Monday, September 22, 2014

MEWR (Mid Atlantic Erotica Writer's Retreat)

the tiny bookstore where the signing occurred
First of all, Congrats to Chuck Parker, who won the Advanced Reader's Copy of Blues; thanks to everyone who went, helped out Sommer, and participated.

So, this weekend, I went to my first ever book signing, and a writer's retreat.

That was exciting.

Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, hosted Rose Caraway, Kristina Wright, and I for the release of the Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica. (if you weren't able to make the party and you want an autographed copy, the three of us signed a bunch of books, so you can still get one!)

(I know, I'm not on the webpage list, but I was there, and it was fun!)

may very well qualify as a #1 fan
We had a little twerk where the UPS guy was late delivering books, but they did eventually come in, and it was nice to see a huge stack of them out on tables.

Quite a number of people dropped in, chatted, got their books signed, including this lady here who flew all the way from Canada just to meet us! Wow!

After the book signing, we went out for drinks and lunch at the Tobacco Company Restaurant, one of the more famous eateries around those parts, and chatted. Rose, Nickie, and I headed off to our writer's retreat, Kristina and Michael (so glad I finally got to meet him - he's hilarious - among other things, we share some antho credits, including Lustfully Ever After) headed home.

The retreat was pretty much on the other side of Richmond, and I gave Rose a lift - taxis are expensive! On the way over, I played Jonathon Coulton's First of May for her. It's kinda my thing, subjecting people to my musical tastes...


We got over there, picked up a couple more people, and went to dinner; I know, seems like we were eating all weekend; but both Rose and I had skipped breakfast, had bar-food and drinks as "lunch" and were still hungry. Not to mention that Nickie's husband, and we picked up Elizabeth L. Brooks and hit up a Mexican place for drinks and enchiladas.

here's a group of really really wrong horrible people
 Checked into the hotel, and this was my view from the 6th floor. We did a meet and greet from seven to 9pm, which was just chatting, getting our retreat badges, and planning the rest of the weekend. As MERW is on its first year, we really didn't have lots planned or firm...

After that, we all headed back to my suite for drinking and Cards Against Humanity...

This is the crew who played, minus TB Bond; I can't remember if she was late, or just skillfully dodged my picture taking.

Nobilis - the extremely tall dude in the pink shirt - recorded our game, so if you want to hear drunk erotica writers being horrible people, we'll probably have snippets, or maybe the whole, horrible thing online in the next few days. I'll keep you posted.

Saturday, Nobilis, AR Moler, and I went for a hike in nearby Bryant Park, which was pretty, if quite a bit more hilly than I was expecting; I live in a swamp, this inclined ground is weird...

The scenery was pretty; we saw a couple of herons, someone's dog that had slipped its leash, and a few frogs. AR and I had a bit of discussion about whether or not frogs and lizards were cool or awful. You probably already know which side of that discussion I'm on...

 After we made a tour of the park, we headed back to the hotel, where we did some silent group writing; 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off, 25 on, 5 off, and 25 on, before we broke up to get lunch. (What did I tell you, it seemed like I spent the whole weekend eating!)

Rose, Elizabeth, Nickie (and her husband) joined me for lunch, and we talked shop over soup, salad and sandwiches; also we found out that this is the first away from her kids vacation that Rose has had. EVER. So, double plus for her! She came all the way from California to spend the weekend with us, which is cool, and I'm so happy she could come.

After lunch, we met up in our conference room again, ended up discussing publishers, made a new contract (Whetting the Appetite will finally be available in a print edition! Yay! There will also be a few of those stories released in an audiobook format - keep an eye here and I'll let you know the details as soon as I get them.)

Despite the intense negotiations, thrills, and general conversation going on, I had my laptop out and managed another 1,000 words or so. I'm very close to crossing the 50,000 line marker on Classic. There was a slight panic when i thought about 2,000 words had vanished, but in checking some files and backups (yes, I'm paranoid about backups, remind me to tell you some day what happened to the first edition of Marked Man...) when I got home, I discovered what happened is that I'd trashed a chapter early on that I didn't like, but forgot to purge it off my word-count list, and I dumped the "trash" before I left for the con. So I'm somewhat behind where I thought I was in word count, but I didn't actually lose any content.

Rose went back to her room for "a few minutes" and fell into her writing cave, got some 7k words done and I hardly saw her again all weekend. Which was great! The whole idea of a writer's retreat is to get some work done.

Saturday evening, I went to dinner with a friend of mine from high school that I haven't seen since 1990 or so. Catching up was ... interesting. There's a lot going on in her life that it's not my privilege to share, but wow! People have such fascinating lives; it's interesting to see what's happened to people in that stretch of time.

Saturday night was a little more subdued; I had a few drinks, talked with Nobilis and his wife, and then headed to bed pretty early.

Which might have been a mistake, since I woke up at five bloody am on Sunday.

On the plus side, being wide awake and having no distractions, I opened my laptop again and got the introduction to Coming Together: Among the Stars written. I'll need to take a peek at it to revise, but I'm pretty happy with the general plan.

We had a klatch on Sunday to discuss plans for next year; I'm officially the social coordinator and web-mistress. We're going to extend our list of potential attendees by maybe 5 - 8 more writers. It's going to be kinda an invite only thing; we don't want to lose the intimacy of a small group, but if you're interested, you can contact me, and I'll put you on the list for consideration; erotica / LGBT / romance writers only! This is a retreat, not a conference. Networking is available, but not the focus, but there will also not be classes on writing, and while newbies can attend, we're not sure a newbie would get as much out of the experience as a more well-established writer.



Sunday, September 14, 2014

Sommer (time Blues)


Make with the clickie, donate some assistance for Sommer Marsden, one of my favorite writers, who is going through a really tough time right now...

If you can help, please do. If not, read around these blogs and check out the hot kisses (snogs - is it just me or does the British slang for making out sound more like a fluffy little monster than a kiss?) and spread the word...

Tweet or Facebook

Snog for Sommer! Enjoy the excerpts, win prizes and donate to help @sommer_marsden and family fight cancer! http://ht.ly/Ao8Lv


So, here's your Snog for today, a preview from Blues, sequel to my best-selling New Adult LGBT novel, Roll, which will be published in March, 2015...


Beau drew his lover into his arms, into a tight embrace. Vin's heart was frantic under Beau's fingertips, even through a jacket and vest and t-shirt, loud and anxious and throbbing. Beau ran his fingers through Vin's hair, product-perfect waves of highlighted medium brown. Vin smelled of fancy shampoo, cologne, smoke, and coffee. A rich, masculine scent that never failed to stir the swirl of wanting in Beau's belly.

"You know that I love you, right?" Vin said, his voice muffled against Beau's throat, breath warm. Beau was somewhat taller than his boyfriend, rested his chin on Vin's head, pulling him closer into the embrace, feeling the cold of the truck's side against his back where his shirt had rucked up.

"I know." And Beau did know that.

Vin tilted his head up and Beau kissed his forehead, the flat planes of each cheek. Vin opened his mouth, inhaled. Beau slid one hand around Vin's lower back, pulled him closer, the other hand going up to cup his chin, hold that teasing, torturous mouth just where he wanted it, thumb caressing the stubled skin of Vin's cheek. He descended on Vin's mouth, tasting the sweet flavor of tobacco. Soft kisses, easy and light, not giving in to Vin's wordless demands to thrust his tongue in. Nuzzling, play kisses, meant to drive his lover wild with wanting, until they were both so spun up in each other that nothing else mattered.

He couldn't hold out as long as he'd wanted; Ann-Marie's grief had upset him and Vin wasn't the only one who wanted some sort of reassurance. He deepened the kiss, his tongue plundering the depths of Vin's mouth, tasting, exploring, and then just plain fucking Vin's mouth with his own. The mingled sound of their harsh breathing, air rushing in and out of their lungs, was erotic and close. He could feel the cool exhale against his ear and throat. Beau slid his hand down, worked the thin t-shirt out of Vin's jeans, put both hands beneath to hold and grip that firm skin, caressing and eager. Vin reached up, grabbed a handful of Beau's hair and yanked, bringing a tingle of pain across Beau's scalp. He slid one thigh between Beau's, his cock hard and hot against Beau's leg.

Vin was eager, hurried. His hands cupped the back of Beau's neck, slid down his chest, found the buttons on his shirt and slid one out of the placket.

Beau shivered as cold air rushed in to fill the void, down along his chest and across his belly. His skin erupted in gooseflesh. "Jesus, it's cold out here," he muttered into Vin's ear.

"So?" Vin's clever, quick fingers found Beau's belt buckle and worked it, rubbing the heel of his hand against Beau's groin. The temptation of that hand was too much. Beau let his head loll back against the truck's window, staring up at the stars. Vin opened up Beau's fly, his fingers pressed inside, seeking, searching, finding. Oh, God.

###

I'm offering a copy of Roll to people who comment, plus - and here's the really nice bit - you will get an ADVANCED COPY of Blues to read before anyone else can! So, comment. Donate. Help out one of the best smut writers EVER...

(You do not have to donate to win... just comment. Those who donate and say so will get an extra entry... As a note, 6.15 pounds is ~$10 US. Paypal will do these calculations for you.)

Friday, September 12, 2014

Kisses!



Two more days, and I'll be giving you a kiss.... 

Just keep your eyes here, enter to win on Sunday, and everybody will be happy...

In the mean time, here's a sexy pic for you, to whet your appetite... 




Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Coming Together: Among the Stars Table of Contents

I've finally gotten all my contracts in house. I've been working on the edits for stories, and today I can finally announce the table of contents, since all my writers are signed on.

I'm so excited to say that. My writers.

Mine.

My precious....

Okay, maybe I'm a little obsessed. I've really been enjoying the process of making an anthology. It's new and different and exciting. I've got 21 stories here that range from really good to Oh my FUCKING God.... and I think you're going to love them as much as I do. Also, about a third of my writers are men, which is a pretty good mix for a genre (erotica) that tends to be highly female dominated.


Table of Contents

Introduction, "The Thrust of Curiosity; a little science friction..." - Lynn Townsend

Rose Caraway - Duali-Teaze
Annabeth Leong - Repair Mission
Lynn Townsend - Situation Normal
E.S. Wynn - A Matter of Taste
T.B. Bond - Getting Even
T.B. Bond - Love in a Space Elevator
Elizabeth Black - Longing
Zee Giovanni - Forbidden Goods of the Galaxy
Nobilis Reed - Birth of a Monster Whisperer
Essemoh Teepee - Gyozo's Mate
George Box - Yvette
Jade A. Waters - The Joy Ride
Nickie Jamison - S.E.T.H.
Elliot DeLocke - Sense-Think-Act 
Delilah Night - Love is a Virus 
V.L. Locey - Rose of High Barbary
Adrik Kemp - Of Gods and Men
 Skilja Peregrinarius - A Fully Functional Lo^ghi
Kathleen Tudor - Navigator
Elizabeth L. Brooks - Bleeding Red
Malin James - The Power of Positive Thinking