Rachel Kramer Bussel's Blog, page 101
March 20, 2013
5 free audio stories from Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex narrated by Rose Caraway
The amazing Rose Caraway has done it again! She's the narrator of
Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
Audible audiobook and has generously made five stories available free! Listen below (the embedded players should work but if they don't for some reason, the links above them should). A huge thank you to her and everyone who's listened and purchased Audible audiobooks - I know how many of you there are because I am part of their Author Services program and I get $1 for each Audible purchase of my books, which is pretty much the best free money program I've ever seen. I'm analyzing that data and my sales figures to help me figure out what kinds of books to edit next!
Laugh by Sommer Marsden
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Police Dogging by Elizabeth Coldwell
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Remembering the Wrinkles by Penelope Friday
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Not Just a Myth by Heidi Champa
Click here to listen to the free mp3
The Dirty Things She Says by Sinclair Sexsmith
Click here to listen to the free mp3
[image error]
Laugh by Sommer Marsden
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Police Dogging by Elizabeth Coldwell
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Remembering the Wrinkles by Penelope Friday
Click here to listen to the free mp3
Not Just a Myth by Heidi Champa
Click here to listen to the free mp3
The Dirty Things She Says by Sinclair Sexsmith
Click here to listen to the free mp3
[image error]
March 19, 2013
48 hour BOGO ebook sale March 22 and 23: buy Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica and get any of my Cleis Press ebooks free!
I'm having another buy one, get one free ebook sale, since the first one with
Serving Him
went so well! Here's the deal: From midnight on Friday, March 22nd through 11:59 pm EST Saturday March 23rd, if you buy the Kindle ebook edition or Nook ebook edition of Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica, I will send you any of my Kindle or Nook ebooks listed in this paragraph FREE, which includes the just-released ebook of Best Sex Writing 2013, featuring writers like Jonathan Lethem, guest judge Carol Queen, Patrick Califia, Amber Dawn, Madison Young and many others (more about that very soon). You tell me which one, I send it to you as a gift. What you need to do: Forward me your receipt with "BOGO" in the subject line for your purchase of the Nook or Kindle edition of Twice the Pleasure made between midnight March 22nd and 11:59 p.m. March 23rd by 9 am EST Sunday, March 24th and tell me these 3 things: which ebook you want, which format (Kindle or Nook), and what email address to send to (for Kindle, I cannot use an @kindle.com address to gift an ebook). Then I send it to you. I'd love it if you'd spread the word and if there's a book of mine you've been wanting to read, now you can get 2 for $9.99 (Kindle) or $10.68 (Nook) - no, I don't have a thing to do with ebook or online sales pricing. This greatly helps visibility with online stores, especially on Amazon as it can help get the book on their bestseller lists. If this goes well, I plan to do more BOGO ebook sales! Book pick options: Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples, Serving Him: Sexy Stories of Submission, Instruments of Pleasure: Sex Toy Erotica, Caught Looking, Crossdressing, He's on Top, She's on Top, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma'am, Please, Sir, Please, Ma'am, Rubber Sex, Spanked, Bottoms Up, Cheeky Spanking Stories, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Going Down, Do Not Disturb, Suite Encounters, The Mile High Club, Peep Show, Fast Girls, Orgasmic, Smooth, Passion, Irresistible, Gotta Have It; 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, Surrender, Obsessed, Women in Lust, Hide and Seek Only You, Best Bondage Erotica 2001, Best Bondage Erotica 2012, Best Bondage Erotica 2013, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Sex Writing 2009, Best Sex Writing 2010, Best Sex Writing 2012, Best Sex Writing 2013.
Introduction: Hot Bi Babes: A Both/And Approach to Bisexuality
1 Percent Adaptable Nicole Wolfe
The Wife Kay Jaybee
Operetta Jean Roberta
Lifeline Emerald
Goa Dena Hankins
The Robber Girl Lori Selke
The Adulterers Penelope Friday
Sunset Logan Belle
Break Cheryl B.
In the Mirror Valerie Alexander
Glitter in the Gutter Giselle Renarde
Seduction Dance Dorothy Freed
A Little Fun Rachel Kramer Bussel
Trinity Jordana Winters
Meeting at the Hole in the Wall Aimee Pearl
The State Tahira Iqbal
Strange Status Quo Salome Wilde
Walking the Walk Shanna Germain
ReGretable Circumstances Lane
Right-Red Flagging Sinclair Sexsmith
Page of Wands Cheyenne Blue
What I Want, What I Need Jacqueline Applebee
Introduction: Hot Bi Babes: A Both/And Approach to Bisexuality
Woody Allen once famously said, “Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.” As a bisexual woman, I can attest that this is not necessarily true. Bisexuality is more than just a math equation and cannot be so easily categorized or summarized. Identifying as bi, or being attracted to or engaging in sex with a variety of genders, or whatever version of something approximating those states of being , is the theme of this anthology, and in many ways, the term is actually a lot broader than that dual opportunity. This is not a book about choosing either/or, male or female, or simply one of each. It’s not about narrowing gender down to one size fits all, but about expanding our options, to a both/and approach to how we view and cultivate our sexuality. It’s a welcoming, inclusive definition that welcomes all comers—pun fully intended.
I wanted this book, while fictional and focused on the erotic aspects of bisexual women’s lives, to explore as wide a swatch of “bisexual” as possible. That means that some of the best stories here don’t mention the word bisexual at all; they don’t have to, because their bi angle, their queerness, is embedded—and bedded—in the story. The characters are living it, rather than identifying with it; the sexual exploration and attraction, the experience and movement, are more important than what anyone wants to call it.
The large majority of the submissions I received for this book were about women having sex with women, which makes sense in the context of a culture that still privileges heterosexual identity over any other kind. Even in an era of so-called lesbian and bisexual chic, there’s still plenty of discomfort with the fluidity with which many women view their sexuality. Shifting away from a purely heterosexual mindset forces women to grapple with the ways we differ from mainstream society, even one that is becoming much more open and knowledgeable about the varieties of queer life. The first time we dare to dip our toes—or other body parts—into the world of sex with other women is often momentous. Many of us will find the character of Laura, in Nicole Wolfe’s opening story, “1 Percent Adaptable,” familiar. Laura at first protests Marie’s advances, warning her that she’s not gay, not bi, until she listens to her body and follows its yearnings. “Laura was shocked that the kiss had surprised her, considering what had just happened between her legs. She let her lips caress Marie’s. She dared to let her tongue out to play. She risked letting her hands tickle Marie’s hips and backside,” Wolfe writes.
But I didn’t want this to simply be a first-time bi-curious tentative collection, but a robust one exploring the intimacy of life as a woman interested in men and women. That’s why I wanted stories that asked questions like the ones in Jacqueline Applebee’s closing tale, “What I Want, What I Need:” “I’d been out as a lesbian since I was twenty-three. Why was I suddenly spending time with a straight man? Why was I enjoying it so much? Had I really been a lesbian at all, or had I been lying to myself for the past twenty years?”
There are girlfriends and wives, husbands and boyfriends, first dates, threesomes and much more here. There’s daring and adventure, women taking risks by stepping outside their comfort zones, whether it’s by surrendering to a bodyguard in “The State,” by Tahira Iqbal, or confronting “The Wife” of a male lover in Kay Jaybee’s story, only to be confronted right back. The women you’ll read about are attracted to strong women like “The Robber Girl” in Lori Selke’s story, and men who surprise them with their sensitivity, as in my story, “A Little Fun.”
There’s also kink, if that’s what you’re looking for. In Cheryl B.’s “The Break,” spanking becomes a way for two exes to reconnect and revive the passion between them, while Sinclair Sexsmith takes us inside a gay bar and then home with a boy her protagonist has met there, one who may or may not know her true gender, in “Right-Red Flagging.” The protagonist of “Seduction Dance” is under the watchful eye of her master when she finds a new female plaything for her to command and seduce. Gender is played with, fucked with, and grappled with as well in Giselle Renarde’s “Glitter in the Gutter,” in which the female partner of a male cross-dresser encourages his interest when he fears he’s crossed a line and doesn’t want to live in the new, judgmental world he’s stepped into. Aimee Pearl writes in “Meeting at the Hole in the Wall, “Chivalry is dead, and I want to writhe naked on its grave.”
These are celebratory, sexy stories, but, all apologies to Mr. Allen, they are more complex than a view of bisexuality simply as “twice as much” to offer. I like to think of them as both/and stories that, collectively, offer a look at the ways bisexuality, queerness and lesbianism affect us while recognizing that there’s no monolithic typical bisexual. We are multifaceted, full of desires that can’t be contained in a single, simplistic category. We are hungry, horny, mischievous, naughty, provocative and, yes, curious. We may think we know what we want, only to keep on surprising ourselves just when we think we have it all figured out. We are open to a wide range of sexual possibilities, whether they exist in our heads or beyond.
I hope you’ll enjoy the twenty-two stories presented here, and that they serve as erotic catalysts, no matter how you identify.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
Introduction: Hot Bi Babes: A Both/And Approach to Bisexuality
1 Percent Adaptable Nicole Wolfe
The Wife Kay Jaybee
Operetta Jean Roberta
Lifeline Emerald
Goa Dena Hankins
The Robber Girl Lori Selke
The Adulterers Penelope Friday
Sunset Logan Belle
Break Cheryl B.
In the Mirror Valerie Alexander
Glitter in the Gutter Giselle Renarde
Seduction Dance Dorothy Freed
A Little Fun Rachel Kramer Bussel
Trinity Jordana Winters
Meeting at the Hole in the Wall Aimee Pearl
The State Tahira Iqbal
Strange Status Quo Salome Wilde
Walking the Walk Shanna Germain
ReGretable Circumstances Lane
Right-Red Flagging Sinclair Sexsmith
Page of Wands Cheyenne Blue
What I Want, What I Need Jacqueline Applebee
Introduction: Hot Bi Babes: A Both/And Approach to Bisexuality
Woody Allen once famously said, “Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.” As a bisexual woman, I can attest that this is not necessarily true. Bisexuality is more than just a math equation and cannot be so easily categorized or summarized. Identifying as bi, or being attracted to or engaging in sex with a variety of genders, or whatever version of something approximating those states of being , is the theme of this anthology, and in many ways, the term is actually a lot broader than that dual opportunity. This is not a book about choosing either/or, male or female, or simply one of each. It’s not about narrowing gender down to one size fits all, but about expanding our options, to a both/and approach to how we view and cultivate our sexuality. It’s a welcoming, inclusive definition that welcomes all comers—pun fully intended.
I wanted this book, while fictional and focused on the erotic aspects of bisexual women’s lives, to explore as wide a swatch of “bisexual” as possible. That means that some of the best stories here don’t mention the word bisexual at all; they don’t have to, because their bi angle, their queerness, is embedded—and bedded—in the story. The characters are living it, rather than identifying with it; the sexual exploration and attraction, the experience and movement, are more important than what anyone wants to call it.
The large majority of the submissions I received for this book were about women having sex with women, which makes sense in the context of a culture that still privileges heterosexual identity over any other kind. Even in an era of so-called lesbian and bisexual chic, there’s still plenty of discomfort with the fluidity with which many women view their sexuality. Shifting away from a purely heterosexual mindset forces women to grapple with the ways we differ from mainstream society, even one that is becoming much more open and knowledgeable about the varieties of queer life. The first time we dare to dip our toes—or other body parts—into the world of sex with other women is often momentous. Many of us will find the character of Laura, in Nicole Wolfe’s opening story, “1 Percent Adaptable,” familiar. Laura at first protests Marie’s advances, warning her that she’s not gay, not bi, until she listens to her body and follows its yearnings. “Laura was shocked that the kiss had surprised her, considering what had just happened between her legs. She let her lips caress Marie’s. She dared to let her tongue out to play. She risked letting her hands tickle Marie’s hips and backside,” Wolfe writes.
But I didn’t want this to simply be a first-time bi-curious tentative collection, but a robust one exploring the intimacy of life as a woman interested in men and women. That’s why I wanted stories that asked questions like the ones in Jacqueline Applebee’s closing tale, “What I Want, What I Need:” “I’d been out as a lesbian since I was twenty-three. Why was I suddenly spending time with a straight man? Why was I enjoying it so much? Had I really been a lesbian at all, or had I been lying to myself for the past twenty years?”
There are girlfriends and wives, husbands and boyfriends, first dates, threesomes and much more here. There’s daring and adventure, women taking risks by stepping outside their comfort zones, whether it’s by surrendering to a bodyguard in “The State,” by Tahira Iqbal, or confronting “The Wife” of a male lover in Kay Jaybee’s story, only to be confronted right back. The women you’ll read about are attracted to strong women like “The Robber Girl” in Lori Selke’s story, and men who surprise them with their sensitivity, as in my story, “A Little Fun.”
There’s also kink, if that’s what you’re looking for. In Cheryl B.’s “The Break,” spanking becomes a way for two exes to reconnect and revive the passion between them, while Sinclair Sexsmith takes us inside a gay bar and then home with a boy her protagonist has met there, one who may or may not know her true gender, in “Right-Red Flagging.” The protagonist of “Seduction Dance” is under the watchful eye of her master when she finds a new female plaything for her to command and seduce. Gender is played with, fucked with, and grappled with as well in Giselle Renarde’s “Glitter in the Gutter,” in which the female partner of a male cross-dresser encourages his interest when he fears he’s crossed a line and doesn’t want to live in the new, judgmental world he’s stepped into. Aimee Pearl writes in “Meeting at the Hole in the Wall, “Chivalry is dead, and I want to writhe naked on its grave.”
These are celebratory, sexy stories, but, all apologies to Mr. Allen, they are more complex than a view of bisexuality simply as “twice as much” to offer. I like to think of them as both/and stories that, collectively, offer a look at the ways bisexuality, queerness and lesbianism affect us while recognizing that there’s no monolithic typical bisexual. We are multifaceted, full of desires that can’t be contained in a single, simplistic category. We are hungry, horny, mischievous, naughty, provocative and, yes, curious. We may think we know what we want, only to keep on surprising ourselves just when we think we have it all figured out. We are open to a wide range of sexual possibilities, whether they exist in our heads or beyond.
I hope you’ll enjoy the twenty-two stories presented here, and that they serve as erotic catalysts, no matter how you identify.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
March 16, 2013
How Mary Lou Lord's cover of "Polaroids" inspired me to leave law school
Find out why at The Weeklings, where I"ve taken part in their Power Trio series, which even has its own playlist on Spotify. I love being asked to write about topics that aren't about sex (not that I don't love and live by writing about sex, but it makes me feel especially valued to be asked to do other things). I'm at CatalystCon and prepping host the last ever In The Flesh Reading Series with an amazing lineup. You can follow the conference with the hashtag #ccon (and every panel and event has its own hashtag too!).
March 14, 2013
I Slut-Shamed Myself and Lied to My Gynecologist
Read all about it at The Frisky:
I didn’t think I was ashamed of the number of sexual partners I’ve had in the 20 years I’ve been getting it on until I found myself filling in a number half the true total at a recent gynecologist appointment. Although I know doctors are trained not to judge, and this doctor in particular had been particularly kind, helpful and professional when I’d seen her previously, in my head, all of a sudden the number (at best an approximation as I haven’t kept an exact count in year) seemed like cause for alarm.Keep reading
March 13, 2013
I interviewed former Westboro Baptist Church member Lauren Drain
At The Hairpin, I interviewed Lauren Drain, author of Banished, about her time in the Westboro Baptist Church (and being banished from it). Interesting how often religion is cropping up in my life - been to temple twice this year, for a funeral and a bris, which is probably more than the last three years. And have another author interview coming up that touches on religion. Also, I'm doing lots more book coverage so if you are a publicist and have a new memoir, pop culture, current events, dating/relationship, addiction book or something else that I might like, I am accepting egalleys (and print copies if there are no egalleys). Email me at rachelkb at gmail.com and I will check them out. Netgalley is my new favorite website!
March 12, 2013
2 new audiobooks: Cheeky Spanking Stories and Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples
Audible has released 2 more audiobooks of my books,
Cheeky Spanking Stories
and
Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples
(click on links for free sample listen. This is in addition to the other audiobooks of mine available, including
Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
narrated by Rose Caraway, who's posted I believe 4 free samples; follow her @RoseCaraway on Twitter to keep up and stay tuned for a fun bonus reading of a story of mine by her! More a reader than a listener? See http://cheekyanthology.wordpress.com/about/ and my Anything for You post (it has its own URL but I need to get it updated) and http://gottahaveitbook.com/about/ for the introductions, tables of contents and sample stories!
What audiobook reviewers are saying about Gotta Have It:
"This is the best produced audiobook I have heard in the erotic category. Fun and interesting stories are presented in a way that holds your attention. The format of the book lends itself to enjoying in tiny, yet satisfying, bites of time."
and
summed up in 3 words: "Literal, suggestive and sensual"
and
"There were many short stories and each one was very different, you could start and stop and keep everything going. When you get an anthology of stories, your not going to "Love" every one of them but I believe at least 90% were excellent and worth the buy. Some were hard core, others were soft core, other were just romantic. A nice mix. I usually enjoy anything RCB puts together. I wasn't disappointed on this one. The good part none of the stories were more than 15 minutes long, so if you felt it was not to your liking you could skip to the next. I only did that 4 times. "
What audiobook reviewers are saying about Gotta Have It:
"This is the best produced audiobook I have heard in the erotic category. Fun and interesting stories are presented in a way that holds your attention. The format of the book lends itself to enjoying in tiny, yet satisfying, bites of time."
and
summed up in 3 words: "Literal, suggestive and sensual"
and
"There were many short stories and each one was very different, you could start and stop and keep everything going. When you get an anthology of stories, your not going to "Love" every one of them but I believe at least 90% were excellent and worth the buy. Some were hard core, others were soft core, other were just romantic. A nice mix. I usually enjoy anything RCB puts together. I wasn't disappointed on this one. The good part none of the stories were more than 15 minutes long, so if you felt it was not to your liking you could skip to the next. I only did that 4 times. "
March 6, 2013
My review of The Feminist Porn Book
My review of The Feminist Porn Book, edited by Tristan Taormino, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Constance Penley, and Mireille Miller-Young, is up at The Hairpin, and I will be covering next month's Feminist Porn Awards and Conference, so stay tuned!
February 23, 2013
Free audio erotica and major gratitude to the most excellent Rose Caraway
I'm feeling very lucky these days. Why? Because Rose Caraway is not only a narrator extraordinaire, but I have much to learn from her about how to self promote in a way that gets results! She has been posting away free audio excerpts from the Audible audiobook version of
Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
- follow her @RoseCaraway on Twitter to keep up. And check out these great images she made! I love that. I also love that you can listen to "Laugh" by Sommer Marsden free. There may not be a free lunch but there is free audio erotica! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rose, and thank you, Audible, for widening the audience for my books. It still feels pretty amazing to get checks in the mail from them through their Author Services program (it's free money and if your books are on Audible, you should sign up) for doing absolutely nothing, but then I remember that my job is to write and edit erotica, and that is what I'm focused on (speaking of which, there's been extremely few submissions for my 2 open anthologies, which means these books are wide open as of now!). Anyway, I feel blessed and lucky and grateful, and am working on deserving that by getting back to writing, fiction and nonfiction, in a way I haven't in longer than I can remember. If I succeed, I'll post about anything available to be read. If I fail, I will keep on trying. That's the way this wacky business goes, right?
my books are in great company!
my books are in great company!
February 20, 2013
24-hour BOGO Kindle ebook sale for Serving Him on Friday!
To celebrate the Kindle ebook release of
Serving Him: Sexy Stories of Submission
and to try to get some bestseller chart action going, and as a thank you to my ebook readers, this Friday, February 22nd, I'm holding a very special sale: buy the Kindle ebook edition of Serving Him: Sexy Stories of Submission and I'll send you any of my other Cleis Press Kindle ebooks free! Rules: Must purchase the Serving Him Kindle ebook anytime from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, February 22nd. I chose that day to have a little time to spread the word and hopefully see a spike on Amazon and get on a bestseller list or two. Forward receipt by end of day Saturday, February 23rd to femalesubantho at gmail.com with "BOGO" in subject line AND include your email address for Kindle (cannot be @kindle.com, I can't send ebook gifts to those addresses) and which ebook you'd like (if I missed any, and it's a Cleis book edited by me available for Kindle, that's fine too): Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples, Instruments of Pleasure: Sex Toy Erotica, Caught Looking, Crossdressing, He's on Top, She's on Top, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma'am, Please, Sir, Please, Ma'am, Rubber Sex, Spanked, Bottoms Up, Cheeky Spanking Stories, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Going Down, Do Not Disturb, Suite Encounters, The Mile High Club, Peep Show, Fast Girls, Orgasmic, Smooth, Passion, Irresistible, Gotta Have It; 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, Surrender, Obsessed, Women in Lust, Hide and Seek Only You, Best Bondage Erotica 2001, Best Bondage Erotica 2012, Best Bondage Erotica 2013, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Sex Writing 2009, Best Sex Writing 2010, Best Sex Writing 2012.
I'd love it if you'd spread the word about this one-time sale, and thank you so much for supporting all my books, which enables me to continue putting out more of them. Want to know more about Serving Him? See below for excerpt links for every story and the introduction. And thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean that in every way. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed I forget to marvel at how far I've come since I was a law student and barely knew a thing about the world of erotica (or ebooks, for that matter).
Serving Him Table of Contents
Introduction: Lucky Naughty Girls
What You Deserve Lori Selke (read excerpt)
Coffee Break Kristina Wright (read excerpt)
Chattel Errica Liekos (read excerpt)
Under Direction Teresa Noelle Roberts (read excerpt)
The Letter Tiffany Reisz (read excerpts: part 1 and part 2)
Run, Baby, Run Vida Bailey (read excerpt)
Tackling Jessica Maxine Marsh (read excerpt)
Safe, Sane & Consensual Ariel Graham (read excerpt)
The Golden Ruler Giselle Renarde (read excerpt)
I Always Do Kiki DeLovely (read excerpt)
Pinky Kissa Starling (read excerpt)
The Breaking Point Cole Riley (read excerpt)
Shining in the Dark Bex vanKoot (read excerpt)
Room #3 Emily Bingham (read excerpt)
Duo J. Sinclaire (read excerpt)
Breath Mollena Williams (read excerpt)
Silver Fish in the Crystal Pool Gina Marie (read excerpt)
The Secret of Time Travel Jacqueline Applebee (read excerpt)
Bared Gray Miller (read excerpt)
In His Control Jade Melisande (read excerpt)
Paper Doll joy (read excerpt)
Subbing Rachel Kramer Bussel (read excerpt)
Lucky Naughty Girls
“I’m so lucky to have such a naughty girl like you in my lap,” Jake tells Deirdre in “What You Deserve” by Lori Selke, the opening story in the book you’re about to read. In many ways, that sentence, its promise and passion, its claim and command, is what this book of kinky erotica is all about. There are a lot of naughty girls, a lot of laps and a lot of men who understand that, in fact, they are lucky—whether they ever voice it or not—to have a hot, eager, filthy-minded woman eagerly awaiting the chance to serve them.
The other half of the equation, one that is vital to any BDSM story, but especially those told with an eye toward female submission, is that the naughty girls themselves know how lucky they are—and if they don’t at the start of the story, they do by the end. They know they are lucky to have discovered a seed of submission somewhere within them and someone to complement and nurture that growing seed. They are lucky because they own their darkest, dirtiest desires, even the ones they struggle with, the ones that turn them on despite being taboo or unnerving in some way.
Actually, they are more than lucky; finding a master, a top, a boyfriend, a husband, a lover or simply a man who gets an essential truth about their submissive nature doesn’t just happen. Well, sometimes it does, but I believe it takes a certain kind of prowess to activate and draw forth those kinds of dominants, the kind you can trust with your body and soul, your pussy and your power. What I’m trying to say is that the women here don’t just wander down an alley and find a man to pin them against the wall; even when they encounter a sexy stranger, they are making a choice to obey him, to follow their own lust as much as another’s command.
In “Room #3,” when author Emily Bingham shuts the door on her characters, she invites us into a tale where we don’t know who is touching the narrator, nor does she; we only know how much she likes it. When the narrator offers up her body, she enters into the unknown, a thrill in and of itself. “The moment I knocked on this door, I consented to become his plaything. From here on out I have no say in what will happen. No words are to leave my mouth in this space; I am at his mercy. I can only hope I’ve made a wise choice.” In all the stories you will read here, a woman makes a similar choice, and we get to luxuriate in the ways that actively making that choice, owning up to our most dastardly, wanton, wicked fantasies can be a ticket to a ride we never want to get off.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco as I quote from Kristina Wright’s “Coffee Break,” wondering what I would do if a hot barista said to me, “Go to the bathroom now. Leave the door unlocked. Get undressed. Kneel on the floor facing the door.” Actually, it’s not the barista who delivers that message in her story, but it made me picture what I would do if I were handed a steaming cup of joe and such a command.
The stories in Serving Him are about everything from scenes in dungeons to the ways playing with power can extend beyond what we do when we are “playing.” In “Safe, Sane and Consensual,” by Ariel Graham, she takes that hallmark of BDSM safety and reflects on the ways we “safeword” when dealing with polite society. “May I ask what the spanking is for?” Aaron asks Annie, and his answer just may surprise you.
There are plenty of surprises in store in this book, and whether you’re a novice or a seasoned BDSM player, I hope you’ll enjoy the exchanges to be found here—of dirty talk, power, roles, toys, games. These characters test each other, pushing boundaries from both sides of the top/bottom equation. Often it’s the women who push their men to push them, to stop being polite and start holding them down, making them open wide, forcing them to relinquish a kind of power they are eager to let go off.
Many of the stories here are as intense as the acts described; I see them as tender, but they are likely to take your breath away, make you tremble or quiver, make you just a little bit afraid. That edge of awe and fear, of want and need, of excitement and surrender, is just where I hope these stories keep you. You don’t have to be a naughty girl (or boy), in real life or in your dreams, to enjoy the twenty-two hot stories in this book, but I have a feeling they will bring out your inner naughtiness, whatever form that takes. I feel lucky to get to share them with you.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
I'd love it if you'd spread the word about this one-time sale, and thank you so much for supporting all my books, which enables me to continue putting out more of them. Want to know more about Serving Him? See below for excerpt links for every story and the introduction. And thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean that in every way. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed I forget to marvel at how far I've come since I was a law student and barely knew a thing about the world of erotica (or ebooks, for that matter).
Serving Him Table of Contents
Introduction: Lucky Naughty Girls
What You Deserve Lori Selke (read excerpt)
Coffee Break Kristina Wright (read excerpt)
Chattel Errica Liekos (read excerpt)
Under Direction Teresa Noelle Roberts (read excerpt)
The Letter Tiffany Reisz (read excerpts: part 1 and part 2)
Run, Baby, Run Vida Bailey (read excerpt)
Tackling Jessica Maxine Marsh (read excerpt)
Safe, Sane & Consensual Ariel Graham (read excerpt)
The Golden Ruler Giselle Renarde (read excerpt)
I Always Do Kiki DeLovely (read excerpt)
Pinky Kissa Starling (read excerpt)
The Breaking Point Cole Riley (read excerpt)
Shining in the Dark Bex vanKoot (read excerpt)
Room #3 Emily Bingham (read excerpt)
Duo J. Sinclaire (read excerpt)
Breath Mollena Williams (read excerpt)
Silver Fish in the Crystal Pool Gina Marie (read excerpt)
The Secret of Time Travel Jacqueline Applebee (read excerpt)
Bared Gray Miller (read excerpt)
In His Control Jade Melisande (read excerpt)
Paper Doll joy (read excerpt)
Subbing Rachel Kramer Bussel (read excerpt)
Lucky Naughty Girls
“I’m so lucky to have such a naughty girl like you in my lap,” Jake tells Deirdre in “What You Deserve” by Lori Selke, the opening story in the book you’re about to read. In many ways, that sentence, its promise and passion, its claim and command, is what this book of kinky erotica is all about. There are a lot of naughty girls, a lot of laps and a lot of men who understand that, in fact, they are lucky—whether they ever voice it or not—to have a hot, eager, filthy-minded woman eagerly awaiting the chance to serve them.
The other half of the equation, one that is vital to any BDSM story, but especially those told with an eye toward female submission, is that the naughty girls themselves know how lucky they are—and if they don’t at the start of the story, they do by the end. They know they are lucky to have discovered a seed of submission somewhere within them and someone to complement and nurture that growing seed. They are lucky because they own their darkest, dirtiest desires, even the ones they struggle with, the ones that turn them on despite being taboo or unnerving in some way.
Actually, they are more than lucky; finding a master, a top, a boyfriend, a husband, a lover or simply a man who gets an essential truth about their submissive nature doesn’t just happen. Well, sometimes it does, but I believe it takes a certain kind of prowess to activate and draw forth those kinds of dominants, the kind you can trust with your body and soul, your pussy and your power. What I’m trying to say is that the women here don’t just wander down an alley and find a man to pin them against the wall; even when they encounter a sexy stranger, they are making a choice to obey him, to follow their own lust as much as another’s command.
In “Room #3,” when author Emily Bingham shuts the door on her characters, she invites us into a tale where we don’t know who is touching the narrator, nor does she; we only know how much she likes it. When the narrator offers up her body, she enters into the unknown, a thrill in and of itself. “The moment I knocked on this door, I consented to become his plaything. From here on out I have no say in what will happen. No words are to leave my mouth in this space; I am at his mercy. I can only hope I’ve made a wise choice.” In all the stories you will read here, a woman makes a similar choice, and we get to luxuriate in the ways that actively making that choice, owning up to our most dastardly, wanton, wicked fantasies can be a ticket to a ride we never want to get off.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco as I quote from Kristina Wright’s “Coffee Break,” wondering what I would do if a hot barista said to me, “Go to the bathroom now. Leave the door unlocked. Get undressed. Kneel on the floor facing the door.” Actually, it’s not the barista who delivers that message in her story, but it made me picture what I would do if I were handed a steaming cup of joe and such a command.
The stories in Serving Him are about everything from scenes in dungeons to the ways playing with power can extend beyond what we do when we are “playing.” In “Safe, Sane and Consensual,” by Ariel Graham, she takes that hallmark of BDSM safety and reflects on the ways we “safeword” when dealing with polite society. “May I ask what the spanking is for?” Aaron asks Annie, and his answer just may surprise you.
There are plenty of surprises in store in this book, and whether you’re a novice or a seasoned BDSM player, I hope you’ll enjoy the exchanges to be found here—of dirty talk, power, roles, toys, games. These characters test each other, pushing boundaries from both sides of the top/bottom equation. Often it’s the women who push their men to push them, to stop being polite and start holding them down, making them open wide, forcing them to relinquish a kind of power they are eager to let go off.
Many of the stories here are as intense as the acts described; I see them as tender, but they are likely to take your breath away, make you tremble or quiver, make you just a little bit afraid. That edge of awe and fear, of want and need, of excitement and surrender, is just where I hope these stories keep you. You don’t have to be a naughty girl (or boy), in real life or in your dreams, to enjoy the twenty-two hot stories in this book, but I have a feeling they will bring out your inner naughtiness, whatever form that takes. I feel lucky to get to share them with you.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
February 19, 2013
Dear Writing
Dear Writing,
I've missed you, though "missed" sounds woefully inadequate for that sense of longing, of not being myself at all without you. I've missed with you with a ferocious, desperate urgency, the kind that piles on heavier and heavier the longer I go without, the kind that invades every minute of my day I'm without you. That's the irony, though—that there you are, always, waiting for me, available, practically begging me to return to you. I know—too well.
I know you miss me as much as I miss you, and all I can say is, it's not you, it's me. Cliché as that phrase is, it's the truth. It's always me, when we're apart. And fear. Every single time I have ignored you, neglected you, pretended to myself I had nothing to offer, it's always been fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of nobody reading, fear of everybody reading, fear of gigantic scary edits, fear of rejection. The fear is so big and loud and huge I often forget it's not the same thing as truth, and that the moment I start to release some of my words, to push out all the fear and noise and self-hatred, the surety that starting is futile when you don't know the end the moment you sit down, some of that fear disappears, just a little.
I've been reading this brilliant blog, Momastery, and I love the writing because it doesn't shy away from fear. There's all the fear, right out in the open. It's so easy to do the opposite, and to feel that to be successful you must do the opposite. Nobody wants to buy books or articles from a scaredy-cat, do they? No; instead you must sell yourself, all day, both your books and your ideas, in order to keep getting those checks and keep paying that rent.
It's not just that, though, that has kept me from you. I dream about you, during the day and at night when I'm asleep. I am reminded of you everywhere I look, those titles that sit on blank documents, patiently holding space against all that whiteness. In my head, some of that empty space has been filled in, fleshed out, animated. I know what will happen and "all I have to do is write it down." Ah, if only that were "all" anyone ever had to do. There are so many walls, so many times when that act of filling it on falls flat, doesn't even come close to measuring up to what I'd conjured. I think if I wait—and wait and wait and wait, which really means, procrastinate and live with constant guilt and fear—the answers will come, even though every wise person who's ever written or spoken about writing has concluded the precise opposite: that the only way to write is to sit and bring forth the words.
I know I will probably always be a little afraid of you, even though I also know that so often you are the only thing that can make me happy, or at least, content. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of, deep, deep down. I have had glimmers, hints, signs, of late, that even when I neglect you, you still keep coming through for me, like that Morrissey song, "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get." The acceptance for that story I wrote based on a cabaret show, the excellent interview I submitted to a dream publication but know will likely have to find another home, the "scary" essay that has made anyone I've mentioned its topic to laugh and look at me a little askance, with just the right hint of "you're crazy" to let me know that yes, I'm crazy, and should be sharing the craziness. The rereading those old pieces I'd forgotten about and realizing they still work. The writing workshop and talk and camaraderie. The marveling over a gorgeous sentence in a book that's been tucked away, just for the sake of taking pleasure in the words. The gratitude for all the chances, and second changes. The chunks of minutes I've dared to sneak away with you, but only when I have to be somewhere, or my battery is dying, anything with a shortcut, an off switch, but still, chunks where I got something down because I absolutely could not do anything else any longer.
I hate feeling so estranged from you, hate feeling like a fraud when I say to someone I'm a writer. I hate seeing the moment pass because I was so worried about perfection, that mythical way of being. I am bad at promises; the act of making them seems to kickstart something in me that causes me to immediately rebel and not live up to them, so I won't bother. Just know that I never truly left you; I've always been here, thinking about you, wanting you back. Maybe that's part of the work, the missing and reuniting, the push/pull, the lows with the highs. I'm as bad at mindfulness as I am at promises, but I want to try to do better by you. Starting with this.
Love,
Rachel
I've missed you, though "missed" sounds woefully inadequate for that sense of longing, of not being myself at all without you. I've missed with you with a ferocious, desperate urgency, the kind that piles on heavier and heavier the longer I go without, the kind that invades every minute of my day I'm without you. That's the irony, though—that there you are, always, waiting for me, available, practically begging me to return to you. I know—too well.
I know you miss me as much as I miss you, and all I can say is, it's not you, it's me. Cliché as that phrase is, it's the truth. It's always me, when we're apart. And fear. Every single time I have ignored you, neglected you, pretended to myself I had nothing to offer, it's always been fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of nobody reading, fear of everybody reading, fear of gigantic scary edits, fear of rejection. The fear is so big and loud and huge I often forget it's not the same thing as truth, and that the moment I start to release some of my words, to push out all the fear and noise and self-hatred, the surety that starting is futile when you don't know the end the moment you sit down, some of that fear disappears, just a little.
I've been reading this brilliant blog, Momastery, and I love the writing because it doesn't shy away from fear. There's all the fear, right out in the open. It's so easy to do the opposite, and to feel that to be successful you must do the opposite. Nobody wants to buy books or articles from a scaredy-cat, do they? No; instead you must sell yourself, all day, both your books and your ideas, in order to keep getting those checks and keep paying that rent.
It's not just that, though, that has kept me from you. I dream about you, during the day and at night when I'm asleep. I am reminded of you everywhere I look, those titles that sit on blank documents, patiently holding space against all that whiteness. In my head, some of that empty space has been filled in, fleshed out, animated. I know what will happen and "all I have to do is write it down." Ah, if only that were "all" anyone ever had to do. There are so many walls, so many times when that act of filling it on falls flat, doesn't even come close to measuring up to what I'd conjured. I think if I wait—and wait and wait and wait, which really means, procrastinate and live with constant guilt and fear—the answers will come, even though every wise person who's ever written or spoken about writing has concluded the precise opposite: that the only way to write is to sit and bring forth the words.
I know I will probably always be a little afraid of you, even though I also know that so often you are the only thing that can make me happy, or at least, content. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of, deep, deep down. I have had glimmers, hints, signs, of late, that even when I neglect you, you still keep coming through for me, like that Morrissey song, "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get." The acceptance for that story I wrote based on a cabaret show, the excellent interview I submitted to a dream publication but know will likely have to find another home, the "scary" essay that has made anyone I've mentioned its topic to laugh and look at me a little askance, with just the right hint of "you're crazy" to let me know that yes, I'm crazy, and should be sharing the craziness. The rereading those old pieces I'd forgotten about and realizing they still work. The writing workshop and talk and camaraderie. The marveling over a gorgeous sentence in a book that's been tucked away, just for the sake of taking pleasure in the words. The gratitude for all the chances, and second changes. The chunks of minutes I've dared to sneak away with you, but only when I have to be somewhere, or my battery is dying, anything with a shortcut, an off switch, but still, chunks where I got something down because I absolutely could not do anything else any longer.
I hate feeling so estranged from you, hate feeling like a fraud when I say to someone I'm a writer. I hate seeing the moment pass because I was so worried about perfection, that mythical way of being. I am bad at promises; the act of making them seems to kickstart something in me that causes me to immediately rebel and not live up to them, so I won't bother. Just know that I never truly left you; I've always been here, thinking about you, wanting you back. Maybe that's part of the work, the missing and reuniting, the push/pull, the lows with the highs. I'm as bad at mindfulness as I am at promises, but I want to try to do better by you. Starting with this.
Love,
Rachel
