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Thanks Ayla for inviting me
over here today to share a snippet from Right of Salvage, my
story in the Jolly
Rogered collection. If you want to get your hands on the whole thing – and
who wouldn’t fancy getting to grips with the hot and oh-so-sexy Captain Rob
Hawke? – you can find him swashing his buckle in the Totally Bound book
boutique. The Jolly Rogered collection is available now on early download, and
will be on general release from 11 July.
Knowing the sort of hot gossip we all like
to keep abreast of, I tracked down Captain Hawke and fired a few finely honed
pirate-friendly questions at him. All in the name of research obviously. Here’s
what he had to say for himself…
Me: Captain Hawke, thank you for agreeing to chat. I know you must be
very busy, doubloons to bury, that sort of thing…
Captain
Hawke : Are you taking the piss, Ms Barker?
Me: No, of course not. Perish the thought. I’m just glad to see you.
Captain
Hawke: That’s alright then. And, it’s just Rob
these days.
Me: Right, thanks. Er, shall we start with a little background? Where do you keep your parrot?
Rob: My what? Do you see a parrot round here, Ms Barker? And I thought
I’d warned you about piss-taking.
Me: No parrot?
Rob: Not currently. I did have one once. He shared your passion for
living dangerously. He used to squawk ‘Kneel!” in the middle of the night. It
all became quite disconcerting for any companion I might have staying. He had
to go.
Me: What happened to him?
Rob: I was going to eat him but he flew away. They do that sort of
thing.
Me: I see. Sounds like a sensible bird. Now, I’m sure our readers would be interested to know a little bit about your life before you took up piracy. Pirates are bad lads, we all know that. But what was the naughtiest thing you ever got up to as a boy?
Rob: I was a sweet little lad. Very biddable. Mostly. Of course there
was that time I was practicing with my father’s broadsword and managed to drop
it in the privy. It ended up in the moat outside our castle. I didn’t sit down
for a week after that.
Me: A moat. Wow. Moving on, we know what Jane thought of you when you first met. It’s in the story. But what was your first impression of her?
Rob: Ah, a serious question at last. I thought she was absolutely bloody
gorgeous. Of course, I’d no intention at first of abducting her, that just sort
of happened and I prefer to think of it as a rescue rather than kidnapping. She
seemed… vulnerable and I wanted to protect her. I was also pretty keen to get
my hands on her bare arse too. I was not disappointed.
Me: What’s Jane’s worst habit? Does she do anything that annoys you?
Rob: She argues. I don’t usually allow that, but Jane does seem to get
away with things.
Me: Okay. And what would you say is her finest quality?
Rob: Have I mentioned her arse? That’s pretty fine. Oh, I see that
wasn’t what you had in mind. I think I most appreciate her courage, and perhaps
her loyalty. Ours has been a dangerous, difficult life and she never complains.
Oh, and there is her arse, naturally.
Me: Here’s another serious question. If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, what would you say to them?
Rob: Christopher Columbus. That guy had some bottle. I know for sure I’m
not going to sail off the end of the earth. He only thought he wouldn’t. Probably.
Me: Do you have any phobias or pet hates?
Rob: Crocodiles. Can’t stand the bloody things
Me: What’s the best place you’ve ever been to, and why did you like it?
Rob: I’ve travelled a lot, seen a lot of fabulous, exotic places, but in
my opinion there’s nowhere to compare with England in the winter. Crisp snow,
ice skating, a roaring log fire in my father’s great hall. I miss all that.
Me: One final question, if I may? Where’s your preferred place to bury your treasure?
Rob: Ms Barker, are you being suggestive?
Me: No, it’s a serious question.
Rob: Bollocks, it is not. And I refuse to answer it on the grounds that
Jane would have my hide. Where I choose to bury my treasure is strictly between
me and her.
Me: How gallant. A chivalrous buccaneer. It’s been nice chatting, thank you for agreeing to see me
Rob: My pleasure.
Me: Before you rush off, we’ve been running a little quiz about pirates, to test your knowledge. Would you like to have a try? You could win an ebook.
Rob: A what?
Me: Er, right. Perhaps not.
Captain Rob Hawke might not have much use for an ebook, but if you want to test your knowledge of pirates and enter our prize draw to possibly win all four stories from the Jolly Rogered collection, you can find the quiz here.
Go on, have a go.
Here’s
the blurb for Right of Salvage…
He pulled her from the sea,
breathed life back into her, and now she belongs to him. By right of salvage.
A passenger on a merchant ship carrying her husband’s cargo between the New world and Portsmouth, Jane Browne is unprepared for the devastating attraction she feels towards the fierce pirate who decides to relieve her husband of his goods. And his wife. Hurled into the sea by her violent husband in an act of spiteful, jealous revenge, Jane is rescued by the handsome pirate captain, who declares that she is now his property.
Jane
has no choice but to accompany Captain Rob Hawke. Installed on his ship and in
his bed he demands her total obedience and her willing submission. Frightened
and alone, Jane nevertheless responds quickly to her pirate rescuer’s delicate
seduction, as he draws her effortlessly into his world of pleasure tinged with
pain. Having sampled what he can provide, when Rob offers Jane a choice, will
she opt to accept her freedom, or remain with Rob as his willing submissive?
When
Rob’s past and Jane’s jealous husband catch up with them again, can they find a new future - together?
Buy Links:
You can get your hands on Right
of Salvage right now from Totally
Bound, and after 11 July it will be in all the usual places: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Totally
Bound Barnes and Noble All Romance
And don’t forget to visit the other Jolly Rogered
authors and get to know the rest of the swashbuckling heroes from the
collection.
Author Bio:
Until 2010 I was a director of a
regeneration company in Leeds, in the UK, before becoming convinced there must
be more to life. So I left, and at last I’ve been able to realise my dream of
writing erotic romance. I’ve been an avid reader of fiction for many years,
erotic and other genres, and I still love reading historical and contemporary
romances – the hotter the better. But now I have a good excuse for my guilty
pleasure – research.
In my own writing I tend to draw on settings and anecdotes from my own experience to lend colour, detail and realism to my plots and characters. An incident here, a chance remark there, a bizarre event or quirky character, any of these can spark a story idea. But ultimately my tales of love, challenge, resilience and compassion are the conjurings of my own lurid and smutty imagination.
When not writing – which is not very often these days - my time is divided between my role as resident taxi driver for my teenage daughter, and caring for a menagerie of dogs, rabbits, tortoises. And most recently a very grumpy cockatiel. I’m a rural parish councillor, and I’m passionate about evolving rural traditions and values to suit twenty first century lifestyles.
I write for Totally Bound and now have about a dozen titles on general release, with several more in the pipeline. I have a pile of story ideas still to work through, and keep thinking of new ones at the most unlikely moments, so you can expect to see a lot more from me.
