Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Virgin Publishing.
A:
I published my first novel, Hard Blue Midnight, through Virgin/Black Lace in 2003, under the pseudonym Alaine Hood. Since then, I’ve written two other erotica titles and three erotic romances for Virgin, and I’m currently working on a paranormal erotic novella for a Black Lace anthology. I’ve enjoyed the creative freedom that Virgin has given me; the editors (first Kerri Sharp, now Adam Nevill) have pretty much given me free rein to write the stories that I wanted to write, using my own voice and characters that engage me. I haven’t always “colored inside the lines”with my books, especially the erotic romance titles, but Virgin has been very generous and supportive about letting me write the stories that I’m passionate about.
Q: What have you found to be the best marketing tool to you as an author? Please feel free to elaborate.
A: I have to confess, I’ve been a slacker about marketing, but I’ve made a resolution (must have been a Chinese New Year’s resolution, because I made it in
February) to get more involved in promoting my work. I have a web site now and a writer’s blog, and I’m going to the RWA conference in July. I like the web site because it’s inexpensive, it can be updated easily and frequently, and it’s the quickest way to give readers a sense of what you write and who you are.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: My latest release is Head-On Heart, an erotic romance that was published in April by Virgin/Cheek.
It’s the story of Amity, a sporadically employed, wannabe musician who hooks up in Las Vegas with Daniel, the rock guitarist she had a crush on as a teenager. Unfortunately, he’s just gotten married—to Amity’s stepsister. But when Daniel decides that the only way to revive his career is to go on a crazy quest for the first guitar he owned as a kid, Amity is the one who ends up doing the driving, while her disgruntled stepsister stays behind. Over the course of their road trip through the West, Amity and Daniel fall in love, and she blossoms sexually and creatively. I loved writing this novel. It has some of my favorite story elements: a road trip, a quest, hot sex with a brooding musician, and lots of sleazy Vegas stuff!
Q: How did you get into writing?
A: I made my first attempts at writing when I first fell in love with books, at the age of two or three.
Before I could actually write, I would dictate stories to my mom, then illustrate them with crayons, and we’d staple the pages into booklets. In high school I mostly wrote poetry, then I started seriously writing fiction after I graduated from college. I spent a lot of time writing mainstream fiction (including three novels I could never sell) before I found my voice through erotica. That was back in the early 1990’s, when Susie Bright, Carole Queen, Annie Sprinkle, and other women were writing about sex in a fun, bold, creative way. Once I turned to erotica, I started selling short stories pretty quickly, but it took me a long time to sell a full-length novel. I published my first novel with Virgin ten years after I published my first story. I guess I’ve always written fiction and poetry because I love to read, because telling stories is deeply comforting to me, and because playing around with words turns me on.
Q: How do you come up with your ideas?
A: Ideas are everywhere! Movies, magazines, songs, public transportation, greasy all-night diners, bars – they’re all great sources of stories. I like to build stories around people who intrigue me, either because of their unusual looks or their weird behavior or bizarre sexual history. One of my favorite things to do is to take two characters who are completely different – different backgrounds, personalities, tastes – and throw them into bed together, then see what happens. I also like to improvise on questions that interest me: Can people truly find happiness in an open relationship with multiple lovers? How do people with straight, vanilla lives fulfill their kinky sexual fantasies without blowing their cover?
Are women really more naturally monogamous than men, or is that just a myth to keep women sexually repressed? I’ll take a question like that, mix in some characters that I like, stir, and wait for it all to come to a boil.
Q: Why do you like writing romance/erotica?
A: I was originally drawn to erotica because I loved the creative freedom that it gave me. As soon as you start writing about sex, you enter a world that’s wild, primal, lush, out-of-control. Conventional restrictions of plausibility and realism still apply, but you have a lot of leeway to use your imagination.
Sex is one area of life where we can all, if only for a moment or an hour or a few days, become transformed by pleasure. I love writing about normal, everyday people who discover miraculous things about themselves when they begin to explore their deepest fantasies.
Erotic romance is perfect for me, because I also like to have my main characters form loving relationships along the way. Sex for its own hot, passionate sake is fantastic, but I like to seal the deal with love.
LINKS:
Spotlight on Author Portia Da Costa
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Virgin Publishing.
A:
I’ve been writing for Virgin Publishing since 1991, mainly for Black Lace. My first Black Lace book GEMINI HEAT came out in 1994 and my eleventh, GOTHIC HEAT, is due in May 2008. I’ve mostly written erotic contemporaries, but recently I’ve been writing some paranormals too, now that Black Lace has opened up to more variety in terms of themes and subgenres. I’m especially pleased that Black Lace now publishes erotic romance as well as women’s erotica – although my books have been pretty romantic all along.Q: What have you found to be the best marketing tool to you as an author? Please feel free to elaborate.
A: I’ve absolutely no idea! I am completely clueless about marketing and generally just blunder through hoping for the best… :)
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: My latest release is GOTHIC BLUE, a reprint of an erotic paranormal originally published in 1996. It’s about a semi immortal sorcerer and his struggle to be reunited with his true love who was banished to an incorporeal state by an evil sorceress. He’s helped by a woman who resembles his lost love, and her boyfriend, who’ve stumbled upon the sorcerer’s home during a driving holiday.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: My current WIP is GOTHIC HEAT, a semi sequel to GOTHIC BLUE and it’s about a woman who’s possessed by the evil sorceress who was the adversary of the hero in the first book. She’s helped by a sexy new age therapist who’s battling some personal demons of his own. Together they have to search for the mysterious Gothic Priory from the first book in order to discover magical secrets that will set her free from the possession.
Q: How do balance family and writing?
A: Quite easily. I don’t do very much housework. I have no children. And my husband works long hours and also has hobbies that he enjoys, like motorcycle maintenance and studying military history. So I have plenty of time to write.
Q: What would you do if you weren’t a writer?
A: I can’t imagine being anything else other than a writer, but I also enjoy web design, so maybe I’d concentrate on that.
LINKS:
http://www.portiadacosta.com
http://www.wendywootton.co.uk
http://wendyportia.blogspot.com
http://www.blacklace-books.co.uk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planetportia/
CONTEST: Monday-Friday of this week– anyone who comments on ANY of the posts for Marketing with Mandy’s Virgin Publisher Spotlight (going on all week long) will be entered to win a download of their choice from Mandy’s backlist and Michelle’s backlist. (There will be two winners, each selecting one download)
To enter: Comment on the blog in a Marketing with Mandy Virgin Publisher Spotlight post this week! The more you enter, the more chances you have to win. Winners will be selected on SUNDAY and announced on the blog.
