For Kat sex had always been nice, but she didn’t want nice. She wanted more. The last thing that Katlyn expects when Cody walks into the tack and feed store where she works is for the smoking hot cowboy to ask her out. Intrigued, she accepts his offer and is plunged head first into the world of submission. She takes to it like a natural but soon discovers that it’s not all fun and games. When forced to face her emotional baggage, will she run for the hills or give in to the Dominant who could be both her healer and her ultimate temptation? Innocence Tempted is the second story in the Generational Sins series. It’s a prequel, taking place before Katlyn meets David, but it can be read either as a standalone novel or following the first book.

Innocence Tempted (Generational Sins Series) is now available for the Kindle.

For those of you who have read Generational Sins, you know that it’s not an easy book. A lot of my readers, after finishing that novel,  request from me a D/s novel that is a little gentler or a little more playful.  They want to see the fun side of these unique relationships and not just the intensity.

Well, readers, you’re getting your wish.

Several years ago, not long after I wrote Generational Sins, I wrote a shorter story that was a prequel or companion novel detailing Katlyn’s relationship with Cody prior to the time when she meets David. I didn’t publish it when I first wrote it because my least favorite part of writing is editing, and it needed a lot of work to get from first draft to a publishable product. Originally, it was really just a collection of scenes that were mentioned in passing in Generational Sins, and it’s been sitting, quietly waiting its turn to be more fully developed ever since.

It’s still a little vignette-like, not giving a full day-to-day log of Kat’s activities, but rather fleshing out some of the significant moments that made her the submissive we come to know in GS. Reading GS first, will give you a fuller picture for this book, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel.

The recent surge in interest in the D/s lifestyle has encouraged me to dig out the old manuscript and dust it off. If you’re curious about BDSM but don’t have the stomach for a book like GS, this might be a better read for you.

I’m calling it Innocence Tempted and I hope you all enjoy it. I don’t have a release date for it just yet, but (fingers crossed) I’d like to get it out by the end of July. More details to come, but I’m putting a little teaser chapter from it up on my website if you’d like to check it out. I warn you, it’s a steamy book. Approach with caution.

As always, thank you for reading.  I have the best audience in the world.

Sam

I wanted to take a few minutes to address the questions that I’ve been fielding a lot lately about the 50 Shades of Grey series by E.L. James. Let me start by saying that I haven’t read this story in years, and I never read the whole trilogy. I read it, before it was published, back when the author and I (and a bunch of other really amazing writers) were all begging for positive comments together on the forums and free websites, trying to figure out if we could write, and crawling our way into our debut novels.

I also want to say that I’m very proud of E.L. James. She has succeeded in what many authors only hope to do by finding an audience that is motivated to buy and talk about her book. I think it’s fantastic that people are discussing her novel on television and all over the web. I haven’t picked the trilogy up in its current form, but I probably will some day, because I think it’s important to be familiar with what’s working in the writing world.

This series though has done some interesting things in the industry, and I’ve been getting a lot of mail as a result. For the first time in at least a decade we now have an example BDSM novel by which a standard has been set. It’s happened before: Story of O was the standard for decades, Secretary had a pretty good run for a couple of years, and within the BDSM community there are always favorites that circulate. The trouble with some of these books, though, is that when they attract the attention of non-readers, or more specifically non-BDSM readers, they become a measuring stick. If this book is my understanding of the color grey then all other books have to fall somewhere in the black or white category by comparison.

I appreciate Amazon’s referral system. They try to recommend books that you will like based on books that you already own and data from thousands of other book owners. It’s a great way to sell novels, and I love it because it gives new indie authors a fair shot at being read. Unfortunately the process is executed by a computer, not a human, so it has a few flaws. In this case Generational Sins is often recommended to readers of the 50 Shades series even though the two books are not particularly alike. I understand this mathematically. Both books are listed in the erotic romance category under BDSM (there aren’t subcategories for newbie and hardcore violence). E.L. James and I also shared much of the same audience when our books were new, so many of the early people that bought my book also bought hers, linking us more solidly. I’ve picked up a few new fans as a result of this connection, and I’m grateful for that, but I’ve also picked up a few reviewers who are clearly, and understandably, overwhelmed by my book.

The BDSM world is a very big one, and while the whole term is considered taboo by much of the vanilla world, even within the community there are further taboos and different levels of play or lifestyle. It is true to say that a parakeet and a hippopotamus are both zoo animals, but I think most of us would agree that the two have little in common. Books at opposite ends of the sadomasochistic spectrum aren’t necessarily alike in any way. 50 Shades scratches the surface of this world, but many other books (including my Generational Sins) have gone much deeper. Writers like Kitty Thomas and Annabel Joseph are on the more extreme end, while Cherise Sinclair falls somewhere in the middle, and Leah Brooke somewhere closer to tame. That’s how I would rank that small handful of authors anyway, but your level of intensity would very much depend on your personal preferences. If you consider anal sex extreme, then they are all possibly outside of your reading comfort zone. So the first question to ask, when trying to determine what to read, should be: which book has become your measuring stick?

If 50 Shades was your first BDSM novel, please don’t read Generational Sins second. The jump from a newbie submissive who thinks that a playroom is for video game systems, to an experienced submissive who cannot process emotional pain without extreme physical pain is too large of one for the average reader. The warning labels attached to my book are there for a reason. Generational Sins is about family violence, mental illness, and the darkest side of love imaginable. I put the opening chapters on my website for a reason as well. Please read the samples before deciding if you want to buy the book.

I don’t apologize for the graphic sexual violence in my book. It’s a story of hope written out of a very dark place, and it paints a picture of survival through unusual, raw, earthy means. There are themes of guilt, greed, inheritance, abuse, manipulation, and other guttural emotions. It is a fiction story, but I think it tells the truth about the dark natures that we battle every day. It’s not a “feel good” book, and it wasn’t designed to make you want to go out and buy fuzzy handcuffs. I wrote it because I know that I have readers who can identify with these emotions–in it we can see an enlarged version of ourselves and our greatest fears.

Having said all of that, I hope that more readers will begin to explore other writers as a result of this series. Please feel free to use the comment area to leave suggestions for other readers with books that fall anywhere along the spectrum. As always, also feel free to ask any questions that you may have. I would love to see this become an open and safe place where writers and readers can discuss their questions about books, sex, S&M, or anything else that comes to mind.

Until next time,
Sam

Indie BookSpot was kind enough to include me in their author interviews series. You can read the article here: http://indiebookspot.com/2012/04/04/interview-with-generational-sins-author-samantha-blair/

I thought it was a really great set of questions ranging from censorship issues to the writing process. It was a lot of fun to be a part of the process. Go check it out! And while you’re there, read some of their other stories. I’ve found them to be fun, relevant, and inspirational.

There was an article entitled “25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing (Right Fucking Now)” by Chuck Windig passed around on the Internet this week, and I felt that it deserved a reposting.

In this terribly honest and straight forward account we gain such wisdom as:
9. Stop Treating Your Body Like A Dumpster
12. Stop the Shame
21. Stop Listening to What Won’t Sell
(Those are my personal favorites.)

It’s good advice, not only for writers, but for human beings in general.

You can read it here: 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing

I came across this list today, via a fellow writer, and I wanted to pass it along because there are some really great words that I wish we would use more often.

100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

Do you have a personal favorite word? I’ve always been fond of ostentatious. My hubby’s favorite is archaeopteryx, but I think he only likes it because it’s hard to spell.