Nearly there, nearly there ...

Not long now until LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX is finished. Just a few more weeks and I can start thinking about future endeavours. Or should that be adventures?

I've just seen the proposed cover for this new novel and it is HOT, HOT, HOT! The two models in the cover photograph look incredible, especially in such excruciatingly high heels, black leather fetish outfits -- and with one holding a crop. Now that's what I call a classy BDSM cover.

Cat x

Hot Stories

It's been well over a month since my last confession, so I hope you're still checking back every now and then to see how I am, what I'm doing etc. And what I'm doing this month is finishing up my latest erotic novel for Nexus, entitled LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX.

It's a story of lesbian passion and punishment, with male subs and plenty of fetish gear and partying thrown in. Just the sort of thing Pete from Big Brother would enjoy ... well, that's what I hear, anyway!

Cat. x

Wait a minute, Mr Postman!

If you have read any of my novels and would like to get in touch - preferably because you enjoyed what you read, not in order to tell me what a bad girl I am! - do please leave a comment below or write to me c/o Nexus, Virgin Books, in London (see inside the cover of any Nexus or Black Lace novel for the address or visit their website - link in the side column).

It's always a marvellous thing to be contacted by readers and makes a writer like me feel appreciated and also more aware of my responsibilities to the reading public. Making it hot is simply not enough anymore. It needs to be hot and tight and ... well, I'm sure you get the general idea. I'm talking about my prose, of course.

Besides, sitting alone day after day at the keyboard can be a rather lonely existence. Especially when what you're writing leaves you good and steamed-up!

Cat x

How are you all doing in this scorching weather?

Hi guys, how are you all doing? I've been loving this June heatwave ... just lying about in the long grass, which is deliciously naughty for me, sunbathing instead of writing. In other words, I've been a very lazy Cat indeed!

So I've promised myself sternly that from this week onwards I'm going to stay indoors more often, even when it's sunny, and write me some hot, hot, hot erotica instead, get another few chapters of LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX under my belt.
Cat x

My Old 'Live Journal' Days

I just remembered about my old Live Journal site, in the bad old days before I discovered the loveliness and convenience of Blogger.

To read some of my old entries (!), click on Cat Scarlett's Old Live Journal.

Ah, bless ...

Mitzi Szereto at Foyles Bookshop

Thought you might be interested in this London event.

Cat xxxx



On Wednesday evening 14 June, join critically acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto at Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross for a discussion about the writing and publishing of erotic fiction. Topics to include censorship, the reaction of the media and buying public to erotica by women, a discussion of good sex writing versus bad sex writing, plus information on the major imprints in the erotic market. Mitzi will be joined by Emily Dubberley of Scarlet, a sex magazine for women which currently attracts 40,000 readers per month. The event is sponsored by Women in Publishing, a non-profit organisation devoted to promoting the status of women in publishing.


Date: Wednesday 14 June 2006
Time: 6.30 for 7 p.m.
Venue: The Boardroom (3rd Floor, off the music section), Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB
Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road
Admission: free to members; £3.00 non-members


Mitzi Szereto has more than a dozen books to her credit, including the critically acclaimed Erotic Fairy Tales: A Romp Through the Classics; The World’s Best Sex Writing 2005 (non-fiction); Dying For It: Tales of Sex & Death; Wicked: Sexy Tales of Legendary Lovers; and the Erotic Travel Tales anthology series. She’s also penned several best-selling erotic novels as M. S. Valentine. Mitzi is the pioneer of the erotic writing workshop in the UK and Europe, teaching them from the prestigious Cheltenham Festival of Literature to the Greek islands. She’s been featured in publications ranging from the Sunday Telegraph (London), Independent (London), Toronto Star, Family Circle, Writing Magazine, Scarlet, and Forum to Bravo UK Television, Telecinco TV 5 (Madrid), and BBC Radio. Her outspoken views on the erotic literary scene have made her 'the author and editor who has put the "literature" back into erotica.' Her work as an anthology editor has earned her the American Society of Authors and Writers’ Meritorious Achievement Award. Originally from the USA, she now lives in England.

For further details, contact: publicity@wipub.org.uk
www.wipub.org.uk

How Did My Words Get So Dirty?

I was recently asked to talk about my working methods, so I thought it would be a nice idea to share some of my responses with you on this blog and add a few extra comments that I thought of afterwards!



Q: Do you have a set writing routine, Cat?

A: I have quite a busy life, with many different demands, so each day is different. What I tend to do is set aside a particular time each day for writing - I usually decide when that will be on getting up and looking at my schedule, or sometimes the night before if I've got an early start - and then try hard to stick to that time. If I don't, it's too easy to let things slide and not get any work done at all. Which would definitely mean a spanking was in order!



Q: I've been dying to ask ... is there a man (or woman) in your life who keeps you on the straight and narrow?

A: I don't know about the straight and narrow! But I do have a partner - very firmly male! - who supports me in everything I do, both career-wise and in my personal life. I did have a girlfriend for a few years before I met my current partner and she was very supportive of my writing too, though I hadn't started writing erotica at that time. I've been lucky, somehow always finding the right people to share my life with. During the short periods when I've been without a partner, I've found it quite difficult to work. I don't know whether it's the companionship and support, or the sex on tap that does it for me, but I'm really much better at everything when I'm sharing my bed with someone special!



Q: Some of the relationships described in your books, easpecially the early books, are very intense. The men in particular seem highly dominant and even cruel at times, sort of anti-heroes, behaving in a very sadistic way towards your female characters. That's a standard line in SM fiction, of course, but I was wondering whether you were drawn towards that kind of extreme fetish behaviour because it paralleled something in your own life?

A: You mean, am I an eager submissive who gets wet at the thought of dominant males with broad leather straps and canes? Not really, no. I've explored that sort of sexual territory in the past, sure, and found it hugely exciting at the time. How else could I write about it so frequently in my novels and in so much closely-observed detail?

But sadomasochism is just one of many interesting places I've visited mentally and physically and emotionally in my life. It's not a fetish for me, if you define a fetish as something which someone actively needs in order to get off, in order to get aroused and achieve orgasm. I often think about such scenarios initially, to 'get me going', and I'm certainly still exploring SM behaviour and power games in my books.



Q: Your new book, the one you're working on right now, that's about female domination, isn't it?

A: It's called LOVE SONG OF A DOMINATRIX, yes.



Q: And how are you researching that?

A: (Laughing) Mainly by slapping impudent reporters like yourself!



Q: Okay, I'll change the subject! We were talking about working methods. Do you work the old-fashioned way with paper and pen or with a laptop?

A: Both, actually. I love writing in cafes and other public spaces where you can watch the world go by while you work, so I often slip out of the house to be alone and work on my laptop with a coffee - and a cigarette in the past, but I've given up now! Sometimes I've forgotten to charge the laptop or it's inconvenient to take it, so I use the old-fashioned stand-by of a notepad and pen. The same applies to those sudden flashes of inspiration you get while you're out shopping or whatever, and you just need to jot down a line or an idea before it fades. At home, I use my main computer, which is a Mac. I love Macs!


Q: How long does it take you to write a Nexus novel?

A: Nexus fiction is usually about 70-75,000 words long. I write about 1000 words a day on average. So some days I can write a blue streak and manage nearly 3000. Other days I roll over and go back to sleep. I dislike routines so I prefer to run my writing life in a very flexible way. I try to achieve between seven and ten thousand words a week. How I get there is left up to chance and inclination. When I fall behind, I beat my naked back severely with tied-together stalks of nettles and strap myself to my computer desk without even so much as a toilet break for five hours or until the work is done. Seriously though, I do beat myself up about a low weekly word count if it goes on too long.

The word-count is everything. Although I love writing erotica, I don't believe in the inspiration of the muse, I believe in the inspiration of the gas bill. You write enough pages, you have a chapter. You write enough chapters, you have a book. It's as simple as that. Though much more fun than it sounds, especially when you're writing an erotic novel!


Q: You only write one or two novels for Nexus a year now. Would you call yourself a professional writer?

A: Absolutely.


Q: Well, that's brilliant. Thanks for talking to me, Cat.

A: Not at all. Perhaps we could talk more off the record now about my research into being a dominatrix ....



IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS YOU'D LIKE TO ASK ME, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

WHAT SUKI WANTS on sale April 5th

ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM 'WHAT SUKI WANTS' on sale in the UK in April, or you can pre-order from Amazon by clicking here.


The heels he had given her were so painfully high, her calves were aching just from standing there.

She walked carefully to the trunk and knelt down beside it, knees soon hurting on the hard floorboards. Peering inside Magdalen’s trunk was like looking at a snapshot of her sex life: jumbled red and silver bolts of silk from the exotic outfits she used to make herself; vibrators, the slim gold ones and the fat plastic ones with clit ticklers; handcuffs; her thigh-high white patent leather boots with zips and slashes up the side; a rubber-covered paddle for punishment; the long dressage whip she had stolen from a riding stable while on holiday in Devon; and feather boas tangled in amongst dresses and tiny skirts in shimmering fabrics and glossy black PVC.

‘These,’ she said at last, lifting out the handcuffs, ‘and this.’

He threw the handcuffs on the bed and took the rubber-covered paddle from her without comment, testing it on the air with a loud whoosh. There was a dildo buried under one of the pink feather boas. Suki stopped, right on the verge of getting to her feet, and reached in to finger the shiny latex shaft.

‘You won’t need that,’ he said. ‘Not this time.’

There was nothing more she wanted from the trunk; she closed the lid and stood up. Turned back to face him, the light from the overhead bulb burning starkly into her eyes. She lowered her head, waiting in silence like a dumb animal.

‘Ready?’

She nodded, still not trusting herself to speak.

He came closer. She could not look him in the face, so looked at his feet instead, planted squarely apart on the dark floorboards. His hairy ankles and calves, strong and well-developed. Her gaze travelled slowly up past his knees to the firm muscular thighs, quite unlike a woman’s. To the penis, erect now, the purplish fruit of its head smooth and swollen. Then he moved, shifting slightly under the light, and the penis moved with him. Swung like a pendulum, heavy and insistent, keeping time with his body.

The paddle exploded across one side of her thigh, a searing white-hot pain that took her by surprise. She staggered a little in the high black plastic heels, looked down at herself in wonder, felt her legs weaken and nearly give way.

‘Again.’

It was her own hoarse voice that had spoken yet his penis jerked, a thick muscle reacting involuntarily to the sound.

He twisted and struck her again, this time on the other thigh, and just below the hem of the black PVC dress a thousand burning ants crawled under her flesh as its impact peaked and began to ebb away.

‘Again, please.’

Danny hesitated, clearly unwilling, then gave her what she needed. But after the next blow of the paddle, he lifted the dress and put his hand directly between her legs. Almost like examining a brood mare, she thought, swaying on her ludicrous heels. She was wet there, more than ready for him. Her eyes hurt in the light and she closed them. She had been ready for years.

LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX

I'm delighted to tell you that my editor at Nexus has just okayed my proposal for another erotic novel provisionally entitled LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX. It's a big step away from the sort of work I was doing before - mainly female submissives enjoying life with an assortment of male dominants - because it's about a female dominant and her relationships with both submissive males and females. It's been fun putting the proposal and 10,000 word sample together and I can hardly wait to crack on with the rest of the novel, now that the storyline's been agreed and my contract is on its way!

To give you an idea of what lies in store for you early in 2007, this is how the basic story goes:

'Dinah is a tough-talking bisexual dominatrix. When she meets the beautiful Grace, a hotel receptionist looking for excitement, she decides to convert the girl to a life of lesbian submission. But Grace is forced to take up the whip herself when her ex-boyfriend Aidan finds out about their relationship and becomes obsessed with teaching Mistress Dinah a lesson.'

Now here's a brief excerpt from LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX, taken from early in the first chapter. The scene takes place in an almost deserted train compartment late at night, where Dinah steps in to rescue Grace from a stranger who has tried to assault her.


Dinah had him off-balance now; fertile territory, just confused enough to be open to suggestion. Her tongue ran wetly along her lipstick and her gaze slipped to his crotch, to the coat pulled so protectively across it. ‘Come on, you showed it to her, you can show it to me.’ Her voice dropped as well, intimate, mocking. ‘Let’s see what you’ve got under there.’

The stranger swore crudely and she laughed, feeling the light buzz of excitement under her skin, almost a ringing in her ears, the rush of adrenalin.

‘What’s the matter? Has it gone soft?’ Her smile was deliberately malicious, calculated to enrage and humiliate him. ‘Don’t worry, that can happen to anyone. We’ll soon get that back.’

‘You going to suck it for me, are you?”

‘Maybe.’

He was torn between fury and lust now, looking at her properly, maybe even sobering up a little, his gaze on her bare legs under the short camel-coloured skirt. She looked respectable except for the heels, her too-high black metal-tipped heels; in his book, they could only belong to a slut, to a woman up to no good, up to her waist in the mire. Dinah could see what he was thinking - the sweet dirty flash of it like a spark flying off the rails in a tunnel - and her body clenched with excitement again, buzzing, buzzing.

‘Is that how you get your kicks? Sucking off strangers on trains?’

There was a self-righteous contempt in his voice. He had her down, pigeon-holed; clean enough on the outside, but a slut underneath, only too eager to kneel and worship at the shrine of his cock. With her mouth too, by the sound of it.

His eyes gleamed when she didn’t answer and she loved the irony of it, wished she could have more time with him, make a proper session of it. ‘Pull your skirt up then,’ he said, trying his luck. ‘Let’s see your knickers.’

‘I haven’t seen your cock yet,’ Dinah reminded him gently.

After a momentary hesitation, still not quite certain about this new development, the man shrugged and jerked the coat aside to reveal his penis; larger than she had expected, and already stiffening again at the prospect of two women instead of one.

Not bad for a random drunk. Pity he would have to be punished for his insolence. Pity for him, of course, not her.

WHAT SUKI WANTS: a sneak preview

Here, as promised, if a little belated, is the cover for WHAT SUKI WANTS, my latest erotic novel due out this spring. It strikes just the right note with these two scantily-clad girls on the cover, WHAT SUKI WANTS being a tale of lesbianism, promiscuity and intrigue, set very firmly in contemporary Britain.

Suki is a young waitress in a Midlands transport cafe, living in a camper van and haunted by the memory of her girlfriend, the beautiful, promiscuous and thoroughly amoral Magdalen, an artist’s model from the States who died under tragic and mysterious circumstances.

When Suki decides to journey up north on a nostalgic tour of their old haunts, it soon emerges that Magdalen had a secret other life - not to mention a husband! - and Suki finds her feelings for Magdalen, and her own sexuality, beginning to change.


Now here’s a brief excerpt from WHAT SUKI WANTS to whet your appetite ...



It was nearly five o’clock by the time Suki finished work at the cafe and strolled back to the camper, deliberately wetting her shoes in each puddle to see the reflection of the sky shiver. The car park was almost empty because the cafe always closed at four on a Friday afternoon. There was a lorry parked up beside her camper but the blinds had been pulled down in the driver’s cab so she guessed he was probably asleep.

Suki climbed in through the side door, kicked off her flat black work shoes and poured herself a small glass of vodka. It was dark inside the camper with the curtains drawn so she lit a few candles, including the new scented ones she had bought in town, and arranged them in a semi-circle on the table.

She wriggled out of her uniform and slipped into a lime-green dressing gown instead, left behind by Magdalen and made of a cool silky material that brushed deliciously against her skin.

It made her feel nostalgic, wearing something that had belonged to Magdalen. Like the American girl was still part of her life, due home any minute so they could curl up together on the bed and make love. But that was just a fantasy. The pitter-patter of rain on the roof and windows told her it had started to rain again. She glanced up at the roof, wondering if she ought to fetch a saucepan for any drips, but the rain didn’t seem strong enough to be leaking through.

Suki sat down in front of her writing pad, chose a good ink pen from her wooden box and started to write a letter.


My darling Magdalen

I missed you so much today, it was like an aching deep in my bones. But you would have been proud of me. Do you remember how we used to talk about men? How you said I needed to start fucking them, to find out what men were like before deciding whether I preferred women to men? Well, I finally did it! Not fucked a man, exactly, but halfway there. I let him wank over me while I masturbated, right here in the camper. It was really dirty, I haven’t come like that since we were together.

I cheated a bit though. I kept thinking of you while he was doing it. Wishing it was you standing between my legs, that his cock was a strap-on. Like the one you used to push into me. Do you remember? The black latex one with those little spikes that pressed right into my cunt whenever we fucked. His cock was big, but nothing like that dildo.

If you’d been there, I’d have spread my legs for you all afternoon and let them sack me for it. Though we wouldn’t have needed a dildo, would we? You always knew how to make me come just with your tongue and fingers. So clever, so beautiful. I wish we were still together.

I know you said if we ever split, or if anything ever happened to you, I should carry on and forget about you. And I’ve tried hard to forget, I really have. But it’s impossible. You were the best lover I ever had, Magdalen. I think about you every second of every day, your mouth, your tongue, your sweet naked body against mine, the way we used to touch each other in bed.

I will adore you forever, my darling Magdalen. You know I’m not clever at finding the right words, like you always could, but I know how good we were together. Come back to me, I can’t bear life without you.

Love Suki



I may well post up more - and hotter - excerpts from WHAT SUKI WANTS as the publication date approaches, so don’t forget to keep checking back. WHAT SUKI WANTS is on sale from early April in the UK, and May in the States, published by Virgin Books. See links for the Virgin Books website. British buyers, you can click here to buy an advance copy of WHAT SUKI WANTS from Amazon UK. Alternatively, Amazon USA can be reached here.

Indecent Proposal

You'll be glad to hear, I'm sure, that I've finally finished putting together that proposal for Nexus and posted it off today to my editor at Virgin Books.

This new novel is provisionally entitled LOVE SONG OF THE DOMINATRIX - though that may change if it doesn't sound as good by the time it goes to print - and, as the title suggests, it's the story of a dominatrix who falls in love. Naturally, the love song of a dominatrix is harsh and fierce; more like the love song of an amazon, I suspect, than that of your average woman.

I am waiting to hear back from my editor, but hopefully he will approve the story more or less in its current form. Fingers, toes and other interesting parts of my anatomy crossed. I'll let you know.

Cat x

back to work at last ...

I've finally got back to work, knuckled down to it, on my latest erotic novel. Since I write 'other things', it's not all been lolling about in bed since my last one was finished, but I have been waiting until my brain was firing on all erotic cylinders before I decided to put finger to keyboard!

Seriously though, I'm just writing the first few chapters and a proposal for my publisher at Virgin Books, to make sure he approves the storyline and characters, and once he's tipped me the wink, I'll start in on the book in earnest.

Since I've been doing a lot of lesbian erotica in recent months, I've decided to stay with that theme for this latest novel ... only with a twist! This will be the story of a lesbian dominatrix. A love story, no less. But not the mushy sentimental sort. Just as you'd expect from a dominatrix, this woman breaks the rules and her lovers too.

Cat x

Lesbian Erotica

I heard today that a US anthology of erotica in which one of my naughtier stories is due to appear will not now be launched until 2007. Disappointing news, since I had been expecting it - and my fee! - to arrive later this spring. But better late than never, I guess. It's a good story too, a lesbian story - a topic I've been increasingly dealing with in my work - with some strong feisty characters: sort of a female Philip Marlowe crossed with ... I don't know, Indiana Jones (i.e. in the last crusade rather than in the temple of doom)?

I'm not sure her character came across as quite that compelling in the end, but it's a fine piece of self-propaganda and a readable story. I look forward to that anthology.

Cx

Happy New Year 2006!

A Happy New Year to anyone browsing this blog - which I admittedly don't post to often enough. Sorry! But hey, some good news for any erotica fans out there, especially those who may have enjoyed my work in the past ... I'm just starting to write a new erotic novel, though I can't say much about the plot or characters at this stage as it's too early for secrets like that to be spilled.

I've had a few more stories accepted by anthologies in the States over the past few months, so I'm looking forward to those cheques - and to seeing the stories in print, naturellement - while I scrape away at the surface of this new novel. I say 'scrape away' at it because Michelangelo believed that his statues were 'inside' the marble and that when he worked the stone, he was releasing the statue underneath, or uncovering it, rather than actually chiselling his statues from a formless lump of marble.

I do think that all the best stories are ones that get teased out of the writer, that are already 'inside' them and just waiting to get written. So I'm in no hurry with this new book, just writing it as the spirit moves me.

Many kisses and good wishes to go with them, for 2006.

Cat xxx