Saturday 31 December 2016

2016 Round-Up, and Happy New Year!

Although 2016 has been a pretty terrible one in many respects, I'm happy to say it's been a good one for me and my writing, and I'll be leaving 2016 in a great place. Only a week ago, the boxed set for my vampire Serenity series hit the top one hundred best seller list overall, and number thirty-three on the bestseller list over at Barnes and Noble. In the last week, the book has sold almost four thousand copies, which has been incredible. You can still grab it for $0.99/£0.99 if you haven't already!

As well as writing, I had a couple of fantastic events which I attended - the second birthday party for the facebook group THE Book Club (if you're not a member yet, give me a shout and I'll add you). This group has been so supportive over the last twelve months, and at the party I got to meet some fantastic readers, and authors who I've only ever met online (including the lovely Mel Comley who was one of my first author friends), and the queen of THE Book Club, Tracy Fenton, herself!

I also got to attend the Tiverton Literary Festival again this year, where I ran one of my self-publishing workshops to a small but very enthusiastic group. I moved the workshop to an online platform this year and hope to be running more workshops during the year. Self-publishing hasn't just been a way of getting my work out, it's also been a way of joining a supportive community, and I've made numerous friends during the six years I've been self-publishing for.

In total this year, I've managed to publish another six books. I started the year with Denied, and Delivered, the final two books in my dark romance 'Monster' trilogy, which takes inspiration from Beauty and the Beast. 

This was followed by one of my favourite books this year, a second chance romance, No Second Chances, and then I released Dirty Shots, which is a rewrite of an erotic serial which I had published in a pen name, and rewrote in novel form.

I was then thrilled to join the team of authors writing the Blood Courtesans books, and wrote my own novella, Stolen. I also released the boxed set Three which contains three of my contemporary novels.
Finally, I wrote and released the first book in my new Mercenary series, Skewed. I wrote book two, Warped as well, which will be out on the 26th of January.

On top of the novels, I also published a couple of audiobooks, plus had stories included in boxed sets and anthologies - Shifters and Spice boxed set (which is currently on kindle countdown sale), the horror anthology '13' from Limitless Publishing, and the anthology Sexy just got Kinky from the Brit Babes.

As you can see, it's been a busy year!

So, what are my plans for 2017?

Definitely more books coming your way!

I'll have a brand new pnr novella included in a boxed set in the spring, plus there is another '13' horror anthology which will be released in 2017. I'm also planning on writing another Blood Courtesans book, which will following a couple of the characters from Stolen.

For my own books, my main focus for the start of the year will be on my Mercenary series. Warped is out on the 26th of January and is already up for pre-order, and I plan to start writing book three (title as yet undecided) as soon as possible. I have a couple of sexy shifter novellas which are stand alone series books, which I would like to get out at some point in 2017, and then I plan on starting a brand new urban fantasy series, The Mind Movers. I actually have about 20,000 words of the first book already written, as I started writing it as a novella for a boxed set, but then it got bigger and bigger, and I realised the story was far too big to ever fit into a novella!

At some point this year, I would love to take the time to write something a little different for me. I have two works in progress - a post apocalyptic story, and a paranormal thriller - and so would love to work on one of these. I think it's good to work the writing brain by writing something completely different every now and then!

And that's about it from me! I hope you have a wonderful new year, and wish you much success and happiness for 2017!

Thanks for reading!

Marissa. XXX



Tuesday 6 December 2016

New Release! Brit Babes Just Got Kinky!

Out Now—Sexy Just Got Kinky: Kinks to Make you Think by The Brit Babes (@8britbabes)

Blurb:

Tantalise your dark side with kinks to make you think. From lovers behind bars to lone ladies behind the lens—fisticuffs and feathers, lilos and lube, scissors and sticks, whips, canes and bondage, there’s sure to be a kink within these pages to whet your appetite, tickle your fancies and heat up cold nights.
Featuring stories by Lexie Bay, Victoria Blisse, Marissa Farrar, Lucy Felthouse, K D Grace, Lily Harlem, Kay Jaybee and Tabitha Rayne.



Available from:
All Romance eBooks: http://bit.ly/2gJnFBL

*****



It started with a photograph.
A single, crazy, adrenaline-filled moment of madness.
I’d had enough of being ignored, of being the maid, the chef, the chauffeur to my unappreciative family. I dreamed of the days when men used to drop to their knees before me in the streets. They’d beg to buy me drinks, just to get me to spend a little time in their company, and, if they were lucky, snatch a kiss and take me home to their bed. Now, I was invisible. A mother, a wife, a housekeeper. I longed to be seen as something sexual again, and so I took the photo.
I made sure not to include my face. I didn’t want to be identified. Instead, I held the camera on my phone with one hand and cupped my breasts with the other, squeezing them together so the tops lifted and rounded in globes. My nipples peeped between my fingers, crinkled and hard. The lighting wasn’t perfect, and I had no idea what filters to use, but that didn’t matter.
I posted it online.
It was on one of the popular social media sites, known more for its raunchy posts than some of the others. I’d used the site to watch porno GIFs often enough, but I’d never had the guts to comment or post something of my own.
Until now.
I gave myself an online name—theanonymouslife. All one word.
It was only a single picture, but already my emotions surged up inside me, making me feel alive—a mixture of excitement and guilt, and horniness.
Already, I was addicted.
I stayed on the computer, checking for comments and reblogs. People liked my tits, it seemed. More than my husband, who hadn’t laid a finger on me in forever. There were a couple of negative notes, but I brushed over them in favour of the positive ones. Damn trolls were everywhere.
I don’t know why I got such a thrill from posting my picture online, or why I’d even felt the need to do it at all. Maybe there was anger in me, a resentfulness I couldn’t shift, and posting the photo felt a little bit like revenge. Or rebellion. I resented my husband for plunging me into a life of celibacy that I’d never asked for. I’d always been a sexual person, and still was, but now sex was denied to me. My children stole my body away, though they never asked to do that, and I would never hold them responsible. I love my kids. They are the one thing that keeps me walking the straight and narrow when all I want to do is run, screaming, throwing off my clothes and frustrations as I do so. I dream of a future alone, where I can pick and choose men as I please, allow them in my life for a short while, only to continue alone once more. Sometimes now, I feel like I barely have enough time to have a thought to myself without being interrupted. I can feel the years slipping away, knowing I’ll never get them back. I’m only in my early thirties—too young to be this dried up person already—and the thought of the rest of my life as a sexless woman terrifies me. I love my husband, I do, but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in me anymore. He’s always too tired from a long day at work. I don’t know if he has no interest in sex in general or if it’s just me that no longer excites him. I can’t say I blame him. After seeing the births of two babies, I’m not sure I’d excite me either. But I can’t bring myself to break up our home, can’t stand the thought of the hurt in our children’s eyes if we separated. Plus, he’s a good guy. I like his company, most of the time. We’re just missing that important element.
So, instead of dealing with the real problem at hand, I took the photograph.
It was harmless. I wasn’t hurting anyone. But quickly I discovered one picture was not enough.
*****

About The Brit Babes:

So who are the Brit Babes? We are eight UK based authors who spend our days writing steamy tales of love and lust. Ranging from sweetly vanilla to so-hot-it-will-blow-your-mind, we aim to please in every literary fantasy department. Our heroes are strong, determined and soul-achingly divine and our heroines sassy, sexy and not afraid to grab what they want. Passion and pleasure are the name of the game, romance and raunch a top priority and it all comes with a delightful sprinkle of kink.
With a whole host of awards, bestsellers and accolades between us, we just know you’ll find something to keep you turning the pages and squirming on your seat. Visit the Brit Babes’ home on the web which acts as a library for the hundreds of books published by us and hosts special guests every Monday. You’ll find links there to our FREE anthology too. Tell your friends, spread the word, because one thing you can be sure of, is when the Brit Babes arrive, sexy has arrived!