I’d like to welcome Justine Elyot to Filthy Friday. She shares some insight into the choice of location and subject for her bittersweet story in Smut by the Sea. Take it away, Justine!
An End of the Pier Affair by Justine Elyot
I knew when I saw the call for Smut By The Sea that I had to send something in. I live in a seaside town, after all. My problem came in deciding which of the many and varied aspects of resort life I wanted to include in my story.
In the end, I found my inspiration at the end of the pier. Every self-respecting seaside town has its Winter Gardens or its Pavilion – the palace of delights built to entertain the summer masses during the sultry evenings of their holiday. An ‘end of the pier show’ is part of the British lexicon, describing a mix and match variety performance of cruise-ship singers, spangly-tight-wearing dance troupes and comedians unsuitable for younger audiences. (‘If easily offended, please stay away,’ the handbills often recommend.)
A lot of these theatres are in financial difficulty now. A night out at a show is no longer an integral part of the British seaside experience – besides, the camping and caravan sites offer their own on-site entertainment for nothing. The summer revenues can’t pay for maintenance of the draughty, ageing buildings. I went backstage at my local specimen earlier this year and was shocked by the dilapidated state of the dressing rooms and corridors. The ‘famous names’ aren’t so famous any more. As my opening paragraph says: “There was a saying in the business that you played Goldsands Winter Gardens twice in your career – once on the way up, once on the way down. This was Mark’s second appearance there.”
The male protagonist of my story, Love In The Low Season, is a faded singer, once popular, now only able to make a bare living in cabaret-style shows at obscure provincial venues. He’s exactly the kind of man who appears in front of eight people on a Wednesday night in February at my local theatre, poor fellow. But I appreciate him, and I appreciate the efforts that are made to keep these places open.
More and more of them are closing every year. I hope mine won’t be next.
Find out more about Justine at http://justineelyot.com
Light hearted, sexy fun by the sea is the theme of this erotic anthology, edited by Victoria Blisse and Lucy Felthouse.
From the sun soaked bays of Australia to the rainy coastal towns of England, Smut by the Sea has it all. Whatever your interpretation of naughty seaside fun, there’s something nestling between the covers for you. Surfer boys, sea creatures, pirates and the fairground abound in this exciting collection of stories from erotica’s finest authors.
Here’s a saucy snippet from 
But no, this story has nothing to do with having sex in car parks, flashing lights, etc. Instead, it has to do with a super cute fairground worker and the girl that sets out to seduce him. It’s set in my favourite seaside town–and the one I know best–Hunstanton, which is in Norfolk, East England. It’s a really nice Victorian town with a mix of beautiful buildings and gardens, spectacular beaches and cliffs, and the usual seaside stuff of amusement arcades, fish and chip shops, crazy golf and funfairs. My story, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, has to do with the fairground, and also the cliffs.
When Victoria came up with the idea of the anthology and asked me to co-edit and contribute, I immediately fell to thinking about the seaside for inspiration. I could have used a foreign beach for a location, but I wanted to write something very British which captured the light-hearted meaning of ‘smut’ and also was very sea-related, if that makes sense. So, I thought about the seaside town in the UK that I know best, and lo and behold, an idea came to me. Sadly, the hot male character is completely fabricated–I’ve never seen a hot guy working at the fair there–and so is the entire situation. But the location is very real, and I’m sure people (not me!) have really had sex on that beach. So it won’t take much imagination to picture the happenings in my naughty story.
Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:
My second release today is 
Here’s a saucy snippet from 
‘Danatoni’s’, the ice cream parlour in my story is based on my childhood memories of another ice cream parlour, ‘Morelli’s’ in Broadstairs, a seaside town in the south east of the UK, also famous for its association with a rather more illustrious writer, Charles Dickens. I love ice cream. When I read through my story and came to the description of the character Darren, ”stood, goggle-eyed and drooling, gazing at the ice cream looking like a pervert let loose in the red light district of Amsterdam” I suddenly realised, oh my god, that’s me, I do that! Darren returns with his girlfriend, Keeley, to the ice cream parlour he remembers from his childhood and that’s where the fun really starts.
Sorry, I’m digressing. Now, of course this was why Morelli’s was such an inspiring place for a kid. Genuine Italian ice cream parlours were a pretty rare occurrence when I was growing up and this one was amazing with a choice of flavours that was mind boggling to a child brought up on Arctic Roll (hands up who remembers that!). And of course, just like Danatoni’s in my story, Morelli’s made damned fine ice cream! This was clearly one of my formative childhood experiences, which is why I simply had to pay homage to it in my story. So folks, will it be one scoop or two?
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