Author's Message

Serial Satyr

ELIZABETH AMBER HARVESTS THREE MYTHOLOGICAL HEROES

I'm an art historian, so it follows that I'm also a museum junkie. But long before I was either
of these, I was reading romances. It seems only natural that my passions for history, archaeology and romance eventually combined in The Lords of Satyr trilogy. Aphrodisia is releasing the second book, Raine, this month.

In Greco-Roman mythology, satyrs are the male companions of the wine god Bacchus (or Dionysus). They're often depicted on artifacts as taking part in hedonistic wine grape harvest rituals, and they're associated with the male sex drive.

Both Greek and Roman artisans created terra-cotta pottery called amphorae for use in storing and transporting wine, olive oil or grain. The color of terra-cotta comes from the type of clay and ranges from orange to reddish-brown. Roman satyrs were often part of the "red figure" or "black figure" decoration of this pottery, and they were shown
as furred from the haunches to the hooves, having a tail, extremely well endowed and in pursuit of women.

While helping to catalog yet another urn decorated with risque illustrations of satyrs romancing nymphs, an idea came knocking. What if three half-human, half-satyr brothers guarded an ancient secret in the early 1800s, battled a historic infestation in their Italian vineyard and were called upon to locate three endangered half-human, half-faerie daughters who were unaware of their unusual
heritage? A trilogy was born.

I didn't set out to write erotic romance, but the nature of the characters led me in that direction. An explicit, carnal ritual in which the brothers undergo a physical change once a month is explored in my first book, Nicholas. It's the only time the satyr can sire children, and Nicholas considers a bride of faerie heritage to be an opportunity to beget heirs a human woman couldn't give him.

Raine includes equally graphic material, all carefully woven into the plot. In contrast to Nicholas, Raine's traumatic childhood and
a difficult former marriage have closed him to the idea of giving or receiving love. But the second faerie daughter is far different than he could ever have imagined, and she's living a dangerous lie. As the wine grape harvest begins, he finds himself in competition with another suitor for her, as she slowly reawakens his heart.