Let me back up a second and tell you a bit about myself. Adriana Kraft is actually the pen name under which my husband and I write erotic romance together. If you think "married" and "erotic" don't go together, come read our books!

My tattoo is about transformation. Growing up I didn't know anyone who had tattoos. If I thought about it at all, I might have associated it with circuses, or maybe carnivals, but not with other people like me. That didn't change much when I reached adulthood. I travelled in circles where it wasn't the norm.

I do think body art has been creeping gradually into mainstream culture, though I couldn't begin to put dates on that change. In the last decade I've crossed paths with people sporting tattoos more and more often, in a range of social circles. However my choice to transform into a tattoo wearer wasn't about conforming to the new norm, but rather about breaking out of old ones, especially as a writer of erotic romance. And it was a character we wrote who actually planted the seed, if that's possible.

We'd written and submitted several manuscripts and doggedly kept on writing, polishing and submitting, waiting for something to break. Over two years ago, not long before our first contract offer, we created the character of Merry Delaney, a recently widowed forty year old woman who'd been pretty sheltered and focused on raising her daughter and caring for her dying husband. We didn't know when we started putting her story on the page that she'd want a tattoo - but Merry emerged from her cocoon, started tasting everything she'd been missing out on, and decided getting a tattoo was part of her transformation.

We polished that manuscript - The Merry Widow - and it was picked up by Whiskey Creek Press Torrid and published in January, 2008 (available as an e-book and in print). There's always a part of us in every character we write, and I know I identified with the way Merry reveled in her new freedom. She just thinks life is delicious.

I'm part of an exciting group of about 30 authors who've banded together for mutual support and promotion, the Midnight Seductions Authors. One of our members blogged about tattoos in April at the MSA blog and I found myself confessing I'd been thinking about getting one. Events tumbled forward fast from that point - by the next day, I'd made my decision and had a plan. I blogged about my progress in April and May at MySpace.

I thought I wasn't nervous, and mostly I wasn't, but I did act out a little: after I finally got the details on the best local tattoo parlor from a co-worker, I went silent and didn't tell my husband for several days. He finally prodded the information loose from me, and that was all it took. Within twenty four hours I had the appointment set.

There was never any question what I wanted for a tattoo: Merry's butterfly was mine, from the beginning, though not as flamboyant as the stunning tat our cover artist gave her. Besides being beautiful, a butterfly symbolizes so many things I love: nature, renewal, spring, freedom, and above all, transformation and miracle. It's a symbol of owning my whole self.

I decided to place it where I could have choices about sharing it. It's on my shoulder blade, so it's covered up most of the time, but easy to reveal if I want to share it, and high enough that it'll be visible when I wear a swimsuit or halter top.

The actual process was almost a letdown - it seemed very ordinary, didn't really hurt, and hardly matched my great expectations. But having it - that's a spiritual experience, a naughty little secret and a celebration all rolled into one. Probably very much like Merry's.

Here's a blurb for The Merry Widow and a link to an excerpt at our website:

For recently widowed accountant Merry Delaney, sex didn’t stop at forty—it stopped in her mid thirties, shortly after her husband was diagnosed with M.S. Now it’s time for a change. A sizzling kiss from her best friend Camille St. Jermaine introduces Merry to Girls’ Night Out, but she’s hardly going to stop there!

Chicago Detective Jim Barnes solicits Merry’s help with a mob funds-skimming case, spies on her while she entertains female and male lovers, entices her into hot phone sex, and finally takes her wildly in her foyer.

Can the scorching passion that soon smolders between Merry and Jim survive the escalating mob threats of exposure? Having discovered a zest for sex, will Merry ever again be satisfied with one man?

We currently have five books and one short story available at Extasy and Whiskey Creek Torrid, with seven more under contract. Our most recent release is Through the Mirror:

Lacy Hogan’s mantra: hot sex, zero commitment. But Doug Forsyth demands her all before revealing his trump card— can she trust him with her heart?

Hope you'll stop by and check us out!

Adriana

http://www.adrianakraft.com

The Body as Fact

~Tell me about your writing journey. When did you begin to write? How long did it take you to publish?
My first endeavor at writing was early fanfiction way before fanfiction was born. My cousin and I used to write scripts together when we were twelve (which was a really, really, really long time ago) based on a popular tv show—a western. Very sexy romantic western, with comedy touches. We’d mail our scripts back and forth to each other (that’s how long ago it was—email hadn’t been invented yet!). I had always loved to write, but thought of it as a hobby.

I read my first romance when I was 17—Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and The Flower—and my love for romance was born. It wasn’t until many years later that I tried my hand at writing a book—a historical—but I had to put it aside as the demands of career and raising a family took precedence.

Seven years ago I met and married my current husband, and told him I had always wanted to write a book. He encouraged me to follow my dream, so I did. I started writing with an eye to publication in 2001, and in 2003 sold my first book to Ellora’s Cave. My writing career escalated after that first book and several years later sold to Bantam Dell, to Berkley and to Samhain Publishing.

~You write for multiple publishers-is it difficult to produce enough to keep them all happy? How much do you write each year?
It’s never difficult to produce enough. I’m constantly bombarded with stories in my head. I generally write about 4 single titles a year, and a novella or two.

~You also write in multiple genres. Do you find it difficult to switch gears from romance to erotic romance to your demon books?
Not at all. I love being able to switch from one genre to another. It cleanses the mental palate. If I’m worn out from writing a paranormal, I know my next book is an erotic contemporary, or a general romance, which will be completely different. Always something new and exciting awaiting me with the next book. My job is so much fun.

~As you know, this month I’m celebrating the release of my story, THE ART OF DESIRE, in the Bantam anthology, HOT NIGHTS, DARK DESIRES, with authors Stephanie Tyler and Sydney Croft. THE ART OF DESIRE is about a woman with a tattoo fetish. Tell me about your own tattoo experience-whatever you’d like to share.
I love tattoos! I think they’re beautiful expressions of body art. I got my first tattoo in my thirties and now I have four. I’d like to get one more, but I don’t know what I’ll get or where I’ll get it yet. My husband has two and he’s going to get one more also. I think it’s a beautiful way to express yourself.

~How do you think those of us who love body art are impacted by cultural perspectives?
I see more and more tattoos on people these days, young and old. Tattoos are embraced more now than ever before, as matter of fact as having your ears pierced. I haven’t really heard much negativity associated with tattoos. I suppose if your face is tattooed you might get some flak, but I think nowadays they’ve become an acceptable part of culture. Then again, that probably all depends on where you live and how extensively you’re tattooed.

~Are any of your characters tattooed? How do you think that sort of detail is important to creating a character?
I’ve had several characters tattooed, from genitalia (Bound To Trust) to wearing a symbol associated with their designation in a paranormal society (League of 7 Seas-Dolphin’s Playground and Paradise Discovery). I think a tattoo can say much about a character, who they are, how they think, their belonging within a culture, to how they function biologically.

~Do you model your heroes on real people or are they entirely constructs of your imagination?
I think to some extent my heroes are always an extension of my husband. There are characteristics of the things I love most about him in every hero I write. But every hero is a figment of my imagination.

~Tell me about your February release, RIDING WILD.
RIDING WILD is the first book in my new Wild Riders series from Berkley Heat, about sexy Harley riding bad boys who work undercover for the U.S. Government. Mac is one of the Wild Riders, and his job is to break into a museum and steal an artifact that hides a deadly virus before that artifact can be moved to the next museum and possibly into the hands of someone who wants the virus to sell to the highest bidder. Lily is a private investigator hired to check possibly lax museum security, and she catches Mac in the act of stealing the artifact, which slams her right in the middle of Mac’s undercover operation.

Mac and Lily have a history together. When Mac was young and in trouble, he and Lily fell in love. Since Lily was from a rich, prominent family, the last thing Mac wanted to do was drag her down the wrong road with him, so he dumped her. Lily doesn’t know what Mac did to straighten out his life, and he can’t tell her without revealing everything about the Wild Riders and the case he’s working on, so he and Lily go on an amazing trek together, filled with suspense, secrets, romance and fun, hot sex.

~What do you have coming out next? Will we see another Demon Hunter book soon?
I have several books releasing this year. NOTHING PERSONAL releases in print from Samhain in June. DARE TO LOVE releases in e-book from Samhain in July. RIDING TEMPTATION, the second Wild Riders book, releases from Berkley Heat in October. And yes, the third Demon Hunters book, THE DARKEST TOUCH, releases October 28^th from Bantam Dell.

~The cover for your upcoming October release, RIDING TEMPTATION, is hot! Do you have any say over your covers with any of your publishers?
Thank you! I love the cover for RIDING TEMPTATION! Cover input varies by publisher. With Bantam Dell, I get no input at all. My editor works with the cover art department. Fortunately, Bantam does an incredible job with covers (as you well know) and I’ve loved every cover I’ve gotten from them. With Berkley, my editor and I talk about the cover and she asks me what my vision is. Berkley has given me awesome covers, too. With Samhain, we fill out a cover sheet outlining the hero and heroine and a summary from the book, but my editor actually handles my cover art because she’s great at knowing the best covers for my stories.

~You’ve been incredibly prolific, but it seems that all of us have those days where we doubt ourselves, where we get burned out, get blocked. How do you cope with those moments?
Ugh. Don’t we all have days like that? Sometimes I just need to step away, clear my head and take a day off. It usually helps. If I’m on deadline and I really need to do the work, I push through it and write, even if it’s awful. I know I can edit it later, but you can’t edit what isn’t there. Sometimes you just have to write, even if you don’t feel like it or you think what you’re writing is pure crap. It can always be fixed. But you can’t fix what you don’t write.

~What is your best piece of advice for aspiring writers?
Don’t ever give up on yourself, and always take your writing career seriously. If you don’t, no one else will.
Thank you Eden!

***

Lillian Feisty is a San Francisco Bay Area native, a tattooed woman, a brilliant writer, an incredible creative force with an art degree to back her up, sexy, smart and funny as hell. She's also my best friend.

Her first novella was published in March 2007 and she’s been hard at work ever since. She is the president of Passionate Ink, a special interest chapter of Romance Writers of America, and is also a moderator for the award-winning website, Romance Divas . Ms. Feisty currently resides in Northern Nevada. When she’s not writing you might find her conducting "research" at brothels, staring out windows, or making Martinis. Her words, and the pure truth!

It's still tattoo month on my blog since I'm celebrating the release of my novella, THE ART OF DESIRE, in the Bantam anthology, HOT NIGHTS, DARK DESIRES. Let's see what the fabulous Ms. Feisty has to say about tattoos...

I’ve spent a lot of time in tattoo shops.

My fascination began when I was a teenager, and associated tattoos with rebellion. I was a bit of a rebel myself , back then, and I was always looking for ways to enhance my image as a dissenter.

Back then (late 80s), tattoos were somewhat rare. Most of the work I saw was on bikers and sailors (two groups of men I still find myself quite attracted to) and I loved the rough aspect of all the tattoos I saw. Faded birds and anchors, dragons and tigers. And flames. There were always flames. I loved them. Then, tattoos were a kind of secret handshake. I’m cool, see? I have this tattoo to prove it!

So, when I was seventeen, I went down to Pinkie’s in downtown San Jose. It was the summer. I picked a cross and had it permanently drawn onto my right shoulder. There was no waiver to sign, no assurance that the shop was clean. No one cared that I was underage. No one cared that I smelled like Bartles and James wine coolers. And so thirty minutes later I emerged with a fresh cross inked onto my skin.

I must have wiggled. The base of the cross came out crooked, a fact my best friend Robyn loved to point out over the years that followed. Even when I got that cross covered up she still made fun of me. Such is life. Even bad tattoos have a story.

Anyway, I continued to be obsessed with tattoos, especially traditional, old school designs. And so I covered up my cross with nothing less than a MOM tattoo. I mean, my mom died, so I thought it was an appropriate thing to do. Also, it was done buy a really hot guy, so the pain was not bad at all. (I have found that tattoo pain is much more pleasurable when the artist is a hot guy.)
So then, last year, I started with the flowers. I wanted to have roses on my back, like an entire vine of them. And birds. And twigs. So I went to Mary Joy Scott in San Francisco and it turns out she loves vintage flowers. She drew up this design and we were off. It took two sessions, of about four hours each. I absolutely loved the final product. Besides the roses, I have two swallows, a mama with twigs in her mouth, and a baby bird. And the clovers are for my Irish grandmother and my mother.

I loved the roses so much, I decided to continue them onto the front of my chest. I blogged on it HERE actually.

I also have a peony on my left ankle, and my most recent tattoo is morning glories on my right calf. I also wanted a bee because I just think they are cool. Sometimes that’s reason enough for a tattoo. J T o be honest, I have a lot more tattoos planned, and for no other reason than I just like the designs. Now, every time I sell a book, I’m getting a tattoo to celebrate it. I got the morning glories and the bee with my first advance from Grand Central Publishing.

Nowadays everyone is getting tattoos. Hell, my dentist, a woman who had no problem telling me on several occasions that she did not like tattoos, is now getting one. They are not the secret handshake they used to be. But that’s okay. Because as the popularity of tattoos has grown, so has the quality of work. In fact, nowadays, many tattoo artists are traditional artists in their own right. And so I see a lot less of those crudely drawn designs that were common just twenty years ago. And that’s a good thing because, for me, there is nothing better than checking out an amazing tattoo on someone else.

And if just happens to be on a biker or a sailor, so be it.

****

Lillian's Bio:

Lillian Feisty expected to write typical boy-meets-girl tales. But so often the girl wanted to be tied up by the boy, Lilli had to oblige. Her love of writing spicy romance evolved, and next thing she knew, she was published. Her first erotic novella was released in March 2007, and she’s been consistently pursuing her passion ever since. She is published in several genres of romantic fiction including contemporary, screwball comedy, and light paranormal.

Lilli was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent the majority of her twenties working just enough to pay for extended trips to Europe. Some of her fascinating employment titles included makeup artist, secretary, and perpetual student. She owned an art gallery for several years, holds a degree in Creative Arts and was just a thesis short of her MA when she decided to drop out of school to write romance.

For more fascinating Feisty information go to lillianfeisty.com

Labels: art, body art, erotic romance, erotica, fetish, tattoo

For me, it was a spiritual thing. Both my tattoos are cover ups from scars of yesterday that I would rather forget. I felt strongly that my new body art should represent future and rebirth as opposed to simply hiding the past.

Spirituality and mythology have always been my passions, and so I knew immediately what my first cover up would be: the Pink Lotus. In Buddhism, the pink lotus is the supreme lotus of enlightenment, generally reserved for the Great Buddha himself. The pink lotus is also considered the national flower of India and strongly associated with the Goddess Lakshmi in her divine mother guise, offering prosperity to all her children. The Egyptians also imbued the flower with great spiritual power and affiliations.

The lotus grows up from the mud and through the water, the strength of its stem allowing it to ascend beyond the other water flowers. It is the soul and spirit within us, our divinity…our ability to overcome struggles and karma and reach for the stars.

I loved having it done. Though it was a large cover up, all I felt was joy and fascination as I watched the artist work on my left calf for nearly two hours. It was truly a spiritual experience.

The other cover up was much smaller. I’d found the Sanskrit symbol for sacred truth in the dictionary my sister had given me for Christmas. So I had that symbol placed on my right shoulder blade. Enlightenment and sacred truth sounded like pretty good life goals to me, and the perfect weapons to take with me on the beginning of a new journey…a new life.

As an important side note-I would like to add that my obsession with mythology will be fed today and all weekend over at Romance Divas, where we are having a free for all workshop on Mythology in Romance. P.C. Cast, Gena Showalter, and a whole host of others will be there, answering questions and allowing me to be the fan girl I am. Come check it out!

About R.G. Alexander

Stolen away by a free spirited Gypsy as a child, (though she still swears she’s my mother) I spent my childhood roaming the countryside, meeting fascinating characters and having amazing adventures. As the perpetual “new kid”, my friends more often than not were found between the pages of a book…and in my own imagination. I read everything I could get my hands on. At the age of 11 I read my first romance, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Throughout all of my varied careers I would sigh as I read one fantasy-filled story after another saying, “Someday I want to write one of those”. Until one day my husband said, “So do it”. And I did. Now I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Upcoming releases:

Who Needs Another Superhero? releases from Ellora’s Cave in June 2008

The sequel to Who Wants to Date a Superhero? Available now at Ellora's Cave!

Return to Gaia City.

Where there are way too many Superheroes for Dayna’s piece of mind.

Growing up as the unofficial mascot for Gaia’s Guardians and sibling of the powerful Theta Wave hasn’t been easy. So maybe she overcompensates. Takes risks she shouldn’t. You try going through puberty in front of super men with super hot, totally unattainable bods. It’s enough to give a girl a complex.

Stone Matthews was an introverted geophysicist, until the day he wandered into the burial chamber of an ancient and powerful ruler and became...Rock Hammer.

Sure, now he’s an invincible chick magnet, but he still has no idea how to deal with women. Especially Dayna. The tasty little reporter has always pushed his buttons, but he held her at arms length. She’s Theta’s little sister after all.

With Triad still missing, Theta on his honeymoon and the lair in disarray, there is no one around but Rock to save the day when Dayna goes chasing after The Pearl of Isis and a story that could be the death of her. And when he gets his hands on her, all bets are off.

Lux in Shadow releases from Samhain Publishing this August 19, 2008

Children of the Goddess, Book 2

Because of his own carelessness, Lux Sariel lost his lover at the hands of the shaman Gray Wolf, and put his Trueblood family in grave danger. Now he’s been sent on a mission to find and protect his mortal enemy’s sister. His companion is Arygon, a sexy Alpha who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.

When the two find Sylvain, a sheltered and innocent beauty with power beyond imagining, passions ignite—and suddenly none of them are certain of the future.

No one but the Goddess.

She has a plan that will change everything for Her children, Were and Vampire alike. A challenge that will fulfill the promise of what this unusual threesome have found together…or destroy them all.

Piercing the Veil coming soon to Ellora’s Cave, yummy cover and all. The sequel to Lifting the Veil, available now at Ellora's cave!

Temptation Unveiled, Book 2

Twins Hawk and Val are Fianna warriors under the vengeful curse of a scorned goddess. Following the prophecy in the Book of Veils, they search for the one who can help them retrieve the Claiomh Solais before their enemies get the chance. Their quest leads them to Linnea. One touch and there can be no doubt that they have found their match. But will she accept them once she knows the truth?

Linnea is no one special. So why is she on the run from evil faeries and her egotistical ex? Why is she suddenly spending time in the company of dragons, druids, and one kinky Viking with a split personality? All she knows is she has to keep her daughter safe from those who hunt her, and her heart safe from another betrayal.

To protect one gifted child and all of humanity from the dark god that seeks retribution, they must learn to trust each other. To have a future together, they must find the perfect balance.

There’s only one place left to run-into forbidden arms.

Children of the Goddess Book One

When she arrives at Ye Olde Haven Pub, the sanctuary for Trueblood Vampires, Regina is wounded and desperate. Her only thought is to save the Deva Clan, her family, from the dangerous Loups De L’Ombre, the Shadow Wolves. She knows she will not exactly be welcomed with open arms. She is, after all, an Unborn, the lowest caste of Vampire.

As a natural born from the purest line, Zander Sariel knows the rules are sacrosanct-a Trueblood mates with his own kind. But one taste of the young Unborn is all Zander needs to know that rules were made to be broken.

With enemies at every turn, Zander risks everything to save Regina from the monster that hunts her, his own kind’s ignorance and-if he must-her lack of faith in her own unique abilities.

Only together do they have a chance to defeat the shadow that haunts their future, and save their entire race from extinction.