Liz Everly's Blog, page 68

Naked City: Thoughts on Urban Romance

Is it just me, or does she seem to be mid-snap?

By Alexa Day

Two weeks ago, on The Toast, black author Brittany K. Allen described her feelings about urban romance and whether or not her writing has a place there. I was a little off balance when I finally discovered the post last week — the struggle to get by in a post-Bowie world has been difficult — but I had a tough time deciding how I felt about Allen’s take on the popular subgenre.

Maybe the trouble, for me, is right at the beginning of the post. Allen, who has written romances with motorcycle clubs and stepsiblings, is asked by her publisher to write an urban romance. She agrees. She likes her publisher. Besides, she explains, “homegirl needs money.”

Click to buy this installment in the ongoing Secrets of a Side Bitch series.

This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate career choice. I feel homegirl. I need money myself. And honestly, it isn’t any of my business. I personally don’t read or write the urban romances, but I’m glad they’re out there. My position has always been that romance has a story for everyone, so I really like the idea of romances set on the streets of the inner city, replete with thugs and side bitches (if the titles are to be believed).

So why does Allen’s decision bother me so much?

It goes back to her publisher. I can’t know for sure at this distance, but it certainly feels like he asks her to take this project on because she’s black. In my head, his question amounts to: “Hey, you’re black. You can write thugs and side bitches, right?”

That does bother me.

And then I’m bothered that I’m bothered.

I brought a lot of my own baggage to Allen’s article. A black author has to struggle with any number of stereotypes. The most popular for me lately has been that I must be self-published. It isn’t a put-down at all. I’m not self-published, although I do look hard at that option from time to time. I just wonder what leads so many people to that conclusion. I’m also grateful for the change. Before this question, I used to have to deal with “Is it true, what They say about black guys?”

Seriously. Someone asked me that question once immediately after we were introduced.

So much of life as a black writer, a black professional, a black person, is about gracefully dealing with those stereotypes. I hate the thought that any publisher thinks we can/should all be writing urban romances just because we’re black, but Allen is right. The subgenre is thriving.

Allen writes, on the one hand, that “girls like me … learned early that to get by in this world, one must mold and flex with the tide of other people’s expectations.” On the other hand, however, “[t]o write to perceived type is to pay lip service to the institutional prejudice that keeps minorities exactly where the groups in power expect them to stay.”

Jessica Watkins is a force in urban lit. Click to buy!

The trouble, then, is not with the existence of urban romance, which enjoys a spectacular popularity with a market that has more choices than ever. The trouble is the presumption that skin color dictates any one writer’s potential for success in that subgenre (or any other), and not individual voice or talent or the peculiar drive that leads one author to one story and another author to another.

Allen also writes about the girls who grew up without seeing themselves in fiction or popular entertainment. Girls who were never altogether sure why they were unlike their peers but who faced occasional reminders of their status from a “system that is forever diminishing us.” I’m one of those girls — I grew up that way, at least — so Allen’s words definitely resonate with me. But I’m learning that those girls are peeking out into the fictional world from more places than I’d imagined. Those girls are everywhere, and I’m grateful they’re finding their reflections in romance. Even in urban romance.

Allen does write that urban romance her publisher requested. She brings her own unique voice and perspective to the story, and she enjoys creating it. I long to provide you with a link to it, but she doesn’t mention a title, and none appears on her website.

Urban romance is a big step toward diversity in our chosen genre. I honestly don’t know if the romance community fully embraces urban romance as a subgenre. I hope it isn’t getting side-eye from its more mainstream counterparts. I suspect urban romance speaks to more readers than any of us supposes.

But I also hope this industry is swiftly moving past the presumption that an author’s race is the only thing that qualifies that author to succeed in urban romance, or in any of the subgenres, for that matter. That’s not a good look. For any of us.

Follow Lady Smut. We’ll break you right out of that box.

Alan Rickman’s Romantic Legacy

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

We lost another great one last week, the third in the same week to cancer (FUCK CANCER!). Alan Rickman was only 69 when he died, but he packed those years full of some of the most notorious roles in film history–Hans Gruber, Severus Snape, and the Sheriff of Nottingham to name his most famous ones.

But along with being a stellar, generous, hilarious, giving human being (see Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, and Daniel Radcliffe’s responses to his death for a taste) he also play several of the most romantic heroes on the screen. Not conventional romantics. Oh no. Rickman’s romantics were, in true Rickman form, zany, deep, flawed, funny, forgiving, patient, self-sacrificing, loyal, and rather brilliant.

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TRULY MADLY DEEPLY

In the British movie Truly, Madly, Deeply. Rickman plays a cellist, Jamie, who is dead. Utterly lost after his death, his lover Nina (played by the incomparable Juliet Stevenson), holes herself away in their flat with her memories and her grief. Until Rickman’s ghost returns to her…and brings along a few friends to fill out the band. Is he a real ghost or simply a manifestation of her grief? Does it matter?

After the first wash of joy and weeks of locking herself away with her ghostly lover (and his friends). Jamie’s “return” allows Nina to see her life before and after getting together with Jamie–and before and after his death. As she comes to terms with her grief, terms that include a new potential lover and the things she loved that she set aside because Jamie didn’t, Nina realizes that she’s going to be okay, that she’s going to be able to make a new life without James and survive losing him. And–human, ghost, or figment–loves her enough to let her go and do that. Jamie loves her enough to leave.

CLOSE MY EYES

Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves play Richard and Natalie, half brother and sister, each raised by a different parent, who, after years of sexual tension, become lovers. (The film takes pains to set up how Richard and Natalie were not raised as brother and sister and as such, their feelings for one another were never filial.) Rickman plays Sinclair, Natalie’s wealthy husband. One of the most compelling aspects of this film to me, was how the power dynamic changes between Richard and Natalie–she pursues the sexual aspect of their relationship but once she marries Sinclair, it’s Richard who gets lost in it and becomes obsessive. Sinclair is deeply in love with Natalie and brings to her life the ease of wealth and of a man who is solely devoted to her happiness, something that’s new to her life.

Click on image to buy!

But even Sinclair can sense there’s something more between brother and sister. When he discovers the affair, he doesn’t immediately let on that he knows, rather he lets Natalie work things out with Richard and potentially find her way back to Sinclair–even if that involves a physical confrontation between Natalie and Richard while at Sinclair’s house. Rickman’s role is meant to provide the wealthy contrast to Richard and Natalie’s working-class background and there’s more social commentary embedded in the early 90s movie too. But, as usual, I’m drawn to the relationships and, years after I first saw it as a student in 1994, Rickman’s Sinclair wasn’t the cuckold husband enraged and perhaps disgusted by his wife’s unconventional affair. Rather, he comes to understand his wife’s relationship with her brother is much more complex than mere sex. He understands his wife well enough to realize her sexual involvement with Richard is more about working through old emotional baggage than having anything to do with how she does or doesn’t feel about her husband. Sinclair loves her enough to stick.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Colonel Brandon of Sense and Sensibility is probably Alan Rickman’s most obvious romantic film role. As flighty, flirty Marianne runs around with her heart on her sleeve for Willoughby–often being outright rude and mean to others in process–Brandon quietly stays a solid fixture in the background, aware of the treasure of a women Marianne can be while he waits for life to sort her out. Too experienced with the vagaries of the world not to know exactly the type of man Willoughby is, he still refuses to pressure or influence Marianne while she learns that hard lesson for herself (and, I think, had Willoughby stepped up, Colonel Brandon would’ve been happy to see Marianne get her young heart’s desire.) Brandon loves her enough to wait.

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LOVE ACTUALLY

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Love Actually pops up in pop culture news every Christmas season and opinions on it are divided. Some love it (moi) some hate it (many others). I’ll amend my love to say that there are serious problems with the movie, yes, from continuity to motivation to timeline to outright believably (and I want to smack Laura Linney’s character right up side the head every time). But overall, it’s funny and at times, incredibly sweet. It’s not meant to be a treatise on love, it’s meant to be a confection, with some sour bits, and to stimulate warm fuzzies about idealized love around the Christmas season.

At Christmastime in 2015, Love Actually made the headlines again with several behind-the-scenes listicles and a series of BTS tweets from writer/director Richard Curtis’ partner, Emma Freud, one of which confirmed that Alan Rickman’s character, Harry, did in fact sleep with his assistant, Mia. Up till now, it’s always been ambiguous whether or not he went through with it (even though he did give her the gold necklace). I’ve always been of the opinion that he did not, but came damn close. So in keeping with the theme, I would’ve said Harry loved his wife Karen (Emma Thompson) enough to resist.

I would’ve been wrong.

It’s Harry’s weakness that Rickman plumbs even as his contrition is sincere–contrition after he’s been outed by his wife. “God, I’ve been an utter fool. I am so in the wrong.” His punishment is to forever after have something less in his marriage than the something more he thought he was getting with Mia. Harry didn’t stick, didn’t wait, and absolutely didn’t resist. Harry caved.

The richness of roles Alan Rickman portrayed in his career are a lasting testament to his skill and talent. To the reason why he is so beloved. From comedy to drama to romance to fantasy, his legacy has made a significant impact and will ensure that he is never, ever forgotten.

Follow LadySmut. We’re unforgettable.

Sexy Saturday Round Up

Hey ladies n gents! Hope you’ve got the heat blazing and hot chocolate on the stove for another winter weekend of SSRU. Here’s the latest and greatest in the world of all that’s smexy:

From Madeline:

Actor Alan Rickman is DEAD. Snape. .

The secret lives of mafia hunters.

Can you lose weight simply by eating dinner earlier?

Romance Novels for Feminists ponders reasons why you don’t read lesbian romances.

From Bust: First there was Sex in the City–now there’s AWKWARD SEX IN THE CITY.

GEEK ROMANCE BOOKS! (All kinds — sigh. Now I can die happy.)

From Elizabeth SaFleur:

Hot dudes with kittens. Nuff said.

Texts from your favorite hero? Huffpo talks about a whole new multi-media approach to reading romances.

Think library infographics are the best. thing. ever??? Take a look at the best library book infographics of 2015.

From G.G. Andrew:

When you’re done checking out the hot dudes with kittens, check out this Tumblr of hot guys with BB-8. Because Star Wars. And hot guys.

Looking for a good movie to watch? Check out this list of films with surprisingly hot scenes you didn’t see coming.

Mark Ruffalo once did a Clearasil ad. No, really, he did.

From Elizabeth Shore:

So you say you want a relationship? Stop relying on your smartphone for dates.

Mary Louise Parker talks blow jobs and yelling at cab drivers in her new book.

Stephen Colbert acts out all 8 of the best picture nominees so you don’t have to bother watching them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to have an orgasm from being spanked

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Spanking is one of my favorite things to read about, both because I enjoy getting and giving spankings, but even more, because how a person reacts to a spanking can tell us so much about them. The eyes may be the window to the soul, but for spankophiles, a spanking can be a window into equally powerful revelations.

Erotica authors can make spankings playful, painful, punishment, reward, ritual, initiation; the possibilities are endless. They can be purely physical, or they can tap something deep inside, bringing out raw emotion, longing, desire, unlocking secrets that can’t be unearthed in any other way. But there’s no one-size-fits-all spanking. What’s sexy to one person may be abhorrent to another. Some have very precise and specific ingredients that go into the perfect spanking; for others, it’s on a case-by-case basis. You can’t simply magically intuit what type of spanker or spankee someone will be without some clues to guide you.

If you stumbled across a spanking taking place, even if you watched closely, you might not know exactly which category it fell into; is it being enjoyed or endured? Is the spankee getting turned on or simply waiting it out until they get to whatever happens next? Is the spanking a sexual act, or something else? Writers have the power to get inside the heads of those on the receiving or giving end of those firm, hard smacks and let us find out what exactly makes this something characters crave (or cringe over)? When I am right there with a character who’s having the time of his or her life because of a spanking, I’m in reading heaven.

Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1

It’s no surprise, then, that in my new anthology, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, spanking makes a few appearances. One of the most intriguing to me is “Restitution” by Ria Restrepo, about a famous pop star, Ella Lopez, who’s caught shoplifting and is being interrogated by a police officer under the watchful eye of whoever’s observing and monitoring their every move through a two-way mirror, helping to negotiate what her punishment will be. She’s told that she’ll be let off the hook for the shoplifting if she takes 20 bare assed spankings from Officer Hernandez. Heart pounding, she agrees. Here’s part of what happens:

“I want you to sing for me, little diva. Call out the numbers.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, my voice raspy and unfamiliar.

He shifted away from me and I held my breath, awaiting the first blow. When it came, it was hard, punishing, brutal—everything I thought it would be. My body lurched forward, jostling the table enough to knock the water bottle onto the floor.

“One,” I cried out on a pent-up gust of air.

Then came the next smack on the opposite cheek, and I called that one out too. There was a mean sting on my skin when his large hand first made contact, followed by a deep ache in my flesh as it absorbed the full force of the strike. He spread the slaps around, alternating sides, occasionally landing near the juncture between my thighs—those were the best ones.  

Each time, pain roared through my body, making my nipples throb and my cunt clench in sympathy. But it was a delicious torture that built with the burn until I was on fire. I could feel my juices sliding past my cunt lips and onto my thighs. I couldn’t believe it; I was going to come, just from him spanking me.

I asked Ria Restrepo to share a little behind the scenes insights into just how this story plays out, including what factors went into Ella being able to orgasm from being spanked. While this may not work for everyone (nor is that everyone’s goal), knowing what it took for Ella might set the stage for it happening for you.

Here’s what she told me: “Ella ultimately gets off from the combination of physical, emotional, and mental stimuli she experiences. She finds pleasure in pain, so the sensation of a firm hand smacking her tender flesh is highly arousing. But being dominated by a man she’s attracted to, knowing her spanking is being watched, and the taboo nature of a police officer abusing his authority in such a way all heighten Ella’s arousal. It’s often said that the brain is the greatest sexual organ and that’s definitely true in ‘Restitution.’ Ella is very aroused before Officer Hernandez ever lays a hand on her.” This buildup was another thing that made me want to publish her story. Ella’s body is primed, and the reader’s mind is also primed to be fully appreciate every aspect of her spanking—and what comes after it.

Something I especially think Lady Smut readers will appreciate is that Restrepo’s tagline for her BDSM erotica is “strong women who desire stronger men.” In other words, kink for her isn’t about submissies being truly degraded or seen as somehow lesser, but about owning up to—and sometimes asking for—the kind of treatment they want from a dominant. Sometimes what seems like “suffering” is actually delight; in Ella’s case, she’s being punished, but it’s clear that she is getting off, literally, on the harsh blows being delivered straight to her bottom, from a man who’s strong in more ways than one.

I asked her how her tagline plays out in “Restitution” and she said: “The best dominants aren’t intimidated by strong, independent women. They value a woman’s willing submission and work hard to earn her respect, admiration, and trust. Having a strong woman, who can stand on her own two feet, kneel before them in supplication is a cherished gift.”

She went on: “In ‘Restitution,’ Officer Hernandez may have authority over Ella by virtue of his position as the police officer who arrested her, but his dominant nature goes deeper than that. There is an ineffable quality truly dominant men possess—it’s in their demeanor, the way they stand, the way the walk, the glint in their eye. They exude confidence in their ability to understand what a submissive needs and give her exactly what she desires. Therein lies Officer Hernandez’s true power over Ella and makes him ‘stronger.’”

I love Restrepo’s concept of submission and that she makes sure to link women who submit with women who are independent. In this conception, dominant and submissive are yin and yang, each valuing what the other brings to the dance of BDSM. Her story would have been something else entirely if I felt like Ella was truly being manipulated into doing something she didn’t want to do, if the “punishment” only worked one way—to get the spanker off. Because it’s so clear, as you read in the passage above, that her body is singing with each strike of his hand, the power play works perfectly.

I also appreciated the detail Restrepo used in the short but powerful spankings scene. She didn’t belabor the story, but gave the reader just enough to perfectly capture exactly how Ella was being spanked, and where, and to let us know that the man delivering those blows knows precisely what he’s doing. While of course her story is pure fiction and not an actual instruction manual, I do believe that readers interested in pursuing spankings of their own could glean a thing or two about the art and joy of taking a spanking from Ella.

Want to find out what happens after that spanking? Read “Restitution” in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, out now in print and ebook form. You can also hear me and other contributors read from the book this Tuesday, January 19 at 6:30 p.m., at Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco.

Have a sexy story you want to get published? I’m accepting short story submissions by women authors from around the world through April 1 for Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, and the guidelines can be found at bweoftheyear.com.

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The Smart Detective & Her Hot Side-Kick

VERAby Madeline Iva

Talking crime dramas today.  Not only good crime drama, but shows that highlight a female detective as the lead — and (bonus points) include a hot male side-kick.  Clearly there are bright people in television who are figuring out what women (like me) want to see. Not only do we get the hot male lurking about but the men are the more sensitive and caring, yet perhaps a bit edgy too.  That’s right, the women are in charge, and the men are care-givers.  Welcome to a whole new world.

No doubt all three series are indebted to PRIME SUSPECT, that ground breaking British television drama starring Dame Helen Mirren.  There was even an American version of Prime Suspect that was completely different but still pretty good.  So why was it cancelled? It’s possible studio executives thought Americans didn’t want to watch a strong female character who loves her job, doesn’t have kids, and doesn’t want to get married–whereas the brits soaked it up like a sponge.

Let’s prove them wrong, shall we? Here are three series to check out:

VERAVERA

Tiny, tiny woman: Vera is 5′ 2″ and played by that great actress Brenda Blethyn. She speaks in a high voice, with a nervous-tremor like a diabetic woman about to topple if she doesn’t get some sugar in her. Meanwhile, she dresses like your mother on her way to the grocery store on a rainy day.  It was as if the powers that be in British broadcasting said: If people want to watch someone like themselves, then let’s give them your high strung middle-aged mum as the main character.  Frankly, she’s not very believable as a detective.  Yet Vera’s super strengths are three-fold:

She’s so un-policeman like, people often forget she’s a copper and confide in her.
Her father was a local bird-watching, taxidermy fanatic.  So she knows the local scene, and can use that context to help peel apart close mouthed locals as well as layers of recent history that hides secrets.
Finally, Vera focusses relentlessly upon on the trivial details that don’t add up.  These are usually revealed to be nuggets of the truth about how the murders occurred.

Joe is such a good guy, a family man, and Vera often puts his looks to use when questioning suspects and witnesses.

Male Hotness Factor: Joe Ashworth is Vera’s junior.  I’d say about forty to fifty percent of why I watch the show is because of the Joe candy and his relationship with Vera. He is the dark good looking ‘bloke’ who tags along with her, asks questions, and remains attractive and innocent in the face of evil.

Personal Vulnerability:  Sugar and alcohol and a wonky childhood.  At a certain point Vera is diagnosed with angina and it’s her Joe who’s knocking the biscuits (cookies) out of her hand, nagging her to take care of herself. Their relationship is awfully interesting.  It’s a little bit uneasy, like that of a single mom with a terribly attractive grown up son, or like an older woman with a much younger lover.  The relationship is so interesting to me because through the first four seasons at least, it remained so undefined and it kept me watching.

Beautiful Scenery?: VERA takes place in Northumberland, shot in almost perpetual ‘golden hour’ with streaming late afternoon sun.  So glorious it hurts the eyes.

Family free? Child free? Very much so.  She’s one of those people who is alone and takes a sorrowful joy in it.  It’s so awesome watching her perfect lack of interest around Joe’s darling children. (Because there are women like that.) The series starts after her father died, and it’s bittersweet memories of him that tend to fill her farmhouse kitchen.

The Killing: Season Two

Linden and Holder, co-dependent partners in crime.

The Killing: Season TwoTHE KILLING

The tiniest of the tiny: Linden is 5′ 2″ has a plain pony tail for her glorious red hair and the face of a Danish viking.  But she is so tiny with a runner’s body.  Her twelve year old boy is the same height as her, soon to be taller.

Family free? Child free?: We find out that Linden faced neglect as a child and was put into the foster system after her mother abandoned her.  Given her tiny size and her sometimes nervous tremblies (reminding me a little of Vera’s character) one suspects that in the past she’s been held down by those meaner and stronger than her and been victimized.  She has something about her that said she had to take it and then turn away from it or fall into a well of weakness and despair.  All this makes her empathize with the victims–perhaps too much, and become relentlessly driven to find the murderer.

The other problem she faces is being a 24/7 detective and a single mother with a teenage child at the same time.  There is no one else there to pick up the slack when her engagement falls apart. She doesn’t have the time to find a new apartment, or cook, or spend time with her son every day, because of the murder investigation. And unlike almost every other woman presented in TV history as a heroine, she doesn’t make the choice you’d expect when it comes down to it.

Personal Vulnerability: We find out at the top of season one that her last murder case in essence drove her crazy.  Perhaps with neglected children involved, it turns her mind back to her own wounds.  There’s so much pathos in watching her become the neglectful mother–even though as a neglected child, it’s the last thing on earth she’d ever want to be.

Male Hotness Factor: Linden’s partner is 6′ 2″ and his name is Holder.  He is a tall drink of water, and by now, the point I’m at–which is late in season 3–he’s the one reason I keep watching this grim show.  We find out Holder got hooked on drugs when he was in Narcotics as a police officer.  He’s tried to recover, and he’s trying to redeem himself, take care of himself, and learn how to take care of those around him that he cares for.

Ultimately, solving a murder is Linden’s addiction.  As things go on and political corruption in the department rears its ugly head, Holder is tainting his career to be at Linden’s side.  You sense a spiraling co-dependent relationship forming between the two of them.  It’s kinda bad–in a way some of us perversely crave–and it’s riveting to see how far down they might drag each other.

Beautiful Scenery: Seattle, Washington.  Rainy.  Beautiful.  Sad.

THE FALL, SERIES 1

Creeeeeepy! But really well done.

THE FALL, SERIES 1THE FALL

Short and slinky: Gillian Anderson’s character Stella Gibson, is relatively tall by comparison at 5′ 3″. Probably the best dressed female detective on television ever, even hindered by blouses and other copper gear, she’s got the figure of a forties movie star, and it’s great to see someone–not young, not a size zero, and not tall and willowy, have that confident sizzle with men–in a way that doesn’t seem like pure fantasy.  Her confidence and attitude seem more of the slaying factor than her feminine beauty–though surely her little side wrap sweaters don’t hurt.

The genius of Gillian Anderson as Stella is her sophistication.  She has a soft quiet voice, but seems credible as someone who does a ton of police paperwork and does it proficiently, following up on things with proven modern methodology to catch criminals. Her leadership takes the form of urging her team up towards her own level–and we see how her cold analytical skills and training translate to the swift way she sums up her potential sex partners.

The real genius is watching her see some male hotness on the street and in an unapologetic, mature way, let the man know what she wants from him.  There’s not a drop of brazen vulgarity, insecurity, or any other flawed default setting we’re so comfortable seeing in women who approach men.  I think my mouth was open during these scenes.

Male Hotness Factor: Several hot males rove through this series.  A hot sergeant grabs one’s attention in the beginning, a there’s a hot detective at the end, and—wait for it—the hottest serial killer ever on TV, Mr. 50 shades himself– Jamie Dornan.

I will admit to watching great swathes of the show simply carried along by his frowny-sad cute face. He’s also weirdly caring for a serial killer.  Of his little girl.  Of the women he kills (so icky).  Another brilliant (if you could call it that) aspect of the show, is that they’ve clearly done their research.  They go very deep into the cold, sorrowful, controlling, empty fantasy-land that comprises the soul of the serial killer.  They show how his reality–always skewed and sad–begins to swiftly unravel, and while they really take their time with it, they do it very very well.

Personal Vulnerability: Nothing much.   YAY!  (There is one thing she does that trips her up, but I won’t add spoilers here.)

Beautiful Scenery: THE FALL takes place in Belfast and the beautiful county around it.  It’s a different beastie from other Brit crime drama I’ve seen.  The show doesn’t let you forget that Belfast is not England.  It’s got Catholic overtones, and aspects of North Ireland’s violent history are very much present; for instance, the police all carry guns. I’m just not used to that when watching British TV.

Family free? Child free?: Oh, you betcha.  All those detective stories about men who would never marry, would always roam as the lone wolf solving crime? That’s Stella in a nutshell, and she seems perfectly at home in that role as she does in the hotel bar late at night.  She plays it so very very well that I can’t help think of Alexa Day aspirational posts about sophisticated single woman.  I’m thinking that Stella is what Alexa’s been talking about all this time, and I finally get it.

Seen the shows? Seen any other great crime dramas you’d recommend? Sound off in the comments below and don’t forget to follow us here at Lady Smut.  We’ll lead you straight to where the action is.

Madeline Iva writes fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance.  Her novella ‘Sexsomnia’ is available in our LadySmut anthology HERE, and her fantasy romance, WICKED APPRENTICE, will be out March 15th.

From Sexy To Saintly – The Transfiguration of Shoshanna Evers

The Transfiguration. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael)

By Elizabeth Shore

So, let’s say you’re a New York Times and USA Today bestselling erotic romance author. You have thousands of followers on Twitter, thousands of likes on Facebook, and have been called “One of the most popular authors in romance” by Amazon. Let’s also say that you and your agent are nearly done negotiating a well-paying, six-book publishing contract with a major publisher with little else to do but sign on the dotted line. Would you:

Work like your ass is on fire to keep the momentum going and continue building your brand; OR
Change your name, change your brand, drop your agent, give up your book deal, and let everyone know that from now on you’re going to be writing for the glory of God.

People who advise others on ways to further their professional livelihoods would tell you right quick that option 2 is what they call CAREER SUICIDE. An honest-to-goodness career buster. Or just a plain ol bat-sh*t crazy thing to do. But none of that matters to (former) erotic romance author Shoshanna Evers. As she let all her fans and followers know on November 12th, she’s choosing option 2.

Shoshanna Evers goes back a few years with LadySmut. Back in 2013 Madeleine Iva featured her in an interview that stemmed from her Enslaved trilogy and included comments on her controversial Held Captive by the Cavemen short novella, and her approach to her stories in general. But before New Jersey Girl Shoshanna took up residence in northern Idaho, she was a member of the Hudson Valley RWA local chapter (still my local chapter) where I first met her several years ago. That’s why, when Shoshanna made her big announcement on her future career plans, I was keenly interesed in writing about it.

She blogs about what she’s going to do, and you can read all about it here. But the Cliff Notes version is this: after the Sandy Hook shooting Shoshanna turned to the bible for answers. While reading it she came to believe – which, she says, was admittedly difficult for a Jewish girl – that Jesus is the Messiah she’d been waiting for. After much reflective soul searching she realized that she’s no longer excited to write erotic romance and is going to change direction to focus on Christian inspirational. Her name, too, will be Shoshanna Gabriel instead of Shoshanna Evers so as not to confuse her readers. Probably a smart move there.

When I emailed Shoshanna to let her know I was going to be writing about her transformation and whether she wanted to add any comments, she wrote, “My word for this year is “new” –  as in new start, new name, new books, new agent, new publisher, new website, new career path, and new faith. And new babies, too! TWINS!” Happy news indeed as she and her DH are expecting twins from a Mumbai, India surrogate. The due date is June 28th.

Admittedly, not all of Shoshanna’s readers are as excited about her new direction as she is. On her Twitter feed she noted that since her announcement she’s had a lot of “unlikes.” Yet she remains steadfast in her belief that making the change from sexy to sweet is what she’s meant to do. It’s a risky move. She may have a challenge building her credibility. Will readers of Christian inspirational buy into Shoshanna’s change or will they approach it with a more-than-healthy dose of skepicism? After all, how would this author, writer of (among others) The Man Who Holds The Whip and Hollywood Spank and editor of Hot to Write Hot Sex know anything about the Christian inspirational market and what those readers want? But as Shoshanna states on her blog, “God opens windows whenever he closes a door.” She genuinely feels that her new direction is where she’s meant to go.

What do you think? Comments welcome.  And feel free to keep up with Shoshanna’s new direction via the links below.

 Meet Shoshanna Gabriel… New WEBSITE, new NAME!  ShoshannaGabriel.com
****From “Sexily” to “Faithfully” – leaving erotica for inspirational romance.


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Freedom to Leer: It Isn’t Free, But It’s Paid For

You tell me this dude isn’t just as real as everyone else.

By Alexa Day

We’re about halfway through January. A long weekend awaits many of us in the U.S.; Martin Luther King Day is this coming Monday. Still, I think of this time as that point in the year when most people have allowed the real world to overtake their pie-in-the-sky resolutions.

In other words, it’s just about the time for “gym people” to start re-entering the gym.

Or so I hear. I am not “gym people.”

This is also about the time I start seeing posts on my Facebook feed about “real” bodies.

One will plead: “I might not be a size zero, but I’m me! And I’m lovable!”

Seen that one? I think there’s a minion in it most recently.

I don’t want to send the wrong message. I am all for being confident in one’s own skin. It’s the idea that some of us are more “real” than others that bothers me a little.

So far as I can tell, the adjective “real” is applied to the more-or-less average figure. The slight paunch that comes with the privilege of age. A little roundness that speaks of good living. That sort of thing.

We live now in a resurgence of the “real.”

Sadly, men are getting more “real” by the minute.

I’ve written about the dadbod before. I think I hoped it would be a short-lived fad, but this was not to be.

My colleague Elizabeth Shore shared a link last Saturday to a sequence of fine art photography. Bare Men is all male nudes, full frontal, and all average-looking men. It’s provocative, to say the least. Go check it out here, using the single most NSFW link I have ever posted.

I really don’t mind checking out the “real” man. But I will admit to a strong preference for the unreal. I will, here on LadySmut, stand for my right to leer.

I have gawked at male ballet dancers. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the male revue. I’m all about staring at firemen and cops, clothed and otherwise. Just the other day, I was checking out a group of firemen as they closed the hydrant across the street from the office and asked my coworker what the proper collective noun for such a group might be.

As backward and politically incorrect as I’m sure it sounds, I am perfectly happy to objectify men, and a great many of them seem to enjoy being objectified, if I do say so myself.

I hear you out there.

Alexa, you’re saying, don’t you understand that the price we pay for objectifying men is that we women must also be objectified by them?

I do understand that. I need you to understand something.

I HAVE ALREADY PAID.

I can show you the receipt if you want.

I have been ogled. I have been catcalled. People have gawked as if they have never seen the human female form before. I say this not because I am some spectacular exemplar of womanhood. I say this as a woman living in present-day America.

Friends, I have been leered at, so that I may leer.

You, too, should have this freedom.

I ask not for the exclusion of our average-looking, dadbodded friends. Of course not.

But let’s make sure that inclusion of the real doesn’t squeeze all the fantasy out of life.

Also, let’s catcall a dude this week. I think firemen might actually be fond of it.

Follow Lady Smut. We know you like the view back there.

Getting My Vroom Vroom On With Tara Janzen

by Kiersten Hallie Krum

Welcome to the first installment of my new monthly feature on romantic suspense. On the second Monday of the month, I will be profiling one of my favorite romantic suspense writers/series–both personal classics and those I’ve only recently cottoned on to–along with interviews and whatever else floats my boat. Because I’m not just a writer of romantic suspense novels, I like to read them too!

Clearly, I too lack the shelf space…NOW!

First on the docket is Tara Janzen’s Steele Street series. Once a group of superior car thieves with their own chop shop, the men of Steele Street now work as members of the secretive Special Defense Force, clandestine operations out of the Department of Defense while maintaining an undercover personae as (legitimate) high-end, specialty gear heads. Their back stories are murky, their hotness level is high, their enemies, both political and actual, are deadly, and their angst, like their cars, is fully loaded. They are a mix of ex-cons, soldiers, spies, geeks, and one is even a bonafide, all-American hero. They live and work out of a tricked-out building in trendy downtown Denver (LoDo) filled with souped-up muscle cars and high-tech, somewhat illegal, equipment.

Total RS catnip.

Back in the day, I majorly fell down the rabbit hole with this series as I am wont to do. The first book, Crazy Hot, was released in 2005, somewhat before ebooks became the de rigueur in publishing that they are today, which meant I actually placed orders at book stores to load up my missing back list (I don’t know why I didn’t use Amazon) and harassed Barnes and Noble clerks as to why they weren’t carrying the available books in the series as a whole (lack of shelf space, duh).

The Steele Street series has all the hallmarks of a great romantic suspense series. Rooted in Denver, the action is spread over an international stage with much of the darkest parts of the plot unraveling in Columbia and other parts of South America. Nasty stuff happens too, kidnappings and brutal killings and enforced drug addiction and nuclear bombs up for sale to name a few. High-octane action, vulnerable, emotional romance…and, holy smokes, but are these books hawt. I dig their retro covers and how each title has its own distinctive color too. Distinctive packaging for the win!

Click on image to buy!

But for me, as always, it’s all about the character and the emotional drama, and the Steele Street series is crammed end-to-end with both. The camaraderie and trust between these heroes is the kind that only comes with time and life or death situations. These guys have been at each others backs from time before they could shave and that bond runs deep and stays strong through a helluva lot of crazy. There is deep darkness in their history together, some of which is back story, some of which plays out through the books, but in the end, the men of Steele Street will do anything for each other–and their women.

Make no mistake, the ladies of Steele Street are no pushovers either. From a drag racing, graffiti-artist, tech-head to a former librarian Russian party girl to the girl next door to an edgy visual artist to a mousey assistant turned bad ass assassin to the socialite daughter of a powerhouse senator, the ladies bring their bad boys to heel one way or another.

The plots may occasionally strain the bonds of credulity but are any wonky chain of events is stabilized the deep characterization and breathtaking pace that keeps the pages turning. Not every title is a hit out of the park, but each one is worth the read. They’re fun and often funny and the hard-won HEAs feel hard-earned. Writing this post alone has wet my craving to reread them all, straight from the beginning.

Of the lot, my favorite is Crazy Cool. Reunited lovers with heaps and heaps of angst between them is one of my favorite romance tropes and Crazy Cool does not disappoint in that area. Look! A blurb!

She’s sizzling hot…He’s icy cool.

He called her Bad Luck Dekker, a gorgeous socialite who trailed trouble in her wake. Christian Hawkins should know. Thirteen years ago he saved Kat Dekker’s life—only to spend two years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Now it’s déjà vu all over again when he rescues Kat from an explosion that rips through a Denver art auction. This time Christian—now an operative with an elite U.S. task force—plans to keep her close until he figures out why somebody wants to kill her. That is, if he can keep his cool around this sizzling-hot lady.…

The daughter of a senator, Kat hasn’t forgotten the hot summer nights of passion in Christian’s arms before everything went wrong. Now, as the bullets start flying, the sexy, self-appointed bodyguard is back in her life in a major way. Especially when Christian kidnaps her and they go roaring into the night in his brute-powered muscle car. But staying out of danger is tough for two people who are this hot for each other, a little bit crazy, and a whole lot in love….

Cristo and Kat’s story breaks my heart…and cracks me up. Their tender romance as young lovers was brutally ripped apart by outside forces and the fall out shaped both their futures and not in good ways. Now Cristo has been hired to protect Kat who is being framed for new murders that set her up to take the rap for the murder from which Cristo was pardon after serving two years in maximum penitentiary. Cristo is a certified bad ass mofo and so hot, the asphalt practically melts when he walks down the street. His street name is “Superman”–the man of steel–but even steel melts if it gets hot enough. Despite her monetary advantages, Kat has been bullied by her mother her entire life to the point of being shut away in a mental hospital in the wake of Cristo’s long ago arrest when Kat refused to admit the street thief had violated the princess and Done Her Wrong. She’s spent the in-between years wrenching a life for herself from her mother’s grip–a life that is now threatened as their combined murky, murderous past is once-again center stage.

So if you’re in the market for some sexy romantic suspense that’ll rev all your engines, buckle up with the Steele Street gang for crazy, loose, action-packed, smokin’ ride.

And follow Lady Smut. We’ll be sure to rev you right up.

Get all the Steele Street books now by clicking on the images below.

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Sexy Saturday Round Up

Happy New Year, Lady Smut campers! Sexy Saturday Round-Up is back with the latest/greatest in whack romance, gender, and smexy adventures happening across the globe.

From Madeline:

Those folks practicing polyamory apparently can teach the rest of us a thing or two about good relationship skills.

Why BDSM is never-ever gonna go completely mainstream.

New Year’s Sex Resolutions from Ask Men.

Baby It’s Cold Outside–but also kinda magnificent at this Chinese Snow and Ice Festival.

From G.G. Andrew:

Love this photo series of young couples in intimate poses around the world.

Into classic movies? Here’s a fun list of old films that hit all the major romance tropes.

Bleak winter’s day? Check out these photos of the most colorful places on Earth.

From Elizabeth Shore:

What’s the top search term women used while trolling the net for porn? Lesbian.

Photographer Abigail Ekue sets out to “normalize and neutralize” the naked male body.

20 sexy things that always turn guys on – so says a guy.

Oddly fascinating. The secrets, tips, and tricks behind fashionable food photography.

 

Bad girls of the night, here to warm you up

Need something steam, steam steamy to warm you up?

Want to shiver?

Watch Kiss of the Damned.

First off, must admit that I love the wicked, bad ass female characters. Sexy, powerful  and unapologetic. If you like aggressive, evil women vampires who seek out hot, dark sex, you may want to check this one out. As long as you aren’t hoping to be surprised by a twisting, turning plot and the not-quite-so-well-done accents of the vampires don’t bother you, you’ll be happy.

Keep in mind, the movie poster and trailer makes it clear, this film is influenced by the swank of the 60’s and 70’s. Huge hint: the purple font for the title and credits. Hello. If that doesn’t tell you what’s up…

Be ready for a touch of camp. It seems to me, Kiss of the Damned, is equal parts silly (note, the music) and serious (willingness to just go for it). Much like Jean Rollin, a master of lighting and imagery, the director of Damned uses the screen shots to full advantage. Yet be prepared for a couple over the top moments–like the fights between the sisters–and some slow spots–like when nothing is actually happening. But shoot, nothing happening for a minute or two is no big deal. Be patient, viewer.

A couple reviews I read were concerned about the teen market watching the violent sex. Apparently, these reviewers have not seen The Vampire Diaries, a series where the males regularly throw the females around. Here it’s the males who are getting the rough treatment and for the most part they aren’t complaining.

The trailer below will give you a little idea what you’re in for but if you’re intrigued I say just open a bottle of wine and go for it.

Here’s what I’d like to know:

What other sexy horror jems are out there? These hotties can’t be the only take-no-prisoners bad girls of fright. If you know some other films that feature sexy & evil girls, please put the film titles in the comments! Because here at Lady Smut like to look out for each other.