Whiskey Creek Press

My publisher, Whiskey Creek Press (WCP) may be taken over by Start Publishing, a part of Start Media.  A contract amendment was sent to WCP authors but the terms were unattractive so I have not signed.  My original contracts with WCP will therefore stand.  The takeover was targeted at the end of June 2014, but I've seen no evidence of progress. 
Since a change of publisher was in the offing anyway, I decided to take back from WCP those books for which my WCP contracts were finished, and try them elsewhere.  Publication by WCP had continued on an 'at will' basis following the end of the contract period.  I formally notified WCP that I wished to withdraw books and the company has confirmed they have been withdrawn.
The following books are not now available:
A Rose Without Thorns
In A French Country Vineyard
In An English Country Dungeon
In The Japanese Knot Garden
Laodameia
Torrid Teasers #56, containing Dancing With Douglas and Everyone Gets Frisky At Weddings.
My other books are still within contract with WCP and remain available:

It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix!

My book, Garden of Thorns, subtitled, It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix, was published on New Year's Day by Torrid Books.  I'm really pleased with it.

It tells the story of Jennie, who suffered many misfortunes, but when she meets leather-clad Galatea and her strange slave, Cyan, her trials really begin.  Here's a snippet:

Jennie woke: the car had stopped. She looked up into Galatea’s smile.
“We’re here.” The woman raised her arm and Jennie sat upright.
“Where?”
“Home. Where Cyan and I live. And work.”
It was a street rather like the one in which she’d been ambushed. Old, brick-built factory and warehouse units. The car had pulled into an entry and a wide door was lifting itself up in front. When it was open, the car surged forward into a dark space. The white-painted wall of the garage was lit up in the headlamps. Random items were hanging on it. Leaning in the corner was a T-shaped frame made of stout timbers. Jennie gasped.
Hanging from the ends of the T-frame were chains, terminating in metal bands.
Manacles.
Behind the car the door was silently closing.

Here's a link to the Torrid Books website:
: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/torrid/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=61&products_id=775&zenid=c32091252cd5dba1b2371de64451a33c

Contract Signed!

I've just signed a contract with Torrid Books for publication of my twelfth title: Garden of Thorns.

Here's the blurb:

q  “It isn’t easy, being a dominatrix.”  Tormented by a love she cannot even declare, Jennie flees to the city, where she’s fired from her job, betrayed by her boyfriend, and can’t pay the rent.  Her landlord offers a solution: she can be nice to him—and to all his friends.  She meets black-clad Galatea and her sullen chauffeuse, who take her to their home. They offer her work, training, and a place to stay.   But she must work as a dominatrix, train as a slave, and there are fetters chained to her bed.  Has Jennie forsaken the frying-pan for the fire?  If she escapes the dungeon must she sell her body to pay the rent?  Can she win through her troubles and rediscover love?

I'll post when I hear the publication date.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Love, Yvonne

Garden of Thorns

I've just sent my novel off to Torrid Books.  I hope they like it.

The Background

My heroine Jennie fled from her Shropshire home to live in Manchester, in my short story Everyone Gets Frisky at Weddings (Torrid Teasers #56).  Now she's finding things don't always go well in the big city, despite help from her friends Rhoda and Terry, whom she met in Everyone Gets Frisky at Weddings.  

Choosing the Title

It began life as Jennie, and this has been the working title for over a year.  Lately, I decided something more informative was required, and toyed with the title, It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix.  But this is a bit cumbersome, and perhaps a little too humourous, too, though it describes the book very well.  I finally hit on Garden of Thorns, which suggests what the novel's about, and fits well among my other Garden novels: In an English Country Dungeon, In a French Country Vineyard, The Japanese Knot Garden, In a Welsh Country Garden.

The Right Length

At 78,000 words, Garden of Thorns is a little long for Torrid Books, but I hope they'll approve it.  I wrote 91,000 but have cut 13,000 of a parallel story strand told from the point of view of Carol.  I'll probably develop this into a short novel.

It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix

First draft complete.
I've discarded a separate story strand because it did not add to the central story, which is Jennie's struggle to establish a fulfilling life, so the wordcount is now 77,000.  I'm doing a continuity edit now, making sure that things happen consistently in time, and sorting out my colours(!)  Then the book will lie fallow for a week or two before I edit through again and submit it for publication.  So please be patient!
Love, Yvonne 

End in Sight for Jennie

I'm starting what I think will be the final chapter, though I've not finished the penultimate one.  I know where I'm going with both, so this is not a problem.  I started writing this novel in January 2012, so it's taking a long time - and this is only the first draft! Sorry this is only a short post - I want to get on with the novel!

It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix

Tormented by a love she cannot even declare, Jennie flees to the city, where she’s fired from her job, betrayed by her boyfriend, and can’t pay the rent.  Her landlord offers a solution: she can be nice to him—and to all his friends.  She meets black-clad Galatea and her sullen chauffeuse, who take her to their home.  But Galatea has a set of manacles in the garage and a whip at her belt.  Has Jennie forsaken the frying-pan for the fire?  Must she sell her body to pay the rent?  Can she win through her troubles and rediscover love?

This is the blurb for my current novel, working title: It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix, which is nearing completion.  Jennie was previously heard of in Everyone Gets Frisky at Weddings, a short story in Torrid Teasers #56. 

I had an email from my publisher, Torrid Books, saying they'd not heard from me for a while, and had I got anything for them?  I had to oblige!  I now have over 80,000 words and expect to complete the first draft in the next couple of weeks.  It's a romantic but strict BDSM novel, which I hope you will enjoy.

Love,
Yvonne.

Cover for Hand in Glove

Here's the definitive cover for my sexy short, Hand in Glove, to be published in August by Torrid Books.  I think the artist, Gemini Judson, has made it sexy without it being too explicit for the advertising postcards I distribute.  I can almost feel the touch of that glove on bare skin.  Brrrr!
My life is bound up with another writing project that comes to fruition at the end of June and I've been neglecting my next book.  It's a BDSM novel called Garden of Thorns.  The title is doubly appropriate: my BDSM novels all have Garden titles, and one of the characters is Carol, whom we met first in Rose Without Thorns.  While I'm not writing it I've been tormented with ideas, so I promise I'll get right down to it in July!

Why BDSM?

Many of us have fantasies about being dominated by someone who forces on us things that secretly excite us. It’s up to me as a writer to give the reader what she'd never admit to wanting. The more secret a desire, the more arousing it can be to have it expressed. Yet what excites the reader is not necessarily something she'd actually like to do, or have done to her. She may simply like to read about it.

I write both BDSM and vanilla erotica because I enjoy reading both.  I don't believe in a clear distinction; the labels merely indicate directions on a continuum of sexual expression.  Heathcliff is violent and frightening and so is Dracula.  Darcy is not frightening, though he's stern and forbidding.  These three protagonists lie at different points on the line, but all are romantically and sexually attractive. Their dark aspects are a large part of their attraction.  Morticia (The Addams Family) says, "You frightened me...  Do it again."

My characters have different positions on the sexual spectrum. Despite her sexual enthusiasm, Rhoda stands towards the vanilla end. Helen is more adventurous, ranging along the line, enjoying severe BDSM and vanilla by turns.

The sadist and the masochist, despite the joke cliche, are not good bedfellows. The ideal partner for the masochist is probably another masochist, who'll understand what the 'victim' desires, and deliver it in the most satisfying way. Most satisfying for the 'victim', that is. It's a heavy burden, to be responsible for another's punishment - and delight.

Megabook Published!

I've now got nine books published with Torrid Books*.  This latest is an anthology of my three BDSM** novels, In a French Country Vineyard, In an English Country Dungeon and In the Japanese Knot Garden.  It's an opportunity for readers to buy the lot at a saving over buying them separately.  They run in sequence: in Vineyard, Carol and Brian have fun in France, meeting more experienced practitioners Glenn and Deanna.  In Dungeon, young Helen experiences the delights of Carol and Brian's dungeon and meets cruel Deanna and Glenn.  In Knot Garden, Carol learns from a Japanese Rope Bondage expert and Helen demonstrates her skills and knowledge.

I write in both BDSM and Vanilla*** styles.

*Torrid Books is the new name for Whiskey Creek Press Torrid.
** BDSM is Bondage and Domination, SadoMasochism.
*** Vanilla is erotica without BDSM.

Jennie in Chains

Poor Jennie's now in chains, just when she thought she'd worked out what to do next.  Hope she's enjoying it because she'll have to stay chained up till at least tomorrow...
Here's a relevant quotation from Mary Renault's The Friendly Young Ladies:
"Do you ever worry," said Leo sleepily, "About the situation you leave your characters in when you stop writing? I mean, they've got to stay put like that till one starts again."

Make em laugh; make em cry; make em wait.

The parallel story within Jennie  has grown.  I've called it Carol, and have written its first chapter, set it in Chester, where Carol & Brian are having a pleasant weekend, seeing the sights, dining out, and having fun in a converted stable...  They don't even mention Rhoda yet; I'm leaving that for chapter 2 or 3, which should tie well with Rhoda announcing to Jennie that Carol's invited her to stay, in chapter 4 or 5 of Jennie.  I don't propose to alternate the two strands exactly (yet!) but it allows me to leave cliff-hangers dangling while we catch up with what's happening to the other characters (see the title to this post).

I've started a chronology; necessary for any novel with a story, but vital where two stories are to weave together.  I used one extensively for Rhoda, so that I could know which Friday would precede the August Bank Holiday and work towards it.  Virginia used one as well; set on a farm, the seasons are important!

Jennie is only a working title: I have to call it something.  Perhaps I need an overall title, so I can refer to the strands within it as Jennie and Carol.  My latest two books are Rhoda and Virginia, but since Jennie contains BDSM perhaps a Garden title would be appropriate.  Suggestions invited...

The picture is of the Jubilee Clock on the Eastgate, Chester.  I wonder if  Elizabeth II's jubilee will merit a similar monument?  The title quotation is from Charles Reade (1814-1884).