I am so excited to have the fabulous Heidi Belleau & Rachel Haimowitz on the blog today. They are kicking off their Flesh Cartel tour here today, with a fab giveaway and dishing on what will be happening in their explosive new serial. Get ready guys cus it's gonna be Explosive *boom*.
Thank you for joining us for The Flesh Cartel virtual book tour! All
week long, we’ll be giving readers an up-close look at our new
psychosexual thriller, The Flesh Cartel. The first episode in this
serial story, Capture, is now available for purchase via the
Riptide Publishing website. Because October is also Riptide Publishing’s
Anniversary Blog Hop Bash month, we’re giving away an extra special
reader prize at every stop along this tour—and all month long! One
commenter from every stop we make in October will win a $10 credit to
Riptide Publishing. Simply leave a comment below by 11:59 pm on Sunday,
Oct 7th (email address included) to enter.
Visit the First Anniversary Blog Hop Bash page for our complete October schedule, and make sure to
check out each stop to increase your chances of winning great prizes all
month long!
Tell us how the idea for The Flesh Cartel was born?
Heidi:
That was um . . . that was me. I think what I initially pitched Rachel
with was a story about an organization that deals in human bodies and
human sexuality in the same way we deal with meat processing or car
manufacturing or any other consumer product in the twenty-first century.
Efficient and intricate and industrialized and professional and
ultimately soulless. It was Rachel who kind of brought in the human
angle, who suggested we less tell stories about the system itself, and
more about the people who make that system work: the CEOs, the assembly
line workers, and of course the people who are ultimately being
commodified.
Rachel: Curiously enough, one of my
frequent bedtime fantasies was very similar to the idea Heidi pitched.
You know how it goes—me, a well-stocked basement with very secure locks
on the doors, and all the hotties I could ever want. So her idea
immediately appealed to me, but there was the issue of needing to give a
story meaning. I mean, sure, sadistic kinksters like us are all about
their torture-porn, but it’s not the sort of thing I’d feel right trying
to pass off as serious work (or charging money for), and frankly, not
enough story for Riptide to publish. Which was how the human angle came
into it, and the idea of focusing on two brothers’ progress through the
system. Which led to long, surprisingly serious discussions about
psychology, human motivation and training and breaking and resilience,
the kinds of cognitive dissonance you might need to be a part of
something like this (our trainer, Nikolai, is a fascinating character in
that regard), study and research into actual methods used to break
people, sexual slavery rings that have been busted in the past, PTSD,
etc. We decided that if we were going to do this, we needed to make it
more than just the circumstances. The circumstances had to be, at best,
the backdrop for the character journeys. We had to treat it with
respect.
Plus somewhere in there was Sarah Frantz, the
little devil on our shoulders egging us on. I’m almost entirely positive
this whole thing is her fault. I just don’t quite remember how. But
either way, we love her for it :)
Why Serial Fiction, and not just one big whole book or two?
Rachel:
By the time we were finished laying out the whole series arc, we were
looking at, easily, a quarter-million-word story. Quite possibly more.
(We’re already over 100,000 words in and nowhere near the halfway mark
yet.) You’re talking four to five full novels’ worth of material.
The
thing was, it isn’t four to five novels. It’s one contiguous story
that’s going to end up being like 1,200 pages long. So how best to tell
that story?
Plus, because this material is so intense,
there’s definitely wisdom in consuming it in small doses. Heidi pushed
the serial format right from the start, and Sarah championed it hard
too, and once we figured out a way to make serials work without costing
the reader more money, Riptide got on board with the format as well.
For
a more thorough answer to this question, Heidi did a whole blog post on
serials that will be over at Smexy Books tomorrow. Stop in and check it
out!
Are you both worried about readers reactions? Both the good and possibly the bad.
Heidi:
There’s no “possibly” about it. There are definitely going to be some
“bad”—and by that I mean critical or just outright angry—reactions to
this. Which, just to be clear, is totally fine by me. When you write
something that really pushes against boundaries and can be interpreted
as eroticizing real-world trauma, you’re bound to upset, anger, or
offend people. All we can do is make sure we provide lots of detailed
warnings wherever we can, so people can make an informed choice about
whether this is a story they want to read. It’s not meant as a
challenge—are you (wo)man enough to read Flesh Cartel—it really is a
good-faith effort to protect people from potentially hurtful and harmful
content. Seriously, there’s no shame in saying “Not for me” and buying
something else, and I’m not going to take offense if that’s what you do.
The best I can hope for for this series is that the people who are
intrigued by the subject matter enjoy it and find it satisfying, and
that the people who find the subject matter upsetting have the
foreknowledge to avoid it.
Of course, there’s going to be
some people who aren’t going to read it, but are still going to find
the concept offensive. That’s okay too. I accept that.
Rachel:
I’m 100% with Heidi on this. It’s an interesting kind of book because
some people will find it erotic. Others will find it horrifying. People
from both groups are bound to love and hate the book (I’m not
anticipating a lot of middle ground, to be honest). Some people may love
it specifically because they find it horrifying, because psychological
horror and taut thrillers are their favorite kinds of reads. (And in
this sense I’m thinking folks who loved American Psycho or the mind-fuck
of a book like Silence of the Lambs, rather than fans of Saw, who will
probably not be satisfied by the lack of splashiness and gore here.)
Others will be so put off and offended by it that they won’t even want
to have to hear the title mentioned in their presence. We’re both very
understanding of that response.
Ultimately, all we can do
is write the best book we can and treat the subject matter as
respectfully and honestly as possible, not taking any shortcuts, never
being gratuitous (yes, there’s a lot of violence, but every single drop
of it moves the plot or the characters forward), and never doing
anything to cheat the reader out of the kind of emotional payoff that
can only come from building the most realistic scenario and characters
possible. Whether or not we’ve accomplished that, well, that’s up to the
readers to say. But I feel good, at least, about knowing we’ve done our
best.
So I see BDSM is not apart of the classification. Can you tell us your reasons for that?
Heidi:
Yes, we’ve specifically not categorized this as BDSM. We’re not going
to label it that way, or market it that way, or any of the rest. The
only time we’re using the term is to emphatically say it’s NOT a BDSM
novel. BDSM is about consenting adults exploring power dynamics in a
safe environment. This is a story with rape and torture and
psychological breakdown. Of course, it’s got whips and chains and
collars, so some people are going to call it BDSM anyway, and some
people who are into BDSM (like Rachel over here) might also enjoy it
strictly as a fantasy, but it is not BDSM. And while we’re at it, it’s
not a romance, either. Nobody falls in love and has a HEA with their
rapist. It’s an erotic thriller.
Rachel: Yeah, I cannot
state emphatically enough that this is neither SSC or RACK or any other
acronym you might want to use to try to classify the wide range of
activities and behaviors and mindsets that fall under the BDSM umbrella.
But, as Heidi said, I think many folks will enjoy it as a fantasy (and
lol, look at my partner all innocent up there pretending she isn’t one
of them!)—you know, the kind you have when you and your partner, safely
and sanely, arrange ahead of time to engage in an abduction fantasy
where your poor sub gets dragged into your basement, chained and
“tortured” and “raped,” begging all the while for you to please stop and
why me, except, of course, you’re both having a fantastic time. But
what happens in this book occurs outside consent and safety, and
fantastic times are had by none. So please, please don’t call this BDSM.
Was there ever a point while writing when you both
decided that "Hell nawz we ain't writing that"? (Just because it would
be too much)
Heidi: Yes! There are some places we will
not go. I don’t want to spoil anyone, but we wrote a dream sequence that
took place in a character’s past. We specifically chose for him to be
his present self (i.e., an adult) in that setting because we don’t want
any child characters in the story, not even in dream sequences. And
although the incredibly sad and sickening reality of sexual slavery and
human trafficking is that many victims are children, we’ve chosen not to
feature any underaged characters, even in non-sexual contexts. It’s
just not a place we’re willing to go.
Rachel: We’re also
leaving off some kinks that you’ll typically see on a publisher’s
do-not-submit list, though that’s in large part selfishness because we
simply don’t want to write them: scat play, bestiality, and the like.
Though we did write one scene that frankly squicked both of us out, but
I’ll leave it at that; you’ll see what it is in Episode 2 :) And also
there was
this mysterious tweet. But legits, yo, neither Heidi nor I can
remember what we were talking about.
Can you tell me what to expect in the upcoming episodes/seasons (something spoilerish)?
**BIG SPOILER ALERT!!!**
Rachel:
A lot of folks have been asking us if the boys will ever have a happy
ending. I know how impossible that seems given the current
circumstances, but they do both get one, after a fashion, at least
assuming everything goes according to the careful planning Heidi and I
have done. Keep
in mind this story isn’t a romance (although
there are a couple of different romances going on, after a sort,
throughout the third and fourth season), so it won’t necessarily be the
kind of HEA/HFN you usually see. But nor will their story end in the
sort of abject misery it begins in.
Heidi: Which is to
say, yes they get out alive. How they put themselves together again
afterwards, and go on living, I think, is the real question. One I think
will be an especially interesting (and heartbreaking) part of the story
for us to write. And we do intend to give that aspect of the story due
attention, and just as much thought as the grimdark torture part.
Will each season feature a new cover, or will it just always be the one cover?
Rachel: Each season gets its own cover. Each episode within a season shares the season cover.
Heidi: I can’t wait to see the cover for season 2!
Sum up in 30 words or less what this whole project means to you both.
Rachel:
A thrilling (and kinky-fun) chance to try something new and different
and extremely difficult and frankly a little terrifying for any number
of reasons.
Heidi: It’s an exorcism. I had a thing
inside me, and now it’s taken shape and I can look it in the eye and
speak to it and send it on its way.
Finally, can I expect some epic pants losing?
Rachel: I bought you a 48-pack at CostCo, just in case :D
Darien: Yes, more pants. ^_^
Blurb:
In this first installment of the exciting new psychosexual
thriller, The Flesh Cartel, orphaned brothers Mat and Dougie Carmichael
are stolen in the night from their own home. Taken to a horrifying
processing facility, they are assessed, microchipped, and subjected to
unspeakable brutality—all in preparation for sale to the highest bidder.
In a world where every person has a price, the beautiful
and subduable PhD student Dougie is highly prized. His brother, a
rough-edged MMA fighter, is less desirable—and potentially too
dangerous—but he still has his own appeal.
Abused and
locked up under round-the-clock surveillance, with no idea where they
are or even why they’ve been taken, escape seems impossible, which
leaves staying together their only hope. And after being separated once
by the foster system, they'll do anything to keep it from happening
again. Anything at all.
Author Bios:
Rachel Haimowitz is an M/M erotic romance author, a freelance writer
and editor, and the Managing Editor of Riptide Publishing. She's also a
sadist with a pesky conscience, shamelessly silly, and quite proudly
pervish. Fortunately, all those things make writing a lot more fun for
her . . . if not so much for her characters.
When she's
not writing about hot guys getting it on (or just plain getting it; her
characters rarely escape a story unscathed), she loves to read, hike,
camp, sing, perform in community theater, and glue captions to cats. She
also has a particular fondness for her very needy dog, her even needier
cat, and shouting at kids to get off her lawn.
You can find
Rachel at her website, Tweeting as
RachelHaimowitz, chatting in the
Goodreads forums, and blogging at
Fantasy Unbound. She loves to hear
from folks, so feel free to drop her a line anytime at metarachel (at)
gmail (dot) com.
Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick,
Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC
with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades
leave her plenty of quiet time to write. She has a degree in history
from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish
studies; much of her work centred on popular culture, oral folklore, and
sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with unironic
papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her
about Highlanders!) When not writing, you might catch her trying to
explain British television to her newborn daughter or standing in line
at the local coffee shop, waiting on her caramel macchiato.
You
can find her tweeting as
@HeidiBelleau, email her at
heidi.below.zero (at) gmail.com, or visit her blog:
http://heidi-below-zero.blogspot.com.
To Win
- Leave a comment with email
- Contest runs until October 7th 11:59pm EST
