Well, it’s the final interview in my Seducing the Myth series, and it’s a good’un. If you were to put a gun to my head and ask me to pick a favourite from the wealth of wonderful stories in the book, I’d go with K D Grace’s Stones. Unusual, powerful and brilliantly written, it really has to be read. And the author herself is here to discuss the inspiration behind the tale. Welcome, K D!

1. Talk us through the myth you based your story on.
Medusa was the beautiful daughter of two sea deities. Poseidon took a liking to her and chased her into the temple of Athena, where he raped her. Instead of punishing Poseidon and protecting Medusa, Athena cursed Medusa so that anyone who looked into her eyes would be instantly turned to stone. In some versions, Medusa retains her beauty. In other versions, Athena makes her hideous with a mass of writhing serpents for hair.
More than likely the tale of Medusa’s rape is the Greeks’ way of dispatching with a deity of a conquered people — a gruesome and effective way of playing ‘our god’s better than your god.’
2. What were the reasons for your choice?
I knew the story of Perseus and Andromeda from back in my grade school days when we were studying the constellations in science class. I knew that Perseus, with the help of the gods, severed Medusa’s head and rescued Andromeda from the sea monster by using Medusa’s head to turn it to stone. It was only much later that I learned how Medusa had become cursed. I wrote the story, Stones, in sympathy for Medusa, speculating what might have happened to a conquered goddess if she hadn’t actually lost her head, if that was all maybe just Greek spin. In Stones, Medusa is alive and well and living a reclusive life in a decaying mansion in Southern California. Medusa, living as retiring sculptor, Magda Gardener is a woman with serious emotional baggage any way you look at it, but ultimately she wants the same things all women want; happiness, fulfillment, love.
And who better for her to fall for than the landscaper she has hired to reclaim the ruined gardens on her property, a task which involves uncovering some disturbing statuary from the jungle of growth.
3. If a film were made of your story, who would play the leads?
I can definitely see Sam Worthington playing Paul Danson, the landscaper who is in way over his head. It is through his eyes the story of ‘Madga Gardener’ is told.
As for Medusa/Magda, it’s hard to say who I would have play her, she’s so aloof and I picture her as being something beyond beautiful and something beyond terrible all mixed together. And yet she was an innocent before she was raped and cursed. Imagine the anger and rage and pain of a young woman so brutalized, but powered by the heart of a goddess! Scary stuff! And poor Paul can’t begin to understand what it is that kindles his lust so. God I had fun writing this, though I did creep myself out a bit too. I think Medusa and Paul will definitely be revisited in the future.
4. I’d love to know about the first story you ever sold. What did you do when you got the acceptance?
I wrote a story for Scarlet Magazine called ‘The Night Bus,’ about a backpacker’s encounter with a local boy on a night bus across Croatia. I was working in the garden when I got the email saying Scarlet were taking the story. I’m sure the whole neighbourhood heard me whooping.

5. Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t forget to mention any upcoming new releases.
I’ve just finished the final rewrite of the first novel of my paranormal erotic trilogy set in the Lake District. The first book is called, Lakeland Heatwave: Body Temperature and Rising. It’ll be coming out with Xcite Books in February 2012. I’m very excited about the trilogy because it’s my first attempt to write paranormal erotica.
My erotic romance, The Pet Shop is launching in print October 14th with a party to end all parties at Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium in London. I love Sh!, love the women who run the place and love they way they throw a party, so I’m really looking forward to turning my Pets loose amid the vibes and the strap-ons.
In the meantime, I’m settling in to write two novellas before I get back to the Lakeland Heatwave trilogy around the New Year. As you can see, I’m very self-entertaining.

It isn’t only yourself you entertain, K D! Thanks for coming.

Find out more about K D Grace at her website:http://kdgrace.co.uk/

As a lover of T Rex, I’m always reminded of their song Beltane Walk whenever the pagan spring festival is mentioned. But the wonderful Hawthorn, my guest today, had more than 70′s glam pop on her mind when she wrote her sensually evocative story in the Seducing the Myth anthology. I’m delighted to have her here, and she has a lot of very interesting things to say. Welcome, Hawthorn.

1.    Talk us through the myth you based your story on.

The story is set at Beltane, the ancient spring fertility festival which is part of the pagan wheel of the year. The pagan year is structured around the solstices (Litha in June and Yule in December) and the equinoxes (Oestara in March and Mabon in September). Beltane falls in May, between Oestara and Litha (midsummer).
There are many versions of the wheel of the year, but for most modern pagans it describes an eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth. The Solar God is born at Yule, grows to young adulthood during the waning winter and early spring, and meets the Lunar Goddess at Beltane. They become lovers that night and she falls pregnant with his child.
As the Goddess blooms in pregnancy during early summer the God grows into his full adult strength, warming the land and banishing the winter darkness entirely. After the glorious heat of midsummer the Goddess continues to grow into the autumn, ripening and bringing in the harvest, but the God’s strength begins to fade until he dies at Samhain (the modern Hallowe’en).
After Samhain there is a time of darkness and cold; the nights grow longer and the cold draws in because the Sun is absent from the land. The Goddess, now torpid in late pregnancy, grieves for her mate and conserves her strength until her labour at Yule, when the Sun God is reborn and the cycle begins again.
Beltane bonfires are kindled to symbolise the burning passion of the God and the Goddess; pagan couples sometimes jump the flames for luck and their own fertility, and Maypoles represent the phallus of the God, celebrated and welcomed by the whole community as it fertilises the land for the year’s harvest. Beltane is a powerful time of the year – the seasonal tides are swelling, and the land’s emergence from the darkness of winter is greeted by joy, passion and the upsurge of new life.

2.    What were the reasons for your choice?
At heart, I’m a pagan. I don’t practice – which is to say, I don’t attend rituals or conduct elaborate ceremonies – but I do note the lunar cycle and the changing seasons, and I speak to the God and the Goddess in my own quiet way.
I’ve always loved the liminal times of the year, when seasons blur and natural changes can be sudden and shocking; there’s a special kind of power in the spring and the autumn. Unlike some other pagan festivals, such as Yule (Christmas) or Oestara (Easter), Beltane hasn’t been adopted and twisted by the Christian church. I wonder whether this might be to do with the openly sexual nature of the symbolism surrounding the rite, and the unrestrained celebration of sensuality and fertility. Where vestiges of the festival (such as Maypoles or the Padstow `Obby `Oss) do survive they are very much owned by the people, and I wanted to include this sense of close kinship and community in my story.
In any case, when I heard that Lucy’s new anthology would be themed around myths and sexuality, for a pagan writer Beltane seemed an obvious choice! I hope I was able to do the Goddess justice.
3.    If a film were made of your story, who would play the leads?

Ooh, good question. The Goddess would have to be a beautiful, experienced woman – I think Helena Bonham Carter would be splendid, although she’d only do it if Tim Burton directed. (I’d settle for that, though.) And the male lead – Russell Crowe, perhaps, or Gerard Butler. Mmmm.

4.    I’d love to know about the first story you ever sold. What did you do when you got the acceptance?

My first published story was Venus, in Lucy Felthouse’s Uniform Behaviour anthology. I wrote it on a whim, never having written erotica before, and submitted it just because I thought I might as well. I honestly didn’t expect it to be accepted, but when I heard that it had been – well, let’s just say I did the special dance that all authors do! And then I ran about in circles for a while squealing to myself. After that I calmed down a bit until my Mr arrived home and I told him about it, at which point I got all squealy again. There was quite a lot of squealing in my house that day.

5.    Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t forget to mention any upcoming new releases.
I’m not currently working on any erotica – I have a few completed short stories which I’m trying to place, but nothing in the pipeline. I have some ideas for new stories, though, so watch this space.
However, I do have a non-erotic short story due out in a fantasy anthology early in 2012 (under a different pen-name), and I’m trying to add some words every day to a fantasy novel which I started two years ago – I had an epiphany about a month ago and I now know how it ends, which is always a relief when you’re stuck in the final stages of a story. I’m also about to start a rewrite of a different fantasy novella, and am toying with trying to do NaNoWriMo in November this year, even though it almost killed me last year. And the year before, come to that. Must be mad.

Best of luck with NaNoWriMo – I know she can be a cruel mistress! And thank you for a fascinating interview.

I wasn’t familiar with the story today’s guest, Lisa Fox, chose to embroider for Seducing the Myth, but it was an inspired choice! A Land of Women – what a great hook! And here she is to tell us all about it – welcome, Lisa!

1. Talk us through the myth you based your story on.

I chose an ancient Irish tale called The Voyage of Bran to retell for the anthology. It’s basically about a prince who learns about a perfect paradise from a beautiful, mysterious woman. Enraptured by the woman and her tale, he embarks on a perilous journey with his crew to the “Otherworld” to find the “Land of Women” where everyone lives in peace and harmony.

2. What were the reasons for your choice?

I like stories about journeys, testing faith and wishes coming true.

3. If a film were made of your story, who would play the leads?

Hugh Jackman would defiantly be my hero. Then again, for me, Hugh Jackman is always the answer to that question.

4. I’d love to know about the first story you ever sold. What did you do when you got the acceptance?

The first romance story I ever sold was Sculpting a Demon to Ellora’s Cave. It was the middle of February and it started out as just another dreary, snowy day at the day job dungeon. But when I opened my email and saw “contract offer” in the subject line, bright sunshine filled my world and I stood up and did a happy dance right in the middle of the office. My coworkers thought I had finally, completely lost my mind and offered to get me a nice, comfy room with lots of padding.

5. Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t forget to mention any upcoming new releases.

I am always working on a bunch of things at once. In the immediate future, I have a short story coming out on the ForTheGrils.com website titled, Her Special Knight. It is scheduled to debut October 1.

Thanks so much for having me on your blog Justine!

Thanks very much for coming! And I can’t resist the chance to put up a pic of the beauteous Hugh .

Roll up, roll up for your opportunity to meet Seducing the Myth author Maxine Marsh and find out all about the germination of her tale of Greek legend, A Temple for Hera. I’m very pleased to welcome you, Maxine!

1. Talk us through the myth you based your story on.

When I saw Lucy’s call for a mythology anthology of erotica, I headed over to one of my favorite websites, sacred-texts.com and searched for a story that spoke to me. I read The Syrian Goddess by Lucian, which “A Temple for Hera” is based on, and knew it would work. Part of the book was about how the temple at Hierapolis was built after Hera appeared to Stratonice and commanded her to build it in her honor. The queen eventually falls in love with the man her husband has sent to help her accomplish the task, with an captivating twist.

1. What were the reasons for your choice?

I am quite attracted to reading about expressions of sexuality in ancient cultures, and in mythology especially. There’s something extra intriguing about goddess worship, and practices having to do with fertility and sexuality. I think there’s a whole facet of this missing from modern culture, or rather we accept the opposite, the denigration of female sexuality.  This story in particular was wrapped up in tales of ritual prostitution, a spiteful goddess and one horny queen.

1. If a film were made of your story, who would play the leads?

I’m into anime right now, so I’d like to make it an animated film.

1. I’d love to know about the first story you ever sold. What did you do when you got the acceptance?

The first story I ever sold was a naughty tale about first oral sex experiences in The Bad Girl’s Sweet Kiss anthology edited by Chrissie Bentley. I wrote it under the pen name Beverly Marsh. It was one of the first stories I ever wrote once I’d started writing erotica, so I was super excited when I got the acceptance email. I think I read it about 100 times! Soon after I had two stories accepted to Freaky Fountain Press and I’ve been on a roll ever since.

1. Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t forget to mention any upcoming new releases.

Like everyone else, I’m waiting back on several submissions and I’m always writing something! I have a huge imagination that never seems to sleep, so I’ve been focusing on shorter works for now because that format seems to suit my ridiculously busy mommy lifestyle. I recently had a story, “Put Down”, published in the Lyrotica anthology by Vagabondage Press, and coming out September 30^th, I have “Eat Your Heart Out, Pele” in the Erotica Apocrypha anthology from Freak Fountain, based on Hawaiian mythology. There are some other super exciting acceptances I’ve received recently, but it’s early so I can’t really go into them. You can check out www.maxinemarsh.net to keep up with my work!

I’ve heard some good things about Erotica Apocrypha already – sounds like one to check out. Thank you so much for this fascinating interview.

I’m so pleased somebody opted for an Arthurian theme in Seducing the Myth – and I’m even gladder that person was Bronwyn Green, from whose capable pen romantic and sensual magic can be relied on. And she’s a real sweetheart too. Welcome, Bronwyn!

1. Talk us through the myth you based your story on.

My story is actually based on a conglomeration of a couple myths -
Percival finding the Holy Grail/the Fisher King and the Washer at the
Ford. Basically, Percival, having healed both land and king by finding the
grail, is still himself wounded. When he sees the washer at the ford – a
traditional harbinger of death by battle for soldiers – he goes
immediately to her thinking he’ll finally find peace in death. Instead, he
finds something much different.

2. What were the reasons for your choice?

I’ve always loved Arthurian legends. My mom used to tell them to us as
bedtime stories. Then when I was in college, I took a course on archetypes
and the Arthurian myth cycle was a huge part of that class. I fell in love
with them all over again. I didn’t stumble across the Washer myth until
after college, but as it turned out, I was already familiar with it. It’s
going to sound a little crazy, but every time my gram would dream about a
woman washing bloody linens in a river, someone she knew would die shortly
after. I showed her the myth after I found it in a book, and she was
stunned. Needless to say, that idea has been stuck in my head for years
and I finally found a way to use it.

3. If a film were made of your story, who would play the leads?

Oooohhhh…this is a tough one. I’m thinking Aidan Turner as Percival
and Alona Tal as Nineve.

4. I’d love to know about the first story you ever sold. What did you do when you got the acceptance?

Coincidentally, the first story I ever sold has just been revised,
expanded and re-released by Resplendence Publishing. It’s called
Overlord’s Chosen. When I got the email with an offer to publish it, I
could hardly believe it. I read it three times, screamed so loudly I
scared my kids (they thought the house was on fire) then I called my
critique partner and best friend, Brynn Paulin, and promptly burst into
tears. Yeah…I don’t handle excitement well.

5. Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t forget to mention any upcoming new releases.

So, so many projects – so little time. Currently, I’m working on the
next book in my Witch Way series called Sensuous Summoning as well as
attempting to write a requested holiday short. I’ve got another short myth
coming out from Resplendence Publishing on August 31st called, Does Your
Mother Know? and my second story in RP’s multi-author Phases series called
Autumn Sacrifice will be out in October. Oh yeah, and I’ve got an erotic
retelling of Taming of the Shrew called Two for the Shrew.

An erotic retelling of Taming of the Shrew? Sold! Thanks for taking part, Bronwyn, you’ve been the perfect guest.

Qaz Jones! Okay, no, it’s Caz Jones I’m welcoming as my guest today in the Seducing the Myth interview series, but I couldn’t resist… And her story Q is For… is decidedly quirky, quality, quintessentially charming and any other positive Q words you can possibly think of. Great to have you here, Caz!

1.      Talk us through the myth you based your story on.

My story is based around a mythological character – Cupid – rather than the
myth itself.  Cupid, the son of Venus and Jupiter, was ordered to make the
princess Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world but he
accidentally scratched himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her
instead.

Cupid is usually portrayed as a fluttering baby cherub in nappies.  I wanted
to see what he’d be like as a grown man – if his genetics were anything to
go by, he was going to work out pretty damn hot!

Gosh, good question.  Q would probably be Sam Tramell (Sam in True Blood)
with lightened hair.  Sasha always struck me as down to earth and very fond
of bar meal leftovers – if we force-fed Kate Winslet on a diet of chips for
a month and dyed her hair brown we might be there!

They say you never forget your first!  Mine was a story called The
Honeytrap, about a woman who worked for an agency specialising in catching
out cheating partners getting sent on a job involving her ex boyfriend.  It
was published in That’s Life Fast Fiction, an Australian magazine, and I
woke my downstairs neighbours up with the whoop I made when I read the
acceptance email at 6 in the morning before going to work.

5.      Please tell us what projects you are currently working on – and don’t
forget to mention any upcoming new releases.

No upcoming releases at the moment I’m afraid (writing isn’t yet my main
career, it gets packed into odd corners of the week when I’m not running my
bead-selling business), but I’m working on a short story about a wedding
photographer who gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to cover a
wedding that’s supposed to unite two Highland vampire clans.  It’s the first
supernatural erotica I’ve written and I’m having an enormous amount of fun!

Awesome! An excuse to post up a picture of Sam Trammell!

Thanks for coming, Caz – any readers who’d like to be in the loop about Caz’s writing activities can check out her facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Caz-Jones/118521934908211