BDSM-apalooza is now on!

NOW ON - CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FUN!

Here's an exciting blog event to check out, being held at the home of my buddies the Smutketeers.

BDSMapalooza is a celebration of all your favourite erotic punishment fiction, with interview contributions from a stellar roster of authors, including yours truly, and selection of fantastic giveaways.

Don't forget to head on over there now, the event spans both 9th and 10th of May!

And while you're in the mood for BDSM flavoured fiction, why not check out my latest offering?

Naughty Thoughts is also part of my Daring Interludes anthology, but I thought I would pull it out and offer it separately for those who love a short 'n' saucy spanking treat. I've gathered this and my other BDSM stories together as a sort of semi series, called Delicious Masters.


~ Delicious Masters - when women meet the Doms of their dreams ~

Vickie and Terrence both have sexual secrets, and neither one quite knows what's going on in the other's head when they're making love. But one day, Vickie reveals her "Naughty Thoughts", her dark and dangerous fantasies about being punished and dominated... and discovers a brand new, thrilling side to Terrence, and a powerful man who likes to play spanking games. The Dom of Vickie's dreams is the familiar lover who's already in her bed.

You can find an excerpt and buy links for Naughty Thoughts here!

Delicious Masters - get them here!

A blog post about blogging

As people visiting my blog will know... I'm the world's worst blogger. I used to post quite frequently, and muse on various topics with a semblance of mild intelligence, but nowadays the ideas don't come as easily. I think it must be my advancing age and querulousness. My creativity mostly goes into my fiction writing now, and only springs to life when I switch on my 'dark side' ie. the part of my brain that allows me to tell stories and have mad ideas for characters and bits of plot.

Outside of the dark side, my brain is a very sparsely populated region indeed, an echoing void consisting mainly of health worries, publishing worries, self publishing worries, and questions of what to have for dinner. It's a drifting soup of half formed notions, with odd thoughts about Poirot, Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes floating around in it too, because I watch and read so much stuff about these three fabulous sleuths that they've become more or less permanent residents in the wasteland inside my head, a place where seagulls flap and soar in the near emptiness.

I only blog this particular snippet because I find myself in the position of having not one, not two, but three guest blog posts to write in the next week or so, and I'm desperately trying to coax my 'little grey cells', as Poirot would call them, into some semblance of blogging activity, as opposed to a state of running around the room, and waving their arms about in panic.

It's going to be a reach though... So if anybody has any general tips or ideas for me, do please put them in comments, and I'd be eternally and wholeheartedly grateful. :)

A wonderful review!

I'm absolutely thrilled today by a wonderful review I've received for IN TOO DEEP. The reviewer is Vanessa Wu, whose blog is Intense Sensations. Strangely for someone who writes for a living, I'm almost at a loss for words to say how happy I am to read Vanessa's opinion on the book and on my writing. It's times like these that make all the fretting and struggling and hair-tearing involved in 'getting it right' worthwhile. :)

In Too Deep review at Intense Sensations

Vanessa was also kind enough to award me a Versatile Blogger award recently too. I must admit that my blogging has been a bit sparse lately, but I intend to do much better in future. When I've fulfilled some important writing commitments in the next few months, I'm going to try much harder to be a better blogger.

As I'm pressed for time at the moment, I won't be able to make a list of 15 blogs I recommend as Versatile Blogs, but there's a small selection of blogs and sites I visit and read in the right hand side navigation bar. I hope to add more soon.

At Lust Bites today...

writing about the inspiration for ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT!

So please nip across there and leave a comment. You might win a copy of MAGIC AND DESIRE, the novella collection that contains the story! :)

http://lustbites.blogspot.com/2008/05/genesis-of-fairy-story.html

Phew, what a brilliant day!

Well, I had the best time yesterday over at the Let's Talk Romance blog! It was a blast! The question of the day was... "do you prefer glamorous exotic locales and situations or more everyday backgrounds as settings for your erotic romances" but the chat amongst the Michelle and the Bellas ranged across all manner of topics to do with my favourite genre!

The conclusion was... I think... that we all like a good mix of fantastical 'luxe' settings and sexy fun in the same sort of town, hamlet, village, city, workplace etc that we actually live in. Which just goes to prove that the old saw 'variety is the spice of life' is alive and well! :)

Another conclusion was that there's a great fondness in Bellaland for brawny lumberjacks, sexy window cleaners, horny guys who ride motorcycles and even a certain eccentric and exotic Italian stud who wears a frock every now and again! LOL

Romance B[u]y the Book aka Let's Talk Romance is just the most wonderful place, and I urge all lovers of romantic fiction, in whatever its many marvellously diverse sub genres, to visit and join in the friendly, funny, thoughtful and sometimes quite intense chat there.

You won't regret it!

And the fun and provocative chat is in full force today, as Erotic Romance Week continues with a guest blog from Elizabeth Scott aka Janice Maynard, who has a very special take on erotic romance that I really like the sound of. ;) And tomorrow, it's Pam Rosenthal!



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Telly: Top Gear
Choc/Yummy: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: very good
Writing: more of The Retreat
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
RSI/FMS: so so


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Sorry for the gaps...

... but I will try and do better now that my Gothic Heat proofs are turned in. Boy was that a task! As usual, I didn't trust the first check, so I forced myself to do another... which was good job, as I found lots and lots of snafus on the second pass. And many of them weren't ones that a proof corrector, looking for just spelling and stuff, would have picked up on. You wouldn't think that a novel from somebody who plots as little as I do could have many continuity errors, but believe me, even with the slightest of plots, it's possible!

And now I have to get back to writing, as well as a zillion other jobs that have stacked up while I've been doing proofs. My first task is a short novella, workingly titled The Retreat, which I have to finish by the end of December. It's going to be one of those naughty ones with spanking and power games, and in the course of some movie viewing, I've discovered the perfect hero for it.

Edward Norton, looking stern and delicious as Eisenheim, in The Illusionist. I love his power and his quiet composure, qualities that make him ideal as a model for my subtle but dominant Ben. My story isn't historical, but there's certainly a slight anachronistic and Edwardian bohemian quality to this guy.

In other news, don't forget to check out my interview at Lovehoney, mentioned below, and tomorrow, I'll be guestblogging at lovely Bella Michelle Buonfiglio's 'Let's Talk Romance' blog, as part of EROTIC ROMANCE WEEK. Why not visit there today, too, as the guest is the fabulous Emma Holly with some of her romance writing friends.


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Telly: nothing yet
Choc/Yummy: nothing yet
Mood: bit stressed
Writing: soon
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase
RSI/FMS: very achy and tired


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Eeeek!

Argh, it's only day three and I'm feeling a panic attack! After two days of positive attitude and achievement, I'm now beset by one of those mornings when everything in favour's against me, and I can feel the entire day slipping away into a state of getting nothing done!

I must not succumb to this though! I must stay calm, focus on my writing ideas, and get myself into the zone. I must give myself permission to write a little less, maybe? But I should maintain a general optimistic attitude and lead by example as a Sweat70 sponsor...

I shall have to shape up soon or Mr Blue will be on my *ss! [I wish... ;) ]

And speaking of hard-core Sweat70 motivators, nip over to Kim's Blog and meet The Colonel!

-----------------------
While you're here, please, please, please pop over the the Night Owl Romance Awards and vote for me in the Best Erotic Contemporary Ebook!

If you love you some Portia click here and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE every day until 31st October!

I'm a guest blogger today!

Hey, I'm guest blogging today... over at Milady Insanity's place!

Find out just how mad I really am, and why I have so many dumb pseudonyms... and comment for the chance to win a prize!

Road Trip

Over at Romance by the Blog today, Bella Michelle's topic is hot, romantic fantasy holidays... where would you go, who would you travel with, and in what car?

Me, well, I think it would be a road trip across France and Italy, taking in Paris, Monaco, Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome. My companion, naturally, would be the Divine Vincenzo, and our car would be a 1962 Ford 250GTO, in cherry red. [They only cost $10 million!] See how happy he looks behind the wheel!


Real life? Well, I think a day trip to Scarborough, in a VW Passat with himself, would be nice!

So, where would your total fantasy hot romantic trip be to? And with whom, in what? Answers here... or at Romance by the Blog... or both, if you feel so inclined? :)

--
Telly: Shipwreck Detectives
Choc/Yummy: Lindt Hazelnut
Mood: goodish
Writing: slight tweak Gothic Heat
Reading: Radio Times
RSI/FMS: very, very achy and sore everywhere at the moment


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

My Red Hot Love Affairs

I'm guest blogging at ROMANCE BY THE BLOG today... on the topic of my red hot love affairs with guys like this...

Why not nip on over and join the fun!

There's a prize for commenters and the chat is already getting v. naughty... :)

ADDENDUM FOR THE BELLAS

blogging bleugh

Sometimes I write about having 'writer's bleugh'... which is my version of writer's block. But at the moment, I think I've got a touch of 'blogger's bleugh' instead. I just seem to have run out of steam a bit blogwise, and other demands on my creativity are making it difficult even to come up with my level of blogging twoddle... which is admittedly very much lower than a lot of people's.

But I don't think I'm alone in this [hopefully temporary] lack of enthusiasm for blogging. I go to a lot of blogs, not necessarily the same ones every day, but some of the folk who used to be real hard core, fluent and copious bloggers, seem to be just lacking the pep they used to have. And some don't seem to be blogging as much because they're concentrating on writing or whatever else they do... which I applaud! But it just seems as of the novelty of blogging has worn off and it's not quite the fresh medium it used to be. I suppose I'm lucky in that I've never set out to produce a consistently high standard of blogging, and I've certainly never aimed to be literary or to commentate or to educate... but I'm feeling that there's only so many times that people are prepared to be interested in my moaning and groaning about my writing problems, my health problems, and television, chocolate and cats.

Who else is a bit in the doldrums with blogging? It can't just be me...
--
Telly: LOCI - stunning acting Vincenzo! [and many thanks, Eliza, love you!]
Choc/Yummy: Fry's Turkish Delight
Mood: fairly good, but feeling pressured
Writing: a few hundred words of GH, but had to rip out some stuff, so no further forward
Reading: A Gentleman's Wager/Madelynne Ellis.... smashing stuff!
RSI/FMS: very, very tired, almost to the point of sleeping sickness


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

I'm guesting again...

Read an interview with me today at:

Dark Ice Goddess' Musings

Many thanks to Nicole for inviting me to her blog. :)


--
Telly: CSI:NY
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: out of sorts
Writing: nothing
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: quite grim


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

100th post!

This is my 100th post on this blog! Soon racked 'em, didn't I?

Bit of a mixed day today. I've finished a pass of TechnoGothic, and I'm in a quandary as to whether I do another... it might benefit from another edit, but then again, I might have reached critical mass and any further tinkering may result in the text losing all it's life and become wooden and overworked...

So instead, I did some tidying up on the synopsis of IllMet... Ack, I hate synopses! But this one needed work. It was filled with such gems as 'Lois and Robin bonk' and 'Lois goes for a walk and sees a funny looking hare'... Need to buff the thing up a bit and fill it with a smattering of more editor-enticing phraseology!

Speaking of editors, I've spent a lot of the afternoon here. Some excellent discourse, although it all got a bit too intellectual towards the end for this entertainer... found myself glazing over and reaching for The Sun when folk started bandying the Marquis de Sade and Susan Sontag about. LOL!

--
Telly: The Ballerina and the Blues
Chocolate: Tesco Dark with Espresso
Mood: okay
Writing: synopsis - Ill Met By Moonlight
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: not bad

shout outs!

Just wanted to shout out to a couple of super people!

First... Jenny, who sent me a lovely email the other day, saying how much she liked my work and cheering me up on a day when I was full of doubts.

Secondly... Eliza, who is amazing, and she knows why! :)

Oh, and if I linked to you at my old blog, and you're wondering why there isn't a link to you at this blog... well, wonder no more! Just scroll down right to the bottom of this blog and you'll find virtually all the links from my old one. I also hope to be adding more when time permits...

no more foofing

Since I finished the first draft of Suite Seventeen last week, I've been mainly foofing about and achieving very little. I haven't done a scrap of writing, although I have done a bit of web design, so I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself - because at least that's something creative. And I have expanded my horizons a bit on the computer. I've set up a MySpace, I've uploaded more photos to Flickr and learnt how to do things there, and I've even posted a new message on my sadly neglected Amazon Connect profile. I've also installed Zone Alarm, for a bit of extra computer security and I've been experimenting with del.icio.us for saving my favourites. At heart, all these things are displacement activities, but sort of useful ones too, so I don't feel too disgusted with myself for spending time on them.

I've also set this blog up here. For a long time, I've been not feeling too keen on Bravejournal... for several reasons. The limitations of the sidebar, the limitations of layout and look, the infuriating advertising in the posting area which frankly gets on my wick and tends to muck with my browser. Now, as I had a pro account there, I simply don't think there should be any ads at all, but there are, and I've had enough of them... I have toyed with setting up Wordpress on my own webspace, but even with broadband, the login process takes a ludicrously long time. Something to do with the way the program talks to my ISP... Life's too short to spend that time just twiddling my thumbs waiting. Which brings me back to Blogger, the blogging platform I began my very first blogging efforts on... I'd always been put off by the necessity to get in and footle with the template to add links and stuff to the sidebar, but now I've discovered beta Blogger, those shortcomings are no more. Admittedly it is beta, and a tiny bit cranky here and there, but generally, I'm well pleased with it so far. And I think most of the crankiness is due to my 'puter needing a tad more memory. But that's something I'm planning to correct in the v. near future with a little trip to PC World for a bit of RAM therapy.

Anyway, all this is just more foofing, innit?

Today, I will be mainly:

• uploading a fab new cover image for a web client
• taking an initial look at proofs for my story Public Domain, which arrived yesterday
• uploading an extract of Gothic Blue to my PortiaDaCosta.com web site
• maybe even setting up another blog, for posting extracts to... [got this idea from above mentioned client

I hope to do a few other bits and bobs too...

Gothic Blue

Gothic Blue,
originally
uploaded by
wendywootton.

Today I was all set to upload an extract of Gothic Blue to my PortiaDaCosta.com web site, but the best laid plans of mice and erotic authors didn't pan out... Instead, I futzed about with the layout for that site [on my own computer, no changes at the site yet], then spent ages reading Romantic Times, and conversing via email with a mate about the reviews there... and then I finished off by spending ages playing with this blog.

But tomorrow, I promise I will upload that extract! I think it'll be the prologue, which tells how the poor accursed Count Andre Von Kastel gets himself into a terrible pickle!

If you think this cover image looks familiar, by the way, you may have seen it here. Many thanks to my buddy Saskia for the link.

my first post at wendyportia

This is my first post at this new blog I'm trying out. Not much to say, because I'm having a bit of a mare of a day and I'm not achieving much. If this beta Blogger system works out, I may well move my entire blog here, because it seems as if you can do more with this new Blogger in terms of putting goodies in the side bar... Bravenet is useless on that score, as you can only put text links and not piccies and text and other bits and bobs...