Please welcome a very special Thursday guest, Ellora's Cave author, Afton Locke!
~Cindy
Rose, Exposed
Thank
you for hosting me today. I’m excited to discuss historical world building and
my recent release, Rose, Exposed, a
multicultural historical erotic romance set in the 1930s.
This
post is part of the official Rose,
Exposed Blog Tour (3/26 - 4/09).
The
grand prize for the tour is vintage-style rose earrings for pierced ears (U.S.
shipping address only).
To
be eligible, COMMENT on this post. Comment should include the historical time
period and geographical setting (when and where) you’d most like to see in a
romance.
Historical World Building
When
I set out to write my recent release, Rose,
Exposed, world building was on my mind even if not consciously. In the
prequel, Plucking the Pearl, I
created a setting that was half real and half fictional. Keeping everything
straight has been a challenge, especially since this is turning into a 4-book
series.
Although
I was inspired by the town of Solomons Island, Maryland, I chose to create a
fictional town called Oyster Island instead. Why? A lot of fictional events
occurred in my story, including seething racial tensions. Nearby Crab Creek is
fictional as well as the Rockfield Oyster House, which the Lore house inspired.
On
the flip side, I left out some real things, such as the 1933 hurricane. Who
needs a hurricane? Now that I’ve written the second book, my story is calling
me to write--guess what--a hurricane. Not to worry. I’ll just push it a few
years later. One of the benefits of being a writer is doing whatever I want. I
try to include notes at the beginning of the book so readers know I have a
purpose and am not a lazy researcher!
In
other cases, I stuck to the facts, giving Baltimore and St. Mary’s County their
real names. I often found myself wondering should I keep it real or make
something up? In hindsight, maybe I should have made it all up, but I’m happy
with the middle-of-the-road approach I took. Now that it’s a series, I’m kind
of committed to it anyway.
The
most important thing is I built a world with a distinctive look and feel. Using
sensory details, I conjured the rural waterfront of the 1930s in southern
Maryland, and that’s what readers expect with each book in the series.
Everything I’ve built, including the oyster house, the mayor’s house on the
hill, and the Johnson country cottage, needs to remain similar unless I explain
otherwise. Among these familiar guideposts, I also bring in fresh content and
characters, such as Cali from Louisiana.
Although
I tackled building a futuristic world when I wrote Sexual Energy, I’m going to stick to historical world building for
a while. It’s just the right mixture of real and made-up for me.
Rose, Exposed
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing
Release
Date: 27 March 2013
eBook
ISBN #: 978-14199-45205
(I
love creating trailers for all my books!)
Blurb
When
Leroy Johnson gets promoted at the new oyster plant on Pearl Point, all he
cares about is working hard. When he meets the flirtatious artist Rose
Wainwright, however, nothing matters except getting her to the altar and into
bed. Healing from a recent loss, he’s not about to let her go too.
Because
Rose’s strict, social-climbing father doesn’t approve of dark-skinned Leroy,
they court in secret anyplace they can find. Although Leroy’s raw passion can
convince her to do almost anything, why can’t he understand she needs freedom,
not marriage?
Her
father wants her to be white, but Leroy wants her to be black. Playing both
sides of the fence leaves this young biracial beauty exposed in more ways than
one.
Excerpt
(explicit)
Rose,
Exposed - Copyright © AFTON LOCKE, 2013 - All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave
Publishing, Inc.
“You’re
so…dark,” she exclaimed. Instead of the disdain he expected, he heard
fascination.
Come on, lady. Don’t
tell me you’ve never seen a colored man before.
“Yes,
I’m dark,” he agreed as he politely removed her hand, “which is why it’s not a
good idea for us to sit alone together in this car. Someone might come along
and jump to the wrong conclusion.”
A
conclusion that could get him beat up or worse with the Klan close by on Oyster
Island.
But
before he could stop her, she clasped both sides of his face and pressed her
sweet mouth to his. Aw, hell. A man
only had so much self-control, and she’d just shattered his. Unable to stop
himself, he plundered her delicate mouth. Her lips reminded him of rose petals,
and he sucked the sweetness out of them as if he were a bee. The more he
tasted, the more he wanted.
She
opened, giving him access to her even sweeter tongue. His penis strained, hard
and now wet, against his undershorts. Hell, even his balls must be twice their
normal size. Taking a big breath, he pulled away from her.
“We
can’t do this. You’re white.”
She
looked down at her upturned palms. “Then I really do look white?”
Leroy
frowned. “Aren’t you?”
For
the first time, her smile disappeared, making him shiver in his wet clothes.
“The truth is, I don’t know what I am. I suppose that’s why I took this foolish
drive.”
She
must be biracial then, he realized, and not forbidden after all. The thought
made him want to dance on the hood of the car. She still looked white, though.
If he didn’t have the time to court a girl his own color, he sure didn’t have
any for a complicated one like this.
“Kiss
me again,” she demanded.
Without
waiting for him to answer, she locked her hot, damp mouth on his again and
tugged hard on his shoulders. Before he knew it, he was on top of her on the
front seat. He wished her dress weren’t so thin when two round breasts pushed
against his chest and long, slender legs shifted restlessly under his. Dizzy
with the scent of rain and her, he froze.
At
that moment, nothing mattered except finding out if her cunt was as sweet and
yielding as her mouth. He didn’t care if the entire Klan showed up, knocked on
the window and caught him thrusting between her legs on this slippery leather
seat. It had been too damn long since he’d had a woman. He needed to stop this
while he still could.
“Do
you know what you’re asking for?” Lust had turned his voice into a husky croak.
She
laughed and touched his face again. “I don’t know. What am I asking for?”
This
girl was crazier than he’d first thought. What if someone less honorable than
himself had stopped instead? She could’ve been raped.
“A
whole lot of trouble.” He sat up. “Look, this is not the time or the place. Now
let’s get you home.”
The
sooner he could be rid of her—before she derailed him from his job, family, and
everything else that mattered—the better.
WIPs Coming Soon
Rose,
Exposed
is the sequel to Plucking the Pearl, an interracial historical erotic romance.
I
have two more books planned for the Oyster
Harbor series. Next up for romance are Sadie and Henry.
In
addition to interracial/multicultural historicals, I also plan to keep writing
erotic contemporaries.
Can
an older woman find love with a hot male stripper? My current WIP, Two
Hours to Entice, will answer that question.
Where readers can find me
Don’t
miss the book signing on Oct 13th.
I’m
also hosting a Fabulous Fusion workshop with Koko Brown and Eve Vaughn to
celebrate interracial erotic romance for EC’s Fusion line.
