Two Naughty Gentlewomen

A GENTLEWOMAN'S DALLIANCE is the latest in my Ladies' Sewing Circle series of Spice Briefs, a quartet of stories about a rather naughty group of Victorian women who gather to gossip about their sex lives, real and imaginary, rather than ever actually wield a needle and thread.

Mrs Mary Brigstock started out by being the most reserved, and sometimes slightly disapproving member of the circle, but under the influence of her more daring friends, she's finally come out of her shell and is now as risque and sexy as the rest of the group. Happily, she loves her dear husband very much, and he's more than pleased to reap the benefits of her new erotic liberation and indulge with her in sensual experimentation. Eager to explore new pleasures, the Brigstocks launch themselves into the world of saucy sexual spanking... with the expert help of Benedict, a young and handsome discipline specialist, who shares his wealth of knowledge with the eager older couple.

Read an excerpt

Available from eHarlequin, Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Mills and Boon, Amazon Kindle US [April '12] and Amazon Kindle UK [April '12]

A GENTLEWOMAN'S PLEASURE - the third of the Ladies' Sewing Circle stories - is now available for Amazon Kindle as well as at a variety of outlets.

This story is about Lucy Dawson, who up until now has been the shyest and perhaps most inexperienced of the group. Somewhat eccentric, and a bespectacled, bicycle riding spinster, Lucy hasn't had much in the way of hot tales to tell her fellow circle members... that is until she falls off her bike during a country ride, and is rescued by a deliciously handsome and mysterious woodsman called Ethan. She suffers a mild concussion, and Ethan cares for her in his cosy and secluded cottage... and pretty soon one thing leads to another, and she eagerly succumbs to the charms of the husky younger man. Returning to London she has a sizzling story to tell her avid friends in the circle...

Read an excerpt

Available from Barnes and Noble Nook, eHarlequin, All Romance eBooks, Diesel eBooks, Mills and Boon, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

A Gentlewoman's Dalliance - the cover

Here's my latest Spice Briefs cover. It's for the fourth - and sadly last - of my Ladies' Sewing Circle Briefs, A GENTLEWOMAN'S DALLIANCE.

Here's the blurb:

London, 1890

Mary Brigstock and her husband have no difficulty maintaining the passion in their marriage, but even the most ardent lovers crave new experiences. When Mary tells the Ladies’ Sewing Circle that she wants her husband to spank her, their worldly hostess arranges exactly what she desires: the services of an expert disciplinarian who can teach the Brigstocks how to make their wicked fantasy a reality….

Part of Portia Da Costa’s Ladies’ Sewing Circle series.

It's out in March 2012 and you can read a naughty excerpt here!

What's happening at the moment...

Gah, sorry for the long silence here. I'm the most hopeless blogger on the face of the earth. Even when I've got news to announce, I tend to blank on ways to convey it and blog about it. Shameful, when writing is my trade...

So what's the latest?

My most recent publication is a short story in the lovely Rachel Kramer Bussel's PASSION anthology.

This is a selection of hot but romantic stories from a variety of authors including Rachel herself, my brilliant critique partner and all round literary life support pal Saskia Walker, and other online buddies like Justine Elyot and Charlene Teglia, plus many more fabulous folk. My effort is THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT and features an unlikely hero, a hated and feared 'management consultant' who comes in to sort out the company where the heroine works. But when Susie meets Noah out of hours, in a bar, she discovers he's not quite the ogre she's made him out to be at work... in fact, he's a sexy hunk with a much more amenable side to his nature.

Here's a mini snippet of THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT, plus some links so you can buy PASSION!

In terms of what I'm writing at the moment... Well, I'm working on the early stages of a proposal for my second Spice novel. I have one or two different notions... I won't grace them with the word ideas as they're still so vague they hardly earn that title... but the strongest contender seems to be something I'm just calling Diamonds for the moment. It involves a Victorian inheritance, and a pair of distant cousins with issues - both between one another, and with other people and situations. Adela and Wilson Ruffington don't really like each other all that much, although they can't deny a mutual attraction. Both are somewhat spiky and difficult characters, and not what you'd classically call "beautiful people". I'm at the very early stages with Diamonds, though, and have only written half of a scene... and have very little plot to speak of, as yet.

Prior to working on Diamonds, I completed A Gentlewoman's Dalliance, which is #4 in my Victorian Ladies' Sewing Circle series for Harlequin Spice Briefs. In this one, naughty prime time lady, Mrs. Mary Brigstock indulges in kinky fun with her hubby... and a handsome young 'specialist'. Oooh, la, la! I'm hoping to post a teaser of that one soon on my web site, along with one from #3, A Gentlewoman's Rescue, in which lady bicyclist Lucy falls off her bike and almost straight into the arms of Ethan, a deliciously earthy hunk with a secluded country cottage.

These two stories won't be available until September 2012 and March 2013 respectively, alas. Sob, sob, sob... But in the meantime, you can still whet your appetite for my Victorian writing with my first two Ladies' Sewing Circle outings: A Gentlewoman's Predicament and A Gentlewoman's Ravishment, the risqué adventures of Circle members Sofia and Prudence respectively.

That's all for the moment, but I hope to post again tomorrow [yeah, right...] with news of what's in the pipeline for next year and beyond in terms of writing and book and story releases...