Friday, March 28, 2008

Return to GothicWorld...

GOTHIC HEAT by Portia Da Costa

Ten years ago, I wrote a paranormal erotic romance called Gothic Blue. It did quite well and a lot of people said that they really, really liked it... and one or two said they'd love to read a sequel. At the time, I felt that I'd wrapped up the story pretty well, and I couldn't quite see how I could return to the setting and the characters, so I moved on and wrote other books and forgot about the sequel notion altogether...


Then, last year, when our Black Lace editor was urging us to give him some paranormal ideas, I very whimsically suggested that it might be fun to do a Gothic Blue sequel, not really sure he'd take me seriously, mainly because I wasn't all that serious about it myself... but lo and behold, shortly after, there were contracts and delivery dates and whatnot, and I was committed to it!

Luckily, there were a few loose ends in Gothic Blue, and one of them was a character called Paula. She had a serious brush with the evil sorceress Isidora Katori, that turned out to have pretty far reaching consequences... and Gothic Heat became the story of those consequences.


In the clip below, Paula is visiting her new friend and lover Rafe at the therapy centre where he works. But unbeknownst to Rafe, Paula has a little problem that she's not yet had chance to tell him about... the possessing spirit of the wicked seductress, Isidora.

Rafe gripped the oil bottle tightly, fighting for breath. He experienced a disorientating sense of doubling that made him giddy, and for a second, he seemed to see two women on the couch. It was like a drug trip, as if someone had loaded his massage oil with peyote and he’d absorbed it through his skin. Paula’s dark hair looked silkier, longer and lusher; and her eyes were slanted and imperious, assessing him as if he were sexual meat for her delectation. Her body was simply sublime, full of breast and sumptuous of hip. Her serviceable black knickers were gone, discarded on the floor to reveal the perfect, fragrant triangle of her bush. She held out her hand to him like a queen, and he walked towards her.

‘Mmmm…’ Taking the bottle of oil from him, she pulled the stopper and sniffed deeply, smiling to herself. Then, in a sudden violent gesture, she hurled the thing across the room, laughing as the oil arced from it, flying like a pale yellow ribbon. ‘A pretty scent,’ She adjusted herself on the table, slithering around until she was perched on the edge, ‘but artificial, my Rafe, too artificial.’ Parting her legs, she offered him something that was both natural and beyond nature instead.

Rafe gasped, dragging in both oxygen and the odour of Paula’s genitals. The room was filled with lavender, but it seemed to come from a distance, and through a filter. Only the essence of woman had real truth, and real meaning.

Staggering slightly, he fell to his knees and pressed his face between her thighs, aware of great well of tightly focused heat, emanating not from her sex but the white curve of her belly. He tried to lift his head and search for a visible mark or glow, and for a moment he imagined he saw a slight, raised pattern on her skin. But before he could get a closer look she pressed down hard on the top of his head, forcing him to pleasure her.

She was hot, fragrant, and intoxicatingly delicious. A million impressions crowded his senses, both ordinary and unusual. The taste of Paula was like power itself, infinitely greater than his own puny gifts. Supping at her earthy juices, his mind seemed to expand and a rainbow of twenty thousand colours exploded in his head.

‘Yes! Yes! That’s marvellous. More of that!’ she goaded him as he flicked his tongue over her. Swift, deft hands dug into his scalp, cramming his face against the juncture of her thighs. Rafe felt as if he were drowning, drowning so fast and hard that he’d probably expire just at the moment of her extreme pleasure. His cock was a rod of agony that seemed to belong to another man.

Harder and harder he licked, covering every bit of her sex, licking her clit and her lips, and sipping at her entrance. She writhed against him, sultry and serpentine, groaning and shouting, praising him with a string of lurid profanities, language even fouler and more extreme than even he’d ever comfortably used himself. Her heels bashed against his back and his entire head felt as if it were on fire. His eyes were shut but somehow he seemed to see a burning, setting sun, searing his vision and extinguishing his self control.

When he sucked hard on her clit, she howled like a banshee. But instead of falling back and surrendering herself to orgasm and pleasure, she surged off the massage bench and knocked him backwards, so he sprawled on the wooden floor and slid in the spilt oil. As he lay there with the wind knocked out of him, dimly away of shards of glass digging into his shoulders and back, she climbed astride him, and knelt over his pelvis, her dark triangle hovering tauntingly over his loins.

‘So, sex-god, do you have a condom in you pocket?’ she jeered. Then without waiting for an answer, she inclined over him, feeling around and under him into the pocket of his yoga pants. Her fingers felt hot through the thin cloth, and with deadly accuracy, they secured and prised out the contraceptive he’d might have used if he’d been able to bring himself to fuck Barbara Butcher what seemed like a century ago.

In a swift sharp yank that had him bouncing and swinging up to slap his belly, she dragged down his trousers and handling him ruthlessly, she rolled the latex jacket onto him.

Then with no further ado, she sat down hard, taking every bit of him into her with one voracious lunge.

It was like plunging into the heart of a black star, burning hot, yet at the same time utterly dark. He’d never felt anything quite like it, not even with this same woman, last night in the alley.


GOTHIC HEAT is published on the 3rd April in the UK and on the 27th May in the US and is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Happy reading!


Portia Da Costa
Fourteen long years at the Black Lace coal face

PS. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Gothic Heat.


38 comments:

Janine Ashbless said...

Congratulations Portia! May your whimsical suggestions lead to many more books!

Judy Downs said...

Sounds fantastic! I loved Gothic Blue (but then I haven't actually disliked anything you have written...) Only negative is I will have to wait for US release date. I order Black Lace books for my bookshop in Australia through a US supplier. Best wishes!

Portia Da Costa said...

I'm not sure whimsical suggestions are such a good idea for me, Janine. Writing GH, ten years after GB, was bloody terrifying! I had to read GB myself first, because I'd forgotten most of what happened in it. And the continuity issues were a nightmare... I usually have enough trouble keeping one book consistent, never mind two! LOL

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, Judy! Hope you enjoy GH as much as GB.

Yeah, it's awkward that BL books have two different publication dates. I think it makes it very awkward for us authors to promote our books, and it's confusing for readers. Now that so many of us are online, the awareness of books and authors is global, so the publication date should be global too!

Judy Downs said...

Change your last name to Rowling and it will be! LOL
Otherwise if it was available straight away as an ebook that would work too...

Portia Da Costa said...

Well, there are Kindle versions of some of my books, and ebook versions of some of them too. But those usually come along after the fact, rather than at the same time as the print release.

It's... um... not very organised. :(

And yesterday, I checked the official Black Lace web site, and 'this month's titles' were from October 2007!!!!

Megan Kerr said...

Splendid, Portia - and I love your pictures. The Liv Tyler one is especially perfect. Are they ones you used when you were writing? (I almost always have image-banks for every story of characters' homes, faces, etc.)

It's unusual to read erotica with condoms, too. I put one in The Ten Visions then later had to take out because they weren't used at all in the rest of the book (you can't, for instance, put a condom on a ghost). Mostly it's not an issue because my stories are set in fantasy worlds or the ancient past, and I'm not so committed to promoting safe sex that I'll go the animal-intestine-sheath route. But in contemporary fiction - yes, I agree - and not just for ethics, but also for creating characters that are convincingly sane and living in a convincingly real world! (Possession by seductress spirits notwithstanding)

Nikki Magennis said...

Gorgeous excerpt, Portia! Congrats on the new book, it looks wonderful.

Portia Da Costa said...

Hi Olivia

Well, Rafe was always a version of the divine Vincenzo, so naturally he was in my mind. Although interestingly he had very long hair until I saw the cover pop up early on Amazon and it had a short haired bloke on it, so I had to do a rapid rewrite.

The Liv pic... no, I found that two days ago and thought it was perfect. I had no particular image of the female characters. I never do. I suppose they're mostly versions of me, even the evil ones.

Maybe especially the evil ones... LOL

Yes, nowadays, I almost always describe condom use in my sex scenes. Although perhaps not if I was describing a faithfully married or partnered couple though.

Portia Da Costa said...

Hi Nikki

Glad you liked the excerpt. I find it very, very hard choosing excerpts... This one was very nearly a lot longer... There's a ton of hot stuff happening just after the cut off point! LOL

Erastes said...

Beautiful cover, lovely hot excerpt!

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, Erastes...

That's the third version of this same cover, actually. The lettering has gradually moved up each time. In the first version, when the book was going to be a mass market, you could see the couple's faces, but with a slightly different layout for trade, and the addition of the 15 year logo, the title and my name have moved up to obscure them.

Still looks great, but it was nicer when you could see them gazing at each other more clearly.

Megan Kerr said...

Help the ignorant:
What's mass market? What's trade? What's the difference?

I do love these 15th anniversary additions. Shame that the title covered the faces, but still a delicious cover. (I also love blue.)

Vincent Copsey said...

Lovely excerpt and I appreciate your fears over writing a sequel years later.

Olivia, mass market is standard paperback size ie the size BL books have been in the past. Trade paperbacks are bigger.

Portia Da Costa said...

Yeah, and when it was mass market sized, it made a perfect companion piece with the Gothic Blue cover, which... needless to say... is also blue and has a couple on it.

But, trade paper is a nice format, and all the other erotic romance imprints are that size, so we fit in and amongst them better on the shelves.

Portia Da Costa said...

Agh, yes, sequels... But you've done a brilliant job with Phantasmagoria, Madelynne!

Glad you liked my excerpt... That Isidora is a total bitch queen!

Angell said...

Umm....comment?

I'm trying to find the words, and the only ones that come to mind are WOAH MOMMA.

Portia, that's HOT.

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, Angell!

Maybe I should write about bad people more often... I usually have a tendency to make my characters too nice. LOL

Unknown said...

Great excerpt! The book sounds fascinating!

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, Kate.

I don't know about fascinating... more slightly bonkers, I suspect! LOL

Savanna Kougar said...

Portia, I luv the intensity and clarity of your descriptions. And, oh, that Isadora...my goodness, she does get what she needs one way or the other -- or evil can be sexually sensationally arousing.

Portia Da Costa said...

Yeah, it was liberating to write a baddie for a change, but it does go against my natural inclination.

Usually, when I write 'baddish' characters, I make a point of exploring their psychology, to illustrate why they are the way they are and do the things they do.

But basically, Isidora is just bad for the sake of being bad. Maybe if I was writing a different kind of book, where I didn't have to dwell on the sex so much, I could have created a much richer backstory for her in Gothicworld, and perhaps justified her actions to some extent.

But it's erotica with a limited wordcount, so we'll never quite know why she's such an evil bitch! LOL

mary said...

Okay, I can't wait to read this. I really enjoyed Gothic Blue.

Portia Da Costa said...

Hope it lives up to your expectations, Mary! :)

Tameka said...

Congratulations on your sequel to Gothic Blue. I hope Gothic Heat does even better than the first book and good luck on all upcoming books. Yo write books that draw in readers and makes don't want to put your books down. I just love your books.

Portia Da Costa said...

Thanks, Tameka. What a lovely thing to say! :)

I'm so glad you enjoy my writing.

Anonymous said...

Gothic Heat looks like it is aptly named... HOT excerpt!

Can't wait to see how that possession works its way into the conversation! ( when they start talking again).


kaisquared

Lucy Felthouse said...

3rd April!!! That's not long! I can't wait... you know I love Gothic Blue. xx

limecello said...

Wow - what an excerpt. Congratulations, Portia! I'm going to have to look for Gothic Blue, and keep an eye out for Gothic Heat!

Portia Da Costa said...

Hi Kaisquared! Yeah, Paula has a bit of explaining to do... although at this stage in the story, she isn't quite sure what's going on herself...

Portia Da Costa said...

I hope Gothic Heat meets your expectations, Lucy. It was a fun book to write in a lot of ways, but also tricky, having to maintain the continuity. I ended up pleased with the result though, in fact it's one of my faves.

Portia Da Costa said...

Hope you enjoy my GothicWorld, Limecello!

Glad you liked the excerpt. :)

Unknown said...

Portia, if I only knew then what I know now....... my life would be very different. Having said that with the heat in your books it makes my married life much hotter and better!!!

Thanks and it sounds great.......

Debbie E

Anonymous said...

Wow, I love the excerpt! I've been looking forward to reading this one, but will have to wait until May.

I loved the dreaminess of Gothic Blue and this one looks just as enticing.

And, I so have the hots for Vincent. Having a fantasy version of him stuck in my head as lead character in an erotic book would not be too shabby. :)

DB

Anonymous said...

Hey woman --you KNOW I'm looking forward to GOTHIC HEAT! ;)

Big Hugs & congrats,
Sabrina )O(

Portia Da Costa said...

Hey, Debbie! Glad my writing is working for you... That's a cool thing to know. :)

Portia Da Costa said...

Hi DB

I think Gothic Heat shares some of the dreaminess of Gothic Blue, but it also has it's own quality too. I think there's a slightly more 'down to earth' edge to it, even though it's a paranormal. Gothic Blue was paranormal first, contemporary second. I think with Gothic Heat, it's the other way round. Sort of...

Portia Da Costa said...

Hey Sabrina... yeah, I know you've been looking forward to this one. As I've said to other commenters, I hope it matches your hopes for it.

Although while I was writing it, I wondered whether I was getting it right, in the end, I think I succeeded. I was happy with the result. :)