Another sale!

It's been a very good week. First I sold my story THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT to Rachel Kramer Bussel for her PASSION anthology... and now I've sold another story to different anthology! :)

This time it's a tale called FIRE AND ICE and it's going to be in the MAMMOTH BOOK OF HOT ROMANCE, edited by Sonia Florens, which is due to be published in Spring 2011.

FIRE AND ICE is a fun story, and was a hoot to write. It's set at Christmas, and involves a boss and his P.A. So far, so good... but when the heating breaks down in Innes McKenzie's flat, it's adding insult to injury because he's in bed with the flu at the time! Enter the ministering angel of his personal assistant, Cally Hobbes, who has a major crush on her handsome boss and treats everything that ails him with a lot of very hands on TLC!

PASSION - I'm in it!

I'm thrilled to announce that my short story THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT will be included in the forthcoming PASSION anthology, edited by the fabulous Rachel Kramer Bussel!

PASSION will be published in November 2010 and you can find more info and a mini snippet of my story here.

Isn't the cover divine?

A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT - cheeky excerpt

When Prudence is 'kidnapped' by a ruthless masked stranger, she ends up sequestered in a sumptuous Arabian Nights style boudoir to await his further pleasure. However, there are 'distractions' to keep her mind off her plight... and their names are Clarence and Yuri! ;)

Click here to meet the boys who love to serve

Or if you think you're ready for the Full Monty, buy from Harlequin and read the whole story!

Belated release day for A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT

"I'd love to be abducted and ravished by some handsome brigand or pirate..."

When the women of the Ladies' Sewing Circle share their private fantasies, some are shocked by Mrs. Prudence Enderby's secret desire. But Prudence cannot imagine life without such exotic daydreams—especially since they arouse her husband, too!

Yet Prudence never imagined she would actually be whisked off the street by a mysterious masked man who has his wicked way with her in a carriage. Taking her back to a boudoir appointed for pleasure, he continues to bring every one of her fantasies to life. But nothing could be more surprising than when Prudence finally learns who is behind this gentlewoman's ravishment...

A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT was actually published on Tuesday, 1st June, but alas I've been a bit poorly with some kind of horrible stomach flu lurgy and wasn't able to announce it on time. But never mind, here it is, complete with its adorable cover, and I hope you'll all enjoy it! If you enjoyed A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT you'll be pleased to meet an old friend from that story too. 

Here's a naughty excerpt and some links to various ebook stores to buy it.

New sales!

I'm thrilled to announce that Harlequin have accepted another of my short stories for the Spice Briefs line! This one is called A VERY PERSONAL ASSISTANT and is about what happens when the relationship between a dynamic female executive and her handsome and sexy P.A. takes an unexpected turn down the path towards pervy eroticism. I'm particularly delighted that this story will see the light of publishing day, because it's my first sale inspired by my latest muse, Patrick Jane from the The Mentalist. Of course *my* Patrick isn't a police consultant with almost supernatural powers of observation... but he certainly does bear a startling resemblance to a certain Mr. Jane. In my mind at least. He might appear quite different to someone else reading the story... :)

 
But that's not the end of the good news. The editors at Harlequin not only accepted this particular story, but they asked if I would write two additional ones for the line too. These stories aren't specified or written yet, but this is the ideal opportunity to pen a couple more tales in the LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE series, and I already have several ideas that I'd like to flesh out for these commissions. So hopefully in the future, you'll be able to read about new heroines who are the friends of Sofia [A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT] and Prudence [A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT] and discover what naughty escapades they get up to!

I know my Holmes!

The Game's Afoot!

Score: 100% (8 out of 8)

Just took this quiz and scored a clean sweep! Sherlock would be proud...

Isn't this luscious?

Here's the sumptuous cover for my June Spice Brief, A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT.

Isn't it divine?

If you want to learn more about this naughty story from the Ladies' Sewing Circle, there's a blurb and excerpt here.

And you can also pre-order if you so wish here at eHarlequin.

For maximum enjoyment, remember to read A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT first!

Ooh, look, featured ebook at eHarlequin today!

Ooh, look whose Spice Brief is the featured ebook at eHarlequin today! Check it out!

Fun with ebooks!

I think ebooks are brilliant, and I'm starting to build up quite a collection of them on my Sony Reader, but the problem for a writer is that with an ebook, you don't get the thrill of holding the individual volume in your hands when the crisp, immaculate author copies arrive... or do you? ;)

LOL! Yes, I've been playing with Photoshop again instead of getting on with my writing! Nifty, though, eh?

A GENTLEWOMAN'S PREDICAMENT has been out four days now, and it's received its first four star review on Goodreads from Tracyene, who loved it and can't wait for the next in the series. Wonderfully heartening to hear her good opinion! :)

"Predicament" is also starting to appear at a variety of different digital outlets and can now be purchased from eHarlequin, Kindle, Sony eBook Store, Mills and Boon, Books on Board, Fictionwise and Diesel eBook Store. So if you haven't yet indulged, why not give "Madame" Chamfleur and "her" naughty stable of hot Victorian studs a whirl, eh?

Yay, I'm a historical author now!

I'm thrilled to announce that A Gentlewoman's Predicament is published today! Although most people who visit here will know that because I've been battering on about my first historical Spice Brief and it's imminent arrival for long enough... :)

Have got to admit that I'm a bit nervous about this one. Though I experimented with some historical scenes in Gothic Blue, this is the first entirely historical work I've released and it's a definite challenge to create a period 'voice' when all I've ever really done until now is work with modern characters and settings. I hope it works. I think it works. My editor certainly seems to like it. But now it's up to the readers to judge whether I've pulled it off. Eek!

Still, writing stories set in the Victorian era is a gamble I'm totally committed to now, given that my first ever full length Harlequin novel is set in that time period too. I'm loving the research, and I was fascinated by everything Victorian long before it ever occurred to me to write about those times... so I'm hoping for the best and trying my utmost to get In The Flesh right so that it'll be a worthy contribution to the Spice erotic list.

Anyway, back to A Gentlewoman's Predicament. It's already available from eHarlequin and Kindle, and by the time you read this it might also be live at Diesel Ebooks. It's also listed at the Mills & Boon ebook store, but I'm not sure whether you can buy it there yet, as it's listed as a June title. I'm sure it'll pop up at other outlets soon too, so check at your favourites.

Here's the official Harlequin blurb for 'Predicament'. I must admit, it contains a little bit of a spoiler, but it's not really a problem as Mme. Chamfleur's naughty secret is very quickly revealed in the story. ;)

"Sofia Harewood's problem: finding a partner who can please her in the bedroom better than her disappointing first husband! She senses there should be so much more to lovemaking—and she's determined to discover what she's been missing.

Sofia's mission takes her to A. Chamfleur, purveyor of "Intimate Advice to the Gentlewoman"...but the encounter is not at all what she had imagined. For A. Chamfleur turns out to be Monsieur Chamfleur—and he and his associates are more than willing to introduce Sofia to a new world of sensual delights....

And look for Portia Da Costa's next story of Victorian sensuality, A Gentlewoman's Ravishment, the second installment of the Ladies' Sewing Circle series."

CONTINUUM on Kindle

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather... it's a Portia book release day today and I didn't even know!

My naughty BDSM themed women's erotica romp CONTINUUM is now available as an ebook for the Amazon Kindle. It'd be a bit of a stretch to say this one is a romance, but it does have a romantic element in that the heroine Joanna finds her hero during the story and at the end they live happily ever after in a kinky but loving relationship.

Here's the blurb...

When Joanna Darrell agrees to take a break from an office job that has begun to bore her, she takes her first step into a new continuum of strange experiences. She is introduced to people whose way of life revolves around the giving and receiving of enjoyable punishment, and she becomes intrigued enough to experiment. Drawn in by a chain of coincidences, like Alice in a decadent Wonderland, she enters a parallel world of perversity and unusual pleasure.

Get Continuum for your Kindle!

Pervy excerpts here and here

A fond farewell to Numb3rs

I'm just in the middle of watching the final episode of one of my favourite TV shows, the quirky cop drama, Numb3rs. I loved the show from the first time I saw episode one, and particularly fell for the brilliant, dorky and adorable Professor Charlie Eppes. But it was one of those shows with a great ensemble cast too, so I loved following the storylines about Charlie's dad, his friend Larry, and his brother Don, and the other FBI agents on Don's team. With six series, Numb3rs is one of those programmes that so wormed its way into my heart that the characters seemed to become part of an extended family... and now, I'll sorely miss them. 

Of course Numb3rs isn't the only show to become 'family'. I think millions of people all over the world will consider the characters of the various different Star Trek shows to be family. I certainly do, with Next Generation having made the most impact. Just as I've been sobbing over Charlie and Amita's wedding, I sobbed at the final episode of TNG, where the main cast assembled for a poker game with Picard one of the players at last. 

Of course, prior to Numb3rs, and concurrent with it, Law & Order Criminal Intent has been a major, major extended family show for me too. Detective Robert Goren was/is an astonishing character and profoundly inspiring in terms of hero templates, for me. Goren might be gone from our screens, alas, but a version of him still lives on for me as Robert Stone, the hero of ENTERTAINING MR STONE.

The characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel were also part of my life for a long time, especially the wonderful bad boy Spike, who eventually endured a long, painful climb towards goodness. Something I very much liked. Spike too, inspired a book hero. He 'became' Lukas, the gorgeous blond super model in DESIGNED FOR SIN, one of my X Libris titles under the pseudonym Dorothy Starr.  

Now, of course, I have another show that's captured my heart and imagination, and is also proving inspirational in terms of hot male totty. I refer of course to THE MENTALIST, and it's glorious central character Patrick Jane, who's already provoking a new spate of yummy blond heroes, including a certain Mr. Edmund Ellsworth Ritchie. It's too soon to know whether The Mentalist will become 'family', but it's shaping up that way, because it's another show where the supporting characters are all appealing and entertaining too, and I'm very fond of Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt as well as their gorgeous 'consultant'. The man who hides a tortured heart behind his sunny smile.

And so, back to Numb3rs. And to paraphrase Rick, from Casablanca, Charlie and I will always have IN TOO DEEP. In which Professor Hottie McHotstuff aka Daniel will always bear a startling resemblance to a certain Professor Eppes.