The Night Shift – Author’s Notes

by Rachel on December 4, 2012

Hello again!

Finally, I’ve been able to get The Night Shift published – looking back in my diary (yes, I write in it nearly every day) I conceived this story on March 6 this year.  It’s had a long gestation period.  By contrast, the fastest ebook I’ve been able to produce was probably Working Overtime: it took just over a month, and much of the story ran parallel to one of my earlier works – Interview For Love – and so I’d done a lot of the hard work already (preparing an outline to the story).

The reason The Night Shift took so long to get born was a severe attack of writer’s block – I couldn’t get past the first chapter, so I put it aside and wrote something else, which developed into a whole new series of stories, the first two of which are due to appear around March, 2013.  Then, when I developed writer’s block again, towards the end of completing volume two of the new series, I returned to finish The Night Shift.

It was published on Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/261835 today (for Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, etc.) and it will be up on Amazon Kindle tomorrow, December 5.
Here’s the blurb for The Night Shift, and a little erotic scene to whet your appetite:

Caroline Conway works for a prestigious international law firm in London, and falls in love with one of the I.T. managers.  They can’t see much of each other because he works on a permanent night shift.  Staying late one evening, she witnesses a scene in the office executive suite which leaves her open to blackmail; sexual favours are demanded of her by a female senior partner  – who is a control freak – and her paralegal lackey.  How can she escape this situation?
There is a way out, but the path she chooses only leaders her into more trouble… with an added danger that she may never see her lover again.  She is all alone now.  Is there anyone she can turn to for help?
 
EXTRACT:

     I found him waiting outside the toilet for the disabled, and I followed him in.  Without speaking, he pulled his pants down and leaned against the wall.  I knelt on the floor and took his dick in my mouth.  He’d lied to me; in his phone call, he gave me the impression that he was already aroused.  But his dick was still small.  I was being used.  I wanted to bite it hard, but I’d have to save that revenge for a bed-time fantasy sometime.
     He remained silent.  He didn’t touch me; he was impassive, almost like a statue waiting to be brought to life.  I looked up at his face; he was staring straight ahead at the wall opposite.  I was his slave.  I felt this weird, unloving liaison becoming even stranger.
     I wasn’t timing the event, but I was getting the impression this was going to take me a lot more than five minutes to work him into a climax.  Undaunted, I carried on.  Soon he was hard; I pulled away and judged his shaft was sufficiently lubricated for me to finish off by using my hand curled round it.
     If he wasn’t going to talk to me, I wasn’t going to say anything to him.  He had created a strange ambience to this episode, an atmosphere which – in its quietness – was imbued with a peculiar erotic tension.
     I got to my feet and faced him.  He retained that expressionless, impenetrable gaze.  I continued masturbating him; his penis was now nearly upright in my hand.  I moved my face closer to his and, in an act of defiance, pressed my lips against his.  My tongue forced its way through into his mouth.
     He groaned.  Suddenly his face became alive, and his tongue moved to brush against mine.  I took this as a signal, and stopped stroking him.  I felt his dick pulsate and the warm fluid ejaculate into my hand, running down my fingers
     Suddenly I realised I wanted to come; I wanted to come badly.  But I had to suppress the urge, and finish what he had begun in this small chamber.  I could satisfy my craving in my own solitude when I was done here.
     I drew away from him; we were still standing close, face to face, as he pulled up his pants.  He looked at me, still without speaking, and gave me a look which I took to be disdain.  Impulsively, I kissed him again, cramming my tongue into his mouth as far as it would stretch; at the same time I stroked his forehead, smearing him with his semen, now growing sticky and cold in my hand.
     If I was hoping for a reaction, there was none.  Disappointed, I pulled away from him again; he brushed past me and unlocked the toilet door.

—————-

It contains several components which have proved popular with readers before: pegging, anal sex, strap-on dildo, and telephone sex.

I hope you like it – and, if you don’t you’ll be kind enough to tell me why.

Now back to work to write the next story….
Best wishes
Rachel

rc [at] rachelcray [dot] com
@RachelCray1

 

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The Next Big Thing….

by Rachel on November 20, 2012

This blog is very special.  I’ve been invited by my Twitterfriend Rose Anderson (at http://calliopeswritingtablet) to join in a series of blogs by authors to promote their work.

Before we get started, some of you may be aware that I served my apprenticeship as a search engine optimiser, and one of the things I learned was that Lord Google always takes more notice of links placed “above the fold” – near the top of the blog page.  Accordingly, I’m pleased to announce these authors as co-participants in this project, called “The Next Big Thing”:

Sam Crescent: http://samcrescent.wordpress.com/
Edward Collins: http://edwardcollinsauthor.wordpress.com/
Crystal Drake: http://www.CrystalDrakeBooks.com/
Loc Glin: http://locglin.com/
Allyson Young: http://yourdarkersideoflove.blogspot.ca/

Please visit these people and take a look at their latest offerings.

Now, as they say, on with the show.  I’m asked by the project organizer to answer the following questions, as if I were being interviewed:

What is your working title of your book?
The Night Shift – my latest in the “Law Firm Love” series.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
It’s another story in one of my favorite genres – set in the London office of an American law firm.

What genre does your book fall under?
Erotic Romance – like nearly all my other stuff.  For those of you who don’t already know, I’m 63 next birthday and – whatever other people might tell you – sex and love are still in the front of everyone’s mind, no matter how old they are.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ha!  There’s a thing.  I’d sell the part of the heroine to the highest bidder; Charles Tingwell (if he were still alive, and available in his 30′s) could have the hero lead – the hero in this book is an Australian, after all – and Bette Davis (if she were still alive) could have the part of the evil, manipulative admin partner.  The part of the nasty, sexy villain can go to Simon Cowell if he can get himself an Equity card.  (I won’t say any more in case he decides to sue me).

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Caroline falls in love with a sexy Australian I.T. manager at her firm who only works nights; she arranges to change her work pattern so they can be together, but someone else wants her… and arranges for her lover to be transferred to their New York head office so he can have her to himself.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published… by me.  Like all the others I’ve written.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I’m half-way through.  When I’m normally bashing out the first drafts, I write at the rate of 2,000 words a day.  But, oh, the agony of the revision process….

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Pass.  I don’t know of any other author that writes in this genre in this particular setting.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I suppose I was inspired – or encouraged – by the success of the other titles I’ve written in this sub-genre and in this setting.
However…
I have in the past suffered from writer’s block and one friend suggested I put the book “on hold” and start another.  She has four “on the go” at any one time, so she can pick and choose which title she works on today.  I tried that… and have finished up with four works in progress.  I decided that this system wasn’t for me, so you’ll see three other titles following The Night Shift in rapid succession, probably in January!  And there are elements in each work that have provided inspiration for the others, even though they are not all in the same genre or sub-genre.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Blackmail is one powerful component I’ve incorporated into the plot – I needed to insert it in order to add to the sexual tension in the story.  I used blackmail in a previous title – Dirty Pictures – and wanted to revisit the ambience created by the darkness it brings.  I know some people don’t like it – the most popular element I’ve used in a sub-plot is incarceration, but that wouldn’t work here.
 
As Bugs Bunny used to say…
That’s All, Folks!

Until next time,
Best,
Rachel

 

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Thumbnail image for Let’s Get Introduced!

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