Pretty Poison gets a makeover
September has been a busy month for me and it’s only half gone! I’ve joined the fabulous team at Booktrope Publishing to re-release Pretty Poison with a lovely new cover and fresh edits.
We’ll be celebrating with a Facebook Party on September 24th from 7:00 to 11:00 pm eastern time. Come on over and join a host of truly talented Historical Romance authors for sneak peaks, fun games and Giveaways Galore.
It’s a wonderful time to be a reader of Historical Romance novels and if you’re like me, you peruse the reviews on various websites to determine which books to add to your To Be Read or Wish List. As a writer of Historical Romance novels, I depend upon readers to share their thoughts about my books on those same sites. For a limited time, I’m offering a free ebook copy of Pretty Poison in exchange for an honest review. Simply fill out the Review Form agreeing to post an honest review on Amazon, and other sites where readers will appreciate your reviews and recommendations.
My Victorian era Western Romance Novel, My Darling Gunslinger is finished and I should be getting the manuscript back from my editor for the first round of edits any day now. Then it’ll be up to my amazing cover artist to come up with another beautiful cover. Hopefully My Darling Gunslinger will be released later this year or early in 2016.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the first novella I’ve ever written, and I freely admit it was a challenge to tell the story in a shorter format, but also so much fun to write. The as-yet untitled fairy-tale themed story will be part of a box set to be released soon.
And if all that weren’t enough to keep me busy, the first issue of my Newsletter Corsets and Kisses is hot off the presses (figuratively speaking as it will be going out via email tomorrow). If you haven’t already subscribed, I hope you’ll do so now. Simply click on the Subscribe Now button at the top of this post or Click Here to keep up with my News and Notions, Excerpts and Explorations, Historical Idioms and Ideals, and Corsets and Kisses, of course.
And speaking of corsets, in honor of the re-release of Pretty Poison and the first issue of Corsets and Kisses, I will be gifting one lucky lady with this pretty little confection at the end of the month. Simply post a Comment on my Website to be entered to win. Any comment will do, a bit of news, a notion of any sort, an idiom that’s always struck you as amusing, a regency ideal you’ve found ludicrous, or just a random thought.
Thank you,
Lynne Barron
Corsets and Kisses
It’s no great secret that I adore corsets… For their silk and lace embrace, the naughty flavor they add to a love scene and the luxurious ambiance they give any room.
What you may not know is that I have something of a fascination with first kisses, you might even call it an obsession. When I begin a new romance novel, from the very first sentence I write, I am building toward the first kiss. That one perfect moment in time… When lips first meet, soft breaths mingle and rational thoughts scatter… I adore it, anticipate it and endeavor to lure my readers in with the hope they will become lost right along with my heroine and hero.
Why? It’s quite simple… It’s complicated, that first kiss.
Rather like a corset.
A decadent gift unto itself but also a luscious tease, a hint of what’s to come in the pages to follow. Fraught with tangled emotions and tiny hooks of hope, secrets carefully hidden and breathlessly revealed.
In light of my fascination with both corsets and first kisses, it seems only fitting I title my upcoming monthly newsletter Corsets and Kisses.
Corsets and Kisses will be filled with news and notions, excerpts and explorations, humorous historical idioms and all sorts of giveaways.
To get laces unraveling, my first giveaway ended today:
25 New Subscribers won a Corset Bookmark (shown below).
Angela Perry, Angela Withrow, Brandy Mulder, Brooke Bumgardner, Cathie Morton, Cheri Oggy, Cheryl English, Crystal Sebbring, Debbie Hass, Donna Killian, Elizabeth Stacy, Erin F, Jan Goodard, Jessica Alcazar, Karen Brewer, Karin Anderson, Lisa Richards, Lisa Ringsby, Marcia Berbeza, Patty McKenna Van Hulle, Ruth Wood, Sheryl Larson, Tara Davis, Teresa A Ryan, Bethany Macielag
10 New Subscribers won a Wine Bottle Corset (shown below).
Amy Waite, Deborah Poston, Geraldine Pierson, Gina Ochsenschlager, Mark Watson, Mary Young, Peggy Salkill, Sue Ahn, Vicki Hancock, Wendy Mitchell
1 New Subscriber won an Autographed Copy of Portrait of Passion (link above), a Corset Bookmark and a Wine Bottle Corset.
Rhiannon Rowland
Winners were chosen randomly from all verified email addresses. I will send an email to all winners and their prizes will be mailed out this week.
I hope you will enjoy Corsets and Kisses and share with your friends.
Lynne Barron
I Think I’ll Begin with a Corset
As an author of Historical Erotic Romance I write about ladies and gentlemen falling in love and falling into bed, onto settees, against walls, atop tables, to the floor, in carriages, gazebos and dark alcoves.
And each time my hero and heroine find themselves about to fall into carnal bliss I find myself falling into a conundrum as I attempt to strip the lady bare properly, both gracefully and grammatically.
Slippers, Gloves, Gown, Petticoats, Corset, Drawers, Stockings and Chemise.
Truly, it is quite an endeavor for a gentleman to get a 19th century lady undressed with any sort of finesse. One that involves plucking buttons, wrestling hooks, untangling laces, untying ribbons, rolling silk and generally pushing, pulling, tugging, shucking and shrugging until the lady finally, finally stands in a pool of satin and lace, starched muslin and whale bone.
It’s enough to make a 19th century gentleman swear off sex forever. Or behave as the consummate cad, the perfect libertine, tossing up skirts and entirely ignoring every other part of a lady’s body but the treasure to be found between her legs.
Sometimes it’s enough to tempt a writer of Historical Erotic Romance to encourage Jack and Simon’s roguish behavior so I don’t have to face all that plucking, wrestling, untangling, untying, rolling, pushing, pulling, tugging, shucking and shrugging either.
Alas, Simon cannot always bend Beatrice over a table and toss up her skirts.
And Olivia would be quite cross if Jack were forever neglecting her pretty bosom.
Slippers, Gloves, Gown, Petticoats, Corset, Drawers, Stockings and Chemise.
I have decided to give them all a try, in one fashion or another, to discover just how truly difficult it was to be stripped bare by my hero.
I think I’ll begin with a corset.
Lynne Barron Author of Romantic Novels
Kisses, Kisses and More Kisses
As a writer of erotic romance novels I am admittedly obsessed with kisses.
Deliciously soft and slow kisses.
Decadently wild and hungry kisses.
First kisses, farewell kisses, chaste kisses, passionate kisses and every imaginable kiss in between.
I love them all.
But there is a special place in my heart for those kisses that take my hero or heroine by surprise, the soft brush of his lips when she expected to be devoured, the tempestuous twist of her tongue when he anticipated bashful resistance.
And my absolute favorite, the kiss that a man never imagined was part of his vast repertoire of kisses, a kiss that is as much about his hand tracing the slope of her cheek as his tongue trailing along the seam of her lips, a kiss that is both tender and fierce, exploration and discovery, a kiss that is a mingling of his breath and hers until he can taste them together on his tongue, a kiss that makes him think…
Wow, I didn’t even know I knew how to kiss like this.
Kisses inspire me to write, write and write some more in hopes that one day I will write a kiss so tender, so passionate, so out of control ferocious and sweet and sensual and just plain yummy that I will think…
Wow, I didn’t even know I knew how to write a kiss like this.
The Perils of Finding a Publisher
Becoming a published author is a lot like turning down a pretty little tree-lined lane you’ve passed every day but never taken the time to explore. At first you are intrigued by this new path, curious as to where it will lead and certain you will be able to find your way back.
The first leg of your journey is all smooth roads and pretty scenery as you plot out the story that’s been flitting around in your mind for months or perhaps years. You stroll along when the words are flowing at a nice even pace, skip about when they are falling from your fingertips faster than you can type them, and stop to rest when you slam into a detour sign and the words simply disappear. But eventually you get back on the straight and narrow, or twisted and curvy if you are writing an erotic scene with hills and valleys and long legs twining and tangling.
Before you know it the end appears to be in sight, a sun-dappled park with a parade of publishers clamoring to accept your novel and a fountain overflowing with royalties.
Then you type those two little words.
The End.
And you realize you have not reached the end of your idyllic journey at all. No, you have arrived at the base of a mountain and to reach the summit you must traverse steep inclines, jump from jagged cliffs, and swim through a river of foamy rapids.
Writing a novel is a walk along a pretty little tree lined lane.
Finding someone, anyone with a desire to read your manuscript, let alone actually publish it, is a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro.
