Magical Sex (and now that I have your attention...)

Hi there! I’m Stephanie Julian and I’m thrilled to be visiting with The Hussies today. Thanks for allowing me to play, ladies.

Ideas are funny creatures.

Sometimes, they come out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning. You catch sight of a guy pushing a stroller with twins and carrying a baby in a chest pack and wham! You’ve got the plot to a book. Sometimes it takes a little more time rolling around in your head for an idea to form into a coherent plan.

A few years ago, I had an idea for a story about witches and fairies and magic. I bought a few research books, all of which dealt with Celtic themes. I started writing my story but it wasn’t coming together and I couldn’t put my finger on why. Until the day I realized that every single book I’d read with fairies were a variation on the same theme—the Celtic theme.

I didn’t want to be one of the pack. I wanted to write with a new twist. Now, I’m Italian on my dad’s side and Pennsylvania Dutch on my mom’s. Don’t piss me off because I can hold a grudge for months but you’ll never know about it because I’ll keep it bottled up until I’m damn good and ready to tell you. And when I do finally blow, it’ll be like Mount Vesuvius.

I’ve always identified more with my dad’s family, probably because I have about a hundred family members on that side and literally none on my mom’s side. I’m Italian first.
So that’s where I looked for my inspiration. And found it in the Etruscans.

We don’t know a lot about the Etruscans but what I found was a perfect fit for my purposes. They worshipped gods and goddesses. The Romans actually assimilated many of their deities when they created their own. They practiced magic, divined future events by the flights of birds or by sacrifice and were a fiercely liberal people whose women enjoyed the same rights as men. (Not so for the Greeks and Romans who, for all their talk of democracy couldn’t even be bothered to give their daughters names that weren’t variations of their father’s.)

The Etruscans were tailor-made for me to write sexy, magical stories featuring linchetti (night elves), salbinelli (satyrs) and folletti (fairies).

All it took was a little research out of the box.

The Etruscans aren’t the only mysterious civilization out there. Europe and Asia were filled with them. Somewhere in your background is the kernel of a story waiting to be found.

This Friday, the second book in my Magical Seduction series from Ellora’s Cave, SEDUCED IN SHADOW, will be released. The first, SEDUCED BY MAGIC, introduced this secret Etruscan society still thriving in contemporary times.

SEDUCED IN SHADOW takes you further into the world, with sizzling hot linchetto Antonin de Feo falling for the beautiful daughter of the Etruscan God of the Forests. Only problem is Fiorella Johannson doesn’t have a clue about who her father really is.

Of course, there’s a bad guy on their tails, lots of really hot sex, magic and a salbinelli named Salvatorus who…well, you just have to meet Sal to appreciate him.

For an excerpt, come to my website at http://www.stephaniejulian.com/ and check out my world.