Looking at Domestic Discipline

Okay, I know that everyone's feeling very interested in Stronghold right now - can't blame you, I am too - but I know that Dealing With Discipline is going to be out before Stronghold.  And I'm excited about that too!

To try and get us back into the whole Victorian / Domestic Discipline Quartet mindset I figured I'd do a little blog about the series since the first book is out and we've met all but one of the main characters.

The idea for the quartet came about because of what I felt was a lack of erotic romantic domestic discipline books set in the Victorian era.  It's a great era for all sorts of punishments and BDSM, because corporeal punishment was a really big thing back then, people were hiding all sorts of fetishes and crazy sex lives behind prim and proper exteriors, and that all makes for a great kind of erotic fantasy.  Granted, I'm pretty sure the reality wasn't so great, but for now, for us, it's a good fantasy.  Especially when it comes to things like domestic discipline, since that was actually a well utilized tool during that time period.

I've got an array of different characters, from different backgrounds, with different ideas about sex and spanking and what they want from their marriages.  So much drama can be had from simple things like arranged marriages, the lack of information given to unwed women about sex, and the use of domestic discipline!

I didn't finish Edwin and Eleanor's story in Birching His Bride for a couple of reasons.  The first is that Birching His Bride was supposed to be an introduction book to the series and its characters rather than a completely self-contained book.  The second is because Eleanor is going to get into so much more trouble once her brother's new wife, Irene, is in similar circumstances to her own.  I do feel like Birching is a complete book, although with a cliff hanger, since by the end of it Eleanor has realized that she can't control love and her focus / goals have gone through a complete changeover.  Dealing With Discipline will focus on the effects of her epiphany as well as Irene and Hugh's story.  And, lastly, Irene and Hugh will be out of London for the beginning of the book on their honeymoon and having Edwin and Eleanor's story continue allows me to jump back to London easily for the events that are going on there.  Eleanor and Irene's stories are going to intersect, something that wouldn't be possible if Eleanor and Edwin's story had been contained to one book.  I know that the double cliffhanger got on some people's nerves, but I do believe it was necessary for the overall series arch.

One reviewer wondered what Book 4 could possibly be about since there are only three male main characters introduced in Birching His Bride.  That's true... but the fourth male character is mentioned in the book more than once although we didn't meet him yet. ;)  He's going to play a pretty major part in Dealing With Discipline which I'm excited about.

I am hopeful that I may be getting this book out by the end of June... we'll see.  Definitely sometime in July at the latest, but I'd like to aim for the end of June so that I can hopefully have Stronghold following soon after!

Keep an eye out for Marriage Training Ch. 6... I'll announce on here and twitter when it's out of course.  Should be any day now!