Friday 24 September 2010

A Wonderful Review of my Ladies!

"The Ladies' Sewing Circle"
I just received the most wonderful review for my two Ladies' Sewing Circle stories, from Wendy the Superlibrarian, over at The Good, The Bad and The Unread. Wendy has always written thoughtful and positive reviews of my work, and even though she's used to me writing contemporary set stories, I seem to have hit the mark for her with my first historical offerings too. Wahey!

"I’m a fan of Portia Da Costa’s brand of erotica mostly because of her heroines. She writes really fun, strong heroines. The kind of girls I’d like to be friends with, have a drink at the local pub with, or watch chick flicks with while digging our way through a box of chocolates. I also like that she has a strong contemporary writing voice. So when I heard she was working on some Victorian-set erotic romances for Harlequin, I was immediately intrigued. Will her “voice” work as well in historical as it does in contemporary?" ~ Wendy the Superlibrarian

Why not nip on over and see what she has to say...

DDS Review: The Ladies’ Sewing Circle by Portia Da Costa

Thank you, SuperWendy! :)

Thursday 23 September 2010

Ebook fun!

I think this is so cool from my friends at Diesel Ebooks!

Earl of Diesel's Risque Parlor Bundle

Contains:

Devil's Pearl
A Gentlewoman's Predicament
A Gentlewoman's Ravishment
Her Dark Master

Sewing Circles, Sex Slaves, and Ravishment, all in a typical Regency/Victorian afternoon...

A jolly collection of saucy historical rompage, containing 2 of mine and 2 more hot stories by other authors.

Buy here from Diesel eBooks!

And here's news of another vintage Portia title now in Kindle format...

THE TUTOR

Rosalind Howard takes a job as personal librarian to the enigmatic and handsome Julian Hadey. Employed to catalogue his vast archive of erotica, she soon finds herself presented with a still more intriguing challenge.

The Tutor is one of my older titles, first published around 1995, and I'm thrilled that it's finally available again in a new format. 

Buy from Kindle Store UK

Wednesday 22 September 2010

News, reviews, links

Well, not all that much news, really. The main thing is that I've heard back from my agent about In The Flesh and she thinks it's "excellent"! She's also very pleased that I've completed it in time to submit it to the editor a full two months before my stated deadline.

I've also received a couple of lovely reviews for my Ladies' Sewing Circle titles, A Gentlewoman's Predicament and A Gentlewoman's Ravishment, both from author, editor and reviewer Lucy Felthouse. Lucy has long been a supporter of my work, and I'm delighted that she's enjoyed my latest offerings.

Here's what she has to say about A Gentlewoman's Predicament...

I’ve read lots of Portia Da Costa’s work in the past, but this is the first historical erotica of hers that I’ve read. And I have to say that although it’s a huge departure from her contemporary stuff, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s been so brilliantly written that you forget that you’re actually in modern times, as opposed to Victorian England. The tone, the language and the dialogue are perfectly crafted and it makes for a fab read!




And now, her thoughts on A Gentlewoman's Ravishment...

This is a fabulous story in this series from Portia Da Costa. I actually preferred this to the first, and based on these two, can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to the Victorian ladies next. Recommended.







I'd also like to point my visitors in the direction of a fantastic new web site set up by Lucy...


This is a fast growing hub of information for authors and readers of erotica and erotic romance, and features author bios, excerpts, and competitions and giveaways. There's also a forum where readers and authors can interact. Why not surf along there now and check it out! 

Monday 20 September 2010

At last - an update

Sorry for the long delay in updating my blog. I don't really have a valid excuse. I've been busy doing lots of things and the time just got away from me.

Anyway, in book news, I finally finished a draft of my Victorian erotic romance novel IN THE FLESH, and it's now with my agent, and I'm awaiting her verdict. This book has been a huge challenge for me. A new sub-genre with a new publisher. I've already written quite a few Spice Briefs for Harlequin, but a 100K+ word single title novel is a whole new ball game. Working in a historical setting for a longer work has been hard work, because I've only ever done contemporary novels before. Every fact, and it seems like nearly every other word and phrase has to be checked for historical accuracy. You can't just bowl along willy-nilly 'talking' the way we do nowadays. I'm sure IN THE FLESH still has more than its fair share of anachronistic speech etc, but I have tried to at least get a flavour of the times, and be as accurate as I can to the best of my researching ability. But, I'm not a history scholar, just an average writer with a passionate interest in all things Victorian, so it's not going to be 100% perfect on the historical score.

But despite all the hard work and angsting over the thing, I feel hugely happy to have done it, and eager to do more in the same vein. I also feel proud that I've pushed myself to do something that was out of my usual comfort zone, because I think it's made me grow as a writer. I feel I've achieved something. And I think it's particularly important for someone like me, who's no longer a young writer, to keep on stretching themself, and learning new things and new skills.

So, what's next? Well, no doubt my agent will have some suggestions for IN THE FLESH and that might mean a bit more work on it, but hopefully in the next week or so it'll be off to the editor and then I'll be keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that it makes her grade. But obviously, I won't be just sitting around waiting to hear the verdict. At the moment, I'm still working in the Victorian era, weaving another of my LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE tales. I've got a contract to do two more, and this first one of those is provisionally titled A GENTLEWOMAN'S RESCUE and is about Miss Lucy Dawson, a bespectacled bicycle riding spinster, who sees herself as a bit of an ugly ducking and has philosophically resigned herself to a solitary life... or at least a life without a man. That is, until she tumbles off her bicycle in the rain, on a lonely country road and is rescued by a handsome rustic Adonis who takes her to his cottage to recuperate...

After RESCUE, I'll be writing the next Sewing Circle Lady's story, but I don't have a title for that, and I'm still mulling over a few different ideas. It'll be fun though! And when that's turned in, I'll be seriously applying myself to writing the outline and character biographies for my second Victorian Spice novel. No firm details on that yet, but I'll definitely be setting it in the same 'world' as IN THE FLESH and THE LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE.

Also in the pipe is my sweeter novel for Samhain Publishing, FAR FROM PERFECT. I don't have any publication date for that yet, but I'm hoping to get edits on that soon, and then I'll know more.

That's all for now, but hopefully when I've worked on it to my satisfaction, I'll soon be able to post an excerpt of A GENTLEWOMAN'S RESCUE.