All Mad Here by Brantwijn Serrah

All Mad Here

By

Brantwijn Serrah

Length of Book: Short story, under 10k

Genre: Fantasy erotic romance; Alice-in-Wonderland theme; NC17 for language and graphic sexual description

Blurb:

Finn expected a quiet birthday: a night off, touring the local bars with his sister Reagan. But his two princesses, Nineva and Nerissa, have already planned a big surprise. Before he knows it, Finn finds himself in a version of Wonderland, racing the Red and White Queens for his fondest birthday wish. Can he best the Red Knight, find the White Rabbit's missing token, and outsmart the Chesire Cat, before he gets turned into a sheep?

And can Nina and Neri possibly know his true birthday wish...is them?

Buy Links:

Champagne Books     Amazon     Barnes and Noble

Author Bio:

When she isn't visiting the worlds of immortals, demons, dragons and goblins, Brantwijn fills her time with artistic endeavors: sketching, painting, customizing My Little Ponies and sewing plushies for friends. She can't handle coffee unless there's enough cream and sugar to make it a milkshake, but try and sweeten her tea and she will never forgive you. She moonlights as a futon for four lazy cats, loves tabletop role-play games, and can spend hours pencilling naughty, sexy illustrations in her secret notebooks.

Brantwijn has two romance series currently in-progress with Champagne Books.  She's also had short stories published in several small press anthologies. She has author pages on GoodReads and Amazon, and loves to see reader comments on her work. Her short stories and audio readings occasionally pop up at Foreplay and Fangs, her blog at http://brantwijn.blogspot.com.

Social Media Links:

Facebook     Foreplay and Fangs on Facebook     Twitter     G+     Tumblr

Excerpt:

“You are almost free,” she said. “But alas, for riddle number three.”
Finn had no worries. The first answer had been tied to Spring and Autumn, the second to Winter. She had but one Court left to draw from.
Nineva swept up close to him. “What did my sister give you, which I now wish for you to give to me?”
“Wait, what?” he asked.
She seized him before he could react, pulling him to the grass with her, drawing him into another kiss. Finn flailed a moment, once more caught off-guard, but he planted his hands on either side of her, holding himself above her.
“Bloody hell, lass! Whatdo my Ladies mean by all this?”
“Finn,” she said. Her hand stole down, sneaking to his groin, where she teasingly caressed him.
“What did my sister give you, which I now wish for you to give to me?”
He stared.
“Nina,” he whispered. “The rules of this game are...very unclear to me.”
“Ah, well...allow me to make them clearer,” she said.

 All Mad Here – Writing the Perfect Love Triangle

All Mad Here is the story of three best friends discovering a new level of their relationship, as the tender feelings of youth evolve into passionate romantic desire...and the all-too-common dilemma: which woman, ultimately, will the hero choose?

In this case, however, his choice is both.

I’ve been interested in writing “the perfect love triangle” since my seventh-grade history class. These were the words my teacher chose to describe the famous conundrum of King Arthur, his queen Guinevere, and dear friend Lancelot. Common understanding over-simplifies this trio’s conflict into a case of adultery, but my teacher’s description prompted me to consider it more carefully. Why was this a “perfect love triangle”? Certainly it didn’t end well. The trio didn’t live “happily ever after”. So what did my teacher mean?

The idea of a “perfect” love triangle is not necessarily that things work out happily. The idea is that the triangle works in all directions. It’s not simply one girl’s choice between two boys (or one man’s decision between two women); it’s the complexity of all three parties loving each other.

In the case of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, the triangle was explained to me like this: Arthur loves Guinevere as man loves wife. Pretty simple so far. In my teacher’s scenario, Guinevere returned Arthur’s love genuinely as well, as wife loves husband. Then, however, enter Lancelot: Lance loves Guinevere in a romantic, sexual sense, and Guinevere returns his romantic, sexual love as well.

But here’s where the triangle becomes even more complicated. In the scenario proposed by my teacher, at least, Arthur and Lancelot love each other as well. Not romantically...or at least, if she suspected a romantic connection, my teacher didn’t share it with her seventh-grade class. The two men, she argued, loved each other as deeply as brothers, and it threw an extra twist into the love triangle because despite their individual love and desire for Guinevere, their love for each other left them with feelings of guilt, disappointment, and pain. Arthur’s love for Lancelot would compel him to want the best for Lancelot; a man he loved as dearly as a brother, he should wish well in matters of the heart. Lancelot, in his love for Arthur, must also wish Arthur a marriage full of passion, happiness, and love. In loving the same woman, though, each found their love for their brother in turmoil.

Long story short: Arthur loves Guinevere, his wife, who loves Lancelot, his brother, as well as him. Lancelot loves Guinevere, his brother’s wife, who loves Arthur, his brother. And Guinevere loves both men, and loves them for their love and loyalty to each other. Here, enter jealousy, heartache, and eventual betrayal of one of these bonds.

This is where I became fascinated with love triangles, and their deeper complexities. We’re all familiar with the common plot where your female lead must choose between two boys, not wanting to break the heart of either but knowing one must eventually be hurt. How much more interesting is it, though, when the boys are also struggling with that choice: give up the girl for the sake of his best friend’s happiness, or pursue his own feelings for her while his friend suffers heartache?

And then, there’s the option most people consider impossible: what if all three could be have their cake and eat it, too?

My leading romantic trio in All Mad Here are Finn, Nineva, and Nerissa: two elfin princesses and the Knight they have shared all their lives. They are best friends, all three, and in All Mad Here, they’ve discovered this friendship can go even deeper.

Though I’m not polyamorous myself, I wanted to write about a trio of lovers who are, and present to readers some insight into the complexities of such a bond. It’s a different kind of relationship, with different needs and different conflicts. It’s a new type of romance, and I hope it’s one readers can fall in love with in a whole new way.