Lara Zielinsky's Blog: Newsletter, page 36

2018 Year in Review Book Awards

2018 Year in Review: Book AwardsAuthors, and in some cases, readers, can submit books for awards as each publishing year comes to a close. Check out these. Even if they are no longer accepting nominations the finalists and nominees lists are a good way to find new reads for your TBR.
Nominations are still open for:
Lesfic Bard Awards: www.lesficbardawards.com

Nominations are already closed for this year:
Bisexual Book Awards (closed December 1)
www.biwriters.org/book-award-submissions/
Lambda Literary Awards (LGBTQ; closed to submissions December 1)
www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/

Golden Crown Literary Society (lesbian fiction; closed to submissions December 1)
www.goldencrown.org/page/2019Nominations

Needed: Questions

On January 15, I will have an AMA (ask me anything) to kick off promoting my February novel's release. The answers from the AMA will start my FAQ page. I will also follow up by posting the questions and answers to my Goodreads author page.

To prepare though, I need questions. Your questions. I do have some common questions that appear in most author AMAs and I'm preparing answers already for those like: when did you start writing, who's your favorite author, what's your favorite book, etc. But if you have a question about a specific book or story or something that you've been burning to ask, please do.

Submit questions using the Contact Form down the right column →.

Questions asked most frequently will be answered first, so don't worry if someone else migh have already asked your question, submit it anyway. The answer will simply be posted sooner rather than later.

Oh, and if you're concerned, I will not identify questioner(s). The idea of an AMA is to get a lot of questions. I want to have a fun informative interaction, not put author or readers in an awkward spot.

So, fire away. Use the Contact Form in the right column →.

Thanks!

Non-Monogamy links

One of the things I have been doing as I prepare for the launch of my book "We Three" is reaching out to bloggers, podcasters, and others in the non-monogamy community for connection.

I have been following some lifestyle swinger and polyamory blogs and podcasts for several years now. I thought it would be a good post topic to let you know the ones I found most enjoyable and informative.


Multiamory - Jase, Dedeker and Emily are incredible. This podcast focuses on ethical and consensual non-monogamy. The absolute biggest takeaway is "communicate." In past podcasts they've discussed methods of healthy communication, warning signs of poor communication, and how to handle discussions of boundaries and check-ins with partners.

Life on the Swingset - started by Cooper S. Beckett with a number of co-hosts through the years, this podcast discusses swinging and consensual non-monogamy. Each year they do a "takeover" of Desire resort in Cancun.

I've also enjoyed more titillating "tell all" podcasts by lifestylers:

Sapphic SwingersBy the BiWe Gotta ThingTorrid Souls.

Blogs and websites I read regularly for information:

Polyamory in the News  More Than Two Polyamory Weekly

2019 Projects Planned

NaNoWriMo was a bust (see last post), but what DOES seem to have come about this time is several shorter stories. Each will probably come in at around 20,000 words. They'll have to be beta-read, cleaned up and edited before they can be shared.

I'll probably indie sell them on Amazon. I kind of need to find a way to make some income, seeing as I'm entering month three still unemployed.

I've already set up a couple older novellas for sale: "The Queen's Gift" (released in November) and "Book's Pass" (release date today, December 1).

The Queen's Gift Book's PassThey're just 99 cents, if you could see your way to buying one or two, I'd be grateful. For reference, here's my available books on Amazon.

NaNo fizzled

My NaNoWriMo project fizzled again this year. This is the third time a full-length novel plan has died in the attempt to write 50k in 30 days. (For the record, I reached only 18k.)

"The Hurricane" (which was my NNWM project this year) may eventually be finished, but obviously, writing it during this November was not where my muse wanted to be.

Consenting Adults

You hear that phrase a lot when discussing sexual behavior: consenting adults. "What consenting adults do is between them." "Anything is fine as long as it's happening between consenting adults." And so on.

What does it meant to consent though? Why is it so many people think it "disrupts the flow" or "isn't sexy"... and so on? The fact that people need to be taught was consent looks like and sounds like suggests people either don't or can't talk about it the way it needs to be discussed to keep an experience happy and pleasurable for everyone.

It is not as simple as respecting "no means no" though that is a good place to start as shown in this excerpt from We Three:

Jess hesitated. "Are we still taking photos?"

"I hope so." Eric added, "But there's no reason we can't eat, or have a swim?"

Jess shook her head. "Where exactly are we going?"

"My equipment's all at the house."

"So, the number you gave me was…?"

"My house, yes." Eric held the door for her as they started out to the parking lot. He blocked her way, and his expression was serious. Jess relaxed further with every word he spoke. 

"Look, if you're not into something, you say no. At any time. I can go home now and leave you here. But honestly, I'd like to get to know you more. Elena would, too."

"You picked me up in a bar," Jess pointed out.

"Technically it was a photo gallery, and yes, I think you’re very sexy," Eric pointed out. "I know you also are into Elena. So, I thought I'd bring you together. See what magic happens."

Jess asked, "What do you get out of this?"

"A new friend, and maybe a few pretty pictures," he answered. “Nothing more is expected.” After a moment, he checked again. "So? You okay?"

IMHO, consent is very, very sexy. Asking and telling someone what you want can make an experience better. To see what I mean, enjoy this excerpt from my novel
We Three.

(NSFW excerpt follows the break)



Then Elena knelt between Jess’s thighs, caressing and stroking Jess’s pussy lips. Watching Elena’s gaze devouring her made Jess’s breath catch, the look was so hungry. Then the heated brown gaze lifted to find hers.

“Can I?” Elena asked.

Jess blinked. “What was the question?”

Elena laughed; Jess’s heart flipped with the sound. “Can I have you?” Elena clarified. Her dark lips held an intense smile that reached through her eyes and seemed to hold Jess by the throat, tightening it. The husky accented words effectively seduced her. Jess was thoroughly on board with being seduced. She nodded.

Elena’s fingers dipped and circled on Jess’s inner thighs, close but not touching. “I want…. I need... to hear you,” Elena said.

Jess swallowed, then cleared her throat and nodded. “Yes,” she breathed.

Following the given permission, Elena lowered her head and flicked her tongue lightly across the hood covering Jess’s clit. She gasped, but then sighed when Elena settled in with long strokes over all her folds. Each upsweep of the other woman’s tongue ended with short, tight pulls on her clit with her full lips. The woman’s hands continued massaging Jess’s thighs, then draped them over Elena’s shoulders. Elena’s tongue plunged into her with determination. 

Jess writhed and cried out through the lapping waves of pleasure. Elena chuckled against her flesh. Each time the sound vibrated into Jess’s sex, making her clench her thighs against Elena’s head.

Jess’s fingers threaded into soft satin hair. The sensation grounded her at the same time two of Elena’s fingers pressed inside, curled upward, and stroked Jess intimately. Elena sucked at Jess’s folds while she pumped her fingers. Jess heard the sucking sounds from her muscles trying to grasp hold of Elena’s fingers, and pulled her own thighs back, opening herself and looking down at the dark head between her thighs. “Deeper, more,” she murmured when Elena met her eyes, nose buried in the light hairs on Jess’s mound.

Elena smiled, and, shifting to add a third finger, continued to pump. Knowing her actions turned Jess on, Elena fluttered her tongue against Jess’s clit where she could see the action. Then she lifted her head, replaced her tongue with her thumb, and said, “I want to watch you come, Jess.” Jess swallowed as Elena stilled her hand, thumb resting just alongside her throbbing clit. Uncontrollably, a whimper passed her lips. “Will you?”

 My novel We Three: One and One and One Makes Three arrives in online retailers February 1, 2019.

Print edition news

There will definitely be a print edition of "We Three: One and One and One Makes Three." (it comes in at 218 pages) Here's the cover wrap:


The back cover text:

Eric and Elena Tanner have been enjoying their lifestyle membership at the Club Caliente for years. Swinging fulfills their desire to meet new people and engage in group sex.
When the new bartender, Jess, flirts with them and agrees to play in a threesome, Eric and Elena make plans for a single night of pleasure. All three are satisfied, so Jess is invited to come again. And again.
For months, Elena, Jess, and Eric meet up for lots of sex, and dinners. There are casual nights in Netflix and chilling. It's heady, addictive and no one wants it to end.
However, they all know that's the deal in the lifestyle. Swingers move out of each other's lives all the time. Complication is the enemy. So what happens when they start to fall in love?

"We Three" will be available beginning February 1, 2019.

Coming in December

I have another lesbian romance novella going live on Amazon in December. "Book's Pass" shares the story of Emmeline Soule and Reina Suarez, two women who meet in the 19th century American West.


With one hand easy and steady on the reins, her eyes darting this way and that, Emmeline slid her hand down over her leggins and fingered off the leather strap off her holstered gun. She was definitely gettin' the feelin' it was gonna be needed.

She slid her left boot from its stirrup and glided off Bug's back landing soundlessly on the ground.  Slapping his rump, her signal to find a safe place to hole out, she watched him lift his nose before trotting off down a side street. That was likely the direction of the town livery.

They'd traveled a long road together, she and Bug, and he'd never failed to reappear or find himself a clean water trough and sweet hay bale given out by an even sweeter hand. Emmeline smiled. She'd often had a touches from those sweet hands herself, tending a wound, or tending other needs. Silently she wished Bug luck and then focused her mind on handling whatever this was coming up ahead.

She strode around the corner and found herself on the outskirts of a milling crowd, looking toward a two-story home set wide on the lane. A raised wall separated the property from the street. A mob milled before it, some people shaking fists, others barking at their neighbors. Disagreement was thick as thieves in the air, but she saw no one lifting any weapons.

There still seemed to be a goodly amount of shovin' and hollerin' and, now that she was at ground level with 'em, Emmeline was again hard pressed to separate one voice from another. No one had noticed her yet, so she circled around, seeking a clear line of sight to identify the central characters in the conflict.

She found them on the house stoop. A woman with her hands on her hips wearing a tightly bodiced gown with Spanish styling at the wrists and shoulders stared down upon a burly man in broad-brimmed beaver felt hat who stood at the bottom of her short set of steps. He was covered in the typical trail threads of a cattleman. The dark brown hair piled artfully atop the woman's head added to a general "don't mess with me" attitude flowing off the woman’s ramrod straight posture.

Emmeline smiled at the sight of another woman who clearly, like herself, didn't take shit from nobody.

"Bring her out here right now!" the man shouted. He put his hands on the step railing, looking about to haul himself up. He even put his booted right foot on the lowest of the steps. Emmeline leaned forward, fingering her pistol, already gauging distance. But the brunette took one step forward to the edge of her porch and he released the railing. Emmeline smirked.

Then the woman spoke and Emmeline could have sworn there was laughter in her tone. She knew her movement had had the desired effect on her opponent. "The young miss doesn't want to come to the likes of you."

excerpt from "Book's Pass", a new lesbian romance novella, coming to Amazon in December 2018.

Autostraddle Reviews Les and Bi-W Films

Autostraddle has posted their end of year round up of the year's best in Lesbian and Bi-Women films.

Most refreshing is the lack of tropes. Many are bio-pics. The Joan Jett film continues the recent mainstream film trend of bios (particularly musicians). However, it doesn't wash Jett's bisexuality the way the Freddie Mercury one washed out his.


Related: The Lesbian Reviews Top 10 Lesbian/Bi-Women films.

Novella Release!

Want to read something that's not about politics? How about this? A light, lively lesbian novella about pirates, love, and adventure on the high seas.

The Queen's Gift
On a raid to steal cargo and bloody English noses during the beginnings of the American revolutionary period, pirate captain "Bloody Mary" Flint order young Anne taken prisoner before sinking her enemy's ship. The plan is ransom.

At 25,000 words, "The Queen's Gift" is perfect for a quiet after dinner read or a bedtime story. I hope you enjoy.

Buy link: Amazon

PS - I would appreciate any reviews, too. Thank you!