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



Hand in Glove: Now Published!

I'm delighted to say my Sexy Short, the 10,000 word Hand in Glove, is now available from Torrid Books
The idea came to me while struggling up a mountain in sleet and wind.  I'm glad to say it warmed me up considerably.  I hope it does the same to my readers!

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!

Virginia Released!

Yippee!  My latest book, Virginia, is now available from Torrid Books.  Here's the blurb:

Virginia lives on a small farm with her horse Diamond.  She likes the company of men, but doesn't want a permanent, exclusive relationship. She has resolved to take no husband to her bed—without his wife’s permission.  She is mistress to successful businessman Peter, and model and mistress to artist Mick.  Then Diamond falls ill, and her men both want to marry her. How can she pay the vet's bills and retain her precious independence?

 
See my website for more details: http://yvonnesarahlewis.com/

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.

Jennie: 7 from 7 from 7 from 7

In response to a challenge forwarded by Simon Whaley, here are seven lines from the seventh page of Jennie, starting at the seventh line:
“I’m sorry, there’s no milk.  Matthew—” and his whore “Must have finished it.”
“That’s all right, Miss Hughes—Jennie—I may call you Jennie?”
“If you like, Mr Williams.  Will you sit down?”
“No, thanks, Jennie.  I’ve called about, well, it’s the rent, you see.”
“Oh.”
“It’s not been paid.”
“But I gave Matthew the money to give you…”

Twenty-seven pages on, Jennie's in jeopardy again (still?). Everyone wants something from her; generally the same thing. And they're all so big, too. Well, taller, anyway. She's now travelling with a borrowed champion bodybuilder and has managed to rescue her copy of Ali Smith's Hotel World, which is one of her favourite books, so she'll have something to read, if she ever gets the opportunity. Maybe her next chapter'll be quieter...