Emily Cale's Blog, page 2

More Love Letters Craziness

Today, I'm visiting my good friend Lisa Fox to talk about being the only lesbian story in anthology. Stop by and give me your thoughts.



At some point today, Love Letters will be featured on the Carina Press blog as well. If you enjoyed yesterday's totally-real-and-fake Skype call, you'll love today's. Make sure you stop by and say hi to us. 

In other news, this was emailed to me yesterday:
It's small, but that red cover with the circle around it is Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire! All Romance eBooks featured us as a What's Hot? read. We're super excited.

Also, because I love overbooking myself, I'm on Literary Lagniappe talking about Romance Heroes and minions. Join me!

How to Write a Love Letter

The Love Letters team (myself, Ginny Glass, Maggie Wells, and Christina Thacher) are over on the Harlequin Blog today giving you a sneak peek at the craziness that is our Skype calls. Stop by, laugh at us and learn how this project began. 

Don't forget to pick up your copy of Volume 1: Obeying Desire. It's 10% off right now on the Carina Press website.

So it begins...

The first Love Letters Volume, Obeying Desire, releases today. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am. These stories have been my focus for the past 15 months and they are finally being released into the world. 

This stories in this first volume all feature BDSM in some way, though they vary to what degree. Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Maggie Wells and myself worked hard to make sure we our stories held together cohesively and yet were all very different. 

I encourage you to give us a shot! We've got 5 more volumes lined up to be released (for more information see my Coming Soon page) over the next several months, all with a different theme. The one thing they all have in common are hot stories! 

Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire
Publisher: Carina PressISBN: 978-14268-9535-7
Love Letters Volume 1 contains four hot novellas that will tempt you to submit to desire:

A Is for Assignment by Ginny Glass
Lane Heywood is the last person Cameron Isley wanted as his partner in an undercover investigation at a sex club. But with the sexy psychiatrist masquerading as his Domme, he'll have to submit to her erotic torment—and try to control his all-too-real lust.

B Is for Bondage by Christina Thacher
When Rachel Cooper begins BDSM lessons, she soon starts fantasizing about her instructor, Marc Thibaud. They're not supposed to have sex—until one lesson crosses the line…

C Is for Curious by Emily Cale
Mistress Rebecca Greer has had her eye on The Black Rose BDSM club's shy receptionist, so when Hilary "accidentally" interrupts one of her sessions, Rebecca decides to give her a taste to satisfy her curiosity.

D Is for Detained by Maggie Wells
He was the preacher's son; her parents owned the local sex shop. Sherry Adams and Tyler Prescott's attraction was forbidden when they were teenagers, but years later Deputy Tyler takes out his trusty handcuffs to show her just how good they could be together.

Buy from: Carina Press | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble Nook | All Romance eBooks | Bookstrand | 

Don't forget to add us to your bookshelf on Goodreads.

I have Shoes!

Every time I've been to India, the same thing has happened. I'm strolling through the market and happen upon a seller with the most amazing shoes I've ever seen. Maybe not well made, but unique and gorgeous. I haven't told you the best part yet, either. They are usually retailing for $3-4. If I wore them even once, it would be completely worth the cost. 
Here's the downside. They never fit. I don't typically consider myself to have big feet (women's 8.5-9.0), but I am tall compared to 90% of Indian women and apparently that comes with freakishly large feet. Large enough that they don't fit into largest size carried at these place. They'll assure me that the pair I'm trying on is a 9 and the biggest they have, but my big toe is inevitably hanging over the edge. Alas, I have never actually bought any of these. 
Until this last trip. While helping a coworker look at some sandals, I fell in love with a pair hanging on the wall. I almost didn't ask about them, but I did and the shop owner instantly appeared with my size. And they FIT! I forked over that money faster than he could even ask for it (I think I spent about $6). 
So, for your viewing pleasure, my new shoes: OMG I love them so much!They have a weird lace at the back that ties around my ankle. I think I'm going to take it out and replace it with a much prettier ribbon. 

The backs:
I love all the intricate beadingMore detail of the back and heel:
The heel is a little weird, but seems stable enoughIf you're at the RT Booklovers Convention, I can guarantee I'll be wearing these at some point. 
In other random news, I've started a newsletter. It'll only be sent out for new releases or other big news (maximum of once a month). Each time I send it, one of the subscribers will be randomly chosen to win a prize. You can sign up for it here.
Okay, back to staring at my shoes. 

Ellora's Cave Rebate at ARe

Ellora's Cave is offering a 50% rebate on books at All Romance ebooks this months. You can get Honeymoon Suite and Dubai Nights for the price of one! Check out all the great deals over there. 

It's been that kind of year

We're working on blog posts to celebrate the release of Love Letters Anthology Volume 1: Obyeing Desire (releasing April 8th!) and I had to stop and think about how much we've put into this project in the last year.

It was January when Ginny Glass first thought up the project, closer to March when we all had first drafts of this volume done, June when the submission went out and July when Carina Press offered us a contract. It feels like a lifetime ago.

To be more exact, that was five books ago. Since then, we've turned in Volumes 2-5 and Volume 6 will be in our super-editor's hands on Monday. Each of us put out 6 individual and 1 co-written stories (adding up to 26) for these books. I know some people write super fast and have a very high output, but for me, that's a lot over the course of a year. In that time I also managed to have three other books contracted (Power Play, Dubai Nights, and Mr. Fix It). There's also been the editing. We've done at least three rounds of edits for each of these books so far, with one last book to get through the process.

For me, there's been a lot of other writing as well. If you follow me on Twitter, you're probably aware that I am painfully close to finishing my doctoral degree. The final version of my dissertation is due on the same day as Volume 6 (I am so good at planning my deadlines, no?). I defend shortly after and then that's it. I sometime have to keep myself from thinking about my dissertation in terms of word count. "It's only 40,000 words," I often think. Except there is no word limit (upper or lower).

It's been a wild year with a lot of ups and downs, a lot of deadlines, and more late nights and early mornings than I can count. It feels like a lot of things are ending in the next month, but I'm looking foward to seeing where they go next!

Read Your Way to a Better Relationship

The news is predicting that next week will start to look like Spring around here. Good thing since another day of snow would drive me completely crazy. This year has been the longest winter that I can remember. In a few short days, we'll get to descend from our metaphorical winter caves, dust off the snow, the dreary winter gloom and realize there there's work to be done. At least at my house, we've let ourselves gain a few pounds (to keep us warm of course), we've let our house get messy (things have been busy and I'm on deadline!) and our relationships need a little pick me up.



It's time to spring our butts into gear--physically, mentally and emotionally. But how? The weight, well that's easy. Let me rephrase, the workouts are not easy, but you know what to do--it's the same every year. Hit the gym (or exercise videos if you're like me and prefer other people not watch), consider getting a trainer and change your eating habits.

The mess? It's time to throw stuff away. Give yourself an entire weekend to get your house back into shape and ready for the open doors and windows of spring. I swear you still have a dining room table, you just need to find it (like a fun expedition to discover those letters you received back in November).

But your relationship, eh? There's work to be had! Have you noticed that your relationship has slowed down in all senses of the word since the craziness of the holidays have passed? It's natural to ride a relationship wave, but you have to continue to push it back up to the crest rather than down it. I think the easiest way to get started is to start reading romance novels. Strange advice from a romance writer, right? Maybe I'm a little biased, but they certainly have all sorts of relationship benefits pushed between pages.

Reading a romance novel can help you realign yourself with that romantic frame of mind--a frame of mind that is easy to lose when you're focused on all the other little things in life. Reading about the little and big gestures the characters make helps get your mind turning on what kind of little (and big) things you can do for your partner. Take your partner on a surprise getaway this spring, a picnic in the park or even just pick up their dry cleaning for them. Every little thing counts! Most importantly, they remind us how important those things really are to the other people in our lives.

Romance novels can also help put you back in touch with your sexuality, especially if you happen to read the erotic ones (*hint, hint*). Winter can keep us feeling a little less than sexy and far from being in the mood. Let spring and your favorite book shake the feeling loose by reading about some of the sexy love scenes between the characters. Women are turned on mentally versus men who are turned on visually, so reading an erotic romance novel can help you get turned on before bed and help keep sex on your mind throughout the day.

In the same vein, romance novels can also improve your sex life by introducing you to new role playing ideas, dirty talk and sex toys. Keeping things new and interesting is bed is imperative to having a satisfying sex life, so allow your book to broaden your mind and be open to the idea of getting a toy from Adam and Eve or to dressing up as someone else for the night. Here are some fun role playing ideas to get you started, but I'm sure once you get started you'll be able to come up with plenty of your own!

Finally, reading a romance novel can help improve your communication. Delving into the character's love lives can help you recognize facets of your own relationship that you aren't happy with and push you to express those feelings. Comparing your love life to a fictitious one is not necessarily realistic, but it can make you more reflective. And with reflection should come action. Use your book as a catalyst for a much needed conversation.

Reading a romance novel will not fix your relationship, but it's certainly a great place to start. Fixing, improving and strengthening your relationship will take mutual work, effort and communication coupled with a great read. Spring is here, what are you waiting for?

Just Google It

I get weird questions sometimes. If you're an erotic romance author, you probably know how that works. People hear what you write and think you're an expert on all topics related to sex and relationships. Truthfully, I can often answer their questions because I've spent a lot of time doing research for my books.

Other times, I do what any normal person might do in these situations. I Google it. No, seriously. That's how I handle a lot of things. There are a lot of really great articles on the internet about just about any topic you can think of. Cleaning your house, writing a book, and getting in to role-playing. Does that mean everything has already been said? Probably. By someone, somewhere, at some time. That doesn't mean that new information doesn't appear or that it doesn't get refined.

I remember being in math class one day and having a teacher say something that made so much sense I couldn't believe no one had told me to do it that way before.

It wasn't a new topic though. It was a type of math I'd been supposedly doing for the last year. Someone just found a way to say it that made sense to me.

I encourage people to ask all sorts of questions. Why? Because maybe the way this person will phrase it will make sense when no one else has. But, for the love of God, please search first yourself. If you can't find it or can't find something that makes sense, then ask.

 

How Secret is Your Secret?

Emily Cale isn't my real name. I write under a pen name for a variety of reason, most importantly protecting my career. 
Recently my husband and I were discussing it and he pointed out how easy it would be for someone to figure out who I really am if they wanted to. If you put all the bit and pieces of my life that I share together and put some serious effort into Googling, you'd probably be able to come up with my real name. 
Buy why would you want to? Trust me, my online and book writing life is far more interesting than what I really do. That doesn't mean that someone somewhere might not eventually feel differently. 
Or someone who knows me in real life might happen across my blog and figure out that we are actually the same person. 
So that leads me to my question(s).
How secretive are you with your pen name and writing life?
Why? (What do you think you would lose?)
Any thoughts are much appreciated. 

Sweetest Salvation by Kacey Hammell

My friend Kacey Hammell is here today showing off her newest release, Sweetest Salvation. I can guarantee anything from her is an excellent read!

Sweetest Salvation
Contemporary Erotic Romance/Light BondageContent Warning: Contains Voyeurism, Spanking, Multiple PartnersISBN: 978-1-77130-330-9Available at EvernightPublishing.com*An Editor’s Pick*

After the deaths of her husband and child, tragedies that she blames herself for, Andrea “Andy” Sheaver has shut herself off from the world. The only place she finds any relief from her shattered heart is Club Splendor, where she and her husband often frequented together.  There, Andy submits to pleasure and pain in situations so her grief is forgotten for a little while.

But Hunter Sullivan won’t stand idly by and watch Andy self-destruct. A friend of her husband, and the owner of Club Splendor, Hunter has kept his love for Andy hidden for years. He refuses to think of her at the club, cold and detached as she’s become, looking for an easy fix to take away the pain in her heart.  Hunter wants her to vibrant in life again and sets out to prove he is exactly who she needs.

Excerpt © Kacey Hammell, 2013

Hunter sighed, which caught Andy’s attention. Her eyes met his briefly before lowering to her hands, which were clenched tight in her lap.“Look, Andy,” he began.“What do you want, Hunter?” Her forest-green-eyed gaze met his. Anger swirled in their depths.“I’m tired of this. Dammit.” He snarled, rising, and crossed to the fireplace. He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned one arm on the mantel. He looked over at her, stomach churning with indigestion and pain. He’d loved Patrick and Peter too. Could she not understand that she wasn’t the only one suffering?“Tired of what? I never asked you here.”“This!” Hunter spread his arms wide. “You. I’m so tired of seeing you locked away in this house, never leaving and pictures gone.”“Go to hell,” Andy spat and leapt to her feet. She moved behind the loveseat, obvious fury making her hands shake as she laid them on the back of it. “You don’t have any say in how I live. I never asked for your opinion. If you don’t like it, get the hell out of my house. And my life!”Hunter breathed deep, nostrils flaring. He could no more walk away from her than he could from the Sheavers. She was as much a part of his life, and his heart, as they were. But his love for her went far beyond sisterly.He pushed that thought away, buried it deep within himself as he’d done for years. She was Patrick’s girl, his wife. He always honored that.“Dammit, I don’t want to argue with you, Andy. But you really need to move on. Live life again and leave this house.”“I leave the house. You don’t know what I do every day.”“Oh yes, you go out. Like the other night? Why did you go to the club? I thought we agreed you were no longer a member,” Hunter demanded, curious about her answer.“No. You decided I was no longer a member. Not me. I never said I wanted that. Who are you to make decisions for me?” Andy retorted, cheeks flushed, hands on her hips.Hunter had to admit he was finally seeing a glimpse of the fiery, strong woman she’d been until this last year. He liked her eyes ablaze, jaw clenched and fury radiating off her body. He just needed to provoke her enough and challenge her to move beyond these walls and back to the things she loved to do.“I don’t want to make decisions for you.” He took a calming breath. “Listen, the club is not the place for you any longer. Without Patrick… There’s no need for you to be there anymore.”“Why do you think that?”“He was the one who wanted to show it to you. He never really thought you’d come to enjoy it as much as you did. Neither of you interacted with others. What can you find there now without him?”Andy smiled, cold and detached. He hated that smirk.“Oh, come now. You know what happens in yourclub. Surely, I don’t have to spell it out for you.” Goddamn her. Yes, he knew what she’d done inside the room she’d once used with Patrick. Though he normally didn’t interfere in his members’ activities unless there was a problem, he did ask Paige and Nolan if Andy had simply watched. He’d been shocked, then livid, to learn a few details of what happened between the three of them.Andy had always been a devoted wife to Patrick, faithful to the core. To know she’d been an active participant at the club for the first time had suddenly left him empty and alone. But he couldn’t allow his feelings on the matter to distract him from pushing her back into life. He shrugged. “No. You don’t have to spell it out for me. But is that what you truly want and need in your life?  Sex with strangers? Do you need to find comfort in people who don’t care about you?”Andy glared at him. “That is none of your business.” Her voice rose as she continued. “What I do in my life is for me to decide. I never asked to have you in my life. Don’t expect me to want you there now.”His heart clenched. Her words were like a punch to the gut. Yes, he’d sort of come as a package deal when she’d married Patrick. But the Sheavers were the only family he had. And when Peter was born, oh, he’d played the dutiful uncle to the little boy. Though she’d never voiced her frustration at his being in attendance at nearly all family gatherings or taking up some of Patrick’s time once a week for a guys’ night out, he’d understood the stone-faced woman who left the words unsaid.“I always promised Patrick I’d look after you if he couldn’t.”“Fuck off, Hunter. Don’t give me that.” Her hands fisted at her sides. “Look, please just go. I don’t need you here. I have things to do.”He wouldn’t be so easily dismissed. “Things to do? Like what, plan your next adventure at the club? I don’t think so. Why? Explain to me why you felt the need to go there?” Arms wide, she yelled, “I wanted to fuck somebody. Is that what you want to hear? That I wanted to have a cock inside me for the first time in almost two years? I wanted to have a man inside, pounding me—brutal and painful. What better place to do that than at the club where I know I’m safe?”Hunter’s heartbeat accelerated. To know she needed someone that close to her was agonizing. It was a barren and desperate act of someone who had nothing to live for. Or didn’t think she was worth much.“Why pain? You couldn’t have found satisfaction in that. No pleasure, Andy? You, of all people, found pleasure in that kind of sex? I don’t believe for a moment that you’re now into rough sex,” Hunter said, gruff. His mouth was dry, and confusion made his head hurt. Would he never understand this woman?Andy crossed her arms over her chest. She looked out the window behind him. Her gaze was unfocused, filled with pain.“Yes, pain. It’s what I deserve, isn’t it?” Her gaze captured his. Hunter felt his heart crack at her desolate look. 

Buy Links:Evernight Publishing / Amazon.com / Amazon.ca  / Amazon UK / aRe/ Bookstrand /~~~Canadian author, Kacey Hammell is a multi-published erotic romance author who writes mainly in the Contemporary Erotic/Romantic Suspense genres.  She is a true romantic at heart.

Where to find Kacey… Website / Facebook / Facebook Author Page / Twitter / Amazon / Goodreads / Pinterest