It is my great pleasure to welcome to BLI today and introduce to you to fantastic erotica author K.D. Grace whose novel The Pet Shop was one of my favourite reads of 2011 (you can read my review here)! K.D. is celebrating the release of her latest novel Body Temperature and Rising which is the first book in the Lakeland Heatwave trilogy, a contemporary paranormal erotica series. Please give her a warm welcome and read on, you could win one of her books at the end! 😉 

Do you believe that sex magic is real?

Since the kind of magic practiced by the witches in my novel, Body Temperature and Rising, is sex magic, I was asked the other day in an interview for a blog post, if I believed that sex magic is real. My answer was something along the lines that I believe sex is the only kind of magic, and certainly the only kind of magic we all have access to. But the question itself got me thinking.

Writing always exposes us, though it’s sometimes more obvious than other times. As I thought about the question, ‘do you believe that sex magic is real?,’ I realized that my entry into the realm of paranormal writing and the choices I’d made in what I wrote is very much my Psyche doing the full Monty. I’ve written lots of blog posts about the magic of sex, about what happens when we cross that final barrier and get inside the skin of another person, about what happens when we make ourselves vulnerable. Though it certainly wasn’t a conscious part of my decision, choosing to make the witches of the Elemental Coven practitioners of sex magic speaks very powerfully of my writing credo and of my own psyche and what I believe is important.

There’s a quote from the first chapter of Riding the Ether, the next book in the Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy, that probably sums up sex as magic in a nutshell. My character, Anderson, who is the high priest of the Elemental Coven, is about to participate in dream magic, which is always enhanced by sex, and these are his thought about sex in magic:

It was the foundation set in motion, the drive to rut, the ancient need that brought humanity to the very edge of ecstasy while at the same time driving it to the brink of its own destruction. And in between ecstasy and destruction, the next generation is birthed into existence. And there, on that knife edge in between, the magic happened as it could happen nowhere else. Again and again Anderson had experienced it, always new, always wild, always almost beyond his control.

To me, that’s sex in a nutshell. It’s that one little sliver of our life in which real magic happens. It’s the place where our boundaries are most permeable; it’s the place where two people become one flesh. It’s the place where we are the most deeply into our own body, and at the same time we are most likely to be transported beyond our bodies with the ecstasy of the experience. And it’s the place where new life begins.

I started writing erotica mostly to see if I could, and because I had always enjoyed writing sex scenes. But it was the sex magic that kept me writing. It was what the act of sex revealed about my characters, it was how it exposed them in more than just their state of undress, it was how it made them more human and more animal and more real all at the same time. It was how it brought them closer to their humanity while at the same time increasing the chance they would experience their own divinity, and that of their beloved. It was the excitement of knowing that the very act of sex between two people could completely change the course of the novel. All of these elements of sex kept me writing.

In magic there are words spoken in only certain circumstances, words spoken only for certain purposes. Words have power and weight and import. Used in the right combinations, repeated in the right numbers in the right circumstances in the right order, they bring about change. The word made flesh is the way the Bible describes the incarnation of Jesus. Interesting that in one of the Wests most sacred texts the marriage of word and flesh births the divine. I don’t find it surprising that sex and words are so closely linked, and certainly they are in the world I’ve created for my witches in Body Temperature and Rising. So I’m brought back to the idea that it may very well be sex magic I practice every time I put word to page, every time I create a new character, every time I allow that character to have sex.

That being said, sex magic was the perfect jumping-off place for my foray into paranormal erotica, and it’s not surprising at all that I chose witches and magic over vampires and werewolves. Sex is the true creative force in the world, so it makes sense that the place where two people become one, the only place where we can actually get inside another person’s skin, the place where life begins with la petite mort would be the place where the magic is most powerful. That’s the premise for all three Lakeland Heatwave novels; that’s the reason I chose to write about sex magic.

Body Temperature and Rising by K.D. Grace

American transplant to the Lake District, MARIE WARREN, didn’t know she could unleash demons and enflesh ghosts until a voyeuristic encounter on the fells ends in sex with the charming ghost, ANDERSON, and night visits from a demon. To help her cope with her embarrassing and dangerous new abilities, Anderson brings her to the ELEMENTALS, a coven of witches who practice rare sex magic that temporarily allows needy ghosts access to the pleasures of the flesh.

DEACON, the demon Marie has unleashed, holds an ancient grudge against TARA STONE, coven high priestess, and will stop at nothing to destroy all she holds dear. Marie and her landlord, the reluctant young farmer, TIM MERIWETHER, are at the top of his list. Marie and Tim must learn to wield coven magic and the numinous power of their lust to stop Deacon’s bloody rampage before the coven is torn apart and more innocent people die.

More info, excerpt and buy links: http://kdgrace.co.uk/books/lakeland-heatwave-book-i/

K D Grace was born with a writing obsession. It got worse once she actually learned HOW to write. There’s no treatment for it. It’s progressive and chronic and quite often interferes with normal, everyday functioning. She might actually be concerned if it wasn’t so damned much fun most of the time.

K D’s erotic romance novels, The Initiation of Ms Holly, The Pet Shop and Lakeland Heatwave Book 1: Body Temperature and Rising are published by Xcite Books and are available from all good paperback and eBook retailers.

Her erotica has been published with Xcite Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Black Lace, Erotic Review, Ravenous Romance, Sweetmeats Press and Scarlet Magazine.

Find out more about K D Grace on her website. She’s also on Facebook and Twitter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*Giveaway*~*~

K.D. has generously offered an ebook copy of winner’s choice of either The Pet Shop or The Initiation of Miss Holly to one lucky commenter!

All you have to do is leave a meaningful comment about the guest post, or tell us what is your take on sex magic? do you believe that it is real? 
(You can read our full giveaway policy here)

Please be sure to include a valid email address in the comment form (need not be in the actual body of the comment).

This giveaway is open to all!

Giveaway ends on Saturday, 31 March 2012; we will announce the winner on Sunday.

Good luck!!!!

About Stella

Stella is a proud bookaholic and a self-taught multilinguist in training. Besides reading, her other great passions are travelling and baking. When she is not globetrotting she lives in sunny Budapest, where she loves to spend her free time preparing (and feasting on) delicious cookies or devouring equally yummy books. Her favourite genres are urban fantasy and romance and she couldn't live without her daily dose of sunshine. Besides being the Latin Lover on BLI Stella also blogs about books and a bookish life on Ex Libris.

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