Cheyenne Blue's Blog, page 8
December 26, 2015
Favorite Books – 2015
According to Goodreads, I’ve read 58 books this year, which is 7 short of my goal. If I add in the books I’ve read that for one reason or another didn’t make it on to Goodreads, I have read 65.
2015 started off a bad year for finding new fiction that grabbed me. Looking back, it seems that most of the books I really enjoyed fell in the latter half of the year. That doesn’t matter; what does matter is that I found books I loved, books that took my breath away, made me laugh, made me think, touched me in some way.
In case you’re wondering, I’ve left erotica and erotic romance off this list. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any. On the contrary, there were many, many. But I tend to read these in a different way: writing them is part of my work, so it’s different. I do read them for pleasure, but then it feels like picking favorites.
So, here are my favorite books read in 2015. I didn’t rate them all 5 stars–sometimes a 4 star book is still a favorite. This list is in no particular order:
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
This excellent book broke the drought of good books. Excellent characterization, and even though the environmental message was a bit heavy-handed, it wasn’t enough to mark it down from 5 stars.
Cobbler’s Dream by Monica Dickens
The first of a few re-reads to make the list, and the only children’s book. Warm, witty, and beautifully written.
My enduring literary crush, and quite simply, the writer whose prose I admire the most. This memoir doesn’t disappoint.
Unsettling and quite bleak, almost simplistic in the telling, but it stayed with me a long time.
The Thing About Great White Sharks and other stories by Rebecca Adams Wright
My favorite kind of short stories. Edgy, twisting, open-ended and filled with magical realism.
Molesworth by Geoffrey Williams and Ronald Searle
A book I last read when I was about 10 or 11. Laugh-out-loud hilarious, and so very, very clever.
Happiness Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta
Sparse, beautiful, often open-ended, and unutterably melancholy. The second short story collection to make this list.
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
It hasn’t aged as well as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, but even so, this old favorite got a re-read in 2015 and is still great enough to make my list.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
My surprise favourite of the the year. I put off reading it for a long time, and then was instantly hooked by the writer’s flowing and natural style.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
A literary classic that endures so well, with writing that hasn’t aged. Plus I always envisage Maggie Smith in the title role.
December 18, 2015
A Contract for Christmas by Lisabet Sarai
When you crack the spine or download the pixels of a Lisabet Sarai book, you know you’re going to get a smoking hot read. You know the Ereader will burst into flames. But you also know you’ll get great characterization, and a sex that’s an integral part of the story line, rather than just being shoveled in for gratuitous jollies.
Lisabet has a new holiday erotic romance out, just in time for some midnight holiday reading. A Contract for Christmas is X rated BDSM menage erotic romance.
Here’s the blurb:
Isabella plans to surprise her husband and master Greg with an intimate Christmas Eve dinner for two. She’s left with only her fantasies of Greg’s dominance to keep her company, though, when a blizzard strands him at an airport a thousand miles away. Then her husband’s best friend James shows up at her door. Over the past year, Greg has invited James to participate in some of their kinky scenes, but Bella has never been alone with the sexy entrepreneur. Should she let him in and risk surrendering to his quiet authority without her master’s permission?
Greg resolves her doubts in an unexpected phone call, ordering her to fulfill James’s every desire. Ever obedient, Bella complies, and James rewards her with a night of soul-searing pleasure. When Greg returns on Christmas morning, he appears unfazed by her powerful new connection to his friend. Instead, he offers Bella an outrageous gift, one she’s not sure she dares accept.
And to get you started, here’s an excerpt:
The doorbell interrupted my ruminations.
Who could be at my door on Christmas Eve? Carolers? A neighbor with holiday wishes?
Certainly I was in no condition to welcome visitors. Aside from a wet spot between my legs, my dress hadn’t been hurt by my rather violent orgasm, but my hair was tangled mess. Sticky juices coated the inside of my thighs.
I’ll just ignore them until they go away, I thought.
The insistent ringing continued, however. Finally, with a sigh, I ran my fingers through my snarled mane, and rose to answer.
“Merry Christmas, Bella.”
My breath caught and my stomach flipped. I was on a roller coaster hurtling down the steepest of slopes. Hot blood surged into my cheeks and my earlobes. I wanted to sink through the floor.
“What—um—James? What in the world are you doing here?”
Greg’s best friend—and our occasional partner in kinky games—flashed me a cheeky grin. “Can’t I drop by to wish my friends a happy holiday? I even brought a gift.” He handed me a tin decorated with a green and gold bow.
“Fruitcake? Really, James!” I managed a nervous chuckle.
“Hey, it’s traditional.” He shrugged his shoulders under his snow-dusted down parka. “So, aren’t you going to invite me in?”
My thoughts whirled. I’d never been alone with James before. “Uh—Greg’s not here. I mean, he was supposed to be home by now, but he got stranded in Chicago because of the blizzard. How is it out there, by the way?”
“Pretty bad. The wind’s so strong you hardly walk, and the snow’s so thick you can barely see. You going to force me to go back out there, Bella?”
“Well—actually…”
He was already peeling off his jacket. “Mmm, it’s nice and toasty in here.” Taking my arm, he drew me back into the apartment. His nostrils flared.
Oh no! He can smell me. James knew me pretty well. Could he tell I’d just come? My discomfort deepened.
“Boy, something smells really good! Roast chicken?”
I released the breath I’d been holding. “Cornish hen, actually…I was going to surprise Greg with a special dinner, but then the storm hit—and, um, well, he’s stuck, like I said—and I’m—I’m all by myself, haven’t seen him for days—I miss him—miss him so much…”
To my mortification, I started to sob. And once the tears began, I couldn’t stop them. I stood there like an idiot next to the elegantly set table for two, clutching a fruitcake and crying my eyes out.
You can purchase A Contract for Christmas at any of the following links:
Amazon US – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ECGDJ6
Amazon UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019ECGDJ6
Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/600663
iTunes (probably not– they’re prudes)
Kobo – (soon!)
B&N – (soon!)
Christmas Kisses: Five Merry Tales of Lesbian Lust
Today marks the release of another mini anthology put out by Ladylit Publishing. I’ve had the pleasure of being included in these collections before, along with Erzabet Bishop, Laila Blake, Harper Bliss and Lucy Felthouse. The five of us now have six of these anthologies to our collective names.
This latest, Christmas Kisses: Five Merry Tales of Lesbian Lust arrives as a collection of pixels just before the holidays. I hope you will check us out, and the five happy, horny and holiday tales within that very sexy cover (Thanks, Caroline!).
Table of Contents
The Girl in the Purple Shirt by Cheyenne Blue
Not Christmas Shopping by Lucy Felthouse
White Wings and Fairy Lights by Laila Blake
In December by Erzabet Bishop
Commanding Officer by Harper Bliss
Available from
Direct from Ladylit
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon DE
Amazon CA
Amazon AUS
iTunes US
iTunes UK
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
All Romance
December 16, 2015
Never-Tied Nora goes general release
My two favorite London Irish women go out on general release. Never-Tied Nora is now available on Amazon and from all the usual suspects.
I hope you’ll take Nora and Geraldine home with you.
Blurb
Nora Kelly loves her carefree London life where there’s always a new woman to seduce. Her big Irish family tease her about her footloose ways, but she knows she’s in no danger of losing her heart.
Her family has only one rule when it comes to dating: Nora can date any woman she wants—as long as she’s not a Flannery. The Kellys and the Flannerys have been feuding ever since both families arrived in London from Ireland sixty years ago, and time has not lessened the hatred.
But never-tied Nora has just met the woman of her dreams, and suddenly commitment isn’t a dirty word. Trouble is, Geraldine is a Flannery.
Can Nora convince Ger that, despite their families, they are meant to be together?
Never-Tied Nora is now available on all of the Amazons as well as Smashwords. And of course, you can buy it direct from Ylva too. Stop by and check out their site for an amazing array of lesbian reading.
December 8, 2015
The Boy with the Amber Eyes
One of my favorite books of 2014 was a YA book by lesser-known writer, Katharina Marcus. was emotional, delightful, humorous, and touching in turns. Then there was her follow up novella Boys Don’t Ride, which I think I might like even better. Her stories, despite being “pony stories” on the surface, rather defy categorization, being young adult, coming of age, life lessons, a touch romantic, and yes, always with horses.
She’s got a new book out, one I’m looking forward to reading. Check out The Boy with the Amber Eyes, people, and if you go there soon, you’ll see that there’s a Giveaway going on. (and hey, if you want to check out Marcus’ writing with no outlay whatsoever, Boys Don’t Ride is free. Free wherever you find it –Amazon, Smashwords and all those other places. If you download one free book this year, make it this one.
You can also read an interview with Marcus, and she seems as funny and delightful in her interview as comes through in her writing.
December 7, 2015
Giveaways!
I have two giveaways going on over at Goodreads right now. If you like lesbian erotica and romance you might like to check them out. Because Free!Books. What’s not to like? You can enter to win a paperback copy of both Never-Tied Nora, my just-released erotic romance out from Ylva Publishing, as well as First: Sensual Lesbian Stories of New Beginnings, an erotic anthology (15 amazing writers, edited by me) out from Ladylit Publishing.
Check them out!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Never-Tied Nora
by Cheyenne Blue
Giveaway ends January 16, 2016.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Nora Kelly loves her carefree London life where there’s always a new woman to seduce. Her big Irish family tease her about her footloose ways, but she knows she’s in no danger of losing her heart. Her family has only one rule when it comes to dating: Nora can date any woman she wants—as long as she’s not a Flannery. The Kellys and the Flannerys have been feuding ever since both families arrived in London from Ireland sixty years ago, and time has not lessened the hatred. But never-tied Nora has just met the woman of her dreams, and suddenly commitment isn’t a dirty word. Trouble is, Geraldine is a Flannery. Can Nora convince Ger that, despite their families, they are meant to be together?
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
First
by Cheyenne Blue
Giveaway ends January 16, 2016.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Dive into these fifteen sizzling tales of lesbian love and romance and experience the wonder, the joy, and the magic of new beginnings.
A woman sees her lover for the first time after years of blindness. For the first time in her life, a top trusts her girlfriend enough to let her take control. A connection forged in a bar in New Mexico encourages a breast cancer survivor to take a lover. Stories of new love and first lesbian encounters intermingle with other emotional and physical firsts, and the excitement of new experiences: an around the world flight, the thrill of a carnival, and even the first time to see the sea.
With fantastic stories by favorite writers such as Sacchi Green, Harper Bliss, Annabeth Leong, Allison Wonderland, and Jeremy Edwards, the variety in this anthology means there is something for everyone.
December 5, 2015
Check out my guest post
I’m over at Lisabet Sarai’s place today, blogging about my new release, Never-Tied Nora. You can check out my post about the firsts of 2015 here.
Talking of Lisabet, have you seen her book list? She has a whole bookstore of her work, neatly sorted by category and genre. Really, check it it out. I’m now impressed by her organizational skills as well as by her writing. I wonder if I can persuade her to come and sort out my kitchen cupboards?
While I’m sitting here, staring at the screen (and drinking coffee, because hey, it’s still early in Australia. 6am early), I’m looking at the cover for Never-Tied Nora, and thinking again how flippin’ gorgeous it is. I’d buy the book, based on the cover. Just saying.
Happy Sunday, people. Time for me to go and stare at something other than a computer screen. The landscape. I think I’ll go and stare at that for a while.
December 2, 2015
Release Day: Never-Tied Nora
I’m still not entirely sure what possessed me to write an lesbian erotic romance about Irish girls in London, while I’m living in Australia, but I’m very glad I did. Yes, my romantic novella Never-Tied Nora, Book 1 in the Girl Meets Girl series, is released today by Ylva Publishing. Ylva are of course based in Germany, so that rounds out the multiculturalism for this evening.
Blurb
Nora Kelly loves her carefree London life where there’s always a new woman to seduce. Her big Irish family tease her about her footloose ways, but she knows she’s in no danger of losing her heart.
Her family has only one rule when it comes to dating: Nora can date any woman she wants—as long as she’s not a Flannery. The Kellys and the Flannerys have been feuding ever since both families arrived in London from Ireland sixty years ago, and time has not lessened the hatred.
But never-tied Nora has just met the woman of her dreams, and suddenly commitment isn’t a dirty word. Trouble is, Geraldine is a Flannery.
Can Nora convince Ger that, despite their families, they are meant to be together?
Excerpt
The Korean place was modern—tiled, cold, and echoey, but I didn’t care. We were shown to a table at the back where huge potted plants muted the worst of the noise. It was far enough from the kitchen that the service was beyond woeful, but I didn’t care. I sat opposite Ger once again and watched her expressions and gestures—the quick smile that lit her face like lightning over the ocean, and her small, white fingers with their short, blunt nails as they pointed to a menu selection.
We ate sizzling beef brought by blank-faced waiters, and if I’d been with Sue I’d have been whining about the price of everything and how that should at least get us a smile. But with Ger, complaining didn’t cross my mind. Indeed, I welcomed the awful service as it meant more uninterrupted time to look, to flirt, to touch her hand, to dream, to imagine, and to fantasize about an outcome between us. We finished the bottle of wine but didn’t order another. Instead, we drank water, and played the getting to know you guessing game.
“You’re a professional women’s hockey player,” I said. “Or a coal miner. Final answer.”
Her sigh was theatrical. “You’ve caught me. Want an autograph? Actually, my sister plays hockey. She says I should learn—I might meet someone. She reckons she’s the only straight woman on the team.”
I picked up her hand again. “Tell her you’ve already met someone.”
Her gaze clung to mine. “I might do that. Or I might let her set me up with Big Betsie, the goalie. I love a woman with muscles.”
I pushed up the sleeve of my jacket to show my forearm. “I have muscles,” I said in pretend affront. “All the typing I do, how could I not?”
“You’re a writer,” she guessed. “You ghostwrite autobiographies of the rich and famous. Or you’re a PhD student, four years into the world’s longest thesis.”
“I wish. Think dull. Think of the jobs that send you to sleep.”
“Hypnotherapist? Is that how you’re so successful with women?”
“You don’t know that I’m successful. I could be Never-Laid Nora, the unloved.”
Her expression sobered, and she shuffled her chair around the tiny table so that she was next to me. She was so close I could smell the spices from the meal on her breath. She moved her chair enough that it was angled toward mine, her legs capturing one of mine between them.
“Nora, look at me.” The laughter fled her voice. “If you are the unloved, if you are the unlaid, then—”
“Then what?” I was trapped. Caught in the intensity of her eyes and the steel of her thighs.
“It’s my lucky day, as you must be desperate.” Warmth radiated from her fleeting smile.
She leaned forward, enough that I could see the dark flecks in her sea-green eyes. “I won’t lie to you, Nora. I’ve gone home with women I’ve just met. Met them in a club, or a pub, or at my sister’s hockey game. And I’ve spent a night with them, and at the time it was wonderful. Sex, out of this world. But afterwards? Not so much.” She dragged a deep breath, sat back, and took a gulp from her water glass. “I’m tempted. I’m tempted to lean in and kiss you. Learn your taste, the sigh of your breath. See if your hair is as soft as it looks. I want to know you. Learn what your skin feels like. And in the morning we’d have coffee, and kiss, and swap phone numbers, and then I’d leave, or you’d leave, depending on where we were, and I’d wait for your call. Or maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe I’d have written you off as just another one of those women, and I’d go into work, and maybe I’d cry on my boss’s shoulder over you. Maybe not.”
Her quiet words held me spellbound, and even the tardy waiter arriving to clear away the dirty dishes didn’t interrupt.
“What do you want from me, Nora?”
My voice was a croak worthy of any frog princess. “Everything. I want everything you’ll give me.”
Never-Tied Nora is available now from Ylva Publishing or pre-order from Amazon.
November 7, 2015
First Drafts
I’ve been a bit quiet lately, although you would be forgiven if you said, “So? What’s different?”
I have a novella coming out on 2 December 2015 from those wonderful publishers of lesbian fiction – Ylva Publishing. Never-Tied Nora is a contemporary romance set in London about Anglo-Irish rogue, Nora Kelly. There’s feuds and fights, banter and blarney, lust and love, and an awful lot of red wine. You can read more about this over at Ylva’s site.
In the meantime, I’m pounding away at the follow on story, Not-So-Straight Sue which is the story of the two secondary characters from Never-Tied Nora, Sue and Moni. This book is set in outback Australia, and is a full-length novel. I’m at the pointy end of the first draft, with maybe 10K words to go. This morning, Word threw up the above error message which greatly amused me.
My first drafts are rough as guts, an upchuck the words onto the screen type of things. I don’t spell check, or revise, or shuffle commas like a deck of cards. I don’t even look at the grammar, worry about Americanisms in my Australian English manuscript or vice versa. I will occasionally check back on a plot point if my outline isn’t helpful enough, but that’s about it.
The hard work will come in the editing stage. Then I’ll prune and polish, spell check and grammar check, look up a million things over at Grammar Girl, check on repeated words, missed words, typos, and in particular look out for my own personal stutters (I love the words mapped, traced, and ash-pink far more than I should. I use too many adverbs. And I absolutely mangle commas.)
And I also have a habit of starting sentences with “And”.
So that’s where I’ve been. Another week, and I should have my first draft in the bag.
In the meantime, happy writing and reading.
October 25, 2015
Far From Blind by S. J. Maylee
Far from Blind
Club Blind 2
by S.J. Maylee
Contemporary Erotic Romance
Released October 15th!
Book Description:
Candy Wilson has worked hard to build a life for herself from nothing to something she can be proud of but she can’t catch the eye of the one man who drives her wild with desire.
Brad Chambers has everything, always has, except the woman he loves. When a pitch black blind date at the exclusive Club Blind matches the pair together, Candy refuses to believe what she sees and throws up her protective barrier. It’s up to Brad to tear down her walls and get her to see the man who wants only her.
Be Warned: spanking and light BDSM
Where You Can Find Far from Blind
Amazon | Evernight | All Romance Ebooks | BookStrand
The first review is in!
5-stars from Liz’s Reading Life
“This story is another sizzling creation from SJ Maylee.”
Far from Blind Excerpt:
He closed the door behind them and the distinct click of a lock tumbling over echoed around the room. Maybe no showing yesterday was a mistake. If they’d had any chance at all, she’d blown it for sure. How could she expect him to trust her now? The air, thick with unsaid words, closed in around her.
It was time to take care of business and escape before she embarrassed herself. “This must be for you.” She held out the envelope.
“Thank you.” He took it from her and tore it open, revealing a piece of paper. His cheeks pulled into a little smile, then it disappeared. He maneuvered around his desk and sat. “Do you like me, Candy?”
“Of course I do.” She clasped her arms around her middle. The bigger question is what he thought of her before Club Blind and now.
“Then why didn’t you show last night?” He pressed his lips together and kept his gaze on her.
“To be honest…”
“That’s all I’ll ever expect from you.”
“I’ll give it to you straight. You don’t want a girl like me.” She blew out a breath as if it could help her raging pulse. Never in a million years would she have guessed she’d want a man to tell her she was wrong.
“Is that what you believe?”
“Yes.” She kept her focus on him. He gave nothing away. His expression didn’t change, only his fingers tapped on his desk which was irritatingly neat.
“Then we have a problem.” He stood. “We’d agreed to meet. I kept up my end.”
“And I didn’t.” She blew out a deep breath.
“Come here.”
She didn’t move. She didn’t take her next breath either.
He pointed to the ground in front of him. “Don’t make me ask twice.”
She jumped and then slipped around his desk. Damn, he really did smell good. No matter whether it was aftershave or him, the deep woodsy scent turned here on. Everything about Brad turned her on.
“Did I ask you to join me at Mistress Charlie’s yesterday?”
“Yes, but—”
“Do you believe I’m a liar?”
“No.”
“I don’t think you are either.” He tapped under her chin, lifting her focus back to him. “But I don’t believe you’re being honest with me right now and that’s a problem.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t show yesterday.”
“I appreciate the admission, but I can’t let the action and the attitude go unpunished.”
“What, are you going to spank me?” She chuckled.
“I think it’s time.” He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and his touch lingered along the side of her neck over her ugly mole. “Don’t you agree?”
“Agreed, Sir.” She leaned back on his desk. It was the only thing holding her up.
“Safeword?”
“Red.”
“Very good. Bend over my desk, please.”
“Right here?” She looked around his office. She didn’t find any windows to the hall, but his windows facing the next building were wide open. “You really are pissed.”
The corner of his lips lifted slightly. “The windows are treated. No one can see in here.”
“Oh.”
“You’re stalling.”
“Can you blame me?”
“You do know I’m an accountant, right?” He tugged on her hair. “We like to add.”
Praise for the first book in the Club Blind Series
In the Blind
The Romance Reviews “There is a good mix of heat woven into the storyline, perfect for an erotic romance. With the thrill and excitement of the sex club, the author has created the beginning of an interesting series.”
Night Owl Reviews “The beginning of the story leaves you wanting to know more. It has a unique premise. By the end of the first chapter, I was eager to finish the book…the author takes the reader on a wonderful journey”
Cocktails and Books “There was humor, some angst, romance, and of course, I already mentioned the incredible sex. You’ll be quite satisfied by the end. I know I sure was.”
S.J. MAYLEE BIO:
S.J. Maylee fell in love with storytelling at a young age and with it came a deep-seated desire for everyone to find their happily ever after. She’s finding the happy endings for her characters one steamy story at a time.
When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her caring for her garden, laughing with her two young sons, or dancing to her husband’s music. She’s a PMP (Project Management Professional), Nia instructor, and coffee addict.
Blog | Twitter | Facebook Page | Google+ | Pinterest | Goodreads
WHERE YOU CAN FIND BOOKS BY S.J. MAYLEE:
Evernight Publishing | Amazon US CA UK| Barnes & Noble | Nook UK
