Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

When I first moved to the U.S. from the UK ten years ago I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself on all the American holidays. I knew all about the 4th of July but what were President’s day, Labor day and Thanksgiving all about?

In England the most exciting thing that happens in November is Bonfire Night on the 5th of November which commemorates the attempt by Guy Fawkes and his conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 when the King came to visit. His plot didn’t work and to celebrate, we Brits light bonfires and set off fireworks. (a bit like the 4th of July I suppose in reverse )

You can imagine me trying to explain this bit of peculiarly British history to my new Californian neighbors- Me: “Yeah, we light a bonfire and toss a guy on it until he goes up in flames.”
Shocked neighbor:”You burn a guy A real one?”

Which leads me to Thanksgiving. As a history major, who wrote her thesis about the Welsh Quakers who settled in Pennsylvania 400+ years ago, I was totally fascinated by the whole Thanksgiving story. I was also surprised to hear that the tradition of commemorating that day hadn’t actually been going on since it happened.

But I get it. In fact, I’ve come to appreciate it as the anti-Christmas, the time when we can all get together as a family and with friends without the frantic gift buying to get in the way. The first couple of years we lived here, we were invited to several homes for Thanksgiving-a gift that made us feel so welcome in a strange land, at a time when our kids who had no other family around them, they were embraced by new ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’, ‘grandparents’, friends.

This year it will just be us, our 4 kids and Granny from Ireland, but we will enjoy the day and the pleasure of living here and give thanks for being lucky enough to end up in such a beautiful place.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Kate Pearce x

I’m excited to say that “Simply Sinful” will be out next week, sometime around the end of October, November depending on where you look! I’m delighted to see it finally happening. When I got my box of books last week, my family were all like ‘Oh, wasn’t that out ages ago?” You see, they’d seen the cover art hanging on my wall for the last 6 months and were so over it

It’s also weird that I sent Simply Sinful in a year ago. Since then I’ve completed another book for Virgin Cheek, one for Ellora’s Cave and book #3 Simply Shameless for Aphrodisia. I know that my writing has improved since I sent this one in, but I try not to let it worry me too much. I could only write the best book I was able to at that particular point in my career. But sometimes, as any writer will tell you, its hard to constantly look back to where you were, rather than where you are now.

The reason I posted so late was because I got a huge package in the mail yesterday. On my desk right now is a pile of paper-437 pages in fact-it’s a copy of Simply Shameless and it’s covered in red pen from the copy editor. Who knew that there were so many places to add comma’s? Not me It’s hard for me to get the grammar right sometimes as I grew up with English English and now write in American English about Regency England. Sometimes I get confused, and sometimes American English just doesn’t work for me, so I slip back into what I know. Usually what happens is I get told off by my English readers for using words like ‘gotten’ and told off by my American readers for not using coffeepot or wineglass as one word. You just can’t win sometimes!

I hope you all enjoy reading Simply Sinful as much as I enjoyed writing it. I really loved the character of Peter Howard in ‘Simply Sexual’ and it was a real pleasure to be able to see him grow and change and fall in love. The book was originally intended to be a straight menage a trois story and parts of it certainly are, but as the characters developed, and as their sexual tastes emerged, other things started to happen and I just went with it. (and yes, some of it shocked me too!) But I hope everyone will think Peter’s happy ending is exactly what he deserves.

Let me know what you think of the book!
Kate Pearce x

by Kate Pearce

So last week I was wittering away on another blog about introducing m/m elements to erotic romance novels and how everyone is doing it. I also mentioned my book “Antonia’s Bargain” as my jumping off point toward finding exactly the kind of hero I wanted to write about-not the classic Alpha male or the Beta, but a man struggling to come to terms with his unique sexuality in a time period when being different could mean severe punishment or death.

In Antonia’s Bargain we first met Peter Howard, a man who enjoys sex and spent seven years in a Turkish brothel along with his best friend Lord Valentin Sokorvsky. Peter’s not your usual hero. He’s in love with Valentin, has been addicted to opium and is bored by both his sexual reputation and the variety of sexual pleasures available to him. In Simply Sexual, we see him having to come to terms with Valentin falling in love with a woman and now being considered an occasional diversion in their marriage bed.

Simply Sinful changes narrators and allows us to see Peter’s side of the story and we soon realize (hopefully) that Val has got him all wrong. Peter’s not weak and during the book he’ll prove it as he has to face a personal crisis relating to his very identity, and delve into the deep currents of an established marriage he is invited into.

I loved writing this book. Peter was so different to the average romance hero and the couple he interacts with, James and Abigail Beecham develop in surprising ways as well. When I sent the proposal to my editor I asked him if it was okay if there was no woman in the first three chapters. Surprisingly, he was fine with that and I went on from there.

Here’s a little piece from the beginning of the book:

Look Ma! No girls!

I originally intended to write this book as a true menage a trois, but the further I got into the story, the more each individual characters sexual tastes changed, and by the end, things came out very differently. You’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean I don’t plot, I don’t keep notes and I only write down a page of where I think I’m going to end up about two-thirds of the way through the book so trust me, the ending is sometimes as much a surprise to me as it is to anyone else.

Today was a good day because not only did I get a box full of books from Kensington to lick, which is always a thrill, but I found an early review from Romantic Times for Simply Sinful which gave it 4 stars and said:

Pearce provides an interesting twist to the standard “love lessons” plot in this story where both the husband and wife receive erotic training from a master. With historical detail, strong character development, a slight mystery, caring relationships and smoking hot sex, there is something for everyone. The action includes threesomes, M/M and sex toys, as well as light bondage and discipline.

Summary: Abby and James were forced to wed at a young age, but have lived apart for most of their 16-year marriage. Wanting a child, Abby wants James back into her bedroom, but both have troubling memories of their prior relations. Enter Peter Howard, who spent a number of years as a slave in a Turkish brothel. Peter is attracted to the couple and believes he can tutor them in the numerous ways to enjoy passion. These intense encounters result in a happy ending — just not what everyone expected. (Aphrodisia, Nov., 304 pp., $13.95)

The best thing, is that Kensington offered me a contract to write two more in the ‘Simply’ series. #3 Simply Shameless is already written and due out May 09 and I’m currently writing the fourth, as yet unnamed, which will be out Nov 09.I suspect Valentin and Peter will be turning up in these books whether I want them to or not. Sometimes I love being a writer.

Here’s a link to Amazon UK and US, just in case I’ve inspired you to go and pre-order.

I can’t think of a question to ask you all-perhaps you’d like to ask me one?

Kate x

The RWA conference in San Francisco is approaching and normally I’m fretting about getting all my stuff together for that. But this year, its in my own back yard, so to speak, so I don’t have to worry about working out how to pack too many things in one easy-to-manage bag. If the worst happens and I need something desperately I can always hop on the BART and be home in an hour or so!

It’s also a good thing because I have a book to finish for Aphrodisia-the third in the series which will be called SIMPLY SHAMELESS. (May 09) It’s slightly different for me because the main character is definitely the heroine rather than one of the dark angst-ridden Regency Rakes I usually write about. (Okay there is an angst-ridden hero but its definitely the heroine’s story.) Madame Helene Delornay has been in the other books and I’ve been dying to explore her past and present, so it was great to get the opportunity!

The only problem is that this book is due in less than a month with the RWA conference smack bang in the middle of that time period. In a fit of madness, I decided it would be best to finish the book by the end of July and then have the time after the conference to revise it for the last and final time. What was I thinking? So I’ve had to give up my normal rush around looking for clothes and the ultimate diet to lose those ten pounds and focus on the book.

I’m beginning to think that it might be a good thing. Usually I get so caught up in the preparations that I almost forget to enjoy myself at the conference. This year I have no choice. I’ll just have to turn up, wearing last years clothes, a big smile and hopefully, I’ll also have a finished book

So does anyone else drive themselves into a tizzy getting ready for the conference? Ot is it just me?

Don’t forget the literacy signing is open to everyone, so come to the Marriott in San Francisco on Wednesday July 30th 5:30-7:30 and meet all your favorite Aphrodisia authors!

It’s been a while since I blogged here-mainly because I had the usual crazy book deadlines to deal with. That’s one of the problems when you foolishly decide to write for more than one publisher, every thing turns up at once. I had 2 books to finish, copy edits on one, galleys on another and covers to check. Of course, I always forget about real life as well.

I can guarantee that my family will also decide to behave completely out of character the moment I HAVE to finish a book. They fall on their faces and require root canals, end up in the Emergency Room with slashed hands, throw up everywhere…and with 4 kids (and a husband, a dog and a cat) there is plenty of the bad stuff to go around.

Machines stop functioning as well, drains block, toilets stop flushing, the dryer emits worrying black smoke. All my carefully acquired writing time slowly trickles away waiting for stuff to happen or waiting for other people to fix stuff that has happened.

I used to think it was just me but the more I talk to other writers, the more I realize it is the universe having a little laugh at me. Maybe it’s because creative people aren’t supposed to have to deal with the real world-in my dreams maybe

I decided I need an assistant.I was totally impressed by authors who had assistants at the RT convention-people who set out their books at the signing, made sure their water bottle was placed correctly, escorted them through hallways at an impressive pace. That’s what I want-’people‘ to make my life work smoothly like that.

Unfortunately to get people I’ll have to keep writing and hoping that the kids stay in one piece for a few more years!

Anyone else noticed this family disaster phenomenon whenever a book is due?
Readers do you ever wonder whether writers really live glamorous lives?

I have to say that it was quite exciting to be doing a book signing. Mr Kate added to my nerves considerably by a) deciding to vacuum the lawn or something 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there and b)by telling me I’d got the wrong day just as we pulled off the freeway. I didn’t laugh. He was lucky to survive.

Barnes & Noble even had a big poster at the from of the store with my name and the cover of “Roping the Wind” on it! Apparently, she had to down pedal the “Simply Sexual” one to avoid complaints from Saturday shoppers with kids, and I totally understood that. Debra, the B&N community relations manager loves romance novels and thank god for people like her-she was thrilled to see me, got me water and ice and even had a pen ready in case I’d forgotten to bring one!

So here I am, looking pensive as shoppers mill around me. I was strategically placed between the cafe and the new arrivals tables so I felt a little like a fish in a bowl, or one of those Victorian ladies waiting patiently at the side of the dance floor while being ignored by all the men.

And yes, people really do ask strange questions. My favorite was, “Did you write this?” Um, yes, otherwise why would I be sitting here? Of course, I didn’t say that, I just smiled graciously and admitted it. I REALLY DID get asked where the bathroom was as well!!

Look! Real people in a line, for me! Okay, so I know some of them, but hey, they came out to support me and buy my books so I love them all.

Because of what I write, I expected a few oddballs as well, and yes, they turned up to say hi, every time Mr Kate wandered off to read Motor magazines. I ‘think’ they just wanted to see what an erotic romance writer looked like and I ‘think’ I probably disappointed them seeing as I wasn’t dressed in black leather or brandishing a whip!

So,it was fun and Mr Kate took loads of photos, I felt famous for at least 5 minutes and that was quite enough for me Back to the writing cave!

It’s been an exciting week! I had a birthday AND my first book for Aphrodisia came out! What more could a girl ask for? Well, underwear, as you will find out below…

It was my birthday last Saturday and dear Mr Kate took me up to San Francisco for a day of shopping and lunching and general merriment,(i.e. no kids) Initially I’d decided to get a new handbag, a brown one, to match my new Ariat cowboy boots, see left, but nothing inspired me enough to spend big bucks on it, well Mr Kate’s big bucks, but you know what I mean

We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory at the top of the Macy’s building and regrouped. I asked dear Mr Kate if he could look up a British store that I’d heard had a shop in San Francisco on his iphone. He looked a bit skeptical but when I mentioned it was fancy lingerie, he suddenly became much more interested. We located the store just off Union Square on Geary Street and headed down there, stopping in Neiman Marcus on the way.

Of course, while we were in NM, we saw a lovely Issey Miyake cardigan in beautiful reds, oranges and yellow. We both liked it and filed it away for future reference in case I didn’t find a handbag. then we went in search of the lingerie.

Agent Provocateur turned out to be a fabulous little shop. Mr Kate made himself at home on the fancy seats while I tried on about twenty different bras with the help of a sales assistant. I fell in love with two of them and decided, seeing as my lovely MIL had left me some birthday money as well, that I could afford to really splash out and get two sets. Being a generous woman, I decided to let Mr Kate pick his favorite style of matching underwear.

And here’s where I slipped up. I didn’t check the prices of the knickers…I knew the bras were expensive and I reckoned the knickers would be about a third of the bra price. Um, no…the bill was humongous and Mr Kate just paid it like a lamb and off we went.

He still wasn’t speaking 2 blocks down and he had this kind of dazed look in his eyes. Meanwhile, I was checking in the very fancy bag for the receipt and finding out just how expensive a set of French made British imported knickers can be. I was laughing so much that I offered to take them back, but Mr K wouldn’t hear of it. He even still wanted to buy me the Issey Miyake top! Luckily for us, NM only takes American Express and their own charge card, neither of which we had on us!

So feast your eyes on my new knickers and remember-always check the price before you reduce your husband to complete speechlessness…

So I knew things were bad when I stood at the door of my 14 yr old son’s bedroom, consoling him from afar for the stomach bug/flu that had laid him low. He was the third member of the family to get sick and there was no way I was being all motherly and going over there and hugging him or anything. I was finally getting a break alone with my lovely husband without the 4 kids!

I came down into the kitchen and looked at my husband. “I’m going to be sick on our vacation. I just know it.” Of course he told me not to be a pessimist-having brought the plague home with him, he was feeling a lot better.

Fast forward to Monday at the beautiful Enchantment Resort in Sedona Arizona, and I’m having a fabulous day, learning about vortexes and taking a train journey into the heart of Red Rock country, champagne, snacks and views to die for. In the evening, we had a beautiful meal at the spa restaurant and then I started to feel bad…

And boy, was I bad, I was up all night. Tuesday was a complete washout and we came home Wednesday. I saw a lot more of my hotel room than I expected and a lot less of the scenery

At home, everyone except Granny, who’d had a flu shot, was sick and Thanksgiving itself was really quiet-luckily I’d ordered all the food from Marie Callender’s so I didn’t have to cook!

Anyone else have any horrible holiday tales or was I just lucky this year?

Aplogies for cross-posting this blog across the universe, but I just finished writing one book and have a proposal due in a week for another, which I haven’t started yet!

I finally got around to reading “The Jane Austen Book Club” by Karen Joy Fowler, which I have to say, I enjoyed very much. My favorite addition to the book was a list of quotes and reviews from other sources over the last 200 odd years about Jane Austen and her books. What is so amazing is the way she had been perceived over the generations, from patronizing quotes, to damning ones, to absolute admiration and respect.

1898-”Every time I read “Pride and Prejudice” I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin bone.” Mark Twain.

What’s up with that? Is he saying he’s jealous because she’s so good or that he hates every word she’d ever written. And if he hates her, why keep reading her books? I wish I could ask Mark Twain the answer to that one.

1913-”Jane Austen was born before those bonds which,(we are told) protected women from truth, were burst by the Bronte’s or elaborately untied by George Eliot. Yet the fact remains that Jane Austen knew more about men than either of them. Jane Austen may have been protected from truth: but it was precious little of truth that was protected from her.” G K Chesterton

I like that one. that’s how I see Jane Austen as an acute observer of the little things that make up the big picture, the small unpleasantness, the snide snub, the obstacles of class and money. And she writes about them all in a way which I think still appeals to us because we love to see weakness in those who are held up to us as our betters, these days mainly celebrity’s and sports stars, in her day the upper classes.

Long long ago when I was in my twenties, (in black and white land when I was chased to college by dinosaurs according to my 14 yr old) I wanted to be Jane Austen. I tried to write like her and failed miserably because, well, I had to learn to be myself and find my own voice. but I took away certain things from her writing that I believe help me today. The layering of subtlety, the implications of the class system and her sly wit-I hope I incorporate those elements into my love stories.

My favorite Austen book used to be “Pride and Prejudice”, mainly because I have 5 sisters myself and I suspect my father used to worry about how he was going to get us all out of the house. He left a ladder leaning up against the back of the house for 2 years but unfortunately no one took him up on the offer and eloped. Now, it’s Emma, because I love the flaws in her, and the way Mr. Knightly ‘knows’ her and loves her despite herself.

My favorite TV film adaptations are the BBC version of “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth and film-wise I love Emma Thompson’s “Sense and Sensibility” and Gwenyth Paltrow at “Emma”.

I’m not a big fan of “Mansfield Park” I had to do it for my A’ levels and hated every page. Seriously, Fanny is the one I’d like to attack with her own shin bone.

So would anyone like to tell me how they see Jane and pick their favorites?

It’s so exciting to finally see the cover for a new book. You just hope that the art department have managed to capture the essence of the story in a single snapshot.(not an easy thing to do at all) I have to say Kensington did me proud. I love this cover, that almost kiss, the way the lighting highlights the soft hair on his forearm…sigh. I am one happy author.

Of course, the end of January seems a long way away until the book is actually released. I can’t wait to see it on the shelves with all the other Aphrodisia titles and I hope that everyone will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’ll finish with the blurb from the back. I did notice that there was one teeny tiny inconsistency, but I’m sure no one else will notice but me.

“Ten years as a sex slave in a Turkish brothel left Lord Valentin Sokorvsky with an insatiable appetite for sex. Now the time has come for him to marry, but finding a woman who can satisfy his lustful desires proves a challenge…until he meets Sara and all he can think about is having her lie under his rock-hard body, begging him to taste and touch her…

Sara Harrison knows she should be shocked and scandalized by Lord Sokorvsky’s bold advances, but instead she is secretly aroused by this sensual seductive man. For beneath her calm and composed manner is a wanton woman who longs for a man’s intimate caress. She is most willing to be educated in the art of sensuality, to receive and give pleasure and to succumb to the wild desire that knows no limits…”

I loved writing these characters. Poor Valentin, thinks he can separate married sex from the depths of sexual excess he sometimes craves. Luckily, Sara shows him that they can be one and the same.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I just had my shopping bag stolen at the mall, so I’m not very happy, although I wish the bag snatcher joy of my new bra, I doubt it will fit many people… (you’ve got to laugh, right?)

Kate