It’s Opening Lines blog time. Today I’m welcoming S.Nano to the site to share the first 500 lines from La Contessa.
Over to you Nano…
The setting for La Contessa is 18th century Venice. Indeed, the city is almost like an extra character in the story, providing the perfect back drop for the perverted games and political plotting of its main character.
In writing the book I’ve attempted to draw the reader into the city with references to its art, fashion, culture and architecture. There’s a chapter featuring the card game faro, popular in Il Ridotto, the state gaming house, and another featuring a bizarre and lewd puppet show based on the characters of the Comedia Del Arte, popular during the period. The climax of the book takes place during Venice’s Carnivale with a regatta along the Grand Canal and a debauched BDSM ball which takes place in La Contessa’s palazzo.
It’s interesting featuring the opening lines of the book in this blog because, reading them in isolation, it becomes clear how important the city is as a backdrop for the book. The tone of my portrayal of 18th century Venice is evident from these first 500 words. Immediately the reader is presented with a city that has seen grander times but which is now in decline. From his chosen spot my narrator, Roberto, observes both the physical decay of the city and the antics of its drunken and debauched inhabitants.
Little does he know… his world is about to become even more perverse and twisted when he enters the service of La Contessa.
The Opening Lines
This is a favourite place to ply my trade. Leaning against the flaking stucco of this dilapidated warehouse, the flickering wall lamps transform me into a shadowy figure of mystery as my alluring silhouette entices clientele into the dark passages of Venice.
From this spot I can see down the alleyway to a landing stage where gondolas are moored. If I glance to the left, I have a view of Campo di San Canciano with its numerous taverns and brothels, and the customers of Il Toro Nero as they stumble drunk into the night air. There can be no doubt in anybody’s mind what I’m offering when they see my slender, well-toned frame leaning against the wall, and the seductive glint in my eye. Oh yes, the Cannaregio is notorious. No-one scouring the alleyways in this district is ignorant of the erotic delights on offer here.
Tonight is unusually quiet. From this location there are many places I can take my clients depending on what perverse desires they have. There are the hidden, arched entrances of the disused warehouses and dilapidated merchant houses, once thriving and bustling, but long empty since the decline of trade through Venice. Occasionally it’s possible to sneak down to the gondolas bobbing restlessly on the canal for an encounter requiring more comfort. Often I’ve been chased off by an irate gondolier. Others know me well and, when it’s quiet, will let me use their gondola in exchange for a few soldi.
I could choose to work in the comfort of a brothel or a tavern like Il Toro, but why should I have my hard earned money creamed off by the madam of a bawdy house? No, I can make a fair charge for my special kind of service and keep the proceeds. And business is good.
You’d think anybody looking for a sexual liaison would yearn for a soft feather bed and a warm fire but no, often that’s not the case. Many of my clients prefer the debauched excitement of being fucked against the wall in an alleyway or having their cock sucked in the gloomy light. The frisson of being discovered is part of the allure. I know I’m good at what I do. I’m young, fit and in good shape. I know my boyish good looks appeal not only to the women seeking sexual excitement, but also to those men whose sexual preferences are for other men. I cater for them all.
My clientele is more varied than you might imagine. You’d think offering myself on the alleyways of Venice would only attract the lowest classes, but that’s not so. Eighteenth century Venice is an open minded, many would say decadent, city. You find all classes here, from nobility, who fancy a dalliance with the perverse, to working men, who will blow their wage on an encounter with a prostitute. They’ll all happily wander the lanes of the Cannaregio to satiate their sexual needs. Yes, I know; I’ve fucked duchesses and…
Buy links
Amazon.com
Amazon UK
Kobo
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?Query=La+contessa
Barnes and Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/la-contessa-s-nano/1127888667?ean=2940158958274
Book Blurb
La Contessa
The most decadent city…
The most perverted mistress…
Renowned for her beauty and cruelty, La Contessa’s reputation as a dominatrix is well established. And eighteenth century Venice has degenerated into a decadent and lascivious city, the perfect backdrop for her to play-out her debauched games and political ambitions.
She sends her maid, Julia, into the alleyways to search for a young man to act as her slave. Julia finds Roberto prostituting himself in the least salubrious district of Venice. He enters into La Contessa’s service to perform her bizarre and sadistic scenes.
From their first meeting there is a mutual attraction between maid and servant. The young couple engineer a series of sexual encounters, knowing the risks should their mistress discover them. Their situation is complicated when La Contessa rescues Becky and brings her to the palazzo as her submissive girl-slave. The interloper exposes Julia’s jealousies… and the feelings for her mistress.
How long can Roberto and Julia keep their love secret? Will Becky’s presence thwart their relationship? Will La Contessa’s scheming bring her the richest prize in all Venice?
All is resolved before the grand ball and masked, BDSM orgy held by La Contessa in her palazzo as the climax to Venice’s Carnivale.
Author bio
Nano is a writer of erotic stories with dark and exotic content in fantasy or historical settings drawing on the themes of female domination, BDSM and fetish but often with a seam of quirky humour running through them.
‘La Contessa’ is his third full length novel. ‘Adventures in Fetishland’, a BDSM/fetish re-invention of the classic Alice stories was published by Xcite Books and ‘Mistress of the Air’, a comic, Steampunk, erotic adventure was published by eXcessica. His novellas and short stories have been published by Xcite Books, House of Erotica, Forbidden Fiction, Coming Together and Greenwoman Publishing.
He is a regular participant in reading slams at ‘Smut by the Sea’ and similar events in the UK, contributing a workshop ‘Kinking Up the Past’, on getting inspiration for erotic stories in historical settings.
Web site: http://www.slavenano.co.uk/writing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nano.vaslen
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Many thanks hun,
Happy reading everyone.
Kay x