Category Archives: Information

Falling – Cherri Red Book 2

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Finally! I’ve just now, one minute ago, written the last sentence of the last chapter of the follow up to Summer Secrets. This is first draft only, so there’s likely at least 6 weeks of editing and polishing and tidying up, but for anyone whose been waiting for this it’s on the way.

I’ve been distracted and hardly noticed I haven’t published anything in over a year, but that’s about to change. Apart from Falling (and more about that in a moment) I spent last year working on a fantasy novel which was published under another name. Well, that was a disaster. I sold 3 copies in 3 months so I’ve pulled it. The book started out as an erotic short and I should have stayed in my comfort zone. Blood Apples will be recast as the erotic romance it was meant to be, still with the fantasy elements, and be available some time over summer.

Back to Falling, Book 2 of Cherri Red.

When I started book 1 I believe Cherri was the main character. As it turned out, she was a major part of that book, but I believe Dani was the protagonist.

Book 2 builds on that. It’s five years since summer camp and Dani hasn’t seen Cherri once in that time. The dark events that ended book 1 however have come to a climax with the arrest of Greg. Dani is living with Jack but she knows her life is a lie.

A single decision, a single girl, changes all of that and Dani starts living life for herself. At the same time Cherri returns and they start up where they left off.

Summer Secrets has had some great reviews and comments, but one common thread throughout was that most people felt the ending was too dark and downbeat. In retrospect I agree – but hey, the story told itself at that point. Anyway, although book 2 starts to resolve the relationship between Dani and Cherri, it doesn’t resolve it completely, but the ending is upbeat.

PS: During the writing I had one long chapter where Dani flies to London and meets up once more with Amanda of the large breasts and shaved pudenda, from book one. Somehow though the scene didn’t fit with the rest of the book so I pulled it. However, I’ll shortly be posting this as a hot short story here, as well as making it available as a free download through Smashwords. Check back to find out when it becomes available.

Censorship in Erotica

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Selena Kitt recently raised a number of posts on the groundswell of censorship being instigated, it seems, by PayPal and others. They are pulling the plug, one by one, on any sites that sell material they deem offensive. While some might agree with their categorizations – incest, rape and bestiality – they also include pseudo-incest; that is, sexual relations between adults who are step-relations and not blood relations. Like Woody Allen?

Censorship is a weird thing. What offends me may not offend you, and vice-versa, and there are lines across which 99.99% of people are likely to agree should not be crossed, but the blanket application of these categories to Erotica are dangerous.

The ban would seem to apply only to Erotica that crosses these boundaries. For instance, rape is a frequent motif in thriller and detective fiction.  Incest appears to be acceptable provided it is contained in a work of “literary” merit, for example  Arundhati Roy‘s The God of Small Things, as well as in works by a myriad of other writers both popular and literary. In some way I might be able to understand the distinction, because Erotica’s main purpose is to arouse, and using taboo subjects to cause arousal may disturb some people. The big problem I have is where this might lead.

PayPal is not banning these topics, they are saying you can publish what you like but we will not allow you to use our services to pay for them. From my point of view this is a subtle and even more dangerous form of censorship. Where might it end? An extra 5% on Taxes for writers of erotica?

Tread warily, my friends, because the people behind all of this are even madder than those of us that write this stuff!

SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP

JOIN “AMAZON CENSORS” ON FACEBOOK

Ali’s Art

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Well, this took me by surprise. I was working on a couple of new things – Part 2 of Cherri Red and a new non-erotic fantasy novel, then read about how a writer needs to have as many titles out there as possible, wondering how I could do that when it takes so long to write and edit each book when I realized I’ve got a whole back catalog of things I published on an erotic fiction site a while back. These were attempts at writing in a different voice, from a male perspective. From the feedback I received I was not as successful as I’d planned because although they contain a lot of sex, the men have been accused of being too female in their thought processes.

Anyway, I dusted them off, re-wrote some sections and the first of these is currently undergoing an extensive edit. I thought I’d start with the blockbuster!

Ali’s Art was originally a 13 part story series. I’ve merged them into one, taken some bits out and added others. At the moment it’s coming in around 140,000 words. That’s about 550 pages!

I’m half way through the edit and hoping to publish some time around the start of December. Alongside this I’m continuing with the new works, but over the coming months I’ll be bringing out a number of these re-edited works.

To check out a sample of Ali’s Art click here to read the first chapter.

Some comments on the original Ali’s Art series (I love this first one, made me laugh out loud):

So, normally I dislike an author who spends so much time teasing, hinting and doing everything BUT consummating the intended main character/s relationship for too long a period. Normally after two chapters of that sort of teasing I get REALLY BORED, frustrated and just plain pissed off with the audacity of an author. It’s not like I don’t appreciate a good tease. It’s more that there are other ways to tease. There are other methods to draw out a story….. Like the inclusion of a ripping good plot, solid supporting characters, effortless writing skills and silky smooth details. Another thing that REALLY FUCKING SHITS ME UP THE FUCKING WALL is when an author spends over 5000 words getting to the first sex scene… No matter what type of sex it is, this site IS an erotic fiction site. If an author is more interested in stretching out a plot, stretching out the sex scenes, and generally being an idiot, then I move on. Sometimes I vote really low, sometimes I don’t bother. Sometimes I rant and rage in a comment about how poor the skills are, how unobservant the author is, how obtuse they are being, either deliberately or unintentionally. 

You? Well, you tick most of the boxes above. The work takes far too long to get to the hinted at climax of the story. It’s almost as if you, as an author, didn’t want the scene to be written. It’s almost as if the characters themselves didn’t want to do it. But, for all of that, this story remains a watershed for me. Not in terms of content, not in terms of style. Not in terms of details, or writing skills, or in terms of character development, nor in the fact that the entire story has had me horny as hell from start to finish…. But for the fact that, as an author, you made it all so effortless.

Just fucking wonderful! Great Story, great series! Wonderful again!

 It was an emotional highly charged sexual journey that was heartfelt. Love your writing.

Cherri’s Diary Day 26

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Well what d’ya know!

After I wrote only yesterday how Dan was acting strange we only got ourselves moved into the same fucking cabin. Separate rooms, of course, but she’s still only over the corridor from me and last night I almost wore myself out jilling off thinking about her only feet away. Almost as good as the real thing, could be as good as the real thing, good enough anyway to stop me attacking her like I’ve been afraid I’m about to.

Of course, Dan can’t stay cold now I’m living in her hut. We sat talking until real late and when I got up I went through to see her and there she was, soft and sleepy in bed and I had to make an excuse and left otherwise I’d have ended up in there with her. What a thought!

The summer’s looking up.

Cherri Red Chapter 12

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As promised I’m posting access to another excerpt from Cherri Red 1: Summer Secrets. This time round, rather than posting the first few chapters sequentially, I’m posting sample chapters. So last time it was Chapter 1. This time it’s Chapter 12. Next time… who knows?

To read the extract click on this link. Warning (as usual) this content may contain graphic details of sexual acts and should only be accessed by adults.

Cherri Red update – almost there

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I’ll be posting another excerpt from Cherri Red tomorrow, but wanted to post about the current state of play. I’ve just this moment finished the first full edit of the book and it’s come in at 82, 643 words which is 245 pages.

I have another couple of run-throughs planned before publication, but at the moment it’s looking like Cherri Red 1: Summer Secrets will be published on Monday October 10. Leading up to that I’ll be running some special chances for people to win signed copies of the book, and for the first week or two the Kindle edition will be discounted down.

If anyone out there is interested in receiving an advance review copy let me know and I’ll arrange to email out a PDF copy.

Spring into Summer book Giveaway: the Winners!

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The winners of my Spring into Summer Book Giveaway have now been drawn from a hat – I tell a lie, they were drawn from a big white china bowl, because my hat wasn’t big enough.

Thanks to all of you who entered, the response was phenomenal, and I will be emailing each of you personally to say so, and including a little extra bonus thank you in the form of 50% discount coupons for Smashwords, so everyone’s a winner really. The winners of each prize are listed below and have already been emailed with the good news.

Cherri Red

Sherri

Honestly, this was how it came out of the draw. There was also a Sherry, but the winner is Sherri with a i (now, where have I heard that before?)

A free signed copy of Cherri Red will be sent to Sherri as soon as it is published, some time in September.

The Beach House

Kim Dufoulon
Anne

Paperback copies of The Beach House will be sent to Kim and Anne.

June Bug

Val Pearson
Brittany Gale
Dee
Judy Cox
Krystal Larson

I had listed four copies of the June Bug eBook from Smashwords as a giveaway, but when it came to the draw five names came out, so rather than put one back – how could I decide, after all – I decided to make five copies as prizes.

Cherri Red – How Many Books?

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Not sure if that title should be a statement or a question. I guess it’s a question, because I’m asking for your help. Cherri Red is turning out long. And I mean really long. The story is split into three distinct segments.

The first takes place when Dani and Cherri are eighteen and tells of their first attraction at summer camp.

The next skips forward ten years to when both Dani and Cherri are successful in their own fields. They meet up again but things are different between them.

The last section is another ten years later. Dani has come to terms with her own demons, but Cherri is falling apart. Do they get together at last, or has too much time passed? You’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway – the big question. I can continue working on this as a three part novel, which is likely to top out at 140,000+ words – somewhere around 500 pages or so. Or I can split it into three separate books. At the moment I’m minded to split it.

So the next question is: If I split it, do I publish the first book as soon as it’s ready – probably a month or two, or do I wait until all three are ready and publish together? Which would you, dear reader, prefer? A wait between each book, or the chance to read each episode as it becomes available?

Fill in the little poll below displayed on the right, or send me a comment. When I’ve had enough feedback I’ll put up a new post with the result.

 

An interview with Dani Walker

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Danielle Walker is the primary character in Cherri Red (currently under construction). I promised an update on progress and information about the characters appearing in the book, so here it is. As a change, I’ve presented this in the form of an interview with Dani. Over the course of the next weeks and months I’ll add other interviews with the characters as they develop and progress, and post short sections of the novel.

Dani Walker is eighteen when I interview her here. She has finished high school and returned from her first summer camp as a counselor. We sit out back at her parent’s house in east Los Angeles drinking iced lemonade and eating pasta made by her mother. Dani looks slim and healthy, tanned from the summer, with a cute sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Her long dark hair is thick and glossy and she smiles a lot as we talk, obviously happy.

Tess: Dani Walker, you’ve just got back from your first summer camp as a counselor. Tell me something about how that went.

Dani: Well Tess, it was completely awesome. Going to camp in earlier years was pretty great, but being a counselor is something completely different. Different and wonderful. You meet so many people, and most of the kids are just outstanding.

Tess: You say most of the kids. Are some not so great?

Dani: Yeah, well, I guess you always get a few who are pains. You’re gonna get that wherever you are. But I can honestly say for every little nightmare there were twenty wonderful kids. Truly wonderful.

Tess: Did you make any new friends over the summer?

Dani: New friends? God, yeah! There was this boy – well, a young man really – called Jack and we kind of started going out together. Not like real dating, just a summer thing, I think. And a girl called Cherri – yeah, I know, weird name or what? Her real name’s Cheryl Redmond but she wants to be called Cherri Red. She plays guitar and sings and writes her own songs and she is wonderful – really, really good. She’s real short and real blonde and on first sight you think she’s a kind of bimbo and then when you get to know her you realize there’s all kinds of things about her that make her just so deep. And I guess she got to be my best friend over the summer.

Tess: So you and Cherri are friends now. And Jack?

Dani: Oh sure. Real good friends, I think. Cherri lives a ways off, but Jack lives in L.A. so he’s kinda local and I guess we might meet up again sometime. I’m not sure, but it would be cool if we did.

Tess (laughing): So is this Jack the one?

Dani (also laughing): Shit no! I’m eighteen, for christ sake – there’s not gonna be a one for a while yet.

Tess: You were taking photography classes, I hear. How did that go?

Dani: Pretty good. Some of the kids took some great pictures. Not everyone’s gonna be an Ansel Adams but I think I managed to knock a little technique into a few heads.

Tess: So what’s on the agenda now? College?

Dani: Yeah. I start at Boston in a couple of weeks.

Tess: Studying photo-journalism, I hear?

Dani: That’s going to be my major. I’m still deciding on what else I’ll be doing.

Tess: Following in your father’s footsteps then?

Dani (laughs): I think his boots are too big for me to fill, Tess. I want to try and be as good as him, and I will try, but he’s some act to follow.

Tess: Any particular area you want to specialize in?

Dani: Nothing that leaps out and grabs me yet, but I’ve got a few years yet to work that out.

Tess: So you don’t have a specific picture of yourself ten years from now?

Dani: Nothing special, no. I hope I’ll be doing something with photography, but I may turn out not good enough, who knows? But I’m pretty flexible. I like to think I can turn my hand to all kinds of things if I have to. Ten years though? That’s a long time, isn’t it? Who knows what any of us are going to be doing ten years from now?

Tess: Well, maybe we’ll find out. How about I give you a call in ten years time and you update me?

Dani (laughing): Oh yeah, sure. I’ll just pencil you in my diary now.