Harper Bliss's Blog, page 34

NEW RELEASE: At the Water’s Edge

If you’ve read any of my books, you may know that I’m inclined to some hyperbole and am not averse to high drama (on the contrary), so, what I’m about to say may come across as a bit of an exaggerated statement (because it’s coming from me.) But, here it is, anyway: writing this book has changed my life.

At the Water’s Edge is fiction. It’s a made-up story of a broken women going home to find some peace and, mainly, to heal. It’s the story of Ella Goodman, who suffers from depression. Ella’s story is not my story, but nevertheless, I too have battled depression.

I’ve talked about this book before, saying that it has a much more ‘serious’ theme than my other works. This book is the reason why I no longer label myself as a lesbian erotica writer, but a lesbian fiction one. Writing At the Water’s Edge was hard. I cried so much, Kleenex probably had to re-stock the supermarket across the street twice as many times as usual.

I cried until it all broke open for me and I said to my wife, “I think I may have just written an important book.” Important for myself, and, I hope, for anyone else who has, very nearly, succumbed to feelings of despair.

I remember when I first had the idea. I actually remember to the day, because I posted a Facebook status about it. It was on 19 February, now nine months ago, when I was deep into writing the first season of French Kissing. And, cliché as it may sound, while listening to R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, it was the song Everybody Hurts that triggered the emotion. I literally burst out into tears while walking down the street. Because I remembered something I’d been trying to forget for years.

If, like me, you’ve listened to this particular album a million times, the title of my book may not be unfamiliar either. At the Water’s Edge comes from a song lyric in Nightswimming. I knew I wanted a lake to feature in it, and late night swimming, and the atmosphere of late summer turning into autumn.

That’s how At the Water’s Edge was born. But I had to wait until I’d finished writing a whole lot more words of French Kissing to begin. So the story had time to grow in the back of my brain, percolate, and then, when the time came, I wrote the first draft in seven weeks. It just poured out. Because the story needed to be told. I needed to write these sentences that dealt with depression and suicide attempts and guilt and (oh so much) shame.

And now, here it is. As I said before, this book is not erotica. This doesn’t mean there are no hot scenes (I can’t help myself), but if you’re looking to get aroused, this is probably not the book you want to read. That being said, this book is not a massive tearjerker either. It contains a clear message of hope, redemption, forgiveness and love. It’s also as close to baring my soul on the page as I have ever come.

Like Ella, I have gone through a journey, and have come out on the other side. Writing this book was my journey. I wrote the shame off me and for that, I’m so so proud of it.

Special thanks to my wife (as always) (also for designing the perfect cover for this book!), to Cheyenne Blue who did a stellar job editing (and named me the Queen of Redundancies), and to my beta-reader Maria, with whom I discussed this book at length, and who has become such a close friend in the process.

A while ago I said on Facebook that I may or may not record myself reading the first chapter from At the Water’s Edge. I then decided that just reading from the book might be a bit boring and not adding a lot of value. So, I’ve decided to do something else instead to celebrate the release. Ask me any question (within the boundaries of common decency!) and I’ll record myself replying to it. You can ask your question in the comments, on Twitter, on Facebook, or via e-mail at harperbliss at gmail dot com.

Here’s the blurb:

After a traumatic event that has left her in deep need of healing, Ella Goodman returns to her hometown in Oregon. While staying at her family’s cabin at the West Waters lake resort, she finds an unexpected friend in level-headed owner Kay Brody. But Ella’s sole objective is to restore the broken ties with her family, and she has no time for distractions like falling in love. The healing process is confrontational and difficult though, and she is soon forced to realize that people like Kay only come along once in a lifetime.

And you can get it here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon CA

Amazon AUS

Add it to your Goodreads shelf >>

Enjoy!

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Latest releases: At the Water's Edge, Cougars and A Higher Education

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

NEW RELEASE: Cougars

Several things happened since I first had the idea for this mini-anthology. First, I wrote my own story ‘Reunion Tour’ (excerpt below) in record time and immediately considered it my new favourite (amongst my own short stories.)

Then, I fell in love with the model on the cover, and used the image of the gorgeous woman as inspiration for a character in my novelette Piano Lessons (to be released in January.)

Around that time, cougars started to take over my life and I became obsessed with them on Facebook. And all of that was before I read the other authors’ (as usual: Erzabet Bishop, Laila Blake, Cheyenne Blue and Lucy Felthouse) contributions. Needless to say, after reading those, my cougar love reached even greater heights. I haven’t recovered yet.

This brand new mini-anthology is out now. I believe I just made clear how much I love it. (I think we’ll need to do a sequel.)

Here’s the blurb:

Mature women are on the prowl in ‘Cougars’, Ladylit’s new collection of lusty lesbian tales in which older ladies seduce younger ones… or the other way around. An ageing rock star has it bad for the singer of the latest hit band in Harper Bliss’s ‘Reunion Tour’. In Cheyenne Blue’s ‘Gorgon and Goat’ cheese plays its part in bringing two women together, while in Laila Blake’s ‘The Girl Next Door’ it’s a blackout in an apartment building that does the trick. Erzabet Bishop and Lucy Felthouse bring their usual light-heartedness to their stories of, respectively, an older airplane passenger in first class who has a young flight attendant all to herself, and a girl walking her dog who needs to return a stray pup she encounters on her path. ‘Cougars’ contains five mature tales of lesbian desire, in which gray strands of hair are a turn-on, and age and experience are celebrated, not ignored.

Caution: This title contains graphic language and mature f/f sex and is suitable for adults only.

Table of contents

Reunion Tour by Harper Bliss

Gorgon and Goat by Cheyenne Blue

Bali High by Erzabet Bishop

The Girl Next Door by Laila Blake

Returning Riley by Lucy Felthouse

You can get ‘Cougars’ from Amazon:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

Add it to your GoodReads shelf >>

And here’s an excerpt from my story ‘Reunion Tour’.

You’re a cocky little thing up there. The way you wriggle your ass—I can’t wait to stripe it with my belt. I watch you from the side of the stage. If this were a festival in Europe, my band would be headlining, but here in our home country, yours gets the number one spot. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t smart a little. I may have to take that out on you as well. It’s a win-win, really, the way you bat your lashes—your head twisted up to me—when my hand comes down on your flesh, always defying me to give more. And, when it comes to you, I never fail to have more to give.

You shimmy to the edge of the stage, lifting your arms high above your head, giving your fans—and me—a glimpse of your pale, taut belly and the little silver ring driven into the delicate skin above your belly-button.

“No one will know what it means,” I said when I arranged for Lisa to administer the piercing. “Only the two of us.” Now, every time you flash it, every single time you bare this glittering symbol of whatever we have between us for the world to see, something pierces me, too. A wave of something I don’t wish to define washes over me. I’m old enough to recognize it instantly, but still foolish enough to deny it.

Because you drive me crazy, make me feel things I haven’t felt in years. Not even taking the stage again, after a nine year hiatus, flanked by Tommy and Matthew and Sam, my brothers in arms since 1981, affected me in the same way as the first time I saw that glint in your eyes. All it took was one glance, and I knew.

You flick your head to the right, momentarily pinning your eyes on me, and the whole motion thunders through me, leaves my panties drenched. Speaking of, you’re wearing a pair of mine underneath those leather trousers—the ones that hug your ass so sublimely I need to catch my breath every time you present your back to me on the stage.

“Please allow me to present to you the next big thing,” my manager said. “The Harriettes.” You were obviously their leader, the way you hung back a bit—the way I learned to do all those years ago—to allow the others to shine during moments of lesser importance, like being introduced to a band long past its prime.

“Oh my god,” your bass player giggled. “We are such huge fans. You are our biggest inspiration.” It sounded a bit rehearsed, what with her not even being born yet the year we broke through. You appeared smarter, more composed, shrouded in that cool sort of silence that no one can take issue with.

When we shook hands, though, I detected the slightest hint of sweat on your palm, and when you met my gaze, I knew. I’m old enough to know.

You take your first of many faux-modest bows. After five months on the road, I know your routine by heart. I can only imagine the adrenalin coursing through your blood right now. Not that it doesn’t still happen to me, but the years have taken away the highest highs. I’ve learned to put it all into perspective more, to see the long-run—the end game. But I hope you’re enjoying this moment, because it truly is glorious. Unencumbered by self-consciousness, lifted up by the incessant roar of the thousands of people in front of you, that one moment you sang and strutted your ass off for the past forty-five minutes. The higher your high, the more you’ll want me after.

Yes, I ♥ Cougars! I hope you do too.

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Latest releases: Cougars, A Higher Education and As Years Go By

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Coming Out All Over Again

If you don’t follow me on Facebook you may have missed that I stopped hiding behind that hot cleavage stock pic I’ve been using as my profile picture since I released the first Harper Bliss story two and a half years ago.

I did this because of my upcoming novel At the Water’s Edge, which has a (serious) theme that simply doesn’t go with an author having cleavage as a profile pic.

I have a feeling that once At the Water’s Edge is released I might be coming out about something else as well, but let’s take it one step at the time.

Here I am. This is me (on a good day). No shame.

If you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, you may also have missed that I shared the first chapter of At the Water’s Edge. It’s the almost final version (just needs one more proof-read). Here it is >>

At the Water’s Edge will be released in two weeks’ time, and you can already add it to your Goodreads shelf >>

Oh, and the proof copies just arrived today.

You can’t really tell from the picture, but one is matte and the other is glossy.

We’re going with matte.

P.S. Thank you everyone who helped get A Higher Education to #1 on Amazon’s Lesbian Romance Best Sellers list. Very, very much appreciated! xo

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Latest releases: A Higher Education, As Years Go By and Stormy Weather

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

NEW RELEASE: A Higher Education

Didn’t I say the autumn of 2014 would be hella hot? Here I am with another brand new novelette. A Higher Education, which, while writing, I dubbed ‘my professor novelette’, is about two professors meeting at a conference. Not just any two professors, of course, as the narrator used to be a student of the other one. Yep: cougar alert! Throw in a former teacher crush, a shared bedroom, and some trees (you’ll see), and you have A Higher Education.

Here’s the blurb:

At an economics conference Gail Garvey ends up sharing a room with a teacher she had a crush on twenty years ago. They’re both professors now, and Gail’s crush has long faded, but finding herself in the same room as Professor Joanne Ferguson two nights in a row proves to be more challenging than Gail would like to believe.

A Higher Education is only available from Amazon for now:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

Add it to your GoodReads shelf >>

Enjoy!

P.S. Speaking of cougars, in the lead-up to next week’s release of Ladylit’s Cougars mini-anthology, I’m posting daily celebrity cougar pictures on my Facebook page. Do stop by. It’s so much fun!

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Latest releases: A Higher Education, As Years Go By and Stormy Weather

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Girls in Love by Laila Blake

The first time I read a Laila Blake story was when I was going through submissions for Anything She Wants. Obviously, Laila’s story ‘The Corner Chair’ made it into the anthology effortlessly. I was instantly captivated by her poetic prose and thoroughly impressed by the sheer talent she displayed, even in a story of a mere 4000 words.

I’ve worked with Laila many times since then, and she has never failed to produce work of the highest standard. Every time I have the pleasure of reading a brand new Laila Blake story, it’s such a joy, and I remain as impressed as ever, often shaking my head in disbelief and muttering to my wife, “Damn, she’s so good.”

Today, I’m extremely chuffed to present to you Laila’s first mini-anthology Girls in Love, published by Ladylit. It contains five delicious, gorgeously written lesbian erotica tales, nicely bundled together for your reading pleasure.

Here’s the blurb

Childhood friends turn lovers in a snowy cabin, a student seduces her teacher in her own class room, and together two women overcome the prejudice of her family once and for all. These five lesbian erotica stories by Laila Blake are about laughter, kink and above all: about Girls in Love.

Table of contents

Bird of the Summer (*)

House-Broken

Midnight Clear (*)

Doll-faced Demons

The Corner Chair (*)

(*) These stories have previously appeared in Ladylit books.

And it’s available from these retailers

buy

Direct from Ladylit

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

All Romance

Smashwords

Kobo

iTunes US

iTunes UK

You can add Girls in Love to your Goodreads shelf here >>

Happy weekend!

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Latest releases: As Years Go By, Stormy Weather and French Kissing: Season One

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

NEW RELEASE: As Years Go By

I haven’t had a standalone novelette release in ages, so I’m very excited. (I have two more in the pipeline) (and a novel) (the autumn of 2014 will be so hot!)

My wife gave me the idea for this one. She said, “How about two women who used to be in a relationship and haven’t seen each other for a long time?” I said, “Okay.” And then I wrote As Years Go By, which poured out of me in record time, and is (as always) my new favourite.

Now, you’d best be prepared for this one, as I take it a bit further than I usually do, both on an emotional and a physical level. The two main characters Jodie and Leigh used to have an extremely passionate relationship, and they’re both equally keen and wary to re-visit the past. There’s a hotel room, curtainless full-length windows, a leather belt (I seem to be going through a phase), and a lot of processing going on in As Years Go By, and you should definitely not read it on public transport or (!) at work. Just giving you a fair warning.

Here’s the blurb

At her son’s graduation ceremony, Jodie unexpectedly runs into her ex-partner Leigh. Because of how painfully it ended between them, Jodie is taken aback at first, but gradually allows Leigh to draw her back in—just like she used to—and shock soon makes way for memories of the intense desire they once shared.

And you can get it from these retailers

buy

Direct from author

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon CA

Smashwords

All Romance

Kobo

iTunes

Add it to your GoodReads shelf >>

Enjoy!

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Latest releases: As Years Go By, Stormy Weather and French Kissing: Season One

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Want Hired Help for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Blue Woman Stories Volume 1 by Cheyenne Blue

I have a stack of lesbian erotica anthologies in print that (for some reason, ha ha) made the move with us from Belgium to Hong Kong. Most of these contain a story by Cheyenne Blue. There are authors whose style enchants me, who can put so much in a story by using so little words. Cheyenne is one of those authors. In fact, it was after reading another one of her beautiful stories (“I Wish I Knew You” in Girl Fever) that I contacted her, asking if, by any chance, she’d be interested in working with Ladylit because it was our dream to work with accomplished, excellent erotica writers like her. That was two years ago.

Today, I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am to have been working with Cheyenne for a while now. She edited Forbidden Fruit for us, is a regular contributor to the themed mini-anthologies I put together for Ladylit, is currently editing my novel At the Water’s Edge, and we’ve just released her first short story collection Blue Woman Stories Volume 1.

Cheyenne has many, many, many lesbian erotica short stories out there, and Ladylit has the extreme privilege of collecting them. The ‘Volume 1′ in the title is there for a reason, as many more of these will follow.

Some of you will have read a few of Cheyenne’s stories, if not in a Best Lesbian Erotica edition, then perhaps in one of the mini-anthologies or in Forbidden Fruit. If so, I don’t need to tell you how fantastic they are. If not, well, here’s your chance for a crash course in the brilliance of Cheyenne Blue’s writing!

But, perhaps, you need a bit more convincing, so let me try: the characters in the 5 stories in Blue Woman Stories Volume 1 are real in the sense that they’re not ‘accidental lesbians’ (meaning they meet and think ‘oh hey, why not’ and drop their panties) (god, I hate stories like that). Cheyenne’s language is tight and poetic, rhythmic and arousing, and (my personal favourite) able to rouse strong emotions.

I, for one, have never been disappointed by one of her stories (and I’m slowly trying to convince her to write something longer for Ladylit), but hey, I know, I’m a fan girl. (But wait until you read her contribution to the upcoming Cougars mini-anthology. The wife and I were both chuckling at it from the start, until it got too hot, then we stopped laughing. You’ll soon be fan-girling with me!)

Okay, you get it, I love Cheyenne Blue. I can only hope you derive the same sort of enjoyment from reading her stories than I do. I’m proud, and honoured and totally chuffed to have had a hand in publishing this collection, and I hope you will give it a chance.

Here’s the blurb

A long-time couple weave a fantasy of seducing a straight woman, old friends become lovers in the French countryside, and a cop sent to investigate a suspected dope grower finds more than she expects in a tropical garden. Cheyenne Blue’s lesbian erotica has been a staple of many anthologies since 2000. Blue Woman Stories Volume 1 collects together for the first time five of her best-loved stories.

Table of contents

What If?

A Tangle of Vines

Car Bomb

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Cully’s Run

And it’s available from these retailers

buy

Direct from Ladylit

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

All Romance

Smashwords

You can add Blue Woman Stories Volume 1 to your Goodreads shelf here >>

Enjoy!

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Latest releases: As Years Go By, Stormy Weather and French Kissing: Season One

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

‘Girls Only: The Collection’ is (finally) available from Amazon again

My short story collection Girls Only: The Collection was banned (*) from Amazon for more than 4 months, but, at last, it’s back. Meanwhile, this title is also available in print, but I never bothered to promote it as long as the e-book version wasn’t available.

This ten stories anthology bundles all the short stories I have the rights to and were published before November 2013. Here’s a reminder of what you can find inside the hot pages (e-ink as well as real paper) of this book:

– Alphas (from Anything She Wants)

– Personal Training (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume Two))

– New Girl (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume One) and Coming Together: Girl on Girl)

– Champagne (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume Two))

– Match Point (from Sweat)

– Bar Service (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume Two))

– Wetter (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume One))

– Fair and Square (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume Two))

– All of Me (standalone short story and appeared in Girls Only (Volume One))

– The Client (standalone short story previously published under the pen name Sadie Spiller)

So, to celebrate the re-availability of this book on Amazon and the fact that it’s also available in print, let’s have a double giveaway! One on here for a lucky commenter (do drop me a note, I’ll send it to anywhere in the world) and one on Goodreads! (Both giveaways will end on October 4th.)

Meanwhile, you can get these 10 stories for $3.99 only (that’s less than 40 cents each per story!) from the following retailers:

Available as e-book from

buy

Direct from author

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon CA

Smashwords

All Romance

Kobo

iTunes

Add it to your Goodreads shelf >>

Available as paperback from

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Book Depository (Free shipping worldwide!)

Barnes & Noble

(*) I don’t think it was banned for lewdness, it’s probably more complicated and (at the same time) silly than that.

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Latest releases: Stormy Weather, French Kissing: Season One and Bossy: Five Productive Tales of Lesbian Lust

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Forbidden Fruit Blog Tour: Rachel O. Esplanade interviews Allison Wonderland

Because I just can’t get enough of Forbidden Fruit, I’m hosting another stop on the blog tour.  Rachel O. Esplanade, whom I interviewed last week, is interviewing Allison Wonderland about her story ‘Ungodly Ours’ in Forbidden Fruit.

Rachel O. Esplanade: The influence of organized religion on the characters in your story “Ungodly Ours” in Forbidden Fruit is very strong and spoke to me. Was religion a strong influence on you during your formative years? Are you a religious person yourself?

Allison Wonderland: Not at all. I identify as Jewish, but I’m essentially non-practicing. The story’s protagonist, Nadine, is raised in a family of faithful and fecund Fundamentalists. You know the caveat “Write what you know”? Well, for this story, I decided to take a flying leap out of my comfort zone and write what I know nothing about. Which is why I was up at ungodly hours writing “Ungodly Ours.”

Rachel O. Esplanade: You have had over thirty stories published in a wide range of anthologies over the last number of years. Where do you derive your story ideas from?

Allison Wonderland: Divine intervention. Just kidding. You know how you always find things when you’re not actively looking for them? That’s how my ideas come to me. I’ll be somewhere – a roller derby, a theme park, a department store – and all of a sudden I’ll think This would be a great setting for a story. I can even be somewhere as seemingly uninspiring as the living room, in front of the television. That’s how “Ungodly Ours” came into creation. One of my guilty pleasures is a reality program popular in the States about a copious Christian family that expects every member to be strait-laced, straightforward, and, of course, straight. I started to wonder What if one of this family’s nearly two-dozen offspring develops feelings for someone of the same sex? It’s inconceivable. It’s incomprehensible. It’s inevitable. So if you join ‘em, you can beat ‘em.

Rachel O. Esplanade: Of the two lovers in your story, which character did you identify most with, Rebecca or Nadine? Why?

Allison Wonderland:  Nadine, for sure. She’s unobtrusive yet unmistakable, subdued but not subservient. She likes to think, rethink, and overthink, and I’m exactly the same way. In that sense, I did write what I know, and it really enabled me to embrace and embody the character.

Rachel O. Esplanade: What drives you to write, to actually sit down and bring a story to fruition?

Allison Wonderland: Deadlines. I’m a procrastinating perfectionist, so I approach writing with a mixture of fright and delight. I love generating ideas and settings and titles for stories, and there’s nothing more fearful or wonderful than the blank page. Once an idea is ignited, it has to be incited, and that’s where deadlines come in. They’re my fruition ignition, if you will.

Rachel O. Esplanade: What is your favorite fruit? If forbidden, would you care to elaborate?

Allison Wonderland: Avocado, apricot, and pineapple. Hey, there’s more than one way to be fruitful and multiply.

Excerpt from ‘Ungoldy Ours':

“Mom and I have something we’d like to discuss with you.”

You snitched, didn’t You? I glower at God. I begged You not to tell. I even promised You my firstborn.

I scramble to get my jumbled thoughts in order. I haven’t been sinning. I haven’t even been rebelling. I’ve just been… resisting. Gently, passively, secretly. Submissive in practice, dismissive in theory. When Rebecca comes over, my parents and siblings hold us accountable for our purity, even though they have no idea that that’s what they’re doing. It’s acceptable for girls to show each other physical affection, but Rebecca and I barely brush arms and we absolutely never kiss, not even on the cheek. When we say goodbye, we don’t frontal-hug, because that would make our breasts touch. Instead we side-hug, arms around each other’s shoulders, a perfect imitation of Thing 1 and Thing 2. At all times we are careful and prayerful.

So how did Mom and Dad discover that I am disobedient? Imperfect. Satanic. They will hate the sinner, not the sin. I will be excommunicated, exorcised, and excised from my family like bad words on TV or a filthy passage in a book. Unless I tell them the God’s honest truth. The truth is He’s got designs on us, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully. I mean we don’t get to decide how we’re designed. We only get to decide how to respond to God’s design, and I choose to respond by accepting the way He created me: in His image. Our Savior is not unsavory. So, by association, I am not guilty. Jesus already died for my sins. It’s no longer His cross to bear. Just because I’ve fallen for a woman doesn’t make me a fallen woman. It’s not like I’ve bared my body or shared it with some man. I haven’t even shared it with her. Mom and Dad have taught me well and I will show them how much their dutiful daughter has learned, so help me God.

Seriously, God—I need you. So help me. Please.

* * *

The next stop on the Forbidden Fruit blog tour is Erzabet Bishop interviewing Nicole Wolfe

Leave a comment on any post in the Forbidden Fruit blog tour to be entered into a random draw to win one of these great prizes. Prizes include a paperback copy ofGirls Who Score, lesbian sports erotica edited by Ily Goyanes, Best Lesbian Romance 2011 edited by Radclyffe, an ebook of Ladylit’s first lesbian anthology Anything She Wants, and a bundle of three mini-anthologies from Ladylit: Sweat, A Christmas to Remember and Bossy. All of these titles contain some stories written by the fabulous contributors to Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire. You must include an email address in your comment to be entered into the draw.

Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire is available direct from Ladylit or from Amazon, Smashwords, and other good retailers of ebooks. Check out Ladylit for all purchasing information.

EXTRA: We’re currently running a Goodreads giveaway. Enter here to win a paperback copy of Forbidden Fruit >>

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Latest releases: Stormy Weather, French Kissing: Season One and Bossy: Five Productive Tales of Lesbian Lust

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Want Hired Help for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

A Snog For Sommer

Fellow erotica author Sommer Marsden‘s husband is battling cancer, so the fine folks of Smut For Good have organised ‘A Snog For Summer‘. I’m all for smut for good causes, so of course I’m participating. If you can, please donate here, or help spread the word. All donations will go straight to Sommer and her family and you can donate until 20 September. All info here >> (Where you will also find a list of the participating authors and can hop along to their blogs and win some prizes in the process.)

I’m also giving away 1 signed paperback (or e-book, if you prefer) copy of Summer’s End to a randomly chosen commenter.

The snog I’ve chosen is from my novel At the Water’s Edge (out in November). It’s a very early sneak peek (and the text needs more editing), but I just couldn’t resist. It’s kind of a big deal for me to be posting this excerpt so early on, but this novel has been on my mind for so long now, I think I need to start sharing. (And it’s for a good cause!)

Before I can change my mind, I swim to the edge and, just as Kay returns, wrapped in a plush white towel, an extra one rolled up under her arm for me, I push myself out of the water. I notice how her glance lingers on my body, how all movement of her muscles momentarily stops.

“Here’s your towel,” Kay mumbles.

“Forget the towel.” I step closer, pull her towards me, close my eyes and kiss her. The earth doesn’t stop turning, but my head does spin. Because, in the pit of my stomach, I feel that this kiss is the beginning of something I already know I will never be able to live without.

When Kay grabs the back of my head with one hand, the touch of her fingertips travels through my system with tingling pangs. When we come up for air and our eyes meet, her towel-wrapped body a white spot in the darkness of the evening, any thought of what should or should not happen has fled my brain.

“What does it feel like?” she asks, her voice low and husky. “To stop worrying and give yourself the time and space to enjoy the moment?”

“Fucking hot.” I barely recognize my own voice. I’m still standing there naked, every nerve-ending in my body pulsing with that old, forgotten ache.

“Come here.” Kay unrolls the towel and brings it behind my back, tugging me closer towards her with it. “I’m all for a bit of indecent exposure, but there are limits to everything.” She casts one last, longing glance across the front of my body before tucking a corner of the towel underneath the hem of the other end.

“You come here.” I lift my arms to pull her closer again, undoing her efforts as it makes the towel slide right off me, exposing my tortured nipples to the breezy night air. Neither one of us cares about indecent exposure anymore as our lips lock and our tongues explore each other’s mouth in another instant I will never forget.

Much more about At the Water’s Edge closer to its release date. Meanwhile, spare a thought (or a few dollars) for Sommer and her family…

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Latest releases: Stormy Weather, French Kissing: Season One and Bossy: Five Productive Tales of Lesbian Lust

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