What are your favorite genres to read and write?
I’ve always loved historicals but there were hardly any with black characters when I was growing up so now I’m writing the kinds of stories I like to read. So far my settings have been in the ancient world – Rome for The Gladiator’s Woman and Egypt/Rome/Ephesus for Daughter of Egypt – but I want to try some other time periods – maybe Victorian times, the Middle Ages. Paranormals have become a favorite genre and I’m working on an urban fantasy manuscript now. But I love almost all genres – science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror, etc. – once a book has great characters and an interesting plot, I’ll abandon the world for a day or two to read it!
To you what type of hero/heroine is the hottest?
I love the brooding, mysterious hero who is a take-charge guy. If he’s the kind of guy where you don’t know if he’s the villain or the hero, that adds an extra tension I also like. I love heroines who stand up for themselves and I want to write more of those. Most of my heroines so far have always had something they’re doing, they have goals they are trying to achieve so, for instance, in The Mermaid’s Mission, Antalya wants to save her people from an ecological disaster and in my latest, Daughter of Egypt, Imi has to recover the treasures of the pharaohs.
What is your favorite thing about writing erotic romance?
That I get to imagine doing a whole lot of things that I’ve never actually done and may never get around to doing! lol! In Love of the Courtesan which will be out from New Concepts next year, the heroine has sex in a rather public place while in Forty-Six Days in the Caribbean: A Girl’s Guide to Sun, Sand and Sex, my girl-blogger has wild sex in a series of different islands! These are fantasies that given my strict upbringing will probably always remain fantasies! lol!
Share one of the sexiest or romantic lines from one of your books.
Seleucus moaned at the change, spreading his legs, offering himself to her, to whatever part of her wanted to make contact with him.
Please tell us about your latest release.
Daughter of Egypt is the story of Imi who has been sent to Rome by Arsinoe, Cleopatra’s sister ,who’s bid for the throne of Egypt ended in her defeat and exile. After visiting Rome with Caesar, Cleopatra left the symbols of Egyptian royalty there for safekeeping and Imi’s job was to steal them and bring them back to Arsinoe in Ephesus but Imi is captured by the pirate, Seleucus. Having no money to trade for her freedom she offers to be his sex slave in return for her safe passage back. Seleucus agrees, intrigued. She pleasures him in a way that he has never known and she finds herself deeply attracted to him. Seleucus does not tell her but he thinks Arsinoe’s is a lost cause. Cleopatra has the might of Rome behind her in the person of Mark Anthony while Arsinoe is a princess with few friends. When Cleopatra’s supporters abduct Imi, however, he will do anything to get her back.
The story is based on real events though, of course, the characters are completely fictional. Egypt has long been a fascination of mine – I was just eleven when somebody gave me a replica of the bust of Nefertiti and that kind of kicked my Egyptomania into high gear so this story was bubbling in the sub-conscious for a while!
Excerpt
Imi opened her eyes to darkness so complete she had to touch her eyelids to assure herself they were indeed open. Beside her, someone heaved and then was still. Imi froze. Her heart drummed in her ears. Panic washed over her in a wave as black as the night. She opened her mouth to scream and heard his voice.
“Do not fear. It is I, Seleucus.”
She remembered everything then and could have wept in mingled relief and fury.
“Why did you not leave me alone on the road?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Seleucus turned to lie on his back on the narrow bed. He didn’t know what to say. They had had captives enough but she, there had been something about her. She’d intrigued him from the start – her foolish bravery, her stubbornness, her beauty.
“If I had, another might have found you who would have treated you worse,” he said, striving to make himself sound reasonable though he knew she wouldn’t accept his explanation.
“You took me from my life for my own good, is that it?”
“Your cart fell apart through no doing of mine,” he pointed out.
“You could have left me in Anxur, with Lucius.”
“I could. But then I’d not have been able to do this.”
He shifted. His hand fell on her stomach and Imi drew a quick, sharp breath, as he dragged it up, up, to her breast. For a second he was content to just let it stay there, cupping her fullness but then his thumb began to knead slow circles around her nipple.
“I would have been on my way home if it were not for you,” she snapped, determined not to give in to him.
“Delos is but a day’s sail from Ephesus – even as we speak we sail East.” His thumb did not cease its caresses. “Do you not believe I will take you where you wish to go if you please me?” he murmured. He leaned into her shoulder, pushed his face into her hair and breathed in the scent of her. “I have given you my word,” he said, “and that is not something I take lightly.”
Some of the stiffness left her. “I am needed in Ephesus,” she whispered, sounding so small and lost he wanted nothing more than to hold her and kiss her. He rose over her and would have pressed his lips to hers but he miscalculated and found her chin instead. She gave a muffled laugh and then he was kissing her right where he wanted, his tongue slipping, hot and firm, into her mouth. She put her hand flat on his shoulder and he thought she meant to push him away but then she uttered a hungry little moan, pulling and sucking on his tongue, her arms slipping around him.
Her ardor surprised and delighted him. He pressed against her, wanting her to know just how much he desired her. She thrust herself on him and rubbed, like a cat. Seleucus groaned deep down in his throat. He tore himself away from her mouth and slid down to tongue one nipple through the thin silk of her robe while he kneaded the other between his thumb and forefinger.
“Ah, Seleucus,” she murmured. It was the first time she’d said his name. He liked how it sounded on her lips, sibilant with the lust streaming through her.
Thank you, Tula!
Daughter of Egypt is from Amira Press.
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Hello, Tula.
You’re a new author for me but not for long. I enjoyed the post and look forward in reading your works.
Tula, I read The Gladiator’s Woman and really enjoyed it. I like the way you incorporated real events into the storyline. I’m looking forward to reading Daughter of Egypt.
Best wishes!
Thanks very much, ladies!!! Means a lot to me. Tracey, if you haven’t already you might like to check out Delaney’s The Arrangement – great story! All the best in 2011!