5th Anniversary - Writer Friends

It is now five years since I became an author! How time has flown. I am doing five days of blog posts about all things five!

To start off with I am highlighting five writer friends who I have visited their home/ been in their car/or shared a bed with!

JANINE ASHBLESS

I first contacted Janine when I was a mere reader saying how much I loved her work and asking when her latest book was going to be published in print form and she explained it was only going to be an ebook (as I didn’t have a kindle she pointed me in the director of the publisher’s website as they sold them as PDFs and that led me to the world of erotic romance novels!).

What was amusing was that in her response she asked if I was XXXX XXXX (real name) who wrote such and such a story. My reply was, “I’m not creative enough to write books.” LOL Talk about custard pie in the face!

The next amusing incident was when we met up at Eroticon conference and discovered we both lived in the same town. Since then I have travelled to Smut by the Sea in Scarborough in Janine’s car, both of us laden with workshop and promo materials. And Janine was a great friend visiting me when I was off having an operation.

I asked some of the writer friends the same five quick fire questions. These were Janine's answers:

1. If you have all the money in the world name one thing you would buy for me - a giant rabbit castle.

2. One place in the world you would like me to go - NASA training camp so you can try you weightless sex for real! (This was following a session I did at Smut, on Sex in Sci-fi! JD)

3. One pice of BDSM equipment you would buy for me - a furry butt-plug tail. Then you can tell me whether it is a good idea. :)

4. One genre or sub genre that you would like to see me write - detective fiction.

5. And finally five words you would use to describe me. - Independent, organised, motivated, upbeat, fit.

SUSAN LAINE

Susan's first book was published exactly a week after mine with the same publisher, Siren. We first met on their authors’ yahoo group and followed this up with email communication and discovered we both loved werewolf stories but hated vampire ones and joked about co-writing a werewolf story. After having a thrilling time throwing ideas back and forth we suddenly said, one day, "Are we actually doing this?" The outcome was The Last Werewolf.

At the same time I went out to Finland, where Susan lives, and had a great time getting to know her (although it was a risk. A person can often have a different persona online than they do in real life. I think she found I was much bossier in real life than online! LOL).

Here are Susan’s answers to my questions:

1.   If I could buy you anything, I think I'd buy you a weekend of shameless debauchery with a dozen gorgeous guys who'd adore and worship you in every conceivable way. -- But since that's prostitution, I'd buy you a beautiful, specifically made-for-you corset.

2.   The place I'd like you to go would be the middle ages, so you'd see and take pics of all the castles in their heyday -- but since that's not possible, I'll suggest the castles at Loire valley. (sounds lovely! JD)

3.   The one piece of BDSM equipment I'd buy you is... a ballgag  No, seriously though, I'd get you... nipple clamps?

4.   The genre I'm looking forward to reading from you is historical romance, Victorian or Medieval. Any level of kink. Just a suggestion. *innocent look*

5.   Five words to describe you are: Friend, effervescent, lively, fearless, and daring. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! 

MORGAN KING

I first communicated with Morgan on Facebook as we were both with the same publisher and when she mentioned visiting York I asked her if she had free time to meet up as I lived there. She visited a couple of other times but then decided she wanted to move to York! That’s been fabulous as we have done various things together such as get dressed up as elves to go to an outdoor showing of one of the Lord of the Rings’ films (what out for a photo of this in one of the competitions!)

TATUM THRONE

Tatum started life as my stalker! Really. She even admitted it. I was doing a week long series of blog posts and she commented on every one, then friended me on Facebook, then on Goodreads. It’s a good thing I liked her. LOL. In fact we got on so well I went out to America to visit her later that year and we continue to have email conversations all day every day!

Here are Tatum’s answers to my questions:

1.   If you had all the money in the world name one thing you would buy for me - A mansion filled with books.

One place in the world would like me to go to - Alaska on a cruise. 

2.  
One piece of BDSM equipment you would buy for me - Sex chair with lots of restraints (ooo, exciting!)

3.  
One genre or sub genre that you would like to see me write - Sweet.

4.   And finally five words you would use to describe me! 😃 Kind, generous, adventurous, witty, loyal

BELLA SETTARRA

I first met Bella at the first Smut by the Sea event in Scarborough. She said hello later and how much she enjoyed my reading and we chatted for a bit. Following this she decided to submit a story for the Smut anthology on stories by the sea and I very much enjoyed mentoring her through her first few months as a writer. Since then we have shared a bed together (sh! Don’t tell Mr Settarra or he might shoot me!). This was on a couple of occasions when we have gone away to events together and shared accommodation.