YAY! Provided that Courtney, one the readers that’s been on pins and needles waiting for the release of this book, has not shut down the Ellora’s Cave website from the constant refreshing until Dallon’s story here is available for purchase… It should be, most definitely, release day!

Dallon was a naughty man to write. A favorite. But honestly, I can say that about all the hero’s I have written. Each one is a fave in his own way, as is each heroine.

This story, though, is different. For one, it is told entirely from Dallon’s point of view. I was able to see Carrie blossom through his eyes, see the struggles he went through from his own head and heart, see the incredible support he offered.

This book also touches on religion. A little.

You know, we’re not supposed to talk politics and we’re not supposed to talk about religion, but we can talk about sex, what we think others do wrong, how we think others should live, whether or not gays and lesbians should marry, etc… We can talk about everything else, but we can’t talk about religion and politics. Well, sorry, but…fuck that! This is my blog and you enter here of your own accord. If you don’t like a post because of it’s content, well, you know the way out. Do I want to lose you? No. But I don’t want you to stay and be miserable either.

As I said, this book touches on a little bit of religion, more like religious upbringing. Carrie and Dallon both grew up in Southern homes. Both were sheltered by God-fearing parents from the world. Both have made their way out from under it all.

The picture I paint of Carrie with her shelteredness, her parent’s choosing for her where she could live, where she could work, how she could spend their money, etc… I grew up with people like that. I went to church in the local Southern Baptist church with people like that. I went to college with people that were raised that way. It’s a scary thing to try and make your way in the world if you see things inside yourself that are vastly different than the way others see things. Carrie knew she was not the same kind of person as her parents. She didn’t want her life dictated by a book, or her husband chosen for her from a select pool of candidates her parents and the church approved of. She wanted to make her own choices, her own mistakes, her own decisions.

Dallon was that decision for her.

You know that old saying about preacher’s kids being the baddest of them all… Well, my man Dallon here is the epitome of that statement. He is the baddest of them all. And I brought these two characters together because he would know best how to help her. He was quite reluctant… But, Carrie needed someone like Dallon. Someone that had broken the mold that was cast for him, a mold he didn’t choose but that was chosen for him. His father was a preacher, was a dean of a christian university in the South. We have quite a few of these, Bob Jones and Liberty are the two that come to mind always first. And I know a number of people that attended them.

When Dallon jumped ship, he jumped right into sin, right into everything hedonistic he could find, trying to find himself and once he found the man inside he was looking for…

I guess you could say this book is about breaking those molds, standing up for who you are even if you aren’t sure who that is, finding the strength to say ‘this is MY life’. Believe me, if you’ve never done that, it is hard. People get hurt and we don’t always have a Dallon or a friend to help see us through those first ‘Oh my God what have I done’ moments.

I am not a religious person and I could get into why, but I won’t. I have some very strong opinions on church, religion, the Bible, restrictions on sex before marriage, restrictions on what is and isn’t right accordingly in all other areas…

I had a conversation one night out of the blue with a very dear friend of mine. She was essentially Carrie. Carrie is a mixture of people I’ve met over the years, but she was primarily this one friend, only I took her in the opposite direction. The conversation I had with my friend this one night…we’d gone to college together, she was out of her little hole in the wall town and little hole in the wall church for the first time in her 18 years…and she was scared. She was naive to the ways of guys, to the ways of girls, to the ways of teachers that you didn’t see in church every Sunday, the cursing, to the drinking, smoking, and bed hopping on long band trips. (Yes, I do have some One time at band camp stories) She was so naive and on the phone this one night she thanked me. I asked her why and what for and she said ‘You protected me those years in college. You explained to me and made me understand how different it was from what I knew and you kept me from making horrible decisions and kept me from dating the wrong boys and to stay inside with the door locked  because I didn’t know any better, for being stronger than me and sticking up for me.’

She didn’t ask me for that extension of friendship, but she needed it from someone like me. Someone that had been dating those wrong boys for years, someone that had gotten into trouble a few times, someone that had not been raised within the relative safety of the church’s four walls. She’s married now, to a good christian man, they have 3 wonderful children, they are heavily involved in church and though she’s raising them the same way she was raised, I know she prays that when they go off into the world, they’ll meet a friend like me that can help keep them safe and protected, that will tell them no and to stay locked in the room. I don’t agree with it, but it’s all she ever knew and it’s all she ever wanted.

Carrie…is different and has taken a different path. She wants to live a different life. She wants to explore the things that she feels inside. She didn’t have that friend to help keep her sheltered in college. She played and experimented when she was able to and she learned that she actually liked this different kind of life, but she didn’t know how to break free. Until she met Dallon, until she asked Dallon to teach her, to show her, to pleasure her…

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know too many bad boys, even one’s as bad as Dallon, that would be able to hold out for long against curves and unpracticed sex appeal…

Carnal Ecstasy is about one woman’s first steps into sexual pleasure, into a little cursing, a little beer drinking and the man she’s chosen to show her…