One of the best things about writing fiction is that it gives you a great way to act out a lot of your most cherished fantasies. We all wanted to be different things when we were growing up. The first thing I really dreamed of doing was being an archaeologist, until I realised that meant I’d have to dig up dead people, which rather put me off the idea. But, like lots of other people, I harboured fantasies of being a rock star. Go on, admit it, you’ve done it yourself – playing air guitar in your bedroom to your favourite song, or using a microphone as a hairbrush. Even though it was never going to happen, I loved the idea of getting up on stage and singing my heart out, while an adoring audience screamed my name. And the fact rock stars have been known to get up to all kinds of kinky, sexy things with an array of willing groupies – well, that can only add a little extra gloss to the fantasy.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have met a few people who’ve made their living in rock bands, including one of my very biggest idols, who was just as charming (and hot!) as I hoped he’d be, but my dreams of singing have mostly been restricted to getting up and doing a spot of karaoke every now and then. But when I gave up the day job and started writing full time, one of the storylines in my bulging ideas file revolved around the erotic adventures of a rock band – and when Total-e-bound put out a submissions call for a collection of ménage tales with a musical theme, I was there like a shot.!

I have to admit that part of the inspiration for Three-part Harmony, the story that made it into the Treble anthology and is now available as a standalone tale, came from a documentary I saw a couple of years back on Fleetwood Mac. It’s well known that they’ve had what could be described as a tangled series of love affairs within the band – just about everyone in what you’d call their classic line-up has either married or had a fling with one of the other members, but that documentary really outlined the ups and downs, the passions and the heartaches they experienced. And I knew that while truth can be stranger than fiction, when your imagination runs wild, you can create a band whose relationships are even more closely entwined. I’ve longed to unleash my inner Stevie Nicks (that voice, that songwriting talent, that extensive crushed velvet wardrobe…) and in Aimee Caine, the heroine of Three-part Harmony, I did just that, having as much fun creating the song lyrics for Aimee and her husband, Stefan’s, band Sweet Lies as I did rocking the couple’s world by adding hot new guitarist Jake Anderson to their line-up. Which was when things got very deliciously complicated – and boy, was it fun to write!

If you like the sound of Three-part Harmony, why not try the whole Treble anthology, which also includes stories by Lily Harlem, Imari Jade, Lisabet Sarai, Wendi Zwaduk and, of course, the very wonderful Ms Desiree Holt herself. And you’ll discover why bringing your hidden rock star out to play is such fun. And of course, all I have to do now is go right back in my past and unearth those archaeology fantasies, just to see what might happen…

Three-part Harmony blurb: 
When guitarist Mark Deans quits Sweet Lies the week before their concert tour is due to start, it looks like the end of the band, but singer Aimee and her husband Stefan have worked too hard to let that happen. The answer lies in Jake Anderson, who blows them away when he auditions to replace Mark. He’s cute, talented-and twelve years younger than Aimee-but there’s an instant attraction between them.

Even though she loves her husband deeply, she knows it’s only a matter of time before she and Jake end up in bed together-the same way she destroyed her relationship with Mark by tumbling into bed with Stefan. What she doesn’t expect is that when it happens, Stefan will not only give his blessing, but make the twosome a threesome by acting on his own desire for Jake…

Excerpt: 
In turn, each auditionee was ushered into the rehearsal room. Almost all of the twelve were ushered out almost as swiftly. The majority of them were session musicians, who would play for anyone as long as the money was right. They had the notes down pat, but there was no real passion in their playing, no sense they were interested in being part of the band long term. We might as well take a digital recorder holding all Mark’s guitar licks on stage with us for all they brought to the party.

More impressive were the two guys from the tribute acts. They cared about the music, and we knew they’d both be thrilled to be a part of the band, but Stefan’s words about the weirdness of taking on a Mark Deans lookalike still rang in my head. I honestly didn’t know whether I could spend so much time around someone who was almost Mark…but not quite. Still, given what we’d already heard, we were convinced one of the two would become our new guitarist.

Then the last man walked into the room, and my heart missed a beat. He couldn’t have looked less like Mark, with dirty-blond hair that fell in shaggy waves to his shoulders and a deep cleft in the point of his stubbled chin. In his mid-twenties, he was by some distance the youngest person we’d auditioned today. And when he opened his mouth, his accent placed him from somewhere on the west coast of the United States. Yet the reaction I experienced on his arrival was every bit as powerful as the first time I’d seen Mark. I knew with absolute certainty that one day very soon, we’d end up in bed together.

I didn’t know whether Stefan saw the flush rising to my cheeks as I watched the newcomer shrug out of a well-worn leather jacket that appeared to be older than he was. Beneath it, he wore a sleeveless black T-shirt revealing honey-tanned, muscular arms. An intricate piece of knotwork circled his left bicep. I wondered whether that was the only tattoo he had, or whether there was something else, in a more intimate place where no one but his lovers would ever see it…

Elizabeth Coldwell blog link: http://elizabethcoldwell.wordpress.com