Beginning the Book Barrage

So, for the rest of the summer, you're going to get bombarded with my book releases...

Starting with this...

I first encountered Rose Caraway with the Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica (which was recently #1 in erotica e-books last week, and brought yours truly up to rank #8 in erotica writers...)

She was pretty excited to take my story, Full Frontal Neighbor, for that collection. It's still personally one of my favorite short stories that I've written.

For this anthology, which was originally supposed to be an audio only book (but there was some fuckedy crap with Amazon / Audible about it, and there had to be a print / ebook release, which meant that once Rose thought she was done with the book, she wasn't done with the book.... ) I wrote a story in a fever heat; three days from start to finish, which is pretty damn well miraculous for me, and I came up with In The Closet...

Which is not about what you probably think it's about.

It actually started with some conversation that went on in my Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming guild's chat... one of my guildies was talking about how her brother got a birthday blowjob in the closet during his party... which reminded me of my own encounter in a closet during a New Year's party... (as a note, I'm still working on a short story about that guy... it just hasn't quite jelled yet.) But I started thinking about sex in public places. I've written a few shorts that cover that topic... On the Fly, for instance, is about sex in the scenery rig at the theater. 

Of sex acts, exhibitionism always feels very risky. Not necessarily physical harm, but getting caught having sex in public is... never very good for your career / life. Which, of course, ups the amp factor while doing it. (Confession: I used to work for a trucking company, and I always wanted to sneak into one of the guy's trucks and do it in the back of the cab... never did... but wanted to.)

In the Closet combines sex in a public setting with a bit of extra naughty, because it's at a family gathering... 

“It's not,” Jordan said, “that I hate my step-mother. I don't.” He flipped the end of his silk tie around the cross, botched it again.

“Here, let me,” his wife, Lauren, said. She shifted up on her bare toes and secured the half Windsor. Lauren kissed his cheek, soft and warm. Her spicy perfume tickled his nose. “Sheila's a nice woman, she's wonderful, she loves your dad... I know. She also constantly forgets that this is your birthday, as well as her and Mike's anniversary. We'll celebrate your birthday later.”

“It's not her fault,” Jordan said. “They ran off together and got married in Vegas. It was a last minute decision. I don't think it occurred to either of them that it was my birthday.” That Mike's ten-year old son had been horrified to learn his father had gotten married on Jordan's birthday. 

“Who's side are you on?” Lauren asked. She fastened a tear-drop amethyst around her neck and set the matching earrings to dancing in her earlobes.

“I don't think there's a side here, really,” Jordan said. “I just -”

“Want your birthday to be special, for a change,” Lauren finished.

"Exactly.” Jordan laughed, self-conscious. “Heard this refrain before, have you?”

Lauren stepped into her black high heels, straightened Jordan's collar for him. “Your birthday is special, husband of mine,” she said. “It's the day that the universe set aside to make you perfect for me.”

“The universe has a very high opinion of you,” Jordan joked.

“I deserve it.”

“Yes, yes you do.” Jordan kissed his wife, a little more seriously than a peck on the cheek.

So, you can buy The Sexy Librarian's Dirty 30 (which I believe actually contains 32 stories) from Amazon as an ebook or from Audible, for your auditory pleasure...

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For Your Listening Pleasure

I work, sometimes in passing, with some insanely talented people.

I say "insanely" because they have this weird idea that I, too, am talented... anyway, as a result of working with some crazy writers and podcasters, I have two things of interest...

First off is Nobilis Reed's podcast, where my work has appeared before, for Ripped, now has one of my steampunk stories, Deep Breath, available...

Like steampunk? Submersibles? Robot Sharks? And sex up against the bulkhead? Then Deep Breath is for you. Read by Kristen Bays, who does my terrible dialect writing in glorious performance (seriously, I could NOT stop listening to this, it gives me chills...)

Deep Breath takes place in the same universe as London Steam (and the project-to-come, The Wormwood Trade), in a reimagined London, where Napoleon won the war and Britain is just returning to independence after the assassination of the Emperor's bride (yeah, yeah, back story that never really comes up, but I promise, after I write Wormwood Trade, it all fits together...)

Deep Breath appeared in Ladies of Steampunk magazine, the premier issue, inspired by the lovely photograph at the left there...

The original "idea" for the calendar was for people to write little short flash fiction to go with each month's Steampunk lady, but that fell through when not enough stories were submitted, and the calendar went forward without the stories. The calendar was popular enough that they decided to move to magazine publications, and thus the Ladies of Steampunk magazine was born.

My rights returned to me quite some time ago--but you can still get the premier edition of the magazine, if you want it. It's very lovely--and I hadn't really decided what I wanted to do with the story. Since it's still available in an eMag and print copies, I didn't think it necessary to publish it elsewhere. But Nobilis, who is a lovely person, a talented writer, and a good friend, has been doing podcasting for a while, and offered submissions to a writer's group we both belong to, and I sent in Deep Breath as something I had easily available.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

And then, for more listening enjoyment, Dead in the Water, my zombie story, will also be available in an audio format Real Soon Now...

Rose Caraway's Kiss Me Quick Podcast will be featuring Dead in the Water as its next episode, along with this crazy, sexy cover...

Dead in the Water originally appeared in Sommer Marsden's anthology, Coming Together: Hungry for Love, which featured a wide variety of sexy zombie stories... I love that collection, it's one of my pride and joys. I especially love it because I'd wanted to work with Sommer for a while--she is one of my idols in the erotica corner of the world... when I grow up, I want to be Sommer--and because I adore zombies.

The story was inspired by a sign in front of a boat shop that read "Zombies Can't Swim, Buy a Boat."

So I wrote a story about a group of refugees after the zombie apocalypse who'd taken shelter in a cluster of houseboats and yachts and lived out in the middle of a sheltered bay (okay, I'll be honest, it's set right in front of my parents' bayside cabin...)

In the course of writing the story, I realized that I absolutely didn't know what firing a handgun felt like, so I enlisted some help from a friend, went to a firing range, and actually did use a handgun for a while. I wouldn't say I'm good at it, and I'm still never sure if I enjoyed it or not, but I've been a few times since, and I'm no longer terrified of guns as objects. (I'm still terrified of idiots with guns, but I'm also terrified of idiots with cars, so you know, there's that.)

I really love this story, and I adore Rose. Can't wait to hear it... Take a listen, and let me know what you think...

The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica Book Tour

Sexy Librarian and two sexy writers

Most of my readers know this, but anyone who's stopping by for the first time, let me give you a little back ground on this Alpha to Omega picture.

Kristina Wright, lovely, talented, coffee-addict. I met her because I'm funny.

That always sounds weird to me. I'm amusing. I spent a good deal of time in my formative years being in the shadow of a very funny boyfriend. There was no possibility of feeling funny; in that relationship, my job was to laugh. And I did, quite a lot. Don't get me wrong, he was hilarious. Still is. We didn't part on great terms, but eventually we got to be friends again, and I'm grateful for it. But it's hard to be a candle when you're standing next to the spotlight.

I don't think of myself as funny. People say I'm amusing and I just look at them like... wha? Don't you know... and then I remember how very long ago that was... anyway, long aside.

Kristina Wright made my acquaintance because I was funny. She deliberately sought me out, engaged in conversation, and really started the entire friendship based on a silly comment I made about meeting my coffee supplier like a drug dealer in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. This has to be a first for me, since most of the friends I hang with are friendships that I sought out, I started. (Both Elizabeth Brooks and T.B. Bond are friends because I bothered them while they were reading...)

Once that friendship was established, I became one of her writers... I've published Garden Variety, Snake Dance, and Golden Moment with her, with a couple stories in the "pending publication" pile.

And Rose Caraway, ah the Sexy Librarian...

I'm often attracted to titles; I have, for instance, a CD in my collection called Rat Music for Rat People.

When I saw the call for Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica, I felt like I just had to be in it. What a great title, just fantastic. I thought, if I could get into this collection... the perfect moment. So, I submitted Full Frontal Neighbor, which was, quite frankly, a story that had taken over my brain, refused to leave me alone. I didn't have an antho in mind for it when I wrote it, it just demanded my attention and so I gave it the time it required.

I met Rose recently, you've seen the reports and Facebook and whatnot, talking about the Mid-Atlantic Erotica Writer's Retreat. (Which was so fun, and so very, very productive! I met great people, I made great contacts, I got some new contracts ad new ideas; be on the lookout for a new shifter story that I'm working on...)

Rose and I click really well. I adore her, she makes me laugh, and she just lights up the room. But not like my spotlight ex-boyfriend. She glows. And just being there, in the room, she makes everyone else and everything else shine. So incredibly enthusiastic (enough to inspire our Canadian fan to fly down just to meet her!) and talented, and incredibly generous with her spirit and energy. She's not like the sun, flying too close to Rose will bring out the best in you, not send you falling, Icarus-like, from the sky.

I love this book. Beautiful, wonderful, and delicious. (Confession, I'm still working my way through it; busy writer is busy...)

The card catalog, which everyone has mentioned, I just have to bring up again.

What a clever, brilliant, funny little idea.

I love the diversity of the stories contained within; the cards help you sort by what you want to read. I've always loved the themed antho - if I want to read a cowboy story, I know right where to go... but this was like a glorious, erotic, wondrous buffet table, filled with crystal display plates, each with its tempting little morsel. I can have a nibble here and a nibble there and go away feeling more satisfied than if I sat down and ate an entire serving of something.

And it's really nice to be alongside some of my favorite writers. Sommer Marsden, D.L. King, Tamsin Flowers, Rachel Kramer Bussel. And, of course, Kristina Wright, who gave me my start, encouraged me to submit, and has been one of my most favorite editors to work with...

One thing, however, that amuses me; while we were all at Fountain Bookstore, I completely forgot to get Kristina and Rose to sign MY copy of the Big Book... I may have been just a little star-struck.

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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.

Call for Submissions: Sexy Librarian

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