Faerie Portals, Fae, and Mortals A TRACE OF MOONLIGHT GIVEAWAY! Interview: Allison Pang & Giveaway!

A Trace of Moonlight
Book Three Abby Sinclair series
Allison Pang
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster
Date of Publication: October 30, 2012
ISBN: 1439198365
Number of pages: 400

Uncorrected Proof provided by Publisher in the expectation that any review would be fair. No remuneration was exchanged. All opinions expressed are my own except as noted. Additionally materials and liaising via Bewitching Book Tours.



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Copies for Kindle Readers are sold by Amazon, Copies for Nook Readers are sold at Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

Drinking from the waters of lethe and offering herself up as Faerie’s sacrificial Tithe …these just might be the least of Abby Sinclair’s problems.

Abby’s pact with a demon—whether or not she remembers making it—is binding, so she’d better count herself lucky that (in the words of a daemon who knows better) there’s nearly always a loophole. But her friends’ reckless attempts to free her, well intentioned though they may be, set off a disastrous chain of events. In no time at all, Abby turns her incubus lover mortal and gets herself killed, cursed, and married to an elven prince whose mother wants her dead. She might have even been able to recover from all that had she not lost the Key to the CrossRoads to her mortal enemy, who promptly uses his restored power to wreak havoc on the OtherWorld and put its very existence in jeopardy.

Only one person can make things right again, but to find her, Abby must place her trust in allies of mixed loyalties, and conquer her nightmares once and for all.Tour Materials from Bewitching Book Tours

Simon and Schuster

HAPPY HALLOWEEN or SAMHAIN.

In many cultures this is a day when the veil between worlds in thinnest, giving the most opportunity for beings to cross from one to the other. What better to look at than a book about a young woman, Abby, her lovers and friends who all play a part in the doors between the world of mortals, faerie and the landscapes of our dreams and nightmares?


First I have to say, I loved this book and the series as a whole. Abby is a great heroine, with enough rough spots to make her accessible, enough problems to make her sympathetic, enough empathy to make her care and enough courage to do what needs to be done. This is the third in the series and it really is not a stand-alone; there's a lot of back story. It's not "high fantasy" so most things are familiar and have pronounceable names. There's some intimacy and quite a bit of violent action. There is a love triangle  There's even a perverted miniature unicorn. How can you miss with that combination. Wouldn't you love to have a perverted pet unicorn?

Simon and Schuster

The series centers on this young heroine, Abby Sinclair. She lives in a world where a few people are privy to the fact of "others." She works for one, at a semi-fae bookshop, if your fae, you know it's otherworldly and if you are an unaware mortal, you don't see it.  Humans and fae can only cross between worlds through portals and with a contractual relationship called "Touchstoning."  Abby and her mom were in a terrible car crash that killed her mother and left her with seizures and musculoskeletal issues that killed her career as a dancer and left her with constant pain. Her dreams are invaded by a hot incubus, Brystion. At some point their relationship becomes more. She is also attracted to her boss's brother Talliver. The fate of the worlds and dreams ends up in the hands of a few and Allison is vital to saving the worlds as we know, and don't know them.

This is the most feeling-oriented, dreamy and esoteric of the books.  Much of it takes place outside the mortal realm so the laws of physics don't have to apply. Saying much more than this will result in me telling you too much, and well, I don't want to piss off the Faerie Queen.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A TRACE OF MOONLIGHT and the rest of the series.

Instead, of prattling on,  I asked Allison a few questions she was kind enough to take the time to respond this Samhain. She's virtually touring the book through cyber space via Bewitching Book Tours!

Allison Pang

Hey Allison, Happy Halloween or Samhain.  Love the series. Thanks for answering my questions I know the folks who read here will appreciate knowing more.  And congratulations on yesterday's release of A TRACE OF MOONLIGHT.


We hear that Brystion can cook, could you share one of his favorite recipes, or things to make?

I don’t know if he really thinks of it in terms like that. His tendency is to cook the things his TouchStones like. He doesn’t really have to eat mundanely to survive anyway, so it doesn’t really matter to him. (There’s a line he mentions at some point about how nothing of him is his – his very nature means he’s supposed to conform to his TouchStone’s desires – and that would include food. (Abby wouldn’t do this to him consciously, but there’s a reason he tends to make her omelets.)

Where did he learn to cook?

One of his previous TouchStones was a chef. He has a tendency to absorb other people’s skills through their dreams so he picked it up from her.

Was Abby his first dreamer to bring him through from the Dreaming?  Yes.

Is anyone able to be a touchstone?  Yes.

At one point Abby refers to just the "Awful Courage" in her gut. That is such a different and interesting way of describing courage. How is it awful?

I think it’s more that courage itself is such an odd concept. People tend to romanticize it, but finding true courage in face of something terrible *is* awful. It’s hard, it often involves sacrifice, and the end results aren’t always lollipops and rainbows.

Is this the last book in this series? What's next for you?

It’s the last book in this particular story arc. There’s a Melanie short story coming out in the Carniepunk anthology next year (it’s a bit of a prequel – we find out how she got her violin.) I’m in the process of writing more of a straight fantasy at the moment, but if there’s an opportunity to write more Abby stories, I’d be happy to continue.
Who do you WANT Abby to stroll off into the sunset with? I realize that she may have other ideas.

Heh. It doesn’t really matter what I want. It is what it is. ;-) And she makes a decision at the end of A Trace of Moonlight.

Does Abby sill have seizures in Faerie?

The potential is still there, but thus far she hasn’t.

In your faerie does time move faster or more slowly than in the mortal realm?

Both. It depends on the time of year.

At the start how many faerie years has Abby been in Faerie?

She hasn’t been there a full year, by any stretch – probably closer to 4 or 5 weeks. She just doesn’t have any real concept of time passing since she doesn’t remember her past or how she got where she is.

Do Brystion's bells carry his essence, his incubus-ness?

In Abby’s mind, they do. Even from the very beginning of A Brush of Darkness, the bells are a representation of him.

Do you feel this is the most metaphysical of the books?

Yes. Given how much of it takes place in the Dreaming and on the CrossRoads.


THANKS SO MUCH ALLISON AND THANKS TO YOUR PUBLISHERS FOR THIS GREAT GIVEAWAY!



GIVEAWAY!

The WONDERFUL people at Simon and Schuster sent me a Mass Market Paperback of each book in the series to share with one of YOU. That means one winner will receive A BRUSH OF DARKNESS, A SLIVER OF SHADOW, AND A TRACE OF MOONLIGHT!  Thank You Friends at Simon and Schuster!! You must use the rafflcopter form below to to enter, and please read through the terms and conditions. (18 years old and over and USA address only)


a Rafflecopter giveaway






A Bit about Allison

A marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and wooing dancing boys….Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But she was taloned by a hawk once. She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly shoes, and gorgeous violinists.
She spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade. Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.


FIND ALLISON

http://www.heartofthedreaming.com

http://www.facebook.com/apang

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allison-Pang/154530877925333

http://www.twitter.com/allison_pang

http://ionsfolly.tumblr.com

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3965895.Allison_Pang

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Halloween Intermission with Music From....

English: Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BOO! In honor of tomorrow, the highest holiday for many practitioners of the old ways, and tonight -- All Hallows' Eve I am giving your souls a break with some fab tunes.  I started out seeking an old Louis Armstrong performance I heard in the early 1990s.  I ended up finding some traditional, yet unexpected Halloween music! I don't own any of these. I pulled them off YouTube and the links are below each picture.


DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE HALLOWEEN SONG, FILM, STORY OR POEM?

I hope you enjoy these, and don't forget to enter the Wicked After Dark Giveaway and Next week's Fall in Love Giveaway!

I think this is what I was looking for but, like most things, in memory it's not quite what I remember.  This clip from 1936 was one of  Louis Armstrong's  first appearances in a film - it may have been The Five Pennies:

http://youtu.be/slaiWgT4tNo


The Five Jones Boys Goes to Town

http://youtu.be/Lyu1FkPgLo8

Bing Crosby From 1949 Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

http://youtu.be/aOPeJuvLJYs


A Disney Short from 1929! More visual than musical:
http://youtu.be/h03QBNVwX8Q


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ROGUE RIDER Forgivness — Can Love Really Conquer All?

Set in the Demonica world…The prophecies were there but no one listened. Until now.
(LarissaIone.com>

They're here.

They ride.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Born of a match between good and evil, four siblings stand between hell's minions and everything they want to destroy. They are the Lords of Deliverance, and they have the power to ward off Doomsday . . . or let it ride . . .

ROGUE RIDER

Jillian Cardiff came to this remote mountain town to forget the demon attack that almost killed her. Instead, she rescues-and falls for-a gorgeous stranger who has no memory of anything other than his name. Handsome, charming, and protective, Reseph seems like the kind of man whom Jillian can trust. But with hints of a troubling history of his own, he's also the kind of man who can be very dangerous . . .

Reseph may not know why he mysteriously appeared in Jillian's life, but he knows he wants to stay. Yet when Jillian's neighbors are killed, and demon hunters arrive on the scene, Reseph fears that he's putting Jillian in danger. And once it's revealed that Reseph is also Pestilence, the Horseman responsible for ravaging the world, he and Jillian must face the greatest challenge of all: Can they forget the horrors of a chilling past to save the future they both desire?
Marketing Copy (& cover)  from NetGalley.com

Kindle Version AMAZON

ROGUE RIDER
Lords of Deliverance 4
by Larissa Ione
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (November 20, 2012)
Sold by: Hachette Book Group
Mass Market Paperback and E-Book 432 pages
E-Galley loaned by publisher via NetGalley. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions herein are my own unless otherwise noted.

Suspend all disbelief ye who enter here!  Sometimes a writer comes up with an earth-mythology-biblical-based world that requires us to completely forget the world we know; to put it aside completely. It has to be worth it to immerse oneself into the unknown; to place oneself in the author's hands for 432 pages.

This is one of those series. And, the relationship between Reseph and Jillian is hot enough to make one lose oneself happily.  The world however is one that needs the prior books in the series to understand. I could gloss over the things I didn't get -- I read paranormal romance a lot so I know what the missing variables are even if I don't know exactly how a writer has defined them.

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I actually thought I had read a book by Ione before but, since I can't find it on my kindle list I think I may have read a chapter. I recall the "Underworld General Hospital" Ione refers to. But the rest of the characters -- demons, angels and whatevers, as well as the locations were confusing and not having read the prior books I found the whole thing hard to swallow.

While the story is fairly predictable in the outcome, how it gets to the outcome is unique.  Ione throws several obstacles into the presumptive lovers' paths. When it came to both the internal and external action, including the climactic scene, I thought it was not blocked very well.  I can't give anything away, but sometimes one plus one equaled three. In other words the action is not substantial enough for the outcome.  Also people change their minds without much provocation. This is often the case in paranormal romance: there are many different elements competing for space on the page and it doesn't always work out perfectly. Where a contemporary romance writer has our normal, mundane world to work with, the paranormal romance has all that and countless other concepts necessary to develop characters and story.

But, the relationship is hot.  Reseph, is, in my mind at least, Chris Hemsworth in THOR, only more demented and disappointed in himself.  Jillian, is of course vague enough so we can insert ourselves into the picture. You know you do it.
But the whole thing is confused by Reseph's alter ego and the horrors of his past, and Jillian's ability to look past what he did before and in this book.

If you have been following this series this is a recommended read. While I felt Ione fluffed some of the action and psychology, it probably ties up a lot of loose ends.
If you haven't read the series, you probably should do so before starting this one. It will certainly make it a more enjoyable read to really know who's who in this myth based world.


ROGUE RIDER AT BARNES & NOBLE



Rogue Rider (Lords of Deliverance) AT AMAZON

Lords of Deliverance #4: Rogue Rider
by Larissa Ione

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LUST FOR LIFE Would You Risk it All for The Love of Your Life?

I want these pants!

LUST FOR LIFE
WVMP Book 4

By Jeri Smith-Ready
Pocket/Simon & Schuster
Mass Market Paperback & e-Book , 352 pages
November 27, 2012

Ciara’s con-artist parents taught her three keys to survival: keep low, keep quiet, and most of all, keep moving. But managing WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll—not to mention becoming a vampire herself—has kept her in one place long enough to fall madly in love, adopt an undead dog . . . . and make more enemies than she can shake a stake at. A psychotic DJ, a wanna-be necromancer, and a posse of vengeful hippies would all love to see Ciara get her day in the sun—literally. To protect Ciara, her fiancé, Shane, has traded his flannel shirt and guitar for a flak jacket and crossbow. If she survives to walk down the aisle, will she recognize the man waiting at the altar? In this final chapter of the award-winning WVMP RADIO series, Ciara must decide who to trust, whom to love—and whom to kill.





Be sure to come back on the FIRST of NOVEMBER when the first three books in the series will be my US-Only prize in the FALL IN LOVE blog hop! COURTESY of POCKET BOOKS!


And, you can check out the series with book 3.5 LET IT BLEED a free download through JERI'S WEB SITE along with first chapters and some other short stories. Jeri is the author of the hit YA SHADE Trilogy.

Jeri shows excellent writing skills and an outstanding ability to balance plot and character to bring this series to life again in LUST FOR LIFE. I really enjoy the refreshing take on the "variables" in Jeri's vampires.

1. Over time vampires tend to get a bit wacky, even dangerous.

2. They are emotionally stuck in whatever time period in which they were turned. (You know the women at your college who still has a beehive hairdo, hmm?

3. Jeri has the coolest vampire death scenes: everything corporeal about them gets sucked into the "ether."IT would be a cool effect in a movie!

4. Ciara and Shane have an undead vampire dog, Dexter. I haven't seen a vampire dog before, although Julie Kagawa had vampire deer in her new series.

In the previous books in the series it must have been revealed that Ciara has anti-magical blood. It cures all kinds of scars. Apparently this does not bode well for her vampire hood. And that's one thing I really liked about this series, Smith-Ready bases vampirism on magic. There's no scientific explanation, although that doesn't stop The Control, an agency that monitors and polices vampires, from trying to figure it out. Leaving the whole thing in the realm of magic makes for much less in the way of mental conflict when reading fantasy.


Jeri gives the reader some foreshadowing of what's to come. But it is very subtle; just enough to push you in the right direction in a tension filled book. I was really surprised by the climax of the book. I would not have seen it coming in a thousand years. Ciara is willing to give everything up for Shane and it is very romantic. While I can see they love each otherr, the depth of that love must come from the previous books. They do have a healthy appetite for each other, but it's a couple of tastefully written steamy moments, not a book full.

The book could stand on its own, but I felt I had missed a lot; especially Ciara's background and the background of the creepy The Control. That was an aspect that felt kind of Cat and Bones-ish. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LUST FOR LIFE but, I would recommend reading the entire series in order, or at the very least the interstitial online freebie, LET IT BLEED.

Come back on November 1 for the FALL IN LOVE Hop to have a chance to win the three prior volumes in the series: WICKED GAME, BAD TO THE BONE AND BRING ON THE NIGHT!

TO BUY/PRE-ORDER:

At Barnes and Noble:











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It May Not be High Fantasy but ROCK HARD Definitely Spurs Fantastic Speculation on the Rock & Roll Lifestyle

ROCK HARD
The Sinners on Tour Two
Olivia Cunning
Sourcebooks/Casablanca 3/31/2011
Paperback and eBook  formats
Blogger Purchase

Trapped together on the Sinners tour bus for the summer, Sed and Jessica will rediscover the millions of steamy reasons they never should have called it quits in the first place… Sourcebooks/Casablanca

When I like a series I often feel compelled to work my way through the whole thing in a weekend. Olivia Cunning's Sinners on Tour was a lot like that, although I read the first book last spring but then I picked up DOUBLE TIME on Net Galley last week and one thing lead to another.

I have read the three full books in the series now: BACKSTAGE PASS, ROCK HARD and DOUBLE TIME.  The books give us remarkable continuity of a character group evolving over time. Olivia presents us with the wild groupie sex, the seamy, gritty permanent and uninhibited party. There's sex in front of other band members, sex in hotels, sex in public, sex videos and sex in hospitals.  Basically, if there's a an adjective which modifies the word "sex," it will appear in one of these books.   For the number of places and ways to have sex on a tour bus or in public Olivia deserves some kind of prize.  

A lot of the Sinners on Tour series is about this kind of lifestyle.  Is it the kind of lifestyle we imagine fictive  rock and roll stars to lead? Is it the way life on tour really is?  I asked Olivia on Twitter about that: 

Of course we should skip the endless monotony of highway hours as a tour bus rolls from place to place.  And, that boredom, along with the freedom engendered by rock and roll in myth and reality probably spurs a lot of the very naughty behavior we see in the books and the abuse of drugs and alcohol so associated with the music industry across many genres.

But aside from the bad boys of roll and roll, their significant others and their groupies we get a fuller portrait of characters than that one-sided, party-on! musician, especially in ROCK HARD with Sed. Now Sed started out as pretty much a total ass hat: he's mean to his girl, and generally treats women as disposable masturbatory sleeves. He is beginning to find it boring though and as other members of the band start to grow up, and he's faced with some serious consequences for the boys in the band's behaviors he starts to mature.  It's not always a forward progression.  When the lives of his friends and Jessica's reputation are so severely impacted by careless he starts to think and he generally owns up to his behavior and learns from it. He also learns that his words have effects on others.  Why someone who writes lyrics wouldn't know that must be a maturity thing.  He also grows to the point of some very altruistic action that would be hard for anyone to take on.

Sed's female love interest, Jessica, is not completely without fault in the many misunderstandings and fights the couple as.  Even as he owns his issues, Jessica still seems to blame him whenever anything bad happens. This is a bit different than what I usually see in the genre.  In this Cunning presents really contemporary romance informed by our lives. Each party bears fault in the relationships missteps.  Often it's one party being injured and the other being dumb, cruel or a jerk.  In ROCK HARD neither Sed or Jessica handle their relationship well; they are compatible sexually but are both emotionally immature.

Someone told me that they considered "fantasy" fiction to be those things that couldn't happen in reality.  In that case much contemporary erotic fiction fits right in for the sheer quantity of sex, and the number of orgasms produced without a need for medical attention afterward. Of course Jessica's ability to have dozens of multiple orgasms without developing urinary track cystitis is amazing and probably the largest fantasy element.  But erotic romantic fiction with the full compliment of issues faced by real people having sex would be less than erotic or romantic.

Cunning uses the tour bus as the setting for a story, and the milieu of rock and roll provides the societal norms in the same way a Regency romance might take place at a country manner and the times determine the norms. In this way she tells a comprehensive story of two people who have to find, lose, grow up and find each other again. They come up against other social norms that ostensibly reflect a more conservative and staid existence and standards, but underneath, we learn there's as much depravity in buttoned up tight academia as there is on a Rock and Roll tour, maybe more for the denial of it.  So the crazy, guitar smashing, rock and roll world is probably not all that different from any other lifestyle where people are in a small space under difficult conditions for a period of time. It's both a source of pleasure and pain, foments love and friendship or dislike and enmity.

For those seeking erotic fiction with heart and story along with lots of intimate action I can highly recommend ROCK HARD and the Sinners on Tour. This is a series, but the books also solo well.

AT BARNES AND NOBLE:
Backstage Pass (Sinners on Tour Series #1)
Double Time (Sinners on Tour Series #3)
Rock Hard (Sinners on Tour Series #2)






 
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Everything I Ever Wanted to Know about BDSM and Finally Found Someone To Ask!

Amazon

I recently read two books by Joey W. Hill, BOARD RESOLUTION and HOSTILE TAKEOVER; I reviewed them yesterday. The books were exciting, definitely stimulating, well-written and thought-provoking. Since I found one of the books through NetGalley.com, a reviewers' resource, I had an opportunity to ask Joey some questions that arose from my reading.

Joey was kind enough to respond to my inept attempts to understand BDSM.  I really respect and admire Joey — she owns her sexuality and has had the courage to make her fantasies closer to her reality. She's smart, has a sense of humor and she is a submissive.  She shares her understanding of the BDSM lifestyle through her fiction.  While it's certainly hot enough to melt your heart and your inhibitions, it's also well done. 

Amazon

The books were part of her Knights of the Board Room series. The company is called K&A and they have board meetings around a big table, which is probably more oblong than round, but you get the idea. All the guys on the board are dominants. There aren't any women on the board, yet. In BOARD RESOLUTION, Matt, the Chairman of the KA Board, with the help of his team of partners, Jon, Ben, Lucas and Peter, makes a move on the woman he loves and who he knows is a submissive.


In HOSTILE TAKEOVER, Ben finds out his new assistant is a woman who wants him with all his kinky flaws. She's also one of his best friends' wife's kid sisters and that's how he's always thought he saw her. Can he lose the baggage from his awful youth before he loses her?



I am not going to pretend Joey is right here talking to me. I have friends who do that really well, but I can't pull it off. I sent her these questions and she got her responses back to me really quickly. I really appreciate her thoughtful responses. Thanks Joey!

❦

 
Steph: Can you define "Edgeplay" as you use it in describing Ben? He doesn't seem as extreme as knives and asphyxiation, which is what I find when I look up the term.

Joey: The term edgeplay is generally applied to practices that are associated with higher physical or psychological risk. Because people are infinitely creative, it’s hard to make an all-inclusive list of what is and isn’t edgeplay. Some of Ben’s activities would be considered edgeplay, like his pursuit of the consensual non-consent (where the sub agrees the safe word only stops the session if the Dom determines there’s a medical emergency), his dishing out of types of pain that could result in breaking skin and causing blood flow, etc. Though it didn’t occur in this book, knife play is not outside his repertoire. As far as asphyxiation, he might put a sub underwater for short periods of time to play with oxygen deprivation, but he would not indulge in any type of strangulation. Most Dominants avoid that type of asphyxiation, because way too much can go wrong with it. It’s extremely risky.


Steph: In BOARD RESOLUTION Jon has fabricated a device for Savannah that pretty much stimulates her from front to rear. It sounds pretty ideal. Does it really exist? Where could I buy one? Seriously.


Joey: Lol… A lot of the things Jon designed, like this, came straight from my imagination, though it was often helped along by my experience or knowledge of toys/equipment that offered some aspects of what he developed. For example, there are plenty of things that stimulate clit, rim and vagina, just not all at the same time. I don’t like to say such a device doesn’t exist, however, because there are literally thousands of sex toys out there and many places to buy them. There are a multitude of great engineering minds out there as well, thinking up possibilities for more intense sexual experiences.

Steph: Sigh, oh well...
Also in BOARD RESOLUTION the board room is outfitted with some pretty high tech equipment. To your knowledge do set ups like that exist outside of books? Can you imagine what stockholders would say if they knew‽


Joey: My answer to this would be similar to #2. When it comes to the human fascination with sex, I think we have no limits other than resources or imagination on what we might create or consider. There is some incredibly high-end furniture and technical equipment available specifically for sexual purpose. For example, there’s a “sex suit” that can stimulate the body in a variety of ways, and a modified version of it is mentioned later in the series, in Afterlife (I first heard about the prototype being tested at the big annual adult convention in Las Vegas). The cocoon bed (noted in Hostile Takeover) is available through the Stockroom. As far as the stockholder question, I know if I was one, I’d be saying “where do I sign up to test this out?” (laughter)

A BDSM-style collar that buckles in the back. This was a featured picture of Lady Byron (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Steph: Many of these items would be out of the reach of the middle class person. Is BDSM mostly populated by the wealthy?


Joey: That’s the lovely fantasy aspect to romance, where our handsome heroes often have access to a much more impressive set of resources than the normal everyday person. However, BDSM is populated by folks from every demographic, because it’s not limited by wealth in the slightest (many of the ones I met at a fetish con last year were middle class income range). In fact, many in the BDSM lifestyle fondly refer to their local hardware store as “Dom Depot”, because there are so many hardware, household and maintenance items that can be used directly or perverted into BDSM tools and toys (spatulas for paddles, heavy gauge hooks in a ceiling support beam for a sex swing or standing restraint, gym equipment turned into sex furniture, etc).


Steph:  To be sure, in a book we only see a small percentage of what a character's life would be if they were a real person. In your stories though, these very professionally powerful individuals seem to spend a lot of time planning and engaging in sex. I think that is one thing people think about people with different sexual orientations than what we're taught to believe is the norm. Again, in your experience, is every day in this lifestyle about sex? It sets a pretty high bar for the rest of us.


Joey: When a person reads an erotic romance, the fantasy pulls them in, with elements of physical and emotional reality interwoven to create empathy and hold them in the story. But since they are reading for that fantasy element, an author typically won’t spend an inordinate amount of time detailing the hero’s daily agenda outside of the wooing of the heroine (wink). It’s understood that schedule might exist, but it’s not relevant to the movement of the plot except when needed for further character development.


Now, as far as actual BDSM practitioners, the spectrum is broad there. There are couples who only practice it in their bedroom when they do have time for sex between work, kids, etc, just like anyone else. Then there are 24/7 couples, where they are in Dom/sub mode at all times with each other, but even they still have to coordinate the issues of job, family, discretion, as necessary. That’s a demanding thing, so you don’t find as many 24/7’s in the BDSM world as you find in books. For most people, it’s something that they do during private/intimate time with one another, the same way they schedule/manage vanilla sex. To get into the mood, they may have a familiar ritual, like the donning of a collar or a particular phrase or key word from the Dom that puts them both into a session mode (the BDSM form of candles and soft music – lol). 


Steph:  You're very open about your sexuality which I admire. Do people writing your site (Storywitch.com) ask more for sexual advice, writing advice or are people mostly interested in the work they're reading or have read? Do people treat you as the Dr. Ruth of BDSM?

Joey: LOL – sometimes. Yes, I have received requests for advice and guidance, mostly from people interested in learning more about BDSM for them personally, an interest that was raised from reading BDSM erotic romance. I typically direct them to some good literary and forum sources of information on that – the real Dr. Ruths of BDSM. The bulk of the communications I receive are about the books themselves, however.


Steph:  In the press release [I had access to through NetGalley] you say that you present BDSM as a sexual orientation like being gay. Since we, as a society, are coming to an understanding of homosexuality as biological i(nature v. nurture) do you mean to say one is born with a BDSM gene?

Joey: Some are, yes. Many enjoy BDSM as a way to spice up their sex life or add a different dimension to their relationships; for them, it is not an orientation like being gay or straight; they are simply sexually adventurous and enjoying the benefits of that (like straight girls experimenting with each other in college – wink). However, for some people, being a Dom or sub is part of the blood, like being gay or straight, and they exhibit those tendencies in most aspects of their lives, in ways sexual or non-sexual. When in a sexual situation, however, they are most satisfied when they can assume that role. I have recently heard of studies that the Dom/sub “orientation” can manifest very young. For example, before the age of ten, I was having my Ken doll tie up my Barbies and torture them in his “dungeon”, with no idea why I found that fascinating (grin). I spent the twenty years before I was a fulltime author working as a secretary, loving any opportunity to support the needs of others, helping them fulfill their goals. So submissive elements were present throughout my life, even before I embraced the more sexual side of submission in my mid-twenties.


Steph: I was thinking how people would react to some of the physical marks we might see on a practitioner and it brought to mind the way we view bruises from extreme sports (where the damage is much more likely to be permanent). Could you also say that BDSM is like extreme sports but without the same degree of social acceptance?

For example when reading today about edge play several sources said the permanent harm, infection or even death could occur even while the participant was involved. But if the worst were to happen people would be shocked. But when something happens mountain climbing or skydiving, usually trying to get to that same space, the climber or skier isn't seen as a shocking, but heroic, or dare devilish. Is it an unfair double standard? Do you see the parallel I am seeing or have I just missed the mark?

Joey: I think you are making a credible comparison, though I will add the caveat that pain/marking is only one type of BDSM practice. Many Doms/subs are more into the psychological or restraint aspects and may never pick up a flogger or even indulge in spanking.


You are correct that the lack of general social acceptance of BDSM makes it harder for society to tolerate its risk than that which exists in extreme sports. Whereas extreme sports is in public view, and associated with pushing the boundaries in a way that connects it with things like going to the moon or climbing Mt. Everest, BDSM is very personal and intimate, and the risk of harm is coming from a person’s interaction with another human being, not from the possibility of a chute not opening. Plus, people’s experience, either directly or indirectly, with family abuse or criminal violence makes it hard for those outside the lifestyle to understand how very different healthy BDSM practice is from that. It’s one reason you’ll find many BDSM organizations contributing to domestic violence projects, underscoring how very different BDSM is from that. You mention the risk of death, infection and harm from BDSM practice or edgeplay; in healthy BDSM practice, a Dom’s very first priority is the protection and wellbeing of his/her sub, even for the most risky types of interactions. The sub also has a responsibility to use his/her safe word and the boundaries they have set up to protect themselves as well. The goal is mutual pleasure, not crippling injury. 

Steph: I had one more question about whether she had ever thought of putting a woman on the board of K&A. It's not that the women don't do business with them, but the group is really close, and all dominants, so I think it would be hard.

Joey: No plans at this time. K&A is a private company, with Matt as the major stockholder and the other four men holding the remaining shares, so the “board” is essentially the ownership of the company. Savannah is CEO and owner of Tennyson Industries, so she has her hands full there. However, as Matt’s wife, she (and his heir, their child) would be beneficiary of his shares in the event of his death (which occasionally leads to some humorous comments from the other guys about her plotting his murder to get control of both companies, lol). You’re correct in that the close bond the men share doesn’t lend itself to opening up that executive circle, though they of course have other people in the management levels of the company they regard highly.



Joey, thanks so much for your time and energy. I already downloaded another book in the series! And Joey also has several other series out there: a Witch series, the Vampire Queen Novels series, and The Nature of Desire series!

JOEY W. HILL AT AMAZON

Hostile Takeover & other Joey W. Hill Books


Board Resolution At Barnes & Noble


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