Monday 29 June 2009

Tortoise or Hare?

Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? You know, the one where they have a race? Well, a couple of weeks ago I was feeling like a hare in terms of how much and how quickly I was writing. Four new chapters and changes to a couple of others. I was on fire.

When I’m “on it'” I can write surprisingly fast. Everything flows and it feels really good. I’m not the world’s fastest typist by any means. My raw typing speed according to this testing site is around 40 words per minute. Now, when I’m ‘on it’ I can probably write somewhere around 1000-1500 words in an hour, which is about half my raw typing speed. Guess that makes sense when you consider that I’m making things up as I go and have to stop and think what comes next or will sometimes delete whole chunks of what I’ve written because I’m not satisfied with it.

Kissed by a Rose is 90000 words long, or thereabouts. According to the above, it should have taken me about 75-90 hours to write. At, say, two hours writing time a day that’s somewhere between 35 and 45 days to write. Or, to put it another way, two months, tops. So why did it take me nearly two years?

We can talk about first drafts and second drafts and we can mention that I was working on other short stories as well. But in the main it’s because I’m ‘on it’ a very small percentage of the time. Even when I’m writing well but not ‘on it’ my writing speed would drop to something like 500 – 750 words an hour. Already we can double that “two months tops figure” to four months.

Then there’s that arbitrary “two hours a day” writing time. I’d love to be able to write for two hours a day, every day, but it just don’t happen. Truth is, I might be able grab half an hour to an hour here and there, and sometimes I’ll be on a run and could write for ever, but most of the time I’m too damn tired. I’ll sit and open up my WIP with every intention of writing something stunning, but nothing’s doing and I wind up surfing the internet or watching something on TV.

I refuse to write rubbish for the sake of writing. I only want to write when I know what I’m writing is worth writing. At least, where my WIP is concerned. That’s why I blog. It’s a way to write for the sake of writing. If it’s rubbish, it doesn't matter quite as much, there’ll be another post along soon to replace it at the top of the page. But where the WIP is concerned, if I write shit, I’ll only have to re-write it so it’s not quite so shit later. In my mind (and you can tell me I’m wrong, cause I might be) it’s better not to write the shit in the first place.

So writing a novel, or even a short story, takes me a lot longer than it does some other people. Of course, I’d argue it was worth it. Read Kissed by a Rose and see if you agree.

But the point I’m trying to make is that although a couple of weeks ago I felt like a hare, this week I’ve felt like a tortoise. Slow and steady and I’ll get there in the end. I wrote very, very little this week. I’m putting it down to where I am in the story. You know how, in a lot of books, you get to a point near the end where it begins to race towards its conclusion and you find you have to keep reading even it means not eating/sleeping/working or whatever. It happened to me with Harry Potter 7 at something like half past eleven at night and I knew I couldn’t stop until I’d finished even though I was probably an hour or two from finishing (I’m a slow-ish reader. I read every damn word, not skim). It was after one in the morning on a work night when I finally went to bed that day.

Well, I’m at that point now in my WIP. I’m at the point where I know if I start writing it’s going to be very hard to stop until it’s finished. So I’m stalling. I’m stalling until I actually have the time and don’t end up sacrificing the other areas of my life. Be patient, I keep telling myself. It’ll be worth it in the end. No need to rush. Slow and steady. That’s the way. Be a tortoise, not a hare.

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Twitterholism

My name is Marc, I’m (almost) thirty-five years old and I’m a Twitterholic.

There, I feel better for getting that out in the open. Twitter has become my latest addiction. My drug. My window on the world that keeps me sane. It’s first application (well, my twitter reader, Twhirl, is) that I open in the morning and it sits on my desktop updating the tweets of the 700+ people I currently follow through out the day. And throughout the day I’ll give the 750+ people that follow me updates on what I’m doing and how I’m feeling and other random stuff. It’s genuinely fascinating and addictive – even more so than Myspace or Facebook.

For those who don’t know, Twitter is a ‘mirco-blogging’ service. You are given 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing in an update which can be ‘locked’ or on public display. Locked profiles require the profile holder to give you permission to view it, but open ones are there for all the world to see. Here’s mine.

In some ways twitter is very much like other ‘social networking’ sites in that you can ‘follow’ (or ‘friend’) who you want and they can follow you back. All this means is that when you follow an individual their “tweets” (that’s what they call the updates) appear on your twitter homepage whereas if you don’t follow them you’d have to look at the public timeline or their profile to see them.

But what I love about twitter over and above the other SN sites is the immediacy of the interactions it creates. When you use one of the many apps that have sprung up to facilitate twitter use, it’s like being involved in one giant IM session. People reply to your tweets, you reply to others, it’s almost intimate but on a global scale. Sometimes you have to remind yourself when replying to someone that the whole world can see what you’re saying.

It’s also good for shared experiences. Watching BBC Question Time and ‘live tweeting’ it with a couple of hundred other people make the political debate show all the more interesting. (follow the tag #bbcqt to see what I mean). And this past series of The Apprentice was even better for me because with Thwirl open it was like watching the show with some of your best mates around your house all making comments at the TV.

I know, it all seems very frivolous, but twitter is more than that. Over the pas year or more, several news stories have been broken by ordinary people on twitter to be picked up by mainstream media later. During Prime Minister’s Questions today, the BBC picked up tweets tagged with the #pmqs to include in their TV and online coverage. Over 3000 tweets in the hour that BBC Question Time was shown (10:30 to 11:30 PM no less) during the MP’s expenses scandal was enough to get them to move it to 9 PM the following week.

I’ve also been using twitter to promote Kissed by a Rose. I’ve tagged tweets about the book with #KbaR so they can be found on twitter search and tweets have included one liners from the book, reader comments, links to excerpts and where to buy it. I have to admit, I won’t know for a few months until I get sales figures if this type of marketing has worked, but I do know of several twitter uses who either asked me directly for a link to buy or have told me they have bought it.

I try to be interesting when I tweet. I don’t always succeed, but I do try. I use Twitpic to share photos and Twitterfeed to push this blog’s RSS feed to twitter (in the hope more people might read it). I also used Loudtwitter to have my daily tweets archived to a separate blog – My Twitchive. I also have any tweets I make through Thwirl sent as ‘status updates’ to my facebook and myspace accounts via ‘ping’.

But, the thing about attracting followers on Twitter is to keep posting updates. And generally I can tweet through the working day when I’m at my desk or in the evening after the little one is fed, watered and put to bed, but I find it hard to tweet at weekends and during holidays (which is why I really need to get an iPhone, lol).

So, to keep my stream updated I’ve now got a bunch of other RSS feed pushed through to the stream. News stories that interest me, blogs I read, and the updated and new stories at StoriesOnline. All well and good, but I’m looking for more. So, if you have an RSS feed I might find interesting enough to push to my twitter stream, let me know. It could be good for both of us.

Monday 22 June 2009

The Evolution of a Title

I mentioned in my last post that because things had been tough for me at home the past week or so I’d been able to do a serious amount of writing, completing almost five chapters in total and updating some others. The simple reason was that I was ‘home alone’ last week. Mrs Nobbs and Jr spent some time in France but I was unable to get the time off work. As well as allowing me to write, this time alone has taught me one very, very important lesson. It takes more than a house and some furniture to make a home.

Arriving back to an empty house in the evening and knowing it was going to remain empty (as opposed to Mrs Nobbs and Jr having popped out somewhere and coming back soon) was really, really tough. Frankly, I hated it. It’s sad that it takes something like that to make me realise it, but without the laughter and shouts of my son and the warm embrace of or even arguments with my wife then the building in which I live is just a house and not a home.

And I told her that this at the weekend. I did a round trip of four hundred odd miles to pick them up on Saturday and told her in no uncertain terms on Sunday how I felt. They are my family, I missed them and my house was an empty shell without them. It’s people that make a home.

Anyway, on to other matters. As you may recall I’ve been struggling to find a title for my current WIP. I’ve been referring to it as “Will and Amy” since they are the two main characters, but that is far from suitable. But in the process of writing an emotionally intense chapter last week, I found Will and Amy repeating to each other throughout, the words “Always and Forever.”

Bang – just like that I had a title.

I decided that these three words were something they said to each other in their youth. It’s the sort of thing that kids in love say to each other without really grasping the enormous nature of the commitment behind them. But the eventual repeating of these words in their adulthood would be very, very significant to the relationship. Damn, that sounds like it might actually be a meaningful title.

But here’s the rub. I did a Google search. Turns out there are tons of books called “Always and Forever”. And I’d rather have someone Google my title and find my book than someone else’s. What I needed was something different and unique but that meant the same thing.

I settled on “Eternally and Evermore.” But that in itself left me with a problem. I think it sounds great, but it’s not exactly the sort of phrase that two eighteen-year-olds would come up with themselves. “Always and Forever”? Yeah, I can see kids spontaneously coming out with that. “Eternally and Evermore”? Not likely.

So, the question I had was, how did they come to start saying it to each other? In the end, I wrote a whole new scene and touched up a couple more and this is how I’ve come to explain it away.

It’s a song title and lyric.

In one of the early scenes as teenagers – when Will and Amy are skirting around each other and not really letting each other know how they feel – they are are at a disco and this song, which Amy says is her favourite, is played. She asks Will to dance with her, which he does. It’s all very awkward, a ‘teenager not knowing where to put his hands and worrying about his erection pressing on her belly’ type of dance. And, here’s the crucial bit, Amy sings the song in his ear as they dance – right up to the line “Eternally and Evermore”.

Then, later, when they get together, Amy quotes the lyrics back to Will – including the “Eternally and Evermore” bit – and a ‘secret’ phrase between two teen lovers is born.

And the scene much later in the story when the phrase comes up again, also involves the song – although this time it’s a cover version by a ‘current’ singer – and the phrase is used by the couple once more but this time as adults who know full well the weight of meaning behind it. Indeed, it carries even more weight because they used to say it to each other as kids.

So, there we have it. My WIP is now ‘officially’ provisionally titled “Eternally and Evermore”. I’m still hedging by bets and reserve the right to change it mind you. It’s a very ‘soppy’ title. Very ‘romantic’ in theme. But that should be okay because with this piece, while still an erotic romance, the emphasis is very much on the romance element. To the extent that I recently ended a scene without going into the nitty gritty of what bits went where. I just felt that the chapter would had enough impact with all the emotion in it and to go any further than I did would detract from it.

Can you believe it? I wrote a sex scene and stopped short of filling in all the ‘lets get buck naked and fuck’ details. Does this mean I’ve matured as a writer? Or just that I’ve ‘grown up’?

Friday 19 June 2009

Some weeks you just have to write off

And this has been one of them. Seriously, I’ve had a very, very bad week. Issues at home and at work, and a eye infection that felt for three days as if my insides were trying to escape through my eye until the puss-filled blob on my lower lid exploded all over the inside of my glasses and left me looking like I was weeping blood.

The home issues I’m going to skirt over as they are very personal and not the sort of thing I’d like to share. Suffice to say I’ve not been hurrying to get home this week. But then, I’ve not really wanted to stay at work either cause things haven’t been going well there either (which I also can’t talk about – client confidentiality and all that).

So I’ve spent a lot of time wandering around Tesco. It’s amazing what you can get in there these days.

I’ve also been able to concentrate on some writing. I’ve written three chapters this week. THREE. and after I’ve finished this post I’m determined to finish a fourth.

So that’s all you’re getting from me. I know this is my first blog post this week. I apologise but I really, really didn’t feel like I could write without venting and potentially post something I'd regret later. But things are better now.

Or they seem to be. I can but hope.

Thursday 11 June 2009

So, I’m anal am I?

Following on from yesterday’s admission that I had to compile a timeline for my WIP and I’m considering drawing up a map of Westmouthshire, I’ve come to believe that I’m actually a little anal when it comes to my stories.

Yesterday I started work on the next chapter. Given the tension that’s built up in the story over the past few chapters I want to write a tension-reliving love scene. It started with Will and Amy sitting on the sofa listening to a radio phone-in show that played love songs between callers. What I’m planning to happen is for Amy and Will to have a dance in the lounge to one of the songs which will lead into their lovemaking. So far so good.

I’m going to have Amy whisper/sing the chorus of the song into Will’s ear. The lyric will be one of two that I’ve come up with.

1) “You’re every man I want, every man I need.”

2) “You’re the only man I want, the only man I need".”

All very sweet, yes? So, what’s my problem? I don’t know which to choose. Thing is I am really anal about these things and I can’t carry on writing the scene until I’ve sorted it out in my head. Seriously, this has stopped me dead in my tracks.

Now, you may ask, what difference does it make? I’ll tell you, the first option sounds more like a song lyric to me – it has the right rhythm and just sounds ‘right’ if you try and sing it (just make up your own melody). Whereas the second one doesn’t have quite the same lyrical impact. There are too many syllables. the timing isn’t right. It just sounds ‘off’ if you try and make it sound like a song.

However, the second lyric does make more sense in terms of what Amy is trying to say to Will at this point in the story. The first one, to me at least, doesn’t quite say what I want Amy to say.

So there we have it. Which way do I jump? Say what’s right for the character, or make it sound like an ‘authentic’ song? Ah, the joys of being so bloody anal about these things.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Working out a history

Yesterday I undertook a rather interesting exercise in respect of my WIP about Will and Amy. I’m at a point in writing the story where it’s really critical that I know what day it is. Yes, okay, that sounds silly, but from the day that Will attends the reunion to the big, tense conclusion I have planned is quite a short time span – just two and a bit weeks. Events happen in rapid succession, particularly after one dramatic event, and it’s actually quite vital that I have it clear in my head what day it is. Some things can’t happen at a weekend, for example. Or they might need to happen at a weekend.

So, I sat down with the document open in Word and a blank Excel spreadsheet open too, and set about putting the events on a timeline, so I had a quick visual reference and then wouldn’t make mistakes.

But after I’d done that, I realised that ever since the reunion had taken place in the story, I, or rather the characters, had been banding about dates and time periods that referenced their history. Couple this with the first part of the novel taking place in Will and Amy’s youth, and I realised that I also needed to timeline out their history. It wouldn’t do for some eagle-eyed reader to write to me upon publication to let me know that I’d said something happened after fifteen years when it couldn’t possibly have been that long ago.

So I set about searching what I’d written to pull together a twenty-year timeline of Will and Amy’s history. It really was a fascinating exercise. Shame no-one will ever see it, because events in their history are plot points in their present – and it would give the game away if I published the timeline here or included it in the book. Still, it was worthwhile doing – I now have a much clearer picture of what happened and when.

In a similar vein, I’ve been thinking about doing some map drawing. Westmouthshire, which includes the two large towns of Westmouth and Walminster, is a fictional place. It’s where Kissed by a Rose and my new WIP both take place. In fact, to some extent the place is as much a character in both books as the people. And in my mind, even though it’s not named, it’s also the setting for Charlotte’s Secret. To this end two of the key locations in Charlotte’s Secret is mentioned in my WIP. The WIP also includes references to Kissed by a Rose. So, to me, Westmouthshire is a real place. It exists in my head.

Trouble is, it’s getting a bit… well, big. There are now a whole bunch of locations, buildings, shops and residential areas that are mentioned in the tree books. The place is becoming more real the more I write. So, perhaps it’s time I mapped it out. It would be a nice thing to go on the website. It’s my plan to set all my future work in Westmouthshire, so maybe this map is something I should do.

I’m just not very good at drawing maps. Perhaps I should use SimCity to map it out. That might be fun. I just wish I could find the time to do it.

Both Charlotte’s Secret and Kissed by a Rose are available from the Phaze website, other e-book retailers and for your Kindle.

Tuesday 9 June 2009

An Interview in the “Love Romances Cafe”

Yesterday I was chatting in the LoveRomancesCafe Yahoo! group. I took part in an ‘author interview’. Here are the questions asked and my answers.

Can you tell us a little about how you started writing; was it something you have always wanted to do?

I think that deep down I’ve always been a writer. It’s in my soul. I’m a great reader and a lover of good storytelling. When I was in both primary and secondary school I always got my best marks in English for what they called “creative writing”and by the time I was sixteen I’d set out to write a novel. I never finished it – although the story is still locked in my head and I might give it a bash one day. It wasn’t until I’d finished university and got my home and work life settled that I took up writing as a serious hobby. I set about learning my craft and viola… A few years later I’m a published author selling books worldwide.

Who or what has been your biggest influence as a writer?

Biggest influence? I don’t know. It’s odd, but what I write isn’t anything like the stuff I mostly read.

I sort of ‘fell’ into writing erotic romance. I discovered the huge number of ‘sex stories’ on the internet when I was a young man and used them for the sort of ‘entertainment’ you’d expect from a young man – if you take my meaning. Naturally, as someone with a writer’s soul, I figured I could do as well if not better and gave it a shot. But the ‘pure’ sex stories that I wrote felt hollow to me. The plots and the characters lacked depth. I mean, how much depth can you get out of five thousand words describing how rod A fits into slot B?

So the next logical step was to explore what happened to the characters to put them in the position to be thinking about inserting rods into slots – to explore their relationships. And stories about relationships are all that romance stories really are. And because I enjoyed the sex part, it got left in.

So, to that end, I guess my biggest influence would be The Fishtank – which is where I learnt about plot structure and character development and is where I learnt all the technicalities of writing. The Fishtank is the reason my editor referred to “Kissed by a Rose” as a ‘wonderful piece of craft”.

Your work is very popular with readers and reviewers; how does it feel to have such positive recognition for your work?

I found out about the latest review of “Kissed by a Rose”, by the San Diego Examiner, just this morning. And I tell you, I’m walking around the office today with such a goofy smile on my face that everyone thinks I got laid this morning. Seriously, I’m not used to the sort of praise that has been heaped on this book and, honestly, I think I like it. It gives me a warm fuzzy glow inside – like the first time you realize you’re in love.

What do you consider to be the key elements of a great story?

Character and conflict. You can’t have a great story if everything works out just perfectly all the way through. You need some element of conflict in there. Take “Kissed by a Rose” as an example. The conflict is internal to the central relationship between Adam and Chloe because, as one reader put it to me, “you toy with the reader's feelings about Chloe, is she using him, or is she not?  It's all very subtle and one is never completely sure.” But there is also external conflict in the barriers put up to the relationship by friends – well, one of Adam’s friends – and by an intrusive media.

So, yes, you need conflict. I’m working on a piece right now where the conflict is even more obvious and even bigger. But conflict is nothing if you don’t care about the characters. One reader told me that “Adam is a brilliant character, I am half in love with him.” And because of that she cares about him and what happens to his relationship with Chloe. If he was just a… blah… character, then you wouldn’t care and the story wouldn’t work.

Conflict. Character. Not in any particular order – you need both in equal measure.

Could you tell us a little about how you develop your characters? Who has been your favorite character to write? The most challenging?

This is going to sound strange, but the characters tend to develop themselves. They are the ones that tell me what they want to say – I just write it down and try not to make it sound terrible when I do. I can’t say that I’ve ever consciously tried to ‘force’ a character to be a particular way. It just sort of happens. That’s a really lame answer isn’t it? Sorry.

I do often sit and try and work out a character’s history – but only once I’ve been writing that character for a while and I know who they are. Once I know who they are I have to work out why they are they way they are and that comes from knowing their history. That history then feeds back into the story going forwards and in subsequent drafts.

Most challenging? Chloe from “Kissed by a Rose”. Because the story was told from Adam’s point of view, I needed the reader to see Chloe certain ways at certain times in the book – but her ‘character’ had to remain the same. I needed the reader to be unsure about her until the very end. I think I pulled it off. At least, I’m told I have.

Please tell us about the projects you are currently working on; what can readers expect to see in the coming months?

I don’t know how long it will be before it’s finished, but my current WIP is laughing titled “Amy and Will.” Okay, I know, but it’s a work in progress and so is the title. I’ll come up with something better. I will, I promise. I quite like “Worth the Risk” but we’ll have to see how it goes.

The story has two parts. The first part is the tale of how Will and Amy get together as kids (well, 18 year olds). Childhood sweethearts – that sort of thing. They promise to be together forever even though they are both going to be studying at different universities.

In the second part of the book, we find that time and distance was too much for them. We join Will twenty years later when he has a successful career, a failed marriage and a daughter he only sees at weekends. He gets invited to a school reunion where he meets up with Amy again. And we eventually find out that Amy’s had a tough twenty years without Will. Can he be her shining knight? Or is he the harbinger of even more suffering for poor Amy? We’ll when I’ve finished writing the book, I might even find out myself.

“Kissed by a Rose” took me two years from start to publication. This new piece has been going for six months and ‘seems’ to be coming along a bit quicker. But I’m not setting any deadlines on myself. I’ll keep you posted.

Where can readers find out what's new and how can they contact you?

You want the list? Oh, you do. Okay.

http://www.marcnobbs.com

http://www.myspace.com/marcnobbs

http://marcnobbs.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/marcnobbs

http://marcnobbstwitter.blogspot.com/

Do you have a strict writing schedule? How do you balance your personal and writing time?

Schedule? No. I’m not that organised. If I was, “Kissed by a Rose” might not have taken 2 years to write. I just have to grab moments when I can – most often late at night when the little one is in bed. Writing is a hobby and it must come third to the family and the job. It’s just the way it has to be.

Do you feel your writing is character driven or plot driven? How do you balance these two elements?

My characters drive the plot but the events of the plot influence my characters. You can’t separate the two. Characters react to events in the plot dependant on who they are, but who they are is affected by the events in the plot.

Monday 8 June 2009

First review for “Kissed by a Rose” - #KbaR

Kissed by a Rose has received it’s first “official” review. Acquanetta Ferguson of the San Diego Examiner gave the book a 4, which according to her rating system means -

4- Recommended to buy (Very hot, well-written, compelling story, some questions left unanswered, satisfied with conclusion)

So that’s all good then. the full text of the review can be found here, but some of my highlights are

“The male lead is also a normal guy. If a woman had written this the male lead would have been an alpha male which most women love in fantasy. In this Marc knocks that fantasy on its ass. He writes his romance with a bit more realism, and quite frankly it is a refreshing change.”

“Marc not only does romance really well, in his own male way, but he is also very descriptive in his writing. I have never been to England, but he described the location so well I felt as if I were there.”

“The book is 290 pages and yet it felt like I was seriously “watching” a 2 hour movie, one of those British imports that show the normal guy falling in love, such as the one Hugh Grant plays so very well.”

“Bottom line, this is a well written romance written by a man who gets it. It’s been awhile since I’ve read such a happy ending in a romance, and for that Marc Nobbs is becoming one of my new favorites!”

So, there’s a good way to start the week, wouldn’t you say?

Kissed by a Rose is a Contemporary Erotic Romance novel and is available from the Phaze Website. It’s also now available for your Kindle and from All Romance e-books.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Another “Kissed by a Rose” excerpt - #KbaR

As you may know by now, my latest novel, Kissed by a Rose, is available to purchase in e-book formats from Phaze books. There are already three excerpts ‘out there’, but here’s another – just for you. It’s the whole of Chapter 15 and it’s a little bit… er… Naughty. So if you’re offended by.. you know… stuff, you might want to point your browser somewhere else. Otherwise, Enjoy.

When lectures had finished that afternoon, Adam and Chloe studied in the library for a couple of hours before picking up a take away and going back to her house. They sat on one of the sofas in the lounge and watched a movie while they ate. After they meal was finished, Chloe lay with her head in his lap until the movie ended.

“Mind if I watch the news?” he asked as the credits rolled.

“No, that’s fine.”

He reached for the remote control and switched to the rolling news channel. The first item was bad news. So was the second. By the third, Adam had picked up the remote and started channel hopping in search of something less depressing.

Chloe rubbed his leg. “Adam?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember earlier? When we were in your room?”

“You mean when you—”

“Yeah, then.”

“How could I forget it?”

“Well… You said…”

“Yes?”

“You said you were going to return the favour.”

Adam didn’t answer. He pretended to be watching the television. In truth, he didn’t even know which channel was on.

“Adam?”

He looked down at her with her head in his lap. She looked like a little girl asking for the sweets she’d promised for behaving while they visited relatives.

“Chloe, do you want me to go down on you?”

She grinned.

“Do you want me to lick your pussy and suck your clit?”

She nodded.

“Do you want me bring you to the brink of a mind-blowing orgasm with my fingers and tongue before sinking my dick into you?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay.”

She sat up. “Here? Or Upstairs.”

“Oh, here, I think.” He slipped from the sofa to kneel on the floor and positioned Chloe so that her bottom was on the edge of the seat. He put his hands on her inner thighs and gently pushed her legs apart, forcing her skirt to ride up. He pushed it up to her waist so that it was out of the way, grabbed her knickers and peeled them down. They were already wet. He breathed in her scent. “Hmmm, you smell nice.”

“Really?”

“Good enough to eat.”

Chloe giggled. “Go on then.”

“Not yet. There’s no rush. Is there?” He lifted one leg and kissed the underside of her knee. He kissed all the way up her thigh until he could feel her heat on his cheek, then he dropped the leg, picked up the other and treated it the same way.

“Ready?”

She wiggled her hips. “Just get on with it.”

He rubbed her thighs and bent his head to her crotch. The strength of her scent intensified and he inhaled it deeply. He kissed her pussy as he would her mouth—gently at first, just brushing her labia before forcing his tongue into her. She squealed. He slid his hands around her waist then up her sides. His thumbs traced the curve of her breasts. Her skin was soft and smooth and the heat she gave almost burned him. She held his head as he continued to kiss her. She caressed his shoulders, slid her fingers through his hair and made soft noises of pleasure deep in her throat. She gripped his head tighter.

Adam lapped at her like a cat at a saucer of cream. He flicked across her clit and she gasped. He cupped her buttocks and pulled her closer. She arched her back so that her hips lifted off the sofa and pushed her pussy into his face. He settled into a rhythmic lapping, between her lips and across her clit. The air was thick with her aroma and her taste filled his mouth. She held him tight, thrust against his mouth, and panted. Short, harsh gasps for breath that grew in intensity.

He gave her clitoris all his oral attention—licking, sucking and blowing. He ran a finger along her pussy, up and down, up and down. Then he found her entrance and pushed into her. First one finger, then two. He pleasured her on two fronts. Her breath was ragged. She muttered his name. She held him tight.

Then she screamed. A high-pitched scream that hurt his ears. The neighbours must have heard.

Her body tensed, shook and went limp. Her hands fell to her sides and she collapsed back onto the seat. She panted—gasping for air, trying to refill her lungs after holding her breath as her orgasm struck.

He lifted his head. “Was that what you had in mind?”

Her breathing had returned to normal. “Adam... oh, Adam... wow! I saw stars. I swear, I saw stars. All the colours of the rainbow. Wow. I mean, wow! Seriously, Adam, you can do that to me any time you want. You will do it to me again, won’t you? Say you will, I think I’ll die if you don’t.” Adam was often astounded how she babbled. She did it after almost every orgasm. Great stings of words flooded from her like a raging torrent. Although, she rarely made this much sense—normally she was incompressible.

He climbed up her body until his face was level with hers and he looked into her eyes. “I think there was something else I promised you. Wasn’t there?”

“I want you, Adam. Fuck me. Right now, right here. Fuck me like a whore. Don’t be gentle. Pound me. Hammer me. Give me everything you’ve got.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You sure?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Because if you’re going to make me come like that again, you’re going to have to.” She held his stare. “And I want you to make me come like that again. Every day. Every single day.”

He held his cock in position at her pussy entrance and pushed in slowly. But she grabbed his hips and pulled him all the way in. Just like every other time he’d entered her, she had her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open and her face flushed with colour. She was beautiful. He pulled out slowly and until only the head of his cock was inside her. He waited as long as he could before plunging forward slowly.

“Just fuck me. Don’t tease, just fuck.”

He pulled out again and immediately thrust back in hard. She grunted. “Again. Do it again.”

He rammed her again and again, each time harder and quicker than the last until he settled into a rhythm, doing as she asked and giving her his all. She met every thrust and grunted and moaned. Her moans grew louder as Adam felt his orgasm building. He pounded her as hard and as fast as he could, like she wanted. Her moans peaked in silent scream, her body tensed and shook again and she came again. She trembled beneath him, and he couldn’t hold back. With a low grunt he came and collapsed on top of her.

“Ohh,” she said. “I can feel that. I can feel you coming. I can feel you filling me. I can feel the heat spreading. I can feel you Adam. I like it. It feels... It feels right. Like it’s supposed to be this way.”

He lifted himself up so he could see her face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“What for? I love it Adam. You came inside me and I love it.”

“But you said... What was it? A baby could ruin your career. What if you get pregnant? What if I’ve ruined your career?”

“I’m not pregnant.”

“How do you know? You could be.”

“No I couldn’t. I’m on the pill.”

Adam frowned. “Since when?”

“Since I was about fourteen.”

“Eh? But I thought...?”

“There are other reasons than sex for going on the pill.”

“Like what?”

“Well, it regulates my periods and makes them less painful. Don’t pull that face. You asked, so I answered.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to tell me that.”

“And you didn’t have to ask.” They both started laughing which forced Adam’s wilting cock from her body. “Oh, sorry. Did that hurt?”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Ohh. That’s odd.”

“What is?”

“I think I’ve sprung a leak.” She put her hand to her crotch and wiped up some of the residue of their coupling. She stared at it on her fingers. “Look. Thousands of little yous.”

“More like millions.”

“Millions. My, you are potent.” She licked her fingers clean and smiled.

He grinned back, then pushed himself up and stood. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

“But it’s only eight. It’s too early to go to sleep.”

“Who said anything about sleeping?”

 

Kissed by a Rose is available now from the Phaze website priced at just $6. Don’t forget to let the world know what you thought of the book via Twitter using the hashcode #KbaR

Monday 1 June 2009

“Kissed by a Rose” – Contemporary Erotic Romance Novel – Released Today - #KbaR

My Latest novel, Kissed by a Rose, has hit the virtual bookshelves, priced at $6. At ninety-thousand words long, it’s my longest to date and, if I do say so myself, my best. (Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?)

Kissed by a Rose is the story of an ordinary student, Adam Smith, living an ordinary university life in Westmouth, a small town on the South Coast of England, until he stumbles across the girl of his dreams. Quite literally in this case as the girl he stumbles upon is teen-idol movie star, Chloe Goodman.

Chloe is the very definition of a young English Rose – Beautiful. Charming. Intelligent. And folks in Hollywood are tipping her as the ‘next big thing’. But Chloe’s life on campus isn’t all wine and song, as Adam discovers when he finds her alone in the library, crying her eyes out.

Is Adam just what the young starlet needs? Is Chloe the best thing to ever happen to the young undergraduate? Or will one of them get hurt? Or will they both?

The only way to find out is to read the book. You can get it (and my other books) direct from the Phaze website -

If you’re looking for a romance novel that is a little bit different, Kissed by a Rose is for you. It’s told entirely from the hero’s point of view. It’s through Adam’s eyes that we see events unfold. It’s Adam’s thoughts, feelings and fears that we experience. And you’ll soon discover that Adam isn’t a stereotypical romantic hero. He doesn’t have a perfect body. He doesn’t always make the right choice or do the right thing. But he’s a real man, with real feelings – and he can get hurt. But he’s no wimp. When Chloe needs him – he stands up for the woman he loves. Just like a real man should.

People who’ve already read Kissed by a Rose are showering it with praise.

Lourenza Adlem said…

I want to congratulate you on a wonderful love story. Every single one of your characters had the ring of truth. You make it all seem so effortless. A very smooth reading experience.

Barbara Elsborg said...

It’s a tightly written novel which explores the pressures of stardom and celebrity and keeps the reader guessing until the very end. The sex was steamy and got hotter and hotter.

And Cassie Exline said

Kissed by a Rose is a must read for the summer. Sizzling sex blends with tender moments. With his deftness for detail, he has a way of making characters come to life and leap off the page. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next—you're wrong.

Interested? Want to know more? Check my website or blog, or search Twitter for the hashcode #KbaR. You’ll find excerpts, one liners and interviews with the cast.

And after you read Kissed by a Rose why not tell the whole world what you thought of it via Twitter? Just sum up your thoughts in 130 characters and append them with the hashtag #KbaR.

Kissed by a Rose – His Power. His Pleasure. His Pain.

Available now!

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