Today my Writing; The Alphabet series continues with 'C' is for Covers and my guest to discuss the issue is Julie Shelton.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.” It’s an old saying that has never been more
true than today. Since most people DO
judge a book by its cover, that’s the reason covers are so crucial in today’s
world of ebooks, where they are competing with literally thousands of other
ebooks in the same genre. In the world
of fiction, there are two kinds of covers.
The ones that tell you nothing but the title, as with Stieg Larsson’s
books, and the illustrated ones that give you at least some information about
what is inside the book. Larsson’s
titles are intriguing enough that you pick up his books, ready to embark on the
journey inside, without knowing anything except the title. You are trusting that he will provide you with
enough information in his story for your imagination to take over and fill in
the details.
I write romance novels and I believe these
covers need to provide a little more information than just the title. A little more incentive for the reader to
pick it up and find out what’s inside.
Take the cover to my first book, Loving
Sarah. The cover tells you that
three people are involved in this romance, two men and a woman. You know what the characters inside the book
look like, one man has short, dark hair, the other is blond, the woman has
long, dark hair. The interaction among
the three people on the cover is sensual, sweet, loving. They are totally absorbed in each other,
discovering each other. Yet, you know
from this photo that the emotions they’re feeling are powerful. If you’re looking for an emotionally
wrenching read, then Loving Sarah,
will not disappoint.
When I received the cover photo for Owning Sarah, the sequel to Loving Sarah, I was disappointed. While the same three models had been used,
the woman’s make-up was so thick and heavy, it looked like it had been done by
Sherwin-Williams instead of Revlon. It
aged her thirty years. In addition,
instead of flowing long hair, they had her in a wig that was a mass of
curls. She looked like a hooker. I sent it back to Siren outlining my
grievances and they sent a replacement cover photo, the one that’s on the book
today. Look how tightly they’re holding
each other. This pose is much more dramatic
and intense, letting you, the reader, know that their relationship has deepened
and that they are desperate to prevent outside forces from trying to tear them
apart. Again, when you read the story, you
will not be disappointed.
In the cover to Keeping Sarah, you will notice that the three are all facing toward the reader, presenting a united front that will stand them in good stead during the course of this new book. Considering that Keeping Sarah embroils them in an Albanian blood feud, a near-massacre at a BDSM club, a sex slave auction, betrayal, danger, and intrigue, as well as some hot M/M action between the two heroes, I think the pose works well.
Watch this space on August 22 for a steamy excerpt, interviews and other goodies from not only Keeping Sarah, but also Loving Sarah and Owning Sarah as well. Happy reading!
Recent Releases from Julie Shelton
Eight years ago Jesse Colter fled
his small town, leaving behind eighteen-year-old Sarah Marshall, broken-hearted
and devastated. Now a retired Navy SEAL,
he’s back and he wants only one thing—Sarah Marshall—preferably bound, naked,
and on her knees before him.
She has never forgotten Jesse. He’s been the object of all her sexual
fantasies since she was fifteen, as well as the star of nightly dreams that
have become increasingly erotic over the years.
So when he suddenly reappears in her life, she is torn. Can she trust him not to hurt her, or will he
once again break her heart? Warily, she
agrees to let him introduce her to his world—the world of bondage, Domination,
and erotic slavery. When he also
introduces her to his best friend, Adam Sinclair, Sarah faces a daunting future
of sexual submission to two powerful alpha males.
But Sarah faces an even bigger
challenge. Someone is stalking her. Is it the old enemy who’s just been released
from prison? Or is it someone else from
her past who is determined to destroy any chance she has at happiness? Can Adam’s and Jesse’s love protect her? Or will her world explode in a cataclysm of
betrayal and violence that will destroy them all?
LOVING
SARAH -- ADULT EXCERPT
“Greedy little sub,” Adam chuckled. He manipulated her slick, swollen pussy lips,
sliding them back and forth until one of the frozen red grapes popped from its
dewy prison. It sat, glistening lewdly,
nestled between her sopping wet lips like some obscene sex organ. “Do not come,” he instructed quietly, working
his tongue beneath the grape and sliding it all the way up her slit. He flicked it rapidly across her frazzled
clit before pulling the small fruit into his mouth and chewing noisily.
She was gasping like a beached fish, desperately
trying to hold off her climax.
“Do not come,” he repeated, squeezing another grape
free and looking at it for a long moment before taking it into his mouth. “God, you taste delicious,” he murmured,
sliding his tongue back and forth along the length of her slit, just barely
touching that nerve-ridden nubbin of flesh that was the center of both her pleasure
and her torment. “Like sunshine and
flowers and sweet, sweet cream.”
She lay there, shuddering and twitching as he tunneled
his tongue into the depths of her
cunt, releasing two more grapes and sending her body
spiraling up, up, up toward the orgasm that hovered so tantalizingly out of
reach. The orgasm she so desperately
craved, yet knew she must not have. The
one she fought with every trembling muscle in her body.
Adam pushed her right up to the edge. Then stopped.
He straightened, watching her entire body shudder
helplessly as yet another orgasm retreated.
He reveled in the power her submission gave him. Power to control, to direct, to manipulate. Power to render her helpless against her
body’s own dark needs even as he drove her to the ultimate in sexual
pleasure. “You do not have permission to
come,” he reminded her as, one by one, he pulled more round red globes into his
mouth. He released her pussy lips and
stood up to allow Jesse to take his place.
A sob heaved from her lungs as she frantically fought
her body’s brutal need to climax.
Jesse spread her labia apart with his thumbs,
revealing her entire slit from her clenching ass hole at the bottom to the
portal of her vagina and her clit at the very top. Her flesh was pink and swollen and dripping
with the cream of her arousal. By now
the remaining grapes were held firmly in place within her vaginal walls. Jesse rubbed his nose along her cleft,
lapping his tongue at her dripping entrance, making her shudder and squirm. Placing his palm over her mound, he pressed
down. “Push,” he said and a grape popped
out onto his tongue.
He bit into the crisp flesh and was rewarded with a
burst of tart sweetness that blended with Sarah’s own unique flavor, making it
the most delicious treat he’d ever eaten.
He ate all the remaining grapes, taking his time to dig each one out,
finger-fucking her, building her arousal to a fever pitch. By the time he finished the last one, she was
moaning and writhing and burning with the need to come. “Please, Jesse,” she begged, her voice hoarse
with passion. “Please….”
“Please what?” he asked perversely, grinning as he
slowly circled his finger around her
clit, manipulating the surrounding flesh without actually touching the pearl
itself, keeping her teetering on the edge, frantic and desperate.
It was pure torture and she gritted her teeth and
stiffened her muscles in a losing effort to
keep her climax at bay. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out
much longer. “Please let me come,” she
begged.
“I don’t know.”
Jesse tilted his head, appearing to consider. As he did so, he began tapping his thumb
repeatedly against her clit, increasing her suffering a hundred-fold.
Oh. My. God! The breath shuddered from her lungs. Her muscles clenched so tight she feared
she‘d never get them to relax again. She
squirmed as her need to climax threatened to swallow her alive.
“Whaddya think, Adam?
Has she earned the right to come?”
Sarah’s beseeching gaze flew to her other tormenter,
who gave her a sly smile as he reached for her clamped breasts. “Yeah.
She’s been a pretty good girl.”
“Then come for us, Sarah,” Jesse toggled her clit, Adam released the
clips on her nipples, and she let out a shriek as her orgasm hit her with the
force of an avalanche, blasting through her, leveling everything in its
path. Her back arched into a rigid bow
as pleasure clenched her muscles so tight, she thought she heard bones
snapping. And while she was still
screaming and jerking about wildly, Jesse stood and unzipped his jeans, freeing
his iron-hard cock. Grabbing her hips,
he thrust into her, stroking savagely in and out until she came again, her
muscles clamping around him so tightly his eyes crossed.
And again she came, with tremors so violent they
rivaled a magnitude 10 earthquake,
even as Jesse spilled his seed deep inside her. He pulled out and Adam took his place until
he, too, climaxed, emptying himself inside her still-convulsing cunt. He remained deeply buried, rocking his hips
hard against her, letting the long, liquid pulls of her inner muscles milk
every last drop of come from his pumping cock.
There was so much it splatted onto the floor in thick, milky blobs. Finally, with a hoarse cry, he pulled out,
staggering backwards to collapse into the chair behind him, his hand still
stroking his dwindling cock, wet and slick with the combination of all their
juices.
Sarah flopped back on the table, jerking like a
spastic marionette, totally spent, wondering desperately where all the oxygen
had gone.
She was dimly aware of Jesse scooping her up off the
table and flopping into the nearest chair with her straddling his lap, holding
her close, crooning softly in her ear.
His voice came at her from a great distance, gradually fading until
there was nothing but silence. She had
passed out.
BUY
LINKS FOR LOVING SARAH
Amazon: http://amzn.to/18BMwQe
Siren-Bookstrand: http://bit.ly/IOPGpE
Kobobooks: http://bit.ly/19Pmv0z
GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/1g4GSYk
Owning Sarah, back cover blurb
It’s been a month since Sarah
Marshall was kidnapped and held at knife-point by her ex-fiance. But Jesse Colter and Adam Sinclair, her two
loving Doms, know that there is an even deadlier threat still out there—Ryder
Malone.
He blames both Sarah and Jesse for
sending him to prison eight years ago for attempted rape, and he’s determined
to make them pay. So, he begins a
systematic campaign of terror and intimidation against them. But the danger he poses doesn’t end there.
Set against the deepening love and commitment between Sarah, Jesse,
and Adam, Owning Sarah is more than just a sexy, sensual, BDSM love story. It is a harrowing race against time for
Jesse, Adam, and a team of former SEALs to stop one of the biggest
arms-for-drugs deals in U.S. history.
And to rescue Sarah before Malone sells her to a human trafficker and
she’s lost to her men forever.
OWNING SARAH - ADULT EXCERPT ONE
“There’s my good
girl.” His face softened. “Look, sugar, I agree that this is your domain, where
you’re in charge. I get it. What you don’t
get is that you are only in charge if I’m
not in here with you. Because
then it becomes my domain, and I’m in charge, because no matter where
we are, if we’re together, I am in
charge of you. Are we clear?” When
she didn’t answer, his eyes darkened.
Pinioned by no more
than his black gaze and the hand tightening around her neck, she might just as
well have been tightly restrained. She couldn’t move. Not even when he took the
final step that closed the distance between them, commandeering her personal
space, dark intent in his eyes and raw hunger in every savage line of his face.
She held her breath. Her nipples hardened and her stomach plummeted. “Jesse…”
One black eyebrow
shot up. “Are we clear, baby?”
She gulped,
struggling to maintain her swiftly-vanishing equilibrium. “Y-yes, Jesse.”
“Good. Glad that’s
settled. Now, I believe I gave you a direct order, Sarah. But since you seem to
be incapable of following it, I’ll help.”
She watched, aghast,
as he shoved her chair out of the way with his foot, sending it scooting across
the marble floor. With both hands, he unbuttoned her teal silk blouse, jerked
the tails out of the waistband of her skirt and removed it, tossing it casually
onto the seat of her chair. Reaching behind her, he deftly unclasped her ecru
lace bra and pulled it off, revealing her creamy breasts to his hot, hard gaze.
Folding the scrap of lace carefully, he stuffed it into the flapped pocket on
the left leg of his cargoes. “Offer your breasts to me, Sunny.”
She gulped. Sunny. The name he and Adam had given
her—the slave name he and Adam had
given her. The name that let her know that a scene had officially started and
she was their property until they saw fit to release her. Swallowing again, she
curved her hands beneath her voluptuous breasts, lifting them up as if
sacrificing them to a pagan god.
Every cell in his
body burst into vibrant, throbbing life. He tried to swallow, but all the
moisture in his mouth had evaporated and he couldn’t get his tongue to work. Christ! She wrecked him! She simply wrecked him! He still couldn’t believe
he finally had her after needing her for so long. Eight years! Eight fuckin’ years!
“Jesus, sugar, your
breasts are so gorgeous.” It was a hoarse whisper, barely audible above the
blood pounding in his ears. His head descended. He closed his lips around one
berry-like nipple and began suckling hard, flicking his tongue across the tight
little nub like a scourge, sending ribbons of pleasure lashing against her
clit.
Whimpering, she
dropped her head back and arched forward, undulating her hips as she sought
more of his exquisite torture.
Roughly replacing
her hands with his, he plumped the soft pillows of her breasts as his mouth
ravaged her nipples, going back and forth from one to the other, licking,
sucking, taking sharp little nips that made her squeal, before soothing her
with his tongue.
Spiraling higher and
higher toward release, she could feel her juices running freely down the
insides of her thighs. God, she was close…So
close…
Grabbing her
shoulders, he turned her, and bent her forward, smashing her wet breasts
against the cluttered, glass-covered desktop. Jeez, that’s cold. She sucked in a gasp as he roughly hiked her
skirt up around her waist. Cool air brushed across the exposed skin of her
buttocks. “Hands over your head, baby, grab the front edge of the desk and
spread your legs.”
“Jesse, please,” she
gasped, shoulders straining against his superior strength as he man-handled her
into the position he wanted. “Judge Walters’s clerk is on his way over here. He’ll
be here any minute!”
“Then I suggest you
get a move on, little sub.”
“Jesse, please…” She
continued to resist, even as tremors of need pulsed through her until she was
shaking all over. Part of her, the prim and proper, sexually repressed part,
the part she’d named Angel, told her to defy him, since he was clearly out of
line by coming into her office like this, expecting her to just drop everything
and have wild, desktop sex. The other part of her, the inner, wanton,
hedonistic imp she’d named Dolores, knew defiance was pointless. Knew she’d
already lost this particular battle. Just
do it, goaded Dolores’s shrill little
voice in her head. Let him bend you over
the desk. Let him force you to have sex—yeah, like he’d have to force you. After all, Dolores clapped her hands
gleefully, seeing she had Sarah’s rapt attention, what’s the worst thing that can happen? The hottest man on the face of
the planet will fuck you to the best orgasm of your life, that’s what! Really
not seein’ the problem here, sweetcakes!
Unfortunately this
was the part that always got her into trouble. Because ever since Jesse and
Adam had come into her life, this was the part she always listened to. “What if
someone just walks right in? They’ll see…”
“Time’s a-wastin’,
Sarah.” Without waiting for her reply, he grabbed the elastic waistband of her
teal silk and ecru lace panties and yanked them down until they caught halfway
down her thighs, stretched to their limit. “Close your legs.” Barely giving her
enough time to slide her feet together, he lifted one booted foot, placed it
between her legs atop the bunched fabric and shoved the panties down to the
floor. “Step out.”
Kicking the scrap of
brightly colored silk out of the way with the toe of his boot, he unzipped his
jeans, freeing the iron rod of his cock. With a low groan, he rocked his hips
forward, humping his hot, damp cock into the crease of her ass. “Christ, sugar,
you feel so fuckin’ good! I’ve been dreamin’ about this all damn day.”
BUY
LINKS FOR OWNING SARAH
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1jLSwdJ
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/18AOP2T
Siren-Bookstrand: http://bit.ly/1g4JPbr
“Just
follow my lead.”
“The
last time I followed your lead, I got shot,” Jesse reminded him.
“Unfortunately,
there’s no guarantee you’ll fare any better this time around,” Adam said wryly.
He rose and held out his hand. Jesse took it and used it to pull himself up out
of the deep, cushion-y sofa. Neither man let go as they stood facing each
other, so close their bodies were almost touching, each feeling the other’s
heat. Then Adam lifted his other hand and curved his fingers around the back of
Jesse’s head. For a long moment, they neither moved nor spoke. They simply
stared into each other’s eyes as their heartbeats accelerated and their
breathing became harsh and shallow. Jesse could not remember ever being more
aroused than he was at that moment. His cock was hard as a railroad spike. Nervously
he licked his lips, his gaze riveted to Adam’s, watching as Adam slanted his
head and moved toward him.
Wow - these books look HOT! Thank you so much for being my guest today, Julie. I look forward to welcoming you again on 22nd August for my Meet the Author spot.
Join me again on Friday when Mya Larose will be my guest for this week's Meet the Author spot - we'll be finding out all about her and her latest release. Until then enjoy the rest of the week and have fun with whatever you are reading and/or writing.
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