Author Chanse Lowell has blended history, BDSM, and sci-fi in her novel Seducing Anne. She sat down with Lissa Bryan, who wrote about Anne from a more traditional perspective, for a chat about the challenges of combining these genres.
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Lissa:
First and foremost, why Anne Boleyn? What led you to your interest in this particular historical figure as the heroine of your SHROAG novel?
Chanse: I’ve been fascinated with Anne Boleyn for my entire adulthood, mostly because I’m a diehard romantic, and there is no other romantic story in history that speaks to me the way Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn does. They had a very intense, passionate relationship that was explosive, and because of that, it’s probably why it didn’t last long once they married. She wasn’t afraid to stand up to him and argue, when no one else would.
Lissa:
She must have been incredibly charming to find that balance. Henry hated being thwarted, yet this woman managed to tell him “no” yet avoid his anger. She wasn’t traditionally beautiful, so it had to be her personal charm, intellect and grace that held his attention for so long.
Chanse: You’re exactly right. She was the exact opposite of what was considered beautiful in the Tudor court. They looked for milky white skin, blonde or red hair, blue eyes. Most of Henry VIII’s wives fit that description, including Catherine of Aragon. Most people think because she was from Spain she had an olive complexion and dark hair and eyes, but Catherine was a redhead, with pale skin and blue eyes. Anne was the exact opposite—long dark hair, black eyes, olive complexion and thin and tall. Most women of that age were fairly plump, or voluptuous as I like to call it since I fit in that category.
I’m sure Anne caught Henry’s attention at first simply because she looked so different and stood out, but yes, ultimately, it was her charm and intellect that held his favor and attention for so long. And because he was enamored of her, she was able to find ways to say no and stand her ground.
That’s the stuff true romance is built off of—strong character, wit, charm, integrity and passion. She had it all.
It’s the romance of the ages to me because who else waited 7 years for a woman, being completely celibate during that time, then took on the Church of Rome? That was next to impossible, since the Catholic Church in those days was actually the supreme power in the land, not the king. On top of all that, he then created his own religion. He almost destroyed his country to have her. If that’s not a deep love, then I don’t know what is.
Lissa:
You mentioned on your blog that viewers of the Tudors television series sometimes felt like they wanted to save Anne. I know when I was writing my book, I had the same temptation, because I would have loved to write a happy ending for her. Did you form an emotional attachment to Anne?
Chanse: Very much so. I identify with her in so many ways, because she’s passionate, intelligent, strong and resilient. I also see her as an alpha submissive, so I feel very attached to her, especially since that’s who I am in the BDSM lifestyle. I think she was very submissive to her husband, yet she had such a strong moral character she couldn’t ever let injustices happen while she stood by, so that’s when she would stand up and say something. I believe she knew when to speak up and when to hold her tongue. The sad part is that in the very end she lost that and lost her way. It was her own mouth that got her in trouble and sealed her fate. But at that point, she was depressed and had lost hope, feeling like a failure after miscarrying twice and knowing very well her duty was to provide a male heir. What woman in her day wouldn’t be crushed after promising this man for 7 years she would absolutely give him a son since Catherine, his first wife, failed at that? And here she was, failing at it, too. It would be devastating, so because of that, she lost faith and acted out.
Lissa:
BDSM is an interesting topic to explore in the context of the Tudor era, when women were expected to be submissive to men, and physical discipline of one’s spouse was considered to be spiritually beneficial. How does your male lead feel that he fits in with the culture of the era?
Chanse: I wrote Guy Moore as a Dom, trained and experienced enough he could mentor and teach other SHROAG agents how to be one as well. He has a different mindset than most of the other agents who take the easy way out. He wants to explore the women he has to bed. He wants to takes his time to know them, learn what turns them on so he can seduce them, then impregnate them. His theory is that if the woman falls for him and is loyal to him, they are less likely to miscarry and lose the baby. The other agents basically drugged the historical women they had to get pregnant and then just did what we’d basically call Invitro.
He fits in perfectly with the time period because he’s charismatic, cunning, suave, and in control of himself in all ways… Until he meets Anne. She stirs him up like no one else ever has, and we get to see him flounder a bit because she gets to him. A Dom would fit into the Tudor era perfectly. (By the way, I believe Henry VIII was absolutely a natural untrained Dom—no question in my mind…)
Lissa:
Very interesting! I never really thought of him that way, but I certainly can see that aspect of his character.
Does submission come naturally to your Anne?
Chanse: Yes, submission comes completely naturally to my Anne. She doesn’t have to think about it, she just does it. It’s who she is. If you look at history, almost everything this woman ever did was to please Henry, unless she felt he was asking her to do something that would offend God. For example, being his mistress. She would never do that. But everything else she did was to please him and for the good of the country. Many people believe she had her own agenda, but that’s not really what the facts point to. The fact she actually turned to Catherine of Aragon for advice on how to spurn Henry’s advances, which most people are unaware that these two women were ever on good terms at all, shows she cared deeply for him and felt a sense of honor and duty to him. A submissive woman takes into account the Dom’s well-being because she wants to serve only him. She wants to nurture him, take care of him, make his life better and make him as happy as possible in all ways. So, even though it seems counter to his happiness to seek out Catherine’s help, it’s in fact all for him. She worried for his soul, and in the long run, that’s the happiness that mattered to her most.
Lissa:
Obedience was something she was trained to her entire life, as all girls were of the era. Do you think if she was raised in our modern era she would still have the same submissiveness to her temperament, or do you think it was something that came from the way she was shaped by her upbringing?
Chanse: I don’t think it was her upbringing. You can’t teach someone to be a submissive at that level she was. It’s something you either are or you aren’t. Just like you can’t really train a man who isn’t naturally dominant to be a Dom. It just doesn’t work.
Lissa:
Certainly. I just wonder if the prevailing attitudes of her day created an environment where her natural submissiveness could flourish, and if she would have had more of a conflict with her nature in the modern day, where submission isn’t necessarily seen as a positive trait by society as it was then.
Chanse: Yes, it would on both accounts. It’s harder to be a submissive woman in our day because especially in the US we are expected to be out in the working world, totally in charge and independent, not needing a man, and being submissive is looked down and treated as being weak or inferior. In those days, yes, it was expected and the more outwardly meek and submissive a woman was, the more she was regaled and looked up to. Anne is interesting to me because the way she displayed her submissiveness was very different than most around her. She was what we call an alpha submissive. It means she’s a very strong willed personality, and she doesn’t give her submission easily. It has to be earned by going through a lot of rigors and passing tests if you will. Henry did that by the way he fought for her, so her devotion to him was unreal. On a whole new level.
Lissa:
What do you consider to be the most erotic scene in the novel?
Actually, my favorite erotic scene I wrote in the story I had to change quite a bit and tone it down. I had written Guy and Anne having sex for the first time on top of her altar in her holyday closet. I asked a devout catholic friend of mine who’s in the BDSM lifestyle if that would offend them. They said yes, so I moved Guy and Anne to the floor, and he just fingered her instead.
So, instead of that scene, I’ll share my favorite one from the final published version. This is from chapter 9, the first time they make love and she loses her maidenhead:
“Lay back down. I shall have you now,” he said, nudging her down with his right knee.
Once she was flat, he crawled on top of her. “This is your consummation, Anne. It will never happen with the king. You are mine. This is our wedding night. In the eyes of God, when you lie with me and you are not married to another man, then you are bound to me.”
She gasped. “Do you mean to inform the king of this?”
“No. He will not be made aware, but I will know, and I will keep it in my heart. You are to do the same.” He lowered himself over her, and those soft but firm lips, similar to his cock in many ways, took hold of all her senses.
She lost track of time as his tongue stroked over hers, his hands brushed and teased her nipples.
His lips feathered down her neck, and then he sucked on her left nipple while his fingers were back inside her.
She was a little tender, but it was quickly muted by the way he touched some delicious spot inside her body.
“Oh. God. Oh. God,” she breathed with each masterful pump of his fingers.
She was increasing in wetness and insanity.
“You will come on my hand. Do not wait for my cock, sweetheart. Come on the next few strokes,” he told her, his lips then latching back onto her nipple.
He sucked hard, his fingers firmer, pushing deeper inside her puss, and then white.
Everything was awash with blinding light as she sparked to life and right as a yell ripped out of her throat, his tongue was inside her mouth, and something large penetrated her puss.
She made a squeaking noise at the back of her throat, but he kept pressing his way inside her body.
He removed his mouth off her when she whimpered.
“Christ, Anne—are you all right, sweetheart?”
She made a mewling, soft pleading sound.
He tried to pull out, but she gripped his shoulders and whispered, “No! Do not!”
“You are in pain—I crush your maidenhead further. I am too big, and your tissues have not had enough time to engorge and stretch on their own. I—” He growled and his head snapped back, his tendons stretched tight in his neck. “I was a selfish, impatient prick, rushing you. I am sorry.”
He remained motionless inside her, his legs shaking. How exerting was it to forbear? It seemed tantamount to holding up the palace on his shoulders like a Greek legend.
“Make love to me as I have begged. I am yours.” She brushed her fingers up his shoulder, past his neck and then stroked his jaw. It flexed under her touch.
“Not if it harms you,” he whispered, sliding his forehead across hers. “I vowed to you my cock would never cause you pain, and it already has. For that, I am a miserable man, unworthy of your forgiveness.”
“You have it.” She tipped her head up and brushed a velvet kiss across his lips. “Though you never needed it. There is no harm. I was only shocked by the intrusion. I have never felt anything like it, but you are exquisite. The most generous man with a beautiful heart almost as large as his cock.” She giggled softly.
“Now you tease my manhood? Well, fuck—I have to do it now.” He pulled back a few inches, then slid back in. “How is that? Is it too painful?”
“It is perfect because it is you.”
“Oh, sweet girl. You have my heart and soul. Must you take every last bit of my sanity, too?”
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his broad back. “Yes, that is all mine.”
“Good. Because I will take all of you as well. This”—he tapped over her heart—“is mine.”
His hips tipped up and he went as deep as he could go, eliciting a tight moan out of her.
“Feel good?”
“Yes, sir.” She wiggled under him. “Too good. I had no idea it would be like this.”
He kissed her and licked across the seam of her lips. “You expected pain?”
“Yes. A lot of it.”
“I am glad to dash that expectation to pieces.” He touched along her collarbone with his index finger like he was unhurried and had to know every inch of her body. “So soft, like the fine petal of a velvet flower.” He licked the spot, sucked for several seconds, and it was not until he pulled away that she realized he had just marked her.
She gasped. “Harry will see!”
“It matters not. I will have an explanation,” he said, then did the same on the other side, still making love to her all the while.
A moment later, he was curled around her so he could kiss her, stroke one nipple with one hand and encourage her clitoris to wet her more as he pinched it with his other hand.
She fought off making loud, animalistic cries of pleasure.
“Close, yes? You will come again for me. On my cock this time, and you will remember how this feels tomorrow when you are a little sore. You will remember the way your body took to being fucked by me.”
His words grazed over her lips with his breath.
He grunted, and his chest and stomach muscles corded and flexed. Was he going to expel his seed?
Oh God, this could mean conception.
Once more, as those thoughts were occurring, the white light of utter rapture took hold of her mind and she sucked in some air as her body unraveled and she writhed beneath him.
“Fucking gorgeous!” he whispered, then he pulled out, and her head tipped up. She watched as he unloaded his male seed all over her belly. “I will get you pregnant yet, but I do it with minimal sperm, to prove to that douche I can get you with child with less seed spilled inside you than he ever could, the incontinent prick.”
She wanted to ask about this strange accent she was hearing again, and the unfamiliar words accompanying it, but he was licking her puss, making her fall apart once more.
Was there blood? She had heard that women bled when the virgin tissues were torn.
Did he concern himself with that?
He gripped her hips, tipped her puss up and when she looked down, all she could see was the top half of his expressive eyes as they devoured her with silent words of insatiable lust and undying love.
He sucked and nipped, making greedy slurping sounds, and she fell once more, then was wrapped up in his arms a few moments later.
He warmed her skin with massaging fingers all over her body. His words of tender affection did not cease.
Her breathing calmed, her muscles were lax and all she knew was four words—I love you, husband!
Lissa:
What particular challenges do you have as an erotica author who’s also a historical fiction author?
Finding an audience. I write for such a niche audience, it’s hard to find readers. Especially for my
SHROAG series because it’s science fiction, historical fiction, has BDSM themes, and it’s an erotica all in one. That’s very unusual, so marketing it was complicated. I knew that going in, but I’d had this story rattling around in my head for years, and it was finally time to release it and let it go. I have a few more stories in this series in my head, but they aren’t screaming at me to get out like this very first one was. It was a relief to have finally written it.
Writing it isn’t hard at all. I take the passion I feel for and from these characters and create a world where they are completely honest and I show them from their everyday life into their secret world filled with fantasies and carnal delights. You can’t tell me that Henry VIII wasn’t a very passionate man in bed. There’s just no way. If you read his letters to Anne, you know he was a very sexual, sensual man.
Lissa:
I’ve always gotten the impression that Henry was somewhat conflicted and frustrated in his desires. Maybe that plays into your theory that he was an untrained dominant, and today, he’d be able to find guidance that would let him express his desires in a healthy way.
Yes, that’s exactly what I think. If he had born today, he would not have been conflicted and frustrated at all about his desires. He would have found the means to express what was in his soul in a very healthy way, and he would’ve had the peace he deserved.
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Chanse Lowell grew up in the desert southwest and still lives there with her children. She’s addicted to five things—her Daddy Dom, learning more about the BDSM lifestyle, reading erotica, writing erotica and sandwiches with a side of erotica to aid with digestion before she’s tied up in black silk ropes and teased endlessly by her Sir. She grew up watching programs with science fiction and historical fiction themes, and enjoys combining her three favorite genres, creating a new breed of novel with scifi, historical and smut sandwiched in the middle.
The last thing she ever thought she’d do was pursue her dream to be a writer since her family tends to keep her busy. But having recently entered the BDSM lifestyle and discovering she’s a submissive babygirl herself has opened her eyes to how few stories there are exploring the softer side of the lifestyle and how most inaccurately portray the Dom/sub dynamics in a monogamous relationship. She felt it her duty to share what she’s learned and adores about the BDSM lifestyle. Along with her new mission to write about the joys in this beautiful world of dominance and submission, she also loves chatting online with others with similar kinky interests and has advisers in the lifestyle that help make sure her stories remain true and don’t veer off into outer space. Although aliens probably enjoy kink, too, since they like to dress in rubber fetish-wear while traveling. At least that’s her argument for why her new genre she’s created is valid.
Contact her at:
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Sherri Hayes didn’t even consider penning a novel until a publisher emailed her in 2010 asking if she would be interested in expanding upon her fan fiction they had found online. The publisher was The Writer’s Coffee Shop, which also famously found and published E.L. James, author of “50 Shades of Grey.” Today Hayes has four fiction books to her name, including the romantic thriller “Red Zone,” which TWCS released last week (find it at thewriterscoffeeshop.com).
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