Bound With Pearl Blog Tour and Giveaway

Guest Post at The Reading Cafe
Bound With Pearls
by Sidney Bristol

Thanks so much to The Reading Café for having me today! I’m celebrating the print release of my first Taboo line book, Bound with Pearls. It’s crazy to think that this book is out in all formats now. I wrote this title well over a year ago and it’s gone through many rounds of revisions and a lot of tough love to reach this point. It’s very cool from the author side of things to see a book come to life, the way it grows and changes into something I didn’t even know it would be when I started with a blank page. Now all I can do is hope people like it!

This might be a strange thing to say, but the writing of Bound with Pearls pushed some of my limits as an author. I think is a good thing for me, and for my readers. While I was comfortable writing erotic romance and I was comfortable with the practice of BDSM and the knowledge behind it, writing the two together was something I’d never done before. It was exciting, uncharted territory, and really pushed me to grow and step back and think about preferences, limits and activities from another point of view.

We all have limits of things we’d never do, stuff we could be convinced to do and things no one can hold us back from doing. For example, I’d go shark diving either with a snorkel or in a cage in a second, but you couldn’t pay me to go cliff jumping. Up until December, I thought I’d never willingly get a pedicure, but now I get them regularly. I don’t really like them, I’m way too ticklish, but the pretty toenails have seduced me into it. So long as they don’t scrub my legs with that sea salt stuff our punch my calves. I was not a fan of that.

The point is that there are definitive limits in our lives, for whatever reason, they exist. It’s not wrong or bad. It’s natural and acceptable to not want to do some things. Like, say, jump off a cliff into a river full of gators. Not a good idea. But people still do it.

But still yet, there are limits that exist to be pushed. It’s part of growing as people and making a personal choice to change. I’m a super picky eater, for example. There are loads of things I just do not want to eat, but I regularly try to eat things out of my comfort zone because I know it’s a good idea and also to prove myself wrong. I used to not eat fish, now, I love a good Tilapia filet. This last weekend I tried an avocado. I was not a fan, but I tried it.
In BDSM there are generally two kinds of limits. Soft limits. And hard limits. I say general because there is no hard set rulebook to BDSM, so take what I’m saying with a cup of salt. There’s room for all views under this umbrella.

Soft limits are things that are a, “No,” but for a lot of individuals, with the right person, they could reconsider that. For example, a person can have a soft limit of no gags. Gags prevent a person from speaking and saying a safe word or ending play unless another, non-verbal signal is agreed upon beforehand. This individual could refuse to engage in play that included gags until they reached a certain familiarity with a new partner. Or, they could use gags with one partner but not another.

Hard limits, however, are the things that we would never consider doing. Ever. For anyone. No matter how hot they are, how much you love them or if there’s a water balloon about to fall on you when you’re wearing white. I’m sure we can all think of some very extreme things we would never allow another person to do. Some of the most common hard limits are things that do with human excrement, blood, restricting breathing or cutting the skin. However, there can be other, not so “scary” hard limits. I hate, hate, hate being tickled, for example. Someone else might refuse to do anything that involved a whip because of their personal take on that item. There’s no right or wrong answer for why something is a hard limit, it just is.

I knew that I wanted to explore a few limits in this book. The characters have vastly different comfort levels when it comes to some activities, so it was natural for them to challenge each other. I won’t give away too much, but it was a lot of fun to explore and research character specific activities to weave into the book. How one character’s strengths encourage the other to rise to the occasion, and vice versa.

I think as human beings we naturally push one another into bettering and furthering ourselves, either from encouraging or simple competition. I’m naturally very competitive so I like to surround myself with people who can do things better than me and learn from them.

Can you think of something you, a friend or family member talked you into doing that you never thought you’d do?

BOUND WITH PEARLS by Sidney Bristol
Series:  Atlanta BDSM Series, Book 1

Release Date: December 12, 2012
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Genre: Contemporary erotic/BDSM/Taboo

Purchase: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Barnes and Noble / KOBO/ Ellora’s Cave
Add it on Goodreads!

The last thing Christine wants to do is another favor for her sister, but Lucy always gets what she wants. This time it’s Chris playing sub to a demanding Dom. Their relationship begins with a power exchange and progresses to time spent between the sheets. Now emotions are getting complicated and the Dom isn’t just a hunky guy in black.

Daniel’s expectations are turned upside down when he meets Chris. She’s more than a well-trained submissive. She’s a woman with a body he wants to memorize. He’s willing to spend as much time as it takes to learn her, because she might be his match and his muse. He’ll make her come so hard he’s imprinted on every inch, and then he’ll offer her the most precious thing he can, himself.

Sidney is giving away the following prizes on her tour:

Grand Prize:
$25 gift certificate to Amz/B&N/Ellora’s Cave.

Runner-up:
an eBook of the winner’s choice from Sidney’s backlist.

NOTE: The Reading Cafe is NOT responsible for the rafflecopter giveaway. If you have any questions, please contact the tour promoter or the author.

a Rafflecopter giveaway