The Need
by S.L. Hannah
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GENRE: erotic thriller
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BLURB:
Stood up by her boyfriend, she goes home with a woman…
Straight-laced coed Angie has never felt daring enough to…experiment. Until tonight. The skin around Heather’s lips is soft, unlike the stubble Erik lets grow in, and the night unfolds like an erotic dream, tapping into an unexplored part of Angie’s body and mind.
But Heather’s seduction turns into a nightmare when Angie wakes up tied to the bed and is told she can’t leave. Alternately seduced and tormented by her lover-turned-captor, Angie is pulled ever deeper into a twisted world of pain-for-pleasure and multimedia exploits. As the stakes rise, both women give into a desire for connections neither has had, and Angie’s struggle to escape becomes a bigger dilemma: Would she leave if she could?
Winner of the Golden Palm Contest for New Adult Romance, this erotic thriller dares to explore the darker side of our fantasies and their sometimes unintended consequences.
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Excerpt Three:
If for a moment I doubted she would take things this far, I know now that the dangers have always been real.
She saunters back to where we’re standing and places one of the daggers into Rachel’s opened hand. Rachel smiles wide, as if she’s been waiting to do this all along.
“Which brings me to you,” she says, thrusting the other dagger against my chest. It lands heavily and almost slips from my fingers.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that your problem is you’re not sure where your loyalties lie.” She retrieves the key from around her neck. “And that’s not good for business.” She takes a few steps back and hangs the key around Rachel’s neck. “Or pleasure.”
Moments later, she’s slithering behind me. The fingers of her good hand swim lightly across my shoulders and neck. Her lips brush against my ear. “I love you, Angie,” she whispers, “but I’m ready to let you go.”
The statement both crushes and relieves me. I almost don’t want it to be true. As much as I hate her for hurting me in so many ways, I still love her too. I’ve experienced more emotional and sexual highs and lows with her in one week than I have in my entire life. And part of me doesn’t want that to end. What is normal supposed to look like after this?
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
S.L. Hannah was born in Poland, grew up in Canada, and moved to Southern California to pursue her love of single-engine airplanes. The Need is her first erotic thriller. The manuscript won the 2013 Florida Romance Writers Golden Palm Contest for New Adult Romance, and is an adaptation of a screenplay about a woman struggling to free herself from her lover’s physical and emotional binds. Buzz about the break-out novel calls it “one powerful piece of writing…creepy as hell.” S.L. Hannah lives in Los Angeles, CA. When she’s not writing fiction, she continues to solve the aviation problems of the world.
Interview with S. L. Hannah
As a kid did you write or make up stories?
I definitely made up stories as a kid. I have a very vivid memory of creating an entire fantasy world, called Martianisch. Instead of writing down the stories however, I would recite the stories to myself, of all the events that were happening in this fantasy world. I remember there was a lot of relationship drama, probably because I had discovered soap operas during that summer vacation. What I would write down were all the familial lines, and the details of how each main family lived, going into great depths describing the architecture of their house and the furniture; what they planted in their gardens. I also drew maps of the entire world and neighborhoods within it.
Where does most of your Character inspiration come from?
I have been journaling since elementary school, so I’ll often refer back to my journals for inspiration. There’s a lot of good story and character juice in those journals, and that will often be the basis for a story I’m writing. Writing fiction gives you so much leeway however, that any real-life inspiration is always just the foundation. The fun part of writing fiction is taking something that happened to you or someone that you met and completely exaggerating it to make it funnier or scarier, or more interesting in some way.
Do some qualities of your characters come from real people?
Yes, especially those people that are closest to me in my life. When you’ve been observing your parents, siblings, friends, lovers, long-term partners, a lot of story material is already stacked away in your memories. The people who you have loved and fought with, and had your most intense emotional experiences with are definitely going to creep into your writing style and dialogue.
What was the inspiration for your book?
Particularly for The Need, I was inspired by the screenplay my husband wrote. The Need started out as a spec script that my husband was hired to write in 2009. Unfortunately, the financing for the project fell through, which happens a lot in Hollywood. My husband shopped the script to a few more interested producers and agents, but that certain bit of magic that you need to make a movie come to life did not materialize.
I loved the story. Two strong female characters that get twisted into this dark love affair…it was the distraction I was looking for at the time (late 2012), so I asked my husband if I could adapt his screenplay into a book. He loved the idea, and in 2015, The Need was born.
What is your favorite spot to write?
In my day job, I mostly work from home, so when it comes to writing fiction I need to leave the house, or I’ll just stay in work mode.
I have a couple of favorite coffee shops near my house that I rotate for my writing time. Even though it can be busy at a coffee shop, I plug in my headphones, find a song that’s perfect for the scene that I’m about to write and tune out everything else. I turn off my phone, and I rarely ask for the internet password, unless I have to do some research. The internet and phone can be so distracting in my house, that I consider it one of the perks of leaving. Plus, there can be some good people watching, which also helps me zone into my writing.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Writing is amazing and fun and inspiring, but it’s also a job, and if you want to get somewhere with your writing you have to treat it like a job. You have to write every day or come up with a schedule that enables you to reach your writing goals. You have to send out query letters and deal with rejection, or figure out how you’re going to find the money to self-publish. You have to write and promote, and juggle many emotions. It is rarely going to feel glamorous, but holding that printed copy of your book, or reading that final version of your book on your Kindle will feel extremely satisfying.
Links:
Buy Links:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
S.L. Hannah will be awarding one commenter a paperback copy of The Need (U.S./Canada only for book) and one commenter a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
