woman in situation after situation she had no idea how to deal with it.
Once again, my wife made a gorgeous cover. Alice) here. (Don’t click if you don’t want to know.)
It’s the first time in a while I’m not putting a book in KDP Select, which means it will be available from all big retailers (and from the Ladylit website.) For this reason I don’t expect it to break any Amazon ranking records the way Release the Stars did (thank you for making that book such a big hit, btw!), but of course I hope it does well and finds an audience!
January 10, 2016
French Kissing: Season Three is coming soon!
I get A LOT of emails about the release date of Season Three of French Kissing so I thought I’d make the official announcement here. French Kissing: Season Three will be out on 26 February 2016! This will be the last season, but I have plans for another (more traditional) series (with standalone books) already.
My super-talented wife has made new covers for the entire series. (I’m so in love with them.) Once Season Three is out, I’ll try to get a Bookbub ad for Season One, but even if I don’t get the ad, Season One will go on promotion near the Season Three release date.
Here are the other 2 gorgeous covers:
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Latest releases: Release the Stars, Christmas Kisses and It Takes Two
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Want Hired Help AND Summer's End for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>
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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl
January 8, 2016
Bliss & Tell #12
Bliss & Tell is back! I missed talking about myself so much.
January 6, 2016
Preview Seasons of Love
Happy New Year to you all! I’m celebrating by releasing yet another novel…
December 20, 2015
NEW RELEASE: Release the Stars
Today is the ‘official release day’ for Release the Stars, though it has been available from Amazon since Friday, making for a bit of a crazy weekend at Casa Bliss.
December 17, 2015
GUEST BLOG: Never-Tied Nora by Cheyenne Blue
I have a guest today and it’s none other than my friend and esteemed editor Cheyenne Blue whose book Never-Tied Nora was just released. Congrats, Cheyenne and take it away!
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There are many reasons why, until recently, I’d never written anything longer than 8,000 or so words. Lack of time, a love of short fiction, the sweet rush that comes from a short story acceptance. The challenge of being concise and compact, yet still telling a tale with meaning. The little slice of life. All of those are part of it. And yes, I’ll admit it, there was also a little introverted wibble about fear of failure holding me back.
I’d often toyed with the idea of writing something longer, but it was actually a throw-away comment from a friend that kicked me into it (Clue: you’re reading this on her blog). Harper probably doesn’t remember her comment, but I do.
In 2014, I had the commute from hell. A 30 minute drive to the train station. A 2 hour train ride to Brisbane. A 10 minute walk. And then back again in the evening. Luckily, Queensland’s trains aren’t that busy, and so with my little netbook, and a Kindle, the 4 hours of daily train travel wasn’t too bad. What it did to my neck is another matter, but 4 hours of reading and writing time was an amazing luxury of time. Most days, I managed to write around 4,000 words.
Harper said, “You could easily write a novel if you’re writing 4,000 words a day. Why don’t you?”
Well, good people of the interwebs, it seems Harper was right. Not quite a novel (this time), but my first novella, Never-Tied Nora, came out recently from Ylva Publishing.
Nora is also the first in a series, with the second, Not-So-Straight Sue, arriving in June 2016. That one is a full-length novel.
I hope you’ll check out Never-Tied Nora, which is available now direct from Ylva Publishing Amazon and all the other usual suspects.
Before I give you the blurb and an excerpt, because this is Harper’s blog and she is big into her fantasy casting, I’ve just spent a very entertaining 30 minutes fantasy casting Nora and Geraldine from Never-Tied Nora.
Geraldine was easy. In my head, she’s like a young Julianne Moore:
But with hair like this:
I wish I had hair like that.
Nora was a little bit harder. But in the end, after much research, including way too long watching her videos on Youtube, I’ve decided that Nora has a Courtney Barnett vibe going. (I have a huge crush on Courtney Barnett. Check out her music. And her girlfriend. ☺)
I don’t think Nora has that adorable scruffy fringe though.
I’m signing off now. Time to watch a few more Courtney Barnett clips. I leave you with the blurb and an excerpt from Never-Tied Nora.
I very much hope you check it out, and that you enjoy it.
Blurb
Nora Kelly loves her carefree London life where there’s always a new woman to seduce. Her big Irish family tease her about her footloose ways, but she knows she’s in no danger of losing her heart.
Her family has only one rule when it comes to dating: Nora can date any woman she wants—as long as she’s not a Flannery. The Kellys and the Flannerys have been feuding ever since both families arrived in London from Ireland sixty years ago, and time has not lessened the hatred.
But never-tied Nora has just met the woman of her dreams, and suddenly commitment isn’t a dirty word. Trouble is, Geraldine is a Flannery.
Can Nora convince Ger that, despite their families, they are meant to be together?
Excerpt
The Korean place was modern—tiled, cold, and echoey, but I didn’t care. We were shown to a table at the back where huge potted plants muted the worst of the noise. It was far enough from the kitchen that the service was beyond woeful, but I didn’t care. I sat opposite Ger once again and watched her expressions and gestures—the quick smile that lit her face like lightning over the ocean, and her small, white fingers with their short, blunt nails as they pointed to a menu selection.
We ate sizzling beef brought by blank-faced waiters, and if I’d been with Sue I’d have been whining about the price of everything and how that should at least get us a smile. But with Ger, complaining didn’t cross my mind. Indeed, I welcomed the awful service as it meant more uninterrupted time to look, to flirt, to touch her hand, to dream, to imagine, and to fantasize about an outcome between us. We finished the bottle of wine but didn’t order another. Instead, we drank water, and played the getting to know you guessing game.
“You’re a professional women’s hockey player,” I said. “Or a coal miner. Final answer.”
Her sigh was theatrical. “You’ve caught me. Want an autograph? Actually, my sister plays hockey. She says I should learn—I might meet someone. She reckons she’s the only straight woman on the team.”
I picked up her hand again. “Tell her you’ve already met someone.”
Her gaze clung to mine. “I might do that. Or I might let her set me up with Big Betsie, the goalie. I love a woman with muscles.”
I pushed up the sleeve of my jacket to show my forearm. “I have muscles,” I said in pretend affront. “All the typing I do, how could I not?”
“You’re a writer,” she guessed. “You ghostwrite autobiographies of the rich and famous. Or you’re a PhD student, four years into the world’s longest thesis.”
“I wish. Think dull. Think of the jobs that send you to sleep.”
“Hypnotherapist? Is that how you’re so successful with women?”
“You don’t know that I’m successful. I could be Never-Laid Nora, the unloved.”
Her expression sobered, and she shuffled her chair around the tiny table so that she was next to me. She was so close I could smell the spices from the meal on her breath. She moved her chair enough that it was angled toward mine, her legs capturing one of mine between them.
“Nora, look at me.” The laughter fled her voice. “If you are the unloved, if you are the unlaid, then—”
“Then what?” I was trapped. Caught in the intensity of her eyes and the steel of her thighs.
“It’s my lucky day, as you must be desperate.” Warmth radiated from her fleeting smile.
She leaned forward, enough that I could see the dark flecks in her sea-green eyes. “I won’t lie to you, Nora. I’ve gone home with women I’ve just met. Met them in a club, or a pub, or at my sister’s hockey game. And I’ve spent a night with them, and at the time it was wonderful. Sex, out of this world. But afterwards? Not so much.” She dragged a deep breath, sat back, and took a gulp from her water glass. “I’m tempted. I’m tempted to lean in and kiss you. Learn your taste, the sigh of your breath. See if your hair is as soft as it looks. I want to know you. Learn what your skin feels like. And in the morning we’d have coffee, and kiss, and swap phone numbers, and then I’d leave, or you’d leave, depending on where we were, and I’d wait for your call. Or maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe I’d have written you off as just another one of those women, and I’d go into work, and maybe I’d cry on my boss’s shoulder over you. Maybe not.”
Her quiet words held me spellbound, and even the tardy waiter arriving to clear away the dirty dishes didn’t interrupt.
“What do you want from me, Nora?”
My voice was a croak worthy of any frog princess. “Everything. I want everything you’ll give me.”
Never-Tied Nora is available now from:
– Ylva Publishing
– Amazon
– Amazon.co.uk
– Amazon.com.au
– Amazon.de
– Smashwords
Cheyenne Blue’s erotic fiction has been included in over 90 erotic anthologies since 2000, including Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica, All You Can Eat: a buffet of lesbian romance and erotica, Sweat, Bossy, and Wild Girls, Wild Nights. She is the editor of Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire (Ladylit) which is a Lambda Literary Award finalist and a Golden Crown Literary Award finalist, and First: Sensual Lesbian Stories of New Beginnings. Her collected lesbian short fiction is published by Ladylit as Blue Woman Stories – volumes 1 to 3. Under her own name she has written travel books and articles, and edited anthologies of local writing in Ireland. She has lived in the U.K., Ireland, the United States, and Switzerland, but now writes, runs, makes bread and cheese, and drinks wine by the beach in Queensland, Australia. Check out her blog at www.cheyenneblue.com, on Twitter at @IamCheyenneBlue and on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/CheyenneBlue
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Note from Harper: Of course I remember saying that and listening to me is always a good idea!
