The littlest things give rise to stories. Back in September I went shopping for underwear. Now I'm not normally very good at shopping (A friend told me: "You shop like a man, Janine.") but I needed some quite specific undergarments for my Wild West saloon-girl costume that I'd be wearing. So I trekked round every single lingerie shop in the city centre - the posh ones, the cheap-n-cheerful highstreet ones, the one that sold sex toys at the back, and - of course - Marks and Spencer (with deeply depressing results).
But I also went into a couple of department stores: the really old-fashioned kind of shop that sells wigs right next to stacks of Wedgewood crockery: the kind of shop I've avoided for decades, because my dad used to work for one and that's where we were dragged to do all our shopping when I was 11 because we got a discount. And I found that they have amazing lingerie departments, full of elaborate garments by foreign labels, in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colours. Clearly, beneath the staid middle-aged crust of Britain there are a lot of women wearing extraordinary frillies. Really expensive designer ones at that. It was a revelation!
I went home and I wrote Shot to the Heart a few days later - in which my horny protagonists go slightly crazy while buying lingerie. It sort of wrote itself, really. It's a reminder to me to keep my eyes open whatever I'm doing, because it might just be the seed of inspiration.
The full line-up for Sex, Love and Valentines, in which Shot to the Heart appears, is as follows:
Heart-Shaped Box by Justine ElyotExposure by Kat Black
Beer Bottle by Jeremy Edwards
Continuity by Shanna Germain
No Stopping by Landon Dixon
The Stocks by Roger Frank Selby
E620 by Lucy Felthouse
Crush by Primula Bond
A Weekend Retreat by Izzy French
Better Than Chocolate by Amelia Thornton
Dr Charm by J. Manx
Shot to the Heart by Janine Ashbless
Served, on Wheels by Sue Williams
Neighbours by Elizabeth Cage
Dirty Boy by Charlotte Stein
Tongue Craft by Alcamia
Molly’s New Mistress by Lilli Lace
The Ex Factor by Sophia Valenti
Katy Keene, Teen Detective by Lynn Lake
Nightcap by Elizabeth Cage
Now doesn't that look like a perfect Valentine's Day gift?
Buy from Amazon UK : Buy from Xcite (will ship worldwide)
And also available as a PDF download
Excerpt from Shot to the Heart just below, in case you missed it...
3 comments:
Those stories that just spring out of a life experience are a real treat. Congrats, and thanks as always for sharing a very fetching image!
Are they beads or cherries?
I got my SL&V recently and have been treating myself to its contents of an evening. Read STTH last night and, whoa, you really had me all hot 'n' bothered (which doesn't bother me at all)! It's a showpiece of pacing—it builds and builds, with the carefully crafted details parceled out just right.
And, without spoiling the plot for other readers, let me say that your "key concept" has been a favorite tidbit of mine, ever since reading it (I think) in a Desmond Morris book.
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