Today on our Cyber Launch Party Blog, we're celebrating Laura Tolomei's new eXtasy Books release, THE PIRATE'S SURRENDER.Meet Laura Tolomei.. If you really want to know, I was born in 1965 in Rome, Italy, but soon started my travelling career. At the age of five, my parents took me to Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up free and hot like I've never been since. I loved it there and still think of it with nostalgia. Anyway, it was also where I learned English.
After my African experience, I was ready to tackle the US. I lived in Atlanta, GA, five teen-age years, attending the Crestwood High School, where I started my writing career by publishing a short story Nostalgia on the Crestwood Journal. Very thrilled about discovering my new talent, I went ahead during college, writing for the Emory University journal The Phoenix. Three articles mark my first-and last-steps in journalism, "The peace Corps", "WAMM, Women Against Military Madness," and "Lesbism".
After my American experience, I moved back to Rome, but still kept living from time to time abroad, spending several months in Mumbay India, a country I always felt very close to me in more ways than one.
Today, I write both in Italian and English, mostly fiction of various genres, from fantasy erotica, to mysteries up to plain ordinary life stories.For those of you who read Italian, you can simply visit the Italian sections of my website. In English, I write erotica in various genres, mostly fantasy, sci-fi and paranormal, sometimes trespassing into contemporary. Feel free to look over my current and future projects by clicking here.
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THE PIRATE'S SURRENDER by Laura Tolomei
Book 2 - Be sure to catch the seductive prequel To Seduce A Soulmate Book 1 The pirate v/s the devil: how far can seduction go?
All right, so he did it! Marin seduced me. And the sex is fantastic, blows my mind every time, no complaints there, if that thing about being his soul-mate didn’t still bug me.
Yet there seems no way around it except...but can I do it? Do I want to do it? No, I don’t know if I’m ready to surrender. Me, the pirate, and to the blond devil, no less…talk about fucked up destiny!
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WIN - Leave Laura a question today about her or her new book and your name goes in the hat to win a copy of it!! Please leave your email address, so we can contact you if you are today's winner - Good Luck!
Wow Laura!! Super congrats on the new release, so great to see more of the pirate and the devil!
ReplyDeleteTell us all about the new release and the series - how do the two books connect?
Also, I see this is a holiday book, tell us how that fits in the story (if you can without giving some good stuff away..lol!).
Hope you enjoy your cyber launch party today and hope THE PIRATE'S SURRENDER is a bestseller for you!
This book looks interesting. I would love to win and read it. Thanks for the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteMy question for you is: Any favorite authors or books you would recommend? Also what is your favorite genre to write?
christinebails@yahoo.com
Hi, DeNita,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks so very much for hosting me once more! I know these past two months I’ve kind of been a fixed guest, what with THE DEMON WAITER released just a short month and half ago, not to mention RE-SCUE that was out less than a month ago. So thanks for taking the time to having me again!
Now, how are TO SEDUCE A SOUL MATE and THE PIRATE’S SURRENDER connected? Quite simple. In Book 1, TO SEDUCE A SOUL MATE, readers first meet Martin, who Drakes instinctively calls Devil, and Drake, who thinks of himself as a pirate having grown up on Lake Lanier, in GA. Funny thing, Martin also thinks of him as a pirate and likes to call him such. Now Martin is a man in search of his soul-mate. He has ever since he’s been old enough to know he has a missing half waiting for him somewhere. The gender’s not important to Martin. He likes both men and women, and as he tells Drake very honestly, to search for his soul-mate he’s done a lot of hoppin in and out of a lot of beds. Drake, instead, has no particular ambition. No soul-mate thing for him, particularly not with a man, which is the least likely gender he’s going to go for. No, men are definitely not his cup of tea. But something about Martin strikes a chord, a bell, a signal, something unusual that tells him THIS man is DIFFERENT. And though he doesn’t want to have sex with him or even consider the notion he might be something more than justj a casual acquaintance, he falls into Martin’s spell to the point he can think of nothing else. And so Martin works to seduce his soul-mate.
In book 2, readers might think he has succeeded, but I’m afraid for the pirate to surrender it’s going to take a lot more than a few enjoyable, very enjoyable sex-filled nights together. Drake has got a long way ahead of him, considering he never had sex with a man before Martin and he’s never thought of a man as a possible partner, much less a soul-mate. And Martin will have to review his strategy if his final aim is to win over Drake. But things take an unpredictable twist, which neither expects. “Can you handle it, Pirate?” Martin asks Drake ironic. The real irony, though, is that he for one won’t be able to.
Holiday is what both books are about. TO SEDUCE A SOUL MATE starts on Thanksgiving and ends at Christmas, just a short month to seduce the pirate into accepting the devil’s courtship. THE PIRATE’S SURRENDER starts off where TO SEDUCE A SOUL MATE leaves off, and that is in Ireland where Martin has taken Drake to celebrate Christmas with his family, and covers an entire year, until the following Christmas. So it’s definitely very holiday in the setting and the spirit, also considering both books are HFN. Readers will love the romantic twists in both, in THE PIRATE’S SURRENDER more than in TO SEDUCE A SOUL MATE, but in each both the devil and the pirate will grow and learn to accept each other beyond what they originally thought they would.
Thanks again, DeNita, for hosting me and I’m sure I’m going to have loads of fun during the party!
Laura
Hi, Laura! Just had to stop by and say hi!! I am soooo excited your newest book is out!!
ReplyDeleteI asked about all the places you travelled to once. Soooo is there one place more special over all the others? And why?
Jan
gembrat94@yahoo.com
Hi, Chris,
ReplyDeleteI've got a lot of authors I'd recommend, though not very recent ones. I'd definitely recommend Gone with the Wind if you've never read it. Margaret Mitchell sure knew what she was talking about! Then I'd recommend Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her Darkover series was FANTASTIC, but also her King Arthur series was PHENOMENAL, particularly the first book, Mists of Avalon. Philip K. Dick is another of my favorite authors in. He could paint such incredible worlds in just a few sentences and his stories really blew my mind. I could go on to tell about Joyce Carol Oates, Alexandre Dumas Sr. with his Three Musketeers or Umberto Eco with his Name of the Rose, but I think the list would be too long.
As for my favorite genre to write, it's fantasy. Yeah, I just love the genre 'cause it's inventive enough for my imagination to roam free and get away with unbelievable solutions. I kind of like not to have to be tied down and like to invent my own settings, so to speak. And nothing like fantasy gives me that sort of freedom.
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
fOR MY READERS, HERE'S THE SYNOPSIS OF THE PIRATE'S SURRENDER:
ReplyDeleteThe story picks up from where To Seduce A Soul Mate left off, with Martin and Drake, the devil and the pirate, going to Ireland to celebrate Christmas with Martin’s family. The story had started the Thanksgiving before, with Martin and Drake meeting at Drake’s parents and for both a bell had rung when their eyes first crossed. If for Martin it meant he had finally found his soul-mate, for Drake it was just a disturbing sensation more akin to sexual attraction. However little Drake’s tastes ran in that direction, the attraction turned out too strong to resist, so after a month, Martin had seduced his pirate Drake into having sex with a man, something Drake had never considered as an option in his life. The sex is great, reason enough for Drake to accept Martin’s invitation, but things in Ireland are not so smooth.
Overwhelmed by Martin’s family Christmas welcome, Drake understands he’s not ready to commit to anyone, much less a man whether his soul-mate or not. Martin agrees to drop all references to the soul-mate business and on their return to the US, they’ll spend a few months apart. During this time, Drake gets transferred to a new division and starts an affair with Michelle, a new colleague. But all he can think about is Martin. No way, though, he’s going to call him, but business exigencies bring them back together. The first time they meet again, Drake learns Martin has to leave his apartment, so he offers to rent him a room in his house. Martin eventually accepts, and it’s Drake’s undoing. No, not because the devil spins Drake into a vortex of sex with men and women, but because the living together and being so close every day is something he can’t handle. But as it will turn out, neither can Martin.
Laura!
ReplyDeleteJust by he cover you want to read it. how more sexy this can be seeing 2 men kissing?
so my dirty question is: do you think they use tongues? lol (teasing)
I love the title... surrender... what does it means for you to use this word? can someone fully able to surrender?
congrats for this new release!!!!
I am soooo ready to read both To seduce a soulmate an the pirate's surrender!
will you consider a book 3?
what makes drake and martin so special?
mary
Congrats on your new release. I read you books set in Rome. Are you writing more set there?
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Yes, Mary, they ABSOFUCKELUTELY use tongues! Hell, yeah, and practically every damn time they get a chance. ‘Cause twisting tongues turn them on like not even cock sucking does. Okay, been dirty enough here, so I’ll move on to the next question.
ReplyDeleteAbout surrender…for me, it’s trusting the other person to take care of you, not fighting him or her, letting them inside–your body, your mind, your very soul–and not trying to impose yourself all the time and with force. But this is me.
THE PIRATE’S SURRENDER is all about Drake, so the question is: what is it for him?
Now the interesting thing is that Drake thinks of himself as a pirate, and they notoriously have their own strict moral ethics. No surrender ever, they’d rather go down with the ship. And that’s how Drake lives it. To let Martin in his life, to acknowledge him as a soul-mate, to let him take control, if only minimal, of his life…all this would mean surrender to Drake.
But it’s pure BULLSHIT! Here’s what Martin tells him:
“’Cause you think fucking or staying on top is manly, while to be fucked or staying at the bottom is womanly, hence weak.”
Damn! “So maybe it is since I gave away my ass.” Forgot the man can read my mind! “But it’s not because of some crappy prejudice on fags. It’s because it feels like I surrendered—”
“Which is constitutionally forbidden to a pirate, right?”
“How did you guess?” Amazed, Drake’s eyes widened. “I mean, yeah, I was thinking of that.” And it bugged the hell out of him to know the devil had conquered the pirate so effortlessly.
Without a doubt, the memory of their time in Ireland brought back by the definition made Martin smile and cooled him down. “Pirate, you can be adorable at times…that is the ones you don’t try to live up to your strict pirate code.” Leisurely stretching, he fell on Drake again. “Like the thing about surrender, which has got nothing to do with what happened to you tonight.” Tracing his lips with a fiery tongue tip, Martin lingered in a sweet kiss that took Drake’s breath away. “It belongs to the emotional sphere, certainly not the sexual one.” Another hot kiss, then Martin lay back down.
I believe much like Martin, surrender is in the emotional sphere, the complete acceptance of another. And yeah, i think people can surrender if they set aside their selfishness, their egomanias, their thinking the universe is centered around them.
Now what’s so special about Martin and Drake aside from the fact they’re my characters????? Like I said many times before, Martin is special to me ‘cause he’s based on a real live person, the boss of one of my firends and he was a particular person already from her tales. I like to think I’ve guessed him better than my friend, who knows him, ever had, but that’s my ego going on his own. Of course, every time she tells me the real Martin did something that my Martin has already done, i feel a weird sense of pride. As for Drake, he’s special ‘cause he’s a man willing to take a chance on the unknown, and that’s rare. People don’t want to face their prejudices. They don’t want to question their beliefs. They don’t want to be diverted from their paths, which they always believe are the best ones. They don’t want to be proven wrong, not even in the face of powerful emotions like sexual attraction or...love. Drake goes against conventions. He invests on Martin, however skeptical he is at hirst. He lets Martin take control of his life, but in the end you’ll find out he never really gave it away, only shared it. And thus becomes stronger, his bond with Martin more powerful.
I wish everyone would be more like Drake in the sense of not accepting blidly what society tells us, but fight to find our own way, however unconventional or uneasy it turns out to be. And that’s what makes Martin and Drake so special to my heart.
Got it?
Oh, Mary, your questions are unconventional, too. Just LOVE it when you pick my brains out. Thanks sooooooo much for stopping. I just hope I was understandable in my answers LOL
Laura
Hi, Debby,
ReplyDeleteAncient Rome...yeah, I like history a lot and it always finds a way into my books. But not lately, you're right. I have been too busy with the horror side of me, THE DEMON WAITER and RE-SCUE, not to mention the contemporary holdisay season contemporaries like THE PIRATE's SURRENDER. And now I'm off to work on my Virtus Saga. Book 4 The Leader will be out first of 2012. The Pledge, Book 5, is in the workings, so should be out mid-2012. As for Ancient Rome, I haven't had the time to think of another story set there, but as soon as these other books are out, I will dedicate some time to the more historical side of me. PROMISE!
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Hi, Jan,
ReplyDeleteGREAT TO SEE YOU!!!!! And so glad you found the time to stop by!!!!
Mmmm...places...I loved them all, each for its own uniqueness. But if I had to choose one over the other, I'd say India. I know it's not a plac. It's a CONTINENT, a vast land with over a billion people. But to me it mwans so much more than the sum of its parts, that it might be hard to explain it properly.
I'd start by saying I'm attracted to Indian philosophy/religion. I find it so true for me, particularly the reincarnation beliefs,as if I've lived other lives. Nothing I can ever be certain, naturally, but it's a major source of inspiration in my writing. I wrote Divinitas and Re-Scue on the basis of souls reincarnating in new bodies to follow their connection and their destiny, however tragic or unfitting it was. And I believe I myself lived more lives, believe I carry an age-old baggage made of everything I learned in my previous lives, and feel comfortable about that.
This was just the first reason. Second reason I love the culture, the sense of thinking of the animals as though they were as important as the human beings. Even if they don't have enough to eat, I've seen Indians share their last bite with a crow. And the contraddictions are particularly strong. I mean Indians are a shauvinist culture where women don't count for much. A lot of them still live with the ancient traditions where women have to be removed or locked out of the main house when they have their periods. They're infected, so they can't live around the other members of the family, they can's touch food and stuff like that. And I've seen this happen in the center of London, modern-day times with Indian families insisting their daughters stay locked up in their rooms until their period is over. On the other hand, though, Indians have the most amazing femaile deity, Khali, a sanguinary evil woman who takes her revenge on men evey day. It's like Indians know women are much stronger and more powerful than their culture gives them credit for, so they've devised this deity to honor women the way they should be.
On top of it, I also love the food, the smells spiced with their unforgettable scents, pungent to the nose and to the lungs. I could eat their food breakfast, lunch and dinner, that's how much I love it. Maybe it's also because when I was little, I lived next door to an Indian family and became close friend with the daughter, a girl only a year my junior. I used to spend entire afternoons at their house, so her mother would have no compunctions in making us prepare the vegetables she would cook for their dinner. Often, I'd stay over and eat dinner with them, then go back home and eat another dinner 'cause I didn't have the guts to tell my mom I'd already eaten. God, how fat I was! But those smells nad tastes are still wiht me, my most cherished memories.
And the strange thing, the first time I set foot in India, it all came back to me, kind of bleneded together: the smells, the tastes, the beliefs, the contraddicitons, the religion, the people I knew and those I didn't. I had wanted to go to India all my life, always thought it would mean something to me, and it did. Very powerful the sensation 'cause it felt like I had already lived there, like all the ideas I had about my past lives were all true. It all happened on setting foot down the plane, then going out of the airport and breathing the air. India was me. I was India...or almost. That's why it's the most special place for me and keeps finding way into my books.
Well, that was certainly a long answer. I hope I got the message through, Jan, and that you understood.
Thanks so very very much for stopping by,
Laura
All right, gals, I think it's time for me to check out. It's past 1 AM over here in Rome and as much fun as I have, I gotta get some sleep before tomorrow's wake up call. But it's been so much fun celebrating the new release with y'all!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hearing more from you.
Good night,
Laura
Wow, your background is so interesting. It is really cool that you write in both English and Italian. Your book looks really interesting! Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletejepebATverizonDOTnet
WOW THIS BOOK SOUND AND LOOK GREAT ANT THEN THE DEVIL AND THE OTHER WOW WHAT A BETTER MATCH DO YOU HAVE POST CARD OR THE BOOK MARKS OF THE BOOK I LOVE TO WIN AND READ IT
ReplyDeleteDESI THE BLONDE @ MSN .COM
Both books are on my list,hope I win.Which genre is your favorite to write about?
ReplyDeletecvsimpkins@msn.com
Thanks for the author recommendations. Love Joyce Carol and have read Gone with the Wind. Also loved Three Musketeers. Thanks for answering my questions.
ReplyDeletechristinebails@yahoo.com
Hi, Dest,
ReplyDeleteI also like the contrast, the devil vs. the pirate sort of thing. Unfortuneately, haven't thought about either post cards or book marks, but it's a great idea and Imight just get around to it.
But they're not the only "nicknamed" couple in my writing. In the Virtus Saga, you have the prince and the angel on one side, the princess and the demon on the other. Funny thing, the angel and the demon are the same person, only to the prince, he shines like an angel, to the princess he's as dark as a demon. The mysteries of love...
In the Re-Scue series, which also includes Tasting Leon's Mark, the two main protagonists are the prey and the hunter, and they never shift shides. The hunter likes to call his prey, "sweetie", and to the prey his hunter can only be "lover". And the magic of the words works also if they're just having coffee together LOL
One more thing I'd like to tell you because I notice you have a knack for words. I'm giving my readers the opportunity to feature their reveiws on my website. Should you have read a book of mine and wish to write a review about it, I'll create a page for it on www.lallagatta.com. If you have one you want to read, please send it to lalla_gatta (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Laura