Jonathon Fletcher's Blog: Captain's Blog - Posts Tagged "steampunk"

Today the "Captain's Blog" welcomes Scarlett Flame, author of erotic stories and soon to be published on Amazon. Here is a little about her...

"My pen name is Scarlett Flame, and as well as writing my first novel I write a Blog under my pen name (don't forget it's two t's!) My Blog includes book reviews, band, hotel and restaurant reviews around the area of Manchester where I live. Music is a bit of a passion of mine, so I include information of venues and live music. If you follow me on twitter you will often find me playing at being a DJ.

Writing and reading are my two main passions. My interests include reading ,writing, especially the genres Paranormal Romance, Thrillers, Sci-fi and anything that involves fantastical beings. I also like going to the gym, especially weight training and Pilates!

Some of my favourite books are The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings Trilogy and books by authors such as Anne Rice and Dean Koontz (especially the Brother Odd Series)."

Jon: So tell me a little about the book that you're writing?

Scarlett: The working title of my first book is "The Prophecy Unfolds (Dragon Queen)". This is the first in a series of books and is an erotic paranormal romance set on a steampunk world called "Syros". In my book there are werewolves, dragons, dragon riders and many other paranormal characters.

Jon: Without spoilers, can you tell the readers what your story is about?

Scarlett: The plot of my story involves our heroine Alex. Alex gets kidnapped and taken to a distant planet called Syros by three werewolves. There is a prophecy on this world and Alex is the hinge pin of the entire prophecy. Once on Syros, Alex continues to have numerous adventures (including many sexual and erotic ones) involving the fantastical creatures that exist there. Especially involving the werewolves, dragons and their dragon riders. As this is only the first in a series of books about Syros it is a continuing story.

Jon: Erotic, paranormal, romance, steampunk. That's a mix of genres isn't it? How is that going to work?

Yes indeed, this is a weird and wonderful mix of genres, until you dig into the sub genres. Paranormal romance frequently is accompanied by sexual exploits and erotic encounters. It is the very sexual natures of both werewolves and dragons and their riders and their animalistic natures that lead to this meld working so well.

Basically with the werewolves and dragons they are animals, and the dragon riders are bound to their dragons so they also pick up on these base urges too.

Jon: Tell me a little about the world of "Syros". Why are there so many fantastical creatures there?

Scarlett: Ah now then, the planet Syros has been linked to Earth for millennia via portals that exist on both planets. The animals on Syros are the animals we find in our legends and myths. They include (of course!) dragons, werewolves and enormous dragonflies that roam the planet (and many more mythical creatures as yet to be unveiled!) The legends we have exist because of "accidents" whereby some of these creatures of legend have slipped unnoticed through the portals. These have then been recaptured and returned to Syros, leaving only their sightings and no actual evidence of the creatures to verify their existence.

Jon: If you had to be one of your mythical creatures of Syros, which would you chose and why?

Scarlett: Now this is a hard question to answer as I love all my mythical beasts really! Yet, I have dreamt of being a werewolf and actually bitten someone on the shoulder (I was being kind and making them a werewolf too LOL) in my sleep! So a sexy werewolf, obviously mated to the Alpha of the pack and retaining my glorious auburn colouring. Then maybe I would magically get my six-pack back that I so desire too.

Jon: Do you find it hard (excuse the pun) to write erotica? I always become extremely self conscious and shy if I have to write anything to do with relationships. How do you overcome that?

Scarlett: Well, I have to be honest here (don't I?) I used to find it difficult, and used to write in secret in my bedroom when writing my erotic scenes. I also used to hide the fact that I was writing anything, let alone erotica for a long while! Then, I sort of came out of the closet and declared to family and friends that I write erotica. Although my mother has absolutely no clue. She would be mortified if she knew I wrote in this genre as she abhors it so much; and doesn't keep it a secret either. Every time we walk past a book rack holding racy books she makes a comment.

My writing has also evolved a lot recently (I have been told in a good way) due to some friends of mine who are on good old Twitter. My friends read my first short story and all said the same thing "It reads like a woman wrote it!" Ermm last time I checked I was a woman, but I realised what they were saying so asked if there were any words I could use to change that and between the three of them they let me have some naughty "boy" words to use. I then also took a look at other erotic authors use of words and voila! So to cut a long story short I did and having been doing so ever since. It was pretty liberating in a way as some are words I have never used before, or if I did it was in my head!

The friends are (I hope they don't mind me naming and shaming them) are Nate Smith (a screenwriter, producer, director from Perth), Gareth Young (Spartacus on Twitter) and of course my buddy Erotic Jake (writer of erotic stories and Blogger). I suppose I have to attribute my growing fan base down to these gorgeous guys. Thank you boys mwah!

Jon: I know that on Twitter you have two avatars. Why did you choose to "hide" behind Scarlett to write these stories?

Scarett: Not everybody knows that I have two avatars on Twitter but there is a good reason for this. Firstly, I was stalked a little and advised by a good author friend of mine to remain anonymous. So, I took his advice and between myself and four writer friends Scarlett was born (thanks, John, John, Becky, Sascha and Matt, you know who you are).

Secondly, as a nurse I don't believe it would be well received that I write in the erotica genre, so it is simpler to be a writer using a pen name. Although a number of individuals know me on both accounts, either because they "sussed" me out or when I took them into my confidence and "shared" my two avatars with them. A number of my friends locally where I live now also know my identity and follow my blog too.

Jon: Do you think that you'll ever reveal your true self to your readers or friends?

Scarlett: Yes, one day I hope to reveal all!! When I am published and I hope to make writing my full time occupation I will reveal my identity (but NEVER to my mother LOL).

Jon: If you could have any other fictional character guest star in your stories, who or what would it be?

Scarlett: Now this is the most difficult question yet Jon! Although, one of my favourite television programmes on is Teen Wolf, so, possibly one or more of those werewolves could turn up as guest stars and fight to become Alex's mate. My especial favourite for that privilege is big bad dark and smouldering wolf Derek Hale. This character is played by Tyler Lee Hoechin, who is a tall dark and handsome Adonis and 6 foot tall. I believe there would be *electricity* in the air between these two I can imagine lots of very sexy erotic scenes that could be written for these two characters. They would sizzle! I can't believe that I missed the opportunity to see the cast live recently in London. They were on stage doing a Q & A for their fans at the MCM Comic-Con the last week end of May in London.

Jon: So, you're writing a pretty steamy love scene... What music do you put on to get you in the mood?

Scarlett: This is another doozy Jon! Music wise there a few contenders. My top three (in no particular order) God I sounded like Dancing on Ice then!! Move closer by Phyllis Nelson, Riders on the Storm by the Doors and finally Smooth Operator by Sade. Love them all and they're all sexy in their own way too. Very mood inducing too. I used to like the song Sex by Paul Young too :)

Jon: What do you read for pleasure? What's the best book you ever read, and the worst?

Scarlett: For pleasure I read all sorts of books! Paranormal Romance (especially werewolves and vampires), Horror, Thrillers, fantasy, erotica all genres really! My favourite has got to be the Trilogy Lord of the Rings and the worse was one I downloaded was called Fifty Shades of Black and Blue It was horrendous and disgusting too!! Horrible book trying to ride on the shirttails of 50 Shades of Grey!! I deleted it from my kindle after a few pages really hated it. The writing was rubbish too.

Jon: Anything you'd like to add or tell your prospective readers?

I just thought that I would add I am currently writing a short story for Skelat.com, and this is a children's story. This will not be my only children's story as I already have an idea for a series of children's books I wish to pen, about a dragon called Duncan. My story for Skelat will introduce him to the world at large.

Jon: And now for a wonderful excerpt from Scarlett's book...

My Exert from The prophecy Unfolds (Dragon Queen)

On that day I had been driving through the Snowdonia National Park where pine trees crowded either side of the road. I had spotted a little picnic area to one side, flanked by a small car park. It was beautiful sunny day and as I had brought along a packed lunch. I decided to park up and take advantage of the glorious weather. I parked my car and then realised that mine was the only car but thought no more about it. I had no problem eating here at the edge of the forest.

I retrieved my sandwich, carton of orange and the book I had just started and wandered over to the farthest table. From here I could watch the squirrels and birds as they searched amongst the bins for crumbs.

I'd sat there enjoying my book for about ten minutes when two things happened.. Firstly, I became aware that a hush had suddenly descended on the forest, and I could no longer hear the scampering of the squirrels or the birds singing. When I looked up I could no longer see any of them around the area they had occupied only a few minutes earlier.

The second thing was the sound I did hear. I can only compare that to the sound barrier being broken, a whoosh and a slight popping noise. Yet immediately after this, the birds and squirrels were back, chirping and moving through the grass once again.

I shrugged, went back to the page in my book and continued to eat. However, after a while a feeling of uneasiness descended on me. I raised my head to find myself being watched.

The watcher was a tall, broad -shouldered man with dirty blonde hair tied at the nape and vivid blue eyes. I estimated him to be about 25-30 years old. He was regarding me silently, and with intensity. His odd clothing caught my eye. Old fashioned garments, dark trousers laced up the front, a long-sleeved suede jacket of a similar material, and leather boots

I turned my head to look for any cars or vans on the car park, and jumped as I spotted two more men -one to my left and one I could see in my peripheral vision to the right.

The man on the left was dressed similar to the first, but had sandy hair and sea green eyes. In contrast he wasn't quite as broad, although equally tall (all three were over six foot tall) The last had dark hair to his shoulders that hung loose, and the most amazing violet eyes.

The appearance of these men with no noise and staring at me in rapt fascination, not uttering a word spooked me. My heart was beating so loud and fast I thought that I was having some kind of heart attack.

But the most unnerving thing of all was all three men looked familiar, a deja vu sort of moment. I had dreamt about these three men for so long. I knew immediately these were the shady characters from my dreams. Dreams that repeatedly haunted my sleep.

I decided that sitting still was stupid, so made a grab for my bag and shot through to the right, I then ran toward one of the many footpaths I had spotted earlier.

My flight or fight response gave me swift feet (or so I thought), but obviously not swift enough. Before I had got ten yards down the path two of the three had already moved and appeared in front of me. They moved so fast I could hardly believe my eyes. I turned to head back to where I'd come from. Hoping I could make it back to my car.

Fate once again took charge, I turned and ran straight into the third man, the blonde. It was like running into a brick wall, as he ensnared me in his very muscular arms. My heart stuttered and I thought I felt the zing of an electric current run through my body. I never claimed to be a particularly brave person and I started to hyperventilate, gasping, trying to catch my breath.

One of them began to stroke my hair, saying “Calm down Alex, calm down. Breath slowly we won't hurt you” but, at that point my knees gave way and I collapsed into darkness, terrified. How did that man know my name was Alex?

https://twitter.com/ScarlettFlame2

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http://missscarlettflame.blogspot.co.uk/

Jon: A big thank you to Scarlett for spending the time to talk to me about her writing.