Clytie and the Minoans

Clytie, my erotic novella released last month by eXtasy Books, puts the ancient sport of bull leaping into a modern context. This story line gave me a chance to re-explore one of my favorite eras of antiquity.

            The Minoan civilization on the island of Crete vanished 3,500 years ago. They left us little to know them by. Among the few artifacts found by archeologists are frescos, sculptures, and medallions glorifying their sport of bull leaping.  An athlete— woman or man—grasped the horns of a charging bull and vaulted over its back.

           Some doubt bull leaping ever happened. They call it too deadly and too difficult. Yet the hearts of the Minoans beat like ours. Who can say their hardiest young daredevils would not have taken the risk, if the rewards were enough?            In Clytie, the ancient sport has been revived at a secret resort on a private island. Two fearless bull leapers, Paris and Cytie, learn that love demands a different kind of courage. But can they find a way to overcome the power of the wealthy masters who would keep them apart?

Here's an excerpt from one of the bull leaping scenes:

      The crowd chants her name. “Cly-tie, Cly-tie, Cly-tie.”

 The bull, Triton, stops his prancing and bellowing. His narrow eyes see his rival. He circles her. She turns on her heel to face him. The crowd claps in rhythm.

      Triton lowers his head, rips the dirt with his horns, gouges the ground with his hooves, and bellows. The novice bends her neck, puts her hands aside her head like horns, and kicks the dirt.
      The Godlike cheer.
      The JumboTron centers on her face. Her wide forehead, high cheekbones, and narrow chin make her dusky eyes huge. I search those eyes for fear, and find amusement.
      Triton bellows his loudest. She sticks out her tongue at him. The Godlike roar. Triton charges. She runs toward him.

Promos

Promoting a book is usually not an author's favorite job. Most of us would rather write what we please and let it sell itself.  It doesn't work that way. One thing we have in our favor is all of the outlets that exist in the online book world. Today I posted a promo on theexfactor, a chat room for readers and eXtasy Books writers.  Here's what it said:

Mandi, by Valerie Herme′, contemporary romance, erotic and beyond, BDSM/bondage, ménage, m/f, f/f, f/f/f, m/m/f, m/f/f, five flames.

Buy at http://www.extasybooks.com/index.php?route=product%2Fsearch&keyword=mandi

 The Fire Genie will burn you, but the Master Genie will chain you. Pharmaceutically driven sex and corporate power lift Mandi to the top. A secret mind control potency enslaves her body to a man's whim. Will she escape, and if she does, can she face the man who offers his love?

 Excerpt:  Michelle and Annette undress. Their lingerie is sexier than mine. Nipples show darkly through sheer bras. One of them hops onto the pink spread, cocks her head, smiles, and holds out her arms. The other turns a dimmer to lower the lights, and puts her hand in the small of my back to press me toward the bed. The room seems warm. 

                 I'm facing my first major I quit test. If I walk out of this room, the plane will land, the Bentley will return me to Leed headquarters, Belle will cut my quarter million dollar severance check, and I'll be on the street.

                 Michelle or Annette encircles me from behind. Her fingers pluck the second button of my blouse. The soft pressure on my breasts sends a wave of heat down a cord from my nipples to my crotch. "S'il vous plaît, Man-dee?"

Read the first chapter free at The Erotic World of Valerie Herme′. Follow Valerie's writing life at Valerie Herme's Erotic Writing Blog. Open your heart to valerieherme@gmail.com.

Minotaur galley

This afternoon I received the publisher's galley of Minotaur, which will be released May 15 by eXtasy books. It's exciting to see the book in final form, but in a way it's also distressing. Preparation of a galley is a lot of work for the editor. An author who suggests very many changes at this point is risking the editor's displeasure. Revising a line or two can require resetting several pages. So of course, once my story is more or less set in electronic stone, I can't help but notice all kinds of things I'd really, really love to do differently. I let them pass. All I noted for correction were two minor typos, and I felt guilty about that.

When I started Minotaur, all I knew was that the main character would be a guy in a bull mask. I lifted the idea from the book I had just finished writing, Clytie (eXtasy Books, April 15, 2012). In Clytie, the appearance of the minotaur at an orgy is the signal for the partygoers to go wild. I had no idea when I started writing Minotaur that it would generate material for the five additional stories of The Fair Warrior Chronicles. The cave in Crete, the friends who entered it, the magical gifts (or curses) they received, and the way their stories would work into a larger conflict and cause them to become the Fair Warriors were all waiting to be discovered. I'm having a great time writing the series. I hope readers will enjoy it.

Starting new

 This morning I started writing Cassandra, the fourth book of the Fair Warrior Chronicles.  The beginning of a story brings the satisfaction of anticipation.  I seldom can see more than a scene or two ahead, and most scenes change significantly as I write them. Sometimes I start with a fair idea of the ending.  That's so with Cassandra, but I have only a hazy idea of how to get there.

 Once I had an opportunity to ask a very well known author how much time she spent planning her novels. She told me that when she started her most recent work, all she knew was that at the end, the heroine would be waiting to get married in a borrowed dress.  It's great fun to write that way, exploring as you go. Another of my favorite pieces of writing advice is that you should never save anything for the next chapter. If you have a good idea, use it right away, and then make up something else for the next chapter.

There's a ton of good writing advice out there. Other than the indispensible Elements of Style, I don't know of any book or group of books that can be taken as gospel.  I think the key for a writer is to read a lot of this advice while accepting no one as a guru.  A few phrases of writing advice stick in your head, and that's what you go by.

Editing Minotaur

Today I worked through the editor's notes on Minotaur, the first story in the Fair Warrior Chronicles series. I love the process. Nitpicking grammar is my idea of a day at the beach.

If you've been around publishing or read much about experiences authors have with their publishers, you've probably seen complaints about books being sloppily edited or going to press without any copy editing, or about poor or non-existent communications with editors. That hasn't been my experience with eXtasy Books. The editors I've worked with have been careful and thorough, and have listened to my responses to their suggestions. The editor in chief stays on top of everything, is very encouraging, and peppers the internal blog with pointers on writing and grammar. I couldn't be happier with them.

m/f, f/f, m/m, m/f/f/f/f

Readers of eXtasy Books are able to tell a lot about a book before they open its cover. eXtasy uses genre descriptions, flame ratings, and m/f gender specifications to let buyers know what kind of erotic situations the story contains. This week, I've spent time applying these guideposts to my stories that eXtasy has published or is planning to publish.

The genre definitions run the gamut from Action to Western.  Here are some samples:

·       Erotic and Beyond – expect the unexpected, vivid sexual practices, adultery, dubious consent, heavy BDSM without love, personal sexual journeys with multiple partners and no commitment.

·       Romance – must have happily ever after (HEA) or happily for now (HFN) ending without exception

·       Love Story – it could have been a romance if the ending weren’t tragic. (e.g., Romeo and Juliet)

·       Paranormal – anything not explainable and not fantasy (e.g., were, vamp, shapeshifter, angel, demon, deity, witch, ghost, legend, the unexplained)

The flame ratings go from one flame to six flames.  For example:

     ·       Flame 2—Books containing sensuality, HEA/HFN endings, exclusive couples, moderate 

            language and/or violence.

     ·       Flame 5—Strong content of all kind. Extreme love scenes. May contain subject matter

            objectionable to some readers. Menage a quarte, group sex.

             You can see why someone in the mood for a Flame 2 might be a bit unsettled by a Flame 5.  If more detail is wanted, the book buyer can look as the gender specifications. The specification m/f means male-female. From there, it's easy to figure out.

            Here's how my eXtasy stories fit the ratings:

         ·       Mandi--contemporary romance, erotic and beyond, BDSM/bondage, ménage, m/f, f/f,  

                  m/f/f, five flames.

·       Clytie-- contemporary romance, action, ménage, m/f, f/f, m/f/f, five flames.

·       Scheduled for publication May 15, 2012:  Minotaur, Book 1 of the Fair Warrior Chronicles--contemporary romance, adventure, paranormal, interracial, m/f, m/f/f, series

·       Scheduled for publication June 15, 2012:  Huntress, Book 2 of the Fair Warrior Chronicles—contemporary romance, paranormal adventure, ménage, violence, m/f, f/f, m/f/f/, m/f/f/f/f, series.

·       Scheduled for publication July 15, 2012:  Midas, Book 3 of the Fair Warrior Chronicles—contemporary romance,  paranormal adventure, ménage, violence, m/f, f/f, m/f/f/, m/f/f/f/f, series.

 The editors will assign flame ratings when each book is published. I think Minotaur, Huntress, and Midas will merit five flames.

 Take your pick!

Clytie

This week I've been bouncing between three stories that are scheduled for publication in May, June, and July.. Now I'll bounce again and talk to you about a my most recent release from eXtasy Books, Clytie. 

"Absolutely amazing, extremely well crafted story. First person present tense is hard to do and this is magnificently done." That's what the eXtasy Books copy editor had to say after reading Clytie.

In the story, Paris, a daring athlete and massive stud, finds his equal in a slender sunflower of a woman named Clytie. They're bull leapers, practicing the deadly sport of the ancient Minoans for the amusement of a super-wealthy modern audience on a private island. Clytie and Paris are also consorts, trained to give their masters all varieties of pleasure. Their love for each other is as inevitable as it is forbidden. They risk losing their privileged captivity for a chance to live with free hearts.