Leigh Wilder's Blog, page 8

Birthday Gifts

I am officially 30.  A few days ago I thought too hard about it and decided that I was going to start celebrating my conception instead of my birth, because birthdays are arbitrary and only conception dates are exact in measuring existence (first you don't exist, and then you do, vs. the fact that you existed for 9 months *before* the day you were expelled from the womb, and so forth).  I tried to argue that I had actually turned 30 back last July, and today means absolutely nothing in terms of how long I have existed on this earth.

But no one will let me. The 'happy birthdays' have been coming in since yesterday (told you it was arbitrary) and according to my driver's license I am 30.  So much for that.

In any case, I am celebrating my existence by giving you guys free shit.  You're welcome. (If you wanna give a gift back reviews are nice...)

(Also, apologies for stupid formatting. Nothing wants to cooperate.)

The Red Shoes (Amazon)

Master insists that Angel wear all white as a sign of her purity. She's been living with him for two years, but she remains a virgin until the day she sees a pair of red shoes in a shop window. The shoes are sex and life--she has to have them, no matter how terrible the punishment. She will lose her virginity...but by giving him such an ultimatum, will she also lose the man she loves?
This is an erotic BDSM short. It contains: submission, spanking, deflowering.




Drain Me Dry (Deadly Liaisons #1) (Amazon)

19 year old Jamie has had it with living. He has a terrible job, no friends, and his home life is unbearable. He wants to end it all, but is too frightened to slit his own wrists. Instead he goes to The Victorian, a seedy underground blood den for vampires and their groupies, where he hopes to find an angel of death to end it all for him. Instead he finds Damian, who has much sexier things on his mind than death. Will Jamie succeed in his plan of suicide by vampire, or will he get an unexpected HEA?





The Beauty and the Beast (smashwords)

Kate is "The Beauty," a professional Dominatrix with no time for love. Nathan is a Dom too, known in the community as "The Beast. A dinner invitation leads to much more, and Kate has to tame the beast, or run the chance of being devoured by him. Contains: Adult content, power play, light BDSM.








Saturday Night (smashwords)

When small-town cop Charlie is run off the road he expects an arrest and a slightly more interesting than normal Saturday night. Instead he finds himself handcuffed--with his own cuffs--and bent over the seat of ex-con Jake Miller's truck. Charlie doesn't mind...as long as he gets his turn next Saturday. Explicit m/m sex. 

"Drain Me Dry" Now Free on Amazon

Finally did it. Drain Me Dry has been listed as permanently free on Amazon thanks to their price matching system. Thanks to everyone who bitched at them for being greedy bastards!  (You can also complain to them about the price of "Saturday Night" and "In the Dark" which are also permanently free on Smashwords and 99 cents on Amazon.)

Since this happened (pretty sure it was yesterday) I've seen a huge jump in sales of the sequel, Addicted to the Bite.  This is great news, because it costs $1.49, as opposed to DMD's 99 cents. I'm hoping that over-all, sales will rise across the boards this month.  So, new authors, get something listed permanently free on Amazon if you possibly can. It's a definite boost.  Ask your readers to notify Amazon about a cheaper price.

This is also exciting because "Club Midnight" will be coming out sometime in the next few weeks (probably at the very end of the month).  It's more than 1/2 done.  It will probably be around 20k words long. (So no complaints about length this time!) I plan on releasing it at the $2.99 price, and releasing a compilation of the first 3 stories for $3.99.

Club Midnight is kinda awesome.  There are some great sex scenes, I'm introducing two new characters that will become regulars, and you will get to learn a little about Damian's past.  Jamie-boy is slowly growing up, and growing bold.  Our villain in this story is the Daybreak society, who has opened a kinky sex club to tortures vampires for fun and profit.

New Title: The Summoner and the Satyr

This story is not yet live on Amazon. Will update/tweet when it is.

I wrote this story a while ago.  It's a PWP (porn without plot) set in a fantasy school for magic (a grown-up Hogwarts if you'd like) called the Dracon School of Magicks.  The plan was to write 2 or 3 more of these, bundle them together, and sell it for the more lucrative $2.99.

Then I got depressed, and I've barely written anything since finishing The Red Shoes. So I'm bringing it out now and will list it as a stand-alone.  Hopefully I will get around to writing more porn in this universe, and maybe sell a nice fat omnibus style collection.

This is porn.  There are zero romantic elements to it and the sex is kinda rough.  If you're squeamish about lots of cum you probably won't like it much.  It also has sex with a non-human (though he is sentient).

Description:
Asyra is a summoner of beings from other worlds. She is a new professor at the Dracon School of Magic, and has been without a man for six months. Her needs are becoming so urgent she is beginning to lust after her students.  To sate her lust she summons the most sexual of beings--a satyr. Can she control this epitome of masculinity, or will she loose control completely?

3,000 words. Contains: rough sex, fantasy elements, oral and anal sex.

Excerpt:


Her voice was low and quiet with building force as she felt the portal to the otherworld open in her heart. The pain of the crossing was sharp but brief, sending her tumbling and forcing her to her knees. The candles in the circle had gone out, but the other candles and the fire lit the room. She looked up—the object of her summons towered over her.
“Creature of the dark world,” she said, getting to her feet. “I bind you to my circle. I call you to do my bidding.”
The Satyr was massive. His cloven legs were covered in a thick pelt, the brown skin of his broad chest thick with hair as well. He had a not quite handsome but very human face, except for his yellow eyes and large, curling horns. He wore no clothes. His large cock and heavy balls hung between his powerful thighs. Asyra breathed in the heady scent of musky masculinity, strong and potent. It was easy to forget her young, inexperienced students.
“Your bidding.” The Satyr’s voice boomed through the small room. “You expect me to answer the summons of a female?”
“I command you,” she said, unsure. Even the angriest of entities had never questioned being fairly caught.
“I reject your command,” he growled, and with his cloven hoof he scraped across the chalk line of her circle, smudging her hastily scrawled runes. There was a mistake in the runes, rendering the circle worthless and broken. There was nothing to contain this powerful beast.
“Oh, don’t,” she moaned.
A muscular arm shot out and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing hard enough to cause alarm. “No female controls me,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Please.” Oh, this was bad. Very, very bad. A wild satyr loose in the halls would wreak havoc on the school. No woman would be safe. She would be sacked for sure and there would be no tenure, no comfortable retirement in her future. “I offer sacrifice,” she said quickly. “Take me in any way you see fit, and I will send you back home.”
He loosened his grip on her and Asyra dropped to the floor, taking in deep gasps of air. “I accept your sacrifice,” he said. “Though you may not survive it.”
“I’m tougher than I look,” she assured. “And if you kill me, I can’t send you home.” Only the original Summoner could do so much, and she hoped her remembered that. There were all manner of magical creatures wandering the world thanks to incompetent Summoners.
“We shall see. Get on your knees,” he commanded, and Asyra obeyed, the stone floor uncomfortable. “I think I shall enjoy breaking you.” He didn’t have to command her to do anything. She knew what he wanted. His cock hung half-hard in front of her face. As she watched it seemed to urge forward towards her.

Rant: The Language of Breasts

There is nothing I hate more than describing breasts in a sex scene.  It's the language that is the problem, not the organs themselves (which are lovely).  There just aren't any good words for them. You end up sounding crass, or technical, or stupid, or like a 10 year old boy.

"Bubbies""Breasts" for example. Makes you think of chicken or breast exams. It's technical but when you get right down to it, better than the alternatives.  You could go with "tits", which depending on the tone of the story, I might use, but I feel like an asshole when I use the term.  It's harsh, unfeeling, objectifying.

After that things just get ridiculous yabbos, fun-bags, cans, bajongas...I don't need to go on. Words for a conversation between two men oogling at a woman without her knowledge.  Definitely can't use these. The hero isn't allowed to talk about the heroine that way anyway.

Women usually use the word "boobs" when discussing them with their friends. It's soft, innocuous, safe.  But stick it in a sentence ("He touched her boobs with gentle caresses, taking one boob into his mouth while he teased the other with deft fingers.") Uh...no.

We could go the old-fashioned route, and use the word "bosom" but you can really only get away with that in a historical.  I once read a 19th century pornographic novel (almost all sex in those are date-rape situations, btw) and the author used the word "bubbies."  I can only assume that it was pronounced the same way children say "boobies" now, but the alternative spelling makes the word a lot more attractive, at least on the page. But see if your spell check and editor will let you get away with that.

Then there are the tacky romance words (which I've never experienced first-hand because I have taste) like "mounds" and "orbs."  Freaking orbs? Do I have a pair of disco balls on my chest? (You do if you a Meyer vampire chick I guess.)

So if "tender breasts" equal KFC and "sweet bubbies" equal a dyslexic 10 year old...what the hell am I supposed to do?

Switch to "udders"?

A ramble on offering stories for free

Back in November I released "Saturday Night" for free on Smashwords.com.  It's had over a thousand downloads since then.  In fact, all of my "Free" reads are doing incredibly well when it comes down to the number of people who have downloaded them.  Most of them have a small handful of good reviews too, which makes me very happy.  The whole idea is to give everyone a taste, and hope they will come back for more.   The problem is, no one wants to buy from Smashwords because while it is author friendly (high royalties, the ability to give discounts or offer a book for free at any time, multiple formats) its not so reader friendly.  Amazon is awesome because the reader pushes one button and the book is in their cloud, immediately available on their computer or kindle. Because I always visit Smashwords on my computer and I read on my kindle...the files never get transferred (there's never a sync cord when you need one) and they never get read.
Amazon has only two ways you can post for free. KDP Select or price matching.  Select is lame because you only get 5 free days every quarter and you can't offer your book anywhere else while its listed. And price matching is almost impossible unless you have a bunch of people telling Amazon they're getting your work free somewhere else.  As a writer with less than 100 sales on Amazon a month, that doesn't really happen for me.
Right now I have 4 stories up for free on Smashwords. "Saturday Night", "In the Dark", "Boy" and "Drain Me Dry." I write all over the board, so I wanted to have a het, gay, and a lesbian story available for free to cover all my bases. I also figure that if I offer "Drain Me Dry" for free more people will buy the sequel, which is priced at $1.49 instead of $0.99.  So far this has been true.
By not listing these works on Amazon I'm missing out on visibility and offering my readers variety. "Drain Me Dry" seems to springboard people into not only "Addicted to the Bite" but also my less popular "Brian is Gay."  "Saturday Night" is a good, strong short.  The sex is hot, the story around it is engaging, and if someone reads it first they're likely to come back for more. I don't like charging for it, but more people shop on Amazon than Smashwords, and over-all I just want people to read my work and enjoy it.  So "Saturday Night" just went up for 99 cents on Amazon.  (They tried to accuse me of stealing it since it was already online.)  "In the Dark" has been there a while. Its not very long so it doesnt get many sales. (Also my gay stories sell better than anything else.)  I've only sold two copies of Saturday Night so far, but I have a feeling it's going to be a strong, steady seller because like I said, it's good. 
Eventually all of the free stories are going to be stuck into collections when I have more to publish, but they will still be listed for free individually.  You just wont know about it unless you read this blog or follow me on twitter.
Saturday Night on SmashwordsSaturday Night on Amazon.

Cover Design

It's been a slow, slow month. I have depression. Sometimes its just a vague discontentment, and sometimes it shuts me down and the best I can hope for is to stare at the wall without crying. The end of winter is always the worst, and it was no different this year. I'm trying really hard to get a new story out. I have a pile of half or more than half finished manuscripts in my files, but every time I look at them the despair starts to take over...

I have been able to design covers though. I made up the cover for Club Midnight (scroll down, it's on your left), I created several covers for some of those 1/2 finished books, and I re-designed the cover for The Beauty and the Beast, which you may have noticed, sucked.

A bad cover does not sell books. It can actually deter people from buying them. The whole "never judge a book by its cover" thing is total BS. People are attracted to pleasing images--there's no getting around that. Sometimes I can't believe what people stick on their book as a cover. I just stare and cringe, and I definitely walk away from the book. If a writer doesn't have the artistic sense to know a terrible cover when they see it, how can they have the artistic sense to write a not-terrible book? Maybe this isn't fair (maybe the author is blind, or @ the least, color blind), but when the cover is some 1990's clip art with the title written in Comic Sans, can you really expect me to take someone seriously?

 Of course, a lot of us indie writers can't afford a to buy a good cover and we have to make them ourselves. If you don't know what you're doing, simply find a nice stock image (don't try to take the pic yourself if you're not a photographer) and do not use Comic Sans to write the title across it. (I'd avoid Times New Roman, Arial, Impact, and Courier as well. And Papyrus. Don't use Papyrus.) Keep it readable, keep it simple.

Anyway, the Beauty and the Beast cover.  The old, ugly one is on the right. The new, pretty one is on top. See the difference? The new one is much better. It's more personable and it has a few more elements of the story in it.  Also the font is less corny.  A lot of my covers are kinda dark, so I'm trying to lighten things up a bit, and I think this did a good job.  It was a bitch to manipulate into a properly sized format because I try not to show the whole faces of the models on my books (considering they may have never had any intention of their face showing up on an erotica piece). But here it is, all pretty and shiny and new. The new cover is up on Smashwords, but still waiting for the transfer on Amazon.

Free Forever: Drain Me Dry

The first installment of the Deadly Liaisons series, "Drain Me Dry" is now available for free on Smashwords--forever.

19 year old Jamie-boy is on the verge of suicide, until an unexpected sexual encounter with master vampire Damian changes his life for the better.

Contains: m/m sex, blood play, dubious consent, abuse.

You can download it for free at smashwords.com HERE in any ebook format.

The novelette-length sequel, "Addicted to the Bite" is available at Smashwords or Amazon.  The 3rd story in the series, "Club Midnight" will be released in April.

I'd like to get Drain Me Dry listed for free on Amazon as well, so if you love me, stop by the Amazon page HERE and tell them you got it for free somewhere else.

And if M/M is not your taste, visit the "Free Stories" section of the site for links of free M/F and F/F stories or check out my newest release, The Red Shoes, a M/F BDSM story on Amazon for 99 cents.

V-day Prezzies

Valentines Day is for romance...and also sex! Here are 5 free stories to ramp up your valentines day evening, whether alone or with a partner. 3 of them are free all the time, but 'Drain Me Dry' and 'The Beauty & the Beast' are for V-day only.

Click on the book cover to go to the free copy--Drain Me Dry & Beauty and the Beast click over to Amazon.com, the other 3 Smashwords.com. In the UK? Link to my author page on the sidebar. Available in all other countries too.

Hope everyone has good orgasms this V-day, and I hope I can help. :)

New Release: The Red Shoes

New release: "The Red Shoes". Like "The Beauty and the Beast", this is a modern BDSM story based loosely on a fairy tale, one of my favorites. This is the story of Angel, a very bad girl, who goes against her Master's wishes and is punished.

Her master wants her to always wear white, because she is a virgin and pure. For two years Angel has obeyed him, but when she sees a pair of red shoes in a shop window she is overcome with the idea of red, and lust. She doesn't want to be pure. She wants her master to take her, all of her, and make her a woman. The red shoes are her blooming sexuality, but will they also be the end of her relationship with the man she loves?

4300 words. Contains BDSM: submission, spanking, deflowering.

To Be released as soon as it's processed on Amazon. Link will be here.

Excerpt:


He pulled at her skirt and soon she was laying there, breasts, exposed, only her simple cotton panties saving her from total nudity. The lights were dim and she was glad that she could not see herself naked beneath him. He pulled off his shirt and she placed her hands on his broad, masculine chest, sliding her fingers through the hair there. “You are amazing,” he told her. She couldn’t find the voice to say that she felt the same way about him.“Please,” she said, breathless and not knowing what she was begging for. “I have to tell you. I'm a virgin.”He went still, one of his hands motionless hooked under the waistband of her underwear. “What?”“I've never done this before.” He got up abruptly, and at first she feared the worst, that he wouldn't want anything to do with her, that he was one of those men who were too honorable to have sex with a virgin. He turned on the light and returned to the bed. Her panic abated when he returned to his task of pulling down her panties, sliding them over her smooth legs. She didn't know what to do except lie still as he gently pushed her legs open and positioned his body between them. He still wore his slacks and made no move to take them off. He slid his hands down her thighs and she moaned a little when his fingers brushed across her mound.With two fingers he separated her lips, opening her up. She had never been revealed to a man before. Exposed. He traced one finger around her sealed entrance, causing her to shiver, to want him more. “A virgin,” he whispered, and she realized that he was worshiping her. “So rare,” he continued. “So perfect.” He lowered his head and slid his tongue across her vulva, up to her clit, gently teasing it, taking it between his lips.Angel, who always wondered what it would be like to have wings, was flying. His fingers were everywhere but inside her and his mouth sucked and teased as she arched her entire body towards him. She wanted him, wanted everything. She broke, her orgasm crashing through her body, forcing her back on the bed. He pulled away and looked up, scanning across her stomach, over her panting chest at her face, eyes closed tight, breathing through perfect red lips.“Angel,” he said sliding up the bed, “what do you think of me?”Because she was young, and because he was older, good-looking, and rich; because he had just given her first orgasm, she answered honestly. “I love you.”“You naïve, trusting thing,” he said, but it was with tenderness. “So fortunate for the both of us that I found you first. I'm almost twice your age.”“I don't care.”“You don't know anything about me.”“I know enough. Please. Make love to me.”He kissed her lips, her breasts, her stomach, and while lust began to burn within her loins again, he did not kiss any lower. “Perhaps one day I will,” he said. “But not yet, my delicate virgin. I want to savor you.” He gathered her up in his arms like a child and held her close, kissing her forehead. “Be patient my dear, and wait.”

9 Rules of Sex in Fiction

Here is a list. (I will admit I am guilty of a few of these.)
1. The hero can always get it up.2. Sex is never messy.3. No one gets knocked up unless the plot demands it, even if condoms are never mentioned.4. Virgins always orgasm their first time out.5. Every woman orgasms from penetration alone.6. Even if she hates her rapist he's still going to make her climax. 7. The average penis size is 9 in.8. Every BDSM practitioner has a full dungeon in their home.9. Lube is never necessarily.
I know there's more--what have you got?