Hello, Delilah!  Thank you for inviting me here to discuss my new short story.  I’ll be honest with you — you might recognize this baby.  I wrote it and submitted it to you for your Secret Identities: A Bad Boy Anthology last year.  I was okay with you not selecting it (happens to the best of us), but that left me with an orphaned short story.  And no home for it!

As you know, though, I try to find somewhere for everything to land – no grass growing under my work (okay, there are a few — but nothing recent).  I put it out of my mind until I slammed against a deadline for a charity anthology.  I had grand plans to write a new story, but found I wasn’t inspired by what I’d plotted out and, just as importantly, time wasn’t on my side.  I was sitting contemplating this issue when I remembered Tempest and Romeo and how they still languished.  I dug out the story and did my best to fix it up.

I added another five thousand words or so.  In the original, the story was all in Domme Tempest’s point of view.  I hadn’t snuck into Romeo’s mind.  I also didn’t have anything beyond the original BDSM cathartic scene.  So what happened after Tempest emotionally broke Romeo? How did they wind up getting together?

Enter some of my favorite secondary characters who stepped up to help my characters find their way back to each other.

Finally, I submitted the book to the anthology people.  The editor came back and said she wanted a more solid happily-ever-after.  I’d thought I had a pretty substantial ending, but she wanted more. I wrote it, always intending to remove it when the rights reverted.

The rights reverted.

I reread the story.  Turned out, the ending was pretty good.  More importantly, it didn’t reveal too much about what I have planned for them next.

A couple of weeks ago, I realized I had a story languishing. This one!  I found a cover I loved and put the book up for sale, starting today.  99 cents for a 10k-word short story.  And FREE through KU for the first 90 days, wide after that. I want to get the story into the hands of readers.  If they didn’t read the instalove charity anthology, Just Add Love, then I hope they might grab it today.

That’s how I repurposed a story I love and found it a new home!

Thank you, Delilah, for hosting me today.  I would love to hear from your readers. Are you willing to take a chance on a new author, if it’s a short read?  Something you’re not likely to become fully invested in?  Or do only full-length novels pique your curiosity?  One commenter, chosen by Random, will win a copy of my MMF BDSM novella Backing Down. All those ‘friends’ I mentioned…  If you have that book, I can gift you another from my back catalogue.  Good luck!

Tempest’s Teacup

Mistress Tempest

The challenge of breaking a disobedient bottom begging for correction at Club Kink has me intrigued. Romeo asserts he’s done something wrong and needs to be punished. That he needs to atone. As we move through our intense scene, I become more and more invested. But if I succeed in breaking him, our interaction may end our connection forever.

Romeo

My disrespectful and selfish behavior has landed me in a heap of trouble. I reach for a second chance in Vancouver after a co-star suggests I submit to a Domme at Club Kink to truly work through the regret threatening to destroy my life. Mistress Tempest offers me an opportunity at redemption. If I go all the way through with it, I might never see her again.

Tempest’s Teacup is an 10k erotic BDSM short story with a formidable Domme, a naïve submissive, and the ultimate redemptive scene.

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/TempestsTeacup
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Tempests-Teacup-Erotic-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B0FD91V68L
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236575602-tempest-s-teacup

About Gabbi Black

Even though Gabbi Black is a firm believer in happy endings, she makes her characters work for it in every romance she writes, no matter what the genre. From contemporary to BDSM, they are penned early in the morning in her home in beautiful British Columbia while her trusty ChinPoo dog keeps her company. She also writes gay romances as Gabbi Grey and small-town romances as Gabbi Powell.