Showing posts with label Erzabt Bishop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erzabt Bishop. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Tuesday Teaser from Beyond Fairytales - Club Beam by Erzabet Bishop


Blurb:
In the Shadow World, nothing is as it seems.

Detective Sydney Marr is having a very bad day. Her boss is on the warpath, she’s being treated for a werewolf bite, and her current case has hit a dead end. When her friend Erika talks Syd into going with her to Club Beam, she jumps at the chance, even if it means spending an evening without her spell arsenal. A high-class vampire bar and fetish club, Club Beam is fantasy made real.

Club owner and Dom Gideon Raines spies the red-haired beauty and is transfixed. A fight against a skillful murderer brings war for fae and vampire alike. Sometimes when you play with monsters, the monsters play back.
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Release date: May 5, 2015
Pages: 106
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Line: Beyond Fairy Tales, Shadow World Series
Genre: Paranormal Urban Fantasy, Fairy Tale, m/f

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I asked Erzabet Bishop where she got the inspiration for such an amazing tale. She told me the story behind the story and more.... 
When I first contacted Decadent Publishing to inquire about their fairy tale line I was assigned a story called “The Beam.” I looked it up and found out it was about a wizard who is bested by a woman and he exacts his revenge. Whenever I encounter a new project like this, I have to sit down and think about what all the moving parts mean. In this case, how to turn a story like this into a modern romance that readers would find appealing. Since I tend to write urban fantasy slanted pieces, I immediately laser beamed in on the wizard and witch part. I mean, how cool is that to have a ready-made story ripe for the picking? I just had to add some modern twists. What would be more modern than a witchy karaoke event and fairy tale fetish night? 

The process of writing for me is an organic one. It begins with a legal pad and a series of colorful sticky notes and a foam board. I start thinking about the chapters and what needs to happen to make the story move and there you go-plot points on sticky notes I can adjust as needed. It works too. Sydney had lots of thoughts on where she wanted to go and believe me, she is still in there talking. 

The second book in the Shadow World series is already writing itself (think dragon shifters and a psychic) and I can see the fireworks shaping up nicely.

 Stay tuned for a short story featuring Sydney in the upcoming Sci Spanks event (https://www.facebook.com/scispanks?fref=ts). You might just get invited for a session behind the Red Door. Master Gideon has a paddle and he’s ready to play.

I hope you will enjoy the introduction to my Shadow World series and return to Club Beam for many more adventures.

Buy links:


Excerpt:
“Once upon a time….” Erika sang and waggled her eyebrows. “Come on, Sydney. Live a little. This club is smoking hot, and you’ll love it.”

Sydney grumbled under her breath and watched the club-goers parade past, each dressed like a fairy-tale character. The Little Mermaid trounced by in a see-through, diaphanous gown revealing too much in the way of personal attributes. Sleeping Beauty sashayed down the sidewalk with a leash around the neck of her Prince Charming. A woman in a way-too-short Red Riding Hood outfit approached. Her arm was wrapped around a seductress dressed in wolf ears, a tail, and a skimpy thong-style bikini. Red carried a basket full of what looked like pink fuzzy handcuffs and a can of whipped cream, which she swung into Syd.

“Hey!”

The red-cloaked vixen sent her a wink and traipsed on by, joined by a near-pornographic version of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. Any shorter and the skirt would show her naughty bits. Or maybe that was the plan.

Syd had just gotten off her day shift as a detective, and the last thing she wanted to do was be around more people. Especially people with more skin showing than on late-night cable shows. Her head hurt from the lights and the pulse of the music, and her stupid witch costume was pinching her toes. Erika’s scant fairy costume hugged all her curves, her breasts bursting from the bodice. The skirt barely covered her backside, and the strappy silver sandals showed off her silver-glitter nail polish.

The building loomed next to them. A giant warehouse-like structure, it was large enough to house all manner of mischief, and Syd was itching with the desire to get inside and find out just what was going on behind its doors. The sidewalk was flagged by trees lit up with twinkly white lights, adding an upscale ambiance to the area. What in the daylight looked like an industrial area gone to the dogs had been transformed into an attractive and well-attended venue.

She didn’t have the heart to tell Erika she’d been here once already today for the case she was working on, but the entrance had been sealed up tighter than a drum. Sydney’s recourse was to infiltrate Club Beam by night as a patron. Her sergeant, Debra, would kill her if she realized Syd had even considered going in without backup. So would her partner, James. Erika had asked her to come so she wouldn’t be alone, and, despite herself, Syd couldn’t resist. To catch a vampire, you had to go out at night, and Club Beam was the hot spot. After last month’s fuckup, she had to do this and do it right, even if it killed her. James was on medical leave, and it remained up to her to get this guy before someone else got killed or turned furry.

I will not think about becoming one of the terminally furry. It’s over. Move on. Take the pills the doctor gave you and freaking pray.

“Oh look. I think I see Snow White.” Erika stood on her tiptoes and craned her head along the huge expanse of line they still had to navigate to get inside.

Syd peered into the crowd and grimaced. Hairy legs. More makeup than a Mac commercial. “Nope. That was a guy in drag.”

Erika narrowed her eyes. “God, Syd. You’re the world’s biggest wet blanket ever.”

Sydney shifted her weight and moved another two steps toward the door as the line inched forward. 

“I told you, I’ve had a hard day. We had a homicide case come in, and I’ve been out beating the street. I want to go home and bury my head under my pillow. But, no. Out of the kindness of my heart, here I am standing in line at a vampire bar with a bunch of overgrown kids playing dress-up in fairy-tale fetish wear.”
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About the Author:
Erzabet Bishop is the author of Club Beam, Sigil Fire, Written on Skin, Tethered, Fetish Fair, Temptation Resorts Jess and Marnie interactive choose your own adventure romances and more. She is a contributing author to The Big Book of Submission, Slave Girls, Hungry for More and many other anthologies. She is a finalist for the 2015 Goldie Awards and an active member of the Romance Writers of America. She lives in Texas with her husband, furry children and is often playing at local bookstores. Follow her posts on Twitter @erzabetbishop.
Newsletter sign up: http://erzabetwrites.wix.com/erzabetbishop




Thursday, May 28, 2015

Author Erzabet Bishop Blogs About Writing

My writing process is a mix of plotter and pantser. I rely heavily on my foam core board and colourful sticky notes to get the idea framed out then a legal pad to scribble out notes. The sticky notes are a wonderful way to go because you can move them if the plot switches and you still have a structure going.

Other tools:

Pinterest: I create a board for almost every new project I start. It helps me get into the story visually. For Club Beam, it’s all about hunky Doms, sexy witches and fairy tale fetish wear are alive and well in this fun tale.


Music: Find mood music that fits your story. For this tale I listened to lots of Maroon 5, Sia, Evanescence and other moody, witchy tunes.

Chocolate: What? You’re saying it’s not a tool? (snickers) Oh yes it is.

My books:

I love to write erotic romance and you can find me all over the spectrum from a BBW sweetish retelling of Beauty and the Beast (Lucky Stars box set), dark carnival experiences (Written on Skin) to lesbian urban fantasy (Sigil Fire). I am a finalist in the Goldie Awards this year for Sigil Fire and two other anthologies and am also a finalist in the Lammy Awards for my work in Forbidden Fruit. I am currently working on some Halloween tales, a new fairy tale with dragon shifters and a psychic and an erotic romance trilogy with cowboys. Writing is an adventure and I love crafting new stories. Under my other pen name I’m delving into YA and some darker fairy tale retellings that will have readers (I hope) wanting more. Can’t keep a good fairy tale down…
You can find  the whole list of my anthology and single title works
 on my Amazon page


Writing advice:

The one thing I would tell any new writer is this. Keep writing. Don’t stop.

Consider everything in life for sources of inspiration.

 Learning to look at publishers I liked to find out what their submission calls were was a helpful thing too. In this case, I was assigned a fairy tale and had to construct a modern day romance around it. Talk about fun! I’ve already asked for a new one!

Start small. Ray Bradbury said something that has always resonated with me. If you start with a short story a week, sooner or later you won’t be terrible. It works. Trust me.
Rejection. Learn to deal with it. If you want to be a writer, it’s going to happen. What you can do is learn from every one and do better on the next trip around. Put the piece to the side and go back to it later. There will be things you’ll notice, you’ll fix them and bam. You have a story someone will love. I can’t tell you how many of my works (many under a pen name) that have gone from rejection piles to published. You grow a thicker skin, listen to helpful criticism and grow.

Fit the publisher to the work. Not everyone likes the same things. If the publisher likes romance, don’t send them a picture book. If they like horror, no fluffy bunnies-unless they have fangs.

Format the work. If the publisher has submission requirements, please read them. They are there for a reason, and no that reason is not to drive you insane. If you don’t follow them, your hard work very likely will be passed over.

Join support groups.  Writers are a breed unto themselves. RWA (Romance Writers of America) is one of the hardest working groups I have come across and they want everyone to succeed. They have local branches as well as online and are always having classes to inform their members of changes in the industry. HWA (Horror Writers Association) is also a great group if you are horror bent.

Stay tuned for Sci Spanks in June and watch for the anthology with a special exclusive story from my Shadow World featuring Gideon, Miles and Syd as she learns the art of spanking. Sign up with the Facebook group so you don’t miss a thing.

Sci Spanks Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/scispanks?fref=ts

Thanks for having me on the blog today. I wish you good reading and hope you will enjoy Club Beam.

XOXO

Erzabet Bishop