EPPIE WINNER! - Woman of the Mountain
Posted by Angela Caperton at 3/9/2008 4:20 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
Don't even try to bring me down right now. Your efforts would be totally wasted!
My erotic fantasy, Woman of the Mountain, won the 2008 EPPIE Award for
best Erotica!! (Learn more about the EPPIE Awards here.)
Yes, there was champagne and lots of smiles and laughter and
back-patting, but not right away. Oh no...I had to wait this sucker
out and it's been hell on my fingernails and nerves. But that's okay!
Right now, I am too high on life to care. My manicurist can rake me
over the coals later.
So...want the scoop? Have some champagne and I'll tell you a story.
In 2006 I had this idea for a story after a late night viewing of a
rather extreme Japanese samurai movie (no, I wasn't on drugs at the
time, honest!) I started to piece together this erotic novel where sex
and pleasure were the cornerstones of a civilization. At that time,
my erotic novella, Inspiration, had just been published by eXtasy
Books so I was confident I could find a home for this unusual tale.
Long days, midnight oil, edits, more edits, etc, etc, finally Woman of
the Mountain is released by eXtasy Books in May of 2007. I was
thrilled. But two months later, an email from my publisher informed
me that WotM really wasn't doing well sales wise. Gently, my
publisher suggested that maybe my next piece should be more geared
toward what the readers were buying - erotic paranormals, vampire
stories, shifters. WotM was none of these things, and it was then I
started to understand how far out on limb eXtasy had gone with
publishing WotM.
I was, needless to say, pretty down in the dumps. My publisher liked
the story enough to put it out there to the world, but the world
didn't seem to really give a rip.
A few weeks later, the first review came in for WotM. It was a good
review, and the one that followed was absolutely glowing. That
certainly helped my disposition considerably! I was well into working
on The Passions of Pearl when my publisher sent a mass message to all
the eXtasy authors encouraging us to enter our stories released in
2007 to the EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) 2008
EPPIE Awards.
I mulled. I pondered. I entered. That was in September 2007. I
learned through an email (see blog entry below) in December, that WotM
made the cut! It was a Finalist in the Erotica Category! I was over
the moon when I got the news, especially since I was still coming to
terms with a less-than-awesome review of WotM (what can I say...I'm a
perfectionist! If it's not great, I'm obviously an utter failure!
Yeah...I'm working on that...). I was already checking out Expedia
and Travelocity, making my arrangements to travel to Portland for the
EPICon and the award ceremony. I was stoic (yeah, right...) about it.
Win or lose, EPICon would be fun!
EPICon was months away. I designed advertising, I posted on boards, I
did everything but scream from the roof of city hall (they caught me
on the stairs to the roof, dammit!) that my story was a Finalist!
Unfortunately, sometimes Fate (most times Fate?) doesn't always agree
with what we have planned. Life intervened and my plans to travel to
Portland had to be scrapped. I would have to sit back in my living
room and wait.
And wait.
March 8th came....and went.... No word. After a sleepless night, I
woke WAY too early (even with the damn hour jump ahead taken into
account!) and there in my email box, a note from my publisher. Unable
to attend herself, she'd received a note from one of the eXtasy
authors at the conference, WotM had won the EPPIE for the best
Erotica!
I was stunned, ecstatic, I think I said, "Oh my God!" about 30 times.
I raced to the EPIC group board to see it officially!
Nothing.
Nada.
Okay...they were West Coast. It was still early. I could handle this. Really.
9 hours later...
Yep, folks, it's for real! Woman of the Mountain is the winner of the
2008 EPPIE for Best Erotica!
And I am seeking a condo on Cloud 9. Anyone know a place with an ocean view?
EXCERPT (PG)
He could not take his eyes from the smooth perfection of her muscled legs, the hard line of her stomach where her vest parted, or that one perfect breast, its nipple sharp and demanding to be bitten.
Elena turned sideways, facing him, her gaze alight with humor.
Casmin eased himself to his knees, reaching for her and then Elena was in his arms and the smokeless fire of their camp turned icy compared to the heat.
Elena held him and it was as though strength from her flowed into him, so the stiff ache of the wound peeled away, curling into a wisp of nothingness, burned away by desire. Her hands were tender on his back as he reached under her vest, his thumbs on her astonishing nipples, hard as cherry stones and responsive to his heated touch.
Casmin kissed Elena, and she returned the kiss, but not with the passion he expected.
She pulled away, smiling. “My captain,” she said, “I am not for you, and you are not for me.”
Silence filled the space between them for less than a heartbeat. Casmin knew the truth of her words even as she drew back from him a little, her hands hot on his chest, her eyes darker than forest shadows, shining with the sunset’s fire.
“You learned long ago that not all who serve the goddess wear the priestess’ robes. Every woman holds some of her magic.”
Casmin smiled as he saw Elena with new eyes. He saw much of Zenthe in this woman and, for a moment, he felt something almost like fear at the proximity of the goddess.
“I have never been with a man, Casmin, or with a woman. I would love for you to be my first lover, but I will remain untouched until Zenthe decrees otherwise. She does not demand chastity of her faithful. I do not hold myself pious. In my heart I have felt that Zenthe would let me know when my fated one was near, and I am waiting for him. He is near, I know, but not now.” She smiled again at him, the edgy huntress for an instant replaced by the perfect maiden. “Not today.”
The world hung in perfect stillness.
“Soon, Casmin, you will be with a woman who is your woman, and there will be no others for you then, nor any other man for her, forever.
“Desire and your woman will be one and the same. Together you will be whole.”
Elena stood then, ran the fingers of her right hand along the line of Casmin’s cheek, and she smiled as she said, “When you are with your lover, Casmin, you must remember this. Make love to her as though that day is the very last day of the world. Worship her and rejoice in the moment you have, that you are with her, before light and love are gone forever.”
Breathless, yet filled with a fierce strength, Casmin rose to his feet, awed at the dark perfection of this woman in the fading afternoon light, radiant and beautiful and untouchable, ready to ride behind her toward the temple, to the inferno itself if she asked it. He answered her the only way he could.
“Yes, my goddess. Yes.”
Reply to this
** ADULT EXCERPT***
Casmin made his way down to the stream and found a place where bushes gave him some shelter. He stripped off the clothes of his town and his clan and reveled in the cool spring air. He drew a deep breath and then plunged naked into the water to bathe. When he emerged, Benessa sat on the bank, holding his golden tunic in her lap. The clothes he had removed were nowhere in sight. He blushed and laughed, lingering at the stream’s edge, though the shallow water gave him no cover, nor was the bank high enough to hide him from her gaze.
“My clothes, Benessa, please. The sun is setting and the air is cooling. You would not want me to get chilled.”
“You will not get cold.” She smiled at him, warm and promising.
Casmin covered himself as best he could, catching his cock in his hand as he edged toward the girl, hiding it from her.
Benessa regarded him with an appraising glint in her eyes. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders, over a simple white blouse and a skirt the color of ripe grain. Her legs, bare to the thigh, were a shade paler than the skirt, long and golden as the dawn, her feet bare and slender. As he drew near her, she half turned and, with arms raised, she lifted the white blouse over her shoulders, her tanned back turned to him for a moment, like wheat, supple and vibrant, before she turned again. Casmin stared at the glorious beauty of her breasts, nipples stiff and dark, the muscles of her stomach tight as she cast the tunic aside and opened her arms to him.
Breathless, he drew near her, his attention caught by the fall of darkness across shoulders pale as cream and the swelling brown points of her breasts. His cock quickly grew beyond any hope of hiding and Casmin spread his arms and smiled at the merchant’s daughter.
She caught his hands, hers like burning coals, her fingers caressing his wrists; her thumbs insistent in his palms, skin seeking skin with fevered purpose. She pulled herself to him and he instinctively embraced her, her breasts crushing against his wet chest, heat and the cool caress of the evening air, like lightning down his stomach. He ground against her, his hard length probing the skirt that she was already struggling to free herself of. Her hands guided his to her hip and breast, then the skirt fell. Her glorious golden legs wrapping around his waist as she pulled him to her.
Beneath the skirt, she wore a single garment of white cotton, barely concealing her sex. Lustrous dark hair peeked over the cotton band. Her legs moved with expert precision, her feet curving to grip his calves. Her dark eyes echoed the question on her lips, as she stroked his chest and shoulders.
“Have you known a woman before, Casmin?”
A fluttering like the wings of a bird filled his stomach. “Oh, aye, of course,” he answered, his voice wispy and uncertain.
“Of course you have,” Benessa grinned. She untied the cotton at her waist and dismissed the simple girding.
Reply to this
Hi Angela! I heard so much beautiful about this book and have it on my wishlist to get! I saw you too have a new one (sound humorous and hot!) Would WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN one be a stand alone or start to a series?I like to read the first books. Thanks. Loved the excerpt, they were beautifully sensual! Congrats on the EPPIE!
Reply to this
Thank you, Caffey! I am still flying high on the win!
That is actually a very interesting question about Woman of the Mountain. WotM was written with something of an open ending in the respect that the world I created can be revisited through the adventures of a character other than the hero and heroine (Adita and Casmin). In the back of my mind, I have that story stirring, but currently a few other projects are taking the spotlight!
Thank you, Caffey for your comment!
Angela Caperton
Reply to this