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Today we are we Paul Lonardo's
Enchanted Desire!
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Enchanted Desire
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Q & A with Paul Lonardo about Enchanting Desire!
Tell us about your book.
ENCHANTED DESIRE tells the story of a beautiful young college student, Shanna, who has her whole life in front of her, with a solid career path and a handsome State Trooper boyfriend. But things are not as they appear, and Shanna is not a fulfilled woman. She discovers what is missing when she meets and falls in love with Kenny, a sexy 6 foot 8 Native American university professor, who himself is embarking upon a spiritual journey, a tribal ritual that calls upon supernatural forces to attain guidance and wisdom. When Kenny leaves on his vision quest, Shanna’s desire to be with him gives her the courage to change her future and the strength to assert herself and leave her neglectful boyfriend. Now, all she can do is wait for Kenny to return. But she doesn’t have to wait long.
Late on Christmas Eve, while Kenny is away and Shanna is alone, she spots an unopened gift under the tree that had not been there earlier. What she discovers inside is not only magical, it is erotic, evoking the memory of her previous sexual encounter with Kenny in ways she never imagined.
This special gift allows the two of them to be together even while they are far apart. Their spirits and their sexual desire for one another are both satisfied with the help of a little imagination…and a magical object.
What inspired you to write it?
With romance titles, we better not go there. But in all honesty, in talking about fictional characters, while none are entirely based on, or inspired by, real people, there are always elements of major and minor characters that are borrowed from friends, family and acquaintances. Sometimes a single character will contain elements from a number of different individuals that I either know personally or am familiar with in some way.
For me, when it comes to inspiration for a story, there’s no telling where that will come from. That can be a scary, worrisome thing sometimes, but it is always exciting. As a writer, it is never bad to try something new, and challenge yourself. It’s something to strive for. Writing romance and erotica certainly fits the bill in my case. But I was actually surprised how natural it was. And it all starts with developing interesting, engaging characters. The rest finds its way into the context of the story.
Tell us about the characters.
Shanna is the protagonist of the story. She is attractive, has done some minor modeling, but she is grounded, determined and compassionate. She is finishing up her undergraduate work and has applied to several colleges of veterinary medicine for her doctorate. She plans to open up her own veterinary clinic and care for animals. Shanna may be young, but she knows what she wants in life. She is strong, though she didn’t know that until she is forced to confront her neglectful and jealous boyfriend, a Massachusetts State Trooper, and break up with him in order to be with Kenny.
Kenny Honana is a sexy, 6 foot 8, muscular and charming Native American man, who makes and sells the Kachinas, ceremonial dolls of his people. He is also a professor of Native American Studies at the University that Shanna attends. The two are immediately drawn to each other when they meet by chance (or was it?) at the storefront where he sells these figurines. Kenny is a bit of a mystery man, and that is intentional on my part because there is a fantasy element to this story and a mood that I wanted to create around Shanna and these Kachina dolls, a kind of blurring of reality.
Courtney is Shanna’s younger sister. The two of them are quite close, and although only one year separates them, Shanna is significantly more immature. She has a wonderfully entertaining and antagonistic personality, and the relationship advice she gives Shanna shows just how close the sisters are despite their differences. Courtney constantly points out to Shanna how well-endowed Kenny appears to be, teasing her older sister and making incessant jokes. Certainly, she provides comic relief to the sexual tension between Shanna and Kenny, as well as the dramatic tension between Shanna and her State Trooper boyfriend.
What was the hardest part about writing it?
The eroticism. It seems simple enough, a matter of tapping into our own natural sexual nature, but I found that it can be very difficult to express those feelings and thoughts into words that are not clichéd and hackneyed. Then you add to that writing the scenes through the point of view of the female protagonist, and that becomes a real challenge for me, as a man. But I guess you could say I did my homework.
What was your favorite chapter or part to write and why?
I particularly enjoyed writing the scenes involving Shanna and her younger sister, Courtney. Their interplay as sisters who are very close was captivating to me. I couldn’t get enough of them, and I hope I didn’t overdo it. From the responses I have received, readers enjoyed them as well, and some wanted even more. I actually already worked out a way I could continue the story, perhaps developing it into a full length novel. We’ll see.
What are your future projects?
Besides the possible continuation or expansion of Enchanted Desire, I have completed another romance novella which I hope will be published next year. It is not erotic. I do plan to write future romance stories, at varying levels of heat, whether short stories, novellas, or full length books.
I will also continue to work on my collaborative non-fiction projects, including trying to place a completed book with an Armenian woman who fled to America from Azerbaijan in the late 1980’s when it was a Soviet republic at a time when ethnic and religious violence began to escalate once more against Armenians living in that part of the world.
Now an exciting excerpt from Enchanting Desire!
My disappointment quickly turned to delight when I saw the tall, broad figure that cut through the steam in the room. I knew it was Kenny right away.
“I had to see you.” Kenny’s voice boomed like thunder in my ears, making my body shudder.
“How did you—” I could not finish what I was going to say before Kenny crossed the room to the bathtub in three strides and gently put the tips of two fingers against my lips. “Sh-hhhhh.”
The sibilating sound lulled me back into tranquility. He slowly ran the fingers of his right hand along my jawline to my ear and then down the nape of my neck, he did the same with his tongue on the other side of my face. I shivered even in the heat of the steaming bath water. Cupping the sides of my face in his hands, he drew his head toward me and kissed me deeply.
With his lips pressed firmly against mine, I placed both my hands around the back of his neck. He straightened up and lifted me right out of the tub. Naked and dripping, I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he never stopped kissing me the entire time, sucking and biting delicately on the soft skin of my lower lip. It made me crazy.
His exposed chest hair bristled across my nipples, arousing me further. I opened my mouth and his tongue began to flick back and forth across mine. It was a sensuous imitation of a more intimate act, and I was sure he knew it as was well as I did. With his thick shaft in his pants pressed against my bare pussy, I felt a now-familiar rush of warmth between my legs. When I began to grind myself against him, his cock began to grow. And grow.
Oh, my God! I thought. Courtney was right. The thing was huge.
Holding me in his powerful embrace, he let one of his hands drop slowly down the side of my body, tracing the arch of my hip and then reaching underneath me to massage the swell of my buttocks. Several of his long fingers wandered down further and touched me in a place that no man had touched me in a long time. As he lightly probed the outer rim of my anus with his index and middle fingers, I let out a moan.
I felt the sensation of moving again, but this time it wasn’t vertigo. Kenny carried me effortlessly out of the bathroom and into the adjoining bedroom where he eased me down onto the white down duvet cover. He was standing over me as I sat up and reached for his shirt. I pulled on the leather lacing that bound the cowhide to his body and loosened it until the material hung from his shoulders in two pieces. Kenny shrugged the remains off, exposing his naked torso.
His pants moved in front of me, as if there was something alive in there.
EskieMama Reads was priviledged to receive a copy of Enchanted Desires by Paul Lonardo. Here is Jara's review of Enchated Desire! Thank you Paul for the opportunity to read & review Enchanted Desire!
5 stars
Kenny (Kwatoko) a professor at a local University BU teaching Native American Studies, Shanna also goes to BU major is in Biology. Two people connect in ways Shanna did not believe possible, mysticism or dreams, she is not sure all she knows that she is attracted to the young Kenny in ways she did not think possible, and when he appears to her as if in a dream, she finds that she is far more into him than she thought possible. Kenny is getting ready to leave on a journey to find himself and ask her to trust him.Surely such love can transcend time and space, as these two souls connect.
A wonderful story that renewed my soul and the belief in what we can not explain. Thank you Paul Lonardo for a light and beautiful story.
AUTHOR BIO
I have had published both fiction and non-fiction book published, including titles that have been excerpted in Reader’s Digest (Caught in the Act, Penguin Group, 2011) and reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly (Life, with Cancer, Health Communications, Inc., foreword by Anna Quindlen, 2012).
From the Ashes, a 2010 collaborative book written with a Gina Russo, who survived the deadly 2003 Station Nightclub fire in RI which claimed the lives of 100 people, became the basis of a 2013 documentary web series, The Station.
Thrill Killers is a 2007 true crime book (New Horizon Press, Berkley paperback, 2008) written with the Johnston, Rhode Island detective who headed the investigation of a brutal double homicide.
I was interviewed as part of NBC’s documentary program, I Survived a Serial Killer, featuring the true crime story depicted in the book Caught in the Act.
I had my first romance book published (Reunion of Souls, Liquid Silver Press, June 2015).
I recently had my second romance novella Enchanted Desire published by Wild Rose Press, released on June 17, 2016
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Sounds like a good read.
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