Liz Everly's Blog, page 61

A Hollow Farewell: Abbie Mills Deserved Better

It’s half past time to start holding writers accountable.

By Alexa Day

(OMG, I’m so late. I hope all of you had ice cream while you were waiting!)

I don’t remember where I was when I found out Sleepy Hollow had killed off Abbie Mills. I do remember that I responded with a shrug. It’s not that I’m not grieving. I’m certainly not happy about this. But I’m not surprised.

Truth is, I didn’t start watching Sleepy Hollow for Nicole Beharie. I started watching for John Cho. I can refuse John Cho nothing. Sleepy Hollow killed John Cho off (the first time) at the end of the pilot. You see how they do.

By then, I was all about Abbie Mills, though.

It took a really long time for things to go wrong.

Abbie Mills and her fellow Witness, Ichabod Crane, had amazing chemistry right from the start. He didn’t understand a whole lot about modern life, but he was a strong and steady male influence in her world, where family and friends rarely stick around for long. An easy affection started to deepen into something else.

I was really looking forward to Something Else. I wanted this in large part because of how well the writers handled John Cho’s character, Andy Brooks. You want to see someone absolutely destroyed by unrequited love, obsession, and the eternal consequences of his actions? Watch John Cho act the hell out of that role.

I figured the writers knew how to handle Something Else. Sadly, it gradually became clear that the Sleepy Hollow writers and Powers That Be were willing to move heaven and earth (and other dimensions) to prevent Something Else from happening.

Katrina appeared at the front of a long line of More Appropriate Companions. When that soured, Betsy Ross was shipped in from God knows where, as someone who had apparently dated Ichabod in the past. It looked to me like the writers were actually really excited about pairing Ichabod with a feisty, independent, lady bad ass — they just didn’t want him with Abbie. Nor did it seem that they wanted Abbie with anyone else.

So. The female lead on a major network television show is just not supposed to have a love interest. Certainly not the male lead. Wonder why?

Because she’s black.

I complained about this with Magic Mike XXL. There’s really no reason for such an important character as Rome, in such a sexual movie as Magic Mike XXL, to be left in the corner. Except that she’s black.

Hollywood has no problem at all marginalizing black female characters. For many, many years, characters who look like me have served a single purpose.

They’re here to help the white characters.

Here’s one now.

Never has not knowing nothing worked out so well.

Here’s another.

She is smart. She really is.

Look, here’s one more.

Don’t be fooled. Rome spent the whole movie in the background.

And now there’s Abbie. I saw the writing on the wall when Ichabod stood over her hospital bed and reassured her sister, Jenny, that Abbie would pull through. She was so, so strong, he said.

Of course she is. She’ll have to pull through and be strong if she’s going to keep helping out, right?

But seriously, I knew this was the end of Ichabbie because I knew that in Hollywood, the strong black woman never finds a companion. That’s not why she’s in the story.

I worry sometimes that you all think I’m the only person angry about this. Please be assured that I am not.

Orlando Jones, whose departure from the series is its own story, raises a brow here.

"The white male lead should totally sacrifice his life to protect the *dark skinned* black girl" said no development executive EVER.

— Orlando Jones (@TheOrlandoJones) April 9, 2016

Colleague Sasha Devlin.

POC are NOT a plot device. We're not just there to make the white characters look better or worse, yet, die to save them #SleepyHollow

— Sasha Devlin (@SashaDevlin) April 9, 2016

Rebekah Witherspoon tweeted at some length, but this is one of the real takeaways.

writers and producers and creators everywhere. learn from #sleepyhollow. know your audience. its 2016. there's no excuse.

— Rebekah Weatherspoon (@rebekahwsm) April 10, 2016

The Washington Post sees it. Take note, especially, of Nicole Beharie’s now-deleted report that she wasn’t even included in the first incarnation of DVD commentaries.

The final insult is the suggestion that as a Witness, Abbie’s “spirit” might return one day. An awful lot of people wonder what shape the spirit will inhabit.

Actually, that’s not the final insult. The final insult was that the writers crushed Jenny’s hope for love and happiness by killing Joe (her mentor’s smoking-hot, super tormented son), too. Those two were just lovely for each other — their baggage matched — and the writers actually made her the instrument of his destruction.

Explain to me again why Joe here had to die?

Hope lies at the bottom of Pandora’s box. And there is hope here.

It looks like this.

Hope springs eternal.

Someone does know how to write a relationship that looks like the one Ichabod and Abbie should have had. A few weeks ago, I literally cheered when I saw the strong black woman start a romantic relationship with a popular television show’s male lead. I made a lot of joyful noises and a lot of joyful tweets, and loads and loads of fans are ecstatic that Richonne is real at last.

The rest of television needs to take notice.

Now.

I see a lot of people promising to right the ship by writing their own sci-fi and horror projects, projects that don’t put people of color first in line to be killed or marginalized. But should that long, long overdue job really be relegated to writers of color, whose projects are, in turn, often diverted far from mainstream outlets? Is there any reason in the world that Hollywood writers’ rooms can’t manage this right the hell now?

I left Sleepy Hollow a while back because I thought Abbie Mills deserved better. I know Nicole Beharie does. And while I’m optimistic about the rise of Richonne, I’m not letting anyone else off the hook.

It’s high time Hollywood was held accountable.

Are you following Lady Smut? We believe in having it all.

Tues, 4/12 is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s from 1 to 8

And that is all. :) 

Post Apocalypse Virgin Nun Meets Viking Raider. Really, what could go wrong? A Look at Megan Crane’s Edgy New Series

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

I could just say that Megan Crane new post-apocalyptic Edge series is a mash-up of Sons of Anarchy meets Vikings meets Mad Max meets Waterworld.

Which, actually, is very true.

And I mean that in a good way.

Click on image to buy!

The Edge series takes place hundreds of years after the polar ice caps have melted, redefining the geography of Earth. California is gone. Mississippi is now a sea. Atlanta is a coastal city. The Appalachian Mountains are now the separate eastern islands. The stacks of skyscrapers that used to be New York City are now a treacherous ocean impediment. There’s virtually no electricity and very little sunlight. Gunpowder is unreliable, given all known materials have been soaked by “the rains,” which means swords and blades are once again the weapons of the land. There are some places with light, but they’ve been claimed by western kings or the bishops of the new religion. Those with the electricity wield the power.

Winter lasts for six months of complete darkness. Everywhere. There is no national government, but religion rules the day and charge what’s left of the populace that it is their duty to produce children to repopulate the world. This means that every winter, winter marriages are made and if a pregnancy results from these business transactions, the marriage continues through to the birth of the child.

When I’m digging into a new series, world building is key. I have to believe this world could exist. It needs to have depth and breath and structure and the occasional recognizable trait on which I can hang my understanding. I need to see shades of the real world in the lines of the fictional world’s make up. The world of the Edge series is tactile in description, the shape of the new world hewn from the one we recognize, which makes it recognizable at the same time as being something completely new and quite fascinating in its creation.

Edge of Obsession introduces used to the raiders who hewed out a kingdom free of the religious in the eastern islands that used to be the Appalachian Mountain range. They live free and wild, raiding the other settlements of the former United States like their Viking counterparts as they need. They are ruled by a Raider King named Wulf and a council made up of the elite warriors who form The Brotherhood.

When not raiding, they have sex. Lots and lots and lots of sex. Often publicly in the clubhouse main lodge. There are biker groupies camp girls whose sole purpose is to be available to the brothers for sex–in a good way, I mean. They’re up for it, believe me, and never ever shamed for it. They’re simply a needed, valued aspect of this society. People in this world know how quickly that world may end and, raiders especially, free from the yoke of the religious rules that govern nearly everyone else, take this to heart.

In Edge of Obsession, Tyr, the war chief of The Brotherhood, stumbles across a small “kingdom” in Atlanta who occupants laughably attack the raiders, drawing their ire. Helena has been wintering in the fortress with her sister, but when Tyr and his brothers arrive, she leaps at the chance to escape the mercenary who killed her parents and who has been chasing Helena and her sister for two years. Despite believing they are the monsters of nightmares, Helena knows that Tyr and his raiders are her only hope of living through the night. She asks Tyr to take her as his captive and, shocked but intrigued, Tyr does so. He’s immediately impressed by her pride and mouthy rejoinders, and recognizes that Helena is a woman like none other he’s yet met. What he doesn’t know is that Helena is on a mission, one that’s been passed down in her family of which she and her sister are the last living remnants, and to which she has sworn her life in service…one that will transform the world as they now know it, if she can learn to trust Tyr enough to share it.

The events of Edge of Temptation happen in tandem with those of Edge of Obsession, a tricky thing for a writer to manage, but Crane weaves the stories together well. Gunnar, the tech wunderkind of The Brotherhood and blood brother to Wulf, the Raider King, has been off on a year of living crazy after losing his mate on the battlefield…a mate who, it turns out, was likely a traitor. He’s on a quest to perform a ritual for which he needs a live, pure sacrifice–a virgin. With winter marriages the law of the land as soon as a girl reaches puberty (or near enough), a virgin is as rare as a unicorn–unless you look to the novitiates kept behind high walls for the bishops sole uses. Maud is one of these novitiates and has been since her uncle and mother sold her to a bishop at the age of ten. But Maud has never quite been able to fold herself inside the obedient frames of a proper nun, despite the relentless confession and punishment sessions with her bishop…but I’ll let you discover the mystery of those on your own. Not surprisingly, ten years of such…instruction…means that Maud equates pain with pleasure, and has been conditioned to obey a master–the right master, not some puffed up, pervy bishop with delusions of grandeur. Plus there’s the fact that she just likes it that way. But Maud also knows she’ll never been promoted to be a full nun, because she’s never let the bishop break her. She also knows that the alternative is to set out of the convent and set loose in the desert for the wolves to get her. Unwilling to let her fate be decided for her, Maud leaves the convent an goes out into the desert on her own…where she stumbles upon a grumpy, grieving raider in the market for a virgin nun…

I’ll admit, the relationship in Edge of Temptation surprised me with its D/s content, because it’s not advertised like a neon sign flashing SHE GETS OFF ON BEING SPANKED. HE LIKES TO TIE CHICKS UP. Rather, it’s built slowly and with care. Maud and Gunnar’s use of pain and obedience in their sex is and is rooted in what’s been previously inflicted upon them, particularly for Maud, and as such, is a deep part of their matrix. Their relationship is emotional and sensual and helluva sexy, and it takes some surprising turns along the way.

The heroines and heroes of the Edge series are people at major turning points in their lives when those lives suddenly intersect. Helena is at her wit’s to fulfill her family’s work, and is counting her life in minutes, so she impulsively throws herself at the scariest man she’s ever seen, knowing he’s her last chance for (likely temporary) survival. Tyr has reached a point where he has things set well enough in his (albeit barbaric) life that, for the first time, the faint feeling of being unfulfilled has crept into his mind…until he meets Helena who challenges him every moment. Maud walks away from the convent and out into the desert because she absolutely cannot continue to live her life the way it is for one more second. Death is preferable, but a death she chooses, not one to which she’s sentenced. She winds up throwing herself on the dubious–and by dubious, I mean nonexistent–mercy of Gunnar who just happens to be standing right there in her way. Gunner has been mad with grief for over a year, which had led him to embark on this equally crazy plan, but when the exact virgin nun he needs to complete a ritual walks out of the desert like a mirage, his life is irrevocably changed. Meeting Maud makes Gunnar take the first halting steps back to his humanity, with Maud as his catalyst and touchstone…and probably, his sacrifice.

Be tempted. Get obsessed. And throw yourself onto the edge of this exciting, sexy new series.

Follow Lady Smut. We love to live life on the edge.

Writer, singer, editor, traveler, tequila drinker, and cat herder, Kiersten Hallie Krum avoids pen names since keeping her multiple personalities straight is hard enough work. She writes smart, sharp, and sexy romantic suspense. Her debut romantic suspense novel, WILD ON THE ROCKS, will be available on April 14, 2016. Visit her website at  www.kierstenkrum.com   and find her regularly over sharing on various social media via  @kierstenkrum.

Sexy Saturday Round Up

Friends, Kittens, Romans, Countrymen! Welcome to your calorie-free fun, courtesy of your ever lovin’ lady smut gals.

From Madeline:

9 year old girl investigates crime, rejects tea parties.

From NYTimes, Misconceptions about oral sex.

Talk to the hand: UK asks Gucci to remove ad where Model is deemed ‘unhealthily thin’.

From Romance Novels For Feminists: How to tell the good guys from the bad.

From G.G. Andrew:

Books  you can read to make other people uncomfortable on the subway. Human Taxidermy, anyone?

What do you do when you can’t sleep? Insomniac artist makes dress out of pill prescription labels.

Are you the Olivia Pope of your friend group?

 

 

I am who I am: fiction writer. Why I chose not to use a pen name for my young adult work

By Isabelle Drake

Before signing the contract for Best Friends Never, the first in Cherry Grove, my young adult suspense series, the question of a pen name came up. Since I also write erotic romance, should I use a pen name for my young adult books? Would that be the better? The more I stewed on my eventual answer, the more complex the question became. Here’s how it went.

I started by…um…thinking about myself.

If I create a new name, I’ll need to create a whole new online identity and wow… time? Creativity? Rather use those for writing more stories. Besides, the online identity that I do have is not all *that* steamy. I post mostly vintage pics, talk about movies I’ve seen, all “nicer side of naughty” stuff. No worries that YA readers or the YA community will be scandalized by what I post.

Next I thought about YA readers themselves. Will publishing a YA series under the same name as my erotic work be confusing or inappropriate?

Nah. Many YA readers have read 50 Shades, seen the movie and talked to their moms, friends and boyfriends about it. They aren’t shocked by the sex and they’re very thoughtful about the content and the relationship.  Also, there is a long tradition of edgy in young adult books. There are, and have been for decades, many books and movies for the YA audience that have “adult” content. My point, YA readers are already exposed to intense situations, violence, sex, drugs, abuse, in stories. Most importantly, YA readers are savvy, intelligent and sensitive to the complexity of what it is to be human.

Sexuality and the acceptance of non-traditional sexuality is the new wave of human rights. Young people are a big part of this movement. High schools have GLBT student organizations, students are “allowed” to be openly transgender in school, wearing clothes that aren’t traditionally aligned with their physical sexuality (guys wearing dresses, girls wearing boys’ style clothing). This is world we live in, one that is open discussing sex, sexual relationships, and non-traditional roles. Given this reality, most young people, especially those who are likely readers of my YA work, will not be bothered, confused or offended by anything I post or write. In fact, my sincere and open approach to sexual topics would be appreciated.

What about parents?

I asked around, talking to parents, booksellers and librarians. I found out parents are happy to support reading of all types and most don’t place limitations on what their teen reads. Parents are not actively trying to prevent their teenager from being exposed to “adult” books. Teens are “allowed” to read whatever draws their attention, this include adult books of all types. The benefit to a teen being exposed to adult material is that it starts or maintains a dialogue that both the teen and parent are comfortable with. Parents find this extremely beneficial. The parent and teen can discuss what to read and why. When the teen does read something, either a YA book or an adult book, the questions asked by the teen are not, “If I want to drink, have sex or quit school, what would you think of that?” Instead, the questions are “I was reading this book and the character did___. What do you think of that?” These conversations come from the content of books themselves, not from the author who has written them. If a parent is concerned about the content of a book, the concern is applied to a specific book, not to an author.

Me being me, I did some research. Here’s what I found. Teens typically select their own books. Based on numbers from a 2012 Bowker study, only 12 percent of 28 percent–roughly 3%–of YA books are purchased by adults for YA readers. And, as mentioned above, in instances where an adult does have input on selection, the focus is on the content of the book in question. If the author has written something the parent does not want to teen to read, that conversation is just as welcome and beneficial as the more common ones about the contents of books.

Lastly, I considered the publishing world in general and the YA market in particular.

The line between YA and adult readership is blurring. YA and new adult books sales are rising and not only because teens are reading more. More adults are reading YA books. Consider The Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight and the Harry Potter series.

According to the Bowker study:

“More than half the consumers of books classified for young adults aren’t all that young. Fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 – nicknamed YA books — are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44. Accounting for 28 percent of sales, these adults aren’t just purchasing for others — when asked about the intended recipient, they report that 78 percent of the time they are purchasing books for their own reading. The insights are courtesy of Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age, an ongoing biannual study from Bowker Market Research that explores the changing nature of publishing for kids.”

Even more compelling, and, I imagine, of interest to everyone in the YA book market is this analysis from the same study:

The trend is good news for publishers as these adult consumers of YA books are among the most coveted demographic of book consumers overall. Additional insights from the Bowker study show these readers are:
Early adopters. More than 40 percent read e-books, equivalent to the highest adoption rates of adult genres of mystery and romance
Committed: 71 percent say that if an e-book of their desired title was unavailable, they would buy the print book instead
Loyal: Enjoying the author’s previous books has a moderate or major influence over the book choice for more than two-thirds of the respondents
Socially active: Although more than half of respondents reported having “no interest” in participating in a reading group, these readers are very active in social networks and often get recommendations from friends.

Consider also, Megan Abbott’s Dare Me and The Fever. These books reflect the trend of blurring the line between YA and adult fiction in both content and marketing. Her books feature YA characters in typical teen settings but are marketed in a way that appeals to both adult and YA readers. This strategy is beneficial to the readers, who get the books the desire and publishers, who enjoy business success.

And so that’s how it went. In the end, I decided that potential readers won’t think, “I don’t want to buy/read that book because Isabelle Drake also writes Fifty Shades type stuff.” In fact, I think it’s the opposite. I think potential readers will think, “Cool, she wrote something for us.”

~~~~~~~

Isabelle Drake writes erotica, erotic romance, urban fantasy–and young adult thrillers. Best Friends Never, is available now, direct from Finch Books. The general release, including paperback, will be April 19.

Because you want more Lady Smut, follow us here and on Facebook. We’re here to rock your world in all the ways you like.

A Gi-normic Debate: Banning The Term ‘Plus-Size’

by Madeline Iva

Is this the ad controversy that launched a thousand rants?

ABC and NBC rejected a Lane Bryant Ad but didn’t say why. We can guess though.

Lane Bryant had an ad pulled from a television network and the reasons were mysterious but finally, people pointed to the plus-size models and said they were the reason the ad was pulled.

In an attempt to respond to this sinister attack and rally the plus-size nation, Glamour did a spread of their fav plus-size ladies. However, when Amy Schumer was included, she hid at sh** fit:

Lane Bryant ad in all it’s fleshy glory.

She doesn’t mind the term, plus-size, but SHE just doesn’t want to be called plus size herself. She rocks a size 6 to a size 8 for the record, and feels calling anyone below a size 16 ‘plus size’ will freak out little girls.

That’s when people started saying – or listening to people who’ve been saying: Hey maybe we should ban the term Plus-Size altogether.

ABC makes a case for banning the term plus size .  Though, weren’t they–along with NBC–the a-holes who started this whole ball rolling in the first place?  Ban the term, guys, not the ladies. 

Finally People magazine weighs in with various celebrities on what they think of plus size as a term.

So it was plus-size models and not the breast feeding mom? Okay, apparently that’s a whole *other* controversy.

What do you think readers?

Do we need these terms?   A few points to ponder:

#1 DO WE NEED A FRICKIN LABEL?

Welp. The fashion industry has other terms and labels for clothes that no one minds at all. Even whole stores devoted to these alternative sizes. I’ll just say it: Petites.  Yeah. Yet what woman is going to mind being called a petite model? None. And there’s the rub, right?

#2 WHERE ARE THE TALL/PETITE MODELS? I thank God for the Tall size in swimsuits, pants, etc. Though in some ways it could be more accurately called the “long torso” size, but I *like* the term Tall. Don’t care so much for being labled “long torso”. Yet there are no “Tall” models, are there? I mean, they’re all tall, but some are tall with short torsos and some are tall with long torsos. None are marked out as Tall models in terms of celebrity model branding.

Alessandra Ambrosio and I both have long torsos. And there our resemblance ends.

#3 LABELING AS ACTIVISM: But we have celebrity plus-size models because the people who wanted to fight against fat-phobia and the fashion worlds hegemony of skinny-mini’s have done a great job of bringing out models and fashion in larger sizes into the public eye and making them known.

Anyone want to start a Tall revolution? I’ll join you—and for our first protest we can first attack all stores (I’m looking at you J.Crew) who don’t carry above size 12. I’m sorry, while I know there are some people over 5’ 8” who can actually wear a standard size 10 without having a super wedgie, I am not one of them.

#4 SIZE MATTERS: Let’s face it—sizes are going to be categorized and labeled differently because they are cut differently and by pulling them out and clumping them together that means you don’t have to search through the whole frickin’ store when you hate shopping anyway. (I, for one, always start talking to myself after shopping for ten minutes in any major clothing store.)

#5 HISTORY MATTERS: Though I go back to what my mom said, way back in the day.  She was like: before the 80’s you know what? They just didn’t make the large plus-sizes. You know what fat women did back then? They had to sew their own clothes.

The horror.  Seriously! I’m sure it was the same for very petite women who didn’t want to wear children’s clothes. Even when I was in high school ‘the tall girl’ I knew (6’1″ for the record) was also the girl who sewed because she had to make her own clothes so they would fit her. So I do have to pause for a moment to be grateful for a fashion industry that has woken up and smelled the coffee about what really is a ‘standard size’ after decades of neglect. But back to the outrage:

#6 MEN DON’T HAVE THESE LABELS SO WHY SHOULD WOMEN?

Great point! This one I find very compelling.

Until I start to think about it a bit. I mean, Men DO have a store called Big & Tall for those sizes. God help them if they don’t like those clothes. Now they have a store called XL to go to instead, (for some reason I’m imaging gansta gym wear) but that’s about it.

But are there any ‘big and tall’ male models are there? Any XL models? I think it’s not the case that the men don’t use these terms, I think it’s the case that men are behind.

Target’s first Big and Tall male model. Apparently, short men also have some problems–shirts are too long and pants are very hard to find under 30″.

#7 YOUNG WOMEN ARE SCARRED BY MIS-APPLIED TERMS:

I’m going to be honest with you.  I really have a bit of a problem with Amy Schumer. She doesn’t want to be called plus size, when you get down to it.

I mean, to me, sometimes she looks like what we’re talking about when we’re talking about plus size. We’re talking about a woman with some meat on her bones, and Amy’s got some junk in the trunk, ladies.

Photo by: Eventpress Herrmann/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Yet her point is that she actually is a size 6 to 8 and to call that plus size is just inaccurate. Okay. Point taken Amy.

Then she goes on to say that labeling a size 6 to 8 is damaging to young women. But Amy, why isn’t labeling someone size 16 damaging to young women?

Yeah, Amy sees the corner she’s about to paint herself into.  She turns and says: lets just ban the term all together!

#8 SO IS THIS A MATTER OF POOR SEMANTICS? And here we get to the core of the problem. People start having issues with the very word. Plus Size. Not super glamorous. Tyra Banks offers up the term “fiercely real” instead. Hmmm.

I personally like the term “Uber-curvy” as a way of demarcating women with hour glass figures–sometimes extreme hour glass figures–from everybody else plus-size. But that’s just me.  Meanwhile, the world of porn world has BBW.

#9 THE POINT IS NO TERM WILL EVER ESCAPE THE STIGMA OF BEING “LESSER THAN”

Look, the majority of women are size 14, which means the majority of women are plus size women.  But the fashion industry has brainwashed us to feel that there is a “standard” size range and that’s anything under size 12.  If you fall outside of that range, then your clothes are often labeled in some way and that marks out your size as ‘lesser-than’ what is standard.  And no wants to be the lesser than.  So call it plus-size, call it whatever, young women are not going to want to be called whatever term is slapped on these clothes and these models because most adolescents (and adults) want to be a part of whatever is perceived as ‘standard’.

SO WHAT’S THE ANSWER?

F***ing glory in the female form people! And I mean including in all sizes, shapes, colors and abilities/dis-abilities. If we dismantle the idea of what is ‘standard’ we’re half way there. Okay, say we do that, what then?

Disabled models, anyone?

We have P for petite. T for tall. Let’s do C for curvy and let it go at that—no matter what the size. Actually, there already is a W as in wide for jeans.  Thank the guys for this, but it’s crept over into the women’s jeans too. Take the W out, put in the C and we’re done. Hey-presto! Some women are a 16 because they are strapping lassies and some are 16C because they’ve got some tummy going on. 

Meanwhile, Amy can wear a 6C and know that dress is going to hug her ass like a glove. And let’s bring on the petite models for some attention and celebrity, yes? And (dare I say it?) Tall models? The Big and Tall guy models.  The disabled models. Sheesh. MORE DIVERSITY ACROSS THE BOARD — IS THAT SOOOOOOO HARD? Okay, the Tall model thing will probably never happen because people don’t care about tall models.  It’s not the insult it once was–thanks to, ahem, *tall* models.

Meanwhile, if you love the female form – the curvier the better – check out my pinterest pages: UBER-CURVY, GARTER SMEXY, and LADY PORN.

And follow us at Lady Smut. We’re a handful of joy every day.

 

 

 

 

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Let Me See (These Three Words) (Volume 2)

Hundreds of scars in need of hiding… Click to buy.

by Madeline Iva

He suffers the judgement of others…because of the choices he’s made in life.   

Hello my lovely readers! Carlene Love is with us today.  She’s got a moody guest post all about her intriguing and scorchy-hot new hero from her latest series.  Two words: male stripper.

Here’s Carlene on her latest hero:

There is a character in my mind, a character I want you to see.  He is my inspiration for the second book in my new series. He’s why I write what I write. He’s who I *have* to write about.

Eyes.

Dark. So dark they don’t match anything else about him.

His smile is much, much brighter than mine. Pearly. Mine are not. In fact, mine are crooked. But whenever I smile—it makes him smile, too. His smile creeps up his face. Adding those lines, which make me feel slightly better about the ones lining my face. Everyone loves his smile.

But it doesn’t compare to his eyes.

His eyes make me anxious. I think he is fully aware of this. He has a brilliant mind. His eyes betray little about him, but this secret of his, that he is incredibly intelligent, they shout it from the rooftops. He is not shy. His eyes hold trust when they look at me. I won’t ever break that.

The darkness I am describing has nothing to do with color.

Intent.

I am at the same time completely sure of, and yet not sure at all, of his intentions.

With one generous, searching look, he’s figuring you out. Not just you, but the intricacies of the world and all its wonders. Do you need his help? Can you handle yourself? Will you accept him? Can he trust you? Can you be friends?

They are too dark. His eyes.

Maybe I’m wrong. About some things, when it comes to him. No one should ever feel ashamed or alone because of the risks they’ve taken in life.

His eyes don’t make me think of sex. They make me wonder if he is okay. He suffers the judgement of others, all because of the choices he’s made.

His eyes urge me to keep close, to find ways to be there for him.  To not be afraid of the dark.

Interested in reading more? My latest book is Let Me See (These Three Words) (Volume 2)LET ME SEE. It’s book two in my latest series: These Three Words.

Stay for Me (These Three Words Book 1)

Girls and Women and Sex and Pleasure: Are We Forgetting Something?

If we don’t talk to girls about sex, who will?

By Alexa Day

Last week, I was reminded of just how small a world ours really is.

I read this article about Peggy Orenstein’s book, Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape. To research the book, Orenstein spoke to 70 girls and young women, between the ages of 15 and 20, to learn about their attitudes and perceptions about sex.

I’m not sure what I expected to hear about this, but the truth saddened me a little.

Orenstein’s research turned up a lot of young women who are very comfortable with the idea of sex and sexual attitudes as communication, and the notion of sex as currency. They just don’t seem to place a great deal of importance on their own pleasure. A blowjob, for instance, may or may not actually be sex, but it’s a near foolproof way to get a guy to stop hassling you about what you will or will not do for him. The notion that reciprocal oral seems to disgust these guys … well, Orenstein’s subjects didn’t think to be offended by that.

Orenstein goes on to observe that if young women do not prioritize their own pleasure, it might be because they come from households that make their sexual selves invisible. How many girls know nothing of their own sex organs? How many are discouraged from questioning or exploring sexuality in general? How many are being taught — sincerely or otherwise — that sexual things are naughty or dirty or morally deficient?

When was the last time you saw or heard someone refer to erotic romance as naughty? A dirty little read? Something for bad girls, about bad girls, or both?

Was it you?

I know that if you’re here on Lady Smut, you probably don’t think there’s a thing wrong with sexual pleasure. Hey, I get it. But this notion that sex exists in a context dictated by male partners … that idea came from someplace. This concept that a blowjob is just a way to get him to leave you alone, that of course he won’t go down on you, that our own sexual pleasure as women is an afterthought at best, that something is wrong with us if we demand that pleasure … all that came from somewhere. Shouldn’t we try harder to mitigate it?

Last week, I also attended a screening of Makers: Once and for All, a documentary about the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. You can actually watch the documentary in its entirety online. Women from all over the world converged on China for the conference, endlessly curious about each other and the roles women played in various cultures worldwide. As I listened to the participants share stories about the conference and the Platform for Action that emerged from it, I realized that the world is not such a huge place after all.

Consider this: somewhere in the world, a woman doesn’t know that sex is something she can choose for herself. Try that on for a minute.

Now try this: somewhere in the United States, a woman doesn’t know that sex is something she can choose for herself.

How does that feel? Obvious? Uncomfortable? Both?

How about this one: somewhere within half an hour’s drive, a woman doesn’t know that sex is something she can choose for herself.

How are you going to live with the truth of that? How will the generations of women that follow us live with it?

And what role do our pleasure-infused stories play in this new world?

Follow Lady Smut. We serve at your pleasure — and our own.

Sekrit Project No More

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

For months now, I’ve been posting on Facebook and The Twitter snippets about my #SekritProject, partly as a way to publicize an upcoming project I was not yet cleared to speak about publicly, and partly as a means of accountability to finish the damn project. It worked!

Well now, I’m thrilled to be able to announce that my debut novel, Wild on the Rocks, will be published on April 14th as part of the launch of New York Times bestselling author Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay Kindle Worlds!

But wait! THERE’S MORE!

Today is the official cover reveal day for Wild on the Rocks on Roxanne St. Claire’s Facebook page.

BUT we’ve decided to give all you lovely Lady Smutters a first look!

Bet I know what you’re all thinking right now…

I KNOW!

I’ll be on Roxanne St. Claire’s Facebook page all day today (that’s Monday for any of you reading this post later in the week), answering questions about Wild on the Rocks and Barefoot Bay. That’s where you’ll also find a description of Wild on the Rocks to wet your whistle until release day in less than two weeks.

Back in February, I had a chance to feature Roxanne here at Lady Smut for a chat about her newest release in Barefoot Bay, Barefoot with a Bad Boy. Now, she’s opened up that world for other authors to create unique stories set on the fictional island of Mimosa Key, Florida. Lady Smutters are known for their inquisitive natures, so be sure to check out the press release that fills in all the details about the Barefoot Bay Kindle Worlds program.

I’m so delighted to be able to share this news with all you loyal readers. I hope you’ll stick with me and take a wild, sexy ride in Barefoot Bay. We’ll be sure to update the Lady Smut shop page with buy links as soon as they become available. In the meantime, put a tickler in your calendar for April 14th, my very first book birthday!

And follow Lady Smut. We’re the naughty kind of wild.

Singer, writer, editor, traveler, tequila drinker, and cat herder, Kiersten Hallie Krum avoids pen names since keeping her multiple personalities straight is hard enough work. She writes smart, sharp, and sexy romantic suspense. Her debut romantic suspense novel Wild on the Rocks will release on April 14, 2016. Visit her website at www.kierstenkrum.com and find her regularly over sharing on various social media via @kierstenkrum.

Sexy Saturday Round Up

Hola Readers! Hope the spring blossoms have arrived where ever you are and that those of you going ‘achoo!’ can comfort yourself while staying indoors with another week’s SSRU.  Enjoy!

From Madeline:

What can we learn about engineering from the penis.

Why some men prefer women without makeup.

This is what an awesome bj feels like.

Ever tried surfboard sex?

And once you have — here are some sex positions for people with limited mobility.

Forearm hair: yes or no?

From G.G. Andrew:

You should sleep naked, says science. Maybe with someone else who’s naked, too.

Star Wars fan? Check out the Darth Vader photo project.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau does yoga. Enough said.

From Elizabeth Shore:

Low female desire is head-scratchingly complicated, which is probably why scientists aren’t sure how to “treat” it – or even if it needs treating at all.

What we gals really think when men come knocking on the back door.

Safety first! What to do if you get injured during kink play.

Siri’s new response to “I was raped.”

A tip sheet worth passing along: How to be friends with a writer.