The year is well underway and so are my next titles, but I still have to whip the stories and the characters into shape.
I’m working on all three new titles simultaneously. What that means in reality is that I work on a story for a couple of weeks, put it aside and work on another. It keeps the tales and scenarios fresh when I return to them.
One of the new stories is in two parts because it did start as one book, but there was too much to squeeze in … and I know that shouldn’t be something to complain about. The third new one is a standalone … .
Over the past few days I’ve also been revisiting my covers to give them a fresh look.
Click on a title from the main menu or choose a book cover from the main catalogue and you’ll be taken to a screen with the cover and the blurb (insight) to the story. There are arrows to the left and right to allow you to scroll through my entire catalogue. Enjoy.
I’m pleased that the sales show that there is an interest in my writing, but without reviews from readers, it leaves an author like me unaware of where my strengths or weaknesses lie. I considered stopping but if the titles are being bought, some of you out there like my storytelling.
In the meantime, thank you to my regulars for your support.
Like any author, even as we approach Christmas I feel the need … well, apart from the obvious one, I feel the need to do a promotion, so three books will be offered at 99p/99c for five days.
What can you expect to find in the three books above?
To save me writing it all out here, if you look at the big bundle of categories on the left you’ll see the general spread of the subject matter. Each story is different, of course, but they all have the joys of sex being performed in a variety of situations.
I’m presently wondering whether to continue because the sales show an interest in my writing, but without reviews from readers, it leaves an author like me unaware of where my strengths or weaknesses lie. It might all stop with a ‘dirty dozen’ novels and one book of shorts.
I’ll produce a post in January 2021 to put my thoughts out there and to give an insight into what might be my final story, Fantasy to Reality.
In the meantime, thank you to my regular readers for your support.
This is my eleventh title and once again I look at the world of the crossdresser.
In this story, I take a sympathetic view of what happens when Brandon, a 23-year-old, flees his hometown to start afresh but things go awry for him quite rapidly. As I’ve done previously, I’ve kept the cast of characters low in number to concentrate on the relationships and the action.
If you’ve enjoyed my other work, you’ll like this one too. For those who haven’t given my stories a try, why not check out the Preview/Buy, or take a ‘Look Inside’ on the Amazon page and see if you like the tone and style.
You’re a guy with a beautiful, sexy wife, a lovely home and a steady job. You also have a couple of great friends who you meet up with every Friday to play cards. That would be a fine pastime but it changes from being a casual weekly flutter when the stakes are raised and you are lured into the world of the IOU … and then your debts just look like words on paper.
Perhaps you wouldn’t see it for the sickness that it is, and Danny certainly didn’t, even when Heather made it clear that the signs were there.
What could make the situation any worse?
Perhaps another addiction would be the last straw, like a need to view porn. Of course, it’s not a problem … until that beautiful wife of yours finds out about it.
If she’s like Heather and not the type of person who’s willing to let you walk all over her it changes the stakes in both your pastimes.
What’s that old saying about a woman scorned?
These are the main ingredients of my latest tale and there is more than one twist as Danny’s life unravels from being an almost normal suburban existence.
1. Reunion – When a beautiful young woman organises the class reunion she produces a video to provide a bit of background on how she’s kept in touch with her classmates over the years.
2. A Family Friend – A young man arrives at a remote house hoping to spend a day and night of wild sex with his new girlfriend … but a man opens the door.
3. Lost and Found – A woman finds she is unable to reach a book on a high shelf in a store. Another female customer lifts it down for her and then suggests that they know each other.
4. Brotherly Love – An older step-brother gets to know his half-sibling a bit more than either of them might have expected.
5. The Special Gift – A delectable woman is home alone with her eighteen-year-old step-son who was waiting for a special gift and a night out with his older brother.
6. One Night Stand – It’s fine for a man to have an addiction to one night stands, just as long as he isn’t married … and gets caught.
I’m hoping that my short stories will succeed in more than one way. Entertainment is as always the primary aim. I’d also like to prove that you don’t have to write a novel to create a fictional world with sexy scenes. My third target is to tease you with my short erotica so that you’re tempted to try my longer work.
Who says size doesn’t matter?
Watch out, Reunion and other erotic stories are waiting for you.
In Searching: Part 1, our curious friend Greg started writing a story in which his hero, Glen indulged in a few unusual sexual practices. For Greg, telling the story had been more than a fantasy for a long time.
Was the story simply a way of Greg releasing his personal innermost desires without admitting them?
He left Amsterdam for a brief attachment to a bar in Eindhoven and while there he met a friend from his previous life, plus a new and exciting female friend. If he didn’t want to admit what was on his mind it was foolhardy to let somebody else read the manuscript, but he did just that.
As Searching: Part 2 opens we find out what’s on Greg’s mind now that he’s had his sexual horizons broadened, among other things. On his return to Amsterdam, he gets to know Heidi, his neighbour, and the erotic adventure continues.
It seems that Greg was more prepared to indulge his curiosity than he first thought, and what could be better than a lovely girl to be a guide.
As I said previously, both parts were written together in the early drafts.
The second part of the story is complete but may need a few minor changes so it will not be long in coming … the target publication date for Searching: Part 2 is Sunday 1st March.
Okay, don’t get your panties in a twist … it may say Searching: Part 1, but Searching: Part 2 will be coming soon afterwards. I did consider them coming simultaneously but there’s enough of that in the narrative.
How can I be so sure that the second book will be coming out so rapidly?
This story encompasses different sub-genres and as the general idea unfolded over months of steady writing I realised it was heading towards one big story. On closer inspection, it occurred to me that there were different ways of looking at this issue. I could plough onward until it became an unwieldy and tedious tale, or I could find the ideal point and give it a snip … keeping it as one story, but told in two parts.
The narrator is a writer and is in effect admitting, or ‘confessing’ how things evolved for him but by word or deed, he prompted some of the incidents to take place. At the same time as living his new life, the main character is writing a story which is featured within the main tale, and in this, he tells of a young man in similar circumstances to himself.
Yes, it’s effectively two stories for the price of one if you want to look at the value for money aspect.
I aim to produce Searching: Part 1 within the first week of February 2020, and then about one month later I’ll be publishing Searching: Part 2. At the present time, I have no intention of it becoming a trilogy, but once these naughty boys and girls get a taste for the unusual there is no stopping them.
If I were to receive reviews or contacts told me they’d like another episode, I’ll be happy to deliver.
Until the publication of Searching: Part 1 … keep your powder dry and your gel slippery.
Maid for Pleasure is my latest offering which takes the reader on a behind the scenes journey with a character starting out on a new lifestyle.
In this story, a young man is lined up to be made redundant and lose the room he rents. Right on time is an opportunity for him to consider … which will depend on his honesty, and to a certain extent on his willingness to be obedient.
How far will Simon be prepared to go for the delectable Harriet?
My interview with erotica author, Katya Cumming, has been promised for some time, so with great pleasure, I’d like to introduce you to the new girl on the (writing) block.
Q1. Katya, I respect your decision not to provide a profile picture because of certain types of people. Would you be kind enough to give us a brief description of yourself and your background?
Two descriptions attributed to me have been curvaceous and statuesque, and I like both. I’m a thirty-something brunette from Edinburgh, Scotland, who works in fashion retail. Relationships are for those involved, so that’s where mine will stay. In my quieter moments, I read and write, and sometimes those things are done while I travel which I also enjoy. To keep in shape I swim, jog, cycle, and do aerobics.
Q2. What type of books did you read when you were younger?
While very young I loved adventure stories, but by the time I was a teenager, I’d progressed to romance. It was while babysitting for a neighbour I first discovered books with more interesting topics. The first erotica book I read was sci-fi, but it just made it more fun for me, imagining the things the aliens could do with the human body. It captured my imagination.
Q3. What attracted you to writing erotica rather than any other genre?
I was a fan of romance, but I needed more grit, and moved up to steamy romance. It didn’t take long before curiosity got the better of me and erotica was next. A couple of authors were okay, but most stories were more like plot-starved, sexual fantasy than erotica, so I decided to try my hand … if you’ll pardon the pun.
Q4. How long did you write before publishing?
In terms of time, probably about two years. I’d written some poetry and short stories which were well-received in writing groups, but novels are a different discipline and frightening at first. Over quite a long time I produced the early stages of three novels but I left them aside, adding to them occasionally.
Q5.How long does it take generally from starting a story to seeing it published on Amazon?
I would suggest a minimum of four months. Once I have an idea I make a few notes and leave them aside to consider from which start point it might best evolve. I also tend to leave the manuscript aside regularly to let me work on something else. The Mistress, which is my shortest story so far was my quickest first draft. It took me fourteen days and I stopped at fifty-thousand words. I reduced it to forty-seven thousand words.
Q6. How many titles do you have available at the present time?
Now that my latest, ‘His & Hers’ is released, I have five books out there, all on Amazon KU.
Q7. Many authors depend on experience for their subject matter—how much of your work is a direct result of personal experience?
Small segments in different stories is the best answer. This is where the male of the species is different from the female I suppose. A guy who sleeps around for a while is sowing his wild oats and is a bit of a lad, but if a girl plays the field she’s a tart. In my mid-teens, I had two relationships with girls, but by the time I was eighteen, I’d confirmed I enjoyed a roll in the hay with a girl or a guy. I’ve been involved in a threesome twice.
Q8. Feminisation and strong female characters are prominent in your work—could you explain why you lean in this direction?
Sexuality is a deep subject. When you delve into the area of ‘gender-benders’ as they’re so cruelly labelled, there is a myriad of areas to explore. Crossdressing is a multi-layered topic and well-suited to the erotica genre. The why and wherefore create a story. Whatever men tell you, and you should know, if a woman is attractive and dominant it’s more likely to add spice to a sexual encounter, rather than be seen as threatening. What that dominant woman wants, she will get one way or the other. Only a chauvinist or a dyed-in-the-wool alpha male would think otherwise.
Q9. What is your response to those who say that erotica is simply literary porn?
If they’re describing a book which is no more than page after page of explicit sex scenes then I’d agree with them. However, if those explicit sex scenes are integral to and supporting a cohesive story, then it is not porn, it is strong erotica.
Q10. Do you believe there is a place in the market for erotica, and strong erotica in particular?
Yes, of course, or people like us wouldn’t be spending weeks and months developing a story to convey the activities of our characters. I’m an advocate of allowing people the freedom to read whatever they please, and if for example, a person has difficulty forming relationships, has an unsatisfactory sex-life or simply enjoys a bit of titillation, a graphic erotic novel might be a release for them, in a manner of speaking.
Q11. What’s your opinion of those who profess to be erotica authors but produce regular, small volumes of badly-written, graphic sex stories?
First of all, the only way they can be called authors is due to having composed the material. They are not necessarily creative people. A graphic description of sex is not particularly creative in itself. Secondly, many of these people rely on no more than three or four plots, usually involving a cash-strapped person, an experiment, or pure fantasy. There is little or no research and no substance. In my opinion, lazy writers are despicable because they are money-grabbers who also affect the reading public’s view of indie authors who are working hard.
Q12. Who are your favourite indie authors?
You are obviously one, Tom, and that’s not simply because of this interview. I’m also a big fan of Sarah Stuart who writes steamy romance, and Lesley Hayes who is just an incredible writer. For the joy of a true storyteller, I like Patrick ‘Max’ Power, Rebecca Bryn, Lucinda E. Clarke, and Mike Billington. I’m a massive fan of the Indie Author Support and Discussion group; all talented international authors. It’s handy to have something to frighten the pants off me so for that I depend on Anne Francis Scott.
Q13. Which, if any, other genres might you consider writing in the future?
I have a yearning to write something in the sci-fi arena, but I’m not sure yet whether I’d go with dystopian, apocalyptic or outer space.
Q14. Can you tell us about your cover designs and how they came about?
I feel that if not from a scene in a story, the cover should at least highlight one aspect or provide a hint of what lies beyond the title. You know as much about them as I do since you’ve made the effort to produce them for me.
Q15. Why have you avoided being interviewed until this point?
Again this is an area of which you have a good grasp. For your benefit and to aim for credibility, I didn’t think it was fitting to be revealed until I’d produced at least five titles in my name and achieved significant sales. I felt that for a long time I was locked away, waiting. When you decided to bring my work to the fore, create my character, my name, and give me my own website it meant so much to me.
Thank you, Tom, for this interview and for bringing me and my work to the attention of the wider public. I do understand how difficult it has been for you to maintain this secret aspect of your life as an author while you’ve worked on my development.
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Thank you for opening up to me, Katya. Please, finish your coffee before you get dressed. It’s been great working hand in glove with you and I look forward to your next in-depth tail … oops, I mean, of course, your next in-depth tale. I’m happy we finally have your personal story out there.
And to all who are interested in Katya’s naughty tales, here are links to her work.
