Thursday, September 20, 2012

A Texan in London



A year or two ago, I wrote a book, Texas Heat, with a Texan hero and a British heroine. Set in London and then Texas. Visiting friends in Texas gave me a fascination with the place. It’s huge and wealthy enough to be a country in its own right. Texans do what they do, people make a living in Texas without ever setting foot outside the state. In the UK, we’re a small country so we tend to travel a fair bit. And the weather isn’t as good! About the only thing I didn’t like about Texas was the tree roaches—ugh!
So when I came to write a book about Yolanda, the sister of the hero of “Texas Heat,” I decided to do it in reverse. She travels to London and meets a British hero. Of course I know London well, and it was a delight to make it the center of “Stripped Bare.” But the story got railroaded before I even got Yolanda into London. She decides to mark her new life by joining the Mile High Club. Not in any icky toilet, but in her nice first class seat, where the only person who can see them is asleep. Or so she thinks. Her hunky bodyguard and she get it on, and suddenly she realises she’s being watched.
Only having the man watching her turns her on, and this is the start of the adventure of a lifetime for Yolanda. When she gets to London, she finds something very important missing from her luggage, and the bodyguard has vamoosed. The only person who saw her on that plane was the man watching her. So she sets out to find him.
Lawrence Cavendish has secrets within secrets, and that drives him to enjoy edgy, dangerous sex. He knows Yolanda feels the same. How? He’s seen it for himself! So when she finds him, he suggests they carry on. Yolanda is blown away, but she’s going back to Texas when her London project is over. If she can recover the stolen goods.
Do I have to tell you what fun the book was to write? It was great to be able to set a book in one of my favourite cities, and maybe introduce people to parts of London they’re not overfamiliar with. Lawrence has a flat in Westminster, which has some of the best places in London to live an deat. Well, what do you expect, that’s where the members of Parliament have to live! During the Parliamentary season, they have to live close, because of the Three Line Whips. Sounds like something you’d find in a BDSM club, but really, it’s a “come here and vote or else” command. They have to leave their homes and run, if they’re not already in the House, and sessions can go on deep into the night.
Not that Lawrence is an MP. He’s an ethical investor, something that’s increasingly in demand these days. But Lawrence’s secrets go right back to his childhood in Liverpool, and I did have fun introducing Scouse to the book. But I had to cut the slang right down, so while things like “la,” “busies” and “scallies” are still there, I had to cut other stuff.
I want to do a book about another character there now, and there’s already another book on the way. “Unlaced” takes another kinky theme. Where Lawrence and Yolanda enjoy sex in public places, the hero of “Unlaced” prefers do have his fun behind closed doors—and when he discovers the woman who shares his particular kink, there’s no stopping him!
Read about Yolanda and Lawrence in “Stripped Bare” here:

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Note About my Website

The people who provide my webspace, Virgin Media, are asking us all to upgrade from our old webspaces to a new address. So I did, but only after did they say they weren't doing forwarding, and we could no longer access our old webspace. So I can't put a 301 auto direct message on the page. If any of you know how I can do this, I'd so appreciate your help!
So if you type in the normal address, http://lynneconnolly.com you will be fine. but for the next few weeks, until Google and Bing catch up with the new address, clicking on the site there will get you a nasty 404 and "not found" message.
The old site was:
http://http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lynneconnolly/ 
That's gone. Now the "long" address, the one covered by the domain name, is:
http://www.lynneconnolly1.webspace.virginmedia.com/
and that one works!
Sorry for the inconvenience.

September news

Hello, and welcome to autumn! Over here, it turned cooler at the end of August. Right on cue. The conkers are growing fast and next month we’ll have schoolchildren throwing sticks at the trees to get them down. It’s an old game and potentially dangerous, but maybe we need a little danger in our lives!
It’s also been the wettest summer for a hundred years. Inevitable really, given the hosepipe ban earlier in the year. All the Government has to do to end a drought is declare a hosepipe ban, and the skies open. I’m not complaining, though. I really don’t like it too hot. I love Texas, but I don’t think I’d survive the summers. Even in the lovely houses I had the privilege of staying in back in April.
It’s getting to be that time of year, and I need to start looking at airfares for the RT convention in May. Coming from the UK, it needs a bit more planning, but it’s so worth it. I’ve been appointed moderator for the RT Convention forum, which you’ll find here:
I’m also planning a few surprises with the owner of RT, Kathryn Falk. So watch this space!
I’ve also signed to write a Clandestine Classic. The series has hit a lot of places, and is all over the media, so I’m pleased to do it. While I can’t yet tell you which one I’m doing, I can say that it’s an amazing privilege to do it. I want to see how this writer ticks, dissect his work so I can see how he got the fantastic effects he did, and I was careful to choose a writer I’m pretty sure wouldn’t have objected to this.
The release of “Stripped Bare” from Loose-Id went swimmingly, and my rock stars just keep on selling. There are a few characters in that book that could find themselves featuring in books of their own—I’ve already received letters about them. Jim Goddard, the company geek genius, and Mick O’Donnell. I’ve put my mind to Mick’s book, because I can’t resist a bad boy!
The new series, “Nightstar” at Ellora’s Cave, is doing very nicely, thank you. I’ve written the next couple, featuring a half-French, half-Cajun hero, and a gorgeous Brit, and one character who features in this series is so strong I might have to give him a book of his own.
I just keep writing, that’s the thing. At the moment, I’m working on a novella, and after that, I’m plunging into my Clandestine Classic. It might not work. I’ve never done anything like this before, except for a few Georgette Heyer pastiches in my dim and distant past, but I’m looking forward to it.
I also built a conservatory for my doll’s house, but I don’t have any decent pictures yet. Taking pictures of miniatures is a real bear, so tricky, but I’ll see what I can do, then I’ll put them on the website.
So busy, but like a duck, all under the surface. I keep writing for The Good, The Bad and The Unread, so pop over there from time to time for comment and reviews!

Happy August!

August being my birthday month, it’s so nice to be able to celebrate another new release!
Thank you so much for helping me to launch “In The Mood.” I’m having a ball writing this series, and I so want to finish it and see Riku get his happy ending (he’s the hero of the last book).
It seemed to be a month for online arguments. Everywhere I looked there were people quarreling over this and that. I spent it trying not to get involved, writing, and suffering from whooping cough. That was a surprise, because I’d been vaccinated as a child, but apparently that only lasts for the first ten years, when most people are at their most vulnerable. After that, it manifests as a bad cough, but my, was it bad. I had to go to the doctor and get some antibiotics so I was fit enough to go to the RNA Conference.
There’s the moral. Get the vaccinations done. There’s an epidemic at the moment, or so the doctor told me, because people didn’t get their children vaccinated after that health scare of a few years ago (the “doctor” responsible was struck off the medical register).
Anyway, back to books and related fun. The RNA Conference is always highly enjoyable. It’s more of a party, far more intimate than the huge gatherings in the USA, which I also enjoy, and there’s less business done there. Mainly because the bar is there for a reason, and we make the most of it!
I can’t say I learned a lot, other than my colleagues in the Romantic Novelists’ Association are the best, supportive, bright and huge fun. We were at Penrith again, a lovely setting in the Lake District. Even the train journey is a delight, or it is for me, although not everyone had such a pleasant journey!
This month, as I mentioned earlier, I have a new release. Another new venture. For those of you who wanted me to write Yolanda’s story, the sister of Vin from “Texas Heat,” here it is. Vin doesn’t appear in this story, it’s completely separate and I try hard not to do the sequel thing so the book is truly a standalone. This is a hot one, although it is male/female. There was a point where it might have become a ménage, but the heroine wasn’t interested in sharing! Sometimes it happens like that, your characters take against doing what you’ve had planned for them.
The book is called “Stripped Bare."
An investigation into industrial espionage leads to a sexual awakening!