posted in Blog | Tagged: gift of love, LM Brown, Lupercalia, traditional valentine's, traditions
Welcome the lovely LM Brown to Friends Friday today, we’re getting ready for Valentine’s day!
How Traditional do you want it?
Valentine’s Day, the holiday of lovers is often celebrated these days with flowers, chocolates and romantic dinners by candlelight. It seems quite traditional don’t you think?
Or is it?
For the second day of my blog tour we’re going way back in time to when there was no actual Valentine’s Day, but a rather different tradition taking place around the 14th February.
Lupercalia
It sounds like it should have a werewolf connection, doesn’t it?
Back in Pagan times Lupercalia was celebrated in mid-February. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to our modern Valentine’s Days though.
The ceremonies included the sacrifice of two goats and a dog along with other blood ceremonies. Not a festival for the faint of heart, I’m sure you will agree.
In my personal opinion, it was the women who had the worst end of the deal. Firstly there was the whipping to ensure fertility and ease the pains of childbirth. I can’t even begin to fathom the logic behind that one.
Then, if that wasn’t enough, the teenage girls had the unfortunate task of being chosen at random from the men in the village. The girls’ names would go into a box and whichever man chose your name would be your sexual partner for the next year.
Yikes!
It sounds even worse than being picked for team sports at school. At least then it was over in an hour or two.
I imagine I would have been the chubby girl hiding at the back, praying for the ground to open up and swallow her. The best you can hope for is the handsome young man you’ve gazed at from afar for months picking your name and looking at you in utter disappointment. More likely is that he will pick someone else entirely. More worrying would be the possibility of ending up tied to someone vile and cruel.
Though you could always hope there were more girls than men in the village and that your name wouldn’t be picked out at all. Unless some lucky man got to pick more than one girl if that happened. Who is to say?
Thankfully for us paranoid self-conscious modern day girls, the church banned this lottery of women, and only the idea of men (and these days women) picking their mates on Valentine’s Day remains.
Unfortunately, for Nick, one of the heroes of my Valentine’s Day story, the man he wants to pick for his Valentine is already spoken for…
Can a wrong number lead to Mr Right? Nick Davis’s life takes an unexpected turn when a stranger starts leaving messages on his answer machine. Is there hope Nick can become more to Connor Hayes than just a wrong number?
Nick Davis stumbled from his bedroom into the kitchen, cringing at the bright sunlight of the January morning. He snapped the blinds down, causing him to simultaneously sigh with relief at the more subdued light and groan at the sound, which echoed far too loudly for his liking. Every step he took was careful and measured, so as not to make his aching head pound any more than necessary. He spared a glance at the blinking red light on the answering machine: a new message. Suspecting it to be a slightly belated Happy New Year greeting, and probably a loud one, Nick left it for the moment. He headed for the fridge and a hangover cure in the form of hair of the dog, also known as a nice cold beer.
Damn, what did I do last night? He remembered meeting his mates at The Red Lion for a night out on the town. They’d had a few drinks there before moving on to The Royal Oak. Then they’d headed out to the city, where things started to get a little hazy. He did recall Marc screaming Happy New Year down the phone at least an hour early, but midnight itself was a complete blank. He supposed he should be thankful he’d made it home in one piece, and hadn’t woken up to find a strange man in his bed this morning.
After nursing his hangover until mid-afternoon Nick finally remembered the message and hit the play button.
“Hey, baby! Happy New Year! Missing you already. I can’t wait to see you again. Give me a call to let me know you got back safely. Love you.”
Nick frowned at the answer machine. He didn’t recognise the voice of the soft-spoken man on the other end of the phone. Chalking it up to someone too inebriated to dial correctly, he deleted the message and promptly forgot about it.
Available for pre-order from Silver Publishing (release date 11th February)
You can also enter a draw to win a copy of the anthology during the With Love, Valentine’s Day Blog Hop which is running on my blog from 11th February to 14th February.
Where to find L.M. Brown
Website – http://lmbrownauthor.webs.com/
Blog – http://lmbrownauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001471647696
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/lmbrown
posted in Blog | Tagged: big blisse kiss, contest, erotic romace, kisses, prizes, pucker up, snogs, sunday snogs, Victoria Blisse
Well, the best bit before you actually get to what you’re waiting for! I am so excited, it’s only three little days until the Big Blisse Kiss! I’m plotting my sensuous snog and what prizes I will be offering, yes, you read right, I will be offering MULTIPLE prizes because multiples are the best, right girls?
If you take a look at the list of participants you will see that we already have a sweet set of smutastic authors signed up and ready to snog. Every single author will be offering a prize as well as sharing a scorching hot snog for your enjoyment.
I can’t wait for Sunday. If you want to share the lurve and let people know about the big event you can! My clever husband has created the below Facebook cover:
to spread the word! You’ll need to have timeline enabled on Facebook to use this. You’ll need to right click on the image above and then select “Save Image†then if you don’t already have it enabled activate Timeline by going to http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline and clicking on the green button at the bottom that says “Get Timelineâ€. You then need to select the image you saved as your new Facebook cover.
If you want to see more images you can use on your websites to advertise the event please check http://blissekiss.co.uk for a list of the available images.
Do you want to get in the mood for all the kissing on Sunday? Then check out the free reads over at blissekiss.co.uk, they’re bound to warm you up and get you ready to pucker up for the biggest Sunday Snog ever!
I’ve got you Under my Skin-Flash Fiction.
posted in Blog | Tagged: echo. I've got you under my skin, erotic romance, Memories, Victoria Blisse, Wank Wednesday, Wednesday Briefs
I love Wednesdays! Wanks and briefs, who wants more, really?
Today’s Wednesday Briefs erm, brief was to include “I’ve got you under my skin” in my story and the Wank directive was the world Echo. Now, I’m not sure what happened last week but apparently this week’s prompts took me in a very similar direction as my worlds last week. So apologies for another emotional roller coaster of a trip down memory lane! I promise to write something purely passionate next week! As English students at online universities know, sometimes prompts can take you in a different place than expected.
I’ve got you under my skin…
And as I hear that song the echoes of memories flood back once again. I try my hardest to keep them under control or they’d take me over and before you know it I’m the crazy old woman who talks to thin air and keeps a jar of ashes on my dining room table. Nope, I’m not going to be that person.
We met at a party, we danced to that song, the Frank Sinatra version when it was fresh and we were young, oh so young. I knew from the moment you put your arms around my waist that I loved you. It was like a bolt from heaven and when we kissed that just sealed the deal. Your lips were so gentle and so strong and I held onto your wide, masculine shoulders and let myself fall deeper in love with you.
We had our ups and downs of course, there was that Bitch Katie Summer who was desperate to get her claws in her. You were a good man with a suit and a good office clerks wage and she wanted out of the factory, she didn’t want you really, just wanted your status and your job. I don’t recall that day with much fondness though there was a certain satisfaction in the sting left in my palm once I cracked her round the face with it. She left you alone from that moment, scared that I’d curl up a fist the next time I heard her talking about you in such a vulgar way.
Only I was allowed to do that. I hear the reverberation of them on the night air, the whispered sweet nothings of the night we consummated our marriage to the raunchy and rude demands that came as we grew to know each other’s particulars. You were a dominant man and I needed that. You often took me to task, lay me over your knee and gave me a damn good spanking. Blimey, when I think back to the time I accidently broke that fruit bowl that your aunt gave us for a wedding present I swear my arse still aches from the imprint of your hand chastising me. And I know it’s base to say and I’d never mention it in public but the fucking you gave me then, banging into my hot buttocks was one of the rawest, most delicious sexual encounters of our days together.
I’m not thinking about the end, no, no. I did enough of that at the time. No, I remember you as when we met, vibrant and laughing and that night of our Ruby Wedding where we danced again to our song and made all our children feel queasy with our public affection and our grandchildren asked us whether we lived in black and white when we first got married, like the old TV programmes. Ah, those were the days, my love, those were the days that echo in my heart all day long.
I’ve got you deep in the heart of me, So deep in my heart that you’re really a part of me. I’ve got you under my skin.
Save a space for me in Heaven, my love, I’ll be there soon. I can’t wait, really. I’m too old now, my knees don’t work and my ears don’t hear and I feel lost and confused without you. I know you’re just in the other room waiting for me, I’ll be there soon, love, I’ll be there soon.
For More Wank Wednesday Echoes, Check here.
And here’s a list of all this Week’s Wednesday Briefs participants!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my bit of a flash and will enjoy the flashes of others today too. Ooo err!
About Victoria Blisse
Victoria Blisse is a Mother, Wife, Christian, Manchester United Fan and Award Winning Erotica Authoress.
» Read More
Blisse Bling
Courtesy of those nice folk at Total-e-Bound you can now get some Blisse Bling.. Click Here to see whats available.
Partners
Awards
Official Blog Tour Host
