When I launched a book at Sh! last year, the readings were disrupted by a would-be thief trying to flee the shop with a vibrator stuffed down her pants. The shop’s cool, calm and kickass manager apprehended the woman (who I think might have had a lager shandy too many), and the readings continued as if nothing much had happened.
I’m hoping my book launch this year will be better behaved in the Vibe-down-your-pants-illegally Dept and as badly behaved as ever in the OMG-I’m-drinking-fizz-in-an-amazing-sex-shop-with-all-these-cool people Dept.
I love reading at Sh! The shop is a haven of horniness; the staff are welcoming, warm, and enthusiastic; and readings are always a blast. Last year, I was lucky enough to share a launch with fellow Black Lace author, Justine Elyot. This year, I’m joining the ever-brilliant Janine Ashbless whose latest book, Cover Him With Darkness, is the lead title in a new romance imprint from indie erotica giants, Cleis Press.
Janine and I go way back. We were both writing for Black Lace in the nineties, and while Janines’s fiction tends to focus on high fantasy and mine is contemporary, we both share a taste for the dark side.
My new book, Undone, starts with a mysterious death in a swimming pool. Lana Greenwood, my protagonist, attends a house party in the country and hooks up with two guys for her first threesome at the age of forty one. She’s kinda cool like that. The next day, however, one of the men is found dead. Lana embarks on a relationship with the second guy, Sol Miller, despite fearing he may be implicated in the unusual death.
Lana is openly kinky and submissive; she’s comfortable enough with her sexuality to bring handcuffs to the party. Well, she actually owns a vintage and military-issue handcuff collection. As I said, she’s kinda cool. Sol describes himself as dominant and while he claims to be new to the game, he seems to know what he’s doing. When Lana meets him she thinks:
“I nailed him as the toppy type straight away. He had that playful superiority, that bad-boy swagger, and my Dom-dar’s pretty reliable these days. […] I figured that even if Sol weren’t au fait with reef knots and tawses, he’d have an instinct for raw, rough sex. That would suit me perfectly for a one-off at a party.”
As you can tell, Lana isn’t some naïve virgin, long-favoured by erotica, nor is Sol a suave, sophisticated billionaire. In the wake of FSOG, contemporary erotica features more than enough of these archetypes. I’m convinced plenty of readers exist who are eager for a hot, kinky read featuring characters who haven’t just hopped over from Mills and Boon, circa 1970.
If this is you, we’d love you to join us on 18^th October for an evening of readings, chat, book signings, bubbly and cupcakes. It’s free event; you just need to mail the shop to secure your place. And if you do come along and you get the urge to shove a vibrator down your knickers, please do us all a favour, and purchase one first!
Kristina Lloyd writes erotic fiction about sexually submissive women who like it on the dark, dirty and dangerous side. Her novels are published by Black Lace and her short stories have appeared in dozens of anthologies, including several ‘best of’ collection, in both the UK and US. She lives in Brighton, England.
About Undone
When Lana Greenwood attends a glamorous house party she finds herself tempted into a ménage à trois. But the morning after brings more than just regrets over fulfilling a fantasy one night stand. One of the men she's spent the night with is discovered dead in the swimming pool. Accident, suicide or murder, no one is sure and Lana doesn't know where to turn. Can she trust Sol, the other man, an ex-New Yorker with a dirty smile and a deep desire to continue their kinky game?
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