Interview & Author Spotlight: Cecilia Tan author of Slow Satisfaction

Slow-Satisfaction-Blog-Tour

As you guys saw a short while ago, I was able to get my hands on an ARC of Slow Satisfaction, book 3 in the ‘Struck by Lightening’ Series, and I was fortunate enough to chat with the author Cecilia Tan for a bit.

Me:  Thank you so much for the time today – now that we’ve come even further in the journey with James and Karina, I wanted to talk a bit more about you and what you do.  How did you get started writing in this genre and when did you decide that it was something that you wanted to do? (write and write the style)

Cecilia:  I’ve literally always written erotic stories and stories about love, from my earliest childhood attempts to write. Long before I ever read any erotic fiction, I was writing the sex scenes I thought were missing from books. I didn’t read my first romance until I was in college and I didn’t start reading erotica until after I had published my first book of erotic short stories, Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords, back in 1992. I thought I was going to be a science fiction writer, and I tried writing a lot of stories in that genre, but when I wrote Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords I knew I was doing the right thing. I’ve never looked back. That was 22 years ago and I’ve been writing erotic BDSM fiction ever since.

Me: That’s quite a jump from sci-fi to erotica, but i can see why one category is more enticing for lack of a better word to write.  I’m thankful for the change in direction at least, and I’m sure a lot of readers are.  Where did you get your inspiration from for the characters? The Artist who wants to get away from it all and the Girl trying to find herself?

Cecilia:  When you put it that way, they’re both aspects of me! The Artist wants freedom to create but he’s always trying to figure out how much of himself to reveal through his art, how much to give to the fans who love him. James guards his heart very fiercely but ultimately comes to decide that the reason he’s been doing that is he’s been waiting for someone like Karina to give it to, someone who can love him for who he is inside. The Girl trying to find herself is trying to find that balance between pleasing others and pleasing herself. Ultimately she finds she can’t do a good job of pleasing others unless she knows her own preferences first. That’s not only true in the bedroom (and the dungeon) but in other aspects of life, as well. As a romance writer I’m always balancing how much of my own heart to put into my books and what things I like with the needs and expectations of readers.
Me:  I certainly follow you on that one, with the dichotomy of both characters -and being able to pull something of yourself really shows in the way that you wrote both characters, since they have a depth and personalization that makes it seem more real than fantasy.  Are any of the other characters based loosely on yourself or friends/family?

Cecilia:  My friends and family are great but they don’t make good characters. Every character springs into my mind with a lot of backstory and baggage ready to be unpacked. Each one represents something in my subconscious, not in my real life.

Me:  I’m sure a few folks that you are close to are breathing a sigh of relief on that one. that could lead to trouble either for someone taking a scene the wrong way or being overly complemented. Looking outside of inspiration, let’s go to motivation and advice.  What advice would you give someone who wants to be an author?

Cecilia: Write, and then get feedback on what you write. Whether that’s through a class or MFA program or writers group or fanfic community, use that feedback to find out for yourself what effect your words have on people. Your craft is about mastering those words so that the effect you create in the reader is the one you intend. You can only learn that part of the craft by getting feedback. That’s how you’ll refine your unique voice.

Me:  Well thanks again for taking the time to chat with me, and I’m sure that my readers appreciate it as well.  I can’t wait to see what’s next and I wish you the best of luck.  Congrats with this latest installment in the Struck by Lightening’ Series, and I have to say, you gave us exactly what we were hoping for as things come to a head with the characters.

To my readers- make sure to pick up a copy of ‘Slow Satisfaction’

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and don’t forget to Enter the Giveaway Here for a signed copy of the trilogy!

ARC Review: Slow Satisfaction (Struck by Lightening #3) by Cecilia Tan

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Title: Slow Satisfaction
Author: Cecilia Tan
Publisher/Year: Grand Central Publishing 8/26/14
Length: 336 Pages
Series: Struck by Lightening #3

Overview

James has finally pushed Karina beyond her limit–not her limit for kinky sex play, but for his extreme secrecy. She has had enough and breaks things off. But James won’t give up on Karina and will do whatever it takes to get her back. He’s ready to share his deepest, darkest secrets, but is Karina ready to hear them?

James offers Karina not only the truth but a place at his side… onstage. He wants Karina to star in his final musical production and enter his life and his world fully and completely. As the two work together, they rekindle the trust and love they’d lost. But James’s world is full of deceit. When he is blackmailed by an unscrupulous music industry executive, James must give in to unreasonable demands or risk exposure of his and Karina’s secret sex life.

Will Karina and James’s love be strong enough to withstand the many obstacles being thrown their way?

My Thoughts

SOOOOO thankful that i got my hands on this book a little bit early since this has become one of my favorite series to date.  We have been taken on such a roller coaster and the games that they play are so intricate that i don’t know about anyone else, but i’ve been really excited to see where it goes.

If you’ll all remember, at the end of book 2, we see Karina and James almost getting on the same page, except that Ferrara – a women who claims to be James’ wife comes into play and shakes things up again.  We had gone on a journey where we saw Karina so in love with James that she went across the world to search for him and went to great lengths to stage an exhibit to get his interest directed towards her, and when it was just about to work out, it all falls short because now Karina doesn’t trust him and doesn’t know if she wants to put her love in him.

So that’s where we pick up in book 3.  Karina had been called back to the US because her mother had an accident and Karina needs to be at the hospital with her.  That meant that she and James never had time to talk through things and it’s probably better for her that she’s gone since she doesn’t know what to even say to him.  He of course isn’t ready to give up on them so he continues to call and text in the hopes that she’ll come around and talk.

While Karina’s home, we see her relationship with her sister Jill grow a bit and that’s really nice – to see how Jill is getting a bit more self assured and come into her own professionally.  That puts trust in James a bit on the rocky side again since there’s a connection there that Karina’s uncertain about.

While we’re with the family, we begin to see that Jill and Karina question how their mother hurt herself which adds a nice twist to the story – adding someone into the mix that we have to question.  The boyfriend – well he’s the one that we feel like we can’t trust.  He seems like he’s praying on their mother to get her money and that maybe he’s the cause for the accident.  What i love about this bit of the story is that we think that there’s been a bit of a resolution but since it’s not tied up completely, you know that it’s going to come up again at a bad time.

In addition to this story line, we see the game that Karina and James play in how they decide what they will be to each other.  Karina decides to flip the Dom/Sub relationship a bit in the hopes that it will give her answers and we see that she’s pushing James to share more than he’s ever shared before.  this is were we get a LOT of passion and heat between these two.  If you don’t recall properly from the first 2 books, they have such a hot and steamy sexual relationship that you know that it will manifest in so many other ways.  Our author Ms. Tan does not let us down since the scening that they do is a bit BDSM and a LOT sexy.

Another side plot to this reconciliation trial is the fact that James is being pulled back into being a rock star since Ferrara has ulterior motives to get at him.  In addition to saying that they’re married, she won’t let him out of his contract even though he fulfilled it and things get dicey in Vegas where they are putting on another show.

So all in all, it’s a roller coaster and to see where it ends up is quite interesting.  we’re introduced to a bunch of characters who’s only motivation is to ruin what’s good, and then we are reunited with a few that we’ve met in other installments that really bring the story a new depth.  so…while i’m sad that the trilogy is over, i’m really happy with how it went.  I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author and i hope that you guys get a chance to read this in a couple weeks.  ENJOY!