My first book is LIVE in Kindle and Kindle Unlimited!! To Beg or Not to Beg is the first book in the Kinky Classics series, and it's a horny Hamlet retelling. I've pitched TBoNtB as Hamlet was crossed with KinkTok and Katee Robert's Wicked Villains series. It just came out today, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it and some fun facts about how it came to be.
Now, I got my start writing FADE TO BLACK romantic fantasy in 2019. But I always loved reading across that line between urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Between joining a romance writing group and getting KU since the start of the pandemic, my reading and writing have both gotten increasingly spicy.
If you follow me on TikTok, you already know that I am always on the hunt for more books that are kinky but not dark. I try to find and recommend books that have safe (and often sweet) representation of kink and bdsm. While I don't always see these recommended on social media, there really are a lot out there, and they delight me to the core (no pun intended) every time.
Last year (2021), my romance group decided to do a Vulgar Valentine's exchange ... basically a secret Santa for writers but make it sexy. We were all paired up and given a list of what the recipient was hoping for in terms of heat level, character pairings, tropes, etc. At like 6am the day we were supposed to start sharing, I had already pulled an all-nighter working on a project for another group, and all I knew was that I wanted to write something MMF with Dom/sub dynamics for my partner.
In my sleep-deprived delirium, I'm not really sure what made me think it would be fun to do a horny scene between Hamlet, Horatio, and Ophelia. (Tbh, Ophelia was probably on my playlist and triggered the idea. Who knows?!)
So I jotted some ideas down really quick. Mostly, I knew that I wanted Horatio to be a Dom, Ophelia to be a switch (Princess sub with Horatio / brat tamer with Hamlet), and for Hamlet to be a bratty sub. Because my partner loves a good Dom, and I've got a soft spot for snarky femdoms.
Now, Shakespeare himself might have called "brevity the soul of wit," but even the original Hamlet is pretty wordy. And I am really bad at keeping my short fiction word count from getting away from me. So a few months later, my little library threesome scene evolved into a full Hamlet retelling with an HEA and a lot of happy endings for Hamlet, Horatio, and Ophelia. Oh, and plans for 5 more classics retellings in this series.
Fun fact? I actually wrote the first draft in free verse, and then revised it into a prose version. At some point, the free verse version will probably be available ... likely with an artistic.
I'm not going to give any spoilers, but if you've already read it, you can probably understand why I got so attached to Fortinbras. Since Hamlet doesn't die in the end, Fortinbras will get her own book and an HEA that doesn't involve stealing the Danish throne. (She'll get book 3, but you might have also picked up some clues to who is getting book 2.)
I've commissioned 2 art pieces to date (both from @NerDelight on Twitter, who is an absolute delight to work with) and am looking forward to commissioning more as time goes on, so keep a look out! If you're subscribed to my newsletter or in my Discord server, you will always see art and other updates before anyone else.
I think that's it for now. The paperback will be available soon (I'm just waiting to approve the proofs!), and book 2 is already available for preorder. Her Scarlet Letters is scheduled to come out June 28, 2022.
Let me know if you've already read To Beg or Not to Beg! Or if you have any questions about the story, the characters, or the rest of the series.
xoxo,
Cat