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The Casanova Papers
Ellie Murphy takes a contract teaching English at a school in Venice. There she meets the sexy, enigmatic Professor Piero Contarini, from an ancient Venetian family, and agrees to help him in his work curating a new edition of the memoirs of the famous seducer, Giacomo Casanova. Taking their task seriously, they start to enact his adventures with each other, ecstatically revealing their own kinks as they do so. But who is watching them from the shadowy alleyways of Venice?
Purchase Links
US - https://www.amazon.com/Casanova-Papers-Kate-Zarrelli-ebook/dp/B089T48ZW5/
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casanova-Papers-Kate-Zarrelli-ebook/dp/B089T48ZW5/
GUEST POST FOR CHEEKYPEES BLOG
Why write about Casanova – why not?
I decided to write a contemporary erotic romance inspired by the life of Casanova after I found a copy of his memoirs in a charity bookshop I volunteer for. He’s famous now as a lover but he was a lot more besides: librarian, gambler, poet and diplomat. He met Mozart, Voltaire, Catherine the Great of Russia and Benjamin Franklin amongst others. But really how good a lover was he? We’ve only got his word for it that he was, and it’s just possible he was good at seduction but not that brilliant at lovemaking, because
he doesn’t give many details away about the latter. It’s really the chase that interests him. A modern woman would probably say he was rubbish at relationships – I certainly would. Probably the only woman Casanova ever really loved was his grandmother. He died alone, far from home, not in a woman’s arms but in a chair in Count Waldstein’s castle in Bohemia, where the servants disrespected him. Even his burial place is unknown. But Casanova’s appeal for us is the appeal of any new sexual encounter – the novelty, the exploration, the conquest, even.
So I wondered, what would happen if a couple tried to relive his encounters, but only with each other, and in the romantic setting of Casanova’s native Venice? It’s a city where anything is possible, especially at Carnival, where everyone is in costume and wearing a mask, with only their glittering eyes and smiling mouths visible. We probably all of us, even in the most stable and happy relationships, have moments when we wonder ‘what if?’ Ellie Murphy and Piero Contarini, explore whether they can have the best of both worlds, whilst being true to each other. In the process, they discover each other’s kinks, and find that as a couple they are extraordinarily, deliriously compatible. This story does include scenes of exquisite consensual bondage and voyeurism – it’s definitely not for pearl-clutchers – in the varied settings of an artist’s studio, a modest pensione near the station, an abandoned army barracks, and a breathtaking piano
nobile apartment in a Renaissance palace on the Grand Canal – variety is definitely the spice.
Casanova’s memoirs run to several volumes, and they’ve been published over the years with some of the most deliciously erotic illustrations, which I touch on in the book. His travels took in Dresden, Prague, London, Paris, St. Petersburg…perhaps one day I’ll write a sequel in which Ellie and Piero continue their amorous role-playing in some of those cities!
Venice is a place I love, and so I didn’t need any excuse to go there again to check out the locations.
When I was revising the book later, it nearly broke my heart to see that vibrant city on webcam during lockdown, when the only living beings in St Mark’s Square were the pigeons. I hope that in reading The Casanova Papers you’ll decide, when it’s again safe to travel, that you want to pay a visit to Venice. And who knows what adventures might await you too in its mysterious alley-ways and by its glittering canals?
Author Bio – Kate Zarrelli is the romance and erotica pen-name of Katherine Mezzacappa. Kate is Irish but now lives in Carrara in Northern Tuscany, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea, with her Italian husband and two teenage sons. She is the author of Tuscan Enchantment (eXtasy: Devine Destinies). Kate/Katherine writes historical, erotic, feel-good and paranormal fiction, set all over Europe, and in her spare time volunteers with a used book charity of which she is a founder member.
Social Media Links – Twitter: @katmezzacappa
https://www.facebook.com/katezarrellibooks/
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