Liz Everly's Blog, page 124
May 23, 2014
The Science of Werewolves: David O’Brien
Today I welcome my Tirgearr Publishing colleague, David O’Brien. David’s got a new book Leaving the Pack and dropped by today to talk a bit about the thinking behind his story. Take it away, David!
First of all, a big thank you for having me here today to talk about my book.
Second of all, I think the blurb will help explain things before we continue…
Nobody believes in werewolves.
That’s just what Paul McHew and his friends are counting on.
They and their kind roam our city streets: a race of people from whom the terrible legend stems; now living among us invisibly after centuries of persecution through fear and ignorance. Superficially human but physiologically very different, with lunar rhythms so strong that during the three days of the full moon they are almost completely controlled by their hormonal instincts, you might have cursed them as just another group of brawling youths or drunken gang-bangers. Now at the point of extinction, if they are to survive their existence must remain restricted to mere stories and legend, but, paradoxically, they also must marry outside their society in order to persist.
The responsibility for negotiating this knife-edge is given to Paul, who runs the streets with his friends during the full moon, keeping them out of real trouble and its resultant difficult questions. Having succeeded for years, he finds his real test of leadership comes when he meets Susan, a potential life-mate, to whom he will have to reveal his true identity if he is ever to leave his pack.
So now that you know what the book is about, let’s talk about sex.
The male characters, the werewolves in Leaving the Pack have a lot of sex. It’s best just to get that out there. They are the ultimate pick-up artists. They roam the city for two reasons: to expend energy, and to find girls. Of course, ultimately, they’re looking for mates, relationships, wives. But they’re in no hurry.
So how are they so successful? Pheromones.
Are pheromones sexy?
Well, there are many types of pheromones in nature, and most of them usually involve sex – getting it and making it worthwhile (from an evolutionary perspective). From chemicals that direct male moths towards receptive females, to the molecules that make female mice sexually receptive in the presence of a strange male (including causing pretty drastic changes in her reproductive cycle), these substances can take over animals’ behaviour and make them act differently to how they would if they never smelt them.
As a zoologist, the physiology of attraction has always interested me: from the first explanation of animal behaviour and experiments using photos of handsome people and cloths soaked in sweat, to my days spent in the field, videotaping deer mating in harems. The successful bucks seemed to only get more successful, as does selected the same ones the other females had, milling around and waiting their turn.
That image might not turn everyone on – it doesn’t turn me on – but it is intriguing. I wonder what would happen if we could separate that buck, bring him to another group of does who hadn’t watched the previous matings. Would he still be attractive? What exactly are the does attracted to in joining his harem?
The step of translating such animal studies to humans has been taken and research is ongoing. It makes for fascinating reading, but just one example will suffice here: photos of men are voted sexier if the voter is told that 80% of previous respondents consider the man handsome rather than just 20%.
But if you meet that man in a bar, how do you know that 80% of women consider him handsome?
As I learned on facebook last week (who says Facebook can’t be educational, as long as you friend learned folk?) Freud said, “How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.” Confidence. That’s what’s sexy. At least, that’s what everybody says, and dating experts are making money talking about it and teaching people (read men) to emanate confidence.
Doubtless you can relate to this (irrespective of your views on deer). We’ve all had experience of it: a run of just not getting any action and then suddenly after you find someone, there are potential partners crawling out of the woodwork looking for a date. A friend of mine used to call it a purple patch, when you just can’t go wrong in seducing any object of affection.
So how is this confidence projected? Is it in your mannerisms, your body language, your demeanour, the tenor of your voice? Or is it in your smell? Dogs (read wolves) and other animals can smell fear. If they can smell fear, then they can smell the opposite of fear, which is confidence. If they can it’s because we release such a chemical. And if we release it, why would evolution not have our own species capable of picking it up?
Is confidence perhaps just the absence of some kind of fear scent? Doubtful.
While people are probably able to perceive fear as well as confidence, not being afraid is our default and thus not very sexy, while confidence is. There must be some separate substance produced, perhaps stimulated by successive conquests – not just having sex with one’s regular partner. This could be why it has been so difficult to find and isolate the chemical (there are people trying). Its production is probably erratic.
Not so with the pack.
Inventing a race of werewolves allowed me free range to imagine what the scientists might find in the future. The members of the pack are infinitely sexy and have confidence in buckets, because they produce this pheromone during the full moon without even thinking about it. They’re not infallible, of course. They still have to be charming, still have to seduce the objects of their affection. It’s also a potential double-edged sword. Apart from the fact that if they’re ever discovered, they might be milked for their pheromones like bears farmed for their bile, more immediately, not only do they have their own aggression to control, but they also often disgruntle other men in the city by attracting their girlfriends. This can make war go hand in hand with love.
The pack wield this power they have relatively benignly. They treat their ladies with respect – they don’t want a lot of irate women hating them. They’re powerful men, but hell hath no fury… as the saying goes. And they stay away from married women. They’re very family-orientated, for all their casual sex. They don’t wish to damage any long-term relationships by making a spouse guilty when she’d really less control over her actions than she realised.
We don’t see so much from the ladies’ point of view, except Susan’s, when she first meets Paul during a full moon. She’s ready to do things she’d never before contemplated (there’s an excerpt of this scene below), but later, when they meet again after the moon, Paul has to prove himself just as seductive, without the aid of what he calls his “little chemical friends.”
So, if there were commercially-available pheromones, would you consider their use cheating, or just another weapon in attracting a partner – like make-up, good grooming and plastic surgery?
Links
David JM O’Brien’s website10% of the author’s royalties will be donated to WWF, the World Wildlife Fund.
Excerpt:
“Ehmm… I was wondering if you would like to dance with me,” he asked, gazing at the floor as he spoke and then fixing her with a stare that made her heart quicken and a reply out of her mind’s reach.
‘Yes, please!’ a voice yelled inside her. Nevertheless, she knew full well by now that he was playing with her, and that the game consisted in not making things too easy for this stranger who was clearly accustomed to getting what he wanted. She had the will to resist her heart’s demands, if only for a few more moments. Fixing him with an expression that said yes, her voice eventually replied, “But it’s not even a slow song.”
As she said it, however, the music changed tempo to Madonna’s ballad: Live to Tell. Couples began to form as the lyrics began. Susan acknowledged that she was caught. Still she paused for some time, scrutinizing him as though trying to peer insidehim, before she conceded.
“OK,” she nodded with a smirk.
He smiled wryly and she put her arms around him, considering how he had manipulated her from the beginning. They danced for what seemed hours to Susan, as she clung to this beautiful man and let herself drift away, getting lost in his fragrance. It brought images to her mind of summer days in woods, raw sex in a meadow, the slight scent of wildflowers and crushed stems, encapsulated in a ring flattened by bodies rolling on the rough ground, cushioned only by the grass, feeling its texture on bare skin, the sun pouring into the circle past its borders of seed heads and the sound of bees.
She wondered about him calling her ‘sex.’ About to ask whether he had been for real or just taking the piss, she decided it didn’t matter. She thought that the word, the plain truth, was much more suited to him, and realized why she was so reluctant to give in easily to his request for a dance. It was not just a dance she had agreed to. This was not a normal situation, where she could get to know someone during the night and decide later if she would take it further. She had already crossed that line and knew that she would end up having sex with him that night. They would leave the bar and go to his place, or her place, or his car, or the alley around the side of the building – it did not matter – and she would have sex like she’d never had before.
Clinging to him now, she could arouse no resistance to the idea. In fact, she was ready to do whatever they would do, right then. She felt no need to know any more about him. His nearness and his smell were enough to make her want to leave immediately and let him do what he willed with her body.
“What’s your name? Or is it really: ‘Interested’?”
She blushed again and replied, asking his before remembering that he had told her already. His name did not matter to her, either. It was superfluous information, now that he held her in his arms. He grinned, showing that he knew she had only asked him automatically.
“Well, I don’t seem to have made much of an impression on you, if it takes three times for you to remember my name!”
“Yes, I’m sorry. It’s Paul, isn’t it?” she said, staring into his eyes for the first time since they’d begun dancing. They were so dark they seemed to be hiding in the shadows. She could not read what he was thinking – a thing she could often do – but sensed he held a secret behind those ebony orbs. Then she realized that she had been scrutinizing him for a long time and looked away.
“What are you thinking?”
“Nothing much,” she replied, searching for an answer. “Just wondering how long it is going to be before you make a pass at me.”
“I won’t need to,” he whispered in her ear.
May 22, 2014
The Thwarted Desires of Lavinia Kent: Q&A with a Regency Author
By Madeline Iva
Hey Campers! Madeline here with the lovely & amazing Lavinia Kent. You may know Lavinia from the several historical regencies she’s written for Avon. Lately she’s also expanded recently into writing a historical-reality TV show mash up for Avon Impulse and included her work in an anthology called ONCE AND FOREVER.
Soon Lavinia will be forging into new genre territory–but more about that in a minute. First—-
MADELINE IVA: Lavinia, Tell us the basis for the sexual tension in your latest novella Never & Forever.
LAVINIA KENT: Never & Forever was a strange story for me to write. I had a very clear idea of what was going to happen and how the story was going to proceed – and then it took a complete turnabout. I had just finished writing the novella that turned into the first third of my erotic July release, Mastering the Marquess, and thought I was going to get another very, very sexy story. Instead, my heroine, Molly, said, “I am just not that type of girl.”
“What?” I replied, “You mean I am writing a story with no sex. I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Well,” she answered. “I am an unmarried woman in the Regency and I am not risking pregnancy.”
“But . . .” I tried.
“No, buts,” she said firmly.
Instead I ended up with the sexual tension coming from thwarted desire. My couple desperately wants to be together – but both understand all the reasons that it can’t work between them and neither is willing to compromise. It’s much more reminiscent of the romances I read as teen, than of most of the books out now. There is a wonderful tension in waiting and I’ve never had the chance to explore it before. (PS. This novella will be continued later and Molly and I will have a firm talk before then.)
MADELINE IVA: Avon Impulse has released four of your stories called The Real Duchesses of London?How–why–what–inspired you to mash up the Housewives reality TV franchise with historical romance?
LAVINIA KENT: I have to confess that I adore reality TV. I try to hold myself down to only watching a few shows at a time, but it’s hard. I love watching the personal dynamics and trying to guess what is really happening behind the scenes.
I’ve watched most of the Real Housewives franchises, but my favorite has always been Beverly Hills, the clothes, the shoes, the hair, the parties . . . It’s a world so far away from the one I live in that it sends my imagination in giddy circles.
When I was watching it a few years ago, trying to decide if anybody really lived that way, I had the sudden realization that the heroines in Regency novels often did. Who else attends a ball every other night, has a closet the size of house and often arrives draped in yards of jewels? After that it was easy, I just started to create the ladies that I’d want in my own Housewives episode.
MADELINE IVA: Your website says you are a fan of Buffy. I too love all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What plot line did you savor the most from that series? Who was your favorite character?
LAVINIA KENT: My favorite season was definitely Season Two. Who could resist Angel? I still get tingly thinking about those sultry looks he’d send Buffy across the Bronze. And when he went bad, it was even better. Sigh. If I didn’t have a book to write I think I’d start marathoning a season right now.
Faith was my favorite. She was so dark and often twisted, but you sensed that her real problem wasn’t that she was bad, but that she made stupid choices.
MADELINE IVA: I thought her real problem was she wasn’t loved. The thing she had with the mayor — that Daddy and his little Princess thing? It was so much what she needed and so tragically twisted.
LAVINIA KENT: I kept hoping and hoping she’d figure out the right thing to do.
MADELINE IVA: I kept hoping somebody who really was quick on their feet and yet good would love her.
LAVINIA KENT: I also have to confess a deep and abiding love of Spike. I am not normally attracted to bad boys, but he had it all, from the great leather coat to sarcastic attitude and wit – all with that edge of vulnerability that would peek out when he hit one of his better moments.
MADELINE IVA: Oh yeah, definitely. He could hurt with the best of them. Another thing we share in common is our love of reality TV. What sucks you into the housewives franchise, and what other reality tv do you like? (I find I love competitions–Project Runway, ANTM, Master Chef, etc)
LAVINIA KENT: I’ve never watched Master Chef (not sure why not), but you’ve hit most of my favorites. I also love Top Chef and Chopped. I’ve watched Survivor since the second season (my husband insists I am the only person in the country still watching it).
MADELINE IVA: ; >
LAVINIA KENT: It’s definitely one of my favorite shows of all time. I enjoy watching how each season is different and how the contestants have learned from watching previous seasons – and yet, they can still fall for the same old traps.
I have to confess if I turn on the TV in the middle of almost any Bravo marathon I get caught up. I don’t care if they’re selling condos in Manhatten or matchmaking. I just can’t resist a sneak peek into other peoples lives.
Eat your heart out ladies n gents. The book isn’t out until July….
MADELINE IVA: Yup. So you started out with historicals and now you’re moving into….erotic historicals. Lavinia, you bad girl you! What’s made you wander over into this new territory? Do you think you’ll carry your audience along — or are you thinking you’ll have to build a new audience from scratch? And what’s some great erotic historical stuff that you’ve read?
LAVINIA KENT: I am going to start with the last question. I loved Lisa Valdez’s first book, PASSION.
MADELINE IVA: OMG, me too! I’ve blogged about it on my own website here.
LAVINIA KENT: I was shocked at the things she managed to get a way with.
I didn’t actually originally intend to write an erotic historical. I started with the idea for simple novella for an anthology I was in – and then my fingers started to smoke as I typed. I’d read a lot of erotic romance in the months before, trying to keep up with the market (at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). As I started to write, some of the flavor of what I’d been reading began to seep through and I began to wonder how historical characters would react given the same needs for domination and submission. I had an interesting time trying to decide what could and could not happen in the Regency and doing research as to what was historically possible.
As for what historical readers think of erotica – ask me in August and I’ll let you know. I am as eager for the answer as you are.
MADELINE IVA: That’s one enticing cover — I noticed it says LS at the top. What does it stand for, Lady Smut? ;>
LAVINIA KENT: It stands for Loveswept, but from this moment on every time I see it Lady Smut is definitely what will come to mind.
MADELINE IVA: Finally, if someone has missed out on your historicals in the past, where would you recommend she start?
LAVINIA KENT: All of my Avon novels take place in the same world). Chronologically, HINT OF DESIRE comes first and many readers like to start there. (I have to read in order. I hate it if I buy a book and then find out it’s from the middle of a series.) A TALENT FOR SIN was the first one published and is a very solid place to start.
Thank you so much for having me, Madeline. Your questions were so much fun to answer. I am always happy to talk reality TV and smutty romance.
MADELINE IVA: You’re welcome!
Meanwhile, my sassy readers, thanks for joining us today. You can find all of Lavinia’s books at Amazon here. But wait–there’s more! Leave a comment down below and you could win a free e-book by Lavinia. Your choice.
And please follow us at Lady Smut. Because, as HarperImpulse says, “We’ve got the love.”
May 20, 2014
When Love Moves You
You may remember a post I wrote several months ago about searching for love in the digital age. It was inspired by a friend of mine who’s in the throes of a serious long-distance relationship. She and her guy met online, they “dated” online, they even fell in love online – all without ever having actually met one another in person. They live really far apart – on separate continents – so airline tickets are über expensive and cash is tight for both of them. This situation went on for close to a year until finally, last month, they met in person. He flew to where she lives and stayed for four weeks. By all accounts, it was amazing. Now, alas, he’s gone back home and they’re left pondering the age-old, long-distance relationship question: should one of them move for love?
It would be a massive, emotional life change. It would mean leaving behind friends, family, job, and familiar comforts. It’s not something everyone can do. It’s not something everyone should do. But how’s a girl to know?
Writer Amy Spencer posted an interesting blog article on match.com’s online site, happen (tagline: “because love doesn’t come with instructions”) about her own experience on taking the moving-for-love plunge. She recently relocated from NYC to L.A. and shared some good insight about how to know the time to move is right. Her tips mostly focus on making sure that a couple’s long-term goals mesh. Dreams for the future, whether the relationship is “in it for the long haul,” that kind of stuff. She also wrote that the two of them having a new place together, instead of her moving into his existing place, was vital to success. She writes, “Now, instead of feeling like I’m encroaching on his pre-me life, I feel like we’re on an “us” adventure.”
The interesting dynamic in the situation for my friend, and for any couple involved in a long-distance relationship, is that ultimately there needs to be an end game. At some point, the relationship has gotta happen in the same location for it to deepen and grow. Skype and Hangout are great, but they only go so far. The truth is, if you’re not together, you’re not together. The physical doesn’t happen. Phone sex and Skype sex hold a certain appeal, but only for so long. You don’t want to be building up callouses (heyo!) from an over-abundance of self love.
While I was thinking about my friend’s situation and reading some articles on long-distance relationships, I came across something interesting. Blogger Eric Ravenescraft wrote that a friend once told him, “A long-distance relationship isn’t really a relationship. It’s the promise of one.” Interesting theory, but I don’t agree. Neither would my friend. She and her guy are definitely in a relationship, and have been for the past year. They’ve spent the bulk of their time apart and have only met once. Yet they are partners in every classic sense of the word. They share life’s ups and downs with each other, their dreams and their goals. They offer support to one another, they laugh; they love. But at some point, if they want to go on, one of them’s gotta move. Question is who? And when?
Have you ever moved for love? Would you? Let us know how you feel on the topic and don’t forget to follow us here at Lady Smut, where we’ll always try to move you.
May 19, 2014
The Lingerie Question: Short? Kinky? Elegant? Nothing?
By Liz Everly
One of the events were are trying to schedule for the launch of LADY SMUT’S BOOK OF DARK DESIRES is a party at a Derriere de soie, a lingerie shop in Charlottesville, Va. How delicious does this store look?
I say “trying” because we don’t really have a firm publication date—we know the release date is in August, but that’s about it. But while we are waiting for launch party plans to firm up, (now it looks like it will be Sept. 10), I starting thinking about lingerie and how much I love it.
Photo by Bahia Noticias
I love the different colors and the feeling of wearing sexy, naughty underwear, for example, underneath a business suit, or a sweat suit, or underneath anything in which people would not necessarily expect it. Not that I do it that often, mind you. Here is the reason: my husband is, um, well just not that impressed with it. That is to say, lingerie is not his thing at all.
Funny, because most of my friend’s husbands are like this, too. A group of us went to a lingerie store together and I confessed that I’d not spend the money a this time because, well, I’d have it on for about two seconds—or I might have it on all night without a second glance from my husband. It doesn’t seem to matter what I wear. He wants it off. When the mood strikes, he doesn’t care what I’m wearing—including my old cotton “granny” nighties.
One of my friends confessed that her husband likes her in a t-shirt. Just a t-shirt—so why would she buy lingerie? Ah, we are practical women, my friend and I, that don’t have much money to flash around and so we don’t indulge.
But what we will indulge on is a good solid bra and firm support-ish garments. Those are definitely worth the money for us. A good bra demands a good fitting—the lingerie store is a good place for that.
Personally, if I did buy more lingerie, it would be of the long flowing silky nightgowns, not necessarily uncomfortable short, tight variety. I’d buy it just for the way it would make me feel. And hey those good feelings might spill over to the man I share a bed with, who knows? It’s worth a shot.
What about your bedmates? Lingerie? T-shirts? Granny nighties or, um, butt-naked?
By the way, the winner of last week’s copy of LIKE HONEY is Harliqueen! Congrats. Will be emailing your copy today!
May 18, 2014
Tapped Out
by Kiersten Hallie Krum
I am tapped out this week. Between busy day job shenanigans during the week and BFD—Big Family Drama—on the weekend, I’ve been basically sitting in a chair all Sunday in a stupor, moving only to refill my glass and re-position the cats.
There are a lot of people in Romancelandia tapped out tonight thanks to the RT Booklovers Convention in New Orleans that ran all last week. Despite my best (or perhaps worst considering the host city) intentions, I was unable to attend and instead took solace from my tapped out week in the fantastic tips and treats filtering out from the convention on The Twitter. Also, I now have extreme NOLA envy beyond description. Truly, there is no better social media venue than Twitter for getting the sense of an industry event if not actually attending it. I highly recommend a perusal of the #RT14 hashtag to get a taste of all the buzz, much of which was about erotic romance, interracial couples and diversity in romance and especially in the covers , romantic suspense, and new adult romantic fiction. I nearly wore out my favorite button…
Reading the tweets and quotes and summaries from the convention brought home how broad an umbrella erotic romance extends over a bevy of varying sub genres like the deeply developed dystopian world of Kit Rocha’s Beyond series on one end and the disturbing trend of Dino Porn at the other. As a sidebar, Kit Rocha’s alter egos were giving out O’KANE FOR LIFE flasks at RT this week. I may have offered nefarious services if someone would grab one for me. Jury’s still out.
And finally, because when I’m tapped out, I troll for videos of mellifluous actors reading sensual poetry, a little taste of Tom Hiddleston reading E. E. Cummings’ “May I Feel Said He.” to start your week off right.
Follow LadySmut.
We Have the Technology, All Right: Consider the Possibility of Robot Sex
Okay, our robotic sex partners won’t be as hot as Yul Brynner’s Gunslinger. Probably not as dangerous, either.
By Alexa Day
A recent study indicates that one in six people would be willing to have sex with a robot. I’m kind of surprised that the number is so low. I think most of us know at least one person who would jump at the chance to have sex with a robot. You probably know more than one if you’re counting me. After all, it was just a little while ago that I wanted us all to think seriously about having sex with a coach in the room.
(If you don’t think you do know even one person who would say yes, well, you know what they say. I’ll wait here while you check the mirror.)
Today’s post, then, is for the other five people. I’m not convinced those people actually said no to the robot sex. I just think they haven’t said yes. That’s understandable. There’s a lot to take into consideration. In all honesty, if someone did ask me whether I’d be willing to have sex with a robot, my response, lawyerly though it might be, would be that it depends.
My mission today is to help those of you on the fence to focus your thoughts. If you get from maybe to yes, then so much the better. If you decide on no, well, at least I know you thought about it.
From where I sit, there are at least three questions between any of us and a sensible decision about robot sex.
1. Define sex. I have presumed that this question refers to sexual intercourse. But why limit our definition in that way? I don’t know that I want any part of oral sex with a robot, but honestly, if we trust a robot to perform surgery, should oral sex be out of the question? What about manual stimulation? And consider the robot as sexual mediator. How many couples have broken up — or never gotten together — because of That One Thing He/She/You Wouldn’t Do? Mightn’t the hangup-free robot be a giant step toward togetherness? Of course, you’d have to be totally comfortable with the idea that the robot can’t catch feelings for your partner, which leads to the next question.
2. Define robot. This is a thorny question. After all, women have been enjoying sexual contact with various forms of machinery since the days of hysteria. My presumption was that we were actually talking about an android, a completely artificial construct that’s built to resemble a human being. I’m not going to lead us down the primrose path to the robot brothel filled with androids who look like Jude Law because then the question becomes “Would I have sex with Jude Law?” There’s nothing wrong with that question. It just isn’t really what we’re talking about.
Our robot sex partners might be closer to this than we’d like. Probably not this dangerous, though.
Instead, let’s try to be as realistic about this as we can. You’re probably going to be dealing with a robot who looks like one of those Animatronic fellows they have at your higher-end amusement parks. (Or Westworld. Remember Westworld?) That’s the best case scenario. At worst, you’ll be working with something one step prettier than the original Terminator toward the end of that first movie. Lots of metal, expressionless eyes, unspeakably heavy, and lots of exposed joints to pinch your most sensitive places.
Leaving aside the question of appearance and safety, how much artificial intelligence are we working with? My learned colleague, Madeline Iva, suggested that an android like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, only (much) sexier, might make a good partner. I concur. All of us want a partner who’s eager to perform well, wants to learn from past experience, draws from an infinite body of knowledge, and isn’t dragging around a lot of emotional baggage. All we’d have to do is adjust the sexiness level, but how difficult could that be with modern technology?
3. So what’s the catch? For each of us still thinking about Our Robot Sex Partners, there is at least one unanswered question that prevents us from agreeing to hot robot action. In my case the question is, “Do I get the robot right out of the box?” See, if the robot has been around, and everyone and her sister has been rubbing herself against it, then I have to decline. Another woman might ask what the robot looks like. A third probably wonders if money is an object (another potential dealbreaker for me, although I’m sure as hell trying to deduct that bad boy on my tax return). And I guess I’m still hung up on whether it’s heavy. Robot sex isn’t going to be quite so enjoyable for me if we can only use some of the positions.
A quick search confirms that there’s a wide body of erotica featuring robot sex, although I can’t say I’ve read any of it. But I know I can count on you tech-savvy, sex-savvy folks to let me know where to start, right?
And be sure to let me know if you’re up to getting down with the robots.
And finally, be sure to follow Lady Smut. Nothing can possibly go wrong. Seriously.
May 17, 2014
Sexy Saturday Round-Up
By Liz Everly and the Lady Smut Bloggers
Hello Sexy! Happy Saturday! Time to kick back and do some blog reading. We’ve been scouring the Internets just for you.
From Liz Everly:
I met CJ Lyons last year and she’s awe-some. Here’s a post that talks about her as entrepreneur.
Interesting blog here, which I will now be watching. This post on “Mommy Porn” totally rocks.
Rachel Kramer Bussell is hot for fat guys. How about you?
From Madeline Iva:
Mary Stewart is dead! The queen of romantic suspense has passed.
Is the next new trend Corporate tattoos?
World body painting festival–check it out.
From Elizabeth:
Ditch your Uggs and other words of fashion advice from guys on what they like to see (or not) their women wear.
One blogger’s wise counsel on what to do if your fiance is a masturbating maniac.
Oooooh, so naughty! Sexy vintage postcards.
Kick your jerk-off, annoying inner critic to the curb.
From Alexa:
New trend or wishful thinking? Shorter shorts for dudes.
George R.R. Martin’s writing secret would make me either frightfully prolific or hopelessly insane.
Ten things women would rather see than a dick pic. Okay, maybe eight things.
From CMK:
Reddit Women Fight Trolls With Hilariously Gross Period Talk
Save Net Neutrality or you can say goodbye to sites like Lady Smut
Spiritualism, Fakes & Table Tapping
Stay Hungry,
Liz
May 16, 2014
Bad Girl Friday Jukebox
Okay, so sometimes I just have a bad attitude. I find it hard to write romance at times like that so it’s just as well I write noir crime and horror as well because it’s a lot easier to channel that. Although there’s something to be said for the ‘good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere!’ vibe (as one of my publishers put it).
I do have bad girl heroines like Shai in the first Man City volume. She’s a very naughty gal but she knows what she wants — and because she demands it, she gets it. But that’s not what I’m thinking of today. Today I just want to think of those songs that make you howl because the wordless squeal of guitars is sometimes the only thing that clears that bad mood out of your head and lets you get back to work. Sadly most angry songs have to do with break-ups. What about all the other things that make you angry?
“When I get what I want, I never want it again.”
“I don’t give a damn about my reputation.”
“I want to go to the devil.”
“I cheated myself like I knew I would.”
“You know better…”
“When I get mad…I make a list…of all the people who won’t be missed” (especially for the QoE).
What are your favourite bad girl anthems? Follow the Lady Smut crew and let your bad girl have her day.
May 15, 2014
Blast From the Past: WORLD WITHOUT MEN
By Madeline Iva
Hey Gals n Guys — got a deadline this week. Here’s a blast from the past — enjoy!
Madeline here! Wanted to share with you all this whacky pulp novel cover to the pulp sci-fi novel WORLD WITHOUT MEN by Charles Eric Maine. 5,000 years in the future women live without men, while the government desperately tries to create one. Then a scientist actually recovers one from the ice age–and all hell breaks loose!
What I tickles me about this cover, aside from it’s delicious sense of drama and campy crisis–is that it captures all the details in the book so faithfully. The stained eyeballs are the correct color, the white lipstick is accurate, the scientist in the background has lacquered silver across her breasts (yes, this is what science looks like when women are in charge). The woman in the front has a purple collar–she even has the little cord in her hand. It’s mentioned in the book that when she goes out she pulls on the chain, and the fabric in the collar drops down and covers her like a choir gown.
Nice job, ACE BOOKS. Meanwhile, you’ll be happy to know that in this future world, women still are into romance. Albino women have become the big popular love interest. (!!!)
One thing we know is that in a world without men, there’d be no hunky chunks of man-flesh around to grab and hold onto. This would seriously dampen my joy in life. And in the spirit of celebrating Labor Day, I’d like to take a moment to celebrate all those men out there across America who take out the garbage, mow the lawn, and kill the spiders or other icky-crawlies. I can do the same job as a man, and I ought to get paid the same amount, but I still appreciate it that these particular chores do not fall to me.
May 13, 2014
The Taboo Of Lady Parts: Hair Down There
So I’m thumbing through the latest issue of InStyle magazine the other day when I spot an interview with Cameron Diaz who’s talking about – of all things – pubic hair. Egad! I gotta admit, however, that she’s pretty passionate on the topic, stating that it’s a conversation we gals should have. “It’s the taboo of lady parts!” she exclaims, backing up her statement with what she’s written in her health/wellness bestseller, The Body Book. She writes, “I think permanent hair removal sounds like a crazy idea . . . Twenty years from now you will still want to be presenting it to someone special, and it would be nice to let him or her unwrap it like the gift that it is.”
Frankly, I’m not sure guys (or whoever happens to be heading south on you) think of “unwrapping” that lady-est of lady part when it comes to dealing with a hairy hoo-hoo, but I get Diaz’s point. You don’t necessarily want to be smooth as an egg forever. Fads change and today’s Kojak bald could be tomorrow’s fluffy muff. But it just seems like lately there are so many celebrities talking about the hair down there. From Gwyneth Paltrow’s declaration that she “rocks a ’70s bush” to Lady Gaga demanding a mannequin with puffy pink pubic hair accompany her on tour, there’s an awful lot of carpet matching the drapes talk goin’ on. What gives?
“Frankly,” a friend told me recently, “I really don’t think guys think much about it. We care a lot more than they do.” She has a point. We’re coming up with all kinds of creative ways to groom the garden. As far as we gals are concerned, the simple landing strip just isn’t going to fly. Women today are paring the pubes in all kinds of shapes and designs, from little squares (the “postage stamp”) to hearts, flowers, and more. I even came across a website, pubicstyle.com, where readers send in vajayay selfies with the style they’re currently sporting. Yet for whatever it’s worth, a recent poll asking men for their favorite lady bit styles had 33% of men favoring the natural look, with a classic Bermuda triangle coming in second. Hearts and squares and flowers? Meh.
OK, so you decide you’re going to stop with the painful Brazilian and keep some grass on the lawn. But what if said grass is starting to, you know, age a bit? If you’re earning the moniker of the “silver fox” and it’s not because of the hair atop your head, what’s a pube-lovin’ girl to do? Elementary, my dear. You dye it.
There are plenty of resources for dyeing pubic hair, but the one that keeps coming up over and over is a company called Betty, whose tagline is “color for the hair down there.” Betty offers an assortment of the usual natural colors, brown, black, blonde, but you can also have fun and go for a specialty color like green, pink, or blue. Said to be safe for the sensitive area, Betty can be used frequently and the manufacturer recommends dyeing one’s pubes every 3-4 weeks.
Cultural preferences play a role as well. While critics of the hairless hoo-hoo cite porn as the driving factor behind it, that doesn’t universally apply. For example, there’s no shortage of pussies with pubes among Japanese porn actresses.
So, armed with this information, how’s a romance writer to respond? If women apparently care about the hair below as much as the effort spent down there seems to indicate, should we writers incorporate that into the romance? I’ve read scenes where “springy dark curls” or something like that get an occasional mention, but for the most part our lady gardens seem to be haira non grata. With the hairless coochie apparently being kicked to the curb, should bushy mounds be getting their due? Do readers want to read about it?
Give us your opinion in the comments below and don’t forget to follow Lady Smut. Wtih a fresh post every day of the week, we’re never hair today, gone tomorrow.
