Rachel Kramer Bussel's Blog, page 2
May 8, 2021
Submit to The Good Sex Awards by May 16 to enter to win $150
I'm working on a new project, The Good Sex Awards, with the founders of the site The Good Bits. The Good Sex Awards will be giving out 9 awards for good sex writing (mostly for fiction, with categories such as Best Sexy Talk, Sexiest Consent, Best LGBTQI Scene, Best Kink, Best Feminist Sex, and more, with one non-fiction category for Thought Leadership about sex). The winner in each category will receive $150. Submission details are here. You have until May 16 to enter and can submit up to two entries, either the same entry in multiple categories (though all fan fiction needs to be submitted to the fan fiction category), or two entries in the same or different categories. We have an amazing list of judges, including Cindy Gallop, Katrina Jackson, Emily Nagoski, Jayne Renault, Stoya, Cecilia Tan, Zane and many more from the romance, erotica and sexuality fields. Please let anyone who might be a good fit know! Good luck!
March 8, 2021
What to do if you can't pay your taxes
For Real Simple, I wrote about how to negotiate with the IRS if you can't pay your taxes in full. I'm not a tax expert so can't give personal advice but I consulted an IRS representative, a CPA and a tax attorney for their advice and there's links to helpful information. I hope this is useful to anyone who may have tax payment issues, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. If you know someone who can't pay their taxes this year and might get something from this article, please send it to them.
February 16, 2021
20 Sexy Book Recommendations at BuzzFeed Books
Over at BuzzFeed Books, I recommended 20 sexy books to heat up your winter. If you're looking for hot reads, I suggest checking out any that pique your interest. Photos of 16 of them below, but read the article for all 20 covers and to see what I had to say about them. I hope to write more listicls like this again, provided I carve out more reading time!
February 5, 2021
Virtual Erotica Writing 101 workshop March 28
I'm so happy to share that on Sunday, March 28, from 5:30-7 pm PT/8:30-10 pm ET I'll be teaching my Erotica Writing 101 workshop virtually via the wonderful Portland, Oregon sex toy store She Bop. It's $15-$25 (sliding scale) and all the details are at the link above. It's my first time teaching this particular workshop virtually and I'm really looking forward to it.
January 19, 2021
My first unboxing video! For Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
I'm so happy to share that in three weeks, on February 9, my new kinky anthology
Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
will be published by Cleis Press. I got my author copies a few weeks ago and did my first unboxing video! It's age-restricted so you'll have to watch on YouTube, but here's the cover and more information on the book. I'm so excited that these 19 super sexy bondage erotica stories will be out in print and ebook very soon (and audiobook soon after that).
Here's a snippet from a great review we just got from the blog Beauty in Ruins, which reads in part: "Escape by Veronique Veritas gets the anthology off to a great start with an escape-room-themed tale where bondage and domination prove key to escape in more ways than one. Aside from the accident that left her in need of rehab, the sexualized training of Back in the Saddle by Page Chase is something I've fantasized about more than once . . . and I have reread this more than once as well!...Sex-positive and kink-positive, with nods to nonbinary lovers and polyamorous threesomes, Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Vol. 2 is another testament to Rachel Kramer Bussel's eye for erotic fiction."
Table of contents:
Introduction: All Kinds of Kinky
Escape • Veronique Veritas
Hammered Gold • Rosalind Chase
Back in the Saddle • Page Chase
The Lash of a Thousand Wolfords • Trystan Kent
Day 730 • Rebecca E. Blanton
Restorative Justice • Alexa J. Day
Leather-bound • Elna Holst
Table for Two • T.R. Verten
Headspace • Evan Mora
Unicorn • Jacqueline Brocker
Ballad of Desire and Saccharine Melodies • Sonja E. DeWitt
Activist • Sienna Saint-Cyr
Dark Dreams • Posy Churchgate
Trade Show • D. Fostalove
Chef’s Special • Emma Chaton
Friend with benefits • Charlie Powell
The Weight of Command • Anne Stagg
A Constructed Threesome • Dr. J.
Plug In the Model • Céline
About the book:
How do you like to be tied up? Silk scarves and designer stockings … nipple clamps, collars, and riding crops? Or are you the one with the key to the cuffs?
Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 brings you nineteen delectable adult stories of teasing, tantalizing, and begging for more. Award-winning editor Rachel Kramer Bussel allows you to shamelessly delve into your forbidden desires—from the most innocent to the truly deviant. These sexy tales include a double-dom three-way in a locked escape room, an outrageous kitchen tryst, a couple discovering their penchant for the perverse, kinky commands in space, and a range of role-play scenarios, each wilder than the last.
Succumb to the thrill of surrender with this exquisite anthology from a collection of writers who have truly mastered the not-so-gentle art of sexual power and erotic restraint.
Here's where to pre-order Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2:
PRINT:
Bookshop (supports independent bookstores)
Powell’s (independent bookstore)
Amazon (all available countries)
Books-a-Million
Chapters (Canada)
Waterstones (UK)
EBOOK:
Kindle (all available countries)
Nook
Google Play
iBooks
Kobo
Here's a snippet from a great review we just got from the blog Beauty in Ruins, which reads in part: "Escape by Veronique Veritas gets the anthology off to a great start with an escape-room-themed tale where bondage and domination prove key to escape in more ways than one. Aside from the accident that left her in need of rehab, the sexualized training of Back in the Saddle by Page Chase is something I've fantasized about more than once . . . and I have reread this more than once as well!...Sex-positive and kink-positive, with nods to nonbinary lovers and polyamorous threesomes, Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Vol. 2 is another testament to Rachel Kramer Bussel's eye for erotic fiction."
Table of contents:
Introduction: All Kinds of Kinky
Escape • Veronique Veritas
Hammered Gold • Rosalind Chase
Back in the Saddle • Page Chase
The Lash of a Thousand Wolfords • Trystan Kent
Day 730 • Rebecca E. Blanton
Restorative Justice • Alexa J. Day
Leather-bound • Elna Holst
Table for Two • T.R. Verten
Headspace • Evan Mora
Unicorn • Jacqueline Brocker
Ballad of Desire and Saccharine Melodies • Sonja E. DeWitt
Activist • Sienna Saint-Cyr
Dark Dreams • Posy Churchgate
Trade Show • D. Fostalove
Chef’s Special • Emma Chaton
Friend with benefits • Charlie Powell
The Weight of Command • Anne Stagg
A Constructed Threesome • Dr. J.
Plug In the Model • Céline
About the book:
How do you like to be tied up? Silk scarves and designer stockings … nipple clamps, collars, and riding crops? Or are you the one with the key to the cuffs?
Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 brings you nineteen delectable adult stories of teasing, tantalizing, and begging for more. Award-winning editor Rachel Kramer Bussel allows you to shamelessly delve into your forbidden desires—from the most innocent to the truly deviant. These sexy tales include a double-dom three-way in a locked escape room, an outrageous kitchen tryst, a couple discovering their penchant for the perverse, kinky commands in space, and a range of role-play scenarios, each wilder than the last.
Succumb to the thrill of surrender with this exquisite anthology from a collection of writers who have truly mastered the not-so-gentle art of sexual power and erotic restraint.
Here's where to pre-order Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2:
PRINT:
Bookshop (supports independent bookstores)
Powell’s (independent bookstore)
Amazon (all available countries)
Books-a-Million
Chapters (Canada)
Waterstones (UK)
EBOOK:
Kindle (all available countries)
Nook
Google Play
iBooks
Kobo
January 17, 2021
Watch me interview Joanna Angel on Tuesday, February 9
At the start of 2021, I made some professional goals for myself, and one was to be asked to do an "in conversation with" interview with an author for a bookstore. I had been asked once over the last few years, but it was in New York and would have required five hours of bus travel, and that didn't really make sense for my schedule. But with the rise of virtual book events, I'm thrilled to say that on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, from 8-9 p.m. ET (5-6 p.m. PT), I'll be interviewing the amazing Joanna Angel of Burning Angel fame about her new choose-your-own erotic fantasy novel
Club 42
for Culvery City, California romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice. Click their name to RSVP; the event is free. And I guess I manifested really well because I'm actually going two interviews in February. My next interview will take place on 22 at 5 pm EST, not for a bookstore but for the amazing women over 40 community The Woolfer. I'll be interviewing Tracy Clark-Flory, whose journalism you probably know from Jezebel or other outlets, about her debut memoir,
Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire
for The Woolfer TV. You can watch it live or it'll be recorded for their site and YouTube channel.
Club 42 will be published that day from Cleis Press, as will my kinky anthology, Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 . Joanna contributed her super sexy story "One Last Gangbang" to my anthology Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 , and all those books will be for sale from The Ripped Bodice that night (or are available for pre-order or order now), including copies of Club 42 signed by Joanna as well as my Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 . You can also pick up her first choose-your-own eortic fantasy novel Night Shift from The Ripped Bodice. Here's more detail about what to expect from Club 42.
Naomi, a proud Brooklyn hipster, finds her life is forever changed when she gets fired from her barista job and wanders into a strip club called Club 42. On a whim, Naomi auditions to become a dancer and what happens next . . . is up to you!
Join Naomi as she works the day shift at a Manhattan club where patrons sip on carrot juice instead of beer. From learning the art of the lap dance to giving her ex the “extras” in the VIP room, there’s more to learn here than she ever learned in college. Should she tell her partner—the dreamy, broke musician who is unofficially squatting in her apartment—about her job, or should she learn to lead a double life between two boroughs? Should she experiment with moonlighting as a Dominatrix, or stay in the strip club and submit to her newest crush, exploring her sexuality and her newfound love for exhibitionism as she twerks her way into a new tax bracket? It’s all up to YOU, so grab your stilettos, turn up the early-2000s dance hits, and guide Naomi through this nonstop naked adventure in the city that never sleeps!
Club 42 will be published that day from Cleis Press, as will my kinky anthology, Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 . Joanna contributed her super sexy story "One Last Gangbang" to my anthology Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 , and all those books will be for sale from The Ripped Bodice that night (or are available for pre-order or order now), including copies of Club 42 signed by Joanna as well as my Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 . You can also pick up her first choose-your-own eortic fantasy novel Night Shift from The Ripped Bodice. Here's more detail about what to expect from Club 42.
Naomi, a proud Brooklyn hipster, finds her life is forever changed when she gets fired from her barista job and wanders into a strip club called Club 42. On a whim, Naomi auditions to become a dancer and what happens next . . . is up to you!
Join Naomi as she works the day shift at a Manhattan club where patrons sip on carrot juice instead of beer. From learning the art of the lap dance to giving her ex the “extras” in the VIP room, there’s more to learn here than she ever learned in college. Should she tell her partner—the dreamy, broke musician who is unofficially squatting in her apartment—about her job, or should she learn to lead a double life between two boroughs? Should she experiment with moonlighting as a Dominatrix, or stay in the strip club and submit to her newest crush, exploring her sexuality and her newfound love for exhibitionism as she twerks her way into a new tax bracket? It’s all up to YOU, so grab your stilettos, turn up the early-2000s dance hits, and guide Naomi through this nonstop naked adventure in the city that never sleeps!
January 14, 2021
My op-ed about Josh Hawley's book cancellation and the First Amendment
For NBC News THINK, I wrote about Senator Josh Hawley's book cancellation the First Amendment. It's my first op-ed of 2021, but hopefully not the last!
January 11, 2021
New sexy audiobook out: Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 6
I'm very happy to share that the audiobook of
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 6
, narrated by Rose Caraway, is available now on Audible! You can even listen to a free sample. These 20 brand new stories are all on the theme of adventure and will take you everywhere from a tattoo reality show to a motorcycle club to a kinky escape room and far beyond.
About the book:
If you’re looking for your next sexy listen, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Book 6 is sure to heat things up. These 20 adventure-themed stories will take you around the globe as you meet characters eager to indulge their sensual sides.
From competing on a reality show and getting “Inked on My Skin” by an extremely sexy tattoo artist to exploring a “Cabinet of Curiosities”, these characters say "yes" to their most daring desires. Whether a single mom having a hot vacation fling, a vegetarian lusting after a hunky butcher, a couple visiting a kinky escape room, or a divorcee hitting up a motorcycle club and going on an “Easy Ride”, these erotic tales bare all. Women who’ve been told they’re “too much”, by an ex or the world, discover the joy of asking for more and more and more — and getting it.
Enjoy women’s sexual fantasies come to life, from fetishes to kinks to a very arousing way to use an instruction manual. With stories by popular erotic romance authors Shelly Bell, Zoey Castile, Jeanette Grey, Mia Hopkins, Katrina Jackson, Elizabeth SaFleur, Naima Simone, Olivia Waite, and Elia Winters, and newcomers to the genre, the latest volume of pansexual sex tales in this best-selling series will make your heart race with excitement.
About the book:
If you’re looking for your next sexy listen, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Book 6 is sure to heat things up. These 20 adventure-themed stories will take you around the globe as you meet characters eager to indulge their sensual sides.
From competing on a reality show and getting “Inked on My Skin” by an extremely sexy tattoo artist to exploring a “Cabinet of Curiosities”, these characters say "yes" to their most daring desires. Whether a single mom having a hot vacation fling, a vegetarian lusting after a hunky butcher, a couple visiting a kinky escape room, or a divorcee hitting up a motorcycle club and going on an “Easy Ride”, these erotic tales bare all. Women who’ve been told they’re “too much”, by an ex or the world, discover the joy of asking for more and more and more — and getting it.
Enjoy women’s sexual fantasies come to life, from fetishes to kinks to a very arousing way to use an instruction manual. With stories by popular erotic romance authors Shelly Bell, Zoey Castile, Jeanette Grey, Mia Hopkins, Katrina Jackson, Elizabeth SaFleur, Naima Simone, Olivia Waite, and Elia Winters, and newcomers to the genre, the latest volume of pansexual sex tales in this best-selling series will make your heart race with excitement.
January 4, 2021
Cleis Press 40% off new year erotica sale
To kick off 2021, my publisher, Cleis Press, is having a big 40% off sale through January 8, 2021 on select print books (shipping to the U.S. only) if you use the code NEWYEARNEWBOOK. Below are the five books of mine that are on sale, though Erotic Teasers I think still needs an add to cart button. If you haven't read these or are looking to give them as a gift, check it out. See Cleis's Twitter feed for more sale books. Also, a reminder that the best way to keep up with what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis is to follow me on Twitter @raquelita, Instagram @rachelkramerbussel (and/or my new all jigsaw puzzle account @rachelpuzzles and Facebook @rachelkramerbusselauthor which I update in that order of frequency. If you want to follow the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series, where I post news, photos, giveaways and more, those handles are: Twitter @BWEoftheyear, Instagram @bestwomenserotica and Facebook @bweoftheyear.
Here are individual links to my Cleis Press 40% off erotica print books for U.S. shipping with the code NEWYEARNEWBOOK. They're all also available in ebook and audiobook. I've listed some of my favorite of my anthologies with all buy links on my website, and will be adding more soon and here's all my Cleis Press books, most available in print, ebook and audio, some are out of print. Also, whether a book says "Best Women's Erotica" or "for women" in the title, readers of any gender who like sexy stories are welcome to read them! I welcome all readers and feedback and reviews to help me guide future anthology selections.
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4
Begging for It: Erotic Fantasies for Women
Erotic Teasers (add to cart button should be up soon if it's not currently)
If you haven't subscribed to my monthly newsletter yet, hop on it, because I do roundups and newsletter subscriber exclusive giveaways. Last year I was a bad newsletter sender and skipped a few months, including my big book release month of December, but as part of my 2021 goals I'll be sending them out monthly no matter what, starting today with January's.
Here are individual links to my Cleis Press 40% off erotica print books for U.S. shipping with the code NEWYEARNEWBOOK. They're all also available in ebook and audiobook. I've listed some of my favorite of my anthologies with all buy links on my website, and will be adding more soon and here's all my Cleis Press books, most available in print, ebook and audio, some are out of print. Also, whether a book says "Best Women's Erotica" or "for women" in the title, readers of any gender who like sexy stories are welcome to read them! I welcome all readers and feedback and reviews to help me guide future anthology selections.
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2
Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4
Begging for It: Erotic Fantasies for Women
Erotic Teasers (add to cart button should be up soon if it's not currently)
If you haven't subscribed to my monthly newsletter yet, hop on it, because I do roundups and newsletter subscriber exclusive giveaways. Last year I was a bad newsletter sender and skipped a few months, including my big book release month of December, but as part of my 2021 goals I'll be sending them out monthly no matter what, starting today with January's.
December 23, 2020
New erotica anthology call for submissions on threesomes and group sex
Good news! I'm editing another 2022 anthology for Cleis Press, this one on threesomes and group sex. I've posted the call for submissions on my website. It's pretty detailed, designed to cover all potential author questions, but if you have a question after reading the writing guidelines in full, feel free to email me at the address listed on the call. I'm paying $100/story and one copy of the book for exclusive rights for one year from the July 2022 publication date. The exact contract terms are listed at the bottom of the call.
As stated in the call, the final deadline is May 1, 2021, but I would strongly advise submitting your best, proofread work as soon as possible. My manuscript draft for this anthology is already starting to fill up (I have a few stories I couldn't use in other anthologies that fit the topic that the authors let me hold for potential publication in this one, pending my publisher's approval), and I have a feeling certain pairings and scenarios will be quite prominent in my inbox. If you know anyone who might have a perfect erotica story for this anthology, please pass along the writing guidelines. Thank you!
As stated in the call, the final deadline is May 1, 2021, but I would strongly advise submitting your best, proofread work as soon as possible. My manuscript draft for this anthology is already starting to fill up (I have a few stories I couldn't use in other anthologies that fit the topic that the authors let me hold for potential publication in this one, pending my publisher's approval), and I have a feeling certain pairings and scenarios will be quite prominent in my inbox. If you know anyone who might have a perfect erotica story for this anthology, please pass along the writing guidelines. Thank you!
