Why I love—and hate—epublishing

What I love:
Digital publishing is so much faster than traditional print publishing. That means I don’t have to wait a year for the next book in a series. As an author, it means I can publish more books faster. Also, as an author it means my books are never out of print. If someone discovers me, all my backlist is sitting there for them to look through.
As a reader, nothing is worse than spending hours on eBay trying to find a backlist book from a favorite author, and seeing that the shipping costs will be twice the price of the book itself. That never happens with epublishing.

What I hate:
Pirates. I understand (but don’t necessarily condone) a reader’s frustration when all their friends in one country are able to read the latest book in a series, but they, in some different country, have to wait weeks or even months for it to be released. But I don’t understand the people who don’t even try to buy a book legally, but automatically go to a pirate site and download the book, which they proceed to give to all their friends, who give it to all their friends, who…
Honey, if no one pays to read this book, I’m a lot less likely to ever write the next one in that series.

And now for something different.
“Seeds of Love” released 29 January. It’s different from most ménage stories in that it’s an FFM book. It’s Bev’s story, but it’s also Cinthe’s story. And since Cinthe loves Inigo as well as Bev, that gets complicated.

Beverley is hopelessly in love with Hyacinthe. Hyacinthe loves Bev, but she also loves their hot-bodied coworker Inigo. Which doesn’t help Bev’s already low self-esteem. The only saving grace is that Inigo seems a pretty decent guy.
Ménage sex gradually brings the triad together—until Cinthe’s fairy wings sprout. Inigo and Bev don’t cope well with this change—because everyone knows there’s no such thing as a fairy. Bev’s obsession with her physical inadequacies takes a backseat to her concern over the wings sticking out of her lover’s back.
While Beverley struggles to come to terms with having a fairy for a girlfriend, she also has to deal with someone stealing rare plants from the botanical gardens where they all work.

EXCERPT PG13
Nothing happened for long seconds, then Hyacinthe felt the air move by the nightstand drawer. Ah, Inigo would be lifting toys out, likely showing them to Beverley or maybe just choosing some himself. Yes, they were moving again, Beverley would be choosing some toys, or accepting the ones Inigo offered her.
Careful to keep her face expressionless, Hyacinthe grinned hugely in her mind. Over the years she'd collected an impressive array of toys. Although she seldom used them when having sex with a partner, she enjoyed experimenting when alone, and had nipple clamps and clips, dildos, butt plugs, vibrators, and scented oils. She could hardly wait to find out which ones they'd use on her.
There was the soft sound of fabric being removed, the slide of a zipper, the pop of a snap fastener, then Inigo's heavy weight was beside her on the bed and his big hands ran lightly from her toes, over her sensitive arches, and around her heels.
Delicious! Cinthe shivered with delight.
A soft plop was followed by the weight of a body sitting on the other side of the bed.
Bev has taken her shoes off and joined us, deduced Hyacinthe.
Beverley's hands were slightly rough from all the outdoor work they did, but she used them gently to trail along Hyacinthe's rib cage and tenderly cup a breast.
Unconsciously, Hyacinthe thrust her breast up into Beverley's warm palm, feeling her nipple peak instantly at the slight touch of Bev's finger. Meanwhile, Inigo's hands were gradually moving higher up Hyacinthe's leg, teasing behind her knee and over her lower thigh.
A hot tongue licked warm, wet patterns on her lower thigh, circles and spirals and pictures, then a mouth puffed warm air on the wet spots, making Hyacinthe shiver once again.
At that very moment another mouth descended on her breast, sucking nipple and areola deep into a warm cavern. A tongue pressed Hyacinthe's nipple to the roof of a mouth then rolled it and played with it. Hyacinthe groaned. Oh yes! Beverley had a very talented mouth. And the moves Inigo made on her thigh were not so shabby either. His tongue was reaching higher and higher up her leg, causing a spiral of need to build deep in her core.
Hyacinthe groaned again as Bev released her nipple then blew on the wet peak. Bev's hands disappeared for a moment then a nipple clamp bit into her flesh with just the right amount of tension to ride the perfect line between pleasure and pain.
The bed creaked as Inigo moved between Hyacinthe's spread legs, his wide shoulders pushing them even farther apart, and Beverley got off the bed and moved around to the other side. Aha! Hyacinthe thought. They have divided me as above and below the waist, not right and left sides!

Buy link: http://www.ellorascave.com/seeds-of-love.html

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Faeries come in all sizes

I tend to forget that most normal people don’t know that faeries can be as large as humans. I just assume that everyone knows all about faeries because it’s something that I’ve got stored in my brain. But thankfully not everyone has a brain like mine filled with odd, and in some cases, useless information like faery lore. As my husband said to me, “Why don’t you learn something useful like how to read a map?” Why not, indeed.

Most of my books have faeries in them, usually the Irish fae, the Tuatha de Danaan (Tribes of the goddess Danu). These are the faeries that J.R.R. Tolkien based his elves on, and as you can see, they are human size fae. I think that’s why I like them so much. The Danaans look human and so I can relate to them. They are also shapeshifters and sometimes appear in my stories with wings.

My favorite quote about the Tuatha de Danaan: ‘Tribes of the goddess Danu are indeed tall and noble, and they can take shapes and sizes that are not their true shapes and sizes.’ W.B. Yeats.

I could write many pages on these faeries, but to summarize it, they are mentioned in the Book of Ivasions as one of the earliest conquerors of ancient Ireland, ruling for many years until the Milesians landed. The Book of Leinster records that they were ‘faery’ peoples, while The Book of the Dun Cow describes them as ‘gods, but not gods.’ After one final battle with the Milesians , the Tuatha de Danaan retreated underground beneath the mounds to the sidhe where they remain today. In the Irish language ‘sidhe’ means faery. I do have a page dedicated to them on my website here: http://kelleyheckart.com/Tuatha_de_Danaan.html

I think people think of all faeries as tiny because the only role model we have for faeries is Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. Another type of faery that appeared in my first books is an Ashray. They are found in Scotland and are water faeries. They can only be seen at night because the sunlight will melt them. They are often mistaken as sea ghosts because of their white skin. Ashrays cannot live on land and it is believed they were cursed to live under water. These fae are smaller than the Irish fae, about 4 1/2 feet tall, but are still human size.

So the next time you pick up a book with faeries in it, they might not be tiny, gossamer winged creatures, but more human than you realized.
For more information on all kinds of faeries, I have a page on faery lore on my website here: http://kelleyheckart.com/FaeryLore.html

Kelley Heckart

'Timeless tales of romance, conflict & magic'
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