Guest Blogger: Victoria Blisse

Stalking a Star

Stalking is a criminal offence and is of course highly distressing. I would never condone any such behaviour yet here are some lines from the beginning of my novel Fulfill Me.

I know, I know, I know. I’m obsessed, it’s not healthy. I know all that, but I still want him, and now I am working to get him. I’ve spent long enough dreaming and drooling from afar - now I’m working on getting his pants into my bed, with him inside them.

It’s really quite simple when you think about it, which I have, a lot. I’ve got technical computer knowledge that other thirty year olds gawp at. I know computers better than I know myself and I’m going to seduce my target using my favourite weapon - the Internet. 

This is my heroine, Caitlyn talking about Nick Casey, star of Dobson’s Digs, the biggest soap on TV. She stalks him online with her technical know-how and then orchestrates a meeting with him in real life.  It’s not acceptable behaviour and she knows it but she just can’t help herself.

Now of course, Fulfill Me is completely fictional but even so, I couldn’t bear to have Caitlyn get her man through these nefarious ways without having a little fun with her first. She soon finds out that crime never prospers. This is what happens the first time she attempts to meet Nick in the flesh.


For the moment I can’t hear the conversation from Nick’s table because Tony is talking excitedly to the tall fellow in front. It sounds like they’re both speaking Italian, no wonder Tony is bellowing. If I want to speak to Nick, ideally, I need to make my move now; if I play it right I might get an invite to their table. I’m good with mums – well, those other than my own, anyway.

I’ll walk over towards the ladies, which happily is across the other side of the terracotta walled restaurant, so I can wander past his table and then what? I think and take another bite of the tomato covered pasta. Oh, I know - I’ll stumble. I’m sure his chivalrous nature will make him leap to my aid. 

My plan of action decided, I try to stand, but find my way blocked by Tony, still gesticulating and talking wildly.

“Excuse me Tony.” I try to squeeze past him but I’m too afraid of being hit with a flailing elbow to really push forward.

“Tony!” I bark a bit louder, and he looks at me. “Excuse me.”

 He nods, and moves away from beside the seated beanpole who pushes his chair back. He knocks the leg into my ankle, and shakes me off balance. I fall unceremoniously to my knees. 

“Oh, I’m so very sorry,” a voice babbles above me, “I’m terribly sorry, here, let me help you.” A thin, soft hand grabs around the top of my arm and pulls. I sit back on my heels and fix the bumbling buffoon with all my frustrated anger. 

“I can stand up on my own, thank you.” I growl, noting the high red on his cheeks, the softness in his dark eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” he continues to grip the top of my arm, and I try to shake out of his grasp. He lets go and I totter to my feet.

OUCH!

As I rise, my head connects with a serving tray then a pool of thick, tomato based soup slips down my arm and over my dress. 

“Fuck!” I cry, stamping my foot in exasperation.


Does Caitlyn get her man in the end? Well find out by picking up your own copy of Fulfill Me from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, All Romance Ebooks and all good book retailers.

Do you like to see criminals punished for their crimes in the stories you read?

And on a serious note, if you need any more information on stalking or harassment check out  the Network for Surviving Stalking website for help and advice: http://www.nss.org.uk/

*****
Victoria Blisse is a mother, wife, Christian, Manchester United fan and award winning erotica author. She is also the editor of several Bigger Briefs collections, Smut by the Sea and Smut in the City.
She is equally at home behind a laptop or a cooker and she loves to create stories, poems, cakes and biscuits that make people happy. She was born near Manchester, England and her northern English quirkiness shows through in all of her stories.Passion, love and laughter fill her works, just as they fill her busy life.

Find out more at http://victoriablisse.co.uk or follow and friend Victoria: http://twitter.com/victoriablisse http://facebook.com/victoriablisse
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Give away! Leave a comment on this blog for an entry in to my prize draw. One lucky winner will receive their choice of three Blisse ebooks from my backlist http://victoriablisse.co.uk/books

Only one comment per blog will be counted but you can get 4 more entries if you comment on each of the other stops in my Fulfill Me tour. http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/victoria-blisse-3/

Winner will be picked and contacted on the 6th October. Please be sure you leave your email so I can contact you if you win, thanks!

Guest Post: Irina Shapiro

What would you do if suddenly confronted with something that undermines everything you believe about yourself and the world around you? Would you simply write it off or pursue it to the bitter end? A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, since it can change how we see ourselves and the people around us. Is it wiser to just ignore that little voice that tries to tell you that you’ve been here before or that the person you’ve never met seems strangely familiar? When faced with the choice, Cassandra allows her gut feeling to lead her down a strange path, one that changes her life forever.

*****

When the skeletal remains of a young woman and her baby are found entombed behind the kitchen wall of a historic Tudor house Cassandra is overcome with grief. She seems to know who the young woman was, but not how she knows or how she came to be there. Cassandra becomes inexplicably drawn to the house and the mystery of the "Bones of Blackfriars." As she begins to learn the truth about the Thorne siblings who occupied the house during the reign of Elizabeth I, her own life takes an unexpected turn and she finds that her fate is linked to the Thornes in ways she never dreamed of.

US: http://www.amazon.com/Precious-Bones-ebook
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Precious-Bones-ebook

*****

Irina Shapiro was born in Moscow, Russia and for the next eleven years lived the life of an ordinary Soviet child, in then communist Russia, until her family’s emigration to the United States in 1982. Due to her love of reading Irina was able to pick up English very quickly and was an honor student throughout her school career. After graduating from Bernard M. Baruch College in 1992 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Irina worked in advertising for two years before realizing that long hours and low wages were not the life for her. She shifted her focus to Import/Export and worked her way up to the position of Import Manager in a large textile house before leaving the work force in 2007 to focus on her autistic son. It wasn’t until Irina had been at home for some time that she began to write. Eventually the characters began to take on a life of their own and have conversations in her head and once she started writing her musings down the stories came easily enough. Irina incorporated her love of history and travel into her writing to create a rich and detailed background for the characters. Since then Irina has written five novels. She is currently working on a sequel to “The Hands of Time.” Irina Shapiro lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. 

Website: http://irinashapiro.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irina-Shapiro

Guest Blog: Romance and the Male Author By Simon Lipson

Thank you for asking me to be a guest blogger. I hope my wafflings are of some interest to you and your followers.

My first book, Losing It, was a somewhat po-faced and scary psychological thriller. Not much call for belly-laughs.  I think the book worked pretty well within the limitations of its genre, but I thought if I was ever inclined to write another book, I’d focus on what I’m (supposed to be) good at; comedy. I’ve been a stand-up and impressionist for 20 years, and written hundreds of sketches and scripts for live performance, radio and TV, so the funny stuff should come easily, I thought. But I also wanted to make the book about real people, real relationships, real families. And real romance. Which was when things got a bit more complex.

The early drafts were full of irrelevant quips and riffs that had no bearing on the story or the characters. It’s quite difficult to delete sure-fire laughs, but I’ve read too many books by people striving too hard and sacrificing forward propulsion to self-indulge, instead, at the altar of comedy, so I became quite fierce with myself. If the funny bit it didn’t sit comfortably with the scene or the character, out it came. Reviews to date have suggested that it’s still ‘laugh out loud funny’ but that the characters are rounded and the story plausible, so the early signs that I’ve struck the right balance are promising.

The trickier bit for me was pitching the romance element from a man’s perspective with authenticity. Now I like a good romcom as much as the next bloke (we all do, honestly; we just don’t like to admit it). High Fidelity, Starter For Ten and Charlotte Street are all written by men and feature a male protagonist. They all succeed in dealing with love from the male perspective but when it comes to writing about matters of the heart, women authors are rather more abundant. And I would venture to suggest that most of their books feature a female protagonist. So dipping my toe into what might be a less appreciated genre – manlit? - felt like a leap into the unknown.

Manlit. What a ridiculous term. Readers have described Song In The Wrong Key variously as ‘romcom, ‘women’s fiction’, ‘chicklit’ and ‘commercial fiction’ and, in the end, it hardly matters. My view is that love and romance are not exclusive to either gender. We all fall in love and we all enjoy courtship. Well most of us anyway. Why should a woman reader be any less entranced by a male protagonist’s romantic adventures (which, after all, involve his feelings towards a woman) than a male reader in those of a female protagonist’s? Maybe we could all benefit from some insights into the opposite sex’s romantic modus operandi!  

Surely the key is to write the best book you can, not worry about how others may classify it and leave the readers to decide if they like it. I have endeavoured to write a book for everyone. There’s nothing exclusive about my subject matter. It’s a story about a family man – hopefully a funny one – which deals with relationships, kids, career dilemmas and the quest for redemption, themes I hope we can all identify with.

Nevertheless, I recognise that I’m one of a small minority of writers spinning tales about the love lives of male protagonists. And, as a first timer in this area, I needed to work out how to talk about feelings, something we men are notoriously useless at. Men dissemble for a living. If my wife asks me if I love her, I tend to snort and bluster something like: ‘Yeah, course I do. God almighty. Where’s the remote?’ whereas she can emote without blinking an eye! But, actually, once I got down to writing the heartfelt stuff, it didn’t bother me at all. Mike Kenton is a version of me, and narrating the story through him allowed me express what was going on in his head. Men think and feel the same emotions as women. Honestly. They just don’t say them out loud unless, like me, they’re talking to their kids. When they’re very young. And asleep. 

*****

Michael Kenton is a middle-aged man living in middle-class comfort with wife Lisa and daughters Millie and Katia. Drifting complacently towards retirement, Mike's world is turned upside-down when he is thrown unexpectedly onto the career scrapheap. 

While Lisa's career sky-rockets, Mike slobs around in his track suit playing guitar, rekindling his teenage love affair with pop music. Knowing Lisa wouldn't approve, he plots a secret 'comeback' at a grimy Crouch End bistro where music executive Ben, desperate and out of time, asks if he can enter one of Mike's songs into the Eurovision Song Contest. With nothing to lose, Mike focuses on Eurovision but quickly finds himself staring down the barrel of low level fame. His crumbling marriage now page five news, he must choose between his musical dream and mending his broken family, a task complicated by the re-appearance of ex-love of his life Faye. 

A laugh-out-loud comedy about love, family, friendship and Euro- tack by acclaimed stand-up and comedy writer Simon Lipson. 

*****

Simon Lipson was born in London and took a law degree at the LSE. After a spell as a lawyer, he co-founded legal recruitment company Lipson Lloyd-Jones in 1987. In 1993, Simon took his first tentative steps onto the comedy circuit and has since become an in-demand stand-up and impressionist across the UK, as well as a regular TV and radio performer/writer. His broadcasting credits include Week Ending, Dead Ringers, Loose Ends and Fordham & Lipson (co-wrote and performed own 4 part sketch series) on Radio 4; Interesting...Very Interesting and Simon Lipson's Xmas Box on Radio 5 and And This Is Them on Radio 2. He is also an experienced voice artiste who has voiced hundreds of advertisements as well as cartoons and documentaries. His first novel, Losing It, a thriller, was published by Matador in 2008. Simon is a columnist for Gridlock Magazine (www.gridlockmagazine.com). His next novel, Standing Up, will be published by Lane & Hart in Autumn 2012. 

www.songinthewrongkey.com

www.simonlipson.com

http://www.facebook.com/simon.lipson.3 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Song-In-The-Wrong-Key-Simon-Lipson/140280092721031; 

Twitter: @SimonLipson

www.simonlipson.blogspot.co.uk

Buy links – paperback and Kindle:

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/xaosKp

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/yo7bpY

My show, The Accidental Impressionist, is on at the Camden Fringe 20 – 23 August @ 8pm. Everyone welcome! Details and tickets here: http://j.mp/JDPBnu