Blacklace Erotic Romance Author Interview at WWR

Black Lace author Portia Da Costa has an interview up on the WeWriteRomance.com website. Her books include her latest release Gothic Heat, a sexy hot romance novel of erotic proportions!

The interview is here.

She’s best known as one of the original pioneers of Black Lace, and the only author from the original line up who still produces new titles for the imprint. She also writes for Spice Briefs and Total-E-bound.

One of my favorite comments in the interview come from Portia Da Costa, when she says:

My days don’t have much in the way of structure or planning. I pretty much just stumble in disorder and confusion towards the resolution of a book, hoping for the best.

It’s amazing how this has worked so well for her! :-)

If you have a chance, check out the interview.

New Blaze Books and More Updates!

I’ve put up quite a few of the new and upcoming Harlequin Blaze romances. You can check them them out and buy or preorder them if you want.

I’ve updated my Lora Leigh book list. With the change over from static pages to a database, I just didn’t get all the books for some authors entered and I’m working on them a bit at a time. However, now I’ve got a great many Lora Leigh books listed with plans to add more of Lora Leigh’s books.

There are many more authors I need to get up to date on the site and if you have a preference for who you want updated first just let me know.

I’m excited to be getting the erotic romance lists all updated. :-) Here’s to many more happy book updates.

More erotic romance novels will be added soon!

I’m going to be able to get quite a few more erotic romance novels added to the site before the end of the month.

The books will update the Kensington Brava, Berkley Sensation, Spice Books, Harlequin Blaze, Avon Red and Ellora’s Cave lists. The Ellora’s Cave book list doesn’t exist yet, but it will. :-)

The biggest targets of the update are the Sensation books and the Ellora’s Cave.

I hope to add Samhain to the lists too.

Are there other hot publishers of erotic romance novels out there that I should consider adding?

I go mostly by the authors I like but sometimes I miss things because I don’t read as much as I used to.

I’m definitely open to suggestion. :-)

Interview with Megan Clark, author of Seduce Me

Megan Clark’s interview launches a new feature to The Erotic Reader website–author interviews. I love talking with authors about their books or having authors talk to me about their books. :-) Either way works for me. That said, here’s the interview with Megan Clark. Enjoy!

Q: What inspired you to write SEDUCE ME?
In my early twenties, I began affecting the persona of a flapper-girl. I wore nothing but period costumes, styled my hair in pin waves, and traveled to many historical US hot spots, looking to relive a period of time that never existed for me, and in which I’d only read about. I finally found a way to make it real when I made friends with a few people who were also very interested in the style and history. It was much like time travel. I think that the reality of my relationships was often blurred and I became a little crazy, trying to embrace a feeling, a world that wasn’t necessarily really there.

Q:  Your new book, Seduce Me, has some darker elements, including women being sexually objectified and selling themselves to men for money. Do you have a particular message that you are trying to send with this subject matter, and if so, what is it?
A: In SEDUCE ME, my goal is to show two different kinds of feminists. Having spent several years as a stripper, I personally understand the temptations women have to use their bodies for material gain, and yet, I know that my feelings towards the issue could waver depending on how much awareness and control I felt I had over the situations at hand. I think that the message I try and send in this book has more to do with compromise, and being true to ourselves, rather than cave to other people’s expectations of us.

Q: Both of your novels deal with sexual identity, whether it is dealing with themes of homosexuality or promiscuity. Why the focus on this theme?
A: I have always struggled with personal boundaries, and the wrestle between having both security and the freedom to explore my desires. And whether it be because of gender, sexual orientation, relationship status, or some existential question, I think that what we find ourselves attracted to is a very interesting subject that I will never tire of.

Q: In SEDUCE ME, you refer to many classic actresses. Have you seen a lot of old films?
A: I love to tell people that I attended the ‘Grammie Elaine School of Cinema.’ My grandmother introduced me to so many great writers, directors, and actors—ones who took brave chances in their work. I owe a lot of my obsessions to her.

Q: Do you have any special writing rituals?
A: For some reason, I write best when I look like hell and my house is a mess.

Q: Is there ever a self-censor at work?
A: My greatest fear is boring a reader, and my self-sensor does go off during long descriptions, heavy dialogue, places like this. Consequently, it doesn’t go off much during sex scenes. Go figure.

Q: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
A: Probably an antique dealer. Although, I always thought I’d make a good Madam.

Q: If your writing were a dessert, which dish would best describe it?
A: Tiramisu: sweet, slightly bitter, and also creamy. What else can I say? I am decadent— I’ll try and keep you up all night!

Q: You’ve spoken often of your obsessive, decadent nature. Is this something you are particularly proud of?
A: Life is too short not to love what you love. Like isn’t really in my vocabulary. Embracing the things I love makes me feel alive. So what if I make a fool of myself.

The interview’s over, but you can find out more about Megan Clark and her latest novel Seduce Me if you found the interview intriguing.

Blaze ebook bundles

Here’s an interesting bit of information. If you enjoy reading the Harlequin Blaze books as ebooks, you can get them as a bundle by the month of publication. It’s a great way to save a few dollars (and trees). :-)

July 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

June 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

May 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

April 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

March 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

February 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

January 2008 Blaze ebook bundle

July Updates

Today I’ve added in the August 2008 Blaze books. Preorder now, if you aren’t a member of the continuity program (readers club thing where you get the books shipped to you every month directly from Harlequin).

I also updated the Avon Red list. I know it’s not complete, but I’m working on it. :-)

I have several books to read and review for the site, and I should be getting to them this week or next, so keep checking back for erotic romance recommendations.

Get 2 Free Harlequin Blaze eBooks! Click HERE

Sea Witch is calling to me

My copy of Sea Witch arrived the day before yesterday, but I’m holding off reading it because I am currently reading a book by a favorite author that I somehow, someway, missed reading. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about when I say that books by favorite authors always come first. In case you’re interested, the book is After Glow by Jayne Castle. Not an erotic romance, but a great read nonetheless. Emmet is very sexy.

My hope is that once I read Sea Witch I’ll have found another fav to add to my list. I’ve already slipped and read the first few chapters, because I couldn’t wait to get a taste of the book. This is my first reading of novel length fiction from Virginia Kantra. I enjoyed her story in Shifter, which was the very first Virginia Kantra fiction I’d read. This one, so far, has proven to be exceptionally intriguing and I want to read more!

Of course I’ll post a review the minute I finish reading it. :-)

Newsletter quandry: Should I drop the newsletter?

So, I made plans to renew the newsletter and begin publishing it on a regular basis. Then I realized I still can’t guarantee I have enough books to recommend on a particular schedule to make it worth my time to put it together. Of all the parts to this site, the newsletter seems to me to be the most difficult to keep a handle on. If I want to chat about erotic romance, I post here to the blog. If I want to recommend a book, I award it with the “recommended” title and that adds it to my recommended list.

So tell me, what do you get out of the newsletter–or am I wasting my time even worrying about it?

June Books Update

The June update has brought six new July 2008 Blaze titles to the site, along with several Spice books and Spice Briefs ebooks. Visit the pages to see the titles added.

I’m not sure how many of the Spice books I’ll add over time, since those books don’t always have romance. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m keen on the romance much more so than I’m keen on the erotica. I can read romance every day of the week, but I can only take so much erotica before I start to go cross-eyed. I like it in smaller doses spread out over time.

It’s all about the romance for me!

Tweaking the site

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been doing something of an overhaul to the site (behind the scenes, mostly). Although I had almost finished, there were a few things that still needed working on, and yesterday and today, I’m finally trying to wrap all that up.

When I’m done, my hope/plan is that updates will take a minimal amount of time and therefore I won’t be as likely to put them off as I’ve done in the past. As long as things are calm, I was able to keep up, but whenever things got crazy for me, I had to choose much more wisely where I spent my time, and hobbies such as this site didn’t fit in very often.

I’m loving the redo for the benefits to myself, but I’m also loving the seamless way I’ve been able to integrate the changes. I’ve not had to compromise on anything as far as usability goes and I’ve been able to leave the look of the site almost completely unchanged. I have a tender spot for the look of the site and I didn’t want to mess with that.

Forgive me if anything I do as I finish things up causes you any problems! My hope is that the interruptions to you will be non-existent, but one never knows what kinds of things might crack when one starts messing with them.

UPDATE: Not done yet, but getting there. :-)