Erotic Corner - Interview with cover artist and author Stella Price

We have this week with us a very important segment for Erotica - Cover art! Stella Price is here to talk to he. Her bio:

Stella Price has been a model, tour manager, barista and a retail slave, but found her calling in the dual job of both writer and graphic designer. Co-author of over 18 novels and 15 short stories, Stella writes with her sister and best friend, Audra, who lives in Scotland. They are the authors of the only series ever created about Weresnakes, proving that Snakes can be SSSexy. As a graphic designer, she is an award winning cover artist that has worked with several publishers including Mundania Press, Snuff Books, Loose id, Sourcebooks and Phaze books. You can visit her and her sister at www.stellaandaudra.com

1. Tell us how you started off doing cover art: Well I was about a year and a half into my writing career and hated everything I was getting for cover art from my publishers. It seemed to me we were getting half assed covers that the artists weren’t listening to us about. So being that I have a background in art, I learned PSPX and started doing my own. The cover for Fire In His Eyes was the first ever cover I finished.

2. How have covers changed over the years in erotic novels? They are getting more suggestive and less art.

3. What trends have you seen on covers for erotic novels? Ooh well there's the man titty, headless dudes, 2 guy 1 girl threesomes…

4. What do you feel makes a great cover? The right composition. So many “cover artists” and I use that term loosely, know nothing about composition. The good ones know when it's right.

5. You write as well, does this influence your cover art and vice versa? Yes. I'm a stickler for my own cover art. My cover art HAS to convey what my book is about or it's not worth having something pretty to represent my book.

6. You recently started blogging for WriteSEX – what do you do for them and how will you be adding value to the erotic community as a writer? Apparently I’m their authority on worldbuilding, which is kinda awesome. I have written over 27 books all in worlds that have their own mythologies and rules so I like to think I'm old at it. I'm just excited to be able to share with others what I have learned in the past years since I have started writing.

7. Do you have a routine when you write or create covers? No. It’s pretty much just serendipity when I work on covers… writing is a little more tedious because it's not just my head I'm living in, it's my sisters as well…

Buy Of Crimson and Collars - American Satyrs from All Romance E-books

You Burn Me - Stella and Audra Price

Stella and Audra Price
Risktaking Romance

(Also writing as Dagmar Avery)

Six of A Story: Gabrielle Bisset and Vampire Dreams

Our guest today, on Six of A Story, is Gabrielle Bisset and her book is Vampire Dreams. 

Author Bio: Gabrielle Bisset is a college history professor by day and an erotic romance author by nights and weekends. A romance reader since she was a teenager, she loves Alpha males and strong females and has a special penchant for paranormal romance. However, history is never far away (an occupational hazard). Her first novel was published by Siren Publishing in June 2011, and since then she's released a trio of novellas--Vampire Dreams, Love's Master, and Masquerade--all set in Victorian England. Her newest release, Destiny Redeemed, is out now. She lives in Pennsylvania with her son and their five cats. What can she say? She can't say no to a stray.

Quirky Fact from Gabrielle: "I hand write everything before typing it, including my 300 page novels." 

About Vampire Dreams: 

Homeless and without any family, Arden Stephens must live on the streets of mid 19th century London, never a safe place for a young woman. One night, as she is running for her life from an attacker, she is rescued by Brandon Ridley and offered a place in his home as his maid. Brandon is enchanted by Arden from the moment they meet, but just as she has secrets, so too does he. A vampire hundreds of years old, he yearns for the companionship she can give him. But for that he must make her one of his kind.

Nightly, he visits her in her sleep, preparing her for the night he will finally make her his own. For Arden, the wanton dreams she has about her handsome employer seduce her and each day when she wakes up, she finds herself more drawn to him. But love and desire aren't enough for Brandon to sire her. He must first obtain the approval of his maker, an ancient vampire named Vasilije who has thwarted his chance for happiness before. 

But if Brandon can convince him, he may finally find the love he's been without for centuries. 

 

Buy On Amazon 

                 

1. Can you give us a hint of the secrets Arden keeps?
Arden has lived on the streets, so she's seen some pretty bleak things, even for 19th century times. Poverty, theft, cruelty, and then there are the sexual favors she's seen the homeless women trading. It's not a nice life for a young lady.

2. How does Arden receive Brandon's offer of working in his home as a maid?
(Living on the streets as a woman in the 19 Century makes me wonder: would she be suspicious or more of the "Oh! Thank-goodness my knight has arrived" mentality)

She's definitely suspicious, but Arden isn't a fool. She knows a good deal when she hears one. Brandon presents himself as an upstanding gentleman willing to do a good deed to help someone down on their luck, so while she may still have her pride, she isn't haughty. She knows a roof over her head and food in her stomach are far better than living on the streets with only her pride.

3. How does the relationship between Arden and Brandon develop?

Brandon is attracted to her instantly, but Arden only gradually becomes interested in him. His nightly visits to her certainly don't hurt things in that department, but even more than growing sexually attracted to him, Arden begins to feel a closeness and sweetness from Brandon that she enjoys. For Brandon, the companionship is as appealing as the sensuality he experiences as a vampire. The fact is that he's been alone for so long and when Arden comes into his life, he sees a soul he can envision spending the rest of time with.

4. Love and companionship seem to be really important to Brandon---is Arden also immediately looking for those things?

After her time on the rough streets of London, Arden relishes the feeling of a home where she's welcome, even if it is as his household help. She is a female of 19th century England, so the idea of having a man to love and marry is ingrained in her. When she realizes he cares for her as she's grown to care for him, she's thrilled she's found that love and companionship that has been lost to her since losing her parents.

5. Tell us a little bit about Vasilije.

Vasilije is pure sensuality. He's selfish, seductive, wanting whatever suits his fancy. He's Brandon's sire, which means he has control over much of what Brandon does. He loves that kind of power and revels in the fact that he can make the far nicer Brandon squirm. But Vasilije isn't cruel all the time. He does care about his vampires. It's just that he's a far more manipulative creature than Brandon. He's also an older vampire who doesn't have to answer to a sire because his was killed centuries ago, so he's been without the leash that other vampires have in his world. For Vasilije, this is definitely an enjoyable place to be in if you're naturally interested in power.

6. What would you say is the most definitive trait that makes your vampires stand out from the pages of other vampric books?
The back story and history that define my vampires makes them unique. Vampire Dreams is set in Victorian England, so the world Brandon and Vasilije live in colors them, to a certain extent. Brandon is the quintessential Victorian man and appreciates the manners and rules that the era imposes on him. Despite being born in the 1600s, he has found the 19th century to be very much a time that works with his nature. For Vasilije, the age of Victoria is stifling. He's sensual and erotic, not buttoned up and proper. Born in the late 1500s to an Eastern European prince and one of his concubines, he is from birth used to more: more luxuries, more power, more money. So for him, the Victorian period is so repressive. In his own book, Blood Avenged, readers will see him in our time in New Orleans, and modern day America with its excesses is a perfect fit for a vampire who appreciates the sensuality life has to offer. 

Visit Gabrielle by going to her website, Gabrielle Bisset , check out her really great blog, Gabrielle Bisset: A Writer's Blog, find her on Facebook and Twitter

Whimsical Friday: To condom or not to condom

Here we are again, nearing the end of the week

I’ve been sick this week and spent a lot of time in bed. It’s not even flu season yet and I manage to catch a cold. My head and body hurt, my throat is swollen and sore and I’m sneezing up buckets of sn—well, you get the point.  To put it plainly. I feel like crap. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t stop just because I feel lousy. So here I am on Whimsical Friday feeling blah.  But that doesn’t mean I plan to be boring. J

Sex. We’ve all had it. In our youth, were fascinated by it. It was taboo and all the more interesting. As adults, we seek it out and enjoy the pleasure it gives us. It’s a natural act. You’re in the heat of the moment. Hands groping, bodies writhing, sweat beading your naked flesh as you come together. It’s the final moment.  You’re ready, desperate for release, and just as you’re about to give in to the moment, there is one question that begs to be answered.

“Do you have protection?”

Halt everything. Your body is screaming for release, but you know if this is going to happen, you want to be protected.  Right? In today’s world it’s downright unthinkable to not carry some sort of protection and condoms are usually the biggest choice. Even women are carrying them these days. Why rely on a man to remember to bring some.  

So here you are, hot and horny and you have to stop to find protection. Yikes!  Now what? Well if this was a romance novel, the couple would be doing the nasty without giving a thought to protection.  Sure, there are some authors who write it in, but more authors forgo the subject.  You don’t want to break up the flow to stop and find a condom. The reader wants it to get hot and heavy and they don’t give a damn about protection.  Shame on them.

Okay, so we’ve established that stopping in the middle of sex to find protection is a buzz kill. You’re both frustrated now and scrambling to find a condom. You desperately want to find it and get it on so you can…well, get it on.  You each pull out a condom and hold it up in declaration. “Yes! Lets get back to where we left off.” But then you see the condom, see the ad and you burst out laughing. The famous and familiar condom you’ve know all your life have been replaced by every day products.  When the hell did Nike and KFC start producing condoms? What happened to Trojan and Sheik? They’ve been replaced. Now this would be a great scenario if it were in a romance novel, but real life? Seriously? Come on!

So I ask you this. If you’re in the middle of getting it on and your partner pulls out one of the condoms below, would you still be able to finish the deed?

 

 

Have a great weekend!!

Shiela Stewart
www.shielasbooks.ca

One night of passion could be lethal!

Wanting some excitement in her life, Penny Parker heads to Vegas. She’s hoping the guy Madame Evangeline has set her up with will give her more than a thrill.

Cade O’Donnell is a virgin…of sorts. Wanting something he’s never had before, he signs up for the 1NightStand service. Deciding to meet his match in Vegas seems the right setting for his tryst. What better place to have a fling than in Sin City.

Thrills are abundant when Penny and Cade get together. But will it be more than she bargained for? Has Cade bitten off more than he can chew?

Food for Thought

Good Morning

Today is the last day for you to post your entries for the Octogon Theatres Writers competition.
Here are the guidelines again.

1. In NO more than 100 words write a short biography about yourself and why you would like to adapt your novel for the stage.

I wanted my book Abigail Cottage to go on the stage because I wanted it to come alive. To have real actors/actresses play the characters that my imagination had conjoured up.

2. In NO more than 200 words write a synopsis of the novel you wish to adapt.Please Include your publishers name and your email with your synopsis.

Make it a good one, so the director can see your characters are three dimensional.

ANYONE can enter this competition with the exclusion of some genres. The whole guideline explaination is on my blog.

Good Luck everyone.

A Hump Day Regular

Greetings and welcome to the First Official Hump Day Post with Liz.

Today I wanna open a can of worms with you folks and chat about:

Reciprocity.

Yeah, it's sexy. I know.

I bring it up because I was in a really great discussion with a publisher recently about how to make your mark on the Wide Wide Internet Highway without going insane in the process.

Her suggestion was to forget about "selling your book."  That's right.  Your product is not your book.  It is you.  I'm having my own personal website revamped to reflect that.  

Acquisition Editors troll the interwebs these days to see if you are "out there" already.  If you aren't you'd best comment here to start making an impact, then make sure you have a relevant post on your own blog (preferably NOT about what was in your kid's diaper this morning or how cute your cat is cuddled up in a shoebox--make a new blog for that crap), then hit Facebook and Twitter and start interacting with people, posting notices and excerpts (IF they are already contracted and edited).  

I also go by the advice I got while setting up my pretty impressive social networking plan for my brewery.  BLOG.  Often.  IT is the hub of your social media wheel of success.  Use the outlets like FB/Twitter/Linked In/ Google + as spokes leading straight to the hub.  A Blog is where you show your expertise, humor, successes and humbling experiences.  ALL of it edited just as carefully as you would a submission.  Because it is.  You are submitting to the world at large you are an expert on .... writing.  I see more cringe-worthy typos and flat out errors of grammar on "writer blogs" than is believable sometimes.  Don't Be That Writer.

Treat it like a job--the two hours you devote every day to making your presence known on line.  Find and join Yahoo and Google+ groups for outlets to promote and find ways to learn.  I would add to that:  Reciprocate.

Spend another hour to an hour and a half going to the blogs you like, and even finding one or two new ones via your shiny new group memberships and whatnot.  Read and comment.  A great example of this is the new USA Today Romance Blog.  Read that sucker every day and have Something To Say about the posts.  They love it.  And you might learn something and/or find a hot new author to read.

The key is managing your time so that social networking doesn't feel overwhelming.  Assign it a time of day and an ending.  Set a timer. (It's how I do it).  Be sincere, useful, and positive in your commentary.  But Be There.  

Next week--we might look at some sexy men instead of all this boring blah blah about writing, what say you?

cheers

Liz

www.brewingpassion.com

Six of A Story: Jocelyn Adams and The Glass Man

If you are a fan of all things paranormal and love the genre of Urban Fantasy as much as I do, our guest today, Jocelyn Adams has the book for you. Quirky Fact(s) about Jocelyn:
“I’m a competitive archer, won the Canadian Nationals a few years ago, I have issues with touching wooden spoons, the texture is like nails on a chalk board to me.  ::shiver::  That, and I’m squicked out by spiders.”
I was thrilled to interview Jocelyn about her brand new release.

The Glass Man

Lila Gray is just a human — at least that's her mantra when she accidentally topples a building or bends a paranoid local's gun into modern art. That she can sense and control the minds around her doesn't prove anything, either. Unwilling to put others at risk, she hides in the wilderness from the beautiful creature who hunts her, one who sees her as his ultimate prize.
Alone, the egocentric Glass Man can kill with a thought. Mated with Lila, he's a supernatural weapon prepared to annihilate the humans he loathes.
Caught in the Glass Man's latest scheme, Lila is plunged into a hidden fae realm, faced with a secret birthright and a forbidden romance.
With the Glass Man threatening everyone she loves, can Lila accept who she is in time to end his bloody reign? Or will she succumb to his dark power and become the vehicle of destruction for the human race?

BuyFrom Amazon

Six of A Story Questions with Jocelyn Adams and the Glass Man



1.      Are these human abilities of Lila Gray’s new? When did she realize she could control the minds around her? 


The abilities are not new, and they’re not human, though she’ll swear they are if you ask her at the beginning of the book. ;)  They emerged when she hit puberty, and she accidentally destroyed her room and hurt her brother with a thought.  None of her family explained anything to her at the time, but made her believe she’d dreamed it.  That evening, her journey began when the Glass Man found her for the first time.


2.      "She hides in the wilderness from the beautiful creature who hunts her..." Can you share with us, why the Glass Man is a beautiful creature, despite his deadly gift? 


 Beautiful, when talking about the Glass Man, is entirely external, like a poison arrow frog or a coral snake.  He’s a killer in a pretty package, and an egocentric one at that.  Muss up his hair and he’d go on the rampage, but he’ll squash a person like a tick and laugh about it.  When he murders someone in the name of his cause, it gives him pleasure, a power high, as if he sucked on a crack pipe.  The greatest danger to Lila is that she’s attracted to both him and his power, which he uses against her often.

3.      What are Lila’s abilities?  She's telepathic and also telekinetic - is there anything more?


Lila isn’t truly telepathic in the sense she can read other’s minds.  Her power is the Force of Will.  She can sense a mind or thousands of minds at once, and plant suggestions the person is compelled to obey.  Her ability also makes her psychokinetic when it comes to objects.  She can will them to move or explode in someone’s face if she’s angry enough.  There are more abilities she gains in the book, but you’ll have to read to find out so I don’t give anything away.  ;)  Sorry!

4.      Can you share some of the Glass Man’s previous schemes?  If this is his latest scheme, then he must have been up to mischief or mayhem of some sort long before...


 He knows Lila is a softie underneath her hard exterior.  If she can save a person’s life, she’ll do it at any cost.  The Glass Man knows all he has to do is hurt someone when in her vicinity, and she’ll come to him despite the risks to herself.  Even though Lila has fallen into his ‘damsel in distress’ traps before, she has always managed to outsmart him and get away.  He also has an uncanny ability to find her wherever she is in the world.  He used to play catch and release with her just for his own amusement, but now that he truly means to claim her, he’s come up with a more elaborate ruse she won’t be able to resist.

5.      Does the Glass Man actually have to mate with Lila, or can he simply keep her as his courtesan or something similar?  It seems as though all he really needs to do is take control of Lila and keep her his.  I'd also suggest that Lila could possibly be not only the focal point for his powers, but an amplifier.  Can you comment on that without giving too much away?


 The mating process for the fae is more complicated than marriage, deeper than soul mates, more erotic than sex.  It’s a blending of power, a joining of minds and souls that leaves one exposed and vulnerable to the other through a metaphysical link.  This is the only way he’ll be able to control Lila enough to use her in his war against the human race.  Lila isn’t an amplifier per se.  He needs her power to augment his and, of course, mostly what he needs are her abilities.

6.      If the Glass Man can kill with a thought - is this not something that he could just do and wipe out civilization all on his own?  Or does he have a limit to his power and how often he can use that thought to kill?


 The Glass Man can kill one person or creature at a time if their mind is near enough for him to capture, which limits him more than he’d like.  Sure, he could wander through the world taking out one at a time, but to him, that would be the fool’s way and would take years.  With Lila, he can wipe them all out in a single day, maybe even a single moment.


 7.   Does Lila escape to the Fae Realm through the wilderness in order to avoid the Glass Man?  Or is it through him that she ends up there? 


 When Lila is surviving in the woods, she knows nothing of the fae.  All she knows is that she made a promise to her mother to return peace to their people.  The only problem is that Lila’s mother died before she could tell her who their people are.  It’s when the Glass Man finally catches up with Lila that she winds up at one of the fae cities and about her heritage and birthright.

 Excerpt from chapter 9: 

“You are a hearty thing,” the Glass Man said in that amused tone he always used. He sauntered out from behind a tree, wearing a dark grey suit. A grey silk tie painted a shining line down a matching shirt. His wavy hair had been pulled back and secured with a black ribbon. I’d never seen him dressed up. In another life—one where he wasn’t a murderous sociopath—I might have thought him beautiful, but at that moment, he looked like cancer wearing an Armani. He stood in a little circle of moonlight a few feet away.

My upper lip curled in a snarl. “Where’s my music box?”

He straightened his tie, his gaze lowering from my face. “I chose well with that dress. Matches your eyes to perfection.” His eyes swept lower down my body. “Tsk, tsk. Look what you’ve done to it. Lucky for you, I brought extras.” He smiled as if I’d done something to impress him. “Bleeding like a stuck pig, and you still ran nearly four miles from the house before I caught up with you. I can think of better uses for stamina like that.” He gave a pathetic double-raise of his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I just bet you can. The only reason you caught me is because you called in your dogs. What’s the matter, not man enough to get me on your own?”

“I am no man!” He ripped the ribbon from his black hair, and it flew up around his face, dancing with the grace of fire. His skin glowed with veins of blue as if someone had switched on a light within. 

I swallowed past the cotton lump in my throat. “You keep saying that, and I keep suggesting a psychiatrist. Maybe it’s time you took my advice.”

More About Jocelyn Adams:

Jocelyn Adams grew up on a cattle farm in Lakefield and has remained a resident of Southern Ontario her entire life, most recently in Muskoka. She has worked as a computer geek, a stable hand, a secretary, and spent most of her childhood buried up to the waist in an old car or tractor engine with her mechanically inclined dad.

Mostly, she's a dreamer with a vivid imagination and a love for fantasy (and a closet romantic — shhh!). When she isn't shooting her compound bow in competition or writing, she hangs out with her husband and young daughter at their little house in the woods.

Her short stories have appeared in in the Hall Brothers Entertainment’s Villainy anthology, Residential Aliens magazine, Wicked East Press's Twisted Fairy Tales 2 anthology, Roar and Thunder magazine, Pill Hill Press's Sinisterotica anthology, Dead Robots’ Society’s Explorers:  Beyond the Horizon anthology and the Red Penny Papers.

Visit Jocelyn's website  follow her on twitter and check out her blog

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