Kink After Dinner
Kink After Dinner is about a middle-aged heroine who throws off her inhibitions and has fun with BDSM. A 'friend' talked about having some kink after we'd had dinner one time, and I always thought what a great title that would make for a book one day. The story then came about thinking what circumstances one would have kink after dinner! I loved throwing in the secrecy and intrigue.
Please tell us about the character of Beth.
In some aspects she is based on me - in her fifties, has put on some weight, but that has enhanced parts of her body that were never big! Unlike Beth, I have never been married, nor do I have teenage kids - I drew on those aspects of her character from friends of a similar age. But Beth's inhibitions earlier in life, and the excitement at trying out BDSM are pure me!
You are a big reader so who are your favourite authors?
My all-time favourite book is Lord of the Rings - so Tolkien is my top author. I love a mixture of genres: sci-fi, fantasy, historical, romance, paranormal, erotic romance/erotica, so my other favourite authors include Melanie Rawn, Lisanne Norman, Jan Bowles, Anne McCaffrey, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Tatum Throne, David Feintuch, Janine Ashbless, Susan Laine - to name but a few.
When did your passion for genealogy begin?
I've always loved family trees and I was first attracted to royal family trees - and I still enjoy studying the royal families of Europe. I have plans, one day, to do a generational story with family trees included in each book. I started on my own family history aged about 14, and have continued ever since. Just last week, I found a site that had the admittance records for the school my grandmother attended, and after downloading them I discovered that she hadn't lived in the village in Devon I had originally assumed - instead she first lived in tenement buildings in the city of Exeter. The admittance records recorded the earlier school she had attended. It is always exciting discovering things like that.
You also like to go walking, so how much does this give you time and space to be inspired?
I do love hiking - this may sound stupid, but I find it helps balance out my energies. If I have been doing a lot of mental work like writing then I often get restless and need to get out and walk so that the physical side of me is as exhausted as the mental! LOL
Why do you want to come back as your rabbit in the next life?
Ah, that would be because all the rabbits I've had have been so loved (and spoilt) and lived such a good life with me that I want to be the rabbit that gets so much love! (Maybe I just need a man?!)
Why were you drawn to erotic fiction over other genres?
For years I read Mills & Boon and considered writing for them, but those books were 60,000 words. It was through the advent of e-books and the novella that I discovered my preferred writing length - the erotic romance genre leads the way in e-books and the novella, so it made sense to write one of these. In addition, you can write in various sub-genres so an author is not limited to just romance. You can have an erotic romance in outer space with aliens, in a forest as a werewolf, in a BDSM club with Doms, and so on.
What is next for you?
Kink After Dinner is a 'taster' book for a longer series of stories set in an English country manor that holds BDSM events. It struck me how many double entendres you could get from the places around a manorial estate. For instance, riding crops are not used on horses in the stables but on the submissives, balls take place in the ballroom with the emphasis on a part of the man's body! You will have to read it to find out what exactly is hunted in the 'fox hunt'!