NaNo Day 5:
SS-2—3017 words

Writing Kink 

When my editor sent out a call for submissions for kink stories, I wasn’t quite sure how kink was defined. I discussed it with her and determined that kink was turning something non-sexual into something that aroused and titillated. Think shoe fetish or foot fetish. Or Seinfeld’s George Constanza and his velvet couch. Disturbing images of a naked George Constanza on a purple velvet sofa aside, the idea of writing kink intrigued me.

As an avid watcher of HBO’s Real Sex and Billie Piper in Diary of a Call Girl, I’d seen some pretty kinky stuff. I’d also read Anne Rice’s Beauty Trilogy which turned me on more than I cared to admit. Some of those scenes still play out in my head.

I enjoy the psychology of sex. And delving into characters whose psyches had been twisted, resulting in the association of everyday events or things with sex fascinated me to no end. But as a plain vanilla bonne vivante in real life, I realized one doesn’t have to participate in kink or bdsm to enjoy reading about it. 

For my first foray into the steamy, taboo world of kink, I drew on my own memories of playing doctor with the kid next door. To this day, a sexy nurse stars in many of my fantasies. Research revealed that more people than I ever dreamed of not only fantasized about medical fetish scenarios, but acted on them!

After two failed marriages, Avery Walker is encouraged by her therapist to explore her secret obsession. She can’t get off without fantasizing about submitting to intimate examinations—performed by a hot female nurse. When she joins a medical fetish website, she expects to find a partner who’ll provide a little probing and maybe some sexual release to help Avery get in touch with her kinky side. 

Then she meets Nurse Lovette… 

The consummate professional, Darby Lovette is determined to keep her relationship with Avery one of nurse and patient—nearly impossible when the gorgeous woman is on the exam table, willingly submitting to unspeakably intimate “procedures”. The fact that she’s loved and lost helps Darby maintain her resolve; falling in love isn’t part of her treatment plan. But Avery’s determination to explore sex with a woman just might be the cure for what ails them both. 

Reader Advisory: This book employs myriad toys created especially for erotic exams, no holes barred, and, ahem…perhaps a sensual enema—or two.

Surprised by how well Nurse Lovette was received by my readers, I probed into the world of kink again after reading Adele Dubois’ She’s Furry Yiffy, in the She-Shifters anthology, and seeing an episode on a crime drama about people who enjoyed dressing up as various critters to be treated as pets. The kink is called pet play and I drew on it for Purr, a lesbian historical about Katzenhalle, sort of a home for wayward women that’s ruled by a dominatrix who requires her charges to dress as cats and do all manner of kinky things.

Having been caught kissing a servant girl, Arabella suddenly finds herself shackled and bound for Katzenhalle Villa, where she expects to be forced into servitude. Instead, she discovers the mansion is home to other young women with Sapphic penchants—and good behavior is rewarded with kittenhood. All who reside at the villa dream of donning cat ears and tails and earning status as one of the mistress’s “pets”. 

There’s one caveat. Romantic entanglements are strictly forbidden, and this poses a problem when Arabella catches the eye of a favored pet, Giselle. 

Risking discovery, the women indulge their mutual desire, heated looks escalating to thrilling touches with fingers, mouths…tongues. Until Arabella discovers things are not as purr-fect as they seem at Katzenhalle. While breaking the rules may see them punished, the treachery of falling in love may come at a fatal price. 

Reader Advisory: The kittens of Katzenhalle can’t get enough hedonistic sexual attention. They enjoy female/female sex, light BDSM, ménages, multiple partners and even the occasional sensual enema. Meow!

***CONTEST*** Share your fetish fantasy or comment about kink to be entered in a drawing to win a free download of my latest Ellora’s Cave release, Purr!

Intrigued? If you’d like to read more, visit my website at https://Paisley-Smith.com

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About the Author

I’m Paisley Smith! I am a full time freelance writer and can usually be found in front of my computer either writing, chatting, promoting or plotting. It’s a glamorous life…working in one’s pajamas.

I attended college in the Deep South where I obtained a slew of totally useless degrees and developed an unrelenting sense of humor.

My books can be found at Ellora’s Cave , Loose Id, and Cleis Press!

I’m a member of Romance Writers of America.

NaNo Day 4:
SS-2—3406 words

If the only reason you are here is to find out who won the Amazon Gift Card Contest, keep reading…

Sunday Report Card

If you look at the top of the last three days’ blogs, you’ll see some bright blue lettering that is impossible to miss! It’s my NaNoWriMo progress. I figure if I have to report my progress in a very public fashion, I’ll be less inclined to blow it off. There are no days off for me this month. I must complete a minimum of 50,000 words (preferably 65,000, because that’s what I need to finish my novel!). This would be an entirely doable goal if I didn’t have a trip to DC planned for next week. Yeah, stupid me decided she HAD to travel, by car, to visit family in the middle of her busiest writing month of the year!

There’ a newborn I’m dying to see. Plus if I hadn’t said I’d go, the Red-Headed Hellion would have gone by herself, and that’s not happening, so I have to figure out how to meet my writing goals even though a big fat chunk of time is excluded from my available writing days. Let’s do the math. My book needs 65,000 words. As of this morning, I have 4611 words, so that means I have to write another 60,389 words. Divide that total by the number of writing days I have left and…holy crap! I have to write 2875 words over 21 days. Okay, now I’m feeling a little queasy.

It’s possible. Maybe I won’t have a single sick day. Maybe my family will leave me completely alone during WRITING TIME. Maybe.

That’s the goal. Let’s see how I do. If you see me slacking up—nag, nag, nag!!!

BTW. This past Monday through Thursday, I wrote a short story for my super alpha anthology for Cleis (4700 words), and completely edited and shipped it off to my “handler” at Cleis. Cross your fingers she loves it.

That’s all the writing news. Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s peek inside A Perfect Trifecta, which is releasing in 9 days! See how I got that plug in? I’m tricky like that.

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The Winner

So back to the winner of that contest…

The winner (by random number generator) of the Amazon Gift Card Contest is…Rita Wray (Oct 30)! Rita, send me an email to let me know you saw this. Congratulations!

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The DC Kitschy Contest!

What can you win? I don’t know! When I go to DC, I will look around for some suitably kitschy DC tourist thing (a snow globe? a pencil shaped like the Washington Monument?), and that will be the prize. Aren’t you dying to win something you have no clue what it will be? Yay!

What do you have to do to win? Post comments on this blog from now until the contest ends! Each time you post counts as another entry!

This contest ends on November 15th!

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While I’m gone, starting Wednesday, I will have a slew (what does that mean?!) of wonderful guests and some pre-posted blogs of mine, so be sure to drop in, post a comment and make the guests feel welcome while you enter for that surprise prize! Love ya. Have pages to write! Outtie.

I am woefully behind on mailings—something I promise to remedy this weekend. Here that, assistant? She’s grumbling, because I have a stack of things for her to prepare for mailing. All of which means, I’m reluctant to pull something cool from my promo gifts stash for a new contest. Whatever I do has to be something emailable (is that a word?!). Satisfied with my choice?

Amazon Gift Card Contest!

What can you win? One $20.00 Amazon.com gift certificate!

What do you have to do to win? Post comments on this blog from now until the contest ends! Each time you post counts as another entry!

This contest ends on November 1st!

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The Question

If you could serve on the jury for any trial in history, which one would you choose?
From the Answer Guys

Just FYI! I’m participating in a Studio Art Tour this weekend with my mom, aunt, and daughter. We’ve spent months getting things ready to display and sell. Wish us luck! If you’d like to see what we’re doing, be sure to check out my Facebook page this weekend. We’ll be posting pics and giving updates. Should be fun! ~DD

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What’s Your Pet Peeve?

One of my pet peeves when I read is character names popping up all the time, even when it’s perfectly clear who is talking or thinking.

Of course every character has to have a name, and I’ve nothing against them. Most of the time. When they’re used so often they whack me over the head while I’m reading an otherwise dynamite story is when I want to remind the author there are such little words as personal pronouns. And there are words of address other than people’s given names.

Whoever heard real conversations like this one?

“Mark, I’m gonna kill you.”
“Oh yeah? Go ahead and try, Sal.”

More likely it would sound more like this:

“Motherfucker, I’m gonna kill you,” Sal said.
“Oh yeah, asshole? Go ahead and try.”

Or this, as a hot sex scene’s coming to a close?

“Oh, Susie, I’m gonna come.”
“David, don’t stop!”

Try, “Oh, baby, I’m gonna come.”
“God yes.. Don’t stop!”

My point is that people don’t usually address each other by name. In fight scenes, they’re more likely to toss in the occasional epithet, and in sex scenes they’ll use pet names or endearments—or nothing at all.

Now I’m not totally prejudiced against using names—occasionally in one-on-one scenes, to remind the reader what the characters’ names are. It’s necessary to use them more often in scenes where there are more than two characters, or where the two characters in the scene are of the same sex. More often, when the character’s voice is strong enough, it isn’t necessary to identify him or her by name more than once or twice during a two-person scene.

Overusing character names when they aren’t necessary for identification purposes sounds unnatural in dialogue and reeks of “telling” instead of “showing” in narrative. It pulls me straight out of stories I’d otherwise be devouring and makes me want to toss the books they’re in—into the nearest wall or at the author, if only he or she were handy.

He, she, him, her, his, her—these are short, sweet stand-ins for names. Authors should use these personal pronouns often, whenever there’s not the least doubt as to who the POV character is thinking about. That’s pretty darn often in scenes where the hero and heroine are alone together. I recently read a sex scene—an otherwise very steamy, yummy sex scene—where my guess is that the two participants said or thought each other’s names at least several hundred times. Those names got me where I was ready to scream for mercy before the scene was done.

Unnecessary use of character names is one of my pet peeves. Tell me what jumps off the pages of books and knocks you out of the scene when you’re reading in a comment, and I’ll put your name in the hopper for a free download of my latest Caden Kink book, SHOTGUN RELATIONS, as soon as it’s released on September 21.

Ann Jacobs
https://annjacobs.net

Like me on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AnnJacobsAuthor
Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/authrannjacobs

Book Clubs and “Dirty” Books

Delilah, thanks so much for inviting me here in my new incarnation as Savanna Fox (also writing as Susan Fox and Susan Lyons).

Do you belong to a book club? I always wanted to, and so, years ago, I started one. I invited three friends and we each invited one more friend, so we started with eight members. We’ve gone through a few evolutions, but we’re still going strong. I love my book club! We take turns choosing books and there are NO RULES!! The books can be literary fiction, commercial fiction, non-fiction. We discuss them over dinner, and look for a restaurant that suits the theme of the book – e.g., when we read “The Paris Wife,” of course we had to eat delicious French food. (And drink French wine. Can’t forget about the wine part of the club!)

I’ve heard that many book clubs are a little, shall we say, stuffy and pretentious. If a book isn’t literary fiction – preferably a prize winner or an Oprah Book Club selection – then it’s beneath consideration. It’s really interesting to me that a lot of clubs are now choosing “Fifty Shades of Gray,” I think because of the huge buzz about the book. Seems to me, it’s not typical of what most clubs have chosen in the past.

However, that choice fits perfectly with an idea I had two or three years ago, when clubs were mostly reading literary fiction. Nothing against those books, but they aren’t always a lot of fun. And we deserve to have fun sometimes, right? That’s the idea that got me thinking about the Dirty Girls Book Club. Imagine a group of women sitting around, discussing the latest weighty, yawn-worthy tome, and one asks, “Is there a rule that says a book club can’t ever read anything fun?” Another chimes in with, “Or sexy? What’s wrong with sexy?”

That’s my premise, and of course the club in my book votes to read a sexy book, in this case “The Sexual Education of Lady Emma Whitehead.” Now comes the second part of my premise. Each time the club chooses a sexy book, one of the members has a personal sexual – and romantic! – journey that in some ways parallels that in the book.

In the first book, “The Dirty Girls Book Club” (Berkley Heat), Georgia Malone is a widow like Lady Emma. Emma was in an arranged marriage to a much older man who, to put it bluntly, sucked in bed. She has no idea that sex could be pleasurable. Georgia’s marriage was a love match and she and her husband adored each other. For her, sex was transcendent because it was a joining of bodies and souls – and yet, she never actually had an orgasm.

Lady Emma allows herself to be seduced by a suave, sexy French count. The only new man in Georgia’s life is the figurehead for her new marketing campaign – hockey star, Woody Hanrahan. He’s totally masculine and rough around the edges, and somehow she has to transform him, to make him more suave without erasing his sexy masculine edge.

Complicating matters is the fact that she has an inexplicable, unprecedented reaction to him: arousal. Though he’s certainly no sophisticated seducer like Lady Emma’s count, Georgia can’t resist the opportunity to experience the kind of physical pleasure she never believed she was capable of. And Woody is more than happy to take on her sexual education!

But of course, it’s never that simple, is it? It turns out, there’s more to Woody than meets the eye, and soon it’s not only Georgia’s body that’s turned on, it’s her heart. Do they get their happy ending? Well, I do write romance, after all!

If you’ve read my books before, you know that my mind tends to work in series, and so of course it’s my plan that the other club members will have their own sexy, romantic journeys as the club chooses more erotic selections.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about book clubs. Do you belong to one? What kinds of books do you read and how do you choose them? What type is your favorite? What do you get out of belonging to your book club? And if you don’t belong to one but would like to, why don’t you start one of your own?

I’m giving away an autographed copy of “The Dirty Girls Book Club” to someone who comments.

You can find an excerpt and purchase links on my website:  https://www.susanlyons.ca I’m also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SusanLyonsFox

Savanna Fox

Adele Dubois Goes Wild

–CONTEST ALERT!–

I’ve always had a wild streak. Before I became a wife and mother, my adventurous spirit sometimes turned reckless. In the names of fun and excitement, I didn’t always think through my choices. When I look back at some of the risks I’ve taken, I thank my lucky stars the cosmos threw a blanket of protection over me. I reached adulthood mostly in one piece, though my heart might say otherwise.

These days, I’m as domesticated as a house cat. My most reckless choice on a Friday night might be to drink a wine cooler with pizza instead of iced tea. Still, that wild child inside me longs to come out and play. Most of the time, I ignore that voice, but every once in a while I give in to my adventurous nature. Those impulses have taken three predominant forms. First, I refuse to tame my naturally curly hair. Second, I drive a convertible with the top down unless it’s raining, freezing, or snowing. Third, I forged a career as a romance author and will write stories until I have none left to tell.

When the opportunities came along to submit to the Cleis Press and Delilah Devlin anthologies GIRLS WHO BITE and SHE-SHIFTERS, my wild child soul shouted, “Count me in!” Here were chances to experiment with something entirely new, where I could be as adventurous as I wanted to be. I have to say, writing vampire and shape-shifter duel heroines is the most fun I’ve had in a while.

If you think erotic F/F stories aren’t for straight women, I hope you’ll reconsider. A whole new world opened to me as both a writer and a reader with GIRLS WHO BITE and SHE-SHIFTERS.

Here’s a taste of my steamy short story “She’s Furry Yiffy.” Available separately, only .99 at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. You might like my story so much you’ll want to buy the whole SHE-SHIFTERS anthology. And GIRLS WHO BITE too!

Question: Are you, or have you ever been, a wild child? Or are you the more sedate type? Tell us a little about yourself in the comments section. One person will win a PDF copy of my steamy short story “The Crystal Altar” from GIRLS WHO BITE.

SHE’S FURRY YIFFY

A hot-bodied shape-shifter finds more than a hook-up at an X-rated Fur Con.

Excerpt:

“Mundanes aren’t supposed to be in here,” a masculine voice said behind Anika. His tone sounded more flirtatious than threatening. Furries had a reputation for friendliness, so he was probably harmless. She’d learned that, and the lingo, the first time she worked a Fur Con, months before her life-changing event.

Anika turned toward the man dressed in moose costume from the neck, down, and forced a polite smile. He wore long thick antlers over his neatly cut brown hair, possibly to signal a YIFF looking for a good time. Fur Con XXX was for mature conventioneers looking for fun and hook-ups; unlike the family-friendly Furry events held elsewhere.

Anika touched her tongue to her bottom lip. She could almost taste the animal he pretended to be, but not in the way he might wish.

“She obviously works here, idiot,” the wolf-clad male next to him replied. “Can we get drinks?” He gave her a friendly tailwave with the long gray plume he pulled from behind his back. “That is, unless you’re feeling yiffy. Blue-eyed blondes with great legs and big, uh.are my weakness.”

Anika knew he wasn’t referring to the YIFF acronym. Yiff in its many grammatical forms had its root in one word. Sex.

She eyed the faux wolf and noted the SPH, strategically placed hole, in his costume. Not a chance. She hadn’t had sex with a guy since high school, and had been mostly celibate since Lori moved to Seattle eight months ago for a job promotion. The move was a transparent excuse to break up with her following Anika’s attack in the woods.

What hurt most was that Lori didn’t deny the abandonment. “I can’t handle it,” was all she would say. She’d refused to make eye contact before she walked out the door. Anika had been inconsolable for weeks afterward.

Since then, she’d been alone, but her need for companionship had become a painful ache that tormented her night after lonely night. Her rare one-night stands had been disasters of epic proportions. The women had run from her house and refused to return her calls. There simply weren’t many choices for a lesbian with her particular new… penchants.

Available for .99 on Amazon! Available for .99 on Smashwords! Available for .99 on B&N!

Buy SHE’S FURRY YIFFY on Amazon!
Buy SHE-SHIFTERS on Amazon!

Two things to remember!
1) A comment here today for Maggi Andersen earns you a chance to be one of five Voodoo Doll Contest winners TOMORROW!
2) It’s not too late to follow me as I continue on my book blog tour! The prizewinner won’t be announced until the day after the tour ends! Here’s where I’ve been and where I will be today!
September 24:  My Odd Little World
September 25:  The Brunette Librarian
September 25:  Delighted Reader Book Reviews
September 26:  SnifferWalk

Book Title: A Baron in her Bed
Author: Maggi Andersen
Series: The Spies of Mayfair Series
Genre: Historical Romance (Regency Romance)
Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
Paperback/Ebook
Expected Publication: September 6^th, 2012

Book Description:

“London, 1816. A handsome baron. A faux betrothal. And Horatia’s plan to join the London literary set takes a dangerous turn. Now that the war with France has ended, Baron Guy Fortescue arrives in England to claim his inheritance, abandoned over thirty years ago when his father fled to France after killing a man in a duel. When Guy is set upon by footpads in London, a stranger, Lord Strathairn, rescues and befriends him. But while travelling to his country estate, Guy is again attacked. He escapes only to knock himself out on a tree branch. Aspiring poet Horatia Cavendish has taken to riding her father’s stallion, “The General”, around the countryside of Digswell dressed as a groom. She has become bored of her country life and longs to escape to London to pursue her desire to become part of the London literary set. When she discovers Guy lying unconscious on the road, the two are forced to take shelter for the night in a hunting lodge. After Guy discovers her ruse, a friendship develops between them. Guy suspects his relative, Eustace Fennimore is behind the attacks on his life. He has been ensconced in Rosecroft Hall during the family’s exile and will become the heir should Guy die. Horatia refuses to believe her godfather, Eustace, is responsible. But when Guy proposes a faux betrothal to give him more time to discover the truth, she agrees. Secure in the knowledge that his daughter will finally wed, Horatia’s father allows her to visit her blue-stocking aunt in London. But Horatia’s time spent in London proves to be anything but a literary feast, for a dangerous foe plots Guy’s demise. She is determined to keep alive her handsome fiance, who has proven more than willing to play the part of her lover even as he resists her attempts to save him.”

Purchase Links:

Pre-Order Amazon: : https://www.amazon.com/Baron-Her-Spies-Mayfair-Series/dp/1908483342/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340246757&sr=8-2&keywords=a+baron+in+her+bed

About the Author:

Maggi Andersen and her lawyer husband are empty nesters, living in the countryside outside Sydney with their cat and the demanding wildlife. Parrots demand seed, possums fruit, ducks swim in the stream at the bottom of the garden, and the neighbors chickens roam their yard providing wonderful eggs. She began writing adventure stories at age eight. Three children, a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree later, her novels are still filled with adventure and suspense, but are also passionate romances. Georgette Heyer among others, brought inspiration to her seductive Regencies .

Find Maggi Andersen at:

Website: https://www.maggiandersenauthor.com/
Blog: https://maggiandersen.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @maggiandersen