AUGUSTA, GA - Rhonda Leigh Jones doesn’t see “The Maestro’s Butterfly” as a vampire book.

“Even though there are vampires in the story, this is not a work of vampire fiction, per se,” Jones says. “I write about, I guess you could say, alternative sexuality. The thing that you’ll see over and over again in my stories is domination and submission.”

Jones, a former arts editor for Metro Spirit, published her first work of fiction last year after winning one of the prizes in the Metro Spirit Short Story Contest. “The Crimson Harlequin” explored a theme of domination and submission, though in a psychological sense.

Jones sets her novel “The Maestro’s Butterfly” in the CSRA, an area which she has known her entire life. She’s a graduate of the Academy of Richmond County and Augusta College.

She has been writing fiction since she was 12, when she dashed off a couple of ghost stories.

“Stephen King was my favorite writer,” she said. “I was going to be a horror writer, I thought.” She pauses and smiles. “I almost did that.”

She started writing “The Maestro’s Butterfly” eight years ago and sent it to more than 200 agents. “I saved all my rejection notes. I have a nice big stack of them.”

When no one offered her a contract, she moved on to the next book in the series. “To me writing is the important thing,” she said.

Then, while she was living in Romania, an agent tracked her down. Lori Perkins had been given the book by one of her friends. “Lori handles a lot of women’s erotica,” Jones said.

Perkins told Jones she loved “The Maestro’s Butterfly.” As Jones recalled, Perkins said “It was hot.”

Perkins was involved in creating Ravenous Romance, which publishes books electronically. “I got in on the ground floor.”

When Ravenous opened its operations in December, “The Maestro’s Butterfly” was the second book offered. Jones is under contract to write two more books.

In the novel, a French expatriate named Claudio bets his music student Miranda that if she spends 30 days on his Hephzibah estate she won’t ever want to leave. Miranda doesn’t know that Claudio is a vampire. “He’s the most Ricean of my vampires,” Jones said.

Claudio is the leader of a musical quartet, as well, which brings two downtown Augusta locations into play: the Imperial Theatre and Le Chat Noir.

In the world of “The Maestro’s Butterfly,” vampires don’t kill to eat. “I thought it would be more interesting if there was more of a relationship between the vampire and the person he feeds from, if the feeding could a part of the sex act and also alter the person in such a way that they’re drawn to their vampire,” Jones said. Therein lies the domination and submission.

“Miranda, the heroine, is at war with herself over the desire to be dominated by a man, which isn’t a very PC way to live.”

“The Maestro’s Butterfly” by Rhonda Leigh Jones is available for download at ravenousromance.com. Novels are $4.99 to download. Audiobooks can be downloaded for $12.99.

On Thurs., Dec. 13, Rhonda will interview one of the characters from her book, asking him 13 questions. You can see the interview on her blog at rhondaleigherotica.blogspot.com.