NEW AUTHOR SERIES: Kate Belle

Time for a new series, and what an exciting one it is - New Authors!

All the featured authors are from the Romance Writers of Australia or Romance Writers of New Zealand, and have just been or are newly published with the digital imprints of Australian publishing houses like - Random House, Harlequin, Penguin and Pan Macmillan.

First author to kick off the series is Kate Belle.

Kate is a woman of many passions who juggles her pens with the rest of her life. She holds a tertiary qualification in chemistry, half a diploma in naturopathy and a diploma in psychological astrology.

Kate believes in living a passionate life and has ridden a camel through the Australian desert, fraternised with hippies in Nimbin, had a near birth experience and lived on nothing but porridge and a carrot for 3 days.



Kate lives, writes and loves in Melbourne, juggling her strange, secret affairs with her male characters with her much loved partner and daughter, and a menagerie of neurotic pets. 

Title – BREAKING THE RULES & BLOOM
Release Date – 1 February, 2013
Publisher – Random Romance

Call Story – While I’m no fan of 50 Shades, I really have E.L.James’ success to thank for my lucky break.

In May 2012, I received an urgent call at work from my agent. I’d only been with her for about six months. She’d picked up my erotic Australian novel, THE YEARNING, and had been submitting it to all the big publishers without luck.

Random House was one of the publishers who looked at it, but it wasn’t right for their list.

‘I’ve had a call from Random House,’ she said. ‘They’re looking for erotic romances, short novellas. Have you got anything in the bottom drawer?’

The truth was I didn’t, but as a new author I wasn’t about to let a little thing like not having a manuscript get in my way.

‘Not right now, but I can have.’

We talked about my idea for an unusual series about a sexy, handsome man who was a consummate lover of women, which I developed from the male character, Solomon, in my novel. Each story would feature a different woman, with a different relationship problem. My male character, Ramon, comes into her life and takes her on an exciting sexual journey of discovery, supporting her to get to know her own needs and develop the self-confidence she needs to ask for them.

Over a frantic four days, in between school runs and part time work, I developed a proposal for the series, which my agent delivered to Random House. The next week she was on the phone telling me they loved it and would be offering me a contract for two novellas. The best bit about that story is that Ramon was born – I’m so in love with him now I can’t see straight. 

About your book:
Hero - Ramon Mendez – a hot-blooded, handsome man of Spanish extraction who has studied ancient sexual practices and is a consummate lover. He is fit, attentive, smart and mysterious. He makes it clear he’s not interested in relationships, but why? Who will be the one to capture Ramon’s elusive heart?

Heroines - Grace (BREAKING THE RULES) is a beautiful, 46 year old academic in complete control of her world. She shut love out a long time ago in favour of a career, but all that is about to change when Ramon walks through her office door.

Emma (BLOOM) has the perfect life – a stable home, a reliable husband and three children – but something is missing. Gary doesn’t pay attention to her anymore and she feels frumpy and invisible. Ramon is her ultimate fantasy, and the one who opens her up and gives her the courage to discover and ask for what she wants.
 
Setting – An unnamed Australian city based on Melbourne. I imagine Ramon living somewhere like Northcote or Richmond.

BLOOM
‘Don’t be ashamed of your sexuality, Emma,’ said Ramon gently. ‘It’s okay for this to be about you. That’s why I’m here. Experiment with me. Explore. Learn to speak your needs.’
If it wasn’t for his grip on her chin her jaw would be on the floor. Listening to him talk was like being set on fire, slowly. It was like being dropped naked into a vat of melted chocolate. Emma felt her body relaxing, responding to him. God, this man was astonishing. She hardly believed he was real.
His gaze wandered over her shoulders and breasts. The heat of it warmed her skin. She reached up and traced a finger over his lips. They were shaped like a heart and perfectly kissable. He took her finger into his mouth and sucked it gently. She watched him, feeling his smooth tongue massaging her fingertip.
He took her finger and traced a wet trail down over his chin, over his Adam’s apple, then to where his shirt was buttoned in the middle of his chest. He placed her palm flat against him so she could feel the steady beat of his heart.
‘Tonight I’m yours,’ he whispered, ‘do with me what you will.’
That did it. Emma reached her hand behind his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. His tongue was strong against her own, probing and pushing and seeking. Emma collapsed against him, overpowered by the spicy aroma of his aftershave. He smelled so exotic, like he belonged in the tropics somewhere with a grass skirt and a necklace of shark teeth. Ramon’s hands slid from her shoulders down her back to her buttocks. He pressed her pelvis into his and she thrilled at the solid bulge in his pants.
Moving from her lips he flicked his tongue lightly along her jawline to her ear, then nibbled the lobe. ‘Tell me what you want, Emma, and I’ll give it to you.’
Emma was panting, aware of the moisture building between her legs. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d been so turned on. She tried to gather her tangled thoughts. His kisses had already transported her to some kind of elsewhere. She no longer felt like Emma the hopeless housewife and mum. She was Emma the Goddess, Emma the Siren. She knew what she wanted now and with her eyes closed and her face pressed into his neck she told him.
‘I want you to really make love to me, long and slow. I want it to last. I want to be so turned on that, in the end, I can’t help but come.’
She heard rather than saw Ramon’s smile.
‘Well done,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘And you shall have what you want.’

Any upcoming releases?
My novel, THE YEARNING , will be released by Simon & Schuster in April/May 2013.

“I want to reveal myself to you… I need your eyes to see, your hands to touch, your spirit to acknowledge that which I hold most deeply and secretly in my heart. My yearning for you.”
Solomon’s hands are shaking as he reads the fourth anonymous love note penned by his young neighbour, a student in his third form English class. For months she’s been watching him, a ghost of a girl hiding in the shadows of her upstairs bedroom. He thought it harmless enough, just a teenage crush. But it’s become an obsession, and her sensual words are pushing him over an invisible boundary he knows he shouldn’t cross.
It’s the late 1970’s and a young girl, longing for romance, is in love with her charismatic teacher and next door neighbour, Solomon Andrews. Solomon, a handsome young teacher with a promiscuous past, has longings of his own, but they have nothing to do with love, or so he thinks. The girl lures him into an illicit affair, the consequences of which will affect them both until they meet again twenty five years later.

You can find out more about Kate on her website/blog, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.