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Guest author – The Revenge of the Pirate Twins, by Brandy Golden

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revenge of the pirate twins

International bestselling author Brandy Golden is back with the first in a brand new series – The Revenge of the Pirate Twins!

Twin sisters, Frankie and Kat Fontaine, are willful, undisciplined, highly skilled in weapons, and fiercely determined to find the infamous master of the black pirate ship called the Nemesis. Jacques LaSalle, the owner of that ship, is the blackguard who attacked their father’s merchant vessel, killing their father and abducting their mother. First, they will find out what happened to their mother, and then they will have their revenge!

Jacques LaSalle is intrigued and amused when he hears that a beautiful raven-haired woman has been scouring the Caribbean for him and intends to challenge him. No one has ever bested Jacques in a fight, but he soon finds that Frankie is much more of a challenge than he thought. He intends to claim her for his own if she’ll stop trying to kill him long enough.

Morgan MacAlister is the pirate governor of the new colony, the Pirates’ Hideaway, and his gut instincts tell him that trouble is coming to his island paradise. When the mighty Aphrodite sails into his harbor carrying a set of twin sisters, the gorgeous redheaded sprite of the duo sets his senses on fire.It’s a hot time on the high seas when the two arrogant men figure out that the twins have the power to rock their worlds. But the girls’ haughty attitude and lack of respect may well earn them some much-needed discipline before all is said and done.

Available on the 6th April, you can buy The Revenge of the Pirate Twins from Amazon.com or the Blushing Books website!

 

You can find Brandy at these social media sites:

https://brandygolden.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Brandy-Golden/e/B017JOWVVK

http://eepurl.com/c4Ep35

https://www.facebook.com/brandygoldenauthor/

 

Brandy was kind enough to answer a few questions – read her exclusive interview below!

Favorite or most current book published, and why are you showcasing this book? 

Most current book being published is Revenge of the Pirate Twins and it’s coming out April 6th. I’m not sure I could name a favorite book. I love the characters in all my books and each book has it’s own style. I love to imagine fun scenarios and then write about them. Most of my books focus around simple discipline and spanking for fun. Or couples new to the spanking lifestyle and domestic discipline. I like that ah factor, that sigh that comes after reading a fun romp that makes you laugh, cry, and then sigh and wish it was longer. I hope I achieve that in all my stories.

Tell us something interesting about your writing career!

Something interesting. Well, I guess you say I didn’t start with the intention of being a writer. When I found out there were other people out there that enjoyed playing with spanking, I joined a few groups and saw people posting their stories. So I wrote my first ever novella entitled Red Hawaii. I was approached by Blushing Books to write for them and so it began. I found I loved it and the ideas were endless. In spite of a few ups and downs, it’s been a lot of fun.

 How often and how much do you write?

Not near as much as I’d like to. But I guess I average a couple of books a year, sometimes more, sometimes less. I like to take my time and make each story as unique as I can.

Tell us about yourself! 

I am a sweet romance writer with a bit of the hot and spicy. I love to create wonderful fantasies with strong alpha males who love to take their women in hand and love them like they’ve never been loved before! I write stories to lose yourself in  and I hope you will love mine and come back for more.I work a full time job, live in the midwest with my family and love pictures and scrapbooking. I have five children, two of whom are married and between them I have six grandchildren. I live in the country and I love cowboy stories and I’ve written a few of those too. And of course, I’m an avid reader, especially stories with a lovely brat who gets her bottom warmed when it’s deserved!

Guest Author post – Groomed, by Bethany Leigh

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 Can Charlotte trust the charming stranger she’s met online?

 

It’s 1999 and Charlotte and Connor have just got the internet at home. One night, Charlotte comes across an intriguing forum. It consists mostly of women posters whose husbands discipline them when they misbehave. In other words, they’re living Charlotte’s dream!

Charlotte’s marriage is in trouble. Work and family pressures have pushed her and Connor apart. The forum posters claim domestic discipline makes marriages closer, more intimate, that sex is through the roof. Charlotte wonders whether introducing the old-fashioned discipline she yearns for can bring her and Connor closer together too.

But Connor doesn’t take to the lifestyle and the failure frustrates Charlotte and drives them even further apart. In desperation, she seeks out a disciplinarian through the forum to satisfy her needs. He seems caring, thoughtful and is willing to take things slowly, allow time to build trust.

But there’s a missing backpacker who just might have a connection with the same disciplinarian.

Can Charlotte trust this charming man she’s met on the internet?

And how will it affect her marriage to Connor?

Will Charlotte ever get the loving discipline she craves?

Publisher’s Note: This book contains disciplinary scenes. If this is offensive to you, please do not read.

 

Here’s an exclusive extract!

She’d thought Ben’s idea of taking things slowly, playing it safe, a good one. Maybe she should wear something a little less suggestive for their first meeting. She checked the racks of the walk-in wardrobe for about the hundredth time since she and Ben set the date. A knee-length sundress? Full-length skirt with elegant blouse? Shorts? No, not shorts. She might have a cute-as arse, but shorts were too casual, too one of the boys. Charlotte had had enough of being an honorary bloke, at work as well as at home. If she was going to be in a 1950s-style spanking relationship, however platonic, she wanted to look 1950s-style feminine.

Forty-five minutes till she had to meet Ben.

            Fifteen minutes till she had to leave the house.

Decide NOW, Charlotte, or you’ll be late.

Charlotte stepped into a long cream linen skirt, with splits up each side – elegant, but easily manoeuvrable should she and Ben spontaneously decide to accelerate their arrangement. She buttoned the matching shirt, and riffled through her jewellery for accessories. She selected an amber necklace with matching ear-rings. She’d already applied light make-up, there was just her hair to fix. Twist it into a bun or have it loose around her shoulders? What about a pony-tail? Too little-girlish even if the plan was for Ben to spank her? She left it loose. Men liked long hair. Even Connor was magnetised by it, running his fingers through it.

Well, he was. Before he ruined everything.

The resentment still burned. It was Connor’s fault that Charlotte was spending her day off work doing something so risky as meeting a stranger from cyberspace. Hayden and Mark would spank Panda and Gemma if they even thought about doing something so stupid. But because of Connor, here was Charlotte – age thirty-six for God’s sake, ‘old enough to know better’ didn’t begin to describe it – getting dressed up to meet someone who could be an axe murderer.

Charlotte shut down that nagging fear. Axe murderers don’t want to take things slowly. She gave her wavy dark hair a final brush and sprayed perfume behind her ears, at the bottom of her throat, on her wrists and inside her elbows. She hesitated before putting on her wedding and engagement rings. There was no reason not to wear them. This was the start of a potential disciplinary arrangement, not a possible love affair.

Handbag, car keys. Cardigan in case it turned cold (yeah, right, the forecast was for 34).

Thirty-five minutes till she had to meet Ben.

            Five minutes till she had to leave the house.

Just about enough time to quickly check the internet, make sure he hadn’t left a message saying he couldn’t make it.

Then, if she was going to keep their date, she’d better head out to her car.

 

You can buy Groomed on Amazon and at the Blushing Books website.

 

You can contact Bethany on the links below!

Website: https://bethanyleighbooks.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @bethanyleighaus

Amazon: amazon.com/author/bethanyleigh

Cover reveal, and a sneak peek!

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How pretty is this cover? Faith has certainly gone up in the world since she turned up at the home of the Duke of Buckingham, looking like a drowned rat! When we left her, though, she had bolted at the end of her trial week as the duke’s paid submissive. However, Faith has a change of heart and decides to return to the duke’s demanding embrace. She’s falling in love and she knows it, although she also knows that no good will come of it. The duke has been very firm on the matter – he wants a slave, not a wife. Yet as the Ruttingdon Club house party approaches the duke realises that Faith must be entered in The Hunt, the hedonistic chase that ends every Ruttingdon party, and he is not a man who likes to share his toys. Will the duke turn his back on the rules he lives his life by, and protect Faith from the depravities of his invited guests? Or will Faith be forced to run to escape the wicked clutches of one man intent on making her dance at the end of his whip?

 

Find out on September 3rd 2016! Available from Blushing Books, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and iBook.

Read the first chapter for free here!

186, 187, 188, 189, 190…

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Photo from urbancashmereblog.com

 

If you asked me if I wanted to sit down and write out a list of numbers from one to one hundred and ninety, the answer would be no. I mean, of course it would be no. What sane person wants to sit down and write out a list of numbers?

If, however, you asked me if I wanted to sit down with a brand new extra-large Orchid Purple Moleskine journal with dotted paper and an internal storage pocket and number the pages ready to start a proper bullet journal, then the answer would be oh my God, yes, give me my fineliners and get out of the way!

I hadn’t come across the idea of a bullet journal before, but a work colleague started one and shared a Buzzfeed article about it on Facebook. Once I did a bit of research I decided to start a practice one, just to see if I could do it. A week in and I’m hooked!

Bullet journaling is all about keeping track of your life in a simple format.It keeps a record of the past, tracks the present and helps organise the future. I have tried to use apps to help me do this, but I haven’t found one that does everything I want. Plus, there’s the added bonus that a journal will never run out of battery, unlike my iPad or iPhone.

It’s easy to customise and make your own. A simple Google search will show you examples of insanely beautiful journals, created by true artistic talents. Lots of amazing calligraphy, pretty doodles and washi tape all over the place! Mine…well, let’s just say that mine won’t look like that! I’m no artist, to put it mildly, and I’m not a particularly visual person. I have ordered a stencil from Etsy to help pretty mine up, but that will be the extent of it, I think.

 

 

This video, from the creator of the bullet journal, explains it better than I can.

I’m making a conscious effort not to include my day job in the journal. This is to plan my writing, my personal goals and my outside work life. I’m trying to claw back some work/life balance, and I hope that the bullet journal will help me do that.

So far, I’ve got the weekly planner set up although I’m trialing a few different layouts to see which ones I like. I have a future log for events I know will be happening  – birthdays, the car MOT, etc – and a monthly tracking list for events that need to get done at some point – perhaps this month, perhaps not, depending on circumstances. I’m tracking some of my habits, both bad and good, and I’m making lists of things I want to remember. I have a list of books that aren’t out yet that I want to read, because I’m tired of missing release dates. I used to really be into music, but since I’ve stopped listening to fanmixes I’ve stopped discovering new artists that I like. I’m going to keep track of songs that I come across that I like, so I can find albums by the artist. I have a list of recipes I want to try, and I’m going to try and work my Slimming World planning into it as well, as losing weight is a constant (unreached!) goal of mine. I’m trying to make one bullet every day about something I’m grateful for, although I’m not sure if I should do that in a separate log or include it in my daily one.

At some point, I’ll use the journal to plan books too, although I’m going to have to think about how to do that so it’s practical and useful.

I’m pinning whatever I can find about bullet journals on Pintrest and printing out helpful free things that other journalers are kind enough to produce. If anybody has any ideas or tips, send them my way!

 

Release date imminent!

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Well, in 73 days. But I have a release date for not one but two – that’s right, two brand new books!

August 13th 2016 will see the release of the third novel in The Ruttingdon Club series. It was so large – over 150000 words – that I made the decision to split it into two halves. Me and George R R Martin, folks. Too wordy for our own good.

Having Faith, the first half, tells the story of how the very good and respectable Miss Faith Halstead found her normal life ripped away from her because of one dreadful mistake. Alone, vulnerable and now a fallen woman, a mix-up at a railway station lands her in front of the Duke of Buckingham, premiere member of the Ruttingdon Club and a man who demands his own way – and gets it. In need of female companionship for an upcoming Ruttingdon Club house party, he offers the role to Faith; in return for her submission, she would earn enough money to start her life afresh.

One week of sin with the most handsome duke in England – dare she refuse?

Well no, she doesn’t, otherwise I wouldn’t have had to write Keeping Faith, the concluding half!

Faith Halstead has done it again – she’s fallen in love with the wrong man. The Duke of Buckingham may have bought her body, but she’s given her heart away for nothing. Her week with the duke has been extended to a month, and she’s never been happier, but it’s bittersweet; soon she will have to leave him and start a new life somewhere far away from the blissful depravity of the duke’s country home. Meanwhile, the duke has been wrestling with his own feelings towards the beautiful, naive woman who has blossomed into the perfect submissive before him. The Ruttingdon Club’s house party at his country home opens his eyes to the darker side of the private club’s traditions and members, and the house party turns into a desperate race to save Faith from the evil clutches of the villainous Sir Leslie. It’s a good thing for the Duke of Buckingham that he can rely on his friend the Duke of Rothmuir and his new wife for help bring Faith back where she belongs – in his arms.

Yes, despite this being a book about a completely different couple, Annabelle and her husband have made an appearance in Keeping Faith. I couldn’t help it; Annabelle was so excited to go to a Club meeting at the end of Annabelle Awakens, I couldn’t keep her out of it! Then when everything takes a turn for the dramatic, she acts as how I imagine a spirited woman of the age would have acted, especially when supported by her besotted husband. Let’s just say that Annabelle makes her mark on the villain, and we’ll leave it as that!

The books will be released simultaneously, to make sure that nobody has to deal with any annoying cliffhangers. I’m waiting for a revised contract and for my poor editor to get to grips with the enormity of the task ahead of him, but when I get the go-ahead I’ll post the first chapter for free here, as I usually do.

Roll on August 13th!

 

coming-soon

 

 

 

Fucking hysterical!

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Early gynecology exam. Doesn’t she look happy, ladies?

I was doing some research yesterday for my next book and while reading this book by Rachel Maines on the history of vibrators I found some very interesting pictures!

Vibrators were developed to save the fingers of doctors who were treating women, both married and unmarried, for ‘hysteria’ – a catch-all diagnosis that covered any and all symptom a woman could name. It was discovered that orgasm, or ‘paroxysm’ would clear up a woman’s general malaise. Marriage was a recommended cure for hysteria, but when that was not possible, or the woman was not receiving strong enough attention from her husband, it fell to the doctor to provide the necessary stimulation. In a purely medical setting, of course!

(I’m not going to go into how ridiculous it was that women’s sexuality was being medicalised, or that how orgasm was supposed to be both distasteful for a woman and yet necessary for her mental and physical health. They didn’t seem to understand that clitoral stimulation is needed for the vast majority of women to achieve orgasm.Hell, they hadn’t bothered to delineate the clitoris from the vulva or the labia until the late eighteenth century. I’m appalled at what nineteeth century women had to go through, and my inner feminist is raring to get going at this manuscript and give the doctor-hero what for on behalf of women everywhere.)

However, doctors (always male, naturally) found manipulating women to orgasm difficult and somewhat distasteful, so the use of hydrotherapy, electrotherapy and primitive vibrators was considered better than manual massage for their patients.

Hydrotherapy – sounds almost relaxing, doesn’t it?

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That…that does not look relaxing to me. When you consider that was often cold water, too, I think I’d pass, thank you very much.

Electrotherapy often involved the deliberate collection of static electricity and its application to sensitive areas, using small rollers. When you consider how new the application of electricity to everyday objects was back then, I think that I’d sidestep the electrotherapy too. Weird fact, though: the electric powered vibrator was available for home purchase well before the electric vacuum cleaner or electric iron. I guess women knew what was important back then, even if men didn’t!

This mighty beast is called The Manipulator, and is only a tiny fraction of the actual machine. It was powered by a steam engine (!) which was kept in the next room.

early vibrator

 

manipulator part 2

 

You hook it up to the underside of an examination table, which has a convenient piece cut out and off you go – modern, steam-powered orgasms.

Men, of course, were treated for nervous conditions too, but the numbers of men requiring this kind of stimulation were nowhere near the number of women who went through it.

All very interesting food for thought for The Ruttingdon Series Book 4!

 

You guys thought it was going to take a long time and it only ended up taking 7 and a half hours.

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Ah, CJ Cregg. That West Wing quote in the header (from the second season episode The Leadership Breakfast, for any fellow West Wing fans out there) has helped me out several times when describing a task that took far longer than anyone thought possible. The quote in the picture is just a general life motto for myself.

In related news, I finished my new book!

The Ruttingdon Series, Book 3 is a whopping 150000 words in total, so I decided to split in into two sections. Part one is called Having Faith. Part two is called Keeping Faith.

(Go on, guess what my heroine’s name is. Guess!)

I’ve been working on this for what feels like years. In reality, I must have started it somewhere around October of last year, and now it’s May. By the time they’re edited and ready for release it’ll be July, probably, or longer. That’s like having a baby!

The damn thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. I have such a huge problem cutting things out. Thank goodness for a good editor!

Both parts have been accepted by the lovely people at Blushing Books, and will take the number of novels I’ve had published up to lucky number seven. I’ve also had a few stories in a Halloween anthology and I wrote a novella for last Christmas’ collection of themed short stories.

Of course, I’ve already started having stress dreams about them! I dreamed that I got a very nice email from Blushing telling me that they weren’t suitable for them, and that I was free to take them elsewhere. I woke up very relieved that it wasn’t true, let me tell you!

I need to do a few Real Life job things this weekend, but I want to get started on a Christmas novella that will fit into the Ruttingdon series and I’ve already plotted out and written 20000 words of a fourth Victorian Vices book.

I really am a glutton for punishment!

 

 

 

The P Word – Piggybacking!

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The problem with being an UK author published by a US company with primarily US authors and readers is that I’m always missing Facebook drama when it kicks off. Curse you, time difference!

That’s not really right. Facebook drama isn’t anything to get excited about, and proper grownups should avoid it at all costs. My mother calls is washing your dirty linen in public, and I get where she’s coming from. The thing is, it’s just too interesting to ignore!

When I blearily checked my author Facebook account at six o’clock this morning, news of alleged plagiarism was being discussed. I don’t know too much about it, and I’m hesitant to name names. I don’t know the people involved, and I don’t know the full story. It does make me realise that my gut reaction to the thought of co-authoring a book with someone – running away, screaming in fear – is probably the right one considering what seems to have happened.

That made me think about something else though, a real pet peeve of mine, and that is authors who write using characters created by somebody else. I call it piggybacking, and I mean all the Jane Austen books that write about Lizzie as Mrs Darcy, or have the Dashwood sisters fighting off sea monsters, and all the authors who have Sherlock Holmes help their own plucky detective out. What’s worse, all the authors who include actual historical characters in their work – Freud helping to solve murders, Oscar Wilde dropping in to share a few bon mots. 

This all makes me so angry!

For the love of God, people, create your own bloody characters! Stop piggybacking on the work of people who were creative enough to invent interesting characters! Just because their work has gone out of copyright and you can do it legally, it doesn’t mean that you can do it morally. It’s lazy, uninspired writing and I can’t stand it!

Authors who use real people as supplementary characters annoy me even more. How the hell do you know that the real historical person would behave like that? That they would say the words you put in their mouths? That they would espouse the beliefs you give them? The very best biographers would be hard pressed to do this. What self-inflated sense of ego makes you think that you could manage it?

I think the closest I’ve ever got in my own writing is have Daniel and Annabelle attend an audience with Queen Victoria, and have Sophia Preston be presented to her. In both books the queen is mentioned but not seen, which is as comfortable as I am with including real people in my books.

Historical fiction that tries to accurately represent actual history, through the medium of fiction – well, I have my doubts. A run-in with a Sharon Penman book made me dig in my heels on the topic, and no matter how minutely researched Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is there’s no way that I can finish it. C J Sansome gets away with it because the main character isn’t a real person, but even then I only read the first book once.

Let’s not get me started on P D James, who should have bloody well known better than to write Death at Pemberley, or Ben H Winters who would be best served by never trapping himself in an enclosed space with me; I am of the firm opinion that if Jane Austen had wanted zombies or sea monsters in her work, she would have included them in her final draft.

So authors, do yourself a favour. If you can’t invent interesting, memorable, relatable characters yourself, don’t steal other people’s. It does you zero favours with this reader, and I’m sure, many others.

 

 

 

Annabelle’s Awakening is on sale now!

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Annabelle'sAwakening3

 

The Honourable Annabelle Spencer will soon become the Duchess of Rothmuir, and she can’t wait to get married! It’s not the beautiful dress or the opulent wedding ball that she’s looking forward to the most, however. All she wants is to be naked in the arms of her love Daniel, the Duke of Rothmuir, once more.

But it has now become clear that there is more to marrying Daniel than simply becoming his duchess. In addition to being a powerful peer of the realm in Victoria’s England, he is a proud member of the Ruttingdon Club, an exclusive group of titled noblemen who enjoy inflicting pain while taking their pleasure. Annabelle is determined to accompany Daniel to meetings of the Club when they are married, but he is unsure whether she can cope with the physical and psychological demands that appearance at club meetings place on females who attend these exotic functions.

Can Annabelle endure the strict training the Club requires? Will she master her fear of bodily exposure in front of strangers? Can she and Daniel build a life together that balances duty to their roles in society with their desire for dark sexual pleasure?

Read Annabelle’s Awakening, the second in the Ruttingdon Club series, to find out!

Buy from Amazon.com here!

Buy from Amazon.co.uk here!

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Curious about how Annabelle met her duke? Read The Incorrigible Annabelle Spencer, available from Amazon and the Blushing Books website!

I think I’m growing as a writer.

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Figuratively speaking, anyway. I’m already 5’10”, I don’t need to be any taller.

I was just updating my Amazon Author Central pages when I noticed a new review on my Victorian Vices series. It’s one of those damned with faint praise ones – I can’t tell if she’s being a bit snide and taking a pop at the genre or just words things badly.  The first time I got one of these reviews I was quite upset. Now, though, my skin is thickening and I’m starting to think like a real author.

I added up how much it cost her to share her feelings – £9.78 – and thought about what I’d spend her money on instead.

Like me, love me, flame me, shame me – just buy my books, if you please. I’ll work through my emotions on the lovely foreign holiday you’re helping to send me on!

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