A Celtic Tapestry Anthology, erotic romance

Author Elodi Parkes

I live in rural England, United Kingdom and I work in an antiques shop as well as writing. I have two dogs that keep me fit with their need for walks. Love the countryside and the coast.

I write romance, contemporary, and erotic with a twist of mystery, suspense, or the paranormal, now and then. I like to make the story unusual in some way, by a quirk in the tale.

I started writing when I was seventeen. Life intervened in my writing time and I stopped serious writing for some time. I started writing again seriously a couple of years ago, because I had so many stories in my head.

I haven’t yet had writers block, but I have chosen to stop writing a couple of projects and deleted them, I just stopped liking their concepts. I have to fall in love with my characters after the story just drops into my head.

I don’t have family and amongst my friends. No one knows what I write. Just one friend knows I write something ( smiles). I seriously doubt anyone I actually know has read any of my books. That’s okay.

Why is that? Well my books fall into the category of erotic romance because of the graphic love scenes. I could have said sex scenes but for me it’s always about the love my characters feel for each other, even if sometimes they are afraid to say it.

My female lead characters are intelligent and strong, yet have hidden vulnerabilities or life happenings that are harsh. They know what it is like to be lonely and they are not afraid to go after love if it presents itself.

My male lead characters are deep, gentle, sexy, sometimes afraid of their feelings, sometimes so desperately in love they lay themselves open. They are intelligent and giving. The male leads in my stories with paranormal themes are different. They can be mysterious, or alphas, and have strange things in their lives, but they will love their woman forever if they fall in love.

My latest release is through Moon Rose Publishing and I am one of eight authors who have written erotic shorts for the anthology ‘A Celtic Tapestry’.

My story is titled, ‘The Picnic’. All the stories are inspired by the seasonal equinoxes and changes. Mine is the Autumn equinox

•          Samhain      

•           Yule

•           Imbolc

•           Spring Equinox

•           Beltane

•           Midsummer

•           Lammas/Lughnasadh

•           Autumn Equinox

I’m joined by authors, Hunter S Jones, Miranda Stork, Tara S Wood, Livia Ellis, Laura De Luca, L J Rossi, Carolyn Wolfe, on what we hope will be a feast of erotica, romance, adventure, mystery and intrigue for our readers.

It was interesting for me to write a short. I usually write a story until it’s ended, but this time I had a word count limit. That was weird (smiles). I planned the story and had the synopsis accepted by Moon Rose. When I started writing the story, I just went merrily along as usual, my characters talking to me and living with me and then wham I’d gone over the word count limit. I had to cut back in a way I wouldn’t normally and it wasn’t simply about editing to have a sharp glossy finish, it was about losing some of the things my characters said or did. They fought it, but I won in the end.

I enjoyed writing for Moon Rose and to their idea so much I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. It was a great experience for me because I learned how to write a short story. The stories are about 14,000 words and with eight authors writing, understandably the publisher was strict about going over the limit by more than 200 words.

It’s been great too to hear from the other seven authors and get to know their work a little too. Each story is so different and they reflect the author’s style, as well as the ‘aura’ that surrounds an author when you see the body of the their work. I found it fascinating to work on an anthology.

I’ll share a sample of ‘The Picnic’. It’s where my lead female meets my lead male for the first time.

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The woods made the air cooler, and Ava was walking quickly when she saw Morgan. She slowed down as she approached the area of the woods where he worked. Unable to help herself, she stared at him. He was tall and muscled. His thick dark hair fell over his forehead as he worked and Ava slowed her pace a fraction more. She let herself gaze at him. He was very attractive. His waist tapered a little from his muscled chest and his jeans riding low on his hips gave her a view that almost took her breath away.

Ava was lonely if she let herself admit it. She didn’t let herself very often because it led to bouts of looking amongst internet dating sites in the hopes that someone would catch her eye. No one ever did, and Ava would close her browser and go in search of a book to read, or a movie to watch.

Ava was passing Morgan when he paused in his task and looked up.

She could see his face and she felt her loneliness keenly then. The man was beautiful. She could see the angle of his jaw and the blue of his eyes quite clearly. She looked away and walked on, feeling a kind of desperation.

Morgan had been surprised when he had seen the young woman. Her hair was a darker shade of some copper beech tree leaves that grew by the side of his house door. He had seen the lightness of her eyes in contrast to her hair and found emotion in them. He watched her slender figure disappear up the path as it wound into the woods. He focused back on the tree stump before him, but felt confused. The woman had given him a prickle of anticipation as she stared at him.

****

I’d love for readers to find me online and to hear from them.

http://elodieparkes.blogspot.com            where you can read lots of snippets from my erotic romance novels, meet other authors and read snippets from their books.

http://www.facebook.com/ElodieParkes

https://twitter.com/ElodieParkes

http://www.manicreaders.com/ElodieParkes/

http://www.theromancereviews.com/EllieP

https://plus.google.com/u/0/114681167004175190514/posts

Elodie

A new kind of erotic romance, always with a twist. Cool stories:Hot love scenes.

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