Rachel Kramer Bussel's Blog, page 46
June 1, 2015
Why Khloé Kardashian is my favorite Kardashian
I know today everyone is talking about Kim Kardashian's second pregnancy and/or Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover, but what I wrote about for YouBeauty is Khloé Kardashian's November Regan Arts book Strong Looks Better Naked and why she's my favorite of the Kardashians. Yes, I'm a Keeping Up with the Kardashians fan. If I wasn't moving, I'd have attended her signing yesterday at BookCon. I previously wrote about Kim Kardashian and posing nude for YouBeauty.
May 29, 2015
Why I picked it: "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore in Orgasmic
If you've ever taken an erotica writing class with me, you've likely heard me quote from one of my favorite stories of the many hundreds I've published: "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore. It's about, yes, chemistry, as in labs and scientists, and it's in Orgasmic: Erotica for Women, which, even though it's about 25 women and their 25 different orgasms, is really "for everyone." It's also currently on sale for 99 cents on Kindle, to end any moment (it was supposed to end yesterday). It's also 99 cents on Google Play.
What I love so much about it is that it taps into an unusual fetish, portrays a woman of science who's hot for scientists, uses the senses, especially the sense of smell, and brilliantly takes us inside the mind of the narrator and her fetish. It jumps right into what she's all about and doesn't let up. Part of why Orgasmic is the model I use when editing anthologies, such as Best Women's Erotica 2016 , which I'll be reading all the submissions for next week (deadline is June 1, writers!), is that it is so wonderfully varied. No, it doesn't have every possible way a woman could come; I don't have the space for that. But it looks at single women, coupled women, kinky women, queer women, and so many more. Just as the book as a whole is a model for me for what I aim to achieve as an editor, this story is a model I offer as one example of an exquisite erotic story.
Here's a snippet, and I hope you'll like it enough to check out the book. As I said, the 99 cent sale is probably ending very soon. You can also get it in paperback and audiobook narrated by Lucy malone. Here's a little snippet of what I love about the story. I hope you like it too:
What I love so much about it is that it taps into an unusual fetish, portrays a woman of science who's hot for scientists, uses the senses, especially the sense of smell, and brilliantly takes us inside the mind of the narrator and her fetish. It jumps right into what she's all about and doesn't let up. Part of why Orgasmic is the model I use when editing anthologies, such as Best Women's Erotica 2016 , which I'll be reading all the submissions for next week (deadline is June 1, writers!), is that it is so wonderfully varied. No, it doesn't have every possible way a woman could come; I don't have the space for that. But it looks at single women, coupled women, kinky women, queer women, and so many more. Just as the book as a whole is a model for me for what I aim to achieve as an editor, this story is a model I offer as one example of an exquisite erotic story.
Here's a snippet, and I hope you'll like it enough to check out the book. As I said, the 99 cent sale is probably ending very soon. You can also get it in paperback and audiobook narrated by Lucy malone. Here's a little snippet of what I love about the story. I hope you like it too:
From "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore:
The smell of science makes me horny.
I narrowly resisted shoving my hands down my pants and rubbing myself to oblivion during my niece’s science fair. My stomach dips with pleasure every time someone lights a match. Each July I’m aroused by the vapors of the noise-making novelty fireworks called “snappers.” Little do tricksters know that when they crack one on the pavement at my feet, I shiver out of excitement, not fear.
Smell is the sense tied most closely to human memory. So when I sense any use of potassium chlorate; a white, crystalline compound well stocked in science laboratories and often used for combustion; I remember how it feels to have the fire of orgasm sizzle its way through my body and melt a liquid path down my legs. The chemical’s odor singes my nostrils and flashes me back to the sensation of a chilly, marble countertop pressed against my back, to the press of fingers digging into my supple thighs, to the slick pressure of rounded glass slipping in and out.
And it’s what I remember most about him.
Most scientists that I’ve met fit the typical stereotypes. Most would rather analyze your genes than pry off your jeans. Yet I suspected that Michael Harrison was capable of much more than stripping me of my pants. With his wavy black hair, broad shoulders and Clark Kent glasses, I believed that stripped of his unassuming attire, he would have something surprising and heroically powerful bulging underneath.
I understood this the first time I shook his hand and caught the scent of chemicals trapped in his clothes and seared into his skin, a smell faint and tangy and far too interesting to be cologne, like the smell of your body after a lengthy swim in a freshly chlorinated pool. I imagined that if I should run my tongue along his perky nipples, my tongue would sizzle as though touched to the tip of a battery.
We needed a scientist to impress the hospital donors with a tour of the lab. I planned to find an excuse to use him.
When loving someone means loving their neuroses
Last night, after a pretty long day, I kind of lost it. My boyfriend and I were talking about a trip I'm taking right after my move. I booked it before I knew we were moving, so I land in Newark, which would have been great if we were in Red Bank because I could hop on a New Jersey transit train, less so in the suburbs of Atlantic City. There's not really a way to change to the Philadelphia airport, and I got a good deal on the trip, so I'm keeping it.
Since I'll land around 10 p.m. on a weeknight, I suggested my getting a hotel near the airport or staying with family in New York that night, rather than trying to navigate getting home at night. He offered to pick me up, but the idea of asking him to drive a total of three hours at night seems ludicrous to me, along with activating my deep-seated fear of cars, which John Nash's death in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike has only exacerbated. Yes, I wear seatbelts, and am well aware that anything could kill me at any time, not just cars. But still, it seems like a chance I would so much rather not take.
So between deadlines and having walked a lot Wednesday in the sun while attending BEA and running errands, and the cumulative stress of packing and purging, all my fears about this move pretty much culminated in this discussion. Much as we each thought we were right, we also both had to concede that being "right" is almost irrelevant. I'm scared of cars, and yes, I might even learn to drive one again one of these days, but I'm never going to volunteer to be driven at night if I can help it. I'm in cars more than enough for my comfort, and will be plenty once I move. I don't pretend that public transport is failsafe or anything, but I also feel entitled to my fears. I try not to obsess over them, but I like to retain some sense of control.
Eventually, we agreed that I would make the decision about how I'd get home. I know it bothers him that I would waste time or money rather than just have him come pick me up, but part of loving someone is accepting that they have their own issues that aren't yours and you can't fix. My boyfriend loves someone who is living in suburbia and is afraid of cars. I've gotten so much better about this over the last two years, but it's a fear that goes way, way back, over 20 years, when I had a car accident a few blocks from home not long after getting my license. I truly feel safer being a passenger in a plane than in a car, and the more people try to talk me out of it, the more stubborn it makes me about it. I don't refuse to drive in cars, I just try to minimize my contact.
This is typical of the ways we approach life from vastly different perspectives. I know those differences can drive both of us up the wall. I get the urge to try to make someone understand what you think you understand, because I have that impulse too, but navigating those gaps, those places where you have to stop and put yourself in the other person's mindset and come to an understanding of how they see the world, is what, to my mind, bonds us together. When we finally settled on our agree to disagree solution, I felt relieved. It's hard to overemphasize how much the cost of a hotel room or a few hours of travel feel like nothing next to the worry I'm saving. I wasn't very eloquent last night, because this fear taps into something so raw and primal, it's hard for me to be. But his embracing me, phobias and all, made me confident about our future as we move for the third time in three years.
Since I'll land around 10 p.m. on a weeknight, I suggested my getting a hotel near the airport or staying with family in New York that night, rather than trying to navigate getting home at night. He offered to pick me up, but the idea of asking him to drive a total of three hours at night seems ludicrous to me, along with activating my deep-seated fear of cars, which John Nash's death in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike has only exacerbated. Yes, I wear seatbelts, and am well aware that anything could kill me at any time, not just cars. But still, it seems like a chance I would so much rather not take.
So between deadlines and having walked a lot Wednesday in the sun while attending BEA and running errands, and the cumulative stress of packing and purging, all my fears about this move pretty much culminated in this discussion. Much as we each thought we were right, we also both had to concede that being "right" is almost irrelevant. I'm scared of cars, and yes, I might even learn to drive one again one of these days, but I'm never going to volunteer to be driven at night if I can help it. I'm in cars more than enough for my comfort, and will be plenty once I move. I don't pretend that public transport is failsafe or anything, but I also feel entitled to my fears. I try not to obsess over them, but I like to retain some sense of control.
Eventually, we agreed that I would make the decision about how I'd get home. I know it bothers him that I would waste time or money rather than just have him come pick me up, but part of loving someone is accepting that they have their own issues that aren't yours and you can't fix. My boyfriend loves someone who is living in suburbia and is afraid of cars. I've gotten so much better about this over the last two years, but it's a fear that goes way, way back, over 20 years, when I had a car accident a few blocks from home not long after getting my license. I truly feel safer being a passenger in a plane than in a car, and the more people try to talk me out of it, the more stubborn it makes me about it. I don't refuse to drive in cars, I just try to minimize my contact.
This is typical of the ways we approach life from vastly different perspectives. I know those differences can drive both of us up the wall. I get the urge to try to make someone understand what you think you understand, because I have that impulse too, but navigating those gaps, those places where you have to stop and put yourself in the other person's mindset and come to an understanding of how they see the world, is what, to my mind, bonds us together. When we finally settled on our agree to disagree solution, I felt relieved. It's hard to overemphasize how much the cost of a hotel room or a few hours of travel feel like nothing next to the worry I'm saving. I wasn't very eloquent last night, because this fear taps into something so raw and primal, it's hard for me to be. But his embracing me, phobias and all, made me confident about our future as we move for the third time in three years.
May 27, 2015
BEA = Books Everywhere, Aaaaahh!
I'm heading into New York today for Book Expo America at the Davits Center, where I'll be signing free copies of
Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica
at 2:30 in the autographing area and, I believe, 3:30 at the Cleis Press booth. However, if you've been following my Instagram account or blog, you know I'm moving very soon to South Jersey. Which means I am purging books left and right.
Considering the fact that free stuff is catnip to my hoarder lust, the prospect of being in a convention center full of free books and not being able to take them feels utterly masochistic. Good thing I am a masochist in many ways, then! Truly, it will be a challenge, because cracking open a new book fills me with such joy; it's one of the greatest things I can think of to do with my time. It's a gift, and for me, Book Expo has always been about soaking in the atmosphere of books, books and more books, of being surrounded by book people, of geeking out on publishing. Yes, I can do that while I'm moving, but it's not the same, and I already feel left out and I haven't even arrived.
That being said, I can't wait to take notes on what to read after I move. I'll be posting pics so check my Instagram (rachelkramerbussel).
Considering the fact that free stuff is catnip to my hoarder lust, the prospect of being in a convention center full of free books and not being able to take them feels utterly masochistic. Good thing I am a masochist in many ways, then! Truly, it will be a challenge, because cracking open a new book fills me with such joy; it's one of the greatest things I can think of to do with my time. It's a gift, and for me, Book Expo has always been about soaking in the atmosphere of books, books and more books, of being surrounded by book people, of geeking out on publishing. Yes, I can do that while I'm moving, but it's not the same, and I already feel left out and I haven't even arrived.
That being said, I can't wait to take notes on what to read after I move. I'll be posting pics so check my Instagram (rachelkramerbussel).
May 26, 2015
25 women orgasming - read all about it for 99 cents in Orgasmic
Orgasmic is only 99 cents right now on Kindle! I believe the sale lasts until Thursday, so act fast. It remains one of my favorite of the 50+ anthologies I've edited. Why? I think it's one of the hottest and certainly most varied. I made sure that none of the 25 female orgasm erotica tales were too similar, and it has a story I read from in all my writing classes, "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore, which I consider a model of how to write an intriguing erotic tale about an unusual fetish. Want to read my BDSM story "Belted" for free? Visit Goodreads, and I hope you'll also enjoy the other 24. At 4 cents a story, this bargain can't be beat (unlike the narrator of "Belted")! If you've been hankering to listen to these orgasm erotica stories narrated by Lucy Malone, buy the 99 cent Kindle version and get the audiobook for just $3.99!
Want more enticement? Watch the book trailer:
Table of contents
Introduction: Let Me Count the Ways…
The Waiting Game Elizabeth Coldwell
What’s in a Name? Jacqueline Applebee
Chemistry Velvet Moore
The Chair Lolita Lopez
Fixing the Pipes Susie Hara
Share Dusty Horn
Hurdles Rowan Elizabeth
Seeing Stars Louisa Harte
Old Faithful Sylvia Lowry
Paying It Forward Kendra Wayne
The Big O Donna George Storey
Moon Tantra Teresa Noelle Roberts
Feet on the Dashboard Rachel Green
Frosting First Lana Fox
All She Wanted Andrea Dale
Making Shapes Lily Harlem
Rapture Angela Caperton
Belted Rachel Kramer Bussel
Rise and Shine Heidi Champa
Taking the Reins Vanessa Vaughn
First Date with the Dom Noelle Keely
Animal Inside Neve Black
The London O Justine Elyot
Fight Charlotte Stein
Switch Jade Melisande
Want more enticement? Watch the book trailer:
Table of contents
Introduction: Let Me Count the Ways…
The Waiting Game Elizabeth Coldwell
What’s in a Name? Jacqueline Applebee
Chemistry Velvet Moore
The Chair Lolita Lopez
Fixing the Pipes Susie Hara
Share Dusty Horn
Hurdles Rowan Elizabeth
Seeing Stars Louisa Harte
Old Faithful Sylvia Lowry
Paying It Forward Kendra Wayne
The Big O Donna George Storey
Moon Tantra Teresa Noelle Roberts
Feet on the Dashboard Rachel Green
Frosting First Lana Fox
All She Wanted Andrea Dale
Making Shapes Lily Harlem
Rapture Angela Caperton
Belted Rachel Kramer Bussel
Rise and Shine Heidi Champa
Taking the Reins Vanessa Vaughn
First Date with the Dom Noelle Keely
Animal Inside Neve Black
The London O Justine Elyot
Fight Charlotte Stein
Switch Jade Melisande
What gets you off? How do you like to come? Let Orgasmic count the ways…with 25 stories centered around female orgasm, there’s something here for every reader. The women in Orgasmic climax from Tantric sex, role-playing, piercing, G-spot play, sex toys, horseback riding, BDSM, a belt and even chemistry–the scientific kind. They delight in food, God and handymen. They create their own objects of pleasure; they spy, tease, obey, command, argue, submit. Some are shy about their orgasms and some are bold as can be. They come, and come and come again, and they do it in some of the hottest, most creative ways you can think of. Featuring red-hot erotica by some of today’s hottest writers, these stories will make you want to stop everything and have an orgasm immediately…once you’ve turned the last succulent page.Don't miss out on this special Orgasmic sale, very appropriate for National Masturbation Month!
May 23, 2015
Why the Girl Scouts were right to allow transgender girls and the hate behind the petition to stop them
I wrote 10 pieces for Salon this past week; this on the Girl Scouts and transgender girls is one of them. I think my personal favorite is on the fat-shaming inherent in dadbod (which Blogger keeps wanting to autocorrect to "deadwood").
Free femdom from Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica
It's been quite the week, so to celebrate the weekend and
Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica
, here's a free excerpt from my story "Claws Out," inspired by actual claws I saw but never bought at Purple Passion. By the time I was able to buy them, they no longer stocked them! I can't find a good photo that does justice the ones I had wanted to buy, but if I do, I will post it. In the meantime, here's part of my story; read the rest along with 20 other creative, hot, sexy varied stories of sex toys in Come Again. Read more about "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis and "Must Love Dolls" by Giselle Renarde from Come Again. 
Buy Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica in print or ebook form from the following places (full independent bookstore and sex toy store list coming soon!):
Amazon
Kindle ebook
Amazon UK
Kindle UK
Barnes & Noble (Bn.com)
Nook ebook
iBooks
Kobo
Books-a-Million
IndieBound (find it at your local independent bookstore)
Cleis Press
From "Claws Out" by Rachel Kramer Bussel
He only began to stir when she raised his hands above his head and twisted her panties into makeshift handcuffs around his wrists. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, Sleeping Beauty.” She ran the flat of her palm along his spine, down over the slope of one buttcheek, curving along his balls. She wanted to make sure he was, indeed, hard; otherwise the torment of keeping him on edge lost some of its appeal.
“That’s what I like to feel first thing in the morning,” she uttered as she reached beneath him and wrapped her hand around his stiff cock. John tried to buck into her touch, but she was too smart for that, and immediately dropped it.
“That’s not what your dick is for,” she snapped. His moan let her know he didn’t mind one bit; being used as little more than a phallic prop turned him on like nothing else. Okay, maybe not quite as much as her taking him to the edge of pain and keeping him dangling on the precipice. Celia grabbed the pouch before straddling his waist, making sure her wetness met his warm skin. If she wanted to, she could simply hump him until she came, maybe use a vibrator to heighten her pleasure. But she’d have no problem getting off later; this was about a more lasting kind of pleasure, the kind she got from making sure he knew he belonged to her, through and through.
Before she broke open the pouch, Celia decided to play good domme for a little while longer. She leaned over to the bedside drawer, letting her nipples brush against his back as she reached for the massage oil. “Just relax.” Those two little words could have multiple meanings—their simple, surface meaning, or their more twisted, sadistic opposite. She wasn’t above telling him to relax right before she pushed the lever on his nipple clamps higher, tightening them on his nubs, or before she brought a vibrator up to his balls. It was up to him to read her well enough to hear beyond the dictionary definition, to learn her body language even when he couldn’t see her. Only when he’d mastered that skill would she truly know he had long-term potential.
Celia warmed the oil between her hands, pausing to rub a little on her breasts, once again leaning down, this time to smear the warm liquid directly onto him. She added more, doing a sexy slip and slide before capping the bottle. Then she put her training as a masseuse to work. She’d done a stint as a massage girl, giving hand jobs but also true back massages; she’d been so good that the latter were what netted her the biggest tips.
Soon he was practically purring, putty in her hands—just where she wanted him. After digging her elbows into a few strategic spots, Celia stopped.
“Stay right there; I’ll know if you move.” She got up to wash her hands, and when she returned, she made sure to jingle the claws; the soft tinkling sound of metal on metal made him groan. “I have a surprise for you, because I take good care of what’s mine, don’t I?” When all Celia got was a moan, she pinched the tender skin at the back of his neck. “Words, darling, use your words.”
“Yes, you do. You always know what I like.”
“That’s more like it. Now relax; this will only work if you don’t tense up.”
Then she put the claws back on, transforming herself into what she considered her own version of Catwoman. She didn’t need to dress up; the claws were all the costume she desired. With them on, she was a fierce woman with a weapon, one she chose to use for their mutual pleasure.
She waited until the only sound she could hear was John’s heavy breathing. She shifted so the full weight of the warmth between her legs pressed down against him, then, steadying herself with her left hand on his upper back, she traced the tips of the claws from the nape of his neck on down. With barely any pressure, they still had a profound effect, if his breathing was any indication. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked, before sinking them just a little more firmly into his soft, pliant skin.
“Oh my god,” he sobbed, his body shaking as she made identical pink lines down his back. Celia had expected, to some degree, how turned on he would get, but the claws seemed to be working just as much magic on her. With each stripe she left on him, a corresponding jolt of excitement crept from his body back into hers.
Buy Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica in print or ebook form from the following places (full independent bookstore and sex toy store list coming soon!):
Amazon
Kindle ebook
Amazon UK
Kindle UK
Barnes & Noble (Bn.com)
Nook ebook
iBooks
Kobo
Books-a-Million
IndieBound (find it at your local independent bookstore)
Cleis Press
May 22, 2015
Rebel Wilson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hollywood and age discrimination at Salon
I've written a lot for Salon this week, and have been linking the articles mainly on Twitter. It's been a crazy week, which I'll share more about as soon as I have time, but I wanted to share this piece on why women lie about their age, Rebel Wilson, Maggie Gyllenaal and Hollywood age discrimination.
May 21, 2015
My last New York City event before I move will be Book Expo America
Next Wednesday, I'll be hopping on New Jersey Transit to attend Book Expo America, where I'll be signing free copies of
Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica
. It's one of my last trips to New York before I move to South Jersey, where I'll be much closer to Philadelphia than the Big Apple. It's also the last unpaid event I will do in New York. I'm excited to step into a new role I'm creating for myself: that of a true businesswoman. I will be continuing the process I started this year in earnest, of making smarter decisions for myself and my business, RKB Enterprises, Inc. Sometimes that means saying no to cool events, but now I have to ask myself: are they worth over 6 hours of travel? In almost all cases, the answer will be no. Because with my six hours (which in reality I suspect will be more like 7), I can be earning income, or even just sitting in my backyard. Or if I want to travel, going somewhere I've never been, rather than a city I lived in for 16 years. New York is the city of my birth, and will always be a part of me, but it's stopped feeling like "mine." When I visit, I'm every inch the visitor, a guest, a bystander looking in, and I'm okay with that. I don't want to be the me I was when I lived there; that girl has vanished and turned into someone hopefully wiser and more mature.
I feel like I wish I had approached my life like this way back when; maybe I'd be more accomplished, maybe I'd have more money, maybe maybe maybe. But I can't think like that; I can only look forward. I welcome being a little more removed from my former life, because as wonderful as New York was to me, it also hit me hard at the end. I'll be turning 40 soon and my only goal for my birthday is to be pregnant by then--well, that, and able to pay all my bills. I used to have major FOMO and want to be everywhere at once, and now I'm so grateful for the chance to turn that focus back where it belongs. Okay, one more goal: no more jealousy. I'm so over wanting the seemingly glamorous, amazing, perfect lives other people have, and hope I can live up to my promise to myself to do my best with this singular one I've been given.
It means finally letting go of all the New York businesses I've patronized: for manicures, for waxes, for sneakers, for doctors. It's time to truly be a Jersey girl, rather than a faker. So I'll see you at Book Expo, and I may have one more NYC event before the end of the year, but otherwise, I'll see you online, where most of my writing and teaching happen. There'll be lots more of those, and new books to plot and plan. I'm finally ready to shed my old life, and it feels so freeing.
I feel like I wish I had approached my life like this way back when; maybe I'd be more accomplished, maybe I'd have more money, maybe maybe maybe. But I can't think like that; I can only look forward. I welcome being a little more removed from my former life, because as wonderful as New York was to me, it also hit me hard at the end. I'll be turning 40 soon and my only goal for my birthday is to be pregnant by then--well, that, and able to pay all my bills. I used to have major FOMO and want to be everywhere at once, and now I'm so grateful for the chance to turn that focus back where it belongs. Okay, one more goal: no more jealousy. I'm so over wanting the seemingly glamorous, amazing, perfect lives other people have, and hope I can live up to my promise to myself to do my best with this singular one I've been given.
It means finally letting go of all the New York businesses I've patronized: for manicures, for waxes, for sneakers, for doctors. It's time to truly be a Jersey girl, rather than a faker. So I'll see you at Book Expo, and I may have one more NYC event before the end of the year, but otherwise, I'll see you online, where most of my writing and teaching happen. There'll be lots more of those, and new books to plot and plan. I'm finally ready to shed my old life, and it feels so freeing.
It's National Masturbation Month so here's my sex column on it
It's actually about masturbation's cultural stigma and issues around sex positivity when it comes to National Masturbation Month. Many thanks to Jenne Davis of Clitical.com and Hannah Jorden of The Smitten Kitten for letting me interview them! Want to read my sex column archives at Philadelphia City Paper? Click here. Email me at rachelcitypaper at gmail.com with any suggestions for future columns. And yes, that's me with a Magic Wand.
Speaking of masturbation, my anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica is out now in print and ebook and is what I consider my funniest book, while also being totally hot! I'm so proud of all the queer stories and the sci fi elements and the made up sex toys and the humor. I think this one has a different feel than my others, and am so happy it's out in time for National Masturbation Month and starting to hit stores (full store list coming as soon as I can finish all the links!). Find out more at comeagainbook.com, where you can also read Q&As with the contributors (more are being added soon)!
Speaking of masturbation, my anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica is out now in print and ebook and is what I consider my funniest book, while also being totally hot! I'm so proud of all the queer stories and the sci fi elements and the made up sex toys and the humor. I think this one has a different feel than my others, and am so happy it's out in time for National Masturbation Month and starting to hit stores (full store list coming as soon as I can finish all the links!). Find out more at comeagainbook.com, where you can also read Q&As with the contributors (more are being added soon)!
