Rachel Kramer Bussel's Blog, page 53

Flash sale: $1.99 for Best Bondage Erotica 2014 on Kindle, Nook or Google Play

For the next few days, the ebook version of Best Bondage Erotica 2014 is only $1.99 on Kindle, Nook and Google Play. The email I saw said this ends March 19th, and I'm unclear if that includes March 19th, but either way, act fast!



Here's what's in the book:

Table of contents:

Foreword: No Bondage Please, I’m Kinky Laura Antoniou
Introduction: Cruel to Be Kind, and Vice Versa (see below)
Rope Dancer Kathleen Tudor
Behind the Door Kay Jaybee
My Own Device Raziel Moore
The Neckcloth Annabel Joseph
Anyway Sommer Marsden
Eel Annabeth Leong
No Strings Attached James McArthur
Roping the Cowboy Teresa Noelle Roberts
Meeting L. C. Spoering
The Snake Jacqueline Brocker
Clipped Lucy Felthouse
Tart Cherry Kathleen Delaney-Adams
Ring of Fire Michelle Augello-Page
Belted In Roxanna Cross
Pegged Emily Bingham
Tight-Rope Walker Tilly Hunter
An Appreciation for Beautiful Things Giselle Renarde
Mind Fuck Kissa Starling
Wearing Purple Elizabeth Coldwell
Dual Mastery Rachel Kramer Bussel

Introduction: Cruel to Be Kind, and Vice Versa

One of the joys of editing erotic anthologies is marveling at the diversity of the authors’ imaginations. While this is my fourth year editing the Best Bondage Erotica series, it’s always a surprise to me when I start reading stories and seeing just how many ways someone can be tied up, strung up or otherwise restrained.

What you’ll read in Best Bondage Erotica 2014 isn’t a how-to manual, but rather a taste of twenty hot bondage tales that don’t skimp on the sadism, masochism or sexiness of the encounters. These writers show and tell exactly what it means to wield the special power of being in charge of someone else. In “Pegged,” Emily Bingham writes, “It’s his turn to be small and defenseless for an evening. I want to be so kind to him that it becomes cruel.” Sometimes pop culture portrays kinksters and bondage fans as all cruel, without a shred of kindness. The dirty little secret is that these characters are, in fact, both; they manipulate rope, handcuffs, leather straps, a St. Andrew’s cross, a chair, and, in Raziel Moore’s “My Own Device,” a special contraption crafted just for bondage, with the ultimate aim of pleasing their partners—when they’re done having their fun, teasing them, hurting them, screwing them and generally making them writhe, squirm and indulge in the delight of helplessness.

I’m delighted to present this latest edition of Best Bondage Erotica, which I hope will delight those who know exactly what it feels like to be at someone else’s mercy (or have someone else at your mercy) as well as those who simply want to picture the joys of being bound in vivid, elaborate, beautiful, cruel and kind detail.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

OrgasmQuest founder Crista Anne is raising money for her custody battle

Remember Crista Anne and her OrgasmQuest?



Well, now she's raising money via Rally to hire a lawyer to fight for custody of her kids along wit her husband, whose ex sounds like a horrible person. Here's the beginning of their story:

Two and a half years ago, my abusive ex left us in a field in NY with our newborn baby and a two year old, cancelled our credit cards, took off for VA in the family vehicle, kidnapping our other two children and hiding them away for over a month before she “let” me see them, based on the fact that I told her I was no longer willing to stand for her continued threats and beatings.

The full story is horrific, and there's more on Crista's blog. If you can help, please do.

Join me at Swedish feminist porn screening of Dirty Diaries tonight in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

I'll be in my old neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight for the screening of feminist porn Dirty Diaries: Twelve Shorts of Feminist Porn and will be speaking after.



Official description:

DIRTY DIARIES
Various Directors, 2009
Sweden, 98 min.
Silent/In Swedish with English subtitles

SATURDAY, MARCH 14 – 8 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Tired of airbrushed, male gaze porn with no personality, no panache, no pizzazz? Spectacle’s got you covered. For one night only, Spectacle presents DIRTY DIARIES, a collection of Swedish feminist porn shorts sure to put the vim and vigor back into your love life!

Put together by director Mia Engberg, DIRTY DIARIES is a collection of 12 short films, each directed by a woman, and each dealing with a different aspect of sexuality. These shorts are raw, with every day people as performers, and nearly every proclivity and orientation represented. From an exploration of online sexuality, to lovers cutting each other out of body suits, to an animated short, DIRTY DIARIES likely has something you’re looking for — and just as likely, will make you reconsider what porn is, and what porn can be. Joining us for the night is Rachel Kramer Bussel, sex columnist, editor, and expert on sex and pop culture, to discuss the films and the issues they raise. With a manifesto that includes such points as “Fight for your right to be horny” and “Smash capitalism and patriarchy,” DIRTY DIARIES is porn with a message (don’t be scared away, it’s still hot, too).

Rachel Kramer Bussel is the author of Sex & Cupcakes: A Juicy Collection of Essays and the editor of over 50 anthologies, including Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, Best Bondage Erotica 2015, The Big Book of Orgasms, The Big Book of Submission, Fast Girls, Gotta Have It and Cheeky Spanking Stories. She is a sex columnist for Philadelphia City Paper and DAME, teaches erotic writing workshops, writes widely about sex, dating, books and pop culture and Tweets @raquelita.

[Trigger Warning: This is hardcore pornography, including bondage, exhibitionism, fisting, and pretty much everything else you can think of.]

This is my last NYC event for a long while, since I'm choosing to focus my time and money on doing things like and other travel, like my upcoming events in Richmond, Charlottesville, Baltimore and Arlington. I love New York, but right now my heart and my business are in New Jersey. See you tonight if you can make it!

My Q&A with Ashley Manta on her blog post on naming her rapist

For my Shameless Sex column at DAME, about her blog post entitled, "Naming My Rapist After 15 Years." She posted it on Sunday and agreed to speak with me on pretty short notice for it. I'm grateful she was willing to share her story and have been observing the reactions and impact it's already had in a few short days. Please check out both the interview and her original post.

My new threesome story in Three of Hearts edited by Kristina Wright

I have a brand new threesome erotica story in the just-released anthology Three of Hearts edited by Kristina Wright, which will be out as an ebook for Kindle and other ebook forms on Tuesday, March 17th as well.



Here's a little snippet of my story:

An Extra Pair of Eyes
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Billie could have tried to pretend she was putting an extra coat of lip gloss on for Clyde's sake, but the smile dancing upon her now super shiny lips wasn't for her husband. Or rather, it wasn't for her husband alone. Nor was the tug of desire echoing from deep within her. She knew the difference after four years together. There were times when she wanted nothing more than to rip Clyde's clothes off, or he came home and barely said hello before he was lifting her onto the nearest piece of furniture and kissing her so passionately she lost any thoughts in her head.

But there were other times when what lit her up, inside and out, was the thrill of checking out someone new, imagining his or her lips pressed against hers. Or, in this case, pressed against hers and Clyde's. She didn't know whether Mr. Ripped Jeans and Sexy Stubble would be into that, but the high of flirting with a stranger was that she didn't kneed to know. Simply giving him The Look was enough to make her heart pound so hard she had to force herself to take a deep breath, lest she lose her head entirely.

Those breaths didn't help when she returned to the bar and the guy patted the stool next to him. He'd already ordered her a drink, one clearly far stronger than her planned Diet Coke. Clyde was running late, so why not? She smiled, pursing her glossy lips. "Well, thank you. Dare I ask what this is?"

"Why don't you guess?" His voice made her grip the edge of the bar and tighten the press of her thighs against each other. The tight seam of her jeans taunted her as she shifted, bending low to sip from the edge of the martini glass. She avoided looking at him just then, sure her pale face was by now hot pink.

"A cosmo? Really? That's the best you could do?" She couldn't help the complaint, even as the heat from the sweet drink made its way through her body.

The stranger gave her a good long look up and down. "What did you have in mind instead, princess?"

Fried Sriracha balls and the rest of my crazy weekend

For the Monday morning after I managed to kill my laptop and had to buy a new one, I'm doing pretty well. I was very Zen when it happened, because once in a while, I'm good in a crisis, and now, it's pretty much behind me. In the old days, I would spend umpteen hours berating and criticizing myself for whatever I'd done wrong. Now, I try to live in the present and focus on what I can change, now, to improve my life.

I'll be writing more about that, but wanted to type my first post from my new MacBook Air and share some photos from Rodeo Houston yesterday. I'm on vacation, but it's really more like "vacation" or "working vacation." Last week I met some pretty big deadlines, which left some of the others a bit straggling, but that's what freelance life for me is all about.

I caught up on Girls Season 4, after having skipped seasons 2 and 3 because I don't have HBO, and in one of the episodes, Desi said something to Marnie along the lines of whatever I'm doing, I'm writing songs. That's pretty much how I feel. In the course of going about my regular daily life, whether at home or away, things happen that leap out at me that practically beg me to write about them, some good, some less so. I don't write a super personal blog these days, and tend to save the most introspective stuff for essays, and two are percolating after this weekend. So here are some Houston snapshots, as I get to know my MacBook Air and enjoy the last day of my trip.

States where I'm sending free copies of Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

Firstly, Happy Erotic World Book Day! I hope you're celebrating in a fun way.



I celebrated by wisely changing my Houston flight to tomorrow, after coming to my senses after my momentary morning optimism, shoveling snow, getting a copy of The New York Times in print that quotes me about taxicab hookups and addressing envelopes to people in the following states: Iowa, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, California, Tennessee, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Utah, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Michigan.

Why? I'm sending them free books (I love the sound of those words together!) as part of my promotional campaign for a book I'm madly in love with, Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, which ships to me from the printer any day now. Want one before it's in stores to review on Amazon? Directions are below.

1. By March 15, 2015, email sextoyantho at gmail.com with "Amazon" in the subject line AND your name, U.S. mailing address and URL of a previous Amazon.com review, which will look like this: http://www.amazon.com/review/RZR12JEVAAK0Z/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0062076000&nodeID=283155&store=books. Click on your review's title and then copy and paste the URL for it. If you can't do this, you can send the URL of your Amazon profile which has a link to your review(s).

2. I will reply to everyone, either confirming you are one of the first 100, or letting you know that you're not (and I will update this post once the 100 have been spoken for).

3. For the first 100, once you receive your book, please post an honest review on Amazon.com by May 31st.

4. That's it! Some other ways to follow and support the book: @comeagainbook on Twitter, our Facebook page and Tumblr. Come Again is also on Goodreads, where you can mark that you want to read it (thank you!) and rate it.

To read the introduction and table of contents, go to the book's Tumblr.

My sex column on STI testing and one man show Cootie Catcher by Lucas Brooks

photo of Lucas Brooks by Cameron Cole

When I saw Cootie Catcher last Monday, it was a bitterly cold night, and I'm writing this from a snowy morning as I get ready to head to JFK and hope my flight to Houston for a short but much-needed vacation pans out. This winter, the one thing I've enjoyed is shoveling snow, because it's a novelty for me as a lifelong apartment dweller before last year. But I'm ready for things to warm up.

Back to my column: I timed this week's, entitled "The man behind the 'Cootie Catcher' show wants you to get tested" online (it's also in the print paper) to run while the show is still on. The show takes you through performer Lucas Brooks being tested for STIs such as HIV, gonorrhea and herpes as well as his sex life and experience with the medical community.

You have a chance to catch the show in New York tomorrow night, Friday, March 6th at 5:30 p.m. and also at CatalystCon, where Lucas will be on the "Sex on the Stage: Where Sexuality Meets Performance Art" panel. As always, if you like the column, please share it on Twitter, like it at the top of Philadelphia City Paper's site, spread the word! All of that helps me a lot, especially with my goal of writing this column for a long, long time. I welcome suggestions for future column topics at rachelkb at gmail.com with "City Paper" in the subject line. It's the second time I've gotten to write about theater in a sex column recently, which makes me very happy!

It's free book month: claim your copy of Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica by March 15th!

I'm new to Canva, where I made this image, but I hope what I lack in skill I make up for in enthusiasm

Yes, it's almost time for me to trundle off to the post office and mail lots of packages of autographed copies of Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica to Amazon.com reviewers! (U.S. only) I've got more copies left, but the deadline to sign up is March 15th (or when I reach 100 reviewers, whichever happens sooner). Interested? See below and sign up today. If these arrive by March 18th, I'll mail them then, or else I'll mail them on March 30th when I return from my events in Virginia and Maryland. Either way, I'll email you once the book has been mailed so you know when to expect it. I'm excited to send out lots of free books! I've already got a pile of envelopes waiting to be addressed. My dream is that this book sells so well I get to edit another book of super creative, over the top, funny, smart and sexy stories, and I'm going to do everything in my power to try to make that happen, starting with this one, the most fun (because who doesn't love free books?).

Here's how to request your free book and more about this hot anthology:

1. By March 15, 2015, email sextoyantho at gmail.com with "Amazon" in the subject line AND your name, U.S. mailing address and URL of a previous Amazon.com review, which will look like this: http://www.amazon.com/review/RZR12JEVAAK0Z/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0062076000&nodeID=283155&store=books. Click on your review's title and then copy and paste the URL for it. If you can't do this, you can send the URL of your Amazon profile which has a link to your review(s).

2. I will reply to everyone, either confirming you are one of the first 100, or letting you know that you're not (and I will update this post once the 100 have been spoken for).

3. For the first 100, once you receive your book, please post an honest review on Amazon.com by May 31st.

4. That's it! Some other ways to follow and support the book: @comeagainbook on Twitter, our Facebook page and Tumblr. Come Again is also on Goodreads, where you can mark that you want to read it (thank you!) and rate it.

To read the introduction and table of contents, go to the book's Tumblr. I'll also be sharing a list of independent stores where you can find Come Again once that information is available, and am working on booking book tour events.

When The Dress comes to life as a horny gay billionaire, you get this hilarious erotica

So of course I reviewed it for Thought Catalog. Thanks Chuck Tingle for writing Pounded By The Gay Color Changing Dress and livening up my morning. I'm still Team White and Gold, but this ebook really took the whole thing to ridiculous new heights.