Liz Everly's Blog, page 139

Sexy Saturday Round-Up

Photo by Dollen

Hello, Sexy! Yay, it’s Saturday. It’s sooo cold here in Virginia, all I want to do is sit in front of the fire and curl-up with a juicy read. How about you? Here’s some blog posts for you to linger over on this cold weekend!

From Liz:

Is blogging necessary to your writer platform?

On open relationships. Still can’t make up your mind?

Scientists are reporting more girl-on-girl action.

Choosing the right kind of paddle for “play.”

From Elizabeth:

According to an article in GQ magazine, 10 reasons why men should quit watching online porn.

And while we’re on the subject, what in the heck is feminist porn?

As we end our weeklong celebration of Liz Everly’s Cravings, here’s a gift guide for what to get for a foodie.

Just in time! Five rules for hedonistic holiday sex.

Here’s what the guys think are 24 rules for being a gentleman in 2014.

Here’s what  Madeline’s got for your Xmas stocking:

Some excellent New Adult recommendations from Jennifer Armentrout.

Tracy Cooper Posey tells us How to Snag A Vampire In Record Time.

Lisa Gardner’s blog shares her writer’s toolbox — check out her guide to writing a synopsis!

We love kink blog – 5 love tap reviews.

Stay Hungry,

Liz

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to Lady Smut!

Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop

Join the biggest blog hop of the season, the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop. Win terrific prizes from all the authors above between December 13th and the 20th. My contribution is a copy of my holiday novelette, the M/M/M ménage Man City: Martin. Enter to win my book by commenting here. For the rest, follow the link to the main site and then follow all the links:

Visit the Mistletoe Madness Blog hop 2013 main page to enter to win the Grand Prize! Click Here

PJ Schnyder – steamy
Laura Kaye – steamy
Christi Barth – steamy
Katee Robert – steamy
Monica Burns – steamy


Christina Wolfer – steamy
Cat Johnson – steamy
Delphine Dryden – steamy
Vivi Dumas – steamy
Gabriella Edwards – steamy


Dana Marie Bell – steamy
Christine dAbo – steamy
Stephanie Flash Burke – steamy
Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences – all ages
Romance with Flavor – steamy


Simply Ali – steamy
Joyfully Reviewed – steamy
Books Make Me Happy – steamy
Literary Escapism – steamy
Sinfully Tasty Reads – steamy


Romancing Rakes For The Love of Romance – steamy
Thats What Im Talking About – steamy
Read-Love-Blog – steamy
The Book Tart – steamy
Trinity Blacio – steamy


Eliza Knight – steamy
Misa Buckley – all ages
Leah Braemel – steamy
Jodi Redford – steamy
Amy Joy Lutchen – all ages


Whos Reviews – all ages
AllisonGamblin.com – all ages
Books Make Me Happy – all ages
C. Margery Kempe – steamy
Tiffany Allee – all ages


Anna Daye – steamy
Val Griswold-Ford – all ages
Heather Long, Author – all ages
Nicole Zoltack – all ages
Robyn Neeley – all ages


Sarah Grimm – steamy
Ambrielle Kirk – steamy
Tonya Burrows – all ages
Selena Laurence – all ages
Rachel Rawlings – all ages


TrulySimplyPink – all ages
Kary Rader – all ages
In The Pages of a Good Book – steamy
Kait Ballenger – all ages
Zany PNR Addict – steamy


Tara Kingston – steamy
Mina Vaughn, Author – steamy
Hilary Storm, Author – steamy
Andrea Michelle – steamy
Kiss And Tell Reviews – steamy


the passionate reader – all ages
Emma Shortt – steamy

 

Gotta be in it, to win it! Tell all your friends!

And if you have done so already, be sure to check out Lady Smut blogger Liz Everly‘s Cravings: you know you want it! Be sure to sign up to follow our blog so you don’t miss a thing!

Retro Nog: Secrets to a Merry Little Xmas…

by Madeline Iva

What makes you love Christmas? For me it was my grandmother.  She brought the x in xmas.  She had a kind of classic 50′s sophisticated spirit that lingers in my heart to this day.  For her holidays were about food, drink, and making merry. When I think of the holiday season I think of her cooking, her generosity–as well as her whack tree ornaments.

In addition to grandma, a few key Christmas movies shaped my holiday ‘tude over the years.

First there was WHITE CHRISTMAS.  I saw White Christmas* one too many times at an impressionable age.  White Christmas embodies a lot of S’s: single, sophisticated, singing, sweaters, & snow.

When I hit my twenties I became entranced with THE THIN MAN. Nick n Nora–the perfect child-free couple–celebrates the holidays with friends, cocktails parties, and a few carefully selected self-indulgent gifts.

Lastly there’s CHRISTMAS IN CONNETICUT.  It’s about a single woman who doesn’t cook or tend the hearth.  She doesn’t have a domestic finger in her body in fact.  Yet there’s still a big ass tree, some singing, lots of  snow, cocktails, and a mostly child-free environment—-Are you hearing a theme here people?  There’s an attitude towards the holidays that I’ve internalized over the years.

John, I think we’re going to need a bigger tree.

So for folks who get cranky around the holidays here’s the cure you’ve been looking for. Get rid of your inner Grinch-ies by following these simple rules:

1) Buy yourself fabulous gifts.  This will improve your holiday cheer immediately.

Don’t worry Biffy, I already bought myself that bracelet I wanted and I’m SO glad I did!

2) Embrace singing, sweaters, & snow.  Get out those great sexy sweaters as the weather gets chilly. Sing along to the xmas music while doing chores and in the holiday traffic.  But more than that, embrace that very specific 50′s holiday spirit–it’s a domestically sexy and sophisticated thing.  Embrace your inner purr.

Nat will never harsh your mellow.

3) Listen to Nat King Cole & other Christmas music–obviously.  Take an evening to make your own mix if you haven’t already.  Mix in classic tunes with some newer stuff.  Don’t subject yourself to the radio and others music choices.  It’s instantly cranky-inducing to have to listen to grating tunes others like that you yourself abhor.

4) Listen to your inner happy person.  Have those people and things around that you like–don’t bother with everything else.  The 50′s were about keeping things simple.  You had good boundaries.  People did a few simple things and the rest was tossing out good wishes for the holidays like it was Christmas confetti.

Looks like it’s just you, me, and Lucky for Christmas this year.

So just get the stuff done that really makes you happy…What about your family? Well think about it this way.  If you’re happy, they’ll be happy.

If there are other parts of the holiday-making are important to your husband say, then let him do the all the work to make it happen.  That way he can have things exactly the way he wants them.

5) Stay away from relatives that annoy you.  Be generous in sending them your thoughts of love.  Ditto xmas cards and gifts sent by mail.

The one prominent fact these movies bear home is that xmas is best spent with friends  and without annoying family members.  Remind relatives that you love them and wish them a very merry xmas.  Even though you’d just LOVE to come to their house, go to midnight mass, wear that ugly sweater they got you last year–unfortunately, you just can’t possibly.  Thou shalt spend all thy holidays with relatives is not one of the ten commendments.

6) Throw a holiday party–if you invite them they will come.  You like to drink? Make it a cocktail party.  You like to bake? Make it a holiday cookie party instead.  Big or small–what do you prefer?

7) Recognize that no, Virginia, Christmas is not just for children.  If you do happen to find yourself with little people underfoot think of them as elves in training.  Expect them to behave accordingly.  They’re anxious to prove they’ve been good anyway. They want to wrap gifts, they want to bake, they want to lick stamps on Christmas cards.

Tell them they are hosts n hostesses in training. Let them carry drinks to guests.  They’ll love it once they get the hang of it, and they’ll be far less bored. Watch them get your guests sloshed in no time.

8) Aim for holiday food and treats with nuts in them.  A big sugar crash makes for big cranky pants.  While I’d never say abstain from sweets over the holidays (what am I–a monster?) nuts contain protein that helps to soften the blow as you come down from that sugar high.  It helps you avoid feeling compelled to act like every piece of holiday fudge may be your last.

9)Indulge in judicious amounts of egg-nog multiple times a day.  Thick, rich, velvety nog.  It’s the sexy bombshell  of all xmas drinks. The embodiment of this entire 50′s-ish xmas theme. Keep a steady supply on hand.  Doctor it with a thimble full of whisky or rum.  You should see mood-lifting effects a few minutes after each dosage.

So readers, I’m wishing you a very happy holiday experience.  Please give us one item on our wish list and follow our blog.

Meanwhile, along with a heavy dosage of nog, you can give in to your romance cravings by buying CRAVINGS–our own Liz Everly’s latest romantic suspenese release.  Chock full of luscious chocolate and decadent sex. Check it out here!

Give Me Some Of That Baboon Piss, ‘Cause I’m In The Mood For Love

By Elizabeth Shore

We’ve all heard talk about aphrodisiacs that supposedly stimulate certain nerve endings or elevate the heart rate and energy level to get the ol’ motor running, but as I mentioned in the comment section of Kiersten Hallie Krum‘s Monday blog, I’m not buying it. I’ve slurped my share of oysters, eaten plenty of chocolate, and actually really like asparagus, yet to date I’ve not seen my libido make the leap from healthy erotic writer’s imagination to nymphomaniac sex goddess delirium. So what gives?

Maybe it’s all a bunch of phooey, or maybe I just haven’t been exposed to the right kind of stimulant. So this intrepid Lady Smut blogger went in search of other, more exotic (and, perchance, more effective) aphrodisiacs that I may have missed. After all, this week we’re celebrating the release of Liz Everly’s Cravings and I want to do my part to share the fun.

I decided to take my aphrodisiac search to the global stage. I feel that I’m fairly familiar with the usual fare revered on these shores – chocolate, cherries, and the like. And besides, my writer mind thinks, maybe there are interesting stimulants to be found that could be fun to incorporate in a future book. So a-hunting I went, making my first stop with that age-old pinnacle of a sex manual, the Kama Sutra.

To be fair, as I understand it, the Kama Sutra is actually a compendium of healthy and virtuous living with only one of the texts focusing on sexual behavior. But let’s be honest, that’s the one we’re interested in! Part of the offered advice in the manual pertains to increasing sexual vigor, and there are a variety of ways to achieve this. Tell your lover to put away the Viagra. Cap that Cialis! Per the wisdom in the Kama Sutra, all he needs to do is drink milk mixed with sugar and boiled goat testicle and he’ll be wooing you til the cows come home – or until he projectile vomits the concoction – whichever comes first.

If the goat testicle/sugary milk elixir doesn’t do it for you, there are a number of other supposed aphrodisiacs containing animal-based ingredients looming out there as well, suggestions from beyond the Kama Sutra. Oysters we know about. But there’s also poached rhinoceros horns and white tiger penises – endangered species, anyone? Camel’s milk, bird’s nest soup, and – my favorite one of all – baboon urine. This last suggestion makes its way to us from Zimbabwe. It doesn’t cause men to be more virile per se, but instead makes him more faithful. If your man’s been casting a wandering eye upon other women, the cure is a simple one. Just mix a bit of primate pee and ground tree root, apply to vagina nightly and presto-chango! Your man is suddenly once more yours, never to look wayward again. What a relief!

Some more palatable, and practical, alleged aphrodisiacs include eating hot chili peppers, licorice, or yohimbe. The latter is derived from the bark of a tree found in West Africa. However, yohimbine oil, which is what you’re after, has been approved by the FDA for treating erectile dysfunction in men and your man could actually get a prescription for it. It’s even discussed on WebMD!

There’s other weird stuff out there – roasted leaf cutter ants, fertilized duck eggs – but all of these supposed enhancements have me wondering about the larger question of why they’re  needed at all. Certainly there are legitimate and real physical and psychological reasons for why sexual aid is sometimes required. But those issues aside, a healthy relationship filled with commitment, trust, attraction, and love often has what it needs to keep the fires warm and the engines revving. Let the baboons keep their pee. Who knows, maybe it makes baboon females go ape shit.

What do you think? Any good ones you think should be discussed? Sound off in the comments below, and don’t forget to pick yourself up a copy of Cravings. Oh, and push that little follow button on the right. Feed your Lady Smut craving with a new post every day.

Sex, Food, and Love

By Liz Everly

“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it…and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied…and it is all one.”—MFK Fisher

That MFK Fisher quote is one of my favorites. As a food writer (in my “previous” life), I have had ample opportunity to reflect about the meaning of food in our lives. The simple act of preparing food is a pure form of love. Eating and sharing food goes beyond the simple needs of stomachs. Food writers, chefs, and home cooks know this. Yes, the attraction of certain food can often be as surface-oriented as the presentation of it. But what we as food people are interested

in, really, are the emotions that the flavor of food reaches in and pulls out to keep the eater coming back for more. Whether, it’s our children, friends, or lovers, we want the flavors mingled on our pallets bringing forth the ultimate comfort. We live the stories behind the food—who first made it and fed it to you, where did you first taste it, why do you continue to long for it.

The connection between food and sex would seem to be clear—primal, basic, instinctual. The modern appetite—ever bombarded with images of both sex and food—appears to be unyielding and stretching beyond anything that ancient people could have imagined. Yet, food and sex were both there—biological concerns, mainly. One wonders how it got to be so intermingled with pleasure and comfort and in such delightful manners.

I agree with MFK Fisher that when I write about food I am really writing about love and the hunger for it. As I delve into more and more erotic romance writing, I can see the same themes, for love and longing, for hungers and appetites fulfilled or unfulfilled, with different means and methods.

Some believe that the best food, like the best sex, comes with love. Others are more complicated in their appetites. They want the best, most expensive truffle, or the exact kind of Stilton coming from a certain region in England, from a specific farm, or the precise chocolate that is grown on a plantation in Venezuela. They get off on finding the perfect food experience.

It’s the same with sex—some want one partner for life—others want to try a little of everything, a little spanking here and there, two or more partners at the same time, a little bondage, or, perhaps, food play. When food and sex come together, then, we are playing with deep primal yearnings and a delightful melting of appetites.  Some of us are better at squashing our appetites than others. Therein lies the story.

In SAFFRON NIGHTS, my lead female character Maeve has enjoyed sexual freedom with several men, telling herself love is a waste of precious time. She has some kinky predilections, considers herself a woman of many appetites. She doesn’t deny herself a lover, but she does deny herself love. Until, of course, this wild journey she takes with Jackson. He’s a man who flits from woman to woman until he finds it no longer satisfying. He doesn’t know what he hungers for—is it love? Is he ready to be vulnerable enough to love again?

SAFFRON NIGHTS explores many appetites when it comes to food, sex, and love. As does my newest release, CRAVINGS. Even though food-wise, its primary focus is chocolate and the cacao fields where it grows, it also explores light BDSM—Sasha and Sanj learn to give and take through  their levels of kink or just good, but vanilla, sex. They meet each other halfway in their sex lives, and learn a lot from each other and about themselves along the way.

Have you ever thought about the connections between food, romance, sex, and love?

Aphrodisiacs That Fail to Arouse

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

In celebration of Liz Everly’s new release Cravings, we’re talking about cravings all week here at LadySmut. I decided to take a look at food aphrodisiacs and thus went searching for ideas, but then the same ten or fifteen items showed up in list after list and few of them anything I’d actually eat (red wine, chocolate, and whipped cream are staples, right?).

With a cherry on top

Arugula? There is nothing sexy about arugula. OK, fine, it has antioxidants that protect libido against environmental toxins. Doesn’t that sound sexy? Figs and avocado represent fertility visually while maintaining youthful vigor and more antioxidant prevention. Wow. All this talk of toxin prevention is really turning me on. 

Bananas sure do look the part while keeping the male libido on the rise and strawberries plump up the volume by keeping the blood flowing to all the right puffing parts. But asparagus? It may boost histamine which is necessary to produce orgasm, but outside of looking like a skinny wang with spikes, asparagus will make you smell funky and turn your pee a weird green. Way to entice your partner for sexy times. Almonds and pine nuts are also recommended to enhance libido…if you’re a squirrel.

And I’m sorry, but I’m not about to nosh on a chili pepper and then play tonsil hockey with an actual fire still brewing in my mouth. I want to kiss the guy, not burn his tongue off. Don’t even get me started about oysters. I don’t care how many sex hormones oysters stimulate with amino acids, that shit is slimy and gross and about as far from a turn-on as you can get.

Pomegranates, cherries, pumpkin seeds. Basically my search for decent food aphrodisiacs wound up being a total turn off. I’m not saying certain foods and scents and tastes can’t be arousing. Just this summer, I had an orgasmic experience at a wedding while eating what may be the best filet mignon I’ve had in my life.  But over and over, recommended romantic foods or aphrodisiacs seem most valued for their abilities to increase blood flow and enhance sexual hormone production, which is great, but…not exactly something you might crave.

It’s not that we crave aphrodisiacs or any type of sex-associated food. It’s what those foods reportedly bring to the main event that make us do the whacky. Craving is a need, something that compels you beyond reason. A desire felt so keenly that you will beg and plead for the object you desire. I have never in my life pleaded for asparagus, but I may have come close when I longed for another piece of that delicious meat.

Craving something can make your insides turn out with desire, with need.  Here at LadySmut, we write and talk about cravings all the time. Our characters may crave sex, sure, but usually that’s merely the route to satisfy a deeper need, a more acute craving. For connection. For touch. For intimacy. For acceptance. For love.

Everyone craves love, even if the route taken to find it first goes through the kitchen.

Follow Lady Smut. We’re always ready to make you crave more.

Seduction Served Tableside: Food Gets Sexy

Photo by Smathur80

By Alexa Day

On our way to Romanticon this past October, I pointed out a place called En Su Boca to my favorite road trip buddy, my mom.

“That place used to be a pornographic bookstore,” I said.

“Interesting,” she said. “Is it still?”

“No … although I guess it could be, couldn’t it? With a name like En Su Boca.”

Mom gave me the way-to-go-grasshopper look and went back to her book.

That sensual promise – in your mouth – lends itself equally to pleasures culinary and sexual. The mouth is central to four of our five senses; only sight is inaccessible to it. And yet our mouths water when we see something stimulating, no? A spectacular meal is the most sensual experience a woman can have with her clothes on. The fragrances and tastes, hushed conversation with a date, devouring both food and handsome companion with one’s eyes – it’s easy to elevate the basic dinner date to the stuff of legend. Today, as we kick off a week-long feast of sexiness celebrating the release of Liz Everly’s CRAVINGS, I’m looking at three ways to take seduction tableside.

Dessert first … or dessert only. If we’re focusing solely on the pleasurable things we can do with our mouths, then why do we need anything other than dessert? Dessert’s only purpose is to make you feel nice. I think that’s reason enough by itself to have dessert, but if you have to be responsible, then eat dessert slowly. Let it melt in your mouth. See what it tastes like with the wine or that nice, strong coffee. Play-fight over the last morsel of it. Good male friends tell me that they will only eat dessert if they’re on a date. So in a way, you’re doing him a favor by leaving a little room for something sweet.

Finger foods. A full meal, consumed without utensils, strips away all the formality that can keep two consenting adults from really getting to know each other. You’ll get to watch each other’s hands and each other’s mouths at the same time. I think that’s the real reasons oysters are such an aphrodisiac. After checking out his long fingers cradling the shell, the motion of his mouth as it embraces the oyster, it’s easy to start imagining his other talents, right? Plus the mingling of liquor and mignonette with the supple flesh of the oyster – yeah, don’t get me started. You’ll know you’re in good company if you feel okay licking your fingers. You’re in great company if you feel okay licking each other’s fingers.

Baking. I dated a baker once. You know how men used to invite women to see their etchings? This one told me that at any given time, he had bread dough ready for the oven. Any time was bread time. Then he showed me a picture of some everything bagels all ready to be baked, but honestly, he had me at sourdough. The oven kept the house warm and very, very fragrant, and of course, while all those wonderful things were baking, we had to find some way to occupy the time. What a wonderful time that was. In my mind, I can still see the dusting of flour on his beautiful hands.

Why fight CRAVINGS, when you could lie back and enjoy them?

If the successful seduction engages all the senses along the winding road to ultimate pleasure, then hot culinary romances make the best kind of sense! Be sure to score your very own copy of CRAVINGS. The blurb alone is making me hungry.

And do follow Lady Smut. You won’t go hungry.

Sexy Saturday Round-Up

Photo by Dollen

By Liz Everly and the Lady Smut Bloggers.

Hello Sexy! Well after a week off from Sexy Saturday round-up, we are going for it this week! Have fun with our Internet wanderings.

From Liz Everly:

Wonderful blog for your reading pleasure Meg’s Musings.

Keeping it classy with which state has men with the biggest penis size.

Just for fun: British expressions that baffle Americans.

C. Margery Kempe suggests:

Why is American television so sucky and sexist? The executives are morons.

Want a little SF with your romance?

How we teach kids to think of women as liars.

Annoyed by all the fawning coverage of certain white het male novelists? Indulge in some Franzenfreude.

From Elizabeth:

Missing the HBO Series Real Sex? Good news! A new, Real-Sex inspired show debuts on HBO next month.

Praise and backlash: why it’s brutally tough for men to fess up to same-sex experiences.

Did you see any of these disasters? Time magazine’s top 10 worst films of 2013.

You’ve known it all along but now it’s been proven: sex is great exercise!

Here they are: this year’s winners of the 21st Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction award. Frankly, I thought the second and third place winners were even worse than the one who grabbed the top prize.

From Madeline:

Huffington post reports on a new study about sex & regret.

Define “booty call”.

Crazy bad plagerizing author Elizabeth Nelson gets called to the matt for a photo ripped from hair ad and a stolen blurb.

One handed writers considers whether we miss sexy people more than others.

What real grrrrl power looks like after 40. 

Stay Hungry,

Liz

P.S. don’t forget to subscribe to Lady Smut. C’mon. You know you want to…

M/M vs Gay Romance

by C. Margery Kempe

As I’m popping around doing promo for my M/M/M ménage MAN CITY: MARTIN, part of the ménage series MAN CITY, I’ve been a bit nonplussed to find so much confusion regarding ‘gay romance’ as opposed to “M/M” among readers, particularly those who don’t normally read it.

I tried to write MARTIN so the story appealed to both audiences, but it’s good to remember that there are two very different audiences for all male-romance and erotica: women who love to ready about the sexy men and gay men who love to read about the sexy men. Magic if you can please both, but they’re coming at the material from different perspectives, particularly the M/M genre’s roots in slash fiction, stories created by fans linking popular characters romantically. It takes its name from the Kirk/Spock romances way back in the 60s fandom.

I wrote a guest blog for the romance scholar’s blog, Teach Me Tonight, about one of the earliest critics of slash fiction, the SF writer Joanna Russ (who’s written lots of fantastic fiction and the all important bombshell How to Suppress Women’s Writing). She looks at that earliest M/M slash fiction and realizes that the appeal is completely to a female audience. Russ reminds us that Spock’s “alienness is a way of ‘coding’ into the K/S fantasies that their subject is not a homosexual love affair between two men, but love and sex as women want them” (83). This is key to the appeal of slash, but also perhaps to that of the modern M/M romance. Russ points out that the traditionally masculine and feminine traits fluctuate between the characters, creating an ideal relationship:

Neither has to give up ‘his’ work in the world; both have adventure and love; telepathy provides lifelong commitment and the means of making such a union unbreakable and extremely intimate; and while both partners are ‘masculine’ in the sense of being active in the world, they provide tenderness and nurturance for each other in a very ‘feminine’ way. And the sex is marvelous. (84)

A lot of M/M romance is specifically written for a female audience with this sort of “let’s see what a world without sexist expectations would be for romance” and that’s what makes it appealing to a lot of the audience. Plus, hey — the hot man flesh you love and more of it.

The reason this can run into problems is when it becomes exploitive, like “lesbian” porn created for male gaze that has absolutely nothing to do with real lesbian desire. Or if it erases the presence of genuine gay and lesbian desire in popular media portrayals. It can be problematic. I’ve seen slash fiction that actually creates a marked echo of very traditional sexual roles — you know, like those people who ask same sex couples, “Who’s the man and who’s the woman?” Cringe!

I hope that a wide audience will enjoy Martin and his very human experiences with two men who also happen to be a couple. And anybody who likes sexy romance, I promise you hot fun!

And right now my publisher is having a half off sale, so you can pick up MAN CITY: MARTIN and a lot of new books for your ereader!

Dodging the Caveman Lapdance: Q&A with Lynne Silver–Plus A Bonus Post on Fromance!

by Madeline Iva

Lynne Silver is my new romance writer crush.  She’s written a panopoly of steamy humorous erotic romances for Harlequin Spice and for Ellora’s Cave.  Today she’s talking with us about gettin’ funny while gettin’ it on.

MADELINE IVA: I share your love for humorous erotic romance. How does humor play a role in your romances? And why-oh-why isn’t there more humor in erotic romance?

LYNNE SILVER: I love humor in romance because sex is funny. It’s awesome and hot, but it’s also funny, because let’s face it- the human body makes weird noises, smells, etc… I think sex is better when you can laugh during it. If you’re so focused on being and looking “sexy” it’s going to be hard to relax and enjoy it.

MADELINE IVA: Are there any other erotic romance authors out there who like humor the way we do? I’ve found Victoria Dahl’s romances are pretty funny, and her tweets are hysterical.  Is there anyone else you’d recommend?

Lynne Silver hearts Kristan Higgins.

LYNNE SILVER: Kristan Higgins isn’t erotic, but she’s dang funny.

MADELINE IVA:  (frothing at the mouth with adoration) I love her work.  Adore it.  Absolutely.

LYNNE SILVER: And The Cabal of Hotness from Ellora’s Cave writes parodies called “Fondled and Gobbled”


MADELINE IVA: Actually we reviewed them once.  I think. (Here?)  Meanwhile, do you think that people who read erotic romance appreciate a romance hero with a sense of humor?

LYNNE SILVER: I think the romance hero needs to be intelligent and willing to laugh at himself. Just like a man in real life.

MADELINE IVA: Nice! You have a semi-geek hottie on one of your romance covers. Do you think that women who appreciate the funny are more into geeky guys?  Does that cover speak to what kinds of heroes you like?

LYNNE SILVER: My husband is a geek, so yes geeky guys with serious brains turn me on way more than simple male beauty. I love to look at a handsome man, but if he can’t carry on an intelligent conversation and make me laugh, the chemistry’s not there. My husband is the trifecta of hot, intelligent and funny. I’m a lucky girl.

MADELINE IVA: Geeky = brainy, while brainy = sexy.  Therefore: geeky=sexy.  Gotcha.  I too, must confess that I never cared for Ken dolls.

 On your blog you wrote about your experience at Romanticon 2013.  You said: “I am prude. Despite writing hot romance, I have no interest in getting a lapdance from a Caveman. They were adorable, but I best enjoyed them from afar.”  Lynne, I too spent my time at Romanticon dodging lapdances from those cray-cray Ellora’s Cavemen. My question is this: why can we write hawt but shy away from actual man-flesh? Is it just an allergic reaction to spray tan or what? Did you ever envision this as something that could be worked into a future comedic situation in one of your romance novels?


LYNNE SILVER: My whole Romanticon experience was kinda cray-cray. And I wish I’d found you during Bingo. We could’ve hidden under the table together!

MADELINE IVA:  I would have loved that! We’ll have to find each other next year. Thanks again for sharing your time with us. LYNNE SILVER: Thanks for having me here.

You can find Lynne’s books at www.lynnesilver.com.  Try tweeting her at @Lynnesilver and buy her books here at Ellora’s Cave.


This week we’re celebrating the bromance, m/m romance, and C. Margery Kempe’s release MAN CITY: MARTIN .  I asked Lynne if she would mind me tagging on a mini-post to her interview.  She said “I went to kindergarten–I can share!”

So here is part two of today’s post: LET’S HEAR IT FOR FRO-MANCE!

What is fro-mance you say? Is it romance + frozen yogurt? Nope.
An obsession with the ‘fro–the afro hair style?  Nah. None of the above.

This week while Kiersten blogged about the best bromances of all time– (Where’s House & Wilson on this list? Legolas & Aragorn?) —and Liz Everly lusted after 5 gay men (Why isn’t Rupert Evert in her top five? Liz are you blind???)— and Elizabeth Shore revealed the secret audience for gay porn — I perseverated on the lack of an equivalent word for a female bromance.

A…fffffff–romance. Fromance. Here are my top three FROMANCES, Bitches!

#3 Lucy Lawless as Xena Warrior Princess & her side-kick Gabrielle.  In college my bff’s wee tiny room was wall to wall Xena posters.  She is a lesbian and this show was catnip for lesbians.  Long before they had the L Word to suck on, my bff waxed poetic about Xena’s tender moments of caring for Gabrielle.  Or something like that.  I actually never watched the show.  You see, I spent many marathon study sessions in that tiny closet of a room.  And one semester after subsisting on nothing but coffee-coffee-buzz-buzz-buzz ice cream for four days while eyeball to eyeball with Xena’s breasts in  that small enclosed space I emerged on the dean’s list but also scarred for life. Yet I still believe in the power of Fromance! Moving on.

#2 Rachel & Ivy from Kim Harrison’s Hollows Series.  I’ve written before about Kim Harrison’s two characters and how riveted/obsessed I am by their dynamic.  Rachel’s a witch, Ivy’s a bi-sexual (?) self-loathing Vampire with the hots for Rachel.  Oh, and they’re housemates and biz partners in an alternative world Cleveland.  Harrison said that after writing Ivy and Rachel’s first intense scene together she stared at her computer screen, scared at what she’d done.  The rest is–cha-ching!–history.

AND THE #1 FROMANCE ISSSSSSSSS:

Romy & Michele from Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion.  Why didn’t this awesome movie spawn a ba-zillion more just like it? (thus creating some karmic balance for all the stupid buddy comedies of the 80′s)  Why didn’t anyone ever really get that Mira Sorvino is a character actress? With like, the lowest voice, like, ever. Why wasn’t there Romy & Michelle II, III, XIX, CXIVC, etc? I would have rented DVD’s of the sequel. Eventually. From the scene where they watch Pretty Women in bed and cry, to my overly strong identification with Jeanine Garafolo’s character (was sometime video-taping my entire high school experience?) this movie was — IS — is! the best best best fromance evah, and should be the fromance that all other fromances are judged by.  (Though Ghost World would be high on my personal list.)

So there you have it.  Disagree? Go ahead–feel free to fight it out in the comments section below.  And follow our blog if you haven’t already.  And buy CMK’s book by clicking here .