Emerald's Blog, page 7

For the Love of Sommer/Summer

This post is part of Alison’s Summer Loving blog tour. For links to the other posts and to follow along, please visit her blog here!

I’ve been a reader of Alison Tyler’s blog for—jeez, about nine years now. I actually started following it about the time she started writing it (specifically, I came along right around the time she was starting to document the memoir stories that developed into her Dark Secret Love/The Delicious Torment/Wrapped Around Your Finger trilogy).

At that time, in addition to generously sharing much of her compelling writing on her blog, Alison frequently interacted with her readers, composing posts that asked for photos, answers to questions, or even flash stories for contests—or, for a while, her specially-devoted blog she called H is for Harlot. (She still does all of this.) On one such occasion, she invited readers to write a 500-1,000-word story that included the word or theme of “violet.” (Coincidence?) More on that in a bit.

I virtually “met” Sommer Marsden a couple years later via the extensive online erotica community to which Alison’s blog introduced me. In 2009, Sommer spontaneously organized and hosted the Blow Hard Tour, in which I was honored to take part, and during those halcyon days of frequent blogging and correlative commenting and interaction, I visited her blog regularly as well. I also found myself alongside her in several tables of contents and read a number of her stories.

I soon discerned that Sommer referred to her family members on her blog as “the man,” “girl child,” and “boy child,” which I found charming. During those blogging days, many of us tended to share fairly personal/autobiographical goings-on in our lives, both writing- and non-writing-related. With Sommer’s, in particular, references to her family often seemed prominent.

That made it all the more poignant when I heard last year that “the man” had been diagnosed with cancer.

From the impression I’d received reading Sommer’s blog posts, there was never any question that she and the man were a very close couple. In addition to feeling stunned by the news of the diagnosis, I felt a sharp tug on my heart at the vaguest of ideas of how painful and frightening such news must have been for Sommer—as well as, of course, for the man himself and the rest of their family.

Alison herself had had unwelcome experience in this area, and anyone who has read either Alison’s or Sommer’s blogs in the last few years must know the two are very close (virtual) friends. Last summer, Alison announced on her blog that she would be compiling a summer-themed charity anthology in support of Sommer and asked for flash fiction pieces from authors/readers.

I immediately thought of that piece I had written for Alison years before. At the time, she posted my violet-themed story on her H is for Harlot blog. Since the time that blog was discontinued, I had held onto it, not quite finding the right place or feeling quite moved to submit it for publication anywhere. The story is titled “Fireworks Display,” and it takes place on the Fourth of July during a local fireworks show. That meant, of course, that it had a summer theme. I had written it for Alison, and the long and short of it is, when she announced plans for Summer Loving, I could think of no better use for “Fireworks Display” than for it to be potentially published in Sommer’s anthology. I submitted it, Alison accepted it, and I am both honored to be included in and grateful to contribute in a small way to Summer Loving and to Sommer herself.

Here is a bit of “Fireworks Display”:

The dull orange glow of the parking lot lights made all six of the young men just visible as I glanced over my shoulder and saw them all looking at me. I smiled casually and turned back to the pyrotechnic display in front of us. Knowing I was under the watchful eye of six boys likely 10 years my junior made my breath shudder slightly as I drew it. I reached back to tighten the tie on my halter top, desperately tempted to pull the strings and let it fall, let the six behind me see the tie slip from my neck and know I was topless in front of them, my tits exposed to the night even though all they could see was my naked back.

But I tightened the strings as planned and lowered my hands. They shook a bit.

I shifted to stand on the center console and hoisted myself onto the roof of my car. My legs dangled through the sunroof as I leaned back on my elbows, the tops of my breasts possibly visible now to the audience behind me. A cluster of about half a dozen fireworks went up simultaneously, the distant crowd oohing and aahing at the influx of echoing cracks. The largest was an eye-catching violet, its disc of sparks hovering in front of the others as the pyrotechnic perimeter spread.

I glanced over my shoulder again. Six pairs of eyes immediately found mine. Even if we had wanted to talk to each other, the noise of the fireworks display would have smothered any opportunity. They were relegated by necessity to pure voyeurs, with me—the exhibitionist—a lone figure competing against a backdrop of spectacular light and fire.

The story is quite—though not completely—autobiographical. I wrote it about a week after July 4 of that year, and I had indeed gone to see the fireworks by myself and watched them from my car in a local parking lot. I still remember that truck’s pulling up and parking near me, as well as watching the six occupants get out and arrange themselves on the truck’s bed cover…I do love the Fourth of July. :)

Summer Loving is available at All Romance, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. (For those who wish to know, Alison has indicated [check the post comments] that the print version from Amazon yields the highest financial benefit for Sommer.) Alison has graciously provided table of contents and a bit about how the anthology came about on her blog here.

All best wishes to Sommer and her family, and thank you to Alison for editing this anthology and to Tamsin Flowers for conceiving of it. Namaste, and thank you so much for visiting.

Love,

Emerald

I had decided to forego the usual Fourth of July parties and gatherings and watch the fireworks by myself this year. About a half hour before dark, I drove to the nearby college where the municipal fireworks were to be launched from the football field, found a parking spot, and sat back to wait, planning to watch the show from my car.

-the opening of “Fireworks Display”

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Published on August 17, 2014 23:42

Quite Simply an Awesome Time

Because I started traveling the day after it (and am still out of town), I’ve taken quite a while to write about the fabulous reading I attended on July 24 at Lotus Blooms—a magnificent store, incidentally, that I highly recommend patronizing if you ever find yourself in Alexandria, Virginia!

On that note, I think this was the first reading I’d ever done that was local to me. That was a treat and meant that Rick Write was easily able to come along. In fact, it was he who was gracious enough to capture the videographic evidence of my reading below. :) (Big thanks, Rick!)

Despite the store’s being local to me, I had for some odd reason never visited it—a circumstance I’m glad to have remedied! Literally the first thing I noticed upon entering was how beautiful it is. The second thing I experienced was the unambiguous graciousness and friendliness of the staff. I’m so glad editor and author Rachel Kramer Bussel organized and convened this reading at such a lovely location—and that it’s somewhere I’ll have the chance to visit often!

From left to right: Rachel Kramer Bussel, me, Tess Danesi, Kristina Wright, Michelle Augello-Page

As far as the reading goes, it was purely a delight to get to see fellow authors and readers Rachel, Kristina Wright, Tess Danesi, and Michelle Augello-Page. In addition, I was delighted to see to see a few members of the audience I already know and love. You know who you are—thanks so much for coming out to see us. :)

The reading was devoted to Rachel’s anthologies The Big Book of Submission (in which I don’t have a story) and The Big Book of Orgasms (in which I do). I read my story “Payback” from the latter. Once again thanks to Rick Write, here is the video of it:

Big thanks to everyone who came out to see us, and especially to Rachel for organizing, Kris, Tess, and Michelle for coming to read, and Lotus Blooms for hosting us and for simply being awesome!

Love,

Emerald

“This town, this night, this crowd, come on put them up, let me hear it loud, this town, this city, this crowd, stand up on your feet, put your worry down…”

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Published on August 04, 2014 00:05

Sommer of Love

In “I Am Behind on Blogging” news, I have a reading to report on that took place last Thursday, and I also have had a busy enough week (most particularly due to traveling over the weekend) that I missed the release of Summer Loving, which came out last week.

Summer Loving, if you haven’t heard about it, is a special anthology. The entire project was conceived by Tamsin Flowers and organized and edited by Alison Tyler. It is a summer-themed anthology from which all the proceeds will go to author Sommer Marsden, whose husband received a cancer diagnosis last year.

I met Sommer online and have known her (virtually) for several years. It’s possible Alison will organize a bit of a blog tour for the book next month, so I’ll wait until then to go into more detail about my story’s back story and how I feel about the project and getting to take part in it. For now, I just want to get the word out that this book is available—and that, again, all the sales proceeds it generates will go to support Sommer and her family. And to say that I am truly honored that my story “Fireworks Display” is included in this anthology.

All buy links can be found in Alison’s post here. As one of her comments on the post mentions, the highest financial amount Sommer would receive per sale would come from Amazon sales of the print edition.

Thank you and love to all,

Emerald

“Knowing I was under the watchful eye of six boys likely 10 years my junior made my breath shudder slightly as I drew it. I reached back to tighten the tie on my halter top, desperately tempted to pull the strings and let it fall, let the six behind me see the tie slip from my neck, know I was topless in front of them, my tits exposed to the night even though all they could see was my naked back.”

-from “Fireworks Display”

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Published on July 29, 2014 12:17