Elizabeth Cage, Woman's Weekly and Steamy Stories

I'm thrilled to be featured in the current issue of Woman's Weekly, thanks to an article by the wonderful writer Jane Wenham Jones. I'm in the company of some truly amazing erotic authors - KD Grace, Kay Jaybee and Della Galton - and feel quite humble to have been included with them as a mistress of erotica and a top writer!  The article, called Steamy Stories, is on pages 20-21 - do check it out!

Vina Jackson Guest Post: Mistress of Night and Dawn

Todays' guest post is from Vina Jackson, a prolific writing duo responsible for the incredibly successful Eighty Days series......  

By the time we delivered EIGHTY DAYS WHITE, the final volume of the EIGHTY DAYS series, we were both exhausted and run down, mentally and physically. We had completed five more or less 340 pages novels in length in under six months!

What had begun as a proposal for just two volumes, involving flame-haired violinist Summer and conflicted dom and university professor Dominik had, by acquisition time, grown into three novels when two publishers fought over the property and one attempted to trump the other by moving the proffered advance sky high if we committed to writing a trilogy. Which the other competing publisher soon matched...

At any rate, within a few weeks of the first instalment, EIGHTY DAYS BLUE, appearing and hitting the Sunday Times Top 10, our hardy literary agent was already fielding frantic requests for us, as we were still in the process of completing the third volume, to expand the series to a further two instalments. So, with an eye to our bank statements and keeping agent and publishers happy -we are ever so obliging- we agreed to write EIGHTY DAYS AMBER and WHITE, albeit featuring other characters who had made cameo appearances in the initial trilogy as we felt we couldn't string along the tortured, on/off/on/off and so on relationship between Summer and Dominik any further for the sake of our sanity!

All the books continued to be popular with multiple bestseller lists and supermarket shelves appearances and have since gone on to be translated into 21 languages, and at one stage we even had four novels in the German Top 10!

Imagine our sense of emptiness and anticlimax when this writing madness, spurred on of course by the unforeseen demand for quality racy romance in the wake of FSOG, finally came to a halt. Days became long and slow, and we quickly forgot how painful writing the novels had in fact proven. We'd become addicts/writing machines/constant spinners of words. Of course, we had to continue.

But we didn't wish to continue flogging a dead horse, so to speak, and be seen as just a BDSM erotica factory at a time when the E.L. James wave was finally beginning to ebb. We wanted to do something new and innovative, while still retaining our 'brand' for rather stronger sexual moods and quality writing that none of our many rivals could match, according to the majority of reviews.

Thus was MISTRESS OF NIGHT AND DAWN born.

In EIGHTY DAYS WHITE, we introduced a shadowy organisation called the Network which has a close connection to a mysterious ball which takes place every year in a different location and offers a cornucopia of sex and bizarre happenings. We had thoroughly enjoyed writing all the scenes taking place at the Ball as well as many of the rituals and sex scenes as spectacle throughout the whole series and decided from an early stage we wanted to concentrate on that area of our writing and increase its baroque, phantasmagorical, almost supernatural element. So the Ball became a character in its own right in our proposed new book, which publishers quickly came onboard with, understanding perfectly our wish to broaden the attraction of our novels, without abandoning in any way the erotic elements that had always attracted us.

We imagined how the Ball came into existence, which allowed us to scatter 'action' over the course of the narrative with a series of historical interludes which picture the Ball at play during the course of the centuries. Then we had to come up with the principal characters for the novel's major strand, and had to invent the Ball's hierarchy and rules, with ensuing rebellion against its strictures to power the necessary conflict and arrived at the central character of the Ball's Mistress.

At which stage the story became to take off; not so much wrote itself - one of many cliches of the writing trade - but a tragic prologue dictated the scene and mood, and a baby was born, an heir to the Ball's power, with a nod to Great Expectations, and our 20 emails back and forth a day routine resumed, as we quickly began to stray far and away from our skeletal outline and wander into exciting new directions that just made sense, and swapped scenes with barely repressed excitement as this longer novel, in which some of the Eighty Days characters make new and fleeting return appearances, took flight and dominated our life for a further three months.

The book appears in the UK on September 12th and we hope you like it. As to us, after ensuing breaks in Fiji and the Indian Ocean, we're already concocting something new; we just can't stop ourselves!

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vina-Jackson/e/B009CA86G4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

https://www.facebook.com/vina.jackson.71?fref=ts

Buy link for Mistress of Night and Dawn

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mistress-Night-Dawn-Vina-Jackson/dp/1409147479/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378545982&sr=1-1&keywords=mistress+of+night+and+dawn

Erotica Readers and Writers

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Lucy Felthouse Guest Post: The Truth About Erotica

I'm thrilled that my guest post today is from the highly prolific and hugely energetic writer Lucy Felthouse (I wish my output was as productive as Lucy - I feel positively lazy by comparison!).  Lucy is talking The Truth About Erotica and dispelling a few myths.  Check in tomorrow for an excerpt from one of her latest titles, The Perfect Dom.   Over to you, Lucy!

Firstly, I want to say thank you to Elizabeth for inviting me here today to discuss the truth about erotica.

So... what is the truth? I can only speak from personal experience, of course, so here goes:

Most erotic writers only write from experience to a certain degree. For example, I know a writer that was penning erotic stories while still a virgin—all it took was a little imagination on their part. Now, I’m not a virgin, and haven’t been for quite some time, so yes, I write from experience in as much as I’ve had sex with a man.  However, my fertile imagination means that I have written about vampires, werewolves, policemen, policewomen, shifters, dominatrix’s, doggers, ghosts, succubi, incubi, jackals, male dancers... the list goes on. And surely no one can accuse me of being all those things, can they? I’m a straight woman who’s never had sex with another woman, and yet I’ve written about lesbians and gay men.

How? Because with the lesbian stuff, I know what naked women look like (I’ve seen one in the mirror!), how things feel, how things work, etc. And with the gay stuff, it’s because, equally, I know what naked men look like (shocker, I know!), how things feel, how things work.

So, although I’m sure some erotica writers are probably gay, lesbian, dominant, submissive, exhibitionists, voyeurs and doggers, it doesn’t mean we all are. Many of us are people in traditional relationships that do nothing out of the ordinary, except on the page. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Another myth I’d like to dispel is about how we write. I don’t mean with pens and paper, or laptops, or dictionaries and thesauruses. I mean what we physically do. There are rumours that float around that we all sit around in sexy underwear and outfits, wielding whips. It’s bullshit. Okay, so maybe some writers do that, but I know for a fact that a great deal of us don’t. We wear whatever clothes we feel comfortable in—for me that’s usually jeans and a t-shirt—probably no makeup—sometimes I don’t even brush my hair!—and we work. You know why? Because it’s a job. On the whole (E.L. James excepting), it’s a very badly paid job, but we love it, and we do it because we want to, because we enjoy it. Yes, many of us do other things to supplement our bank balances and squeeze writing in around that, but it doesn’t make it any less of a job for us.  We don’t sit around in our pyjamas, either, watching daytime TV. If we did that, we’d make even less money. Also, we’re very busy people. We don’t write 24/7. We have jobs, children, pets, partners, houses and lives to contend with, as well as our ever-present Muse.

I always said to myself when I started working from home, that if I ever found myself watching daytime television, it was time to get another job. So far I haven’t even been tempted. If I’m ill, I’ll read or watch a DVD, or sleep. The day I watch Jeremy Kyle or Loose Women is the day I get back on Monster.com. For now, I’m going to stick with being my own boss and doing what makes me happy.

*****

The Perfect Dom 
Four kinky and erotic BDSM tales from the smutty pen of Lucy Felthouse.

Balancing the Books

Philip’s a well off man, and doesn’t need a job. But when he sees the gorgeous owner of his local bookshop, he applies for the role that’s being advertised there immediately. He’s totally stricken by the stunning Giovanna, and when it turns out she wants to boss him around in a sexual sense as well as an employment sense, he has no intention of refusing.

Feeling the Heat

Taylor and Maisie’s car has broken down. Luckily, Taylor’s handy with engines and is working hard to get them back on the road. Unfortunately, Maisie is getting annoyed at the amount of time he’s spending in the garage and confronts him. Instead of arguing back, though, Taylor comes up with an ingenious plan to keep Maisie quiet.

The Perfect Dom

Part of Mia’s nightwear is a pair of hotpants with SPANK ME emblazoned across the arse. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but when she forgets that she has a houseguest and heads to the kitchen for a drink, she’s shocked to find Alex in her living room. Immediately spotting what he sees as an invitation written across Mia’s bottom, Alex makes an offer and Mia soon discovers that he is, in fact, the perfect dom.

Meet Me at the Spanish Steps

Darby is working at a holiday camp on the outskirts of Rome and is getting along just fine, with the exception of her sex life. For various reasons, she’s not getting what she wants in the bedroom, and her tastes are very particular. She turns to the Internet to get what she needs, and when she discovers William, it seems that he’s more than willing—and capable—of scratching that particular itch.

More info, excerpt and buy links: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/the-perfect-dom/

*****

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over seventy publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include Best Bondage Erotica 2012 and 2013, and Best Women's Erotica 2013. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies. She owns Erotica For All, and is book editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

Related posts:
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-truth-about-being-erotica-writer.html

Maxim Jakubowski Guest Post: The Ties That Bind

Today I am absolutely thrilled that the guest blogger for my series Sexy Stories: fiction that turns me on is renowned editor and writer Maxim Jakubowski. Over to you, Maxim....

I've always been a great believer in the virtues of popular fiction.

I began my writing career in the science fiction & fantasy field before making a diversion later in life into the world of crime and thrillers. However, my own efforts in these wonderful genres tended to attract mixed reviews and barely average sales due to the fact that it was always self-evident to me that even if I was working in genre, this was no reason not to have believable characters constructed out of flesh and blood rather than cardboard. So, my characters always felt real to me, and in order to make them even more real and credible they shared many of my own tastes, obsessions, quirks, whatever, and as a result sex often reared its pesky head in my writing, which didn't help in making me overly popular to genre readers.

   

This explains how I eventually came to erotic fiction.

As an editor with a long career in traditional book publishing, I have always subscribed to Sturgeon's law that states that '90% of everything is crap, which leaves 10% of quality'. A simple piece of maths that applies to all literature, whether it be deemed literary/mainstream or be within recognisable genres such as those evoked earlier.

Having been accused of allowing too much sex to permeate my genre fiction, I naturally became more curious about erotic literature and, having been educated in France where there is a healthy tradition in the genre, from Sade onwards through the surrealists, STORY OF O and a wonderful assortment of contemporary authors, I began investigating the genre in the English language once I had established that Victorian erotica and its upstairs/downstairs spanking traditions did nothing for my libido. Beginning with erotic SF, exemplified by Philip Farmer and others once published by the legendary Essex House  60s imprint, I embarked on a journey of discovery which unveiled so many hidden treasures in the genre that I was prompted to assemble what became the first volume of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF EROTICA, if only to demonstrate that erotic writing could be well-written, non-exploitative and full of 'real' people. This was an immediate success, which would later go on to encourage me to take the crime and thrills out of my own novels and write straight erotica, something that now comes to me naturally and continues to this day.

Shortly after the first volume appeared I was on a break in Paris and came upon a second-hand book that seemed interesting on a bouquiniste stool by the Seine and picked it up, without knowing anything about it, attracted by its brief cover blurb. It was a novel by a French writer called Vanessa Duries, titled LE LIEN. It was a thinly autobiographical story of a young French student's acceptance of her sexual submission and traced the moving trajectory of her relationship with her dominant cum Master. In itself not a strikingly original story, although I had been previously piqued by similar tales of BDSM dynamics like STORY OF O, and Anne Rice's early excursions into erotica as Roquelaure and Rampling, which struck a chord inside of me.

Vanessa's story touched me immensely. She had an authentic voice which spoke to me directly at every level, intellectually and sexually. The story made me cry, made me hard, made me scared for her and her future and Vanessa felt so real that I immediately began researching her. The book had appeared three years earlier and there was no sign of any follow-up. I made contact with her French publisher, Franck Spengler (who was later to become mine in France and also a good friend, with whom I have since edited a collection of French female erotica as OOH LA LA!) only to learn that the young woman who wrote as Vanessa Duries died shortly after the book's publication in a car accident, and Franck was able to fill in the gaps and tell me more about her and her story, the facts that were not in the book, and privately showed me many photographs of her, some in extreme sexual situations which had been taken by her dom, and which she had trusted to his care. I was moved to tears.

Had she lived, Vanessa would, I believe have become a major author and not just in our restrictive erotica field. Considering that she was only 20 when she wrote the book, she was a born storyteller, stylist, and could convey emotions and the sense of loss sexual abandon can often provoke. She had begun a second novel before she died and Franck would publish it unfinished some years later as L"ETUDIANTE (The Student). Never before had a work of erotic writing affected me so strongly because through the lines (and despite some often intemperate philosophising that only the French are sometimes prone to) the characters depicted (and of course based on real life) felt so immensely authentic, vulnerable, imperfect, flesh and blood and guts and semen and fluids as we all are. It was also a demonstration of the sheer power of erotic writing can attain when it is done right, and doesn't meekly aspire to just being entertaining smut. From that day onwards it became a standard I swore to reach for in my own writing and in my editorial choices.

From that intense discovery onwards, I had no cease to convince an English-language publisher to get the book translated. The times were not right but, eventually, I was given the opportunity of editing the Eros Plus shortlived line for Titan Books and jumped on the opportunity of releasing the book in the UK as THE TIES THAT BIND after which that great erotic entrepreneur, scoundrel and innovator, Richard Kasak at Masquerade Books took the bait and acquired it for the USA where it went into several editions. The book appeared with a long essay/foreword by me about my post mortem relationship with Vanessa the writer and her photographs...

Years have now gone by and both lists no longer exist but when I was asked last year by Constable Robinson to edit a new digital-only imprint for them of Modern Erotic Classics, Vanessa's book was one of my obligatory initial selection, so it is now finally available again (alongside 19 other crucial titles that all demonstrate how bloody good erotica can be, away from the dross of self-published rubbish now flourishing on the Internet and electronically and giving the genre a bad name, titles by Samuel R. Delany, Elissa Wald, Michael Perkins, David Meltzer, Marilyn Jaye-Lewis, Julie Hilden, Michael Hemmingson, Paul Mayersberg and others...; please look them up and download at the first possible opportunity).

But my heart still belongs to Vanessa.

http://maximjakubowski.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/maxim.jakubowski

If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy the following guest posts in the Sexy Stories series:

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/david-russell-guest-post-sexy-stories.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/betty-herbert-guest-post-sexy-stories.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/chantel-c-guest-post-sexy-stories.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bel-anderson-guest-post-sexy-stories.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-lucy-felthouse-sexy-stories.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/kay-jaybee-sexy-stories-learning-from.html

   

    

KD Grace Guest Post: Sex and that Chain Reaction

I'm delighted that the wonderful KD Grace has written a guest post for my blog series Sexy Stories: fiction that turns me on, in which she discusses Sex and that Chain Reaction.
Over to you, KD.....

Thanks for having me over to talk about my favourite sexy books, Elizabeth. I have to say the task was a bit more daunting than you might expect. I’m sorry to say that I read very little erotica before I started writing it. What I loved back in my pre-erotica days, what intrigued me most in novels, was chemistry; was the sense of two people so drawn together that the end of the world itself couldn’t keep them a part. And that chemistry, that magnetism translated into love scenes so vivid and so real that they made my knees weak and left me thinking about the scene, the characters and the book long after I’d reached the end. Sometimes that scene would be really hot and other times it would be different than hot. Other times it was more like magic, more like a chain reaction that I, as a reader felt, in my gut and in my heart as well as in my knickers. In fact, feeling it in my knickers was sort of incidental.

My first experiences of that feeling were in myths; Psyche and Eros, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde. The truth is, since I write erotic romance, I look for that same chain reaction, that same sense of chemistry and magnetism in the erotica I read as well. And I try my best to create it in the erotica I write.

Two books, in particular, have really influenced the way I write both sex and romance. Nora Roberts’s Black Hills is one of them.

I’ve never read a book where the chemistry between the two main characters and just the bond of camaraderie was so strong. To me, Nora Roberts is the queen of romance, and her romance is sexy. I figure I can learn a lot from her.






The other novel is The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s classic retelling of the King Arthur legend through the eyes of the female Characters, in particular through the eyes of Morgain. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s writings, both Avalon and her syfy/fantasy Darkover novels, caused me to rethink my views on sex and the magic that’s created in that sexual connection between two people. Her writing was influential in the ideas of sex magic, which drive my Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy.

Now that I’ve had time to read some really great erotic novels, though not as much time as I’d like to, when there are so many fabulous ones out there, my favourite is Charlotte Stein’s intense and sexy novel, Control. I love the novel because the characters are powerfully drawn and the lust and the chemistry between them is about as close to magic as you can get. One of the best things I like about Charlotte’s writing is that she really gets inside her characters’ heads, and so much of what’s sexy happens in the minds of the characters. Charlotte has a gift for describing what’s going on in her character’s heads in a way that makes what their bodies are doing even sexier.


If you ask me this same question several years from now, Elizabeth, I’m sure my list will be longer and more varied, but I think the expanded book list will still be dominated by stories where that chemistry and magnetism between characters drives the story. Thanks again for having me over.


Find K D and her work here: http://kdgrace.co.uk/ http://gracemarshallromance.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/KD_Grace http://www.facebook.com/KDGraceAuthor http://www.facebook.com/GraceMarshallRomance

Related posts
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/kinky-boots-guest-post.html
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/miss-glory-pearl-sexy-stories-fiction.html

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/david-russell-guest-post-sexy-stories.html

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/betty-herbert-guest-post-sexy-stories.html

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/chantel-c-guest-post-sexy-stories.html

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bel-anderson-guest-post-sexy-stories.html

http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-lucy-felthouse-sexy-stories.html

Location, location!

Today you will find me guesting for the wonderful Kay Jaybee.  I'm over at her blog talking Location, Location!

When I stated to write erotica I had hardly travelled at all.  There are two reasons for this.  First and foremost, I have a travel phobia (especially flying).  Secondly, no-one had given me a compelling reason to tackle my phobia.

I never tackled publisher briefs that requested an exotic location in the story – because I hadn’t been to one, and I do like to have had some experience of what I am writing about.  However, some years ago, when I met my current partner (who loves travelling) I was finally persuaded to take my first tentative steps onto a plane......... 

Please go to link to read the post.  Enjoy!
http://kayjaybee.me.uk/news/guest-blog-elizabeth-cage-location-location/

Writing for Play

According to my Oxford Dictionary foreplay is “stimulation preceding sexual intercourse.”  I feel that rather understates and undervalues the act, or should I say, art of foreplay.  (Interesting that we often use theatrical words likes “act”, “perform” and “play” when we make reference to sexual activities).

Foreplay can engage all the senses.  We make our bodies beautiful by dressing (or-undressing) to create a sensual feast for the eyes; we use our voices to make gentle pillow talk or give commands; we touch and feel with tongues, fingers and lips.  Exotic scents or our own heady pheromones are often the first signals our brains receive to release the flood of chemicals we need to prepare us for sex and our taste buds can be stimulated by playing food games or just eating each other!

Of course, we are often told that sex is all in the mind and that it is our imaginations that create the experience, so what better way to stimulate that imagination than by reading an erotic story?  Erotica is not only an aide to foreplay, a tool; it can be the foreplay itself.  Is that what erotic writers do?  Is that our job?  I confess that when a satisfied reader tells me she had to reach for her vibrator while she was reading one of my stories, it is a huge compliment.

As a reader and spectator there are times when I need erotica that is hot, horny and fast. Like a quick fuck.  And at others, I desire a long, slow, gradual seduction.  Very slow.  To be teased, imperceptibly at first, keeping me guessing, wondering when and how and if. Taken by the hand and led on a journey that will, I hope, culminate in an exquisite, blissful climax.

Related posts:
http://elizabeth-cage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/writing-to-tease.html

Re-invention and Erotica Writing with Chantel C

Today you'll find me over with the lovely Chantel C at the brilliant One Honest Writer doing a guest post on how watching a man pissing against the wall started my erotic writing career (don't ask!). 

Check out my revelations here:
http://chantelc.com/2013/01/09/guest-post-by-elizabeth-cage/

The post is called Re-invention and Erotica Writing.  

Merry Christmas!

'Tis the season to reflect and review, methinks.  So I'm taking a short break from the blogosphere to recharge my batteries.

There will be some great guest posts in 2013 from erotica luminaries such as KD Grace, Janine Ashbless, Kay Jaybee and Maxim Jakubowski.  Watch this space!!  I shall also undertake my first ever blog tour.....Bring it on!

Merry Christmas - and may your Santa be sexy!

Read my Lips

Something to look forward to.  

In February 2013 my short story Read my Lips is in the print anthology by Xcite called Pleasure Me.  Pre-orders being taken.  Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pleasure-Me-20-Varied-Stories/dp/1908086602/

The book features twenty different tales by celebrated erotica authors, including Kaye Jaybee and Penelope Friday, which reveal the explicit exploits of those who devote themselves to enjoying sex to the full. From wicked wives putting on a show for their lusty husbands, to sex in the great outdoors, intimate seductions, wild one-night stands and kinky games of dominance and submission, you ll find stories here to tease and please you.

My oral/BDSM story, Read my Lips is drawn from personal experiences and there is an extract below...

I had prepared exactly as agreed – showered and wearing those knee-length tightly fitting boots with uber sharp stiletto heels.  Nothing else.  Not even jewellery or hair clips.  He had been very specific. Precision was part of the turn-on.

I had already unlocked the door, left it slightly ajar.  When my phone trilled its familiar fanfare to herald the arrival of a text, I nearly jumped out of my skin.  Squinting in the half light (having taken off my glasses for vanity’s sake) I read the illuminated words:

‘On way now.’

So, this was really happening.    

I began to have my doubts.  After all, I’d only met the guy once.  What if he had told his mates and set me up for a joke?  Who knows who might come through the front door – maybe with a camera?  I nervously dismissed this idea, which was too awful to contemplate, imagining Facebook shame.........Glancing up at the ticking clock, I realised I was trembling.  Five minutes to go now.  Would he seriously go through with it?  Would I?

Elizabeth Cage is on Goodreads (finally!)

Just a little note to say I have finally (and it has taken hours) set up an author and reader profile on Goodreads.  I still haven't figured how to add all the anthologies I'm in so have just listed my kindle books so far. Do check me out and see what I am reading, and if you feel like rating one of my books then here is the link.  Or click on the widget on the left side bar.  Cheers!

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6861526.Elizabeth_Cage