James Wood - Paula's Place

James Wood: Author interview about Paula’s Place

Interviewer: Paula’s Place was a trilogy. Did you want to write something longer like this or did it just turn out that way?

James: Most of my stories up till now have been short scenes – a couple of days or hours in the lives of the characters. I wanted to give Paula more, to build her up, to give her a history and relatives – a past. Likewise for Max. I just felt that their attraction, their passion for each other, and

ultimately the sex that they enjoy together would be deeper and more intense if they were more rounded. That was the first reason it was longer – it needed to be.

There was a second reason too. Paula goes through a conversion of sorts. Seduction. Surrender. Submission. The titles were not idly chosen. At the start of the book Paula is woman who has not yet expressed or given liberty to her most intimate desires. Each book of the trilogy deals with a stage of Paula’s… I want to say ‘conversion’ but that is not it… her awakening?  She has finally met someone who ‘gets’ her, in more meanings than one. A trilogy was a natural fit.

“The Paula books are all written from her point of view. That is not a common writing structure in the erotica genre. Why did you choose to write that way, and were there any challenges?”

James: There certainly were challenges! I have been interested in varying the point of view for a while. Most books are written in 3^rd party omniscient or semi-omniscient. All that means is that the reader gets to know more of what is going on than the characters do: how they feel, what they do when the other characters don’t see them. That sort of thing. That’s what most books do, and it works well most of the time.

What I found, and what interested me, was how the reader’s connection with the character alters when the point of view changes. That’s what I did in the Paula books. Those books are written by Paula – you don’t know any more than she knows. That makes it difficult. What does Max think of her?  Well, what the hell does Max think of her? I can’t tell the reader. The reader, and Paula, only get to find out by what he says or does when he is with her, or from what other people say to Paula. Fortunately, Paula and Max get quite a lot of personal time together to help her resolve that dilemma.

The important part for me is that I believe the reader gets to know Paula better because of how it was written – that first person point of view. Hopefully that makes for a more intimate experience for the reader.

It is not the first time I’ve changed point of view. In one of my earlier short stories, Shower Time (you can find it free in a lot of e-book outlets), the voice in the writing is the Dom talking directly to you, as if the reader were ‘his girl’ and being personally addressed.

“In Paula’s Place, Grand Falls appears again. Are all of your books set there, and if so, why?  Can you tell us if Grand Falls is a real town, and if so, how easy is it to move there?”

James: Yes. The books, all of them so far, are set in Grand Falls. I get asked about the town quite a bit. I’ve been lucky enough to travel through the provinces of Canada and a lot of the States, and I’ve found something in every one of them I love. Grand Falls is a bit of a blend, so no, it is not a town with a zip code and everything, but it is real nonetheless. Every street and bookshop and fence exists somewhere. And the characters with their prurient passions are reflective of our sexualized imaginings and desires – yours and mine. Well, I can’t really speak for you, but certainly mine!

I get questions about time period too. There are trains and cars, phones and the Internet, but I hear comments about Grand Falls feeling old-fashioned. I think this is true. There is a stylized set of dress, civility, and manners in Grand Falls that isn’t common any more – if it was ever the case. Picket fences and lemonade – men holding the door open for women. I enjoy that, and I like the apparent contrast with the depraved and erotic adventures that the residents get up to. Though, as we know, every age has had these impulses – dark passion is hardly original. Grand Falls is a bit of a Twilight Zone, but hopefully better for it. Moving there is easy enough – you just have to buy the book. ;-)

“Paula is a smart girl. Do you always use smart girls as your heroines? How do you pick your girls?”

James: Of course she is!  Yes, I like smart women. Smart is very sexy. I like her ‘knowing’ what it is she does. There is a part in the first book where she revisits sexual fantasies of her past. Part of what she likes she knows is ‘wrong,’ and that makes it all the more arousing for her. She may blush, but she can’t plead ignorance. Intelligent women make the most interesting characters. I’m getting excited just thinking about it!

“You are a male author in a genre dominated by women writers. Do you wonder why that should be? Does it come with its own set of challenges?”

James: I haven’t really thought about it much. I suppose that most stories are about women; we write about the heroines. And since most erotica readers are women, that connection makes sense to me. Yes, there is always a man in the book, or men, but the story is really about the women. Usually they are a lot more interesting! 

If I worry about anything in writing D/s as a man, it is that I’ll be taken for a sexist or a misogynist, a charge that I utterly reject. I’ve heard people say that since you write about spanking women or tying them up, or having them ‘give in’ to dominant men, then you are not a friend of women. I don’t agree at all. Paula, and all of my women characters, are strong, positive women. That they enjoy and indulge in sexual taboos I don’t believe belittles them. I feel they are treated with the greatest respect. They are empowered in their sexuality, however depraved or erotic. I care about them, and I like to think it shows.

“There is obviously a lot of hot D/s sex going on in the book, but did I detect a streak of romance?  Paula and her Dom, Max Broekner, are more than a one night stand. What do you think of the ‘Fifty Shades’ phenomenon and the romance/erotica cross-over?”

James: Well, that is a big question. I’m by no means an expert, but my understanding is that Romance as a genre has become a lot more graphic recently, and bondage or discipline has become more mainstream. Is that necessarily a bad thing? And is Fifty Shades the reason, or did it just touch on a latent need? I don’t know. I’m just happy to write about passions like Paula’s and Max’s, that are hot and stir your blood. And yes, there is a streak of romance amidst the turbid sex. That is part of it too. If you feel there is a connection between them, then what they get up to becomes that bit steamier. And what is erotica without steam?

“Max had some of your other books in his library. A book within a book. What was going on there?”

James: A shameless plug – cheap advertising! No, not really. Okay, a bit. You are talking about The Doctrine of Venus. There is a philosophy to D/s relationships upon which The Doctrine expounds that observant readers might link with Paula and her lover. They wouldn’t be wrong. The goings on in that curious house on Vale Street take a page out of that book.

* * *

blurb:

I am no longer the innocent girl; I am blissful, complete, and knowing.

This is Paula's story, an erotic bdsm romance trilogy. Seduction: A steamy, explicit erotic romance of sexual fantasies come real. Fate brings Paula back to her hometown, where she meets her dark handsome neighbour. Surrender: Paula is drawn into her lover's world of domination and submission, where sensation and lust commingle with intimacy and trust. As Paula surrenders her body to pleasure, she knows she is losing her heart. Submission: Paula struggles to reconcile her feelings with her concern that things are going too fast. As her slide towards bliss only gathers pace, how will their love affair end? Does she even have a choice, or is her submission complete?

* * *

To buy Paula’s Place:

Paula’s Place is available as a trilogy of ebooks, or combined as a paperback. Part 1: Seduction is available as a free download from many major ebook retailers for curious readers who would like to sample the series.

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Paulas-Place-part-Seduction-ebook/dp/B00A2WC9TQ

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paulas-Place-part-Seduction-ebook/dp/B00A2WC9TQ

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/paulas-place-part-1-james-wood/1113846321

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/paulas-place/id578880688?mt=11

Paperback, Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Paulas-Place-Seduction-Surrender-Submission/dp/0615772730

Bio: British-born author James Wood spins sensuous taboo tales. Themes of domination and submission predominate – of hands on legs and garter straps and ladies bound in silk.

Honourable Mention in the Best Bondage Writer category from the 2012 Bondage Awards. 

Cheyenne Blue

 Cheyenne Blue’s Top Five Writing Tips

(or at least the ones that work for her)

1) Find a physical space that becomes your writing space. It can be your messy desk in the corner staring at a blank wall, your favorite café that does great coffee, or a nook in the garden overlooking the roses. But it should be a place that when you’re there, you’re there to write.

2) Turn off the internet when you write. Yes, even your email. Otherwise, the need to know the plotline of that Dr Who episode from 1972 can become more important than words on the page.

3) Blocked? Oh yeah, baby, it happens. Don’t use writer’s block as an excuse.

Write through it. Refer to your notes and plod on, getting those words down. You can edit later. Often, simply getting the words down frees up your writing and you’re back on track. Dr Wicked’s Write or Die (www.writeordie.com) is my productivity tool of choice for this.

4) Don’t be precious about your writing. Accept that it’s not perfect, take feedback, particularly from editors. If you have a first reader or critique group that you trust, listen to them and take their suggestions on board. Don’t be the sort of writer who scares away honest critique by your reaction.

5) Edit. Edit. Editediteditedit. It’s important to leave enough time for this, especially if you have a looming deadline. Ideally, set your story aside for at least a week before your final edit. Otherwise, your brain sees what it expects to see, rather than what is actually there, and all sorts of errors can slip through. I find reading aloud helps too.

Over the past ten years Cheyenne Blue’s erotica has appeared in over 70 anthologies including Best Women's Erotica, Mammoth Best New Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Lesbian Romance, Girl Crazy, Cowboy Lust and Girls Who Score. Visit her website at http://www.cheyenneblue.com.

For Her Pleasure

 by Kyoko Church

 Imagine an average guy with a wife, a job, average house, average car, average sex life… Well, not exactly. He has a secret he finds so embarrassing that he never talks to anyone about it. And then one day he meets her…

An architect chairs the newly formed Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Committee. When the consultant he hires to help him organize the new committee turns out to be a red haired bombshell, he tries to rein in his untoward thoughts.

But when she uncovers his embarrassing little secrets, this married man ends up in a relationship that’s so wrong on every level of his carefully put together life.

How long will he let his burning carnal desires threaten everything he’s worked so hard for?

From the book - 

When he got back to his office she was stretched out on the leather sofa beneath the large picture window that looked out high over the city. Her feet were up, Kate Spade heels on the floor. Again, those red toenails.

            He shut the door behind him.

            ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I made myself comfortable while I was waiting. Been on my feet all day.’ The look she gave him then could only be described as imploring. Imploring in a way that sucked his gaze back to those gorgeous feet. An inexplicably helpless feeling bloomed in his chest.

            ‘Have a seat,’ she said, indicating the sofa beside her.

            He settled uncomfortably at the other end, not knowing where to look or how to position his body. She chuckled. ‘A little closer, silly,’ she said, lifting her foot up, offering it to him as he moved closer. He blushed but took it, gently. Her foot was surprisingly small and slender, the skin pale so the red toenails stood out sharply.

            His mind raced. Raced. Everything in his brain screamed how wrong this was, how they were the two people in the entire building most aware of the wrongness, charged as they were with informing the entire company on the intricacies of how wrong everything about a man touching a woman’s foot in a work setting was.

Especially when said man was pitching a tent in his pants.

But he absolutely could not stop. His dick screamed back at his brain to shut the fuck up, just shut up for once and let me have this one.

Well, what harm would a little consensual foot rub do? That was the key word, right? Consensual. He began to massage slowly.

            ‘Wait a second.’ He looked up. ‘Turn to me a little,’ she said. ‘That’s right. Now lift your knee up onto the couch.’ He did so and jumped as she placed her other foot gently but firmly against his crotch. ‘Keep rubbing,’ she commanded, gesturing at the foot in his hand. ‘I just want to make sure you’re not getting excited.’ Fire exploded in his face. He looked away from her, at her foot, then looked away from that.

She laughed. ‘It’s OK,’ she cooed. ‘I know you like my feet. And I do need a foot rub right now. So you rub my foot.’ He hesitated. ‘Do it,’ she said, not laughing now. ‘But I just need to make sure, you know, for legal reasons, that you’re not being a disgusting pervert and getting all excited about my pretty feet. I need to make sure this foot rub is just about you doing something I’ve asked you to do for me. Alright? For massage therapy purposes.’

How could he be so confused and at the same time his dick be growing? Did she mean it? Of course she didn’t, but he couldn’t be sure.

He rubbed, obediently trying to clear his mind, trying to think of anything but her slim foot in his hands. But there was also the pressure of her other foot against him. And then she started making little noises. Little whimpers, groans of pleasure. ‘Mmm, that’s right,’ she purred. ‘Ooo, right there, that feels so good.’  He was helpless. He sat helplessly rubbing her sexy foot while his cock grew with a mind of its own.

‘Oh my god, what is going on?’ She looked at him. ‘I can feel you, you know,’ she said, wiggling her toes against his stiffness, only worsening matters. ‘God, what horny little thoughts are going through your head? Was it the noises I was making?’ she chided. ‘I was only enjoying the foot rub! You weren’t thinking that’s what I sound like when I fuck, were you?’ Oh! To hear that word. To hear that word come out of her mouth. It hung in the air, like a spark, like an echo. A mere half hour ago she had been standing in the conference room lecturing on what constituted inappropriate language in the workplace! But he could not deny that he had never heard that word sound so fucking sexy ever before. A hard slap of a word and when she said it he immediately wanted nothing more than to do it. With her. Now.

He stared into his lap, unable to respond. ‘Well, if you are going to act like a horny, little dog, then that’s how I’m going to have to treat you.’

This is how it was that the chair of the sexual harassment committee of X Architects found himself on all fours on the floor in front of this goddess, pants around his knees, praying, hoping against hope that no one opened the door to his office that he didn’t think to lock, while he humped his straining shaft against her foot like some kind of human lap dog.

It was sheer and utter madness. And he was powerless against it.

Even though she didn’t make it easy for him, did things like swing her foot away, complain that he was going too fast, laugh, force him to keep all four limbs on the ground, to not use his hands, even still his little problem reared its ugly head.

He spurted, hips helplessly bucking, after two minutes.

Oh no.

Here it comes.

He knelt in front of her and braced himself. He steeled himself against the familiar onslaught of feeling – frustration, anger, shame – that always raged through him like a firestorm, burning through everything in its path. But instead of the usual reactions of disappointment, pity, anger or worse, the yawning silence, pregnant with judgments and unspoken resentment, there was something different.

Giggling. Like tinsel. Like glasses chinking together, crystal laughter.

‘My, my, my, we are the eager little beaver, aren’t we?’

Heat rose, he could hear the blood pump through the vessels in his head.

‘That’s OK, sweetie,’ she said and she leaned over, put her lips right next to his ear, so he could feel her breath on his skin. ‘Mistress has all sorts of ways of dealing with a horny little puppy like you,’ she whispered.

Oh fuck.

‘Starting with,’ she said, dipping her finger in the creamy mess on her foot, ‘rubbing your nose in it.’ She swiped her finger across the space between his nose and his upper lip. A moustache of his own shame. The sharp, acrid odour immediately brought a fresh jolt of humiliation. ‘You may not rub or wash that off,’ she announced. She took his chin with her fingers, stared right into his eyes. His heart pounded in terror. ‘You will wear your disgusting mess on your face. It will be there for all of the rest of your meetings today.’ Oh god. ‘And when you go home and kiss your wife.’ Oh god! ‘And when you put your head on your pillow tonight.’ She sighed then, closed those gorgeous eyes and smiled.  ‘When you have your shower tomorrow morning you may wash it off then.’ He realized then he wasn’t breathing and took in a gasping breath.

And suddenly he realized something else. Something astounding.

He was hard again. Harder than he had been the first time.

There was shame. But no anger. There was humiliation. But no frustration.

Pure humiliation. Not blazing, like the white hot heat of the firestorm of his secret torment, but rolling in slowly, like molasses, covering him, turning his insides liquid, enveloping him in a mass of humility, shrinking him down, making him want to place his hard, needy little cock before her in an act of complete submission.

And what she did then made it throb and ache even more.

She leaned in and placed the smallest little kiss with her full, soft, pouty red lips right on the tip of his nose. Like the period at the end of a sentence.

There it was. Just like that. Turned a hair to the left. His torment died.

His kink was born.

Kyoko Church discovered the power of the written erotic word when she was 16 years old and penned a very explicit missive to her boyfriend detailing all the naughty things she wanted to do to him. When he received it, boyfriend was impressed. When he found it, father was not. For the next 18 years she hid her naughty thoughts in shame. Until she found a community where they were once again appreciated for the well-imagined smut they are. Her short stories have been published in anthologies by Black Lace, Xcite Books, HarperCollins Mischief Books soon with Sweetmeats Press. Book One, Nymphomania, and Book Two, Sapphic Secrets, in her Draper Estate Trilogy were published by Xcite in 2012. For Her Pleasure was published by HarperCollins Mischief in February 2013.

A Canuck by birth, she has recently made Australia her home. She is currently learning to drive on the left and say G’day convincingly.

Kyoko Church's books can be found on the following pages:

http://www.amazon.com/For-Pleasure-Mischief-Books-ebook/dp/B009UL1U5O/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361161166&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/For-Pleasure-Mischief-Books-ebook/dp/B009UL1U5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361161997&sr=8-1

Website: kyokochurch.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kyoko.church

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kyokochurch

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kyokochurch/

Vicky Ellis

 Five tips from Vicky Ellis: 

1) Pleasure yourself. This is important for both erotic and non-erotic writing. If a story begins to feel like a ball and chain that will come across. Sure, writing is hard work but there's a real joy in the inventive process so make the most of it.

2) Find the right pace. The best piece of advice I heard (from Dominic Kelly, storyteller extraordinaire) was that there are three speeds to a story:
     Action is fast forward
     Dialogue is real time
     Description is a pause
Too much of any one aspect creates an imbalance. You can use these speeds to create tension or allow the reader to rest after a dramatic sequence.

3) Concrete isn't only for lovers of 1970s architecture. Ditch the vague abstraction and give your readers tangible descriptions. Figurative language is your friend:

She followed him
Like a starving wolf
Following a stag too strong to be tackled

From Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes

4) Be cruel to be kind. As in real life, antagonism is the bedrock of a good story, hence the title 'antagonist' with its etymology in the word 'struggle'. Pain is pleasure where the reader is concerned.

5) Make sure the editing process includes reading your work out loud at least three times. Clumsy dialogue and prose alike can be picked up much more easily when verbalised.

Vicky Ellis is the author of many pieces of fiction and poetry including What I have Learnt about Kissing. More of Vicky's work can be found by visiting: http://vickyellis.weebly.com/
.

Anneke Jacob

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Guardian Masterclass

 by Ashley Lister

 Overview

Erotic writing has never been so popular. Last year EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey topped book charts around the world, and the popularity of the genre shows no sign of subsiding. But sex scenes are among the hardest things for an author to write: done well they add a frisson of excitement to any narrative, done badly they leave readers cringing. This two-day course will consider character, plot, dialogue, point of view and narrative technique – all with a specific focus on erotic content – to help writers avoid embarrassment and make the sexual content of any story appear seamless, appropriate and exciting.

Students will come away with a knowledge of what makes successful erotic fiction and an understanding of how their erotic fiction works for contemporary audiences and how it might be improved.
Course description

Day One includes a mixture of theory and practice. After discussing the balance between literary, commercial and personal erotica, writers will start work on a single erotic scene from a plot of their own devising. Day One will also include an overview of character as writers explore appropriate erotic terminology for their narrative style. All of this writing will be supported by peer feedback, criticism and appraisal.

Day Two will begin by considering ways to stimulate ideas for inspiring new and original erotic fiction. There will be a reprisal of erotic characters, an overview of dialogue, and learners will be given opportunities to experiment with dialogue and description. The course will conclude with a lecture on the current markets for erotic fiction.
Tutor profile

Ashley Lister is the author of How to Write Erotic Fiction and Sex Scenes (How to Books), a step-by-step guide to writing erotic fiction. He has published more than two dozen pseudonymous novels, with the UK's leading erotic imprints: HarperCollins Mischief, Xcite Books, Virgin's Nexus, Chimera Publishing and Silver Moon.

Aside from producing short stories, published in world-class anthologies, Ashley is a regular contributor to the Erotica Readers & Writers Association blog: a successful collaboration of UK and US blogging authors, aimed at readers and writers of erotica and erotic romance. He currently teaches creative writing to HE students and is an occasional performance poet.
To book
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian-masterclasses/how-to-write-erotica

Beards and Front Marriages

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