The Dreamer's Tears by Cristy Zinn

My only complaint with The Dreamer’s Tears by Cristy Zinn is that it’s clearly a book one in a series that still needs to be written, and I immediately needed to know more once I’d reached the end.

In this story, we meet Ivy Bauble, who lives in the little village of Newton. She’s accident prone and incurably curious. The last thing she expects is that she will become apprenticed to the Master Borinvere, who maintains the magical tower that protects the village from marauding Knightmares.

Zinn’s writing is highly imaginative, heartfelt and whimsical, and this is the kind of story I could well imagine a parent reading to a child for bedtime … or perhaps just enjoying for themselves. Zinn’s language flows musically, and would be a delight on the ears.

She has created a tactile, believable world filled with fascinating characters and a history, that feels as if it has a mythic resonance. I’d have loved for book one to go on a bit longer, to offer a little more resolution, as the ending rushed up quite abruptly, but there’s enough here to have me hooked and wanting more.

Cari Silverwood's Steamwork Chronicles

Cari Silverwood needs little introduction here on my blog. We go back many years, to writers' groups where we were both members, and now we're at the stage of our careers where I've edited her novel, Rough Surrender, and I've proofread numerous other works. Her Steamwork Chronicles take place in a world of her own devising, and she's here today to answer a few questions. Welcome, Cari! Tell us more about the setting in your Steamwork Chronicles. 

I guess the one thing I kept in mind was, this is fantasy, and so I set out to create something that was not actually Victorian and yet that still had nuances of it. I think restricting your steampunk to merely Victorian England is no longer necessary with steampunk. I went for continental drift, where the continents are much closer. I lumped countries together. I made Asia into the Greater Asian Monarchy and I turned the US and part of Europe into The Pan-continental Mexican Empire. You’ll have to read the stories to get the details. Listing them would be boring!

One thing I will mention is that I added in the frankenstructs, who are human clones stitched together from many pieces.

Iron Dominance is book one of the series. If you have to tell readers about it in a nutshell?

Hmm. Short and sweet.Female frankenstruct assassin meets MrUber-Hunk, Theo Kevonis, who is Lord of his manor and all he surveys, and yet also a good man at heart, despite loving to dominate and spank women…sound good? Anyway, she betrays him in a way that we really should NOT blame her for, and that leads to much angst. So she gets spanked a lot, and tied up and much fun is had by all. Even when the bad guy arrives and tries to murder people.

Lust Plague follows as book two... How does it fit into the sequence, and what's the basic rundown of this one?

Let’s see…Lust Plague…basically Zombies, BDSM, and romance all rolled up in a steampunk setting. It’s gory in parts, post-apocalyptic, and great fun, even if the world almost collapses in a heap. Kaysana and Sten save the day. Since it’s set in territory around Tibet I could isolate the events to a fair degree, from Iron Dominance.

Your latest release is Steel Dominance, and you return to tell the story of one of the secondary characters in Iron Dominance. What's the buzz here?

I had a lot of readers ask me to write the story of Dankyo, and so this is it. He’s mean, masculine, and not a man to be trifled with. But he does save the day despite somewhat insurmountable odds. I like to travel on new territory with each story, so I set this one in a steampunk Byzantium, which is the same city as is Istanbul. In our world, Istanbul came about because the Ottoman Turks besieged and conquered the city. In my story, the siege never ended. I aimed to write a complex plot of intrigue and deadly revenge and I hope I succeeded. There’s certainly a high body count.

Steampunk and BDSM erotica... that's quite a heady combination. How do you blend the elements? What makes your characters tick...or not?

As with all stories, you need to balance the plot threads. They should all weave together in a nice way so that the climax happens at the right time. Not meaning to pun there. But like any story, to get readers interested you have to keep them wondering what is going to happen next and like all romances, you need to make the hero and heroine fall in love, and then fall OUT of love, and then IN again.Tricky business. The BDSM is just a part of their attraction for each other. I like to make the sex scenes build in eroticism and significance as the story trundles onward.

Obviously my characters are into BDSM and find that it spices up their love lives.

And snippets of your favourite reviews?

Night Owl Erotica 5/5 stars, Top Pick
“most of all, this is an adventure with all the things great adventure stories have in them; fights, flights, deception and much more”

Guilty Pleasures 5/5 stars
“I have come to expect nothing less from her except perfection, hot and steamy sex scenes and a wild story. She brings you to a future that is written with such clarity that you aren’t imagining it, but living it.”

And something to tease us from Steel Dominance?

A loudspeaker came on. “Time for disembarkation in twenty minutes. Passengers are advised to have their baggage in order.”

People either side of them moved away, and when only a few were left and Dankyo hadn’t said a word, she made to follow them. He stopped her. His hands tightened on her neck, and he shifted behind her until his lower body pressed into her buttocks.

“Stay.”

She stiffened.

Then he nipped her ear and spoke in a warm, rumbling tenor. His breath carried his words in deep to curl inside her mind and paralyze her with their power.

“This is Byzantium, where slaves do as their Masters bid them. Where no one will know if you surrender yourself to me. Not your friends; not your family.” As he spoke, he slid one hand down her front, following the curve of her breast, then lower, until the flat of his hand rested on her belly. He pulled her back against him, gentle but sure.

“Sofia, will you let me take you to the edge and beyond?”

What's next for Cari Silverwood?

Next up to be released is Take Me, Break Me, another BDSM story, but one that skirts dubious consent.
Contemporary this time though. I like to call this story, the evolution of a sadist.

Blurb for this story which is very adult and only for those who like pushing boundaries:

Jodie is scraping the barrel trying to stay afloat. An idea arrives that could rescue her finances and bring her together in a kinky way with a man she never gave up on. She's terrified and fascinated, and tempted as hell.

Capture fantasies rule her eBook. Re-enacting one in a documentary would surely be irresistible viewing to millions of women?

But Jodie and Klaus discover that underneath an ordinary man dark desires may lurk. What will win in the end? The man and lover, or the monster?

After that story is the next in the Badass Brats series, The Dom with the Perfect Brats.

Linkage:
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Celebrating Iron Dominance with Cari Silverwood

My good friend, BDSM erotica author Cari Silverwood celebrated the release of her steampunk BDSM novel, Iron Dominance yesterday. She graciously stopped by today to share a little about her latest tale. Thank you, Cari.

Is there anything in particular that sparked off this novel?

Spark? Hmm. I love steampunk and throwing a lady in there, mixing it round and having her ravished by a lovely man was irresistible.

Sum up your main characters in a nutshell.

Claire is a trained assassin but totally unsuited to her role--when put into her first mission she finds out she hates to kill and falls in love with the man who may be her target.

Theo is a strong independent man--rich, self-assured yet he's never found a woman who is more than superficially interesting to him. Claire turns out to be exactly the right woman.

How do you balance your narrative with your more erotically charged scenes?

I told the story the way it rolled out. Knowing it needed the erotic scenes I planned ahead though and wove the sex into the plot. It's a romance so you just have to make sure some of the pivotal moments for the people in it happen during sex. Or soon after. LOL!

If you have to describe the novel in three words, what would these be?

Action, tragic love.

What are some of the unique features of your milieu?

The Pancontinental Mexican Empire has surged ahead of the rest of the world and developed frankenstructs--humans made from cloned parts who are born as slaves to the PME. In this alternate steampunk world the world map is squeezed together and every continent is within reach of a well-steered airship. Just remember to pay a visit to the Hellene Nation where BDSM is the secret national preoccupation.