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  I formally notified WCP that I wished to withdraw books and the company has confirmed they have been withdrawn.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

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.

Even Writers Take Vacations

I just spent a great week with a host of other writers at the Caerleon campus of the University of Newport, South Wales.  The statue above is at the entrance to the little town.

I attended lectures on writing romances - most of my books have a romantic element, even In the Japanese Knot Garden is ultimately about the fulfilment of love.  And I gave a talk on writing erotica - well, I would, wouldn't I?  With the astonishing success of that book  there's more interest in the subject than usual.

Here's the main building, flying the Welsh dragon flag.  Although we'd had two months of almost continual rain, it's always sunny at Caerleon.

They have an annual arts festival and there are sculptures throughout the town, including the biggest Welsh love-spoon in the world.  There's even one depicting fellatio, but here's my favourite:

"You carry on with that lad, while I comb my hair."

Photographs by Mike White © 2012



Inspiration

The gleam of sunlight on the muscles of a young woman's arm, and I knew what my two heroines were going to do once they were nicely tucked up in bed.  Someone's going to get a surprise, and both will find themselves somewhere they've never been before.  There are so many ways for people to please each other.  Mmm.

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!

Inspiration & Perspiration

On Saturday I felt inspired and wrote 2,500 words.  Peace and quiet helped.  It was the most I'd written for weeks.
On Sunday I was very reluctant, finding all sorts of things to do, including relax.  However, I decided to 'show willing' and sat down to type, expecting to get up again almost immediately.  I managed 1,500 words, finishing at 1:30 p.m.
Monday morning I woke about 4 a.m.and couldn't get back to sleep.  I was thinking about what I'd written on Sunday, and how it could be developed and improved; also the start of the next chapter.  I got up and between 4 and 7 added 400 words to Sunday's and 1,300 words of the next chapter.

And the moral of this tale?  Write, whether or not you're inspired.  Hammering words out on the machine and into the brain may result in inspiration after all.