06

Eroticon 2013

If you’re a regular Chintz visitor, you’ll know that I was lucky enough to win one of three Xcite-sponsored tickets to Eroticon 2013, which was held in London last weekend. The conference ran for two full days and featured what can only be described as a truly mighty line-up of speakers, all there to encourage us, whatever our medium – blog or book – to write sex right.

I was so excited to be able to attend, although I must admit I was a little nervous about walking into a crowd of people I’d never met in person before. The very lovely Emma over at Dirty Little Whispers, who I speak to a fair bit online (and who also won a sponsored ticket) thankfully agreed to meet up with me during the initial registration session so I’d be a little less ‘island in the ocean’. However, while I was waiting for her to arrive, I happened to go and stand next to a woman who was busy perusing the weekend’s schedule. We got to chatting and what do you know? Her name was Tamsin Flowers and she was the winner of the third Xcite sponsorship. So in a room full of people, we’d somehow managed to gravitate towards each other. Spooky! (Is there such a thing as Xcite vibes?)

After listening to Ruby Kiddell’s lovely welcome and Rebecca Findlay’s talk about the XES: We Can’t Go Backwards campaign (did you know that on 1 April 2013 contraception and STI services will no longer be provided by the NHS but your local council?!) I said farewell to Tamsin, and Emma and I headed off to the first of many fabulous seminars, Molly Moore’s Myth Busting: the Submissive Woman. Continue reading

02

Title: The Magician’s Lover (The Prophecy Girl Trilogy)
Author: Danielle Austen
Publisher: Xcite Books
ASIN: B00960YQ46

Slights of hand, games of illusion. The Magician’s Lover walks the line between elaborate magic show, Las Vegas style, and erotic supernatural urban fantasy. An original and somewhat unusual proposition. Per the book’s blurb:

Shy receptionist Lindsey Wade can’t believe her luck when a chance encounter with world-famous stage magician Angelito Tarrago leads to an affair. But when he tries to convince her that he possesses genuine supernatural powers – and she might too – her life changes forever.

I must admit, I struggled with this book. While the storyline held much promise, it just never quite managed to establish that all-important rhythm and page-turning stickiness I crave in an erotic romance. The plot development felt somewhat erratic and the various story threads too loosely plaited together to really grab and hold my attention. More crucially, despite the high and varied level of sexual interaction, the core characters just didn’t seem to make solid emotional connections with one another (not until the very end, at least) – and as The Magician’s Lover is billed as having romantic elements, that was something of a problem for me. (I personally think this title would have worked better as a ‘straight’ erotica, with the more traditional romantic elements stripped out.) Continue reading