By Lily Harlem (Guest Blogger)
Thanks so much for inviting me to your lovely blog today, Lisabet. It is, as always, great to be here. Lately I’ve been incredibly busy with three new releases. The first being Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse published by Mischief at Harper Collins.Blurb
When
scalpels are set down, the ward lights turned off and the patients
asleep, there is always time for Mischief …
I
guess you could call me a jack-of-all-trades nurse. I find work
satisfaction in whichever department the hospital needs me most, as
long as it’s through the darkest hours. Needless to say I’ve seen
it all over the years, been there and done that, what’s left to
shock me isn’t worth knowing. But it’s so often the quieter
nighttime where the real high jinx abound.
Yes,
the nocturnal life is the one for me. With a weakness for sexy guys
wearing white coats and dangling stethoscopes, my fantasies are often
realised and I’m adept at finding relief from the hospital grind in
shadowy corners and cozy linen cupboards.
Of
course my dedication to patient comfort is paramount. What kind of
nurse would I be if it wasn’t? But when one act of extreme, albeit
highly inappropriate, kindness forced me to become the hospital
director’s snitch, the length I went to in order to keep my job
satisfied my desires and found me the love that had always evaded me.
A love that made me push even my not-so-professional boundaries to
the extreme.
Before
I picked up a pen, or rather opened a laptop and started writing, I
worked as a trauma nurse in London, England. The work was
adrenaline-inducing, the long shifts exhausting and the never ending
stream of patients have proven to be an endless well of characters
for me to draw on in recent years. I realised, as I wrote, how much I
missed my nursing days - not that I'm about to jump back into it, I
don't miss it that much! But what really tugged my heartstrings was
how much I missed being part of a team - working and playing with a
group of women (mainly) who all know each other well, have a Carpe
Diem attitude (you get that in trauma) and a terribly wicked sense of
humour!
Nurses
have this wonderful way of supporting each other too and it's very
rare to come across a lazy nurse (well it was in a London A & E
anyway) and that was what gelled everyone. When the going got tough
the tough got going, if you couldn't cope, then you didn't hang
around. Things could get pretty high octane, the pace was fast,
things happened most people never witness or are part of, again that
cements a team, the shared experience of the highs and the lows. The
hospital social club was were debriefs happened over a few alcoholic
beverages!
Naturally
there are always a whole pile of real-life love stories going on,
between doctors and nurses (obviously) nurses and patients, patients
and doctors, cleaners and consultants - I kid you not - radiographers
and secretaries, porters (the biggest players in my opinion - lol)
and well, anyone!! Whatever combination works seemed to occur, and in
fact I met Mr Harlem at work!
The
night duties could be gruelling and not my favourite shifts at all -
my body just doesn't cope without sleep - but when I sat down to
write Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse, it was this
blanket of night, the privacy from the prying eyes of the day that
meant I could really let Sharon run riot. She doesn't mean too, well
maybe a little bit, but things just seem to happen to her and before
she knows it she's in deeper than she thought, not just with the
studly Javier but also sweet Carl and the witch they call Iceberg!
Sharon
has a higher libido than most, she also has a history of a broken
heart, and when a patient - a gorgeous fireman with burnt hands needs
a hand with er, something, she can't resist helping him out, it's her
caring nature you see, even if it is above and beyond her job
description! Oh, yes, this book was fun, some of the things in it are
drawn from real experiences but most are made up. Mmm, I suppose you
want me to tell you which are real, well you'll just have to read it
and see if you can guess :-)
Buy
Links For Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse
Another
new release of mine is Dangerous to Know at Ellora’s Cave.
This novella isn't my usual romance story, in fact there's no romance
in it at all, that's why it's in the Exotika line at Ellora's Cave.
Dangerous to Know is dark and dirty and follows New Yorker
Karen as she explores a dangerous whore fantasy with a man she really
should have stayed well away from.
Blurb
For
too many years I’ve hidden a sinful, erotic craving in the darkest
corner of my soul. Within this deeply buried sliver, shameful
fantasies rule and images—seedy, degrading, filthy images—burn
through the dark of the night and hold my dreams hostage.
Luckily,
the center of my whore obsession is keen to play my slutty game. I
know nothing about him, other than his taste, touch and smell, but
that’s how I want it, because the one thing I’m certain of is
this man is dangerous to know. But despite the risks, in the very
heart of New York, in open view, I’ll tempt him with my wares, show
him my skills and prove I’m up for the job.
I’ve
just had a first review in for this book and I have to say I’m
extremely glad the reviewer took the time to write her opinion. It
showed me that I’d got across exactly what I’d wanted to with
this story. The material was uncomfortable, right there on the edge,
but I still wanted it to be beyond sexy, dig into the psych of my
character and justify her risks and actions. Here are a few lines
from that review…
Dangerous
to Know is a twisted tale that still managed to be oddly titillating.
And slightly offending to my soft and sweet side... while arousing to
my dirty and debauched side.
You
see, our heroine has a whore fantasy. The object of her desire is a
dark and dangerous-looking man that she's been watching from her
apartment window. The guy looks like a bruiser. A thug. And when she
approaches him, he is more than willing to treat her like the whore
she wants to pretend to be. She gets to experience the best and worst
parts of acting out her depraved dreams with a total stranger.
Miz
Harlem had me on the edge of my seat, both afraid for and turned on
by the things Karen was willing to do. The risks she was happy to
take for the thrill of danger and the unknown. And even though
Karen's kink isn't my kink - different strokes and all that - I
didn't have any trouble embracing the fantasy.
If
you're in the mood for a down and dirty rendezvous with a rough and
unapologetically callous hero, give Dangerous to Know a try. Miz
Harlem packs quite a punch in these 50 pages. She has a way with
writing dark fantasies that are shocking and exciting.
Buy
Links For Dangerous to Know
Finally - some
of you may have seen on the international news last summer that
Total-E-Bound were publishing classic novels (in the public domain)
with the previous unwritten raunchy scenes included. A whole host of
authors were involved and stories such as Wuthering Heights, Sherlock
Holmes, A Christmas Carol and Pride and Predjudice were given the
smokin’ hot treatment! Well, lucky old me, I only went and grabbed
myself a hot jungle man didn’t I!! Tarzan of the Apes by myself and
Edgar Rice Burroughs is now available in ebook and print (18th
Feb) and has all those sexy Tarzan and Jane scenes readers previously
had to use their imagination for included.
Blurb
The
Classics Exposed…
A wild man with primitive desires, will
anyone be able to tame him?
A
delicate American woman, expected to be the best she can be and marry
well, but with a craving for adventure and exploration as well as a
hope in her heart to find true love with a man who can sweep her off
her feet.
When
the two very different souls collide, in deepest, darkest Africa,
only one thing can happen, and it’s raw and feral. Lust a common
language, satisfaction the ultimate goal. But will the gentleman
outshine the savage-man? Is virtue to be honoured? And when faced
with a civilised decision, can Tarzan do the right thing?
Reader
Advisory: This book contains one scene of dubious consent.
More
information on the fun I had writing Tarzan’s story can be found on
my dedicated Tarzan page –
http://www.lilyharlem.com/tarzan-of-the-apes.html
and yes, you can listen to his yell too!
Buy
Links For Tarzan of the Apes
Thanks
so much for reading, I hope one or all of my new 2013 releases appeal
to your naughty side and you can find the time to take a break and
immerse yourself in some erotic fiction.
Have
a great day
Lily
Harlem
Bio
Lily
Harlem is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary
erotic romance. She lives in the UK with her husband and a bunch of
animals, all rescued, and loves to spend her days immersed in
imagination.
Her books are a mixture of full length novels and
short stories, some are one offs, some are sequels or part of a
series (all can be enjoyed as stand-alone reads).
Follow,
friend, read or pin with Lily Harlem by clicking these links.
Website
http://www.lilyharlem.com/
5 comments:
Hello, Lily,
Welcome to Beyond Romance! You are a very busy lady. I'm particularly impressed by the diversity of your titles. I sometimes feel that I'm too much of dilettante, that I should focus more on a particular genre (though if I did, I'd probably be so bored I'd stop writing entirely). You're definitely a counter-example!
Good luck with all three titles!
Thank you, Lisabet for your kind words and for having me on your blog.
Dangerous to Know is probably the biggest step from my normal writing because of the complete absence of romance. I'm not sure if I'd do a full novel like that, but for a novella it just blasted out of me!
In contrast my WIP is very sweetly romantic, several chapters in and no hot action yet and there won't be for a while, I'm wondering if I have an internal set of scales that need to be balanced out- harmonise the hot and dirty with the ahhhh moments.
:-)
Hi Lily,
How am I ever going to get on top of my TBR pile when you release so many interesting and varied books! Choosing which one to read first will be difficult.
Cheers
Donna
You are the busy one, Lily. There's a little something for everyone to enjoy. From no romance naughty, to sweet and everything in between. Plus a classic! Where to begin.
Congratulations on all your new releases. I love the Dangerous to Know cover!
H K
Thanks Donna and HK - its all good fun this writing game, as you both know :-)
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