Wyk's Surrender

By Dakota Trace

So recently, well about six months ago, I was talking to my editor about the books I had planned to write this summer. (Or attempted to write, due to the kidlets being out of school). During the conversation, she’d asked if I was ever going to give my 1NS couple from Blind Need, Xaviera and Nate, another story…or at least check in with them.  I, of course, was stumped. I fell in love with my blind heiress and her hunky smoke-jumper, but I wasn’t sure where else to take their story or how continued it within the constraints of the 1NS series. So when I posted to the blog in February, I wrote an article about what happens after the 1Night Stand and about readers wanting to know more about what happened to the characters. I got several answers to that questions from other helpful 1NS authors and a few of the readers.

It did get me to thinking and I finally managed to answer that question. When I penned my most recent contribution for the 1NS line, Wyk’s Surrender, Xaviera and Nate along with Lucy managed to sneak their way into my story. Xaviera appears as the cousin of Venus Spinazzola-Navarro, my heroine.  While they may be cousins, they are quite different.  Not only is Xaviera a wine heiress, she grew up in sunny California, while Venus grew up on the streets of the Windy city and is an executive assistant to a department head of a lucrative firm in Chicago. While Xaviera was a bit of recluse, Venus is in your face, dares to tread where only angels dare and isn’t afraid of her size or sexuality. (And yes, she’s a what most consider to be BBW.) Because of her uniqueness it was a great fun to write Venus’s story.  Like her cousin, Venus has a take charge attitude and has no issue standing on her own two feet, or holding her own against her boss.  Which is probably why she’s a FemDom.

But speaking of her boss, Chadwyk, or Wyk as he prefers to be called, was a challenge to write, and why? Well because Wyk, the epitome of a successful black businessman, kept whispering in my ear how he wanted to explore his sexually submissive fantasies with his assistant. Talk about a real eye opener.  So not only did I have a strong female character…who was a FemDom, I had a strong alpha male in the boardroom who wanted to submit.  Sounds like a match made in heaven, right? One would think.  But of course my muse, Livvy, had to make it difficult for me.  She decided that I just couldn’t give them a straight forward story – you know Venus walking into Wyk’s office for a little afternoon delight. No they both had to have reasons why they couldn’t give into their obvious desire – the same reasons Madame Eve had to step in and arrange their…date and a reason to head out to Vegas. 

Well, that’s how Xaviera and Nate snuck in.  I won’t spill the beans about why Venus is meeting her cousin and sexy man in Vegas…or even why or how Wyk ends up in Vegas at the same time but needless to say…in the city of love…anything is possible. Even a chance to believe the impossible can happen. 

What is a One-Night Stand?

Buy Blind Need HERE

By Dakota Trace

When I sat down to write this blog, I wasn’t entirely sure what to write about. This will be my third time on the 1NS and I really didn’t want to figure out a new and unique way to pimp Blind Need.  So this leaves me with a dilemma--what to blog about on a blog revolving around one night stands and the memorable Madame Eve?  Well, since I only have a very limited knowledge of the matron who runs 1Night Stand, I think I’ll stick to the actual phenomenon known as a “one-night stand.”  So I let out my inner geek, and tracked downed some rather obscure facts about the topic.  Please bear with me – this post is about to get either really boring or…I hope, informative and funny (one never knows when dealing with my sense of humor)

So what does one get when they enter the words “one-night stand” into Google?  Well, let me tell you, isn’t our wonderful erotic romance line.  (Of course I realize if I would’ve put 1NS into Google I would’ve gotten a whole different list…but I’m looking for information on the act itself.)

The first result?

A link for Men’s Health that actually gives “sex tips for men for a successful one-night stand” Really? Okay, then.  After clicking on it, I found out that instead of sleazy tips from one man to another, this article was written by a woman, and most of the advice was done in really good taste.  Tips that a man should have, if he’s hooking up with an available lady looking for a night of fun, commitment-free, safe sex.   Of course, this didn’t appease my inner nerd, so I had to dig a bit deeper.  I know what the connotations of a one night stand mean to me, but I wanted history. Where the phrase started, did it always mean sleazy sex, or was there more behind it?

A little bit further into my research, I found the actual definition of a “one-night stand” in the Urban Dictionary.

“A one-night stand is where two people have a sexual encounter, where there is no expectation of establishing a romantic relationship.”

Well, duh!  I know I seem adolescent here, but bear with me – the good stuff is coming.  It took several different tries to find anything I thought was remotely close to what I was looking for.  I found all kinds of articles about how to prepare for a one night stand. But I’m nothing if not stubborn, so I kept looking. I just knew there had to be more than just a sexual connotation to the phrase. It had to come from somewhere.  And low and behold, amongst all the self-help articles and Beatle references (remember an 1965 album they put out called “One Night Stand in the Heartland”?) I found it.  

The term actually originated in the theater.  It’s used to label a singular performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement.  This is a completely different context than a booty call.  It doesn’t even sound the least bit tawdry. It’s actually an honor from my understanding.  It’d be like Patrick Stewart coming to your kid’s Christmas production of A Christmas Tale to play Ebenezer Scrooge.  He’d be having a one night stand.  *giggles*

So as you can see, we went a long way from ‘a single performance by an actor worthy of honorable mention in the media’ to a temporary sexual encounter.  Along the way, I found out several things – a ‘one night stand’ is all about context. Don’t believe me, look below. Several examples of “one night stands” I didn’t know about.

Miscellaneous Trivia

One Night Stand  (1997) – the movie (a drama – not a porno!) featuring Wesley Snipes about a character who cheats on his wife during a business trip, and runs into his lover when he returns to visit his cousin who has AIDS.

One Night Stand – is the name of costume and suit rental place in St. Louis.

One Night Stand – is the name of a charity event to raise money for an art program in Santa Barbara. 

One Night Stand – is a song by Keri Hilson, featuring Chris Brown

One Night Stand – is the name of a pricy sleeper sofa. (It runs around $1800!)

And of course, we can’t forget to mention our wonderful line from Decadent,1Night Stand. Even spelled differently, I’d have to say it’s my favorite one-night stand.  And to celebrate that – I’m going to give away a single title from the 1NS line to one lucky commenter.  Just tell me which book is your favorite in the series, or which one you would like to read.

Life After the 1NS…

Buy Blind Need HERE

By Dakota Trace

The idea of a one night stand has always intrigued me. I personally have only had the experience once and unfortunately, I wasn’t as lucky as my characters from Blind Need, Xaviera and Nate, where their one night stand was the start of something special. Because of my beta reader, I’ve actually recently been thinking about them. It’s been nearly a year since my blind heroine and her brave fire jumper have played in my mind and not that long ago. In fact, the same lady who got me to thinking about them, asked me if I was ever going to finish their story. It honestly makes me wonder what they might actually be doing. Did they manage to stick together? Did Nate return the jump team? Did Xaviera leave her bed and breakfast to be at Nate’s side? Or did he take time off to spend the holidays with his lady? These are all questions I’ve been thinking about. With Christmas right around the corner I’d like to think that my Xaviera is curled up in front of the fire place—whether it’s at her place or his, sipping on some of her family’s finest wine or perhaps even eggnog, with Lucy at her feet and her Nate at her side.

With the way that our 1NS stories are structured we (as authors) are left with the idea of a happy for now ending. Which personally I think can be a bit challenging since I’m much more the happily ever after type of author. Perhaps someday I will finish their story but honestly I find myself content where it ended with a promise of a future, a future they couldn’t yet see but wanted to work together towards.

Perhaps that’s why I find myself thinking about them at this time of the year. Christmas is the time of hope and I could easily envision my lovely Xaviera and rough edged Nate taking the holiday to heart and using it as a time to come together and just be in love. 

With that being said, I am curious however, what do you think? Are there any other 1NS characters you’ve read about that you’d love to see more of? To find out exactly what happened after the night ends? I know I have my favorites.

I’d love to know what happened in John and Travis from Bear It All. Perhaps one day Deanna Wadsworth will spill the beans and either write another story or maybe even tell me. Until then though, I’d like to think they went home, decided to move in together, and create their own family – but that’s the romantic in me. Happy Holidays J

Blind Need blurb:

Two wounded souls, one blind and the other scarred, are matched up by the famous Madame Evangeline—neither one expecting more than a brief meeting of two bodies in the dark for one night.

Xaviera Navarro had it all, a wonderful career ahead of her running her family’s wine business, a sexy fiancé, and her dream-wedding around the corner, but that all changed in the blink of an eye. A freak accident has left the Navarro wine heiress blind with no future other than the company of her seeing-eye dog, Lucy. After licking her wounds, she finally is tired of her own company and ventures out in hopes of finding a man who might be strong enough to stand beside her but not in front of her. If she can’t have that, she’ll settle for a night of hot loving before returning home.

Ignatius "Nate" Ramirez is not only a scarred fire-jumper with a justifiably bad attitude toward women, he’s also under strict orders by his Captain that if he doesn’t get laid on his vacation, he’s going to bench him. After finding out about 1Night Stand, he requests Madame Evangeline find him the perfect fantasy woman to have under the cover of darkness. Figuring he’ll have a better chance with his date with all the lights out, he wasn’t expecting a feisty, no punches pulled heiress to knock him off his feet.

A blind woman and a scarred fire-jumper should be a match made in heaven, but will Nate and Xaviera manage to leave their baggage at the door and find love all in one night.

Blind Need

by Dakota Trace

In a previous post on my blog about the writing of Blind Need, I talked about some of the research I did to get into the role of my heroine, Xavieria, who happens to be blind. About how I wandered around my house in a blindfold and had my son guiding me down steps. But Xaviera isn’t the only character in my book I had to do research on. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the hero, Ignatius, too. Nate as he insists on being called, is a smoke jumper. In other words, he jumps out of perfectly good planes to put out forest fires and the occasional canyon fire.

When I was going the research for his character, I wanted a man who had a heroic job that possibly had been injured on the job saving someone but didn’t want a cop or the standard firefighter. That’s when a fellow author friend of mine suggested a smoke jumper. They go in and save peeps all the time or at least their belongs in the case of forest fires. The idea was intriguing and I decided to go with it. But I didn’t know much about smoke jumpers. I live in Iowa and we don’t get forest fires here. Field fires, yes, but forest fires…no. So I did some research on them and here are a few tidbits about Nate’s profession that I found interesting.

·         The first smoke jump was in 1940 at the Nez Perce National Forest in the Northern Region of Idaho.

·         The first woman smoke jumper was certified in 1981. (How’s that for woman’s lib? Come join us …we’ll let you jump out of a plane into a forest fire.)

·         Currently there are 270 certified smokejumpers in the U.S.

·         Smokejumpers wear padded jump jacket and pants, made of Kevlar, a wire mesh motorcycle helmet and carry water canteens, fire shelters, hard hats and gloves. They also have a let down rope in their right leg pocket, just in case they get caught in a tree and have to repel down.

These wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned when I thought of a smoke jumper – I had pictured a more traditional fireman but I can’t say I’m disappointed. These men and women do us a great service and I had fun with Nate. His dedication to his job is quite obvious – considering he let Madame Eve set him up on a 1NightStand just to keep his job. J

To celebrate my first release with Decadent I want to give away a free copy of Blind Need. Just leave a comment and tell me what profession you think is the sexiest out there. 

(It might just might show up in my next book :D)

Blurb:

Two wounded souls, one blind and the other scarred, are matched up by the famous Madame Evangeline—neither one expecting more than a brief meeting of two bodies in the dark for one night.

Xaviera Navarro had it all, a wonderful career ahead of her running her family’s wine business, a sexy fiancé, and her dream-wedding around the corner, but that all changed in the blink of an eye. A freak accident has left the Navarro wine heiress blind with no future other than the company of her seeing-eye dog, Lucy. After licking her wounds, she finally is tired of her own company and ventures out in hopes of finding a man who might be strong enough to stand beside her but not in front of her. If she can’t have that, she’ll settle for a night of hot loving before returning home.

Ignatius "Nate" Ramirez is not only a scarred fire-jumper with a justifiably bad attitude toward women, he’s also under strict orders by his Captain that if he doesn’t get laid on his vacation, he’s going to bench him. After finding out about 1Night Stand, he requests Madame Evangeline find him the perfect fantasy woman to have under the cover of darkness. Figuring he’ll have a better chance with his date with all the lights out, he wasn’t expecting a feisty, no punches pulled heiress to knock him off his feet.

A blind woman and a scarred fire-jumper should be a match made in heaven, but will Nate and Xaviera manage to leave their baggage at the door and find love all in one night.