Rachel Kramer Bussel's Blog, page 97
May 11, 2013
10 reasons I love my new apartment
In ten days, I move from the Brooklyn apartment I've lived in since March 2000 to the fabulous apartment my boyfriend found for us in Red Bank, New Jersey. I've been counting down the days, and am actually writing this post from our new apartment, which I absolutely love. So in honor of new beginnings, here are ten reasons I'm excited to move. In some ways it reminds me of where I grew up in Teaneck, and in other was it's different. It's small enough that I get the feeling of community but big enough that hopefully there's plenty to explore. After how challenging moving has been, I doubt I'll want to move any time soon, if ever.
1. My boyfriend - without him, I wouldn't have even considered moving. We've had essentially a long distance relationship since last January, and I can't wait to be able to build a life with him and see him every day.
2. The apartment - it feels so grown up after living in a home with no closets, no wifi, no bathtub. My bedroom is painted blue, for the little boy who used to live there. I kept it, because I like the color. 3. Change - I am usually so averse to change that the only way to really make a change is to make a drastic, big one. I like that I'm moving far enough away from my former home that I really do get the chance to start over, in every way. I was 24 when I moved in there, 20 when I moved to 240 Mercer Street. I'm a lot different, and hopefully a wiser person now.
4. NJ Transit - I can come and go as I please, no cars needed! I can get to Manhattan in 70-90 minutes for just $14.75. Most of the places I'll need to go on a regular basis I can walk to. I love that. I am a big fan of public transportation, but now that the prospect of not taking the subway every day is before me, I'm excited for the break from it.
5. Two River Theater Company - we can walk to this theater, so bonus points right there. Last night we saw 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron, her one woman show about her father, the Holocaust, roller coasters and family, my first time seeing her perform (her theatrical adaptation of Alison Bechdel's bestselling memoir Fun Home comes to The Public Theater this fall). It was a great show and the building is impressive and I'm looking forward to next season.
6. Count Basie Theatre - another theater we can walk to. Shawn Colvin just played this past week, and it hosts everything from music to dance to comedy.
7. The library - Scrabble every Saturday! I will take a break from playing Words with Friends for this.
8. Good Karma Cafe - vegan yumminess like the Love Bowl:
9. Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash - I don't actually read comic books, though I do like graphic novels, but I like that this shop, setting of reality show Comic Book Men, is right here. Maybe I'll start reading comic books!
10. Workout World - gonna get Jersey Strong at my new gym!
1. My boyfriend - without him, I wouldn't have even considered moving. We've had essentially a long distance relationship since last January, and I can't wait to be able to build a life with him and see him every day.
2. The apartment - it feels so grown up after living in a home with no closets, no wifi, no bathtub. My bedroom is painted blue, for the little boy who used to live there. I kept it, because I like the color. 3. Change - I am usually so averse to change that the only way to really make a change is to make a drastic, big one. I like that I'm moving far enough away from my former home that I really do get the chance to start over, in every way. I was 24 when I moved in there, 20 when I moved to 240 Mercer Street. I'm a lot different, and hopefully a wiser person now.
4. NJ Transit - I can come and go as I please, no cars needed! I can get to Manhattan in 70-90 minutes for just $14.75. Most of the places I'll need to go on a regular basis I can walk to. I love that. I am a big fan of public transportation, but now that the prospect of not taking the subway every day is before me, I'm excited for the break from it.
5. Two River Theater Company - we can walk to this theater, so bonus points right there. Last night we saw 2.5 Minute Ride by Lisa Kron, her one woman show about her father, the Holocaust, roller coasters and family, my first time seeing her perform (her theatrical adaptation of Alison Bechdel's bestselling memoir Fun Home comes to The Public Theater this fall). It was a great show and the building is impressive and I'm looking forward to next season.
6. Count Basie Theatre - another theater we can walk to. Shawn Colvin just played this past week, and it hosts everything from music to dance to comedy.
7. The library - Scrabble every Saturday! I will take a break from playing Words with Friends for this.
8. Good Karma Cafe - vegan yumminess like the Love Bowl:
9. Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash - I don't actually read comic books, though I do like graphic novels, but I like that this shop, setting of reality show Comic Book Men, is right here. Maybe I'll start reading comic books!
10. Workout World - gonna get Jersey Strong at my new gym!
May 9, 2013
The girl who used to say yes way too often finally learns to say no
One of my favorite essays ever is "The Girl Who Only Sometimes Said No" by Diana Joseph, which I was incredibly honored to reprint as the opener to
Best Sex Writing 2010
. This post is about saying yes and no, though not to sex, but to events. I used to say yes to all of them. I thought it was a job requirement. If you say no to anything it's bad karma. You need to "get out there" to promote your work. I took those ideas and ran with them all over New York City, all over the country, all over the world, for some very pretty pennies. I'm not here to castigate myself because I'm honored that bookstores like Powell's have had me speak there. I don't love public speaking but I do love meeting people and bringing other authors to a live audience. But I will always be more at home behind my computer screen.
Now that I am moving, and will be 80 minutes and almost $30 away from Manhattan, saying no has become a lot easier. I just turned down three reading and absolutely know it was the right decision. Some look amazing, like the chance to read with Pam Rosenthal or read at the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe for Bi Lines, both of which I'd do in a heartbeat if I still lived here, but the thing about this beautiful yet maddening city is that there is always something going on. That's part of why I'm leaving. It's too much. You could spend your whole life going to event after event and never get any paid work done, or any writing you care about. It's something I'm sure someone who's better at moderation than I could handle. They'd go to some events, not go to others, and not stress about either. Me? I want to go to everything. I want to support everyone. I don't want to miss what feel like once in a lifetime opportunities. But the downside of that is you miss out on your life if all you do is try to keep up with everything and everyone. I've lived in or adjacent to New York City for almost 17 years, and it's given me so many gifts. I love the memories of the readings I've done, even though I always have that awkward tentative nervous tremulous way of speaking, because I'm not a performer by nature. I'm a performer by accident, by luck, by who knows what.
Part of why I'm having trouble moving is that there are so many memories wrapped up even in garbage, flyers, filth. I found a flyer for a reading I did years ago at Meow Mix, the legendary lesbian bar that of course now no longer exists. I treasure that memory. I'm glad I didn't say no to it. But I'm in a very different place than I was back then, when I was trying to establish myself, make connections, figure out how to even get up on a stage without bombing completely.
I'm starting to learn that I have to be ruthlessly selfish in order to make a go of this writing career thing. I can't say yes to events just to be nice or because I'm panicked about what the future will bring if I say no. I have to have faith that writing, that simple yet sometimes impossible thing that is my job, is what will save me, what will get me through. I have to have faith that even though I may not be at all these readings, I will be somewhere else. I will be sending someone a bookmark or posting an excerpt or piecing together an essay. I will be cooking dinner with my boyfriend. I will be building a home. I will be doing things that don't feel like burdens. I will not be trying to force myself into a role I'm not qualified for, thereby giving people who are performers, who do love being on stage, who want to be there, that opportunity. I'm glad that I didn't always say no, but I'm glad that I'm finally learning that there's no reason to say yes unless you really really want it. Right now what I really really want is to be in my new home, far from New York with its too muchness, it's overwhelmingness, its temptations, its distractions. I want my feet to be my primary mode of transportation. I want to leave the New York chapter of my life behind.
Does that mean I won't be back? Of course not. But I don't know when or how often. And I know I will be where I belong. Will it be weird to not attend BEA for the first time since, I believe, 2001? Yes. But it will also free me to savor the books I already have. It will give me a chance to slow down, to take my time, to move at a healthier pace. I remember when I landed in Honolulu last year my friend chastised me for talking too fast, saying something to the effect that people don't move at that speed there. It took me a few days to adjust to that pace, and I know suburban New Jersey is not Honolulu, but the same principle applies. It won't have that same rhythm New York does, because it will have its own rhythm. And so will I.
Now that I am moving, and will be 80 minutes and almost $30 away from Manhattan, saying no has become a lot easier. I just turned down three reading and absolutely know it was the right decision. Some look amazing, like the chance to read with Pam Rosenthal or read at the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe for Bi Lines, both of which I'd do in a heartbeat if I still lived here, but the thing about this beautiful yet maddening city is that there is always something going on. That's part of why I'm leaving. It's too much. You could spend your whole life going to event after event and never get any paid work done, or any writing you care about. It's something I'm sure someone who's better at moderation than I could handle. They'd go to some events, not go to others, and not stress about either. Me? I want to go to everything. I want to support everyone. I don't want to miss what feel like once in a lifetime opportunities. But the downside of that is you miss out on your life if all you do is try to keep up with everything and everyone. I've lived in or adjacent to New York City for almost 17 years, and it's given me so many gifts. I love the memories of the readings I've done, even though I always have that awkward tentative nervous tremulous way of speaking, because I'm not a performer by nature. I'm a performer by accident, by luck, by who knows what.
Part of why I'm having trouble moving is that there are so many memories wrapped up even in garbage, flyers, filth. I found a flyer for a reading I did years ago at Meow Mix, the legendary lesbian bar that of course now no longer exists. I treasure that memory. I'm glad I didn't say no to it. But I'm in a very different place than I was back then, when I was trying to establish myself, make connections, figure out how to even get up on a stage without bombing completely.
I'm starting to learn that I have to be ruthlessly selfish in order to make a go of this writing career thing. I can't say yes to events just to be nice or because I'm panicked about what the future will bring if I say no. I have to have faith that writing, that simple yet sometimes impossible thing that is my job, is what will save me, what will get me through. I have to have faith that even though I may not be at all these readings, I will be somewhere else. I will be sending someone a bookmark or posting an excerpt or piecing together an essay. I will be cooking dinner with my boyfriend. I will be building a home. I will be doing things that don't feel like burdens. I will not be trying to force myself into a role I'm not qualified for, thereby giving people who are performers, who do love being on stage, who want to be there, that opportunity. I'm glad that I didn't always say no, but I'm glad that I'm finally learning that there's no reason to say yes unless you really really want it. Right now what I really really want is to be in my new home, far from New York with its too muchness, it's overwhelmingness, its temptations, its distractions. I want my feet to be my primary mode of transportation. I want to leave the New York chapter of my life behind.
Does that mean I won't be back? Of course not. But I don't know when or how often. And I know I will be where I belong. Will it be weird to not attend BEA for the first time since, I believe, 2001? Yes. But it will also free me to savor the books I already have. It will give me a chance to slow down, to take my time, to move at a healthier pace. I remember when I landed in Honolulu last year my friend chastised me for talking too fast, saying something to the effect that people don't move at that speed there. It took me a few days to adjust to that pace, and I know suburban New Jersey is not Honolulu, but the same principle applies. It won't have that same rhythm New York does, because it will have its own rhythm. And so will I.
May 8, 2013
The false comfort of the too easy solution
I was on the phone with my boyfriend last night and he dangled a possible solution to a lot of my moving stress: Vietnam Veterans of America, the nonprofit organization that will come pick up your stuff and find good home for it. He's used them and so did my mom and apparently they are very efficient. For a little while I got very excited: no more books to lug all over New York City! A place to dump my pots and pans and random bits of furniture. It would save me so many trips. A bit of the moving anxiety I've been holding onto day and night and in my dreams vanished. And then a little while later, he said: "I have bad news. Vietnam Vets doesn't pick up in your zip code."
And just like that, the easy as pie solution wasn't there anymore. That seems like a perfect metaphor for life. The no work solution is not a solution. It's not that life is a Sissyphean journey, necessarily, but that when something seems too simple, too easy, it usually is. There may be free lunches, but there's no free life (at least, not for me). Someone else isn't going to magically swoop in and solve your problems. I felt like the joke was on me, but it's not a joke, it's just what I'm dealing with right now with work and finances and moving: sitting down (or in the case of moving, packing and taping and tossing) and doing the work. It's pretty simple, and yet, if you're like me, you're always looking for something even more simple. Someone else to shunt the work on. A way to escape. This move is the ultimate non-escape. It's about facing the last 13 years head on, every nook and cranny, every piece of paper, receipt, book, magazine, article of clothing. Every single thing I've ever brought into my home must now go out. It's daunting and challenging and is forcing me every day to let go more and more, to realize that nothing, not even my high school diploma or favorite books or favorite clothes is worth more than time and energy and health and love. I'm starting to envision a time when maybe I'll move and let it all go.. Books with my name on them, and books without. None of them make me me. They're just things. Yes, I love them, yes I would be sad without my favorite clothes or shoes, but all I really need is my man and my glasses, keys, iPhone and laptop. Everything else is nice, but not necessary. I don't really believe that, yet, but I hope to. Someday. When I'm a better version of me. I'm getting there, trash bag by trash bag, box by box. The adult way, not the fake too easy way. (That's not to knock those who I'm jealous of: those whose zip codes allow for Vietnam Vets donations, just to say that this year is all about life lessons, and this was mine.)
And just like that, the easy as pie solution wasn't there anymore. That seems like a perfect metaphor for life. The no work solution is not a solution. It's not that life is a Sissyphean journey, necessarily, but that when something seems too simple, too easy, it usually is. There may be free lunches, but there's no free life (at least, not for me). Someone else isn't going to magically swoop in and solve your problems. I felt like the joke was on me, but it's not a joke, it's just what I'm dealing with right now with work and finances and moving: sitting down (or in the case of moving, packing and taping and tossing) and doing the work. It's pretty simple, and yet, if you're like me, you're always looking for something even more simple. Someone else to shunt the work on. A way to escape. This move is the ultimate non-escape. It's about facing the last 13 years head on, every nook and cranny, every piece of paper, receipt, book, magazine, article of clothing. Every single thing I've ever brought into my home must now go out. It's daunting and challenging and is forcing me every day to let go more and more, to realize that nothing, not even my high school diploma or favorite books or favorite clothes is worth more than time and energy and health and love. I'm starting to envision a time when maybe I'll move and let it all go.. Books with my name on them, and books without. None of them make me me. They're just things. Yes, I love them, yes I would be sad without my favorite clothes or shoes, but all I really need is my man and my glasses, keys, iPhone and laptop. Everything else is nice, but not necessary. I don't really believe that, yet, but I hope to. Someday. When I'm a better version of me. I'm getting there, trash bag by trash bag, box by box. The adult way, not the fake too easy way. (That's not to knock those who I'm jealous of: those whose zip codes allow for Vietnam Vets donations, just to say that this year is all about life lessons, and this was mine.)
May 7, 2013
Deep inside Best Sex Writing 2013 - the virtual book tour kicks off!
I'm going to kick off the Best Sex Writing 2013 virtual book tour by simply telling you why I consider this book my pride and joy. Firstly, I'm a nonfiction nerd. I read more fiction than nonfiction in book form these days, but a heartfelt, can't-stop-thinking-about-it article or essay will always stay with me longer than fiction. Not that it's a contest, but it's true. It's why as I pack up my apartment I'm keeping so many of my books about sex, ones that are one year old, five years old, ten years old, fifteen years old. Because they are still important to me. And that's what I hope this book is: important. Provocative. Powerful. I hope that even though it has the word "2013" in its title that in 2023 and 2033 and 2043 people will maybe still pick it up and find something useful in it, though I hope by then we are more evolved on topics the book covers, like polyamory and sex work and bisexuality and BDSM.
Seth Fischer writes his coming out as bisexual essay "Notes From A Unicorn:" "I wanted to join a team so I wouldn’t have to answer any more questions, so I wouldn’t have to say that I preferred one or the other or whether I exist or if I’m a unicorn or how I can ever hope to be monogamous if I’m attracted to more than one gender." To me, even though his piece is about being bisexual, it speaks to anyone who's ever felt alienated about their sexuality, who's felt like they have to pick between sexual orientation A and B, fetish X and kink Y, identity 1 and identity 2. I'd venture that almost all, if not all, of the pieces in the book are similarly open to adaptation--about a very specific topic, but also about more. For instance, my essay "Baby Talk" is about age play, but it's also about exploring any fetish or fantasy with a new partner. I wrote in that essay:
Best Sex Writing 2013 table of contents
Foreword by Carol Queen
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When On Fire Island…A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neil Gabler
Purchase Best Sex Writing 2013 from:
Amazon
Kindle (ebook)
Bn.com
Nook (ebook)
Books a Million
Indiebound (independent bookstores)
Cleis Press
Seth Fischer writes his coming out as bisexual essay "Notes From A Unicorn:" "I wanted to join a team so I wouldn’t have to answer any more questions, so I wouldn’t have to say that I preferred one or the other or whether I exist or if I’m a unicorn or how I can ever hope to be monogamous if I’m attracted to more than one gender." To me, even though his piece is about being bisexual, it speaks to anyone who's ever felt alienated about their sexuality, who's felt like they have to pick between sexual orientation A and B, fetish X and kink Y, identity 1 and identity 2. I'd venture that almost all, if not all, of the pieces in the book are similarly open to adaptation--about a very specific topic, but also about more. For instance, my essay "Baby Talk" is about age play, but it's also about exploring any fetish or fantasy with a new partner. I wrote in that essay:
One of the things I enjoy most about sex is the sense of connection where nothing is held back. If agreeing to be his “mommy” would get me to that place, I was game. I had long been a champion of people baring their deepest fantasies. You can’t do that in a half-assed way.I love that the pieces in the book span so many topics, and explore business (such as Andy Isaacson's "Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex?" to aging (Alex Morris's "Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement") to Tim Tebow, sports and virginity (Jon Pressick's "Holy Fuck: The Fourth-and-Long Virgin"). They look at worst case scenarios, best case scenarios, and plenty of scenarios in between. In this, I find them extremely human. I guess all writing is human, but sometimes writing about sex tries too hard to prove a point, and doesn't allow the nuances and complexities. I love the nuances and complexities, the moments of hesitation and complication, the places where sex meets so many other areas of our lives. A few touched on in the book are family, public spaces, sexual subcultures, the law, death. I write in the introduction: "Part of why sex writing is so vital is because we all have things to learn—about ourselves, and about others. While this book will not teach you how to have sex, you will learn about what motivates others in their sexual desires, whether to engage in multiple relationships, perform sex work, come out as bisexual, build increasingly advanced vibrators, or more." I hope you will take a peek at this book, or more than a peek. Yes, like many Best Of collections, most of these pieces are reprints, but I hope that even if you've read them before, they are worth rereading. I think they complement each other well, and also leave room for the endless pieces about sex written and yet to be written.
Best Sex Writing 2013 table of contents
Foreword by Carol Queen
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When On Fire Island…A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neil Gabler
Purchase Best Sex Writing 2013 from:
Amazon
Kindle (ebook)
Bn.com
Nook (ebook)
Books a Million
Indiebound (independent bookstores)
Cleis Press
Call for submissions: The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica
A call from Rose Caraway, who also narrated the audio versions of
Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
and my dishwashing erotica story "Doing the Dishes."
Call for Submissions
The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica
Editor: Rose Caraway
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: August 1st, 2013 (Earlier would be greatly appreciated!)
Payment: $50.00 USD and 2 copies of the published book upon publication. Please note that Publisher, (Cleis Press) has final right of refusal on all submissions. Unpublished stories only, no simultaneous submissions. Please do not send me a story that is being considered elsewhere.
Rose Caraway is seeking a “library” of “Hand Picked” authors who write Intelligent, Hot and Engaging Erotica. Highlighting her favorite authors and their wonderful writing talents, as well as discovering new writers and then sharing them with the world, is what Rose Caraway takes great joy in doing.
Your plot must be very well developed, rich in detail and hold the story together but not be so complex that you lose the reader. Characters need life and the eroticism must be hot, hot, hot! The most important thing is to make these stories fun; for you and the reader. Capture their imaginations with your own. Pull the readers into your head and give them the full tour. This book of stories will feature erotica from any of the following sub-categories:
HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE, SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, WESTERN, PARANORMAL, ACTION-ADVENTURE, HISTORICAL
Within these sub-categories, I would be happy to see (but do not require), a variety of added ingredients. Feel free to add any of the following delicious spices:
MÉNAGE, KINK, ROLE PLAYING, SPANKING, BDSM, STEAM PUNK, FUTURISTIC
Rose Caraway will not accept:
Already Published Works, Underage Sex, Non-Consensual Sex, Incest, Scat or Bestiality.
This book is targeted towards hetero stories, but the editor will be delighted to consider f/f, m/m, etc., stories as well. Just remember that believable engagement must occur between characters. Be creative and write from your heart. Make the readers want to come back and read your story again!
How to Submit:
Early submission is strongly encouraged. Please send your submission (one story per author) to:
Email: sexylibrariansbigbookoferotica at gmail.com
TO: Rose Caraway
Subject: The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica – Submission
Please submit your work as follows:
• Word document with your name in the heading of each page and all pages numbered. (.doc or RTF)
• Use double spaced, Times New Roman ,12 point, black font
• 2000k to 6000k (strict) word count.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph 1 inch
• Do not add extra lines between paragraphs
• Only submit the final version of your story
• Include your full contact information (legal name/pseudonym, mailing address and phone number) and a bio of 50 words or less written in the third person. If you are using a pseudonym, please make it clear which name you want to be credited as.
The publisher has final approval over the stories included in the manuscript.
Payment will be $50.00 USD and 2 copies of the published book upon publication.
Authors will be notified upon approval of the manuscript from the publisher.
Call for Submissions
The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica
Editor: Rose Caraway
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: August 1st, 2013 (Earlier would be greatly appreciated!)
Payment: $50.00 USD and 2 copies of the published book upon publication. Please note that Publisher, (Cleis Press) has final right of refusal on all submissions. Unpublished stories only, no simultaneous submissions. Please do not send me a story that is being considered elsewhere.
Rose Caraway is seeking a “library” of “Hand Picked” authors who write Intelligent, Hot and Engaging Erotica. Highlighting her favorite authors and their wonderful writing talents, as well as discovering new writers and then sharing them with the world, is what Rose Caraway takes great joy in doing.
Your plot must be very well developed, rich in detail and hold the story together but not be so complex that you lose the reader. Characters need life and the eroticism must be hot, hot, hot! The most important thing is to make these stories fun; for you and the reader. Capture their imaginations with your own. Pull the readers into your head and give them the full tour. This book of stories will feature erotica from any of the following sub-categories:
HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE, SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, WESTERN, PARANORMAL, ACTION-ADVENTURE, HISTORICAL
Within these sub-categories, I would be happy to see (but do not require), a variety of added ingredients. Feel free to add any of the following delicious spices:
MÉNAGE, KINK, ROLE PLAYING, SPANKING, BDSM, STEAM PUNK, FUTURISTIC
Rose Caraway will not accept:
Already Published Works, Underage Sex, Non-Consensual Sex, Incest, Scat or Bestiality.
This book is targeted towards hetero stories, but the editor will be delighted to consider f/f, m/m, etc., stories as well. Just remember that believable engagement must occur between characters. Be creative and write from your heart. Make the readers want to come back and read your story again!
How to Submit:
Early submission is strongly encouraged. Please send your submission (one story per author) to:
Email: sexylibrariansbigbookoferotica at gmail.com
TO: Rose Caraway
Subject: The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica – Submission
Please submit your work as follows:
• Word document with your name in the heading of each page and all pages numbered. (.doc or RTF)
• Use double spaced, Times New Roman ,12 point, black font
• 2000k to 6000k (strict) word count.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph 1 inch
• Do not add extra lines between paragraphs
• Only submit the final version of your story
• Include your full contact information (legal name/pseudonym, mailing address and phone number) and a bio of 50 words or less written in the third person. If you are using a pseudonym, please make it clear which name you want to be credited as.
The publisher has final approval over the stories included in the manuscript.
Payment will be $50.00 USD and 2 copies of the published book upon publication.
Authors will be notified upon approval of the manuscript from the publisher.
May 6, 2013
Virtual book tour for Best Sex Writing 2013
Tomorrow kicks off the virtual book tour for my editorial pride and joy,
Best Sex Writing 2013: The State of Today's Sexual Culture
. I'll be updating the blog links below as they post about the book. The book has an amazing lineup of writers, not just because you probably know many of their names, but because they go there in terms of saying things we aren't "supposed to" say about sex. It's been a great honor to edit this book and series and I am still a little bit "pinch me" over how this edition turned out. See the full table of contents at bestsexwriting2013.com and if you also are a fan of this book, I'd love it if you'd review/rate it on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Your support means everything, especially with a book like this.
[image error]
May 7 Lusty Lady
May 8 Naked at Our Age (Joan Price)
May 9 SEXPress
May 10 Pleasure Mechanics
May 13 The Gestalt Boudoir
May 14 Hunting for Sex
May 15 Geeky Nympth
May 16 Pleasure Saucer Podcast
May 17 Greta Christina's Blog
May 20 Feminist Allies
May 21 Victoria Blisse
May 22 My Whole Sex Life
May 23 Tamsin's Superotica
May 24 Danielle Paradis/Dispatches from Paradis
May 27 Justine Musk
May 28 Sunny Megatron
May 29 D.L. King
May 30 Julian Arancia/Me, My Life, and My Thoughts
May 31 Jade Melisande
June 3 The Sexy Feminist
June 4 Clitical
[image error]
May 7 Lusty Lady
May 8 Naked at Our Age (Joan Price)
May 9 SEXPress
May 10 Pleasure Mechanics
May 13 The Gestalt Boudoir
May 14 Hunting for Sex
May 15 Geeky Nympth
May 16 Pleasure Saucer Podcast
May 17 Greta Christina's Blog
May 20 Feminist Allies
May 21 Victoria Blisse
May 22 My Whole Sex Life
May 23 Tamsin's Superotica
May 24 Danielle Paradis/Dispatches from Paradis
May 27 Justine Musk
May 28 Sunny Megatron
May 29 D.L. King
May 30 Julian Arancia/Me, My Life, and My Thoughts
May 31 Jade Melisande
June 3 The Sexy Feminist
June 4 Clitical
May 4, 2013
Reviewers wanted for BDSM erotica anthology Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples
I'm looking for 9 more reviewers for the print or Kindle editions of Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples. Any takers/ Email me at rachelkb at gmail.com with "Anything" in the subject line and your name and mailing address (U.S. only) or email address to send the Kindle version to (note: for some reason, Amazon won't let me gift to @kindle.com addresses). I just ask that you post your review within 6 weeks of getting the book. First 9 people get copies! Thank you.
Introduction: As Kinky as They Want to Be
Like Riding a Bicycle Lisabet Sarai
Borrower Beware Heidi Champa
Anything She Wanted Neil Gavriel
Tails Deborah Castellano
Teppanyaki Janine Ashbless
Greasing the Wheels Madlyn March
Interview Talon Rihai and Salome Wilde
I Tend to Her Justine Elyot
Apple Blossoms Emerald
Big Night D. L. King
The Guest Star Sinclair Sexsmith
Exposure Elizabeth Coldwell
New Games on a Saturday Night Teresa Noelle Roberts
Notes from Her Master Kathleen Tudor
Lap It Up Kay Jaybee
What If Angela R. Sargenti
Petting Zoo Rachel Kramer Bussel
Normal Charlotte Stein
Everything She’d Always Wanted Ariel Graham
Introduction: As Kinky as They Want to Be
“My wife is on her knees.” That is how the first story in this book, “Like Riding a Bicycle,” by Lisabet Sarai, starts off, and in some ways, it’s why I don’t think I even need to introduce these stories, although I am about to. What I like most about this book is that its authors, in each of these nineteen titillating stories, assume that the reader is already aware of the world of BDSM. That’s not to say that if you’re a curious newcomer to the world of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism you shouldn’t keep turning the pages, but just to point out that there is an ease with which these couples embrace their love of kink, in its varied forms, even when they are uneasy about the particular acts they are about to engage in. That push/pull, love/hate relationship with what turns us on is part of the beauty of BDSM and is a recurring theme here. In the course of these erotic vignettes, you will indeed learn about why, say, someone would want to be “forced” onto her knees, or bent over a bed or used as a plaything.
In these stories, you will find pain, and pleasure. You will find service and devotion. You will find Masters and Mistresses and curious onlookers⎯and so much more. You will find a dinner party where food is used for foreplay, and learn what CNFM stands for (hint: Clothed Female, Naked Male). But more than any particular scene or setup you’ll read about⎯and they are quite dazzling in their ingenuity⎯what stays with me the most from these stories is the longevity of the couples, the way they can read each others’ moans and sighs and screams so well, discerning a lover’s desires based on years of practice.
One of my biggest pet peeves about BDSM erotica is when a story leaps too quickly into the “action” and doesn’t give enough insight into who the characters are, what makes them tick, what makes them want to be bound, gagged, stripped naked, exposed, ordered around⎯or be the one doing those things. In every one of these imaginative, racy stories, you will find out why each part of the couple is there, what they get out of their relationship, what pushes their buttons, what animates their kink. You’ll find anal penetration, asparagus sex, an interview with a Mistress and her most eager slave, role-playing, spanking, bondage, exhibitionism and much more. Fantasies are fulfilled, sometimes on command, sometimes in ways their creators never could have foreseen. Most of all, though, what comes through is the passion, caring, and commitment these couples have for one another, the love behind (and alongside) the lust, which is what enables them to do all the wild, wanton things they do.
In the closing story, “Everything She’d Always Wanted,” by Ariel Graham, you will see the word fear over and over; the protagonist, Gwen, also experiences her share of panic. Her journey deep into the world of a Dominant/submissive relationship is captured in expert prose. Graham writes, “She’d adapted quickly, something in her recognizing what she’d been searching for.” When I wrote earlier that there’s a comfort with the topic of BDSM, what I meant is precisely what is shown so dramatically and beautifully in that story. What happens in it is Gwen’s idea, as the title suggests, but she is still nervous, wary, uncertain if her biggest fantasy is actually one she is capable of going through with. It’s this very fear that drives her, that arouses her, that pushes her to keep going. The only thing you have to listen to is David, Gwen thinks to herself at one point. She has to take a leap of faith to get from here to there, and when she does, a whole new sexual world opens up for her.
The same could be said of the other characters, men and women, tops and bottoms, you’ll read about in these pages. In a sense they all have to take a leap of faith and trust their partners to guide them, whether it’s Dan in D. L. King’s “Big Night,” who gets a very special fortieth birthday party, or the narrator of Sinclair Sexsmith’s, “The Guest Star,” who watches as her girlfriend takes a new lover, or Jack in “New Games on a Saturday Night” by Teresa Noelle Roberts, who is used to girls who know their way around the business end of a paddle, but has what he thinks he knows turned on its head by a novice, Serena. For him, “the turn-on wasn’t so much giving the pain as being trusted to give just the right amount of pain.”
I hope these stories will move you as deeply as they’ve moved me. They are rich, varied and incredibly naughty. Many of them have made me wish I could slip inside the body and mind of a given character and act out his or her devilishly dirty delights. All of them have shown me just how powerful a force kink can be, how it can bring couples closer together and show them the true depths of trust and desire they can plumb.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
And a little teaser from my story "Petting Zoo" (the book has a mix of male and female tops and bottoms).
Petting Zoo
Rachel Kramer Bussel
When you truly love someone, you’ll do anything for them⎯and vice versa. That goes a long way toward explaining what I was doing dressed in five-inch shiny leather boots, my voluptuous body poured into a corset, wearing a long black wig and holding a chain, which was attached to a collar, which was attached to my husband, Mason. The collar was all he had on, by my command. But my command was, ultimately, a response to his request, one of many such pleas, during our increasingly heated role-playing sessions. There he was, his thirty-two-year-old, hairy, oversized body on full display not just to me but also to a whole roomful of kinky people, mostly women. I smiled as I stared down at my pet for the night. I’d gotten used to the role I now proudly played, but getting there took some time, and a whole lot of love.
We’d been married for just over a year before somehow, my buff, seemingly butch hubby, who loved to race his motorcycle when we ventured out of the city, who was proud of his home-cooked steaks, who grew a beard and disdained the “pretty boys” who got proper haircuts rather than having their wives trim their tresses, revealed to me one day that what he wanted most was to worship at my feet; to be my servant, my slave, my pet. Inside his macho exterior lurked the heart of a pure submissive. He’d never done it, but he’d apparently spent the last six months thinking about submitting, thinking about giving it up to me, his wife who usually could be found on all fours taking his gigantic cock in my pussy and once in a while in my ass. Instead of my bending over, he wanted me to tower over him. Okay, there was a little more that he wanted⎯like the chance to lick anonymous women’s pussies, to be used like a toy, but all that only worked if I was the one “making” him do it.
It was a revelation, the first time he said it. My mind whirred with this new side of him, more surprised that he’d kept the fantasy from me than that he possessed it in the first place. It’s not like we were shy and retiring, or never talked about sex; we made sure to keep our sex life as lively as it had started out, after our whirlwind, very hot romance, which included joining the mile-high club, plenty of phone sex and all sorts of sharing of dirty talk. I’d thought that in the year and a half we’d been together we’d unearthed each other’s every secret; not that I was bored or anything, but I felt like we’d grown into ourselves, our marriage, and were at a point where we could finish each other’s sentences. But apparently, there were things I still had to learn. I was in the middle of spinning a tale of me punishing an imaginary wisp of a girl I’d bring home, telling her how she’d sucked his cock the wrong way, when something shifted.
“You’re gonna punish her really hard, right? Spank her ass?” His voice betrayed his excitement. The truth is, we weren’t really entertaining the idea of a threesome, but it was the fantasy, the image, the idea that we were both responding to. I wasn’t opposed to adding another woman⎯or man⎯into the mix someday, but not just yet. First I wanted to see how far we could take our own filthy fantasies. “Yeah, you want to see that, right?” As I was talking, he turned over, and there was his ass, right before me. I cupped his cheeks and before I knew it I was giving Mason a demonstration of just what I would do to our mystery girl.
“You want me to tie you up and have women come over and sit on your face, is that what you’re telling me?” I asked him one night as I myself straddled his pretty face, giving him his fill of his favorite meal. By then, I’d gotten used to our favorite fantasy scenario, had started to think of myself the way Mason thought of me, at home and when I was outside of it. I’d never been with anyone, man or woman, who was so eager for oral⎯even me, and I can’t get enough cock down my throat, when I’m with the right person. His enthusiasm in turn engendered my own, but what I loved most was feeling him tremble when I talked dirty to him, when I spun tales of all the wicked things I was discovering I’d like to do to him.
I’m not naturally the dominant type; I haven’t always taken the pride I do now in seeing a man cowering before me, but Mason has turned me into the kind of woman who loves a cruel smile, a harsh look, who loves to fling her boot out and watch him scurry to pull it off. That attitude has carried over into my professional life, where I’ve risen up the ranks of the cosmetics company I started at as a secretary; now I’m a vice president.
I thought for a moment about my climb up the corporate ladder as I watched Mason crawl on the ground, surrounded by beautiful women. This was his dream come true, and watching his ass⎯his middle-aged, hairy ass; the one I thought of as mine to enjoy⎯made me smile. In a way, I was doing this for him, but in so many other ways, I was doing it for me. I stood taller when he got on his knees. I got wet when he groveled, and I got a thrill out of seeing the other women coo over him. He truly was like a pet, or a toy, and thinking of him that way only made me love him more. I also knew he’d never be the type to cheat; why would he, when I allow him to lick all the pussies he wants? Well, that’s not entirely true.
When he crawled over to me and I leaned down so he could kiss his way up from my cleavage to my neck, and then he whispered in my ear, “Mistress?” I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
“Yes, pet?”
“There is a woman who I’d like to play with. She’s over there and she has a beautiful flogger and…”
“And what?” I prompted, knowing it would be a struggle for him to praise her without somehow denigrating me. Watching his mouth open and close amused me⎯and aroused me. I was pleased to find that I wasn’t just doing this for him, because that one-sided type of sacrifice can ruin any relationship, even a kinky one.
“And…she’s looking for someone to torture.”
“And you think you’d be just the right someone?” I asked him.
“Because I…” he paused. “Because I want to try something new. You know I’m devoted to you, Mistress, one hundred percent. I want everyone to watch and see how much I can take, and be jealous of you that you get to take home such an obedient boy.” I smiled. It was a good answer, a way of spinning his own urgent desire into something that would give me some street cred, too. I wanted Mason to be happy, because without that, what was the point of our marriage? And by now I was curious to see what exactly would happen when I let him roam and play.
“Okay, you have my permission, but you better be done in half an hour, or I’m going to drag you out of here by your hair and make you crawl around outside on the street wearing only what you’re wearing now.” Of course I’d never do such a thing, but it was plausible enough that he didn’t need to know my true intentions. I could tell that my “threats” were part of what got him excited, and doing that for him in turn made me feel like a good wife, not in a traditional way, but in my way. Yes, call me crazy, but I saw my act of issuing bold threats of bodily harm almost, well, romantic.
Mason was overjoyed, and if he’d had a tail, it would’ve been wagging. Instead, his cock bobbed up and down. “But you know that your cock belongs to me, right? We don’t have to get you a cage for it, do we?” I reached down and stroked his balding head, my gentle hand playing good cop to my words’ bad cop.
“Of course not. I’d never let another woman touch me there.” Mason sounded almost offended that I’d even mention it.
“Okay then, you head on over, I’ll be by to watch soon. Be good for her; I don’t want to hear any complaints.”
Read the rest of the story in Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples!
Introduction: As Kinky as They Want to Be
Like Riding a Bicycle Lisabet Sarai
Borrower Beware Heidi Champa
Anything She Wanted Neil Gavriel
Tails Deborah Castellano
Teppanyaki Janine Ashbless
Greasing the Wheels Madlyn March
Interview Talon Rihai and Salome Wilde
I Tend to Her Justine Elyot
Apple Blossoms Emerald
Big Night D. L. King
The Guest Star Sinclair Sexsmith
Exposure Elizabeth Coldwell
New Games on a Saturday Night Teresa Noelle Roberts
Notes from Her Master Kathleen Tudor
Lap It Up Kay Jaybee
What If Angela R. Sargenti
Petting Zoo Rachel Kramer Bussel
Normal Charlotte Stein
Everything She’d Always Wanted Ariel Graham
Introduction: As Kinky as They Want to Be
“My wife is on her knees.” That is how the first story in this book, “Like Riding a Bicycle,” by Lisabet Sarai, starts off, and in some ways, it’s why I don’t think I even need to introduce these stories, although I am about to. What I like most about this book is that its authors, in each of these nineteen titillating stories, assume that the reader is already aware of the world of BDSM. That’s not to say that if you’re a curious newcomer to the world of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism you shouldn’t keep turning the pages, but just to point out that there is an ease with which these couples embrace their love of kink, in its varied forms, even when they are uneasy about the particular acts they are about to engage in. That push/pull, love/hate relationship with what turns us on is part of the beauty of BDSM and is a recurring theme here. In the course of these erotic vignettes, you will indeed learn about why, say, someone would want to be “forced” onto her knees, or bent over a bed or used as a plaything.
In these stories, you will find pain, and pleasure. You will find service and devotion. You will find Masters and Mistresses and curious onlookers⎯and so much more. You will find a dinner party where food is used for foreplay, and learn what CNFM stands for (hint: Clothed Female, Naked Male). But more than any particular scene or setup you’ll read about⎯and they are quite dazzling in their ingenuity⎯what stays with me the most from these stories is the longevity of the couples, the way they can read each others’ moans and sighs and screams so well, discerning a lover’s desires based on years of practice.
One of my biggest pet peeves about BDSM erotica is when a story leaps too quickly into the “action” and doesn’t give enough insight into who the characters are, what makes them tick, what makes them want to be bound, gagged, stripped naked, exposed, ordered around⎯or be the one doing those things. In every one of these imaginative, racy stories, you will find out why each part of the couple is there, what they get out of their relationship, what pushes their buttons, what animates their kink. You’ll find anal penetration, asparagus sex, an interview with a Mistress and her most eager slave, role-playing, spanking, bondage, exhibitionism and much more. Fantasies are fulfilled, sometimes on command, sometimes in ways their creators never could have foreseen. Most of all, though, what comes through is the passion, caring, and commitment these couples have for one another, the love behind (and alongside) the lust, which is what enables them to do all the wild, wanton things they do.
In the closing story, “Everything She’d Always Wanted,” by Ariel Graham, you will see the word fear over and over; the protagonist, Gwen, also experiences her share of panic. Her journey deep into the world of a Dominant/submissive relationship is captured in expert prose. Graham writes, “She’d adapted quickly, something in her recognizing what she’d been searching for.” When I wrote earlier that there’s a comfort with the topic of BDSM, what I meant is precisely what is shown so dramatically and beautifully in that story. What happens in it is Gwen’s idea, as the title suggests, but she is still nervous, wary, uncertain if her biggest fantasy is actually one she is capable of going through with. It’s this very fear that drives her, that arouses her, that pushes her to keep going. The only thing you have to listen to is David, Gwen thinks to herself at one point. She has to take a leap of faith to get from here to there, and when she does, a whole new sexual world opens up for her.
The same could be said of the other characters, men and women, tops and bottoms, you’ll read about in these pages. In a sense they all have to take a leap of faith and trust their partners to guide them, whether it’s Dan in D. L. King’s “Big Night,” who gets a very special fortieth birthday party, or the narrator of Sinclair Sexsmith’s, “The Guest Star,” who watches as her girlfriend takes a new lover, or Jack in “New Games on a Saturday Night” by Teresa Noelle Roberts, who is used to girls who know their way around the business end of a paddle, but has what he thinks he knows turned on its head by a novice, Serena. For him, “the turn-on wasn’t so much giving the pain as being trusted to give just the right amount of pain.”
I hope these stories will move you as deeply as they’ve moved me. They are rich, varied and incredibly naughty. Many of them have made me wish I could slip inside the body and mind of a given character and act out his or her devilishly dirty delights. All of them have shown me just how powerful a force kink can be, how it can bring couples closer together and show them the true depths of trust and desire they can plumb.
Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
And a little teaser from my story "Petting Zoo" (the book has a mix of male and female tops and bottoms).
Petting Zoo
Rachel Kramer Bussel
When you truly love someone, you’ll do anything for them⎯and vice versa. That goes a long way toward explaining what I was doing dressed in five-inch shiny leather boots, my voluptuous body poured into a corset, wearing a long black wig and holding a chain, which was attached to a collar, which was attached to my husband, Mason. The collar was all he had on, by my command. But my command was, ultimately, a response to his request, one of many such pleas, during our increasingly heated role-playing sessions. There he was, his thirty-two-year-old, hairy, oversized body on full display not just to me but also to a whole roomful of kinky people, mostly women. I smiled as I stared down at my pet for the night. I’d gotten used to the role I now proudly played, but getting there took some time, and a whole lot of love.
We’d been married for just over a year before somehow, my buff, seemingly butch hubby, who loved to race his motorcycle when we ventured out of the city, who was proud of his home-cooked steaks, who grew a beard and disdained the “pretty boys” who got proper haircuts rather than having their wives trim their tresses, revealed to me one day that what he wanted most was to worship at my feet; to be my servant, my slave, my pet. Inside his macho exterior lurked the heart of a pure submissive. He’d never done it, but he’d apparently spent the last six months thinking about submitting, thinking about giving it up to me, his wife who usually could be found on all fours taking his gigantic cock in my pussy and once in a while in my ass. Instead of my bending over, he wanted me to tower over him. Okay, there was a little more that he wanted⎯like the chance to lick anonymous women’s pussies, to be used like a toy, but all that only worked if I was the one “making” him do it.
It was a revelation, the first time he said it. My mind whirred with this new side of him, more surprised that he’d kept the fantasy from me than that he possessed it in the first place. It’s not like we were shy and retiring, or never talked about sex; we made sure to keep our sex life as lively as it had started out, after our whirlwind, very hot romance, which included joining the mile-high club, plenty of phone sex and all sorts of sharing of dirty talk. I’d thought that in the year and a half we’d been together we’d unearthed each other’s every secret; not that I was bored or anything, but I felt like we’d grown into ourselves, our marriage, and were at a point where we could finish each other’s sentences. But apparently, there were things I still had to learn. I was in the middle of spinning a tale of me punishing an imaginary wisp of a girl I’d bring home, telling her how she’d sucked his cock the wrong way, when something shifted.
“You’re gonna punish her really hard, right? Spank her ass?” His voice betrayed his excitement. The truth is, we weren’t really entertaining the idea of a threesome, but it was the fantasy, the image, the idea that we were both responding to. I wasn’t opposed to adding another woman⎯or man⎯into the mix someday, but not just yet. First I wanted to see how far we could take our own filthy fantasies. “Yeah, you want to see that, right?” As I was talking, he turned over, and there was his ass, right before me. I cupped his cheeks and before I knew it I was giving Mason a demonstration of just what I would do to our mystery girl.
“You want me to tie you up and have women come over and sit on your face, is that what you’re telling me?” I asked him one night as I myself straddled his pretty face, giving him his fill of his favorite meal. By then, I’d gotten used to our favorite fantasy scenario, had started to think of myself the way Mason thought of me, at home and when I was outside of it. I’d never been with anyone, man or woman, who was so eager for oral⎯even me, and I can’t get enough cock down my throat, when I’m with the right person. His enthusiasm in turn engendered my own, but what I loved most was feeling him tremble when I talked dirty to him, when I spun tales of all the wicked things I was discovering I’d like to do to him.
I’m not naturally the dominant type; I haven’t always taken the pride I do now in seeing a man cowering before me, but Mason has turned me into the kind of woman who loves a cruel smile, a harsh look, who loves to fling her boot out and watch him scurry to pull it off. That attitude has carried over into my professional life, where I’ve risen up the ranks of the cosmetics company I started at as a secretary; now I’m a vice president.
I thought for a moment about my climb up the corporate ladder as I watched Mason crawl on the ground, surrounded by beautiful women. This was his dream come true, and watching his ass⎯his middle-aged, hairy ass; the one I thought of as mine to enjoy⎯made me smile. In a way, I was doing this for him, but in so many other ways, I was doing it for me. I stood taller when he got on his knees. I got wet when he groveled, and I got a thrill out of seeing the other women coo over him. He truly was like a pet, or a toy, and thinking of him that way only made me love him more. I also knew he’d never be the type to cheat; why would he, when I allow him to lick all the pussies he wants? Well, that’s not entirely true.
When he crawled over to me and I leaned down so he could kiss his way up from my cleavage to my neck, and then he whispered in my ear, “Mistress?” I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
“Yes, pet?”
“There is a woman who I’d like to play with. She’s over there and she has a beautiful flogger and…”
“And what?” I prompted, knowing it would be a struggle for him to praise her without somehow denigrating me. Watching his mouth open and close amused me⎯and aroused me. I was pleased to find that I wasn’t just doing this for him, because that one-sided type of sacrifice can ruin any relationship, even a kinky one.
“And…she’s looking for someone to torture.”
“And you think you’d be just the right someone?” I asked him.
“Because I…” he paused. “Because I want to try something new. You know I’m devoted to you, Mistress, one hundred percent. I want everyone to watch and see how much I can take, and be jealous of you that you get to take home such an obedient boy.” I smiled. It was a good answer, a way of spinning his own urgent desire into something that would give me some street cred, too. I wanted Mason to be happy, because without that, what was the point of our marriage? And by now I was curious to see what exactly would happen when I let him roam and play.
“Okay, you have my permission, but you better be done in half an hour, or I’m going to drag you out of here by your hair and make you crawl around outside on the street wearing only what you’re wearing now.” Of course I’d never do such a thing, but it was plausible enough that he didn’t need to know my true intentions. I could tell that my “threats” were part of what got him excited, and doing that for him in turn made me feel like a good wife, not in a traditional way, but in my way. Yes, call me crazy, but I saw my act of issuing bold threats of bodily harm almost, well, romantic.
Mason was overjoyed, and if he’d had a tail, it would’ve been wagging. Instead, his cock bobbed up and down. “But you know that your cock belongs to me, right? We don’t have to get you a cage for it, do we?” I reached down and stroked his balding head, my gentle hand playing good cop to my words’ bad cop.
“Of course not. I’d never let another woman touch me there.” Mason sounded almost offended that I’d even mention it.
“Okay then, you head on over, I’ll be by to watch soon. Be good for her; I don’t want to hear any complaints.”
Read the rest of the story in Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples!
Hi from RT
I don't have time to share everything that's been happening at RT Booklovers Convention, but wanted to give a little taste. Last night Avon Books had a wonderful party with a chocolate fondue fountain and FREE BOOKS! It's like the best thing ever. I got books by authors I love like Tera Lynn Childs as well as ones I've never heard of but am intrigued by, like 1920's NYC-set and Harry Houdini inspired YA
Born of Illusion
by Teri Brown. I've been seeing/meeting people like erotic romance novelist Skylar Kade and historical romance (among others) author Beverly Jenkins, who has a bibliography about California history in the back of
Destiny's Embrace
, and paranormal author Aprilynne Pike and Suleikha Snyder (check out her hot, poly Bollywood books
Spice and Smoke
and
Spice and Secrets
and
Bollyamorous
- what a title!), inspired by all the New Adult authors, like Cora Carmack, whose bio says in part: "I enjoy placing my characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too." I'm also on the hunt for authors to submit to my 3 upcoming anthologies (that goes for anyone, I love working with new writers!). I'm also a fan of , especially their YA books like
The Reece Malcolm List
by Amy Spalding, and I am looking forward to their new YA release
The Summer I Became a Nerd
. Yesterday I attended the RT Awards and while it was a long ceremony, listening to the winners talk about, in John Scalzi's case, wanting his mother-in-law to read his books, or writing through a son's cancer treatment, or, like Tiffany Reisz, working in a bookstore and reading RT to find the smutty books and now being a bestselling, award winning author, I was very moved.
I'm very inspired and as soon as I kick this evil cold/cough and get settled into my new home in New Jersey I will be digging in to some exciting new writing projects. Here's some shots of the chocolate fountain, and the bacon I dipped in it:
I'm very inspired and as soon as I kick this evil cold/cough and get settled into my new home in New Jersey I will be digging in to some exciting new writing projects. Here's some shots of the chocolate fountain, and the bacon I dipped in it:
May 2, 2013
Romance writers know how to do swag, or you know you've made it when your cover is on a hotel key card
I'm at my first RT Booklovers Convention and having at great time. Off to my own panel on erotic romance anthologies, thanks to moderator Kristina Wright, but wanted to share what I think is the est book swag ever: hotel key cards featuring One Sweet Ride by Jaci Burton!
April 30, 2013
My job involves fact checking how to spell Guns N' Roses
This week's sex diary by a female music critic had me fact checking how to spell Guns N' Roses! I love my job. Want to write an anonymous sex diary and get paid? First, read a sex diary or three so you know what they're all about, then if you're still interested, email me at sexdiaries at nymag.com and tell me a little about you and why you'd make a good diarist.
