Friday Focus – Meet Author Lucy Felthouse

by Sarah | Aug 8, 2013 | Friday Dialogues, Guest Authors, Writing

*Disclaimer: Two of the covers shown in this post are racier. They are shown below the fold, but do not open at work.  Thank you.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Sure. I’m 28 (just!) and from Derbyshire in the UK. I divide my time between running my own business (http://www.writermarketing.co.uk) and writing (http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk). I also love reading, watching TV and films, spending time in the countryside walking and visiting places.

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

A little bit of both. For the most part I’m a pantser. But in the past few months I’ve been writing longer works (I started out in short stories) and I’ve found that they often need more plotting to make sure they’re the best they can be, and that I don’t lose my thread.

Can you tell us about the challenges you faced getting your first book published?

I was actually incredibly lucky when it came to getting my first short story published. I sent it off to Xcite Books, who included it in an anthology called Seriously Sexy 3. As it happens, Xcite is also publishing my first novel, Stately Pleasures, which I wrote last year. It went to a couple of other publishers, one of which didn’t respond at all, and the other that is no longer publishing erotic romance. So I sent the book out a third time, and luckily, Xcite accepted it. It should hopefully be published towards the end of 2013.

What was your favorite chapter to write and why?

I’ll answer this in regards to my two latest releases, Testing Tom and A Taste of Paris, which came out within days of one another.

For Testing Tom, it would probably be the last chapter. I can’t really say why without giving it away, but let’s just say I didn’t plan this book and so that chapter came as a total surprise!

For A Taste of Paris, I would say it’s the scene in the peep show. Again, I don’t want to give too much away, but bear in mind this book is aimed at men, and so is harder and with zero romance. That scene was just fun!

Were all of your characters easy to write, or did some of them give you trouble? Any particular character you didn’t like at all?  

In the aforementioned books, I’d say yes, they were all easy characters to write. So far, I haven’t really written any characters that I didn’t like. I’m sure I will at some point!

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Read lots in your chosen genre, learn to edit yourself and pay attention to what publishers are looking for.

In researching your book what did you learn that surprised you? Or, alternatively, what thing did you research that you never thought you would (and considered deleting from your browsing history)?

Well, Testing Tom and A Taste of Paris both have some pretty hardcore scenes in them, but I didn’t do that much online research. The vast majority of Testing Tom was purely from my warped imagination. I did search for collars, though. And for A Taste of Paris I asked a friend that had been to a peep show to describe it, which was really useful, as often the Internet isn’t that good for absolute specifics.

Narrow down your novel. Why must we read it?  (besides the obvious, it’s awesome answer…because of course it is!)

You should read Testing Tom because it’s fun, filthy and yet very romantic. The hero goes through an awful lot to prove to the heroine that he loves her and is worthy of her.

You should read A Taste of Paris… only if you’ve read A Taste of London. The books do stand alone, but you’ll have a much better reading experience if you read book one first. You should check them out because they’re lighthearted, sexy and fun, and the characters are gorgeous!

Do you have any unique talents or hobbies?

I’m afraid I’m pretty dull in that respect. Unless you count enjoying visiting stately homes and historical monuments as unique…

Which character speaks the loudest to you?

Ryan Stonebridge speaks loudly to me. He’s the main character in the A Taste of… series. I think he speaks loudly because he’s very similar to how I would be if I was an eighteen year old male travelling the world. He’s just so much fun to write.

Do you have another book coming out soon?

I sure do. My good friend Lily Harlem and I co-authored a novel back at the beginning of the year, and we just recently had a release date. Grand Slam is a BDSM erotic romance that is due out on the 23^rd August from Ellora’s Cave. It’s released in time for the US Open, as there’s where some of the action takes place. I can’t wait for people to meet Travis Connolly and Marie Sherratt.

How many books can we expect to see in your series? Is the number tentative or set?

For the A Taste of… I don’t have a set number. In terms of location, I’m writing what I know. I visit London a lot, so that was easy. I’ve also been to Paris (latest book), Rome (the next book) and Amsterdam (the book after that). I’m hoping to go to Barcelona in 2014, so that will be where the book after Amsterdam is set. After that, I’m bringing the boys home for a while, I think, so I have chance to make enough cash to take another holiday! But basically I’m hoping to have enough books to cover their whole gap year before they start university. And who knows, if people like the boys enough, I may even follow them to university. Watch this space.

For the Raw Talent series, of which Grand Slam is book one, we don’t have a clue yet. We only decided to make it into a series when we were almost finished writing the first book. We’ve started book two and are planning to write two novels in the series per year, depending on our other commitments. So I guess we’ll do that until we run out of inspiration… which may be never!

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Testing Tom is a femdom erotic romance novella. Here’s the blurb:

When Katrina’s ex, Tom, turns up on her doorstep, he’s literally the last person she was expecting to see. After dumping her and running off with a vanilla chick, Tom broke the Domme’s heart and left her seriously hurting. So when he returns, begging for another chance, Katrina is understandably very confused and protective of her bruised feelings. She finds it very difficult to believe that he’s turned his back on a vanilla lifestyle for good and wants to be with her, a professional dominatrix. Rather than letting her head or her heart figure out what to do, whether to forgive him, she decides to put Tom through a series of challenges that will prove his devotion to her—or not. Testing Tom is not something she’d ever expected she’d have to do, but to her, it’s the only way she can be sure whether he’s back for good.

More info, excerpt and buy links here: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/testing-tom/

Add to Goodreads here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18147133-testing-tom

A Taste of Paris is book two in my A Taste of… series and is an erotic short story. Here’s the blurb:

Ryan Stonebridge and his friend Kristian Hurst are traveling on their year off before going to University.

Unfortunately, Kristian has been called back home due to a family emergency. Ryan continues on to Paris alone, hoping his friend will join him again soon.

In the meantime, Ryan’s lucky streak with women continues, and by the time Kristian makes it to Paris, Ryan’s bumper box of condoms is depleting rapidly. However, there are more than enough women to go around, and Kristian intends to have some sexy fun of his own, and when the boys get a chance to play with two sexy ladies at once, they certainly aren’t going to turn it down.

More info, excerpt and buy links here: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/a-taste-of-paris/

Add to Goodreads here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17368766-a-taste-of-paris

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Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over seventy publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include Best Bondage Erotica 2012 and 2013, and Best Women’s Erotica 2013. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies. She owns Erotica For All, and is book editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9