Thursday, November 8, 2007

Split and Lust Bites out today!

Kristina Lloyd

'My story starts last autumn. I want to set it down because I understand now that I’ll never be able to leave this place. And I want you to remember me as a good person.'

So begins Split, my neo-Gothic tale of bondage and submission set in a puppet museum on the Yorkshire moors. And today it’s out in the UK along with Lust Bites, the hot volume of vampire erotica from me, Portia Da Costa and Mathilde Madden. (Sorry Yanks, you have to wait till January.)

Split tells the story of Kate, a woman who flees London and her boyfriend to take a job in a weird little village called Heddlestone. She doesn’t tell her boyfriend she’s leaving. Drawn by a strange compulsion, she simply vanishes. I am Kate Carter, five foot nothing, freckled and fair, pear-shaped but sprightly, a librarian on the run.

Kate lodges in the attic of Jake, the strange, beautiful puppeteer whose surreal, doll-filled house adjoins the museum. When Kate first meets Jake, she’s smitten.

He was too tall for his suit so he was all wrists and ankles, a man almost as gangly as his puppets. I know I’m a romantic fool, but my stomach really did flip. His hat was of battered brown leather, dark curls peeping beneath the brim, and his pale skin was dotted with a couple of moles. His nose was narrow, a little misshapen, and his cheekbones enviable, his face having a refined feminine bone structure, although his neck was strong. He reminded me of a deer, full of wild nervous grace, his stone-grey eyes at once timid and serene.

Jake’s social awkwardness is belied by a dark, sexual confidence and when he and Kate get together it seems as if, surrounded by puppets and isolated from the world, they’re in a realm where anything might happen. But Kate also desires Eddie, Jake’s brother, a thickly-muscled bruiser who’s smug, arrogant, contemptuous and crude. Although she dislikes him, Kate recognises some warped part of her finds him horribly thrilling. Soon she’s involved in a second dark relationship, and all the while she's haunted by a gathering sense that there's something very wrong about Heddlestone.

There’s a cold intimacy to this place and the brothers have drawn me closer to its dark, disturbed heart. They had me from the start, Jake with his beauty and that clever careful mind, Eddie with his arrogance that gets me right in the groin. Even now, I don’t know who I prefer. I’m split between them, relishing both but trusting neither. Lust has taken me to some strange places but none stranger than this.

Split is released today along with Lust Bites. This makes me very happy!

*

Something else which makes me very happy is being the first author in Love Honey’s newly-launched erotic online book club. Love Honey are running a huge promotion on my second, ever-so-slightly-controversial book, Asking for Trouble, and you can buy it over there for a ridiculous 99p. Yes, I'm dirt cheap! The book club looks fantastic. You can read an interview with me, join an Asking for Trouble discussion forum, and there are even questions for you to ponder. I confess, I’m nervous. Some people love Asking for Trouble, some people hate it. If you don’t already own it, now’s your chance. I doubt I will ever be 99p again. That’s so cheap, you may as well buy a vibrator while you’re there.

To celebrate all this happiness, I’m giving away a copy of Split and Lust Bites on my blog. Come on over to my place and add a comment. I am very friendly, so friendly that I'll say Lusties can play too.

15 comments:

Alison Tyler said...

I'm dirt cheap

I don't even have to say it, do I?
T-shirt of the fucking day!

Loved the interview. Although, I don't believe you for a minute. I think you're Beth through and through. You've done every sleazy, dirty little thing you write about. In fact, you're doing dirty, filthy, naughty things right now.

Aren't you?

XXX,
AT

Unknown said...

Congrats on the new releases!

Madeline Moore said...

Lusties get to enter your contest? I am so there. But first, while I'm here, congratulations Kristina. This is a remarkable achievement, so much so that I'm not even envious, just...well, sorta proud. Because you are one of us, and you're doing extremely well, and you absolutely deserve it.

Anonymous said...

Split and Lust Bites out on the same day! Congratulations on your double penetration (of the book markets).

And with such a coup for Asking for Trouble too, perhaps I should say congratualtions on your threeway.

Or perhaps I should just stop this now

Madeline Moore said...

Oh! Oh! I'm so excited! I think, in fact I'm almost sure, that I've come up with a terrific T-shirt slogan. Alison, are you here? What do you think of this?

Kristina Lloyd - a credit to her genre.

or maybe - (Your name here) - a credit to her genre. (Makes it a little more genreic...)

Oh! Oh! I'm punning. Must go make puns with English lover. It does so warm the cockles of his British heart when I crack wise with the puns.

Kristina Lloyd said...

Thanks, guys! I think I'm nearly having an orgy.

And AT, Asking for Trouble is actually my autobiography. Damn, did I forget to mention that in the interview?

Madeline, are you making puns about banking? That's a filthy, filthy habit.

Sacchi Green said...

Three on one day? Thriple goodness? Wow! A triporn, kinda like a tricorn (except that it's not a hat).

They all sound quite tantalizing. I cheated and left the same comment on your website, but I justify repeating it here on the grounds that if I don't keep my blogger login warm it seems to disappear on me.

Kristina Lloyd said...

Sacchi, that's cool. Two of everything is allowed today.

Sacchi, that's cool. Two of everything is allowed today.

I'm sure I had a third blog somewhere.

Janine Ashbless said...

Split sounds really great Kristina. Congratulations! Hope it does well for you.

Jeremy Edwards said...

Three glasses of Kristina? Excellent! They may as well just bring us the bottle.

Here's to you, KL!!!

Ally said...

Orgy? Did someone say orgy???
I am so there.

Unknown said...

I was so excited about getting the chance to win something that I completely forgot to post here!
Great covers, great stories, can't wait for them to hit the US stores!

Unknown said...

wowsa congrats, 2 books ,is that better to do one or two ?

Meljprincess said...

Man, I so very badly want to win these books!

Laura J. said...

two more books to add to my wishlist!!!