Fifty Shades has raised the profile of erotica and encouraged new writers in this genre. One of them is Kariss Stone. Welcome, Kariss, and thanks for treading the boards with us today!

1.      Are you inspired most by places, people or experiences and how do these work their way into your writing?

I think I’m most inspired by experiences, and they sometimes  pop into my head at the right moment while writing a scene that could benefit from first-hand experience.

2.      Please share one of your favourite moments of inspiration with us.

In my current WIP, which is an erotica novel, two of my characters are in the bath getting it on, and of course they would get sore knees, and it reminded me of a sexual experience I had in our hallway on the carpet! Needless to say after that there were two very distinct round grazes on my knees which stung like crazy! Anyway I gave that memory to the heroine as a way of letting the reader know an experience she had, to let them know a little bit about her.

3.      How did you come up with the idea of your current WIP?

Funnily enough it was at the time when Fifty Shades first became a phenomenon. I’d just decided to concentrate on writing erotica, and then Fifty Shades came out and it gave me inspiration to come up with my own sexual concept.

4.      How do you come up with your characters’ names?

I just say a whole lot of names in my head until I come across the ones that I like.

5.      Who would you cast for a movie/TV series as your main characters if given the chance?

Oh my Gosh! It has to be Victor Webster as the hero. He played ‘Coop’, the cupid in the TV series Charmed. I find him incredibly sexy. For the heroine I would choose Kate Beckingsale. I think she’s a classic beauty, but can also be sexy.

6.      What is your favourite holiday?

Staying in a five star resort on an island paradise, sipping cocktails by the pool as I watch the sun setting.

7.      Who is your literary hero?

Any strong heroine who stands up to the hero.

8.      What do you need to set the mood for you to write?

Just my brain telling me to write, and having something happen in my writing that inspires me, for eg, it’s taken me 3 years to write my current WIP, (I only wrote on the train to and from work) but I did procrastinate more towards the end because there were a couple of stories that hadn’t been finished and I wasn’t sure how I was going to write them. But when I finished those 2 stories, and therefore the whole novel was completed, I suddenly found all this inspiration to work on the novel, do the edits etc, because the stories had now been finished. I think it was because my brain was telling me, ‘you’re so close to sending the novel off now that it’s finished’ and it spurred me on. 

9.      How many blurbs did you have to write before the final one?

Four.

10.  If you could bring one of your characters to life, who would it be? And why?

My heroine so I could interview her and find out all about being a Dominatrix in a BDSM club.

11.  Would you like to share an excerpt from your writing or a photo or music link that inspires you? 

Here is an excerpt of my erotic story number 8. 

The cruiser sways about twenty degrees to the left. There’s clanging sounds from the cupboards as crockery and glassware shift within their confined spaces. 

Eric pulls out the remaining two life jackets and a torch from underneath the bench at the dining room table and puts a life jacket on Charlotte. 

As he’s clipping her in, a water-soaked Thomas comes sloshing through the cruiser’s open door that leads outside to the deck.

“The gash is about a metre long below,” Thomas says loudly, his face white, his eyes wide with fear. “We can’t plug it and the hole’s getting bigger.”

The cruiser lurches sharply to the left now. Suddenly there’s a loud clatter. Cupboard doors above them swing wildly open and plates, bowls and glasses crash loudly to the water-cased floor.

At that moment Jeremy opens up the hatch underneath near the kitchen, spluttering, completely drenched and struggling to catch his breath. “The water’s rising too...too quickly. We’re going down. I tried to patch it up as best...” He heaves. “As best as I could, but the surge of water is too great.” 

“We’ve got to get to the motor boat now,” Eric declares.  

Lights flicker off again, before coming back on for the briefest moment before the cruiser is plunged into complete darkness. 

Loud creaking sounds echo throughout the drowning boat. The cruiser rocks further to the left, making passage difficult. Thomas and Jeremy struggle to keep their balance as they make their escape from the stricken vessel, trudging through the dining room and lounge room to get outside. 

Holding Charlotte’s hand firmly, Eric pulls her across the water-logged floor after Jeremy and Thomas. 

They manage to get outside, but as the boat is now listing forty degrees, it’s becoming increasingly hard to move as their feet keep slipping down the steep slope of the deck.

Glass windows from the left side of the boat submerged underwater shatter outwards from the water pressure. The creaking sounds of the boat increase as the four of them stumble along to the stern of the boat where their small motor boat is tied up behind the cruiser. 

They step over floating debris as they move. The boat shifts further to the left. Soon it will be completely on its side. 

Jeremy and Thomas struggle to untie the small boat with the cruiser being at such a sharp angle and starting to rock. 

Charlotte’s heart rate surges again, her hands are clammy, her face cold. Fear grips her heart. She shivers, clutching on to Eric’s arm tightly. How far are they away from land? What if they have to stay in the small boat all night? What about food or water?  

Eric kisses Charlotte on the top of her head. “It’s going to be alright sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Sweetheart? He’s never called her that. For a moment excitement bubbles away inside her, until her body jerks when the boat rocks sharply to the right and the reality of their precarious situation hits her with the full force of a tornado.

Thomas loses his footing and almost falls overboard. Jeremy rescues him in time. They’re still struggling to unhitch the boat as the cruiser keeps rocking violently. It’s breaking up.

“Wait here,” Eric shouts to her. “I’ve got to give the guys a hand. I won’t be long.” And he’s suddenly gone. She grips the cruiser’s metal rail, struggling to hold on as the unnerving creaking sounds get louder and her feet keep slipping on the soaked deck. Please, please, hurry up!  

Eric assists the guys and they’re able to unhook the ropes of the motor boat from the cruiser. 

They’re going to be all right!

She starts making a dash towards the men when her foot gets caught up in a loop of rope. She loses her balance and falls backwards, her head hitting the hard deck. 

She loses all consciousness. 

Thanks so much Susanne for having me on your blog. I had a great time.

Thanks for sharing your story and some of the things that inspire you, Kariss. I’m with you on cocktails by the pool! Sunset or anytime!

 

Jane’s “The Highwayman’s Bride” released this week and she’s dropped by to tell us more.

Welcome and thanks for treading the boards with us today!

1.      Are you inspired most by places, people or experiences and how do these work their way into your writing?

I think I’m mostly inspired by experiences. For example I was unable to have my own children and we adopted from Russia, and in my book Secrets and Seduction I used those emotions on being a mother, but not with a birth child etc.

2.   Please share one of your favourite moments of inspiration with us.

A fun moment – Well, mostly fun – I was in hospital on bed rest for a month after major surgery and I was watching a cloud scoot past and I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be an angel on that cloud and what would happen if you fell off – that inspired To Kiss an Angel.  Also I remember hearing once about someone going to this old house and it was full of antiquities etc, and that ended up being the house my heroine’s mother from He’s The One lived in.   My coming release The Highwayman’s Bride is about a woman who takes to highway robbery as a way to run away – sorry to say I haven’t experienced being a highway robber for that book.

3.   How did you come up with the idea of The Highwayman’s Bride?

Well THB is a marriage of convenience, actually along with being a highway robber (just once!) my heroine Tess also blackmails the hero into marriage. He too was a man of the highway – well maybe yes…and then again…maybe not!  So the title was really kinda obvious for this one  I love coming up with titles.  To Kiss an Angel. Always A Bridesmaid, Secrets and Seduction, Desperately Seeking Santa, these are

just some of my titles!

4.   How do you come up with your characters’ names?

That is something I’ve found easy too.  Lord Aiden Masters, the Earl of Charnley, is the hero in THB and he was named after the character Aiden in Home and Away (LOL).  I usually just play around with names until they sound right, though I have found I have a propensity for names that start with T, C, L – and in the book I’ve just finished

the first draft M seems to be used for too many names. Guess I’ll have to change them, but I just hope the characters don’t get a multiple personality complex!

5.   Who would you cast for a movie/TV series as your main characters if given the chance?

In THB I think Tess could be played by Reese Witherspoon because I think she is quite quirky and could give my hero a run for his money.  The hero I think would probably have to be Hugh Jackman- just coz he’s hunky.

6. What is your favourite holiday?

Any day I don’t have to cook or clean.  But I think it’s Christmas, I love the decorations and have boxes and boxes of them.  At least this year we’re going to my sister in laws so I don’t have to cook so much.

7.   Do you read reviews of your books? What do you do when you read a not-so-nice one?

I stress out LOL.  I don’t take it too personally because it’s all subjective, but….I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt a wee bit (okay a lot).

8.   How many times were you turned down before you finally got published?

A few, but I sold digitally quite quickly.

9.   What reason(s) did the publishers give for their rejection of your manuscript?

The old not enough emotional punch, and yet my editor at Samhain says I do emotion really well.   It’s funny I always said I wouldn’t /or didn’t like writing books about children, and yet I have found myself always putting a child in there, and using the emotional heart of parenthood as part of the ‘emotional punch’.  So far it seems to be

working.

11.  Who is your literary hero?

Oh I love Sophia James’s historical and Sandra Hill’s humor in both her contemporary and her time travels. Love time travel romances.

12.  Who do you most admire and why? OR  If you could meet anyone, alive or dead, and spend an hour with them, who and why?

Probably Cleopatra because she was a strong woman, but I don’t think I’d like to go bathing with her in ass’ milk!  And also maybe Henry 8th, would be nice to know what the man was really like, as long as he didn’t hit on me or send me to the tower to chop of my head…Or worse, disembowel me.  Eeeew.  A tad painful.

13.  What is your favourite book of all time that you can reread a hundred times, and it still feels like the first time?

Probably something like Exodus or Mila 18 by Leon Uris, but I do love Ashblane’s Lady by Sophia James  - just wonderful.

14.  What do you need to set the mood for you to write?

Bum on seat and a glass of diet coke! And if it gets bad the idea of adding a touch of rum to that coke is rather inviting – joking – well, not at 9 a.m. anyway.

 

15.  If there is one genre that you have not written in yet, but would love to try writing a book in that specific genre, what would it be?

Well the interesting thing is I’m currently contracted to write two Rom/Suspense for Entangled’s Ignite line!  A new genre for me, so far so good- I hope!

16.  How many blurbs did you have to write before the final one?

Lucky me – Entangled editors wrote this one!

17.  If you could bring one of your characters to life, who would it be? And why?

Oh I think it would be Aiden Masters in The Highwayman’s Bride.  He’s a tortured hero and I could ease his pain LOL.  He is rather dashing and he’s a very good lover (well of course he is because I told him what to do)

18.  What are you working on now?

 

I’ve just finished the first draft of The Emerald Connection, the 3rd book in the Emerald Continuity for Entangled’s Ignite (rom/suspense) set in 1918 just after WW1 and tomorrow, I’m starting on my next continuity for Ignite, this one is set at the time of the Great Exhibition in London.  Then I’ve got a couple of contemporaries to

sort out….for Christmas can Santa give me extra time in the day please?

19.  Would you like to share an excerpt from your writing or a photo or music link that inspires you?

THE HIGHWAYMAN’S BRIDE

Her mind reeled at his closeness, a sensory world of heat and touch. Of sinful thoughts. Concentrate. Stick with the plan.

What plan? This had been a spur of the moment idea. Now she had to make it work.

A flurry of nerves and fear coiled tight in her gut. This man was big. Her gaze dropped to his hands. Big hands. Hands that could break her with one flick of his wrists.

Tess knew she tempted him, which was exactly as it needed to be if she were to succeed. Then he did something she hadn’t expected. He lifted a hand to her neck, scraping the back of his fingers along its curve. Her breath hitched for a heartbeat.

Do it, Tess. He’s your only hope.

“I desire the independence of a married woman,” she said in a rush.

His eyes darkened to the color of the deepest night sky. “And?”

The tip of her tongue slid along the rim of her mouth, and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “Marry me, Aiden, and you’ll never see me again. Marry me, or I will announce to the world your penchant for robbery.”

His hand fell away, his expression instantly stony. “You are either very brave, Tess Stanhope, or extremely foolish.”

“I know what I want.”

“So do I.”

Then he kissed her—and that changed everything.