Christina McArdle must cast out the
demons of her past and present or lose the love of her life.
In the prosperous community of Bliss,
New Hampshire, in 1995, Christina McArdle is living a feminist dream. In short
order she has become the first female partner of the venerable, male dominated
CPA firm of Driscol, Ryan, Jensen and
Palmer. The honor followed by her selection as the first female member of
the prestigious Maplewood Country Club.
But Christina fears that her career
success has come at a terrible price. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual
interest in her. Unable to ignite his passion for her and desperate for
understanding of her own inhibitions, Christina turns to Dr. Rachel Morrisey, a
sex therapist, who helps her uncover dark secrets from her past. Christina's
path to recovery is blocked by a misogynistic pastor who traps her and many
other women of her church in a shame bind that serves his purulent interests.
Her path to freedom requires Christina
to break bonds from past and present or lose the thing she loves most in
life—the love of husband and family.
Author Interview:
1. How did you start writing erotic romance?
When friend suggested
I should try writing fiction, I thought I would have the most success writing
about the most pressing thing on my mind. I'm a guy so that means sex.
2. Plotter or pantster?
Panster which makes writing even a novella a stretch for me
because it involves plotting. Most of my work is short story fiction of erotic
male fantasy.
3. What are three things you have on your writing desk?
Coffee cup, a binder holding my collection of yet
unpublished short stories, a phrase book I keep for writing down beautiful
passages from other authors.
4. Favorite food?
By volume it's cookies. I am a foodie though so next would
be anything I can cook on the grill.
5. Tell us a little about your new release. What character
in the book really spoke to you?
"Bliss" is a story about a woman's struggle with
sexual shame. My main character, Christina McArdle, is on a rocket ride to
professional success but is struggling inside. Her husband, Ben, has lost
sexual interest in her. She doesn't have the tools to address her sexuality so
she goes to a shrink and begins uncovering unaddressed psychic damage from a
sexual assault in her youth. Her struggle is further compounded by a
misogynistic pastor who's on a purity crusade among the men at the church where
Christina and her husband attend. She has to cast out demons of past and
present or lose the love of her life.
Although Christina is the main character I really like her
husband, Ben. I want to be Ben when I grow up. He's an at-home dad like me but
a very rock solid guy. I don't want to give plot away but the story of Ben and
Christina meeting the first time is my favorite scene in the book.
6. I write because ____...
Wow if I knew I could open a practice as a shrink. I don't do it out of suffering. I enjoy it
and it's much cheaper than other pass times. How can you not like erotic
romance? I can make love to any woman I want and my wife could care less.
7. What is your favorite type of character to write about?
"Bliss" is very different for me. It's a female POV with dark overtones. The bulk of
my published and unpublished work is male erotic fantasy laced with humor, where my main
character tends to be a slightly clueless guy who falls into the clutches of a
sexually aggressive woman.
8. What is the sexiest scene you ever wrote?
It's in a yet to be published short story called, "The
Substitute."
9. What advice would you give new authors in the
erotica/romance field?
This may sound strange. I'd say be wary. I don't have enough
street cred to be passing out writing advice like candy. In fact at the start,
I deliberately ignored all the advice about studying genres, presentation,
query letters, proper English. All of those necessary things interfere with the
creative process for me. I decided I would write and write and then after I was
comfortable with my voice and style I'd start on those other tasks. So my
advice is write a lot. Tell the story you want to hear in the voice and style
you want to hear it in. That's what I did. I have only been writing for two
years and in that time I have placed two short stories in anthologies and got a
contract for "Bliss".
10. What is next on your writerly horizon?
I have another novella looking for a home, a mermaid story.
I have a growing collection of short stories I'd like to get published—male
erotic fantasies. I have been working on
and off for some time on a three part sci/fi fantasy series surrounding
"The Gueschtunkina Ray Gun." One blast from this gun renders a woman
into a state of extreme sexual arousal. It's fun, funny and wild.
Dr. Rachel
Morissey touched Christina's arm gently and handed her another tissue.
"Mrs.
McArdle, I'm a sex therapist and not a family doctor. I find that I need to
speak about sex bluntly in order to get through people's resistance." She
searched Christina's eyes to see if she was tracking. It had been a hard first
session. Taking the first steps in breaking down resistance, confronting
demons, bringing up painful personal memories always brought tears.
"Sexuality
is a hard discussion topic for couples. I don't mean to diminish your pain, but
so far it's like so many others. When you're young, sex may be clumsy, but
quantity is a quality all its own. So is time. Now you're thirty-five, a
working professional mother of young twins, with an at-home husband. You're
both living in a different world from your parents, and there are a lot of
demands on your time that sap sexual energy. In this phase of life, you have to
be much more intentional about sex." Dr. Morissey paused again, waiting
for Christina to process. "Lying in bed in the dark, waiting for your
husband to initiate sex, isn't a good strategy for fostering intimacy."
Christina wiped
away another nagging tear.
"But there's
something else I need to explore," said Dr. Morissey. "I am wondering
if you were ever raped or sexually abused?"
"Why? Is
that important?" asked Christina.
"Very. It
often creates problems with intimacy years later. You seem almost fearful of
sex."
Christina hung
her head. "I was nearly raped once," she whispered.
"So you
were assaulted."
"I guess."
"Mrs.
McArdle, I'm sensing a lot of guilt here. Physical contact without your
permission is assault. It's another person's crime, not yours. You said nearly
raped. What happened?"
Christina shuddered
as she recalled the forbidden memory. "We had a boy in our neighborhood
that was a bully to the boys and terror to the girls. Nobody would do anything
about him. Our parents told us to stay away. But he would hide out and grab
girls, rip their clothes off, and grope them. It happened to many of my
friends."
"How old
were you then?"
"Eighth
grade."
"Did he
actually do forceful penetration on any of his victims?"
"You sound
like the police now."
"It's an
important distinction, especially with a minor perpetrator."
"No. He
didn't."
"What
happened with you?"
"I was
taking a shortcut home across the athletic fields one evening. No one was
around. He jumped out from between the outbuildings, threw me down to the
ground, and jumped on top of me. I tried to fight, but he had his hand on my
throat."
Christina
unconsciously reached for her throat and pulled on her necklace.
"Sometimes
I can still feel him squeezing my throat," she said through closed eyes.
"I couldn't breathe. I tried to scream but couldn't. He was pressing down
on me with his crotch between my legs."
"Were his
pants on?"
"Yes, but
he was humping me like some kind of animal."
Christina gasped
as if she were going to scream. "Finally, he leaned down and put his cheek
next to mine. I was hysterical with fear, that's why I did it."
"Did what?"
"I bit off
a big chunk of his ear."
Christina rolled
forward, put her head between her knees, and sobbed.
"Now we're
getting somewhere. What happened after that?"
Christina rose up, brushing away tears
with a clenched fist. "He ran away screaming and told his parents that I
had attacked him." She had to stop to catch her breath. "The police
came to our house and asked me a lot of questions. Nothing happened to him. I
got suspended from school. Can you believe it?" The rage faded to sorrow.
Christina wept softly again. "I got so much grief for that, Dr. Morissey.
Did I do right? I was just so scared and desperate."
Some men are born great, others strive
for greatness; still others have greatness thrust upon them. Spencer Dryden is
none of these men. In fact, he is so unimpressive, he leaves no footprints on
newly fallen snow. He was trained in fiction writing on the job with the many
sales reports he produced for his managers, winning the coveted "keep your
job contest" three years running. His expense reports are still considered
masterpieces of forgery by the bankruptcy trustee of his former employer. He
lives an unremarkable life in a suburb of a northern city. His friends and
family would drop dead in horror if they knew of his secret life as a writer of
erotica. He hates the family cat but still loves to pet his wife.
