Review of 2020

Posted on by Brooke Winters

2019 has been my best year yet in terms of writing and this is mostly down to the fact that I made the decision to self-publish. As a writer I have never been interested in writing to market or writing something that will appeal to everyone. What I wanted was to write happy endings for queer, disabled women like me. I love romance and I love romance tropes and my aim is to write all the romance tropes but queer and kinky and without the problematic elements that are present in so many tropes. I feel like self-publishing allows me to write exactly what I want to write without having to worry if agents and publishers will consider it marketable. I’ve always thought that if it’s something I want to write then there will be an audience for it, even if that audience is small. I don’t need to be a bestselling author or win awards, I’m just happy that I’ve been able to find an audience for my books.

Kneel

KNEEL Cover
The first book I published was Kneel: Stories of Lesbian Submission. This is a book of three short stories. Two of them, Mistress and Secretly Submissive, were previously published in Ladylit anthologies, and Desk Job is a new story. All of the stories are F/F D/s erotic romance. Mistress and Desk Job are both told from the perspective of autistic characters and the Domme in Desk Job has arthritis.

I had some really amazing feedback for Kneel and it currently has all five-star ratings on Goodreads. One reviewer, Alice, said “Loved these short stories. They were fun, had great representation (I especially loved the Autistic rep as an Autistic reader), the dynamics were great. Definitely recommend to readers looking for fun kinky short stories.” Another reviewer, Catherine, wrote that my stories are clear and precise, wonderful and original.

You can buy Kneel here

Bound to the Monarchs

Bound to the Monarchs Ebook cover

My second book this year was Bound to the Monarchs, an FFM polyamorous, fantasy romance story set in a world where being queer is the norm and most people mate in threes. This is the first book in my Lencura series, and it focuses on Vitoria, a disabled woman who stumbles onto shifter lands and into the arms of the dominant shifter king and queen.
One reviewer, Catherine, described Bound to the Monarchs as having “everything you could want. Triads, shifters, love and BDSM.” Another reviewer said, “What a wonderful story. It’s so refreshing to read about a disabled heroine have adventures, fall in love and find happiness. The author did a great job of depicting disability honestly. The polym relationship was hot, and the world engaging.”  C.Glen found the story sweet and endearing and author Lila Mina described it as “excellent writing, sensual and emotional with a lovely heroine at the center of a very original world.”
You can buy Bound to the Monarchs here

No Room At The Inn

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My third and final book of the year was No Room At The Inn, a kinky friends to lovers Christmas Romance. It’s the first book in my The Kinky Hotel series. It’s told from the point of a view of an autistic woman who is stranded at the erotic hotel where she works and has to share a room with one of her friends.
One reviewer HC said it was, “a lovely holiday read! I very much enjoyed Emma and Sylvia and very much wanted them to figure things out and be together! The kink is well done and very hot, with excellent D/s dynamics and well done humiliation kink. Consent was very clearly presented throughout. I had the biggest smile at the happily ever after.” Another reviewer said “If you’re looking for a quick sub/dom f/f Christmas novella with a lot of smut this one is for you.”

You can buy No Room At The Inn here

 

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has bought my books, reviewed or rated my books, promoted my books and just generally been supportive. A special thanks to my wonderful critique partners.

I have lots more exciting projects planned for 2020, including the return of the Autistic Book Project, so keep an eye on my blog and twitter and sign up to my newsletter to keep up to date.

I hope you have a very happy new year!

 

Bound to the Monarchs Available for Pre-Order

Posted on by Brooke Winters

3D 1Blurb

Millennia ago, the people of Lencura were split into designations dependent on their abilities. Vitoria is a solviso. Others consider them the weakest of the designations but Vitoria knows she’s stronger than people think. Sure, she can’t fly, shift, or conjure magic but her blood has healing properties that the other designations covet and she knows she can use that to her advantage. She’s aware of the dangers that lurk outside of her region and that the other designations would do just about anything to possess her blood but when her father’s death leaves her homeless she’s willing to take the risk for the chance of a better life.

When Vitoria encounters marauders on her way to start a new life in the northern region of Malita, she’s forced to take a detour. Her van breaks down on the border of the shifter lands and she follows her instinct, venturing into the forbidden shifter territory. Better to take her chances with shifters than marauders. Vitoria is placed under the protection of Queen Mathilda and her mate, King Antonio. Mathilda and Antonio’s dominance awakens a passion in Vitoria that she never knew she possessed and she wonders if she might be the third mate they’ve been looking for.

When a dignitary from a neighbouring monarchdom kidnaps Vitoria and offers her anything she could ever want in return for her blood, she realises the only thing she wants is to be Mathilda and Antonio’s. Her monarchs will do anything to get her back but Vitoria isn’t sure what they really want: her or her blood.

Pre-Order Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon Australia 

Amazon Canada 

Amazon will pay me a small fee for any books ordered through these links at no extra cost to you.

CONTENT WARNINGS (includes spoilers)

Continue reading Bound to the Monarchs Available for Pre-Order

Kneel: Stories of lesbian submission available for pre-order.

Posted on by Brooke Winters
KNEEL Cover
The front cover of Kneel. Kneel is written at the top of the page with “stories of lesbian submission” written underneath. There’s a photo of two women, one is standing over the other with a chain in her hand connected to the second woman’s collar.

On 30 September 2019 I will be releasing a book of short stories. Kneel: Stories of lesbian submission features three short erotic romance stories.

Content Warnings

Kneel is a book of erotic lesbian fiction and contains graphic descriptions of BDSM including S&M, spanking, foot worship, bondage, and discipline. Mistress includes a scene where the autistic character is asked to make eye contact. There are scenes in both Mistress and Secretly Submissive where the characters drink alcohol and there are scenes where characters eat in Mistress.

Blurb

In Mistress (previously published in anthology Summer Love) Danielle, an autistic submissive from the UK, runs into a Domme from back home while on holiday in Spain.

In Secretly Submissive (previously published in anthology From Top to Bottom) Lily has a secret: she’s submissive and she wants her best friend Vanessa to be her Domme.

In Desk Job Zoe gets more than she bargained for when she disobeys her boss.

Available for pre-order now:

Kneel: Stories of lesbian submission 

Cleveland Rocks Romance Competition: First Place, Paranormal Romance

Posted on by Brooke Winters

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Earlier this year I started entering various competitions for unpublished novels through the Romance Writers of America. Many of the chapters have competitions where you can enter part of your novel (usually your first chapter). The first round is judged by members of the RWA and then if you are a finalist your novel is then judged by industry professionals, which is of course a great opportunity.

I started entering the competitions after volunteering to judge one. As I was writing feedback for the entries I was judging, I realised that it would be really helpful to me to have feedback on my first chapter too. I have a great critique partner but I think it’s useful to get as much feedback as possible. I’ve entered quite a few of the competitions now. The quality of the feedback has been variable but overall it has been totally worth the entry fees. Each competition I entered gave me something to work with and each time I would go through the first chapter and make edits based on the feedback I got. Like with any feedback, some I took on board and others I considered but ultimately didn’t use. One thing I found was quite consistent was that judges didn’t understand how things are in the UK (which is understandable as it is the Romance Writers of America). For example I got a lot of comments regarding why my characters didn’t have guns. Obviously that’s something that I wouldn’t change in my novels because it’s set in the UK. I’m not saying there will never be a gun in my books but it doesn’t fit with the setting that all characters would have guns or that they would be issued as standard (especially in a world where guns do not kill everything, but that doesn’t come in until chapter three or four).

I never expected that my novel would actually win one of the competitions. Having judged some myself, I know that the standards are high and I was really just in it for the feedback so that I could improve my novel. Obviously it must have worked because I found out yesterday that Deadly Dreams won first place in the Paranormal Romance Cateogry in the North East Ohio Romance Writers of America’s Cleveland Rocks Romance Competition.

Thank you NEORWA. Thank you to all the judges (first round and final round) for rating it highly. And thank you especially to all the judges who have given me such useful feedback on Deadly Dreams in all of the competitions that I have entered.

 

Secretly Submissive in From Top to Bottom

Posted on by Brooke Winters

My short story, Secretly Submissive, has been published in LadyLit’s anthology, From Top to Bottom: Lesbian Stories of Dominance and Submission. It’s available from most major ebook retailers and is already an Amazon best seller. If you prefer to read physical books, the print version will be available soon.

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Brace yourself, because there will be pain—but of the oh, so pleasurable kind. There will be begging and there will be bruises, but all leading to an obliterating climax. The fifteen lesbian stories of dominance and submission contained within the pages of From Top To Bottom will make you flinch like the characters do, will make you squirm and want to turn the pages faster and faster. You will find first-time players and long-term couples. A plethora of paddles and the occasional flogger—and a great number of sore backsides. Be warned.

With stories from experienced writers at the top of their game and thrilling new talents alike, all of them exploring power dynamics from top to bottom, this collection is kinky, daring and, at times, deliciously violent. Read at your own risk.

Caution: This title contains graphic language and rough lesbian sex and is suitable for adults only.
Table of Contents
Chasing the Dragon by S.E. Hill
Dance for Me by Janelle Reston
Serious Swimmer by J. Belle Lamb
Call for Submission by Elna Holst
Tell Me by Robyn Nyx
Taking the Lead by Lauren Jade
The Antisocial Sister by Lucy Felthouse
One Hundred Strokes by Sinclair Sexsmith
The Encounter by Eden Darry
Secretly Submissive by Brooke Winters
Inside by Leandra Vane
Vegas Mistress by Samantha Luce
Hit The Top by Robin Watergrove
Not Yet by Harper Bliss
Latin Lessons by Lise MacTague

Click here for more information.

 

2015 in Writing

Posted on by Brooke Winters

I start 2016 feeling pretty good about things. 2015 was, overall, a good year for me. Here are my low points and my high points.

The Lows

There have (thankfully) been very few lows this year. Of course there have been plenty of rejections but isn’t that to be expected?  Each rejection feels slightly easier than the previous one so in many ways the rejections are good too and they make me appreciate it when I get an acceptance.

The real low for me this year with regard to writing was receiving some really bad advice at the beginning of the year from two separate sources. The first was during a writers retreat. I paid to have a one to one session with the writer in resident who spent the majority of the session talking about herself and promoting her own books and then advised me to change the genre of my novel. I am a romance writer. I write romance and not fantasy because I want the relationship to be the primary focus of what I write. Romance is what I enjoy reading, it’s what I enjoy writing and it’s what I’m going to keep writing. Part of me felt amused by the session because I have met lots of really successful writers on the many writers retreats that I have attended who are (generally) all humble and incredibly generous with their time and advice while she was being paid to help me and was clearly just there to feed her own ego. The other part of me felt really low about the whole thing and it put a downer on what had been a really lovely retreat. However, it did make me put the novel down and write Mistress so that was a good thing.

The second piece of bad advice came from a company who I had previously had good experiences with. They had a new editor and I agreed to try him out. He sent back the critique of my novel late and it was just a critique of romance novels in general. He kept describing my novel as a supernatural thriller, even though I had said that it was a romance novel. He made bitchy comments about the kinds of women who read Fifty Shades of Grey and then explained to me what (in his opinion) women should want to read and why romance novels oppress women. That’s right, an editor mansplained to me why women should not read romance novels. The company gave me a refund so at least I didn’t lose anything financially. This really highlighted for me the importance of getting feedback from the right people. Romance is a distinct genre, it doesn’t play by the same rules as other genres and there is absolutely no point in getting feedback from people who don’t understand it. Like everything though, something good came out of this. It prompted me to join the Romance Writers of America.

The Highs

There have been so many highs in 2015:

  1. Getting Mistress Published
  2. Joining the Romance Writers of America
  3. Finding a Great Critique Partner
  4. Casa Ana Writers Retreat
  5. Greenacre Writers Retreat
  6. Swanwick Writers School
  7. Having Secretly Submissive Accepted for Publication
  8. Finally Letting Someone I Know Read Something I Wrote

 

Mistress and Secretly Submissive

Earlier this year my short story, Mistress, was published in Summer Love, an anthology of lesbian romance stories published by Ladylit. This was so exciting for me. It was the first story that I have ever had published and I got to see my name (not my real name of course) in print. And one of the reviewers on amazon said nice things about it. In my excitement I allowed two people who I know in real life to read it. The first was a writer friend whose own style of writing had inspired me to write in first person so it seemed natural to allow her to read the result. The second was a friend who convinced me to send her the story while I was drunk. I woke at 3AM, sobering up and in a panic. I may never look at her without blushing again.

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I usually write paranormal/urban fantasy romance. Mistress was the first  contemporary romance story that I have written and I enjoyed writing it, getting it published and working with Ladylit so much that I just had to submit something for their next anthology which just so happened to be a BDSM themed lesbian romance anthology. I wrote Secretly Submissive and that was also accepted for publication and will be published some time in the new year. Sadly, there are currently no open calls for submissions from Ladylit so I am back to working on my novel (which is a good thing of course!).

Romance Writers of America

I think that joining the Romance Writers of America is probably the best thing that I have ever done as far as writing goes. As I said earlier, I love romance. Lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, monogamous, polyamorous, fantasy, historical, contemporary…if it’s romance then I am interested. When people meet me it’s not what they expect of me. I am a professional, I am analytical and straight speaking, I like facts and statistics, research and evidence based practice. I like talking about politics, the care system, public family law, domestic violence and disability. I am an introvert through and through and the things that I enjoy talking about often lean to the darker side. People assume that my taste in fiction reflects those interests. I used to tell people that I read non-fiction, which is a half truth. I read non-fiction and I read romance. Nothing else. Now I tell people the truth, I love romance novels. I like reading something with a happy ending. I like creating stories where no matter what happens you know that everything will be alright in the end. Other people do not always get that.

Other members of the RWA do get it. It’s a whole organisation of people who love romance as much as I do. Everyone there takes romance seriously, no one there suggests that I should take out the romance and turn my book into a fantasy novel. It feels like a safe space full of people (mostly women) from diverse backgrounds who all love romance and in general are very supportive of other writers. Writers in general are supportive of each other, romance writers especially so (I could be biased).

The RWA is of course not just a safe space for romance writers, it is also (and perhaps primarily ) a great resource for romance writers. There is so much information on their forums and their website and I have found it more useful than every other writing website that I have used combined. As I said earlier, romance is a distinct genre and sometimes the advice and information available on general writing websites just isn’t relevant.

One of the best things about being a member of the Romance Writers of America is their critique partner match up. I found my wonderful critique partner Sharon Buchbinder on there. After the bad experiences that I had at the beginning of the year I was quite nervous about letting someone else read my novel but she has been amazing. She is honest but encouraging, she gives great advice and sympathy when needed. I think I have learned more from her about writing than I have from anyone else and I feel so blessed to have found her. However, probably the best thing about having her as a critique partner is that I get to read her stories too. If you haven’t read them I would highly recommend doing so. Kiss of the Silver Wolf was one of my favourite books of 2015.

Writers Retreats

My first retreat of the year was to the wonderful Casa Ana. Casa Ana is in a tiny village in Spain. There are no distractions, just lots of supportive writers, good food and beautiful views. This retreat was a really productive one for me. I did a lot of editing, met a lot of great people and  ate a lot of great food. For more information about the retreat, read my review.

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My second retreat was the  Greenacre Writers Retreat. Greenacres Writers Group have regular retreats at St Katharine’s. I plan to write about it in detail at some point soon. It was one of the most enjoyable retreats that I have attended. I can’t say it was the most productive because I spent so much time talking to interesting people that I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped. I didn’t feel bad about this though because I got so much out of talking to the other writers. I am really looking forward to attending more of their retreats in the future.

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Swanwick Writers School

When I attended Swanwick I planned to update my blog daily with information about my day but by day three I was having so much fun (and drinking so much wine) that I didn’t actually manage to update my blog after that. I had also planned to write a review after but the week was so full that writing a review was too overwhelming. It really was one of the best experiences of my life. To quote a friend, “The flowers are too bright, the people are too nice and nothing here seems real.” It really does feel like stepping out of the real world into some kind of writing utopia. I can’t wait for next year.

2016

I am so excited for 2016. I know that this is going to be another great year and I can’t wait to see what it holds for me.

Happy New Year!

Summer Love, featuring Mistress, a lesbian D/s story

Posted on by Brooke Winters

My short story, Mistress, has been published in Ladylit’s anthology, Summer Love. Summer Love is available to buy in ebook format from amazon and is available on Kindle Unlimited. It will be released soon in paperback. 
 
 Sun-soaked beaches, glittering blue pool surfaces and oceans painted by an orange-hued sunset have one thing in common: they’re the perfect background for falling in love. Who hasn’t felt that first wave of butterflies rise deep in their belly while pool side? Or that first quickening of the pulse when lounging on a lush patch of grass during a music festival? Summer is the perfect time to indulge in that sudden rush of first love or, equally so, the warm grip of long-fostered feelings for another woman.  

 

This collection of fourteen stories runs the gamut of lesbian holiday romance stories. An Australian cookery course, a Belfast coffee shop, and even a romance writers’ conference are some of the backdrops for the summer love that unfolds in this lesbian romance anthology. Tamsin Flowers’s Drive Me Crazy takes place during Glastonbury, while Katya Harris’s sensual tale of passion between long-time lovers is entirely set by the side of the pool. Newcomer Brooke Winters brings us an irresistible tale of a woman running into a Mistress she’s played with in Spain, while Lucy Felthouse’s heroine gets much more heat than she bargained for when she goes volcano-watching on Lanzarote.  

 

With stories by highly rated authors, including Annabeth Leong, Allison Wonderland, Erzabet Bishop and Harper Bliss, this collection is the perfect sensual companion to any holiday.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-Love-Stories-Lesbian-Holiday-ebook/dp/B00Z8J5YZ4/