Elise Hepner's Blog, page 7

Playing Around With Photoshop

A lot of author's have been releasing these lately, so I figured I'd try my hand at them. What do you think?



Yesterday I finally joined my local library. bought some books from the book sale, and today I'm gearing up for my promotional roller coaster for Furious Temptation. I'm also doing a few odds and ends for the conferences coming up! So excited to be back in the writing world I love instead of tucked away behind my computer writing book after book after book. Phew, it makes me sleepy! But I'll have lots of goodies to put out in the world in 2014. Right now, I'm working on a little surprise short that will hopefully hit the interwebs in the near future.

Also, don't forget to check out my newsletter where I offer snippets of new books, giveaways, cover reveals, and lots of other fun stuff. You can sign up on the side bar to the right hand of this post under "Newsletter Signup" and get a little piece of me in your mail! I promise I won't spam you or send you emails ALL THE TIME, only every couple of months.

Until next time....

Cover Reveal: Furious Temptation

My newest cover in the Furies Series has been pinned to the side of my blog for a bit now, but I came to the startling conclusion that I never announced it here on my blog. Author fail! With my mind running like a hamster wheel I tend to forget things here and there, it's like I have constant book pregnancy brain. So here is my latest cover for my new release, Furious Temptation, the second book in my mythology Furies series which is coming out in April 2014 from Secret Cravings Publishing. Only a couple weeks left until this mammoth of a book is out in the world, only took me more than six months to write the sucker. It'll be a scary relief to have it out for sale. If that makes any sense.



In the meantime I've been plugging away at several different WIP's including a contemporary romance/mystery, totally anxious for the release of my romantic suspense series with Entangled Publishing in May 2015. A long way away, to be sure, but I'm hoping to turn in the other two books in the series way before then so they'll all have a relatively close together release date. But, best laid plans. Only time will tell if I can knock out so many books in such a small window. Although time is flying, wasn't it January like two seconds ago or is it only me?
Which brings me to more awesome news! Wanna meet me? I'll be making appearances this year at several conferences including the Romantic Times Convention in New Orleans, LA in May as well as Authors After Dark in Charlotte, NC in August. Come say Hi, get a free book signed, pick up a sharpie, and get a hug from me. I'll be the small one with the short hair bouncing as if I've ingested nine lbs of crack, but really I'm just excited and have had too much coffee. But seriously, I really am short. Look for the 4'9 chick with the black and red pixie cut. I can't wait to meet you!

V-day Blog Hop Winner

Today is the day! The day of glory! Or...the time when I announce the winner of my A Little Slap and Tickle giveaway by random hat drawing. Thank you everyone for your lovely comments about the sexiness that is men like Chris Hemmsworth, Viggo Mortison, and Ian Somerhalder, I had so much fun with you this week and reading your answers. But now, the moment has arrived *drumroll*:

The winner of a copy of A Little Slap and Tickle as picked by my DH from his cowboy hat is...Cindi! I will be emailing you shortly to figure out your preferred e-book format.

Thanks everyone for participating and Happy belated V-day to you all with kisses and snuggles from me to you! I leave you with kitties! Also, if someone could cut off the blizzard supply to my state, that would be awesome. We currently have over a foot of snow and I'm only 4 ft tall.

K thx, bye!

Valentines From My TV Boyfriends

Welcome V-day Hoppers, today I'm welcoming my TV boyfriends to my blog and showcasing their homemade gifts for lovely ol' me. I'm a lucky girl!



Don't forget, the V-Day Hop is giving away two grand prizes: A Kindle Paperwhite and a New Adult Book Basket:


Every comment on each stop of the blog hop qualifies as one entry into the grand prize giveaway. Meanwhile, I'm also giving away a little book of my own, A Little Slap and Tickle. To win a copy of my book all you have to do is answer this question: If you could get a valentine from any celebrity, who would it be? Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop!

Click Here To Keep Hopping!

Kay Jaybee: Hitting 90 and Still Writing

Hitting 90 and Still WritingKay Jaybee
Many thanks for inviting me over to your wonderful blog today Elise!
Believe it or not, this month I am celebrating the publication of my 90th story!! Whether long or short, flash fiction, poem, or novel, every single piece of writing that I’ve managed to find a publisher for feels as much as a miracle now as it did when I began to write 9 years ago!            This 90th story will be appearing in Best Bondage Erotica 2014, the latest hot anthology from Cleis Press- and is called Behind the Door.


Although I’ve written 6 novels and 3 novellas as Kay Jaybee now, without the short story trade I’d have never have written any of them. Before I even dared to try and write something longer than 10,000 words I’d had 40 short stories and poems published. I’m so glad that’s what I did, for writing those early stories taught me so much. They were my apprenticeship, a place where I learnt that every single word in every single sentence counts.
If you’d like to read a few of those short stories, then why not check out The Best of Kay Jaybee.    
       
Blurb-Fourteen of the very best erotic tales of dominance, submission, bondage, and romantic lust, are delivered with lashings of kink from the pen of Kay Jaybee. From the sexual adventures recalled by a woman as she stares at her favourite shirt, to a deliciously dirty orgy on a bed of cardboard boxes, the after-hours education of a rookie soldier, and the bizarre obsession of an Egyptologist, each story shows why Kay Jaybee has been hailed as ‘a master of the craft of erotica’ (Oysters and Chocolate). As a girl writes messages of lust on the body of her best friend’s lover, and a mistress’s employment of ropes and chains on her slave co-insides with the application of emulsion, we discover just how Kay has earned her reputation for producing ‘super-heated kinky stories,’ (Kd Grace), which are ‘a sublime pleasure to read’ (Violet Blue). 
It’s a very odd feeling to read a blurb like that about your own work! I know I often say it, but I honestly can’t believe how much has happened to me ‘writing wise’ in the last few years, let alone the last few months. That I have enough stories published with Xcite to warrant them publishing a ‘Best Of...Collection’ is an amazing feeling- and I’d like to thank Hazel and the team for putting up with me for so long!
The stories tucked inside The Best of Kay Jaybee come from the Xcite anthologies I’ve had work included in since 2008, (such as Maggie, The Basic Rules of Anal Sex, and The Fuck-Me Cabbie),  as well as my three solo Xcite collections, Quick Kink One(The Shirt), Quick Kink Two (The Bride wore Rubber) and Yes Ma’am (Lying in Wait).
As you’d expect from me, there are a fair number of dominance and submission related stories included in this anthology, but there is also a heap of romantic lust, explored fantasies, and happy kinky threesome play.If you’ve never read any of my work before, then The Best of Kay Jaybee is just the right place.
Here’s a little taster from...
The Fuck-Me Cabbie ‘That’s him over there.’‘The one stood on his own? Brown hair, tight jeans, cute arse?’‘That’s him.’‘Does he have a name?’ I put my drink down onto the sticky plastic topped table before us, not taking my eyes from the back view of the man leaning against the bar.‘Well, the men call him Mr Greedy?’‘And the women?’My friend smiled at my expression, she knew me very well.  ‘They call him the Fuck-Me Cabbie.’‘Really?’‘Oh yes.’ The satisfied lilt to Jenny’s voice made me drag my eyes away from the self- styled Adonis at the bar, to the air of happy memory plastered across her face. ‘He claims to have had sex with nearly every female passenger he’s carried in his taxi between the ages of 18 and 50.’‘Is that so?’ I picked my Cola up and took a long thoughtful draft as I rocked back on my chair.‘So he says.’‘And you believe him?’Jenny said nothing, but her smirk spoke volumes as she peered at me over the top of her glasses.‘And was it worth it? Is he that good in reality, or is it all arrogant attitude?’‘I can’t argue with the arrogant bit, but the man’s bloody hot. Annoying; but true.’Running a finger around the rim of my empty glass, my eyes returned to the cabbie, mentally willing him to twist round so I could get a proper look at his face. As if picking up on my mute signal, he turned, a pint glass in his hand, and stared directly at me. Unashamedly, I stared back.It was his eyes that struck me most. They screamed non-stop endless desire; a desire which would somehow never be satisfied. The square cut to his chin and his bulky, yet toned frame, simply bellowed sex, as if a neon sign was permanently flashing above his head saying “Get it here- NOW.”The other signal he gave out, perhaps even stronger than the aura of lust, was conceit. He’d been told once too often that he was good in the sack. This cabbie needed taking down a peg or two.‘Go and talk to him.’Jenny’s eyes flickered at me mischievously, ‘what are you thinking?’‘He needs cutting down to size.’‘How?’‘You’ll see.’ I kept eye contact with him. He didn’t need to say anything to let me know what he was thinking. ‘I want you to tell him there is a threesome on offer. Do not tell him who’ll be involved, but feel free to let him make his own assumptions. It’s not our fault if he jumps to the wrong conclusion is it.’Jenny looked momentarily disappointed, ‘Won’t it be us?’I couldn’t help but smile at her. Jenny’s neat chest had been poking at the flimsy covering of her t-shirt and bra ever since we’d started discussing the taxi driver.‘Of course it will be us. But it might not be him...are you game?’‘I’m game. Tell me.’Pointedly ignoring the cabbie, I shifted our chairs closer together so that no one could overhear what I was about to divest to my companion.Regarding me with renewed interest, Jenny was obviously eager to get our plotting underway immediately, but was still a little unsure about my plan, which I had to admit, was a bit complicated. ‘Do you think he’ll go for it? He’s not known for sleeping with a woman more than once. No return fares as it were.’‘I’m sure you could lay it on strong. After all, he’s had you, but not me. You’re a beautiful woman honey, use that to our advantage. Sod feminism for once! Paint him a picture he can’t refuse. Tell him about our casual relationship, and I’ll see you and him at the back of the car park in an hour. And don’t forget to switch your phone to vibrate.’Jenny stood up, readying herself to approach our quarry, her short floaty skirt swaying suggestively around her long legs. I re-focused my blue eyes onto the cabbie’s gaze, communicating what I hoped was an expression of mutual understanding. Then, with a deliberately seductive glance at Jenny, I trailed a polished fingernail down her pale neck, with the intention of planting the idea of all three of us being together firmly in his mind...****Buy Links-Amazon UK- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Kay-Jaybee-ebook/dp/B009YYRM3Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352239489&sr=1-2Amazon US- http://www.amazon.com/Best-Kay-Jaybee-ebook/dp/B009YYRM3Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352239753&sr=1-1&keywords=best+of+kay+jaybee
Kay xx
PS- And yes- that is me on the cover of the book- who’d have thought I’d be a cover girl at my age!!!
Bio-Kay Jaybee wrote the The Perfect SubmissiveTrilogy,(Xcite, 2011-2014), Making Him Wait, (Sweetmeats Press, 2012), The Voyeur (Xcite, 2012), as well as the novellas, Not Her Type: Erotic Adventures With A Delivery Man (2nd ed. 1001 NightsPress, 2013), Digging Deep (Xcite, 2013), A Sticky Situation, (Xcite, 2012), and The Circus, (Sweetmeats Press). She has also written the anthologies The Collector (Austin & Macauley, 2012 & 2008), The Best of Kay Jaybee (Xcite, 2012), Tied to the Kitchen Sink, Equipment,(All Romance, 2012), Yes Ma’am (Xcite e-books, 2011), Quick Kink Oneand Quick Kink Two (Xcite e-books, 2010). Kay has had over 80 short stories published by Cleis Press, Black Lace, Mammoth, Xcite, Penguin, Seal, and Sweetmeats Press.Details of Kay’s work, past, present and future can be found at www.kayjaybee.me.uk You can follow Kay on Twitter- kay_jaybee, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KayJaybeeAuthorGoodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3541958-kay-jaybeeBrit Babes Site- http://thebritbabes.blogspot.co.uk/p/kay-jaybee.htmlKay also writes contemporary romance as Jenny Kane – www.jennykane.co.uk 

K.D. Grace: Bring on the Chaos

Today I have the awesome K.D. Grace on my blog talking about chaos and order!

Bring on the ChaosBy K D Grace
I like order. I like order a lot. In an ideal situation, my world would be well-ordered – spotless house, clean cupboards, well organized work space, sock and underwear drawers all neatly folded and spaced. But because I’m a writer, because I’m tunnel-visioned and spend more time in the worlds I’m creating than in the bombsite that’s my house, the fantasy and the reality are way different. In fact, my world seems most ordered when I’m creating chaos. My world suits me best when I’m writing fast and furiously and I’m completely in the throes of the story. Writing a story involves creating chaos. And if I’m doing it right, the chaos in my outside world will seem dwarfed by the chaos of the world I’m writing into existence.
Once the chaos has reached critical mass, once I’ve totally and completely made a mess of things for my characters and turned their lives upside down, I set about restoring order to their world. I set about guiding them through the chaos to their Happy Ever After. It’s my job, as a writer, to create a world that begins in order, blossoms into insurmountable chaos, and then resolves into an even higher form of order. Isn’t that what story is all about?
The way I see it, the main occupation of a writer is to create chaos for her characters, to make their lives miserable, uncomfortable, and challenging. Having said that, chaos doesn’t have to be of the shoot-‘em-up, thriller, action, adventure variety. Sometimes the very best chaos comes straight from the mind of the character. What writer doesn’t love a few serious neuroses? What writer doesn’t love to muck about inside her characters’ heads? With no chaos, no conflict, there’s no story. Happy endings are just that – endings. What happens after the HEA is for readers to fantasize about. It’s what comes before that happy ending that a writer concentrates on. What comes before should be a voyeuristic romp for readers that entices them into the chaos and catastrophe of the characters they’ve come to know, with plenty of anguish thrown in for good measure. That chaos and catastrophe needs to be a cranked up, high octane ride that will not only leave the reader willing to hang on for dear life to get to the very last page, but very pleased to do so, even as the writer turns the bull loose in the China closet and wreaks havoc with hearts and relationships and, well, generally with everything. Then when the situation is just about as chaotic as it can possibly get, when it begins to look like all is lost, and the reader is white-knuckle page-turning and angsting for the characters, the writer, in ways only writers can, creates a higher order, one word, one sentence, one paragraph at a time. Voila! Love conquers all, and there might even be dancing in the street.
Yup! True enough I like order. But I also like to create a lot of chaos before I get there.
Here’s a snippet from my collection of short stories, Gracefully Aroused .



Blurb:From a love spell that doesn’t quite go to plan to a farmhand who needs a little discipline; from a woman who is addicted to the confessional to a personal trainer with a very unorthodox method of guaranteeing his clients they’ll look fab come bikini season, K D Grace will tell you a naughty story with a twist. Before there was Ms Holly and the Pet Shop, before there were sexy ghosts, before Grace Marshall upped the romance ante, K D Grace was into quickies, and here’s a selection of her naughtiest.‘Personal Trainer’Penny Davis can’t afford to hire a personal trainer to get her fit for bikini season until ex-military hard man, Hawk Sturgis, offers her an unorthodox fitness regimen and an even more unorthodox payment plan, guaranteed to have her heating up the beach in her new bikini just in time for the summer hols.Excerpt:When we finally arrive at the gym, and he unlocks the door, I’m thinking death is imminent. He places a meaty hand against my neck and eyeballs his chronograph to check my pulse. I’m wondering if it’s even possible to count that fast. I’m not sure if the resulting grunt means it’s acceptable, or that he’s totally disgusted with my lack of fitness, but at least he’s not dialling an ambulance.He marches me at a fast trot to a back room with mirrored walls and free weights.I head straight for the nearest weight bench. It’s the perfect place to collapse and have a whimper. But I don’t get far.‘Davis! About face!’ he huffs.And I’m standing at attention again, while he walks around me, hands on his hips muttering. ‘Uh huh, mmm hmm, right.’ He nods to my blue trainer bottoms. ‘Take ’em off.’‘Sir?’ My voice cracks.‘You want a beach job, I need to know what I’ve got to work with.’‘I have a leotard, back home. Believe me, it doesn’t hide anything. If we could just wait–’‘Take. Them. Off.’ Between each word he makes a stabbing motion at my trackie bottoms with an index finger that looks like it might be a registered weapon.I shove the trousers down and step out of them, embarrassed by the comfy, and now sweaty, granny panties I wore to work out in. I never expected to have to display them.‘And the top.’Buy The Best of K D Grace NowAmazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Xcite BooksReviews“This whole collection is varied, balanced, and beautifully—even, yes, gracefully—written, and you shouldn’t miss a word of it, so reading it all yourself is the only way to go.” Reviewed by Sacchi Green for Erotica RevealedAbout K D Grace/Grace Marshall:K D Grace believes Freud was right. In the end, it really IS all about sex, well sex and love. And nobody’s happier about that than she is, otherwise, what would she write about?
When she’s not writing, K D is veg gardening. When she’s not gardening, she’s walking. She walks her stories, and she’s serious about it. She and her husband have walked Coast to Coast across England, along with several other long-distance routes. For her, inspiration is directly proportionate to how quickly she wears out a pair of walking boots. She also enjoys martial arts, reading, watching the birds and anything that gets her outdoors.
K D has erotica published with SourceBooks, Xcite Books, Harper Collins Mischief Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Black Lace, Erotic Review, Ravenous Romance, Sweetmeats Press and others.
K D’s critically acclaimed erotic romance novels include, The Initiation of Ms Holly , The Pet Shop . Her paranormal erotic novel, Body Temperature and Rising , the first book of her Lakeland Heatwave trilogy, was listed as honorable mention on Violet Blue’s Top 12 Sex Books for 2011. Books two and three, Riding the Ether, and Elemental Fire , are now also available. She was nominated for ETO’s Best Erotic Author 2013.
K D Grace also writes hot romance as Grace Marshall. An Executive Decision , Identity Crisis , The Exhibition are all available.
Find K D Here:                                                                  
Websites: http://kdgrace.co.uk/         
                http://gracemarshallromance.co.uk/            
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KDGraceAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KD_Grace         
             http://twitter.com/GM_Romance

The End of Holiday Cheer

Last night we took our ugly Christmas tree down...it took a little while haha. We have a hard time letting go of the holidays and my house is a little lazy as a result of all the work we do around here. My little writer brain tends to glaze over things only petting kitties, doing laundry, and reading books. Tree, what tree? Huh?

 But with the loss of the holidays comes baking to soothe my domestic side while I struggle through the first month of 2014. Luckily there are chocolate chip banana bread muffins out of the oven with a sprinkle of honey. I'm making another batch to go in the freezer while I edit. Then onward to writing the end of Furious Temptation, which never seems to end. At 76k I still have four or five scenes at least to put on paper--which is a daunting task.

Back I go into the trenches! With yummy goodies as my weapon!

Alison Tyler: Work in Progress

Today I have the insanely awesome Alison Tyler on my blog. She's an amazing author, a kick ass editor, and I've been lucky enough to work with her on a few projects. Being in one of her anthologies was my main goal when I first started out in this crazy erotica world and she made my dream come true last year. Give her a warm welcome, everyone!

Work in ProgressBy Alison Tyler
Sam in The Delicious Torment is a loosely sketched version of myself. You know how certain cartoonists seem to draw themselves into their work? (The Mad Magazine men come to mind specifically). I think authors often do this, too. Not always, of course. We are creative after all. But there’s often (for me anyway) a glimmer of myself in my best characters.Sam’s more of a 100-watt bulb than a glimmer.She’s a writer. I’m a writer. She writes erotica. I write erotica. She’s over-caffeinated. (Do you know how many references to coffee I edited out of the books?). She’s got my fashion style—for what that’s worth—all thrift-store and kink. She wants people to like her, to accept her, to see her. I’ve lived like that my whole life.In The Delicious Torment, Sam explains that her editor has decided that she’s a lesbian writer:
 He’d read the many lesbian scenes in my first novel and liked the way I wrote them. I didn’t mind being pegged as a girl-girl writer. I penned all sorts of scenarios for the short stories I was publishing, and I slipped in other scenarios in most of my books. I thought I’d give you a story written at this same time. So you can read what I was doing. How I was writing. Where I was in my head… You can imagine Sam writing this. Or she can imagine me…Work in Progress
These fresh beauties, we can prove,Once were virgins sick of love,Turned to flowers, Still in someColors go and colors come. --Robert Herrick I realize now that at the beginning Colette was simply taking things slowly, being easy on such a wild stallion as myself. She thought if she moved too fast she might scare me off and into the arms of another, less-focused Mistress. And she was right. Had she spooked me with constant discipline, with too-soon, too-hard punishment, I would have fled. But instead, she teased me, taunted me, until I found myself begging her for it, asking her for it. Standing in front of the refrigerator, reading over Mistress Julian’s comments in a column cut from Bad Girl, feeling the heat and wetness start to flow at my core... that’s when I began to understand the structure of a D/s relationship. Lowercase “s,” always, head bowed, eyes lowered. Humble. I wasn’t humble, clad in tight black stretch pants and a lycra running top, my hair a jumble of windswept curls, my cheeks flushed from my morning run. I wasn’t humble as I poured my juice into one of our vintage jelly glasses and prepared to make a single slice of toast. Humble means getting Colette’s meal first, bringing it on a tray to her bedroom, serving her with lowered eyes and then asking, in my softest voice, if there is anything else I can get for her. Humble means sitting on my heels on the floor by the bed, shoulders back, body arched, waiting for her to choose to feed me a bite of her toast, a bit of her muffin, a sip of her juice. No, I was not humble. I was wild and spirited, unbroken and untamed. But I was searching. My day-job, my real-world, my nine-to-five life is perfect for that type of personality--though I lie, it’s never nine-to-five, it’s all-consuming.  I’m an artist, fairly successful for one so young, my work shown in many of the downtown galleries and quite a few of the private, wealthier estates in our community. I have a luminous quality to my art, they say, I have a free-flowing hand, a lack of inhibition when it comes to paints and brushes and colors in tubes. I have no fear of light or dark, of shading, of muting, of brightness, of screaming. On the canvas, that is. But alone, in bed, with my Mistress, I am out of control, all over the place, my strokes too heavy or too light, my body contorting in a vain effort to find peace. I need control here, where I have none. My breathlessness of art does not serve me well. My constant moving, shifting and gliding, my colors as they burst free--each one a different shade, a different hue--these take me further from my goal, not closer to it. Colette sees this all, and she knows, and she ponders the best way there is to rein in a free spirit without damaging the soul. Her blue eyes flash with ideas, with concepts, but she doesn’t rush into anything. She would not have me destroyed, she would not have the filament that glows inside me damaged, she would only have me tamed, when I am in her arms in bed. She would only have me find the peace that I so crave. I used to envious of those who possess that peace. I used to talk to girls on the bus who ferry themselves from job to home to TV dinners without so much as a thought to art or life or pleasure or pain. They were the lucky ones, I thought, without the need inside them that burns inside me. The fire that causes me to toss and turn restlessly in my Mistress’ embrace--the inner rage that never lets up, that never finds its mark. Sometimes, I’d talk to them, asking what they did for fun, flirting casually, easily, searching for the answer. Why were they so different? They seemed like creatures in a zoo, under glass, pinned down. I wanted to observe them, wanted to find out what was missing inside them that could enable them to enjoy watching soulless movies, empty TV, overly-bland theatrical performances. What was it? What was it? Ah, maybe you’ve already guessed. It wasn’t a lack in them, wasn’t something they’d been born without, but something that I had been born with. Something that I had no control over, the heat, the fire, the need to create. And creating takes that extra bit and builds it up until it is a constant vein of life pulsing beneath the skin. You can’t turn it on when you’re in slump, you can’t turn it off when you want to sleep. The paintings call you, the paintbrushes speak, the tubes of color wake you up. Come and create, they whisper. Forget food. Forget sleep. Forget love. Forget life. Come and make things of us. We need freedom. You can give us that freedom. Doomed, head bowed, my Mistress is my art. She calls to me and I go. She beckons me, and I am hers. I walk on heavy feet to the studio and open the door. The light is just right, streaming through the window in curtains of yellow and gold. The paintings stand against the wall, mocking me, howling at me: finish us! What do you think you’re doing? Sleeping? No sleep. No time. You don’t have enough time. There is too much art in my head. It must come out. Colette knows this, she strokes the side of my face when I sleep, she kisses my lips and tastes the life there, she uses a cool rag to wash the drips of paint from under my nails. She bathes me. She feeds me. She keeps my outer-workings in healthy order so that someday, sometime, I may find peace. No peace while those voices call to me. Come to the studio, there are ideas here. You can let them out. You can be free of them. The stallion inside me bucks up and raises its head. I moan and look at the clock. “It’s too early,” I say to no visible creature. “Too early to start work.” “No,” those voices chide at once. “It’s too late.” I pull on my robe and wander to the studio, opening the door and staring at my works-in-progress. They call to me, like hungry children, feed me, finish me, use yourself up to make us whole. I find strength as I begin to mix the paints, my palette a ray of sin and light, of dark and heat, of wet and dry. I do not think in terms of colors, do not know the names of the tubes, but, instead, the feel of them in my hand. How much of this one has been used up, how much of that. The crinkly metal that folds and condenses, that looks so strong, but, once empty, is weak and brittle. I gather my strength and I begin to paint, the moonlight playing melodies on my ghostly form. The sound of my feet as I shuffle on the wood floor is a rhythm that matches my heart. Colette knows--her blue eyes appear on my canvas, watching--Colette knows, and she tries, so hard, to understand. But she is not one of the artists, the few, the chosen, the cursed. She is not one of us. But she tries, she comes to stand in the doorway of the studio, her nightgown hanging long and loose down her body, her hair a tangle of gold spun from straw. She watches me work, never speaking, never interrupting, and I know--in a split second of wisdom--that she is as envious of me as I am of her. She is complete, she is finished. She will never be anything but who she is. While I ... I am a work in progress.
XXX,Alison

Alison Tyler is the author of The Delicious Torment, the sequel to Dark Secret Love (both published by Cleis Press). She can be found at alisontyler.blogspot.com, drinking coffee in the morning and tequila at night.

Guest Post: Lucy Felthouse, M/M Backlist, and a $10 Amazon Giftcard Giveaway

Today I have the fabulous and dynamic Lucy Felthouse on my blog talking about how building a back list is a unique experience to each author as well as how to expand a catalogue in the M/M genre. She's also giving away a $10 dollar Amazon giftcard to one lucky reader!

Building Up a M/M Back Catalogue by Lucy Felthouse
There is lots of varying advice out there about how a writing career should be managed, how books should be promoted, what works, what doesn’t, and so on. It’s a minefield, which is why I tend to figure out these things for myself and see what is successful, what works specifically for me.
One thing I’m finding to be true is that one of the best ways to sell your books is to have more out there. I know that probably sounds silly and rather obvious, but it’s true. Each publication you have out there increases your chances of someone reading your writing, then hopefully going out to find more of your work. No matter how hard you try, how hard you promote, you can’t reach every single person that’s a potential reader. Well, unless you’re with a huge publisher with a stupendous marketing budget. Which is why it’s good to keep writing, keep publishing. Your new book may just find its way onto someone’s eReader or bedside table, and hopefully they’ll enjoy it so much they’ll check out your others.
So although I tend to just work on what I feel like working on, or answer specific calls for submissions, rather than planning meticulously what I’m going to write throughout the year, I am trying to build up a M/M catalogue. This is because I have lots of M/F and F/F stuff out there, and nowhere near as much M/M. Some people only read certain pairings, so although I have a variety of genres and pairings, I’m hoping to give those folks that only read gay stuff more of what they want.
Currently, I only have two M/M publications out there – Ditched and Illicit Relations. Ditched is a military short story that was published a while back, and Illicit Relations is an erotic romance novella that’s bordering on taboo that was just released by Ellora’s Cave. 
Publication number three, Letters to a War Zone is a military erotic romance novella that will be available from March. I’m also working on a novel currently which has M/M elements, though it has M/F in it, too.
It’s a slow process as I do have other stuff I’d like to work on, other stuff I’ve promised people, but I’m doing my best to keep writing M/M stuff to build up my back catalogue. One of the co-author projects I’m working on is M/M, but other than that I don’t know what’s next for my gay stuff. But I’m sure I’ll figure something out ;) And hopefully it will sell!Happy Reading,Lucy x*****Excerpt:Terry deliberately averted his gaze as Justin tugged off his T-shirt and dove into the pool. The last thing he needed was to see him topless. His libido was already in overdrive and he was having trouble not jumping Justin’s bones. In fact, the only thing that held him back was the fact that Justin was his second cousin. They hadn’t been brought up particularly closely, so it wasn’t as if he were lusting after someone he considered to be a brother, but still. They were related and it was weird. Or it would be weird if anything happened between them, which it wouldn’t, of course. It would be wrong and they both knew it.Terry assumed that was the reason Justin was avoiding him, anyway. They got on well and there was an obvious spark between them, but nothing inappropriate had ever taken place. For the most part, they acted as cousins should. Every now and again, though, he’d catch Justin looking at him. Equally, Terry would drink his fill of his cousin when no one else was looking. Apparently it was getting increasingly difficult for Justin, too.Right now, at the annual summer get together at Terry’s grandparents’ massive house in rural Warwickshire, the tension between them had never been higher.What made the whole thing ten times worse was that neither of them had come out. So ending up together would be a double whammy for their families. He could see it now. Hey, everyone! I’m gay—and so is he. We’re together. Now as you were.He didn’t know whether the reaction would be favorable or not.He also knew that part of his frustration about the situation was because he hadn’t yet seen any point in coming out. His feelings for Justin ran deeper than he cared to admit, and for that reason he hadn’t been in a relationship with anyone—ever. Not a homosexual relationship, anyway. He’d had girlfriends back in the days when he hadn’t realized what his urges meant, but since then he’d been by himself and remained a virgin. He was surprised, actually, that no one in his family had asked whether he was gay. He could only assume that because he was so private generally, they thought he would only introduce them to someone when he felt it was absolutely right. That was his plan, in fact. To come out and introduce his partner at the same time. But until he got over this damn infatuation with Justin, he was never going to be any farther forward.His thoughts ran on for several minutes until he was interrupted—and startled—by droplets of cold water falling onto his bare shoulder. He turned. Justin stood there, shaking his blond head and sending the droplets flying around. Apparently he wasn’t avoiding Terry anymore.It was hot and he was wearing casual clothes, so Terry wasn’t bothered about getting wet, but for some reason, he snapped at Justin. “For fuck’s sake, do you have to do that here?”Immediately Justin stopped and stared at him. They’d never had a cross word between them, not even when they were children. “Sorry, mate. I was just messing around. I didn’t think it would piss you off.”His blue eyes were wide and Terry felt his irritation dissipating rapidly. He continued to rake his gaze down Justin’s half-naked form. His broad shoulders and wide chest, which was sprinkled with a handful of pale hairs. His toned stomach, the six-pack nicely defined but not too body-builderish. His arms were thickly muscled but suited his athletic frame. Deep-blue swimming trunks hid the area he most wanted to see but he relied on the glimpses he’d had over the years and his overripe imagination.Thick thighs and calves and, unbelievably, nice feet—he didn’t generally like feet—finished off the package of perfection and Terry was suddenly extremely glad he had a book in his lap, because his cock was beginning to swell and press against the inside of his swimming shorts. He realized that a dip in the pool would be a pretty good antidote—the chilly water should take the heat from his cock. And if not, at least no one would be able to see the bulge unless they swam underwater.It was stupid, really, trying to hide his erection from Justin. They both knew there was something between them, and he wanted to bury his hard cock inside Justin’s mouth or arse, not hide it beneath a fucking book.He began to wonder whether they should just get together, and to hell with the consequences. It wasn’t illegal.Justin sat down on the sun bed next to Terry and flashed him a smile. “Am I forgiven, then? I haven’t got your book wet, have I?” He reached out to grab the book, presumably to try to dry it, but Terry slammed his hand down quickly, catching Justin’s fingers beneath his in the process, not to mention giving his cock a bit of a smack.“No,” he ground out, wondering how he’d managed to get even a single word to fall from his lips. As soon as their fingers had touched he’d felt a spark that had run straight up his arm and multiplied throughout his entire body. His ebbing erection had immediately jumped back to attention, lifting the book slightly. He hoped against all hope that Justin hadn’t noticed but he had no such luck.The blond’s gaze dropped to their still-touching fingers and, presumably, to the book and the thing beneath it that had caused the movement. He stared for a few seconds that felt like hours, then looked back up at Terry’s face. He opened his mouth then closed it again. For the first time ever, it seemed Justin was speechless.A huge splash and a series of laughs from the pool broke the spell between them. Justin snatched his hand back and raked it through his hair. He opened and closed his mouth again, but for the second time nothing came out. He let out a heavy sigh and stood up looking dazed. He appeared to have trouble putting one foot in front of the other, as though he were drunk or had just woken from a very deep sleep. Of course, only the two of them knew the real reason for Justin’s behavior.Finally Justin got his limbs to cooperate, and he made his way across to the table that held food and drinks, sheltered from the bright sunlight by a large, green gazebo.Terry watched him go, a tumult of emotions running through his brain. Disappointment, confusion, anger, lust…they all assaulted him, though admittedly the last was screaming the loudest, a fact certainly not helped by Justin’s damp and topless state.Now a feeling of despair took hold of him. What the fuck was he going to do?*****Terry’s had a crush on his second cousin Justin for what seems like forever. He’s hidden it as well as possible, knowing that the other man is out of bounds, forbidden fruit. Second cousins getting together isn’t actually illegal, but for Justin the relationship is too close—he just can’t contemplate them being together.But when some new information comes to light about Terry’s birth and his place in the family, the whole game changes. Suddenly the relationship isn’t so impossible, and things soon begin to get hot and heavy.Available from: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/illicit-relations/Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18741652-illicit-relations*****Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over eighty publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women's Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house. She owns Erotica For All, and is book editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebookand Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9*****GIVEAWAY!a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goals for 2014: "The Year of the Series"

2014 Writing Goals:
Word Count Goal: 400,000 (Which shouldn't be too bad since last year was 500,000 and I made it with room to spare.)Rewrite 2 erotica novella'sEdit an erotica short storyFinish edits on a stand alone erotic romance contemporary novel and submit itWrite alter-ego's second novel in the seriesFinish PNR seriesWrite rough draft Romantic Suspense Novel Bounty Hunter Series Book 1Write rough draft Romantic Suspense Novel Security Team Series Book 2Finish writing NA full length rough draft
2014 Personal Goals:Try not to get so overwhelmed by the promotional side of the writing businessTry not to spread myself too thinTake more time out for myself, away from workDon't play the comparison game with other author's making myself feel bad about what I've accomplishedFocus. Focus. Focus. You can't do everything at once, it's not possibleRemember to breatheMeditateFixate on your accomplishments instead of immediately looking toward the future and how much you have yet to accomplish, be proud of goals met and exceeded