Liz Everly's Blog, page 137

Outlander Fever

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

In Los Angeles this week and next, the Television Critics Association (TCA) is having the winter edition of it’s two-week conference wherein television shows present their shiny trailers and shinier cast for panels and interviews of the season ahead. For a TV junkie like me, this is two-weeks of delayed gratification as I suck up each tidbit on favorites such as Orphan Black and Game of Thrones.

Outlander.

For those of you living in a romance-deprived cave (poor dears), Ronald Moore, who brilliantly rebooted Battlestar Galactica some years ago,  is now bringing to life Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander opus as a television series for the Starz premiere cable channel. Over the years since the first, original Outlander novel was published, many have toyed with interpreting it for the screen, mostly as a feature film. This has always scared the pattrach outta me.

Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe)

I came to the Outlander craze late (and by that, I mean mid-90s late not last year late) because I don’t like time travel stories because the initial conceit doesn’t track for me. If you go back in time and travel forward, you will eventually reach the point in time in which you went back in time and traveled forward to reach the point in time when you went back in time and traveled forward… Time is not cyclical and so this paradox (only one of many) has long kept me from enjoying time-travel romances. As a history buff, particularly for all things Celtic, this aversion to time-travel romance was an anathema as a quick trip to ye olden times would be the best holiday ever in my books, so long as I could take penicillin and soap with me. But with the exception of Jude Devereux’s  A Knight in Shining Armour, which I adored in spite of myself, time-travel romance was not for me.

Jamie takes a beating from Black Jack

Until Outlander.

I picked up a discounted copy in the book shop in Clinton, NJ and haven’t looked back since. Years later, I wound up working for what was then Bantam Dell Publishers at Random House, the publishers of the Outlander series, and was involved in the re-packaging program that accompanied the arrival of the then newest volume, The Fiery Cross. I’ve read every book in the series several times and even spent days uploading the unabridged audiobooks onto my iPod (24 discs was the smallest amount for one book) and have listened to all of them. I am, in short, an uber-fan.

It’s the characters, you see. James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp Randall. While many, including the author Diana Gabaldon, claim Outlander is not a romance, it  most certainly is romantic historical fiction as the relationship and love between these two characters is the cornerstone of the entire series. It’s not easy, it’s rarely pretty, and they do really terrible things to each other over the course of what is now seven books not counting the spin offs (the eighth book arrives in June). And yet the depth of their love is such that literally crosses the barriers of time. Naturally, to me, no one could possibly manifest these characters on screen, no film could possibly do justice to this epic tale that has captured so many millions of fans over the years. Outlander is bloody, and angsty, and often very hard to read but it’s also emotional and really, really sexy, and beautiful and will break your heart in such a way that you’ll hurry up to have it happen all over again. No way a film could do all that proper justice.

Jamie at Lallybroch

Well, by the look of things from the TCAs this week, I was wrong.

Ron Moore is making a series, not a feature film. Thank you Game of Thrones for paving that way. Instead of a one-shot, two-hour movie and then a long wait over several years for the next one, we get a full season of a show (at least) for each book and the promise of more within the year. He’s filming it in Scotland so no cheating on the ambiance and he took the time to find the right people to inhabit Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and not only physically (though he pretty much hit the mark there). Moore embraces the fandom; he knows how important this series is to them (us) and he and the production have made pains to include the fans in the process.

Which is what happened Saturday.

Ron Moore and Diana Gabaldon along with stars Caitriona Balfe and  Sam Heughan first did a panel for the critics and then went on to do a major fan-event that included art work from the production team that made me gasp aloud, the news that the great composer Bear McCreary will be scoring the series (as he did Moore’s Battlestar Galactica) and a full-fledged trailer!!! Caitriona and Sam are ridiculously charming as can be seen in these snippets from the panel. But that trailer…oh my giddy aunt.

I’m hooked. I’m totally in. I cannot wait for the debut of what promises to be a faithful interpretation of a story that has fascinated me for twenty years. I am so ready to fall through the magic in those Standing Stones all over again.

Are you Outlandish? Have you read the books? If so, what are you most excited to see come to life on the screen from the series?

For more Outlander goodness, visit the official Starz Channel Outlander page

For more detailed tidbits from the fan event panel, check out Heroes and Heartbreakers play by play breakdown.

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The White Zone Is For Picking Up Passengers: Hot Airport Sex

By Alexa Day

I hate flying. Airfare’s out of control. That position you have to assume in the scanner machine – I don’t know, isn’t that exactly the posture of those people in horror movies who are about to be crushed by something huge? The whole experience has driven me to road trips. I only fly when I absolutely have to.

So when I had to fly for the Christmas holiday, I remembered the very best thing about air travel: the airport itself. Leaving the hell of TSA screening behind and heading off toward the concourses is like that scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door of her home post-tornado and discovers that the world is made of Technicolor. The airport has a magic all its own.

First, I make it a point to hit the airport bar. You know the song, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”? Well, the airport bar is “somewhere.”

After I’ve had my welcome-to-vacation beer (or beers), it’s time to settle in for some nice man-watching along the concourse. I’m not sure what makes the airport a haven for hot guys. Maybe I’m just being exposed to a wider cross-section of men on the concourse, and I’m seeing not only the most attractive men who are coming back home but hotties from out of town, as well as fine gentlemen making connections. Maybe I’m just relaxed after the TSA nightmare, and my rose-colored glasses just make everyone look hot. Maybe it’s the high concentration of uniforms – both flight crew and military are abundant in the good ol’ airport. Whatever the cause, my last few trips to the airport have turned up a lot of … inspiration … for this erotic romance writer.

While I was hanging out at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, contemplating The Men of D Concourse and sharing my observations with the Twitterverse, I found myself in this rather interesting situation.

Ryan Gosling lookalike on the left. Nervous-looking European type (in adorable saddle shoes) on the right. Tall hot blond strolling by. #atl—
Alexa Day (@AlexaJDay) December 26, 2013

Because I’m one of those who can’t just leave work at the office, I let my imagination explore the practical possibilities of this. Not for me, of course. For a fortuitous heroine with the guts to do more than stare slyly at Saddle Shoes and the well-heeled Gosling clone. Sparks are sure to fly in the potent mixture of anonymity and stranger danger that fuels modern American air travel. On the one hand, we have all bonded in some way through the shared TSA experience. On the other hand, since we probably won’t see each other again after this interlude on the D Concourse, we needn’t ruin these special moment with names. Add the time pressure that dominates air travel, and voila! Instant sexual tension.

But what would a lucky woman do if things started to go very well for herself and Saddle Shoes and the Gosling clone? What if things started to go well enough to include the tall hot blond?

Well, let’s be honest. There’s plenty that new friends can do right there on the D Concourse. Sure, people are all over the place, but they’re preoccupied with other things. They’re moving briskly along, trying to get to their gates or the train or whatever. They might not even notice three or four people becoming better acquainted as long as they all keep their clothes on.

Those not inclined toward exhibitionism have a couple of other options. There’s the airport lounge – you know, the ones coach flyers like me only hear about – with the deep comfortable chairs and a luxuriant shower. I imagine it’s quiet enough in the Admirals’ Club to enjoy a hushed game of I Never and some nice dirty talk.

Long layover? No trouble.

There’s something to be said for real privacy, though. For that, you’d need a sleep pod.

The sleep pod is a relatively recent travel innovation. Although air travelers have been sleeping at the airport for years (I myself have spent many hours asleep on my duffel bag), the sleep pod is specifically designed for that purpose. Some of them look like the cryopods in Alien. Some of them look like the boxes you get action figures in. But Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has five little mini-suites on the B Concourse. They look like tiny hotel rooms. They’re not huge, but I think they’d offer three – or four – people more than enough space to really get to know each other.

I didn’t know about the Minute Suites on my Christmas trip. Even if I had, they were two concourses away. Kind of a long trip for a short layover.

But now I know there are sleep pods on B Concourse, hot guys on the D Concourse … and The Varsity on the C Concourse. I might be ready to move in to the Atlanta airport. I wonder what the TSA will have to say about that?

Coffee, tea, or Lady Smut? Why not all three? Follow us. It’s still the safest way to travel.

Sexy Saturday Round-Up

Photo by Dollen

by Liz Everly and the Lady Smut Bloggers

Hello, Sexy! We are back with our noses to the grindstone here at Lady Smut. We are diligently searching for some of the best, juciest content to bring to you every Saturday morning. Enjoy!

From Liz:

Molly Green parsing the publishing predictions.

The word in hybrid publishing.

Kensington’s Steven Zacharius on how publishers decide to publish books.

Jenna Jackson on hair and eye color in your heros.

CMK:

The latest round of Frazenfreude: Jennifer Weiner wonders how being on social media has become the new way to dismiss women as “shameless self-promoters” because you know, we always do it wrong.

How to write a computer-generated bestseller?

Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson are epic.

Teach Me Tonight looks on with hope at another mainstream writer taking romance seriously.

From Elizabeth:

Think it’s just about sex? Wrong! Here are ten things men want from you.

Four fashion staples you must own (according to Glamour magazine, anyway).

One woman’s rather harrowing tale of when bad things happen with a menstrual cup.

Is this funny? Interesting? Creepily weird? You make the call – critiquemydickpic.

From Madeline:

Here’s an argument that Buffy didn’t change things–Discuss amongst yourselves.

Salon.com presents the rise of erotic romance and its appeal.

What no tattooes and piercings? Common American Girl!

Stay Hungry,

Liz

P. S. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog–you don’t want to miss a post, do you? Hmmm?

Invitation to Die by Helen Smith

by C. Margery Kempe

We don’t do many book reviews on Lady Smut, but every once in a while there’s a book that totally captivates one of us. I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Smith at Bouchercon (the huge annual mystery conference that took place in Albany last autumn) and found her warm and witty — and I’m glad to say her books reflect the same spirit.

There’s an extra pleasure for romance writers and readers in Invitation to Die. Here’s the blurb:

Emily Castles is 26 and unemployed, so when romance writer Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London it’s an opportunity she can’t turn down. When Morgana offers American blogger, Winnie Kraster, an invitation to attend the conference as her guest, she too eagerly accepts the offer. What Winnie doesn’t realise is that her invitation entails a little more than just a visit to London. The guests gather and every one of them has a motive for murder, so when Winnie disappears and is then found dead, Emily knows that her killer is among the assembled gathering. The question is, which one of them did it? Emily teams up with the conference’s guest speaker, eccentric philosophy professor Dr Muriel, to uncover the truth.

Every little bit of the story shows someone who knows and loves the genre as well as being aware of its foibles. You will recognize the sort of authors and bloggers teasingly portrayed with a sense of fun but also realistically enough to be more than mere caricatures. I laughed out loud a lot while reading this. There are some great passages including an epic blogger dream of success but it’s near the end so I don’t want to give anything away. Here are a few good bits:

Surely there was a more appropriate word than gathering: a pash, a kiss, a smooch of romance authors?

“I have never been so humiliated!”

Cerys whispered to Zena, “There speaks a man. Never had a smear test or a mammogram.”

“I think, if you don’t mind, I’ll start at the end and work backward.”

“Who are you? Martin Amis?”

Smith is more than just amusing, however; the mystery is well spun and will keep you guessing right up until the end. Emily Castles is an unassuming young woman, not a snoopy busybody. She’s motivated more by curiosity than anything else and quietly observant of the people around her. She’s nice which seems to be a rare attribute in heroines. I loved the professor Dr Muriel, too. Perhaps there’s just something delightful about an intelligent older woman who speaks her mind.

Check out Smith — you’ll be delighted. And follow her journey across the globe! She’s just set off on a cruise from Southampton to San Diego with a bunch of stops in between. Sounds like fun!

Venus in Faux Furs

by Madeline Iva

Oh, baby, I love it when it’s cold outside. It’s brrrrrilliant.  Snow hides so many landscape flaws.  Big sweaters hide so many bulges.  In fact, I have no problem becoming hands and a face for months at a time.

Hats are charming, as are gloves and mittens.  Your face looks better pink, and the cold boosts your metabolism.  What’s not to love?

I remember the first time I was driving in the snow.  Kind of skidded into a ditch and got stuck.  First car that passed by stopped.  Guy got out, pushed me out.  It’s that kind of neighborliness that makes my heart go pitter-pat.

I remember the first time a guy tackled me into a snow drift.  That was so hot.  The first time a guy loaned me his jacket because I was cold.  So sweet.

Hi hot Swedish guy!

Also, I love all things Swedish.  All things Icelandic.  Oh hell, might as well throw the Finnish in there too.  (But Norway, I’ve only got the stink eye for you.)

My big dream is to one day get to someplace really cold where they’ve built an ice castle.

I loved going to this winter solstice art show (outside, but they also had mulled cider and mulligatawny soup –yum!) where you could make your own ice lights and put candles in them and put them in a field.  It was sooooooooo cool.

Basically, the reason I love the cold so much is that I’m a real home body.  When it’s cold outside it’s perfectly appropriate to stay indoors.  To huddle up–or even better cuddle up–in front of a fire, space heater or what have you.  I’ve made use of dogs, cats, and giant mugs of hot drinks.  Whatever works.

Okay, the show I went to wasn’t *this* cool. But it was still fun.

You’re perfectly okay reading a book, taking a nap — doing whatever it takes to stay warm. ;> If you know what I mean.  And I think you do.

The one thing I haven’t liked about the recent cold snap is the sight of older women suddenly dragging out their furs.  :(   While I adore a kicky little faux fur fun, the real stuff is blech to me, once I learned how they killed the animals.

So here’s to the arctic vortex!  Here’s also to reliable heat, hot drinks, and awesome sweaters.  Here’s to endless hats, scarves, and one day bringing back enough snow for pony sleigh rides.  I’ve got about a million free reads on Book Bub to check out.  Will report back to you soon with whatever gives me ssssssssteam heat. ;>

Stay warm,

xo

Madeline

Where’s The Sex? Frustrations Of Love In The Digital Age

By Elizabeth Shore

One nice thing about the holiday season is that we often have a little more time than normal to snuggle up with loved ones. Even if you don’t have a fireplace, snuggling is a good way to keep your fires burning, right? Unless, of course, you and your loved one have never even met. Strange but true. I’m talking about love in the digital age.

In the “old” days of five years ago or more, people who wanted to date often started with a common first step: they actually met. In person. Whether introduced through mutual friends, meeting at a party, in a bar, at a grocery store, through involvement with a club or church group, people began talking to one another, then they maybe went to coffee, or lunch, or dinner, or whatever, and the relationship grew from there. Even people involved in a long-distance relationship first got to know one another in person. But nowadays? Not necessarily so.

A good friend of mine is involved with someone she’s never actually met. They got to know one another online through a dating site, started emailing, then started Skypeing. They really like one another. In fact, they love one another. But these two people live worlds apart – literally, on different continents – and since neither is particularly flush with cash, they haven’t had the means to fly to where the other lives and meet in person. This relationship has lasted now for over seven months. When will they meet? Nothing definite’s  in place. Are they frustrated? Like a guy with a colossal case of blue balls they are.

The physical aspect of a relationship is, for most couples, hugely important. It’s often the primary – perhaps only – difference between your really great friends and your lover. With friends you get their love, their caring, their support, their shoulder to cry on, their victories to cheer on. With your lover you get all that plus the sex.  Even if you and your lover are in the beginning stages and the sex hasn’t come yet, you know it will. It’s out there, desire is building, waiting to be unleashed. Except, you know, if you can’t unleash it because the closest you’ve ever gotten to seeing your digital lover is via Skype or Google video chat.

Another monkey wrench in the arena of digital love is the very way we define a relationship. My friend would say that she’s in a relationship. I would suspect, although I’ve never asked her, that there’s an expectation between these two of monogomy. And commitment. But is it fair to either party? Is it right? If I live in NYC and I’m carrying on a long-distance relationship with someone in Phoenix, we can certainly expect vows of commitment to be upheld despite the distance apart. But that’s because we’ve first established our relationship in person. I think it’s also assumed that eventually the long distance will be addressed. It’s pretty much a short-term situation that either gets resolved by one or the other’s move, or it fizzles out because you never see each other. But what about if you’ve never actually met and don’t know if you ever will? Where do you set the boundaries? Are you even entitled to have any?

Digital love is an interesting phenomenon that never even existed until recently. But online dating continues to grow every year and is more and more common as a way to connect. However, even now in the age of breaking up via text and defining one’s relationship status on Facebook, once the initial connection between two people has been made, it’s still the case that nothing less than physical interaction will do for developing the relationship. The enormous importance of physical intimacy is why we erotic romance writers never lack for inspiration. Without ever having a physical connection, we might just find ourselves falling in love with nothing more than a whole lotta pixels.

What do you think of love in the digital age? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to follow us for more thought-provoking posts.

A Man Who can MOVE, baby

By Liz Everly

Am I the only woman who has a list of famous men she’d like to dance with? I wonder. Even though I’m not a professional dancer, I danced for many years, as do my daughters now, and I’ve spent a lot of time in dance studios and around other dancers. I don’t know if that’s why I’m so attracted to men who move well. I’ve never dated a sloucher or a man who shuffles his feet along as he walks. I like a man with confidence in his movement.

My list of men I’d like to dance with could go on a bit—I warn you. But I’ve decided to give myself a limit.  I use the number five in many of my posts. So I decided to try to stick with that, but I went just a bit over.

Mikhail Baryshnikov. The very definition of a gorgeous, graceful, elegant man. Can you imagine what it would be like to dance in his arms? It might be quite like floating.
Patrick Stewart. Just one waltz, please, while wearing his Star Trek outfit. En-gage.
Robert Duvall. Because I’ve always wanted to learned to Tango. And he lives in Virginia, so it could be arranged. (Robert, have your people call my people, okay?)
Harry Connick Jr. Because, well, why not? He seems very graceful and he could sing in my ear as we dance. That’s always a plus.
Dave Matthews. Because he rocks my world. I love watching Dave sing and move, rocking across the stage. And hey, in lives in Virginia, too. We need to go clubbing one night. Just one night will do.
Tom Jones. The last time I saw him performing was just as energetic and raw as the first time. The man’s got some moves. 7. Usher.Very graceful and confident. Love to watch the man move. Even placing his sunglasses on…

So what do you think of my list? Are there any you’d add or subtract? Who would YOU like to dance with?

Longing for Resolution

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

“The world is what you make of it, friend. If it doesn’t fit you make alterations.”

Stella, The Midnight Star

Silverado 1985

It’s a blessing of time’s infinite if baffling structure that every 365 days or so, we get to reset our worlds.

The year turns and with it we take the untrod canvas ahead and foist on it the dreams that could be in that as yet undecided era. To lose weight. To exercise more. To be a better person. To run a marathon. To read more books (huzzah!). To write that book. To be less angry. To travel. To love more. To experience joy.  

This time I’ll do it better. 

We want to do better, to be better, to have a better life than we experienced the year before.

We long to be something, someone, else.

We long.

Much like resolutions, longing is at the heart of romance and relationships whether we’re living them or writing about them.

Jane Austen made a whole career writing about people who inexplicably long for one another despite all sense and sensibility to the contrary. Pride and Prejudice is Darcy and Elizabeth longing first to endure the other and then longing for each other as much as they long to undo the actions that have left their families in pieces and them on either side of the title’s two divides. The entirety of Persuasion is Anne longing she’d made a different choice, that she’d be stronger, that she’d trusted herself over the pressures and influences of others who had their own agenda for her life. And, of course, longing for the admirable Captain Wentworth and a second chance to say yes.

Longing runs rampant through erotic fiction too. For sex, sure, as erotic romance and erotica use explicit sexual interaction to get at the true longings of the characters’ hearts. But in this is also the longing for basic connection that the many forms of sexual love can appease if only for a fleeting amount of time.

Sex physically manifests the body’s yearnings, but it is the easier means of expressing the heart’s true desires. For affection. For edification. For touch. For connection. For love. 

This is why we latch onto archetypal characters presented in fiction, either on  the screen or the page. These people, these characters, are the apex of our spoken, and often unspoken, longings. We long for that type of man (or woman) to fill what we feel we lack in our lives.

 

A longing that drives us to make resolutions. 

We resolve to do better, to work harder, to achieve more, to be satisfied with less, to be worthy, to be less expectant, to reach farther, to challenge everything, or just something, in order to feed our need, to resolve our longing.

To live and be something…different. Other.

New.

What are you longing for in 2o14?

Follow Lady Smut. We fulfill all kinds of longings.

More, More, More in the Twenty-One-Four

By Alexa Day

I take a dim view of most New Year’s resolutions. Every year, I see lots of hoopla about what people are resolving to do, and then, about three weeks later, there’s a wave of shaming about how many people have already returned to their pre-resolution lives. But who can blame them? The average resolution sounds like a lot of work! Think of all the deprivation involved in losing weight, going on a budget, abandoning alcohol, smoking, fatty foods. No thanks! This year, I’ve decided I want more. More of everything, really.

That’s a tall order, I know. Let’s start with these three things.

M/M Romance. If you’ve been hanging out here for a while, you know that I am new to male-male romances. I confessed a little while ago that I had never read one and worse, that I had no real reason for not having read one. Well, C. Margery Kempe popped my m/m cherry (and if you can think of a less appropriate turn of phrase, please do let me know what it is) with MAN CITY: MARTIN, which I gobbled down just before the holidays. I usually shy away from the holiday stories because they tend to lean toward the home-and-hearth-and-2.5-kids themes, but Martin is a man after my own heart. He’s single during the Most Couples-y Time of the Year, and he does indulge in some sweet longing for a relationship like the one his friends Scott and James share. He’s also got some sexy thoughts about the two of them, and that’s where the real fun begins. Martin’s story is hot and playful and laugh-out-loud funny (I’ve been looking at nativity sets differently ever since). As I read, I felt the familiar inclination to choose between the two of them. Then I realized that not only could I have both Scott and James, but that Martin himself was in the sweet-spicy mix as well. A sexy story featuring not one … not two … but three tempting men — that’s the kind of abundance I demand from my 2014! I can’t wait to see what else the world of m/m (and m/m/m, of course) romance has to offer me.

You know, I’m not altogether sure it’s even possible for pleasure to be guilty.

Swirl TV. Last year was definitely a hot one for the black woman/white man interracial action on TV. Olivia and Fitz have been smoldering away for three seasons now on Scandal, and now there’s an even less appropriate relationship between Candace Young and Jim Cryer on The Haves and the Have Nots. On top of that, I’m enjoying a healthy measure of sexual tension between Abbie and Ichabod on Sleepy Hollow. But deep in my rational mind, I’ve had to face that all three of these pairings come with a tiny little complication – the men are married. Sure, Olivia’s working around that, and Candace doesn’t seem to care, but I find I like Ichabod’s wife, Katrina, so much that I have mixed feelings about his getting together with Abbie. What to do? How about even more interracial hotness without quite so much of the adultery? I mean, I like the emotional workout generated by the moral situations we already have here. But in the spirit of more, I’d also like to just sit down and enjoy a more guilt-free sexy. Now, I admit that there may already be something out there that fits the bill precisely; I missed an entire season of Scandal before I found out about Olivia and Fitz. I’m counting on you, friends of Lady Smut, to clue me in if I’m clueless. I’m also quietly thinking about possible romances for Michonne on The Walking Dead, but that might deserve its own post.

Woman-friendly porn. Porn for women has been around for a pretty long time, I know. I know that it’s intended to fill the gaps (ha ha, heyo!) left vacant by “traditional” porn, so it’s got more storyline, more emotional content … which means more for some female viewers (okay, for me) to fast forward through. I’m not really coming to porn for a storyline, although, with apologies to Evelyn Beatrice Hall, I will defend to the death the rights of those women who do. I just think that porn is the fast food of sexual content. If I’m looking for an exquisitely sensual experience, 360 degrees of stimulation, I’m probably going to turn to a nice, hot book. If I just want the fries, I’m going for porn. I’m encouraged to hear about Dusk! TV, a Dutch television network dedicated to woman-oriented porn, or “porna.” (You don’t need me to say that all the Dusk! links are NSFW, right?) Dusk! relies on a panel of women dedicated to exploring and defining porna; the panel’s ratings determine what goes on the air. Alas, Dusk! isn’t available outside the Netherlands just yet, but I’m content to check out the Duskpanel’s research results (which indicate that I’m not the only girl fast-forwarding through all that storyline) until the network arrives here in the U.S. later this year. I imagine I could also pass the time with some gay porn; I’ve become convinced that it has more of what I like from porn and less of what irritates me. I’m not sure how long I’ll have to wait for Dusk!, and delayed gratification is, I think, at odds with this year’s quest for abundance.

What do you need more of this year? Let me know in the comments. And be sure to follow Lady Smut. We’ve got more of what you’re looking for.

Happy New Year, Sexies!

Welcome to 2014, Sexy Readers! We hope you’re waking up feeling amazing and excited about facing the new year! Alternately, if your head’s throbbing from over-indulgence, the light in your bedroom is blinding your sensitive eyes, and that previous sentence is waaaay too perky for the way you’re feeling right now, fear not. We’ve got you covered. We’ll be back on Sunday with our usual lineup of fun, sexy, thought-provoking, and arousing posts to keep you warm through the cold winter months and beyond. In the meantime, ease into the new year by catching up on some posts from last year that you may have missed. They’re sure to keep your fires burning.

From Alexa Day:

Are we all cool with reverse adultery?

Seeing the benefits of shirtless men.

And what’s up with those fake orgasms?

From Kiersten Hallie Krum:

Definitely not hot and bothered from aphrodisiacs.

Losing the fun in fandom.

Stimulation for the senses.

From C.M. Kempe:

Straightening the confusion between M/M and gay romance.

Oh, the places a penis fears to tread.

Something a writer hates doing – selling herself.

From Elizabeth Shore:

NFL playoffs have arrived. So let’s see some hot NFL men!

Too much partying make for squabbles with your mate? Good news – there’s always makeup sex.

Figuring out the difference between studs and nymphos.

From Madeline Iva:

Telling us why smart guys are so sexy.

A mid-year check-in on her top ten obsessions.

Plus sized success in erotic romance.

From Liz Everly:

She’s got a new reading attitude – quick and dirty.

Forget twerking. Miley Cyrus just needs to be spanked.

Is historical romance dead? No way! It’s still hot hot hot.