K.C. Carlton's Blog, page 3

Tender Folds

Available now for Kindle (and Prime subscribers can download it free of charge as part of KOLL, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library).

Michael, a naïf young man with no sexual experience, is caught on the rebound by a scheming woman who tricks him into committing a dreadful crime. In the years that follow, he attempts to lead a normal life but from time to time the thing buried in his past breaks through and causes him to offend again, though afterwards he has no recollection of it – until the next time. He frees himself of his burden at last – but at a terrible price.

Tender Folds is Book 4 in the Taken By Force series. It’s K C Carlton’s darkest work so far and the first (despite the Taken By Force series title) in which not all of the sex is consensual. As anyone who has read Winging It and/or Pearl’s a Sinner would expect, redemption is found through the love of God, but in return God extracts the ultimate price.

It’s also the first and so far the only book in the series that can be described as crime fiction as well as erotica.

Audiobook version of Pearl’s a Sinner

Pearl’s a Sinner is being put into audiobook form by the brilliant Louisiana-born California resident known variously as Dixie Capone and Missy Cambridge (neither of them, as you may have guessed, her real name). I just listened to Dixie’s recording of Chapter 1 and it’s brilliant. She captures the people, the motivations and the actions perfectly. I’m really looking forward to being able to announce the completion of the finished work.

The book, of course, is already available for Kindle, including the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. If you haven’t already found it, here’s a little extract:

At ten o’clock, Uncle Martin drove up to the house.

He’d come to make sure she was all right, she knew that. He was an old family friend and a member of the church and the well-being of every church member was important to every other member. But knowing that didn’t stop her from fantasising. Fantasising that he had come to ask for her virginity and fantasising that she would surrender it to him. Eagerly. Without even the pretence of resistance.

When she opened the door, she knew that she was blushing. ‘Hello,’ she said, and could have kicked herself when she heard how faintly – how shyly – it came out. ‘Mummy and Dad have gone to look after grandad.’ He was carrying a small bag and she wondered what was in it.

‘I know that, sweetheart. I came to see you. Make sure you’re okay.’

‘Oh.’ She stood back to let him in. He walked straight into the kitchen, where he had sat so many times with all four of them, and sat down. ‘It’s coffee time,’ he said. ‘Don’t you think?’

‘I…yes. I was just going to make some.’ She hadn’t been but now it seemed such an obvious thing to do. She filled the kettle and switched it on. As she stood with her back to him she was conscious of how short her skirt was (though to the girls at college it would have ranked almost as a midi) and how her bottom flared beneath it. She put chocolate biscuits on a plate and set it in front of him.

‘Thank you.’ He opened the bag and took out a bottle of champagne, still so cold from the fridge that beads clung to the outside like dew. Pearl put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, my goodness. Is that…?’

‘Champagne. I know your grandfather is in hospital and that’s a dreadful thing, but you just left college, you’re eighteen, you’re about to go to university which will change your whole life and I worried that no one was paying enough attention to you. So I thought we’d forget for a while the trouble your parents are attending to and have a little celebration of all the good things in your life. Can you find a couple of glasses?’

Pearl took two tumblers from a cupboard. ‘I’m sure these aren’t right, but this is all we have. Champagne isn’t drunk in this house.’

Champagne wasn’t drunk in that house. Martin knew that, all right. The elders didn’t ban alcohol as long as you drank it in moderation but they preferred that you went without. Just as they preferred that there be no salt in your food or excitement in your life. Those were preferences. They had other things that were more than preferences; they were rules to be insisted upon, and Martin intended to break one of those rules today. If he could. He wouldn’t use force because he wasn’t going to be accused of rape but he’d watched this girl grow from a child to where she was now – trembling on the verge of womanhood – and he couldn’t help himself. If he could have her without forcing the issue then have her he would. If anyone was to blame it was her for being so beautiful and her parents for keeping her so innocent. It was always the woman who was to blame; political correctness meant that you weren’t supposed to say so any more, but everyone knew it was true. A man was helpless in the face of leggy coltishness like Pearl’s. That skirt hugged her in a way he was sure her mother had never intended when it was bought. Beneath the skirt would be virginal white cotton knickers and beneath the knickers…

Tender Folds is on its way

Tender Folds is Book 4 in the Taken By Force series. At first it will be available only for Kindle (and Prime subscribers will be able to download it free of charge as part of KOLL, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library). The book is in Amazon’s hands right now and I hope to be able to announce its availability some time in the next 12 hours.

My editor says that Tender Folds is my darkest work so far and I think she’s right. It’s also the first and so far the only book in the series that can be described as crime fiction as well as erotica and the first (despite the Taken By Force series title) in which not all of the sex is consensual. As I hope anyone who has read Winging It and/or Pearl’s a Sinner would expect, redemption is found through the love of God, but in return God extracts the ultimate price.

Here’s the blurb:

Michael, a naïf young man with no sexual experience, is caught on the rebound by a scheming woman who tricks him into committing a dreadful crime. In the years that follow, he attempts to lead a normal life but from time to time the thing buried in his past breaks through and causes him to offend again, though afterwards he has no recollection of it – until the next time. He frees himself of his burden at last – but at a terrible price.

If you’re wondering about the title, it comes from this sentence where Michael, the protagonist (I hesitate to call him a hero, though he comes through at the end) is contemplating his next action with the young woman he has just abducted: What better than a tongue to penetrate those tender folds for the first time?

I hope to be back in just a few hours announcing that the book is now online, ready to download or borrow.

“Possibly the frankest depiction of gay sex ever written” – and soon to be an audiobook

We’ve started the process of turning Winging It into an audiobook. It will be available on ACX, Audible and iTunes. To give you the flavour, here is an extract. It’s narrated by the brilliant Shannon Gunn.

https://kccarlton.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/winging-it-extract-narrated-by-shannon-gunn.mp3

Almost here – Pearl’s a Sinner by K C Carlton

If you enjoyed Winging It I hope you’ll enjoy Pearl’s a Sinner. Even if you never heard of Winging It, I hope you’ll enjoy Pearl’s a Sinner, the latest erotic offering from Mandrill Press. It will be available within the next 72 hours, at first only on Amazon but we’ll see how that goes and at the end of the three month Kindle Direct contract we’ll think about other platforms. Let me introduce the girl in question:

The day would come when Pearl would look back on her late teen years and be appalled. How could a well brought up young lady possibly have been the seething mass of erotic dreams she remembered? What sort of properly educated damsel spent her time imagining lying naked in the arms of some rampant man? Usually a man she hardly knew or even one she had never met? One day, when she was in a fulfilling relationship with her children about her, she would find the person she had been an unimaginable enigma.

B ut that day was not now.

She knew that people did not see the real Pearl. She knew that in public she was seen as aloof, even a little on the prim side. She suspected (and of course she was right) that she was by no means the only young woman who presented to the world a picture of calm and propriety that completely hid the sensual reality behind it. Believing that there must be others did not help.

It was wrong. Of course it was wrong. Everything she had been taught since the moment she first understood the simplest words spoken to her told her that God saw what was in her mind. God wanted her to be pure and chaste. She lay in bed and prayed for release from these impure thoughts. She did not want her hand to stray once more beneath the waistband of her pyjamas. She did not want it. She knew what came afterwards: the sadness; the disgust with self; the fear of everlasting hellfire. A terrible death in life.

But God did not hear her prayers. She fought the fight as she always fought it and, as she always did, she lost. She lifted her bottom so that she could get her PJs down, uncovering the place she never should touch.

Writing a death scene isn’t easy

You know one of your characters has to die. The plot demands it. So how do you write the death scene? This is what I did in Winging It. Oscar is an old man and his death doesn’t come as a surprise to the reader but it clearly amazes him. His reaction – “What? Me? Now? But…” still makes me smile, so I guess I avoided the sentimentality that trapped Dickens.

‘Oh, baby,’ he whispered. He started to pull himself out of the chair. He was halfway up when I saw the change in him. It started with a look of astonishment, a sort of “What? Me? Now? But…” His rise from the chair halted, and then reversed. Back he went, down into his seating position but he didn’t stop there; he went on sliding, onto his back, and then from the chair to the floor. There wasn’t any doubt. I’d never seen a dead person before but, still, there wasn’t any doubt.

Find out more about Winging It here.

Bisexual – twice over? Does he mean me? Well, yes, actually – he does

John Lynch and I had what politicians call a full and frank exchange of views before he uploaded the latest post to the Mandrill Press website. He made it clear: if I didn’t want my innermost secrets discussed in public, it wouldn’t happen. And I didn’t. But then I thought: why not? John’s contribution to the debate was helpful. “You write about the sex that men have with women, women have with women and men have with men in a way that says, ‘This isn’t fantasy. This is real.’ You couldn’t do that if you didn’t know – if you hadn’t experienced the things you’re writing about. And readers will know that, whether you choose to tell them or not.” I thought about it and I knew he was right. So, if you’re ready for my story – here it is.

 

The Wide Spectrum of Human Sexuality

My new collection, The Taken By Force Collection Volume 1, went live on Amazon this morning. I write my own books, but I don’t write the blurb – someone else does that. I was delighted by this description:

K C Carlton’s erotic style is all her own. She writes about sex on and beyond the edges of “normal” – some might call it deviant sex. Kat explores the far places on the wide spectrum of human sexuality – the people who feel that they’d rather have been born into a different gender; the young men who long for the submissive posture; the women who want to dominate; the men and women who are as keen to possess another of their own sex as they are to cross the barrier. This collection of stories reflects most of those interests. While the title might suggest rape, that is not what the stories in Taken by Force are about – rather, they show us people (men, women, boys, girls – we’re all people) who sometimes have to be persuaded to experience what – as they discover – really meets their sexual needs.

You can find The Taken By Force Collection Volume 1 here (it’s available for purchase or to borrow from the Kindle Library: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010YT1DUC

Winging It. It is what it is. Get over it.

I get strange emails. People look at the cover of Winging It — it’s clear enough, isn’t it? Two young men, naked. on a bed and about to kiss each other. What do these people imagine they’re going to do next? The reviews are pretty straightforward too — as explicit as the book. This one appeared in AmiesBookReviews — you can find it on Amazon: This is the story of James (Jimmy) Carlton. The story begins when he is 18 in the 1950s in England and details his struggles with his sexuality. It also contains graphic descriptions of his introduction to the act of sexual intercourse and more. In today’s society Jimmy would be labelled a bisexual, but that word did not even exist in the 1950s. He wrote with great detail (a bit too much detail in my opinion) about his sexual experiences which is why I say that this book is not suitable for children. In fact, it is probably too graphic for many adults. * Note* These sex scenes are sometimes homosexual encounters and sometimes heterosexual encounters, but they all take place between consenting adults.

On Goodreads, Evija Kreišmane from Latvia said this:

I tried “50 shades” out of curiosity, and got rid of the book after just first 50 pages. Don’t see the point of that kind of descriptions. But it was totally different with this book. I liked it and I enjoyed it, i got involved till the very end.

It’s not that I suddenly started to enjoy descriptions of the act. I didn’t. I was shocked at first, I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut. I kept reading though. And I have to admit that this got the message delivered and helped to form my opinion about the characters, lifestile they were leading and environment surrounding them. I was there. Fully involved. When I accepted this nakedness around which the story evolved, it totally got under my skin. I was there with those guys instead of beeing just a passive observer from aside. What I did understand very quickly was that those descriptions were merely a tool of showing the objective Picture not the Picture itself. And the tool was chosen right. I approve of that.

At one point, after about 120 pages I got used to the fact of never ending sexual acts, and it became a little bit boring. Nothing ever changed. I thought to myself, that’s enough. Another hundred pages would just be too much. But it did change.

The ending was beautiful and made me rethink once more what i had read in those first pages. It gave a completely different angle to look at things. And it got the job done, it worked my brains. I love the books, which don’t spoon-fead me. This is one more reason I liked the book. Everyone can draw their own conclusions.

So there you are. It could hardly be clearer. Winging It is as clear and detailed a description of what it is that men do when they’re in bed together with other men, or with women, as you could possibly hope to read. If that turns you on, you know what to do. Just in case you’re still not sure, here’s a short extract that shows the young Jimmy being seduced by the older Guy:

Guy was old school. Marlborough College. Oxford. Recruited by the BBC through a friend of his uncle. In 1939, joined Military Intelligence after a word in the right ear from another uncle, a brigadier. After the war, back to the BBC. He looked like what he was; the well-fed, well educated, expensively dressed son of an old family. He did not look queer. It was best not to in his day. But he knew who all the queers were, and he spotted a new one.

‘Come for dinner, old man. We need to know each other better.’

Dinner was at Guy’s club. He knew everyone. Men stopped by our table to chat. And to give me the once-over. One or two handed me their cards. ‘We should meet.’ Guy watched without comment.

His flat in The Albany was walking distance away. ‘Let’s have coffee at my place, old man.’ The way you might invite a girl. Which was fine with me. It went with the French Knickers I wore under my trousers.

‘I live here during the week. My wife is in Gloucestershire and the children are away at school.’

On the table, a pot of very good coffee. Cream. Cubes of dark brown sugar in a bowl. Brandy in a crystal decanter. Two crystal glasses. On the sofa, Guy and me. Side by side.

‘So how do you think it’s going?’

‘?’

‘The BBC. Happy in your work?’

‘Yes. Thank you.’

‘Good. You’ll have noticed? Groups of friends? We help each other get on. Those we like.’

I had noticed—the groups of friends, at least. I was too new to have seen how careers could be advanced or held back but I’d take his word for it.

He put his arm round my shoulder. I rested my head against it. He was very close now. He put a hand on my chin, turned my face towards him, kissed me. I joined in. He said, ‘Do you have any special likes?’

‘I like you to take the lead.’

‘Understood, old man. Anything you won’t do?’

‘I haven’t found it yet.’

‘Well. Good. Do you think we might be more comfortable in the bedroom?’

We undressed on opposite sides of the bed. His eyes glowed when I left the knickers on. ‘Are those for me?’

‘Everything you see is for you.’

He was like Ben; another big, commanding man. On the table on his side of the bed, a bottle of oil. Tissues. Vaseline. When he rolled over me, embracing, I felt contained. One hand slipped up my knicker leg to grasp my cock. I put my arms round his back and let my legs part. His tongue slithered into my mouth. Submission. Relief. In both senses.

After he had dealt with my erection, I took his into my mouth. Longer than Ben’s. Thicker.

‘I want to be inside you.’

I lay back while he rolled the knickers down my legs. He took the Vaseline and prepared me, and then himself. I wrapped my legs round his back and my arms round his shoulders. When he pushed into me it was something he had done before; something he knew how to do. He paused several times in his thrusting, prolonging the moment. Then he came in me.

We lay, locked in each other’s arms. His breath smelt sweet. His breathing was steady and regular. Then he rolled me onto my front, went to the bathroom and came back with a warm, damp flannel and a warm towel. He cleaned me. ‘Do you have to go?’

‘I’d need to be in a taxi at six. I can stay the night. If you want me to.’

‘That’s good. I always call home about this time. To say goodnight.’

‘Go ahead.’

I lay in bed and listened. ‘Dinner with a colleague. Some things we had to discuss. No, I’m alone now.’ Then, ‘Goodnight, darling. I’ll see you on Friday. Late, probably. The Audleys? Saturday? Yes, we can do that. All right, darling. Yes, you too.’

If that doesn’t turn you on, this is not the book for you. If it does, the link is at the top of this page.

Winging It — Fact? Or Fiction?

It’s gay sex depicted more frankly than you may ever have seen – but is the story fact or fiction?

Winging It may be the frankest depiction of gay sex ever written. Read it and you’ll know more than you ever thought you wanted to about what men do when they’re in bed together. But that isn’t the point exercising most reviewers. What they want to know is: did the writer make this story up? Or is it true?

This is what Goodreads reviewer Amie Gaudet had to say:

I am not sure whether to classify this book as fiction or non-fiction. In fact, the author wasn’t really sure either. However, since James Carlton is not the real name of the person this book is about I guess that is why this book must be classified as fiction.

In 2011 the author’s brother died at the age of 68, leaving behind a laptop with his memoirs on it. A private investigator was hired to discover if the memoirs were real and his response was that the memoirs were true as far as Jimmy remembered them. He states that the details may not be 100% accurate, but they are accurate as far as Jimmy remembered them.

This is the story about James (Jimmy) Carlton. The story begins when he is 18 in the 1950s in England and details his struggles with his sexuality. It also contains graphic descriptions of his introduction to the act of sexual intercourse and more.

In today’s society Jimmy would be labelled a bisexual, but that word did not even exist in the 1950s.

And Freda Larimer, also on Goodreads, says:

I have never read a book with so much detail of this life style. I am thinking this is a true story???

So. Is the story true? I’m going to have to leave you to make up your own mind – the book contains enough clues, in all conscience. I hope you won’t read it only as a detective story, though, because reviewers have also had some lovely things to say about the book. On Amazon UK, MaryH (I’m sorry – she says no more about herself than that) says:

Winging It is the story of a man who lives a sinful life and is redeemed through the love of God. I’m not going to give away the ending, but as I read the final chapters I was in tears. They were happy tears, because this is one of the most fulfilling endings I have read in a very long time. It’s well written, the characters are fully formed and convincing but it’s the ending that marks it out from the crowd. I didn’t think I would ever describe a book that describes gay sex so graphically as a lovely book, but that’s exactly what it is. A lovely book.

Amie Gaudet (see above) went on to say:

However, this book is not just about sex. It is an interesting look at the changing views of society over time and it is a frank look into the life of an actor during a very turbulent era. and: I found this book absolutely fascinating. The fact that it is labelled as fiction does not matter. Is it fact or fiction? I’m still not completely sure, but it is definitely an interesting (an eye-opening) read.

Evija Kreišmane on Goodreads says:

The ending was beautiful and made me rethink once more what I had read in those first pages. It gave a completely different angle to look at things. And it got the job done, it worked my brains. I love the books, which don’t spoonfeed me. This is one more reason I liked the book. Everyone can draw their own conclusions.

So there you are. Winging It – people seem to love it for its own sake. But is it fact? Or the product of a fevered (and filthy) imagination? The jury’s out. Your opinion would be welcome.

Read more about Winging It here.