Sommer Marsden's Blog, page 86

FOUR...

that's how many days you have left to share a birthday memory with me and/or share our wisdom on turning forty and win my big birthday extravaganza! Full deets are here.

My time in my thirties is slipping away fast. Like sands through the hourglass so are the...well, it's going quickly. Let's just leave it at that.

Now back to some crappy SyFy movie with Mike Hammer in it.

XOXO
Sommer

Giving thanks for Charlotte Stein and her nifty book CONTROL

And to do just that I bring you a brief funky Q&A with Charlotte Stein regarding her book CONTROL. Huzzah!

SM: You'll pardon me, Charlotte, if these are some goofy questions, but there has been some wine. So the obvious choice was to sit down and write your questions for Control now! Duh!

I loved this book. I loved it, loved it, loved it so much I was ready to turn to page 1 after finishing the book. I laughed, I cried, I almost fell off my exercise bike (no shit) and yes...I got um...well, the man got a lot of action during this book. So here are my questions, bear with me.

Who is Andy? Who! Who? Because there is a scene in Control where Andy so very much debases himself (not like him) that I literally snorted so hard I choked. I want to know the visual for you when you wrote that very snarky, sexy, bad-bad boy.

CS: Some version of Alex O'Loughlin. It had to be Alex O'Loughlin, because by God that dudes looks as though he'd be up for just about anything. He has this weird mixture of forceful passion and laidback-who-gives-a-fuck that I've always found very beguiling, and of course - it contrasted nicely with Gabriel's repression and restraint.

My faux-Alex is probably going to be the star of one of my upcoming novels - Addicted. Because he makes an almost perfect sex addict. Insane enough about it to make it orsum, laidback enough that you don't worry.

SM: I know who Gabriel is, your version i s so not who he was in my head (the beauty of erotica, if you ask me) but can you fill in my ever so nosy readers?

CS: Gabriel is based loosely on Gabriel Gray, from the TV show Heroes. Only you know. Way, way hornier. And not secretly a serial killer.

SM: Why submissive men? What is it about the sub man that flips your switch? I tend to love the Dom's but you managed to make the sub man work for me. How did you do that you witchy woman?

CS: I don't know, really. I've always just loved what I now know as femdom, and I remember it being a huge, huge disappointment to me, as a teenager, to realise that other women don't like the kinds of stories I do. I loved Black Lace books, but for a long time I couldn't get over how rare it was to find submissive men in them. I thought it was natural, to explore in fantasy what is often so reviled in reality - a strong woman, and a passive man. And then I grew up and realised that fantasy has almost nothing to do with reality. It's just whatever you like, and that can be just about anything - even for me. I can enjoy stories about submissive women just as much as I enjoy submissive men stories - as long as it's done well.

As for what flips my switch about it...I think my main kink is the idea of a man being completely unable to control himself. Not in a "I'm going to take you now" sort of way. More in a "fook, I just came buckets all over myself" kind of manner. I've never liked the stereotypical sort of femdom where the guy is all thin and weak and pathetic, grovelling on the floor of a cage while hogtied, as his Mistress stands over him in thigh high boots. I like very real scenarios that just so happen to have a reversed power dynamic - it's the woman who's objectifying, who's controlling the scenario, who's taking something she wants, etc.

As for why you don't mind it...well...at the very least I try to make my heroes hot. I think whether it's femdom or not, there's something very appealing about getting to do whatever you want want with some hot dude.

SM: Outfit you feel sexiest in?

CS: My birthday suit.

SM: Outfit you find him sexiest in?

CS: Sweatpants and nothing else. No underwear. No top. Lemme see what you've got, babe.

SM: Sexiest matching outfits (heh) with accessories, even!

CS: Well, Husband and I do have matching dressing gowns. But they're not cool. They're not sexy. There are things in the pockets that have probably been there for years. They looks like someone skinned an animal called a Blurto to make them...no.

SM: What are you working on now? Can you give us a peek? A snippet? A clue!?

CS: I am working on (in no particular order):

Power Play: workplace shenanigans, in which the boss of a publishing company takes serious advantage of her assistant. Because he's a horny bastard who makes her.


Nameless: Set in the same world as Reawakening. Zombies take over, girl finds herself locking horns with the usual redneck lowlife apocalypse asshole, can't stop having accidental red hot sex with him.


Future Pursuits: Sequel to Past Pleasures.


Menage: Friends do some naughty things. Meet up years later. Can't help doing them again.


Love Letters: Wife discovers her husband bonked a guy in college. The revelation sends their sex life through the roof, enter stage right the guy he bonked who also happens to be the most charming motherfooker to ever grace the earth.

SM: How will you be spending your holidays and does it involve a man like Gabriel in sexy women's underthings?

CS: I've asked Santa for that very thing, but somehow I suspect he's not going to come through for me. I'll probably be spending it like usual: seven hundred hours logged on the DS, a million plates of beetroot and ham eaten while watching various sitcoms, loads of books read on my Kindle, Husband asking me a thousand times if I liked my presents even though I always do because he's orsum.

SM: Will you come visit me and go shopping?

CS: YES! YES I WANT TO DO THIS PLEASE WE WILL GO TO THE SHOPS YES YES. Hooray!

SM: Chocolate, vanilla or cinnamon?

CS: Cinnamon. If they made a thing called a cinnamon bar, and it was basically cinnamon dust compressed into a log, I would eat it. I would eat nothing else forever - I forsake you, chocolate. My heart will always belong to cinnamon.

And if you were asking a secret sex question: also cinnamon. That means shoving it up his bum, right?

Blurb:
When Madison Morris decides to hire an assistant to help run her naughty bookshop, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Aggressive Andy doesn't quite make the grade, but continues to push her buttons in other areas, while uptight and utterly repressed Gabriel can't quite take Madison's training techniques. One makes her grasp control, while the other makes her lose it. But the lines are blurring and she's no longer sure who's leading and who's following. In the midst of kinky threesomes and power plays, can Madison work out what she really wants?

Snippet:

THE FIRST APPLICANT FOR the assistant job is very promising indeed. He puts his head between my thighs with minimal supervision and almost no prompting.

The only problem is I don't recall creating an oral presentation portion of the interview. Or, for that matter, a portion that requires the answer: you know you want it. To a question I don‟t remember asking.

But I guess I must have asked for something, or none of it would have happened. Maybe it was all the staring I did, at the curling many-coloured tattoos all over his heavy-looking arms. Or the way I bristled beneath the weight of his deep blue gaze. I must have leant forward, and asked about his previous job experience in a way that suggested an underlying code.

Job meant sex. Experience meant now.

It was sharp of him, really, to understand. He got a cross in the interview attire column-such a thin, barely-there T-shirt!-but he got a big tick in the takes initiative and the understands subtle instructions columns.

I don't think I got any ticks, in the cool, calm, controlling boss columns, unfortunately. But can't I be forgiven? He looked like liquid sex and I can't remember the last time I had anything even remotely resembling a drink. Or resembling a hard, solid body over mine. Or resembling the scent of someone besides myself, all over me-the slick slide of a tongue against my skin.

It's probable that some of these needs showed on my face. And though I'm sure that some people are of the mind that women who wear neat little pleated skirts and boxy corduroy jackets-the uniform of bookstore owners and librarians everywhere-are bookish and quiet and quite dull, there's probably an equal amount who view said women as repressed cauldrons of lust.

I'm pretty sure he sensed my boiling cauldron.

Buy Control

Visit Charlotte

I still say Happy Thanksgiving...

despite discussion over such in the last few years. I draw from what the holiday has always meant to me. Good food, good friends, family. Sitting around a table, sharing a meal, listening to stories (especially those of my grandfather back in the day). I always anticipated not just the food but that overwhelming feeling of family and contentedness and laughter.

I have a good hefty chunk of Cherokee in me and some Blackfoot, we believe. So today, whether you choose to say Happy Thanksgiving or Happy Harvest or just Happy Thursday, I hope you have a wonderful day full of good memories, good grub, good friends, good laughs, family and whatever else floats your boat.

I still say Happy Thanksgiving, so I say that to you now. And follow with this which fits brilliantly into some of my roots:

Cherokee Prayer Blessing

May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your Moccasins
Make happy tracks
in many snows,
and may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

you can leave your socks on...

I'm in this very pretty new ebook from Constable and Robinson, edited by Barbara Cardy. And there are a whole slew of them, priced super well. So why buy one when you can buy four?

My story You Can Leave Your Socks On is featured in Erotica volume 2. I know what you're saying...*gasp* "You, Sommer, wrote an erotic story featuring socks? Why, I never..."

Yar, yar, yar. Save it. I know, I have a sock problem. It could be worse. I could have an overalls problem...

XOXO
Sommer
p.s. don't forget to grab your free holiday copy of Sugar (see blog below for coupon code and instructions)

And I am thankful for...

You, readers! :) Given that the kick off of holiday season (starting with Halloween) usually triggers my sweet tooth, I'm giving away Sugar! Not actual sugar (though raw sugar straight up is yum and I've been known to sneak a few of those coarse grains just to chew), but my spanking story Sugar. Because I love spanking as much as I love sugar. Possibly more. *ahem*

For today, tomorrow and Thanksgiving day, Sugar is free on Smashwords.com . I'm pre-empting the evil, evil Black Friday by giving you something fun beforehand.

Simply go to Smashwords, search for Sugar (make sure our prude filter is OFF) and when you check out plug in coupon code: GN62A

Enjoy.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

XOXO
Sommer

pretty, pretty...

Happy to announce the release of two short erotic collections from House of Erotica. Buckle Down and Taking Care of Business each contain 4 short stories. You can find them on ARe, Kindle, iBookstore and a few more venues on the way. Pretty, eh? I know I'm not supposed to show favoritism but that cover on the left took my breath away. Whew.

XOXO
Sommer

And...*inhale*

In a previous blog (scroll down until you see a video of Chuck Palahniuk) I mentioned my worries and fears and worries and fears and worries and fears about Big Bad. There were some worries and fears (in case you missed that). But now the first official review (by a review site) has come and...tada! 4.5 Divas from Susan at Dark Divas Reviews.

Whew.

I feel like I can take a deep breath now. I had to repress a girlish squeal when the review opened with:

"Big Bad blew my socks off!"

What is there not to love about that!

To read the full review, just click the link above.

I'd also like to mention some fabulous reviews on Amazon. Thanks to T. Harrison, Jo, KD Grace and an amazing reader I just 'met' named Ava. You rock. (I know I'm probably supposed to act all cool and whatnot and pretend I didn't see them...but I did see them and they are appreciated!)

XOXO
S

No surrender...

Oh my god. I'm dying. I'm going to be 40 in twelve days. And then December 1 I will wake up and....what? Explode? Levitate? Be the wisest woman evah!? Probably not. But I realized I had a late start on a few things. Mid to late 30s. It makes me wonder what I'll discover when I'm 40. But let's look, shall we?

It was not until my very late 30s that I 'got' Bruce Springsteen. And now that I 'got' him, I think I'd like to kiss him. Among other things, but let's stick with kiss. I was listening to Born In The USA today and I must say, it is eerily on point for current times. As it was for the year it came out. That is kind of sad.




And does anyone know if that is his actual ass? *ahem*. Not that that is important.

It was not until my late 30s that I discovered Chuck Palahniuk. Or as I call him in my head, my writing Yoda. And if you scroll down to the video below you'll hear him say he didn't start writing till he was 33. Guess who else did not actually start writing for real until they were 33? *waves hand*. [insert Twilight Zone music here]



He is my most 'markable' writer. Meaning when I read his books, I tend to either bend pages (much to the man's chagrin) or use sticky notes on passages I need to mark.

It was not until my late 30s that I got into self torture--I mean running!--and it was only this week that I learned the "Down" mantra that actually works and is possibly scary in its efficacy.



I'd like to actually run that 5K in my 40s. Or even further. We'll see.

In my 30s I also lost a friendship and I thought it would break my heart. I got contacted by a major NY agent (whose writer list made me break out in hives) and we did not mesh and it did not work and....i thought it would break my heart. I had a book set up to go with a specific editor and was stoked and...it didn't happen...and I thought it would break my heart.

But my heart did not break. In fact, the book got published, the editor is back in my inbox, the agent thing I've made peace with and the friend thing I let go. And I'm ending my 30s stronger and happier and more in love than I entered them (and that last one is saying something). I mean, don't get me wrong, in a lot of ways life is hard right now, harder than ever. But happiness is a state of mind, I have come to believe. Never give up. Ever.

Like I said, I can't see what's headed my way. Hopefully this new book with this beloved editor and that race where I mutter "Down" to myself all the way to the finish line and some fun surprises. Things I don't even see coming.

Overall, these past ten years have been a hell of a ride. And I plan for it to get better...no retreat, no surrender.

XOXO
Sommer

Got game?

Um. No. And I am discussing my total lack of mad gaming skillz over at Gee/k/ink today if you get a chance to stop in and say hi. Or say Uno! That works too.

XOXO
Sommer

And...

I am done! Haha! I am also giddy and a bit mental, but I finished. Yay! After everyone is in for the night, I am pouring a bucket of wine and putting my feet up and toasting the end of what I hope is a pretty good book.

(And then next week I'll proof it. The end doesn't actually mean, the end. Not just yet, anyway @__@)

XOXO
Sommer