Harper Bliss's Blog, page 39
February 9, 2014
Valentine’s Day Gift Hop
I’m a big sucker for romance, seriously, the longer I write, the more romantic my books become. In the past two years, I have gone from quite unromantic sex with escorts and honeymoon threesomes to two women falling in love in the blink of an eye (and engaging in a whole lot of processing before going all the way.) It used to be so that I added a little romance to my erotica, but these days, I actually find that, in most of my stories, erotica is taking a backseat to romance.
Every new book I write is always more romantic (and, admittedly, also more dramatic ;-0) than the previous one, so it’s only logical that my most romantic book is my latest (stand-alone) release, Summer’s End. It tells the story of two broken souls who find each other on a tropical island. And, because it’s Valentine’s Week and all that (and this is a blog hop with prizes!) I’m giving away three e-book copies of Summer’s End to three commenters.
Additionally, simply by commenting, you’ll also be eligible to win a Kindle Paperwhite and the digital new adult romance basket pictured below. Please, don’t forget to include your e-mail address when commenting (so you can be contacted in case of winning!)
GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY
(Leave a comment on any blog participating in the hop to win)
HARPER BLISS GIVEAWAY
Three e-book copies of Summer’s End
(Leave a comment on this post to win)
Hop and comment away! (And thank you for organising, Skye!)
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Latest releases: French Kissing: Episode One and Summer's End
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February 7, 2014
Exciting news all around
It’s no secret I’ve had an f/f erotica author crush on Cheyenne Blue for a while, so you can imagine how I’m bursting out of my skin with excitement because of this piece of news I’ve been sitting on for way too long: Cheyenne Blue will be editing a lesbian erotica anthology for Ladylit! Just reading the call for submissions already makes my mouth water.
Forbidden Fruit. She’s off limits but the attraction burns so bright it’s impossible to resist.
Cheyenne Blue is seeking stories of lesbian passion on this theme. Think teacher and student. A best friend’s ex—or current—lover. A monogamous couple tempted by a threesome. A traveler leaving on the next plane. A much younger—or older—woman. A straight woman. The bad girl heartbreaker. The attraction between characters should scorch the pages and sexual tension is as important as the actual sex. As for the sex, think hot and desperate. Think once-to-get-it-out-of-our-system sex. Or this-really-is-the-last-time sex.
I really see no way in which this anthology can not turn out amazing. 
So, writers: do submit to Cheyenne with your best forbidden fruit story, and, readers, well, you’re in for a treat later this year! (BTW, all credit for the delicious theme of this anthology goes to Cheyenne.)
In other news, the first episode of my new serial (which was scheduled for release next week) is available already. French Kissing is different from High Rise in the sense that none of the separate novellas will be standalone. There are cliffhangers and a lot of drama and four characters who each have their own point of view in each episode (as opposed to only two per novella in the High Rise series). The format is very much like that of a TV series, with the story line progressing over several episodes (six in this case.)
By June I should end up with an epic lesbian drama of 150.000 words (approximately 500 pages of an actual book). The plan is for this serial to continue over several seasons, so I’ll be spending most of my year with the four main characters (and their love interests). As of next week, I’ll be doing some introductory blog posts, but Episode One is only $0.99 so if you feel like getting involved in the lives of four Parisian power lesbians, why not give it a try.
Here’s the blurb:
Claire and Juliette have been best friends for twenty years. Together they own a successful PR agency in Paris, but their journey to success has come at a price. Juliette and her partner Nadia have drifted apart after ten years together while Claire hasn’t been on a real date for as long as she can remember. Meanwhile, their happily single employee Steph is getting a bit too close to a new, high-profile client.
Warning: This title contains sensual language, ladies making love and cliffhangers.
And it’s available from these retailers:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon DE
Smashwords
Kobo
All Romance
Direct from author
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Latest releases: French Kissing: Episode One and Summer's End
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February 4, 2014
Q&A: Alison Tyler on The Delicious Torment
Remember when I had erotica royalty Alison Tyler over for a cup of black coffee and a guest blog on Dark Secret Love? The Delicious Torment, the sequel to the excellent Dark Secret Love is out now from Cleis Press and I’ve subjected Alison to my familiar Q&A. Here we go:
1. Sell us your book in one sentence.
And Alex makes three.
2. Favourite line (or paragraph) from The Delicious Torment
Here’s my favorite line:
I believe you can fall in love six times before breakfast—that is, if you’re looking.
And damn, I couldn’t stop at a single favorite paragraph, so I hope you’ll let me run off at the page…:
“I need to know. Is this how you want me? Is this what I need to do to show you that I’m yours? Stay here, naked, every day, cuffed to the bed. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. Is that what you want?”
He shook his head. “Jesus, no.”
“Or in a cage? Do you want to lock me in a steel puppy cage before you go to work? Have Alex take me out and walk me at lunchtime, then find me waiting with my head down, for my Owner at the end of the day?”
“I’m not your—”
“What do you want, Jack? What do you need me to do? How can I show you? How else?”
He was closer to me, and I could see the conflict in his eyes. He wanted to believe me. He wanted to so badly. “I trust you,” he said.
3. Last book that blew you away?
I am a fiercely loyal person. The book that I carry with me, that I buy for all my friends, that I don’t lend out is Wrecking Crew by John Albert. Who knows why this book twisted me around its little finger. But I am 100% faithful.
4. Which celebrity is at number one of your imaginary to-do list?
I like kink with my coffee. I want to think that the person I’d choose would be willing to play a little rough, a little raw. That said, I’ve always been partial to James Remar.
5. What’s your favourite sexy song?
To this day, I can’t pronounce this song right. But Led Zeppelin’s D’yer Mak’er is my #1 favorite song and Miss You by the Stones is (the close) #2.
6. What are you most proud of?
My relationship. 18 years. Going strong.
7. Who’s your favourite TV Character?
Last year, Tony Soprano. This year, Eric Northman.
8. Which author’s books are a must-read?
I’ve read everything by Elmore Leonard—just check out my battered bookshelf. I adore City Primeval, The Switch, Cat Chaser, Unknown Man #89…
9. Anything else you want us to know?
Even after all these years, I blush like a fiend when I say dirty words. No joke.
10. What’s next for you?
Third in the series is on my hard drive right now. I’m also working on a few new novels that have me all kinds of excited. Let me know if you’d like a peek!
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Alison Tyler is the author of more than 25 novels, most recently Dark Secret Love and The Delicious Torment (both from Cleis Press). Visit her at alisontyler.blogspot.com for posts about smut, coffee, and tequila, and follow her on twitter: @alisontyler
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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Want more FREE stories? Download Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl
February 3, 2014
Paperbacks and other things (including ARCs for French Kissing)
Truth be told, since getting a Kindle about 2 years ago, I hardly ever buy paper books any more. They take up space we don’t have and they are so annoying to read in bed when you have to flip the page, plus, I can’t take five of them when I go on holiday. Also, e-books rock because they’re, basically, my job.
But, some of you expressed an interest in the book shelf that snuck into that picture of our office I posted last week, so I took a (rather shaky) panoramic picture of it with my phone. (Click to enlarge.)
As you can see, I like the odd celebrity biography (Stephen Fry’s is my absolute favourite) and some early Patricia Cornwell as well as some Charles Bukowski, but if you want an accurate picture of what I read these days, you’d be better off checking out my GoodReads shelves.
In the spirit of seamlessly going from one topic to the next, it also happens that the paperback of Summer’s End is now available on Amazon (B&N and The Book Depository should follow soon.) It even appears to be on sale and soon, when you buy the paperback, you’ll get the e-book for free (but I’ve only just activated this so it may take a few days before this is effective.)
Summer’s End is a slow but steady burner and garnered some really great reviews (thank you!), including this one over the weekend, which called me the queen of erotica, which, frankly, is way too much honour (but maybe they meant the queen of lesbian erotica ;-p).
Speaking of reviews (another seamless topic change!), I just got the French Kissing: Episode One edits back and I’ll be ready to start sending out ARCs soon (hopefully early next week). E-mail me (harperbliss at gmail dot com) if you want one (but do know that this is much more lesbian relationship drama than pure erotic romance) (+ cliffhangers!) Here’s the blurb:
Claire and Juliette have been best friends for twenty years. Together they own a successful PR agency in Paris, but their journey to success has come at a price. Juliette and her partner Nadia have drifted apart after ten years together while Claire hasn’t been on a real date for as long as she can remember. Meanwhile, their happily single employee Steph is getting a bit too close to a new, high-profile client.
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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January 29, 2014
Ladylit HQ
Remember when I showed you this?
It took us more than two months to get it right (and six weeks of waiting for our eco-friendly lesbian desks), but here I am at last with the ‘after’ shot. (Click the pic to enlarge.)
Admittedly, this is a panorama shot, which makes the space look much bigger than it is, but still, we ♥ how the Ladylit office has turned out!
I only spend half my time here because I’ve taken up the habit of starting to write as soon as I roll out of bed in the morning (in our home office, which is no longer in our bedroom!), which seems to be affecting my word count in a very good way. But every day, around lunch time, after I’ve gotten my 2200 daily words in (necessary to reach my self-imposed yearly word count goal of 400.000 words), I walk the fifteen minutes to where Ladylit HQ is located, and I love it. I mainly love how it separates my writing time from all the other things I do (editing, cover designing, formatting, e-mailing frantically, tweeting, obsessing over Facebook, publishing etc.)
My wife, who is still consulting at the moment, but will join Ladylit full-time in three months, spends most of her time in the office, and, because we are the kind of lesbians who are totally merged, we quite enjoy sharing the space.
In other news: Summer’s End will be available as a paperback soon and French Kissing is progressing nicely. The official release date of Episode One is Valentine’s Day, but it should be out a bit sooner and at a really nice introductory price. (And I’m having so much fun writing it!)
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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January 15, 2014
French Kissing
I’m about to finish the first draft of the first episode of my new series called French Kissing. It’s set in Paris, has four main characters (and corresponding points of view), lots of drama and a few sexy scenes to keep the juices flowing. The blurb will follow later, but I wanted to talk a little about the format of this series and my plans with it.
French Kissing is a project of rather epic proportions. Each episode will be about 25.000 words long and I will write 6 episodes per season. The idea is to, ultimately, create multiple seasons. This means that the individual novellas will not be stand-alone stories, but parts of an ongoing serial.
I had to get out of pantser-mode and plot the first season (to distribute the drama over all 6 episodes) which in the end, all episodes combined, will amount to 150.000 words of lesbian erotic romance. And that’s just season one. (As I said, quite epic. ;-0) It’s far removed from my usual 10.000 words stand-alone novelettes, but I have had some practice with the High Rise series. The most common question I get about High Rise is whether there will be a sequel, which is why I decided to devise French Kissing in this serialised way. If it does well, it never has to end.
The plan is to release the first episode around the end of February, with a new instalment every month. From the beginning of February onwards I’ll start introducing the four main characters on here. I’ll talk about the setting, why I chose Paris and how my wife convinced me to, for once, include a couple in a long-term relationship in one of my stories.
Creating this series is a new way of doing things for me, but this is the brave new world of publishing after all (and I’ve grown quite fond of my four characters already, so I believe in it with all my heart.) 2014 is going to be very exciting (I’ll have more thrilling news to share soon) and I hope you’ll join me on the ride.
Meanwhile, here’s the cover for French Kissing (Episode One):
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January 4, 2014
Sunday Snog: Summer’s End
It’s been too long since I posted a Sunday Snog, but to celebrate the start of Smutmas: A Year of Smut I will happily try to get back into an old habit. This snog is from Summer’s End, my latest release. Happy snogging!
Emily backed up against the book shelves, the wood prodding her ribcage. Not because she was afraid or hesitant, but because she wanted to lengthen the moment in which Marianne came for her. She never wanted to forget the look on her face, the mixture of need, caution, and relief.
“You don’t strike me as having doubts about this, but I need to ask, okay?” Marianne’s voice had dropped a register or two. “Are you sure?”
Emily bit her lip and nodded. She lifted her hands to Marianne’s arms and pulled her close. “God yes,” she whispered before pressing her lips against Marianne’s.
Instantly, she was lost in the softness of kissing another woman. The utter unexpectedness of it, and the way a simple kiss seemed to change something inside of her, settling in the pit of her stomach and sizzling in her blood.
The kiss grew from tentative to intense rapidly and Emily felt Marianne’s body crash against her, forcing her ribs to push harder against the shelves. How fitting, she thought, considering the content of the books behind her.
And how glorious it was to feel a woman’s breasts rub against hers, to feel her nipples perk up against her flesh. The softness of Marianne’s tongue was unlike anything else she’d ever felt. She had tried to imagine it, of course, but her imagination, as it turned out, had been sorely lacking.
Marianne’s tongue swirled inside of Emily’s mouth with a passion and urgency she had rarely come across in her life. As if she sensed she was getting too lost in the kiss, Marianne pulled back slightly, ending it with a tender peck.
“Good god,” she exhaled more than said. “I, uh, I’m not sure…”
Emily could feel her drift off into that dark space she’d slipped off to last night and, as if it was the only antidote, placed her hands on Marianne’s neck and drew her near.
“Please.” Emily looked straight into her eyes. “Don’t run.” She had to swallow. “Stay.”
Do join the other snoggers at Smutmas Snogmas >>
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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January 2, 2014
My best of 2013
I hope you all had wonderful new year celebrations and disproportional hangovers! Before I breeze into 2014, allow me to look back on 2013 one more time with this list of things I really enjoyed in the past year.
Best book
I thoroughly enjoyed Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews because I ♥ spies and female heroines and impossible love stories and ex-CIA agents writing novels. On the lesbian fiction front, I couldn’t put down Lyn Gardner’s Ice and Nicola Griffith’s The Blue Place. Additionally, a must read (can’t stress it enough) non-fiction book for writers (indie or not) is Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.
Best movie
Concussion (no competition). (Watch it!)
Best TV show
The Sons of Anarchy season finale will be etched in my memory forever (nightmare-wise), but the show I enjoyed most was the Danish political drama Borgen. I still think of Birgitte Nyborg (and Katrine and even Kasper) regularly and do wonder what she’s up to now. I also want to visit Copenhagen. And learn Danish. Tak.
Hottest actress
I really can’t decide between Gillian Anderson in The Fall and Robin Wright in House of Cards. So, in my imagination, after Claire Underwood finally kills Kevin Spacey (Gemma Teller style), Stella Gibson is miraculously transferred to Washington to interrogate her as the prime suspect and (obviously) hotness ensues.
Best TV lesbian
Nicky and her big mouth in Orange Is The New Black.
Best new app
Spotify! No more wires to transfer music from your computer to other devices. Endless hipster playlists. Cheap AND legal! Simply amazing.
Best song
Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey, because it got me through writing Summer’s End, and writing Summer’s End provided me with some very important personal insights. (Do not attempt to write a novella in 10 days ever again.)
Best advice received
Stop obsessing over Amazon rankings. Whether you check them ten times a day or not, it doesn’t change anything. It devours energy you could spend on much more useful tasks, like writing.
Best trip
Our US west coast trip this summer from Portland to L.A. and San Francisco. Such fun.
Hardest laugh provider
Miranda. She makes me feel so much better about myself, what with all the advice on social awkwardness and the spontaneously bursting out in song at inappropriate times.
Best wife
Mine
Best news
I will be an aunty again in 2014!
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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December 31, 2013
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I’m taking a little break, but I’ll be back soon. (Meanwhile the first episode in my new series is progressing nicely.) Love, Harper xo
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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December 24, 2013
Merry Christmas
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Latest releases: Summer's End and A Christmas to Remember
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