As everyone knows, I absolutely LOVED The Chateau by Tiffany Reisz just as much, if not more, than the rest of her books. How could I not?
For more on my thoughts, feelings, and declarations of love for Kingsley's character, check out my review of The Chateau here.
For now while we wait for The Chateau to be released into the world on June 5th 2018, interview time with Tiffany Reisz!
The cult at the center of That Chateau regards Story of 0—the infamous French erotic novel—as their "holy book." When did you first read Story of O?
I was in my 20s. I'd heard about it but never read it. Then I read it while I was in seminary considering joining a religious order. I never joined the religious order, but I'm not sure if that was because of Story of O or not. We'll leave that to my future biographers to decide.
Inside the cult's chateau, women reign and men are their willing slaves. How did the idea for such a community come about?
Wishful thinking?
The french spy Kingsley Boissonneault—who Original Sinner fans may not better as Kingsley Edge—is 24 in this novel. What most surprised you about him at that age?
That Kingsley still has the teeniest, tiniest shard of innocence left in him even after all he's been through at that age. He's still a bit of a romantic before life turned him into the incredibly jaded (i.e. French) character we met in alter books. It is fun that now, in present day, when Kingsley finally has the love and family he craves, he's turning back into that more playful, less jaded person he is in The Chateau at age 24.
Madame is an interesting character. She's described as "a woman of wisdom, power, and beauty." Tell me more about her.
There is a very famous French dominatrix (Catherine Robbe-Grillet) who is in her 80s or 90s now and is till actively kinky. She's an incredibly classy, elegant older woman with white hair and I find her fascinating. I think my Madame is how I imagine Robbe-Grillet at a younger age. The Vanity Fair profile of Catherine Robbe-Grillet begins with this line: "[She] makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a Disney movie." Madame makes Mistress Nora look like a Disney Princess.
"Through the looking glass" is a theme that comes up several times in The Chateau. What's the significance of the looking glass?
That Chateau isn't simply a story about a previously unexplored time in Kingsley's life (when he was a spy in his 20s). It's also an origin story of sorts about the kingdom Kingsley will later build in New York for all his kinky friends. Kingsley and Nora both employ Alice in Wonderland and Through-the-Looking-Glass imagery in their kinky lives. This book shows where Kingsley first encountered the concept of living a kinky life as going "through the looking glass."
You've written suspense before (your gothic suspense The Lucky Ones was recently published by Mira Books), but this is your first real thriller. How did your writing process differ on this book?
This book was much easier to write than The Lucky Ones. With Kingsley, all you ave to do is conjure him up and drop him into a weird situation and you'll have fun as a reader and a writer. The pitch was, "Kingsley goes on an erotic adventure inside a femme-domme cult." The story pretty much wrote itself. It's James Bond with blow jobs, BDSM, and an angst-ridden bisexual hero still in love with his ex-boyfriend.
Other Original Sinners characters show up or are eluded to, including a certain blond priest...
There's so much Søren in this book, it's silly. He's all over the book from the first page to the last. That's because you can't have a Kingsley book without Søren. It would be like bread without butter, day without night, sadism without masochism. Kingsley cannot be understood as a person or a character without Søren. Søren is his creator. There would be no Kingsley as we know him if he'd never met Søren.
After eight books in the Original Sinners series, The Chateau is the first full-length standalone set in the Original Sinners universe. Why did you decide to step outside of the series format for this book?
I had conceived the idea for The Chateau a long time ago as a spiritual sequel to Story of O, but Kingsley wasn't a character in it. But the idea kept falling flat for me. When I threw Kingsley into the mix and made him my O who gets thrown int this weird kinky world, the book came to life.
What's next for the Original Sinners?
In October, 8th Circle Press is releasing Picture Perfect Cowboy, which is an Original Sinners standalone novel (category-romance length). It stars Simone, Søren's backup whipping girl who works at The 8th Circle, and a new character, Jason Waters, a retired rodeo champion who's deeply conflicted between his kinky impulses and his incredibly conservative family and upbringing. Simone is the cure for what ails him! Søren and Mistress Nora both make big cameos in Picture Perfect Cowboy.
“Don’t speak,” the woman said. It was the voice from the phone, who'd ordered him to wait at the hotel. “Only speak when I ask you a direct question. I’ll speak in French. You answer in English. If someone is eavesdropping it’ll make it a little harder on them. Do you understand?”
Comprenez-vous?
“Yes,” Kingsley said, en anglais. He wondered how she knew he knew English. Had his American accent been that convincing?
“I’m going to touch you,” she said. “If you have an objection to that, then I don’t know why you’re here.”
Again, Kingsley did not speak. He had absolutely no objection to being touched. Not by her, anyway.
He waited, eyes closed, and felt a soft touch on his head, a stroke of fingers through his hair.
“You lied to me,” she said.
Kingsley tensed, but didn’t speak. He knew better than to say anything to that sort of accusation.
“You told me you were handsome. You aren’t,” she said. “You’re exquisite.”
Kingsley almost said something to that. Something like, “Will that be a problem?” But she’d only made a statement. Until she asked a question, he wasn’t allowed to speak.
“If I were a painter, you’d be my muse,” she said. “You belong in oils on canvas.”
Not being allowed to say “thank you” to a compliment of that magnitude was mild torture.
She stroked his hair again. His eyes were open, but he couldn’t see her as she stood beyond the farthest edge of his peripheral vision. That explained partly why the curtains had to be closed. Otherwise he could have seen her reflection in the window.
She touched his forehead and now Kingsley felt the silk of gloves against his skin. Her touch was gentle, soothing, and the second he relaxed into it, she put a knife to his throat.
Kingsley froze.
“I don’t want to kill you,” she said.
That made two of them.
“Very good,” she said. “Even with a knife at your throat you hold your tongue. Someone’s trained you very well.”
Kingsley still did not speak. He knew he could overpower her if he needed to, but would she make a fatal stab first? Better to wait it out, behave, play along.
“Someone sent you to me. Who was it and what did he tell you?” she asked. “If you tell me even one lie I will slit your throat. And yes, I will know if you lie.”
She’d asked him one direct question. Therefore he was allowed to speak.
“I’m employed by an intelligence agency without a name,” he said. “French military. Officially unofficial. Leon isn’t my friend. He’s my commanding officer’s nephew. They think you’re holding him against his will. They asked me to get him out. If he wants out.”
“Leon is your commanding officer’s nephew,” she repeated, sounding amused. “So that’s the game, is it?”
“I don’t care about the boy,” he said. Kingsley wasn’t sure what she meant by “the game.” He hoped he lived long enough to find out.
“Then why did you come here?”
“My own reasons.”
“You wish to serve, do you?”
Kingsley whispered, “Yes.”
8th Circle Press is a Lexington, Kentucky-based publisher of literary friction, publishing the work of international bestseller Tiffany Reisz, New York Times bestseller Andrew Shaffer, and others.
*Interview and excerpt provided by 8th Circle Press along with a galley copy of The Chateau for review.
For more on my thoughts, feelings, and declarations of love for Kingsley's character, check out my review of The Chateau here.
As the Jack-of-All-Wicked-Trades for a secretive French military intelligence agency, Kingsley Boissonneault has done it all—spied, lied, and killed under orders. But his latest assignment is quite out of the ordinary. His commanding officer's nephew has disappeared inside a sex cult, and Kingsley has been tasked with bringing him home to safety.
The cult’s holy book is Story of O, the infamous French novel of extreme sado-masochism. Their château is a looking-glass world where women reign and men are their willing slaves. Or are they willing? It’s Kingsley’s mission to find out.
Once inside the château, however, Kingsley quickly falls under the erotic spell cast by the enigmatic Madame, a woman of wisdom, power, and beauty. She offers Kingsley the one thing he’s always wanted. But the price? Giving up forever the only person he’s ever loved.
For now while we wait for The Chateau to be released into the world on June 5th 2018, interview time with Tiffany Reisz!
Welcome to the Chateau
The cult at the center of That Chateau regards Story of 0—the infamous French erotic novel—as their "holy book." When did you first read Story of O?
I was in my 20s. I'd heard about it but never read it. Then I read it while I was in seminary considering joining a religious order. I never joined the religious order, but I'm not sure if that was because of Story of O or not. We'll leave that to my future biographers to decide.
Inside the cult's chateau, women reign and men are their willing slaves. How did the idea for such a community come about?
Wishful thinking?
The french spy Kingsley Boissonneault—who Original Sinner fans may not better as Kingsley Edge—is 24 in this novel. What most surprised you about him at that age?
That Kingsley still has the teeniest, tiniest shard of innocence left in him even after all he's been through at that age. He's still a bit of a romantic before life turned him into the incredibly jaded (i.e. French) character we met in alter books. It is fun that now, in present day, when Kingsley finally has the love and family he craves, he's turning back into that more playful, less jaded person he is in The Chateau at age 24.
Madame is an interesting character. She's described as "a woman of wisdom, power, and beauty." Tell me more about her.
There is a very famous French dominatrix (Catherine Robbe-Grillet) who is in her 80s or 90s now and is till actively kinky. She's an incredibly classy, elegant older woman with white hair and I find her fascinating. I think my Madame is how I imagine Robbe-Grillet at a younger age. The Vanity Fair profile of Catherine Robbe-Grillet begins with this line: "[She] makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a Disney movie." Madame makes Mistress Nora look like a Disney Princess.
"Through the looking glass" is a theme that comes up several times in The Chateau. What's the significance of the looking glass?
That Chateau isn't simply a story about a previously unexplored time in Kingsley's life (when he was a spy in his 20s). It's also an origin story of sorts about the kingdom Kingsley will later build in New York for all his kinky friends. Kingsley and Nora both employ Alice in Wonderland and Through-the-Looking-Glass imagery in their kinky lives. This book shows where Kingsley first encountered the concept of living a kinky life as going "through the looking glass."
You've written suspense before (your gothic suspense The Lucky Ones was recently published by Mira Books), but this is your first real thriller. How did your writing process differ on this book?
This book was much easier to write than The Lucky Ones. With Kingsley, all you ave to do is conjure him up and drop him into a weird situation and you'll have fun as a reader and a writer. The pitch was, "Kingsley goes on an erotic adventure inside a femme-domme cult." The story pretty much wrote itself. It's James Bond with blow jobs, BDSM, and an angst-ridden bisexual hero still in love with his ex-boyfriend.
Other Original Sinners characters show up or are eluded to, including a certain blond priest...
There's so much Søren in this book, it's silly. He's all over the book from the first page to the last. That's because you can't have a Kingsley book without Søren. It would be like bread without butter, day without night, sadism without masochism. Kingsley cannot be understood as a person or a character without Søren. Søren is his creator. There would be no Kingsley as we know him if he'd never met Søren.
After eight books in the Original Sinners series, The Chateau is the first full-length standalone set in the Original Sinners universe. Why did you decide to step outside of the series format for this book?
I had conceived the idea for The Chateau a long time ago as a spiritual sequel to Story of O, but Kingsley wasn't a character in it. But the idea kept falling flat for me. When I threw Kingsley into the mix and made him my O who gets thrown int this weird kinky world, the book came to life.
What's next for the Original Sinners?
In October, 8th Circle Press is releasing Picture Perfect Cowboy, which is an Original Sinners standalone novel (category-romance length). It stars Simone, Søren's backup whipping girl who works at The 8th Circle, and a new character, Jason Waters, a retired rodeo champion who's deeply conflicted between his kinky impulses and his incredibly conservative family and upbringing. Simone is the cure for what ails him! Søren and Mistress Nora both make big cameos in Picture Perfect Cowboy.
Excerpt from The Chateau
“Don’t speak,” the woman said. It was the voice from the phone, who'd ordered him to wait at the hotel. “Only speak when I ask you a direct question. I’ll speak in French. You answer in English. If someone is eavesdropping it’ll make it a little harder on them. Do you understand?”
Comprenez-vous?
“Yes,” Kingsley said, en anglais. He wondered how she knew he knew English. Had his American accent been that convincing?
“I’m going to touch you,” she said. “If you have an objection to that, then I don’t know why you’re here.”
Again, Kingsley did not speak. He had absolutely no objection to being touched. Not by her, anyway.
He waited, eyes closed, and felt a soft touch on his head, a stroke of fingers through his hair.
“You lied to me,” she said.
Kingsley tensed, but didn’t speak. He knew better than to say anything to that sort of accusation.
“You told me you were handsome. You aren’t,” she said. “You’re exquisite.”
Kingsley almost said something to that. Something like, “Will that be a problem?” But she’d only made a statement. Until she asked a question, he wasn’t allowed to speak.
“If I were a painter, you’d be my muse,” she said. “You belong in oils on canvas.”
Not being allowed to say “thank you” to a compliment of that magnitude was mild torture.
She stroked his hair again. His eyes were open, but he couldn’t see her as she stood beyond the farthest edge of his peripheral vision. That explained partly why the curtains had to be closed. Otherwise he could have seen her reflection in the window.
She touched his forehead and now Kingsley felt the silk of gloves against his skin. Her touch was gentle, soothing, and the second he relaxed into it, she put a knife to his throat.
Kingsley froze.
“I don’t want to kill you,” she said.
That made two of them.
“Very good,” she said. “Even with a knife at your throat you hold your tongue. Someone’s trained you very well.”
Kingsley still did not speak. He knew he could overpower her if he needed to, but would she make a fatal stab first? Better to wait it out, behave, play along.
“Someone sent you to me. Who was it and what did he tell you?” she asked. “If you tell me even one lie I will slit your throat. And yes, I will know if you lie.”
She’d asked him one direct question. Therefore he was allowed to speak.
“I’m employed by an intelligence agency without a name,” he said. “French military. Officially unofficial. Leon isn’t my friend. He’s my commanding officer’s nephew. They think you’re holding him against his will. They asked me to get him out. If he wants out.”
“Leon is your commanding officer’s nephew,” she repeated, sounding amused. “So that’s the game, is it?”
“I don’t care about the boy,” he said. Kingsley wasn’t sure what she meant by “the game.” He hoped he lived long enough to find out.
“Then why did you come here?”
“My own reasons.”
“You wish to serve, do you?”
Kingsley whispered, “Yes.”
8th Circle Press is a Lexington, Kentucky-based publisher of literary friction, publishing the work of international bestseller Tiffany Reisz, New York Times bestseller Andrew Shaffer, and others.
*Interview and excerpt provided by 8th Circle Press along with a galley copy of The Chateau for review.