A Place For Us - #Erotica #BDSM #Publishing @JustineElyot

By Justine Elyot (Guest Blogger)

Hello, I’m Justine Elyot and I’m here to talk about my new BDSM menage romance, The Story of Jo.

It’s now ten years (this very month) since my first piece of erotic writing was accepted for publication, and things were so very different then that it makes my head spin to think about it.

At the time, epublishing was in its infancy and I was barely aware of it. As far as I was concerned, there was only one UK publisher of erotica, and that was Virgin Books with the Black Lace and Nexus imprints. The way to get your novel published was to hit them with some short stories first, get a relationship going with the editing staff and take things from there. The staff, and the stable of writers, were intelligent, talented people with great senses of humour. I was thrilled to find myself amongst them. Did I even dare to think I might belong there?

Alas, Black Lace disappeared – nobody really knows why still, as they weren’t doing badly – and I had to scatter my fictional seed far and wide. I scattered it towards start-up indies and experimental epublishers, traditional romance houses and the strange new world of self-publishing on Kindle. In the process I met – sometimes virtually, sometimes in the flesh – many more excellent people, all working towards the goal of making a business out of pleasure (hmm, sounds like a good title for a book…).

Not every seed fell on fertile ground. Publishers folded without warning, others shut the gates without explanation, others had no interest in developing a working relationship. Erotica publishing became a tangled thicket. It was hard to find the decent publishers among the fly-by-nights and chancers looking to capitalise on the mega-success of 50 Shades.

It was wonderful to find a new publisher, recommended by trusted colleagues, in the shape of Sinful Press. If you haven’t already, I suggest you have a good look at their back catalogue, which is full of riches. I’m really delighted to publish The Story of Jo with them.

Blurb

“I met a man called Emmett, and now I belong to him.”

Twenty-something Jo meets Emmett on a team-building course, and her initial disdain for him soon turns into attraction.

With Emmett’s strong but loving hand to guide her, Jo unleashes her inner submissive and they embark on an intense voyage of sexual discovery. 

Their mutual fascination sees them exploring bondage, spanking, toys and more, and their romance is as perfect as Jo could hope for, until another man appears on the scene.

She knows that Emmett hero-worships his former boss and mentor, Charles, but when she finds out that Charles is the man who introduced Emmett to the art of domination, she has no idea how to feel.

With fierce desire growing between the three of them, can they find a way to explore this new dynamic without destroying what they already have?

Excerpt

“I want complete control of you in the bedroom,” he said.

The words shocked me to the core, and when I say ‘core’ I mean the area between my legs.

“Complete…control,” I repeated breathily.

“Within limits,” he amended. “Nothing that will damage or traumatise you, obviously. It’s for your pleasure as much as mine.” He laughed softly and ran a fingertip along my lips. “The look on your face…I’d like to photograph it.”

“Are you talking about, y’know, kinky stuff?”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You look shocked. Are you shocked?”

Was I?

“No,” I said. “I mean…no.”

“So you are that way inclined?” He raised an eyebrow.

“In theory,” I said. “I’ve read…things. But never done…things.”

“But you’d like to do…things?”

Could I admit that I’d dreamed of a man like Emmett, who would come and take possession of my body and my sexuality, relieving me of the irksome responsibility? I’d dreamed of a man who would be dominant yet sensitive, cruel but loving, with a resolutely filthy imagination.

Did he actually exist?

And did I have the courage to find out?

He pulled me in close again.

“Do you want me to take you in hand?” he asked, his voice low and sticky in my ear.

“God, yes,” I shivered.

“Mmm,” his appreciative response turned into a kiss, one of those long, slow, trembly types that only end when your legs start to give way. One hand slid slowly down my spine, moulding itself to the curve of my bottom and squeezing.

“You’re still dressed,” he accused, his mouth still close enough for his hot breath to whisper over my skin. Red wine, spearmint, salmon, a bitter coffee note further back.

“Sorry.”

He quieted me with another kiss, then set his fingers to work on my shirt.

The Story of Jo is available in print and ebook formats:

Amazon: http://smarturl.it/TSoJKindle

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-story-of-jo

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-story-of-jo/id1420094618?mt=11

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-story-of-jo-justine-elyot/1128642055?ean=9781910908303

About the Author

Justine Elyot is the author of best selling erotic novels On Demand and The Business of Pleasure, as well as enough short stories to fill several anthologies.

She can often be found moaning about stuff on Twitter as @JustineElyot

GIVEAWAY!  Justine is giving away a $20 bookstore gift certificate plus a paperback copy of the book. 

Make sure to follow the whole tour—the more posts you visit throughout, the more chances you’ll get to enter the giveaway. The tour dates are here:

http://writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/justine-elyot-3/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

By Justine Elyot (Guest Blogger)

Hello, and many thanks to Lisabet for extending her kind hospitality to me today.

One of the many pleasurable aspects of writing my paranormal erotica novel, Saxonhurst Secrets, was the opportunity to weave a number of my own personal fascinations into the plot. Ever since learning in a school history lesson that the Puritans banned Christmas, I've been interested in them. What kind of people could be so joyless? What was their mindset and how did they justify their hardcore approach to life?

The character of Tribulation Smith in the book is a dyed-in-the-wool puritan preacher man, spreading his visions of hellfire and damnation through the seventeenth century village. But he has feet of clay, in the form of his obsession with the comely young witch, Evangeline Lillie. His attempts to 'bring her to God' cast a terrible shadow over Saxonhurst, one which it will take centuries to dispel.

His modern day counterpart, vicar Adam Flint, finds himself troubled by dreams in which he takes the form of Tribulation Smith, battling the same manner of infatuation he has for the village siren, Evie Witts.

Here's a small sample:

She swallowed then, and reached for his face. What ecstasy in her fingertips as they travelled along his cheekbone. He put his hand over them, holding them against his skin.

"If you have lived wickedly," he murmured, "it is because you suffered evil influences to flourish in your life. You did not act against them, and that is your sin. But it is a sin capable of redemption. Allow yourself to be redeemed. Come to me."

"You've a pretty face and you speak pretty words," she said. "I could almost…"

"Consent. And you will be protected."

"I will live," she whispered.

"I promise it."

"And my kinswomen?"

He hesitated, wanting those inconvenient crones out of the way, but he was so close to having her, how could he let them ruin it?

"I will do such as I can," he said.

"Then I shall say yes."

A potent amalgam of happiness and triumph beat in his veins. He leant towards her, breathing in the scent that lay beneath all the blood, sweat and tears – her unique Evangeline Lillie fragrance, that which had driven him wild since he arrived in Saxonhurst.

His lips touched hers, and the flame of desire streaked instantly through him. How she bewitched him, and yet her witchcraft was of a kind he felt he could not live without.

The kiss moved quickly from a tender brush to a raw and salty clash of mouths. Adam felt he could never get enough of her taste, of her warmth, of her tongue. Finally, his increasingly desperate prayers had found their answer, and the answer was yes.

He awoke to find himself snogging the pillow, one hand wrapped tight around his erection. Oh, no Evie after all, no full lips, no slip of tongue, no breasts bared to his eye. But the imprint of her remained on his memory for as long as it took him to bring his cock to complete engorgement.

I should let go. I should turn my mind to other thoughts.

But Evie's hold on him was absolute now. She had slipped past every moral defence, to place herself at the centre of his world, which was no longer a world of cool ascetic pursuits but one of thunder and blood and lust.

He thought of her underneath him, her curves and smoothness, her careless eroticism, her joy in the act of sex. He had to have her, had to, had to.

Here's some more information about the book:

On the surface, Saxonhurst is like every other sleepy English village in the Vale of Parham.

But what explanations are there for its unfailingly bountiful harvests, its amazingly successful cricket team, its bizarre and bacchanalian May Day rituals?

New vicar Adam Flint is bent on finding out why Saxonhurst has the nickname 'most godless village in England'. With the help and hindrance of village siren Evie and the strange and remote Lady of the Manor, Julia, he uncovers closets full of skeletons. And not just skeletons - flesh and blood bodies rich in temptations as well...

 

Will the secrets of Saxonhurst be Adam's ruin?

It's available in paperback and ebook formats from Xcite Books: http://www.xcitebooks.co.uk/Book/6920/Saxonhurst-Secrets.html

Thanks for reading!

The Final Frontier

By Justine Elyot (Guest Blogger)

Well, it's wonderful to be here and I'd like to thank Lisabet and her loyal readers at Beyond Romance for giving me this space to talk about my story in the Seeing Stars anthology.

Talking of space...

What's your final frontier? Is it the vast outer reaches of the cosmos? Or is it something else?

The theme of my first ever science fiction story is exploration - but not necessarily the obvious kind, of seeking out new worlds and new civilisations, although my characters certainly do that. But my pair of space anthropologists, Paul and Suka, also have a more personal quest to pursue.

They live in a society where kink, especially power exchange, is against the law. Both have learned to sublimate their sexuality, but when a chance to express it, risk-free, presents itself, they are hardly going to pass it up.

What I enjoyed most about writing this was the parallel between space exploration and the journey into their own sexual identities. Well, that and the hot sex. But BDSM in all its glorious forms is riddled with frontiers, boundaries, strange new territories to discover and map. Paul and Suka embrace their opportunity with gusto, boldly going where no citizen of the future has gone before.

I hope you will want to follow them.

The Sevarian Way by Justine Elyot

In space, no-one can hear you scream. So you can spank as hard as you like.

Commander Azed Paul and Ensign Suka Demontel are space anthropologists in a future civilisation where kink is illegal. Both have learned to repress their natural sexuality, but Suka's undergraduate work on the ancient practice of BDSM has captured Paul's professional attention, and his less academic interest too.

This makes her the perfect crew member to accompany him to the surface of Paladium Three, a dead planet where old-fashioned service and discipline were woven into the fabric of life.

There might not be any life forms left there, but what Paul and Suka discover is fascinating evidence of a culture that both realise might have suited them very well...

The temptation to experiment, risk-free, with the kinks they have been denied all their adult lives, proves too much for the space explorers and they give their fantasies free rein.

But will this be a unique, never-to-be-repeated experience, or will Paul and Suka find a means to fully embrace the Sevarian Way?

Reader Advisory: This book contains BDSM

Excerpt

They stopped at the top left corner of the square, where a small platform acted as plinth to what looked like some kind of sculpture. Crafted from a smooth obsidian-like mineral, it mimicked the crude outline of a humanoid shape, dark legs travelling upwards in an inverse V to a broad flat torso, with arms raised upward. The only thing missing was the head - at neck height, a padded semicircular dip curtailed the body's progress. Suka and Paul, once on the platform to examine the installation more closely, noticed that thin leather straps dangled from the 'knees', 'waist' and 'wrists' of the sculpture.

"You know what this is?" Paul turned to Suka, seemingly expecting her to supply the answer.

"I'm…not sure," she hedged, though actually she had seen a picture of one of these in her copy of Peoples of the Outer Reaches. That chapter had been abandoned half-way through for Suka to dive beneath the covers and think about it in exquisite detail, fingers working busily inside her slicked sex lips.

"Yes, you are," contradicted Paul, one hand travelling down the defenceless left arm of the headless statue. "You know exactly what this is." He turned and grinned, challenging her. "Don't disappoint me. You aren't usually so coy."

"It's a whipping post," said Suka, the thought of disappointing Paul somehow unbearable.

"That's right. The nobility of Sevarium underwent an interesting form of training. They believed that, to demand service, you first needed to experience it. To rule, you needed to understand how it felt to be ruled. Men and women alike, it must be said. They were equal opportunities deviants."

Suka laughed.

"Judging by the height of this, it was the women's post. Tell me what you know about this aspect of Paladian society, Suka. What have you read?"

"Once a Paladian noble reached majority, they were put into the service of a Sevarian master or mistress. It was quite a harsh regime, I think. Training lasted three or four years…I can't exactly remember. If they didn't please the boss, they were whipped."

"Good thing we don't operate that policy on the Ulysses IV, eh?" smiled Paul. "Or is it?"

Suka's cheeks burned. She was uncomfortably damp between her legs at the thought of standing on the whipping platform as it was, and her trousers felt too tight all of a sudden. If Paul was going to personalise all this, she was going to end up coming then and there, right in front of him. She wondered what the Federation penalty for that was. Nothing as exciting as a whipping, obviously.

Paul began searching the deck, looking for something which he eventually found beneath a loose plank of the platform. It had an ornate, marbled handle and six stiff leather tails. A whip.

"Ah," said the Commander, swishing the thing through the air.

Suka was transfixed. An actual whip. In the Commander's hands, it looked so deadly and sexy that her knees began to feel as if they might give way. She held on to the sculpture, wrapping an arm around its waist for support.

"Commander Paul," she ventured faintly, pressing her body into the cool, sleek embrace of the whipping post.

"Mm hmm?" he replied absently, running fascinated fingers along the whip strands, curling them around and around.

"Are we…observable? From the Ulysses?"

He looked up sharply. "No. This is a low-risk mission. Visual satellite link has not been enabled."

"I see." She fitted her chin over the padded neck rest. Exactly the right height.

"Why?" Paul's arch question hung in the air, seeming laden with hope to Suka's oversensitive ears.

She spread her legs to fit the sculpture's inverse V and raised her arms up, pressed in a close embrace with the whipping post. It felt too good, wickedly good. She knew she ought to take a step back, recover her wits and ignore her senses, but this was too intoxicating to resist. She was a young Paladian noblewoman, in the service of a strict Lord who looked highly reminiscent of Commander Paul…and she had failed in her duties…and now the price must be paid…in front of the populace. There they would stand, all around her, munching on hot snacks from the nearby market, jostling and catcalling, remarking on her physical attributes.

Her master would approach, whip in hand, and then…

She flinched as something - it could only be the handle of the whip - came to rest at the small of her back.

"Suka." Paul's voice, in her ear, saying her given name, was so intimate that she shivered. "I asked you a question. Why did you ask whether we could be seen?"

She gripped the top of the model, where the hands were meant to rest, and thought that, perhaps if she wasn't looking directly at Paul, she might be able to say this.

"Because I can't help thinking…this chance will never come again…"

"You may well be right. But I'm your commanding officer. If it ever gets out that I—"

"It won't. It wouldn't. Ever."

"And I have certain principles to which I must adhere. I can't just go giving in to my base desires."

"Just this once…"

"Especially with an Ensign. It's an abuse of power. An abuse of privilege."

"I want you to abuse your power. I will do anything if you'll just abuse your power, just today, just this once, please."

"Then ask me for it. There must be no ambiguity at all. Tell me what you want me to do."

"Please whip me, Sir. Please tie me to this thing and whip me hard."

"Alright," he whispered, bending to strap her legs to the post. "I can do that."

About the author: Justine Elyot has written extensively in the genres of erotica and erotic romance for publishers including Black Lace, Xcite Books, Carina Press, Total E-Bound, Resplendence Publishing and Cleis Press. She lives in the UK, where she pursues her passions for history, music and hot men (not necessarily in that order).

She loves to tweet and generally blether on and can be found on Twitter and Facebook, as well as at her website, JustineElyot.com.