I make stuff up...really that's all I do...

I write about a lot of things: being tied up, being spanked, threesomes, foursomes homo erotic action, etc etc. In my fiction I'm quite happy to explore anything.

But I always get a shock when I read other people's blogs and realize that people actually do all that stuff and enjoy it . I've never experienced a single slap on my bum since I was a kid and that's okay with me. I have absolutely no desire to experience the stuff I put my characters through.

Does that make what I write less authentic because I haven't done it? I don't think so. I've never had any complaints, in fact, just the opposite. Most readers assume I know all about it and want to share their experiences with me too. Not that this is a problem because being a writer I'm obviously a complete and shameless voyeur.




Last year I wrote a story for my first foray into erotica with Cleis Press. It's called Sunday Service and it's in the L is for Leather anthology. it was such fun to write something completely kinky with no worries about making the ending happy. But I still made it all up and I have a suspicion that some of the other authors in that anthology didn't and that is amazing.

So I wonder, can readers tell whether you've done the deeds you write about?

Just Gay Enough?

I like to write Regency heroes who aren’t quite what you’d expect, in fact, I like to write heroes who appeal to the type of reader who is slightly intrigued by the tantalizing thought of gay men making out, but still likes a good romance along the way. My heroes will give you that. Not quite gay, but willing to experiment with anyone or anything if the opportunity arises, (and somehow it always does in my books) and also just Alpha enough to keep you interested and hot and, well, you know...

How did I end up writing them? I don’t know. I just got fed up with the whole Alpha, Beta, Metro thing. I mean, sexuality is much more complicated than that isn’t it? Aren’t there a hell of a lot of grays in between? I love the grays, the men and women who can appreciate that sex is far more interesting if you can be open and up for anything.

What does amuse me is seeing my books in the romance section. Yay, I’m a subversive! ‘Georgette Heyer on crack’ as one of my fellow Black Lace authors called me. I’m expecting my readers to want to know whether a sexually ambiguous pair of Regency gentleman like Lord Valentin Sokorvsky and Peter Howard who star in Simply Sexual and Simply Sinful, can find their happy ever after’s. And I want my readers to be happy for them and care about what happens to them. I want them to care even though these men aren’t remotely conventional and never will be.

I don’t have an agenda. I truly believe love is where you find it and that we all have a right to be happy and sexually satisfied. Is that going to become the norm? Will my kids wonder what all the fuss was about back in the day? I sure hope so 

So tell me, does ‘just gay enough’ turn you on or off and how do you feel about it being in the romance aisle?

It's nearly Christmas!

When I say Christmas, I mean any holiday that works for you:) Christmas is the one I'm most familiar with and the only one I can recount tales of family traditions and mishaps! Researching Christmas traditions for the Regency period can be a bit tricky because most of 'my' family traditions, and those of most people who grew up in the UK, come from the Victorian time period.

Christmas trees? A German import, probably courtesy of Prince Albert. There is, of course, a old tradition of bringing in the Yule log which gets to burn over the holiday period. That dates back to medieval times and is usually considered pagan in origin, as are quite a few of the Christmas traditions.

I think that hunting for small objects cooked into a pudding is also an old tradition that dictated who got to boss everyone around for the season and play tricks. The Victorians added the silver charms in the Christmas pudding but I'm not sure if they had any particular significance, other than you had to be careful not to a, choke or b, crack your teeth!

From my family I carried over the tradition of Christmas stockings placed on the kids beds for the morning. It's kind of a delaying tactic to slow them down with enough chocolate to wait for their big presents later after church. I remember one Christmas when I was about 8, when my father came home from the pub and took umbrage (as you do when you've had a few pints) to the suggestion that my mother was the only one who could fill the xmas stockings for the girls (his 5 daughters). He insisted on doing it himself.The next morning everyone was sobbing because, of course, he had no idea what each of us wanted and we all got the wrong things. It took my mother about an hour to sort out the mess and I realized that maybe 'you know who' wasn't quite who I thought he was.

Recently my husband asked me whether we should continue the stockings-he gets very bah-humbug as Christmas approaches, I suspect it's a money thing. The kids were horrified at the very idea of messing with their xmas and I'll still continue to do them. Mr Kate Pearce has to be kept away from the financial aspects of xmas. He has this weird idea that $50 goes a long way and I hate to destroy his old-world assumptions. We have a deal that he doesn't look at the bills in December!

Something else that's become a tradition in my family is that I always make mince pies and a particularly rich ice cream from scratch. I'm not sure how ice cream became an xmas tradition, but there you are. For my kids, it's part of Christmas, as are the mince pies which I hand out to various guests and watch their expressions as they try and work out exactly what I'm expecting them to eat!

And in case you're wondering about my dad. He never did the stockings again, but he did once bring a complete stranger home for Christmas dinner because the poor guy had no one to celebrate with. Now that more than made up for the stockings in my book :)

And don't forget, if any of you get any gift cards for bookstores-and I know you will-"Simply Sexual" my erotic Regency-set romance from Kensington Aphrodisia comes out on January 29th!

I hope you have a great holiday season!
And please comment about your own traditions, I'd love to hear about them!

A spanking new cover!

How cool is this? Totally hot and sexy and yet not a nipple in sight. I have to admit I spent about half an hour just staring at his mouth. I like me a man with a bit of stubble :)

This book comes out at the end of January 08 from Kensington Aphrodisia, and it is, despite the title, Regency erotic romance. It's very edgy on the erotic romance front but I don't mind being an envelope pusher!

Here's a quick blurb:

Valentin Sokorvsky decides to take a wife but he has no intention of sharing either his darkest sexual fantasies or his heart with her. He prefers to pretend that six years spent as a sex slave in a Turkish brothel have nothing to do with the successful business man he is or the devoted husband he intends to become.

Sara Harrison is more than willing to escape her comfortable but stifling existence and let Valentin tutor her in erotic pleasures. But when Valentin’s sordid past threatens both his business and their marriage, is she willing to embrace her husband’s carnal depths in order to reveal and accept the man he truly is?

I did mention it's not your average erotic romance, although it's not quite erotica either. Both the male characters, Valentin and his friend, Peter, who takes hero status in the next book, have very interesting sexual preferences formed by their experiences in an unsavory Turkish brothel. It was a pleasure to write about them and the women who eventually come to love them.

And just so you know-it's already available to pre-order at Amazon.com-just in case you're dying to get your hands on it!
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Where do you get your ideas from?

I have no idea...well actually now I do but only because Pam mentioned something on our blog a while back that absolutely stuck with me and secondly I was answering questions for an interview today and actually had to think about my 'process'.

Here's what Pam said:

"The thing is, the specifics of my erotic books are made up or taken from things other people made up. But there's a way in which they're the truest books I've ever written, because I had those fantasies and that's the truth. I think the act of giving it literary form was a way of making something tellable that would otherwise be entirely secret and untellable."

And I thought yes that's absolutely how I feel and Pam has put it so eloquently that I don't need to. I know a lot of writers of erotica and erotic romance do actually live lives that bear a striking resemblance to their written work. And then there's me...happily married, mother of four, frumpy soccer mom. And I'm cool with that, usually, although occasionally when I hear tales of other authors' wild lifestyles I wonder whether I'm a big fraud who if she stuck to writing what she knew would write very short books.

Pam reminded me that being a voracious reader and having a deep fantasy life are just as valuable resources in a writers toolbox as being out there living the artistic life. I also realized that my ability to be quiet, to listen and to watch were other skills that helped me write the books I wanted to.

Thank you Pam :)

And now onto the whole 'process' question, which is linked to the above, because I get uncomfortable with the whole idea that I have a 'process' which sounds like something I might have to produce a spreadsheet for or present at a board meeting, or god forbid, a writer's workshop.

For some people having a process obviously works. Sometimes I wish I knew their secret. One of the interview questions asked what came first for me, character, plot, setting etc and it made me think. Luckily for me, I've just started musing about a new book and so for the first time, I'm able to tell you my process.

Although, when I write it down it sounds crazy! What happens is this. I get a sense of a person, usually at a critical emotional moment in his or her life, (for me, usually its the hero.)

In this instance, I got a glimpse of a man, sitting on his bunk, behind bars. He's in a crowded space and yet he is completely alone and apart, all his emotions so finely banked down that no one looking at him would be able to tell how intensely he hates his present situation, how every muscle is quivering from the effort to stop himself from throwing himself at those bars and screaming until he is hoarse. Only I see it because I 'know' him.

Well, I don't really know him -yet-but gradually as I let my subconscious play with the image and his feelings, I'll get to know more and more about what time period he exists in and what is going on around him to have put him in this position. I suppose it's a bit like the small pebble thrown into the silent pond and the ripples radiating out from it. I kind of like that image. By the way, I think his name is Constantin, but I could be wrong.

Does the above count as a process? I'm not sure, but it works for me. As Pam says, it's pure fantasy. I've never been to jail, I have no idea how it would feel to be there but, trust me, I know how Constantin feels.

So you know what I'm going to ask you-Writers, where do you get your ideas from? And if you are a reader, do you like to know how a writer gets his/her ideas and do you feel cheated if he/she hasn't actually done everything in their books?

Pleasurable Bargains

This is the new cover for the print edition of PLEASURABLE BARGAINS, which has just come out from Ellora's Cave. It's actually a compilation of my two shorter erotic Regency e-book stories, 'Eden's Pleasure' and 'Antonia's Bargain'. It's available at all the usual places, including the EC eBay store. Luckily for me, EC decided to put this out just in time for the RWA conference in Dallas, which means I get to sign it at the literacy signing "Readers for Life" on July 11th from 5:30-7:30, which is open to the public and features all the big names of romance, including some of the more illustrious crumpets here!(oh,and me)

We've talked a lot about man titty on this blog and very little about woman titty-mainly, I suppose, because you just can't show even the hint of a nipple on a romance novel cover. (although Celia's cover on the right comes pretty close!) I must admit that when I first saw this cover from EC, the luscious lady had a few little rolls of fat at her waist. Now, I'm all for natural-looking women on covers and I love her curves but I sheepishly asked the darling art dept at EC if they could remove those tiny love handles-mainly because they reminded me how I might look if posed just so...and romance is all about fantasy, yes? So forgive me if she seems too perfect-the fault is all mine...

I'm currently looking at potential covers for another book I have coming out at the end of the year. It's always interesting to see how a cover evolves. It always takes me a while to get my head around someone elses idea of what my hero or heroine looks like. Apparently books with blond heroes on the cover don't sell as well as books with dark heroes, which is a pity because both the hero and heroine of the book in question happen to be blond. (memo to self: never do that again)

Does it annoy you when the cover of a romance novel doesn't reflect the author's description of the hero/heroine? Or are there any particular covers you think have been done to death? (personally I'm fed up with the woman running from deathly peril in high heels thing (who would keep their shoes on?) and the classic clinch)

Forcing the issue

I've been thinking a lot about the whole 'forced seduction' topic and how it has suddenly sprung to life again after all this time. I grew up in the UK and romance novels over there came in two main packages. Mills & Boon and gritty.

One of the most famous British authors Catherine Cookson is almost totally unheard of in the U.S. because she writes stories about women who start off poor and drag themselves up by their bootstraps to become entrepreneurs (or wonder women), usually bringing some complete bastard alpha male to heel along the way. You'd think that these 'rags to riches' stories would sell well in the U.S. because, well, that is the American dream isn't it? but they don't because the U.S. market has generally been more focused on the happy ever after fantasy.


One of the first authors who really inspired me was Brenda Jagger. She wrote awesome historicals set mainly in the industrial north of England when everything was changing so rapidly. In her books, couples fight, have affairs and are not always perfect. I love gritty books where a marriage can even survive infidelity by both couples. I love finding out how that can be resolved and how true love triumphs in the end.

When I first started writing in the U.S., I think I brought that more gritty, realistic element into my writing, with heroes who weren't always talking about their feelings or being very politically correct. My rejections usually mentioned this, implying that the books weren't romantic enough for the U.S. market. I wanted to sell so I toned down those elements, concentrated on different aspects of the stories or found places, such as erotic romance, where those elements were more welcome.

But even at Ellora's Cave, infidelity after marriage is not appreciated by readers and doesn't sell. (Four intergalactic aliens and one woman okay, one man one woman trying to repair a marriage, not okay) Some of my favorite U.S. authors, such as Mary Balogh, who originally came from Wales, still have elements of that more gritty style in some of their writing and I like that realism. I suspect any Australian or Commonwealth writer who grew up on M&B and 'rags to riches' books probably has that underlying bias as well. (I must ask Anna Campbell about that-she is Australian)

So to ramble back to my original point, (kind of), I'm glad to see a return of the more graphic books. I'm not a fan of rape, obviously, but I suspect forced seduction is one of women's number one fantasies. I realized a while ago that I didn't really have a right to grumble about young women who choose to express their femininity in ways that I feel are inappropriate. In the same way, I don't have the right to censure other readers for their fantasies. We all have a right to dream.

Would you be uncomfortable reading more old style 'Bodice Ripper' stories or do you prefer the romance genre to keep moving forward, maybe incorporating elements of the older stories with stronger heroines?

Once upon a time...

I'd love to say that this picture is of me in a past life but it is, in fact, Caroline Murat and her children. I've always liked it because she has that look on her face I often have, (when surrounded by all four children), of 'take me away!'

Once upon a time I desperately wanted to be Jane Austen. Then it was Georgette Heyer. Finally I became Kate Pearce and I quite like her. She’s everything that attracted me to the two great ladies mentioned above and a lot lot more smutty.

Like dear Jane Lockwood, I’m an import to the USA from the Old Country where I grew up in the middle of a family of six sisters. Three of them got married in a fairly short period of time, echoing the Bennett sisters, leaving me with my own bedroom for the first time in my life.

I’ve always been fascinated by sex in all its amazing variety and detail. My historical romances kept getting turned down for being too unconventional, so I decided the best thing to do was be even more unconventional. Hence my first erotic Regency romance, “Eden’s Pleasure” was written six weeks after the birth of my 4th child. (I’m sure there’s some deep hidden meaning behind that inauspicious start but whatever). I sold it to Ellora’s Cave in Nov 2005 and I haven’t looked back.

The sequel to “Eden’s Pleasure” “Antonia’s Bargain” came out in January 07 from Ellora’s Cave but readers will have to wait a while for another Regency erotic romance as I just sold two (well, my agent did) to Kensington Aphrodisia (waving at Celia). I think they’ll be out in 2008. (lowers voice) In the meantime, I write in other erotic sub-genres as well, so please go and check out my website!

Some of the things I’m looking forward to discussing are historical attitudes toward contraception and the more ambiguous kind of happy ever after. I’m sure we’ll get around to those fascinating subjects soon! When I'm super famous, I'm also planning on 'improving' all the Georgette Heyer's with a bit of smut. Only problem is, I can't decide which book to start with...Damarel or the Duke of Avon? hmm...