Tilly Hunter's Blog, page 6

What's sexy about Christmas? Erotica authors Q&A

It's a funny winter here in the UK, last week we had gales and floods, this week we've had sunny, 13C days and where I am right now it's cold, grey and wet, which is just the sort of weather for staying cosy inside with a good book (and some cake). Some of my fellow Winter Warmers authors have been kind enough to answer a few questions on their feelings about Christmas for me for your amusement. Today I have Gemma Parkes, Angie Sargenti, Nicole Gestalt, Annabeth Leong, Victoria Blisse and lit...

Winter Warmers

Are you ready for Christmas? Surely that must be one of the most irritating questions you can hear around this time of year and it comes at you from all angles - from shop assistants to relatives. Perhaps you need a break, a little me-time, a good book to curl up with and restore that warm inner glow. Or perhaps you need a gift for someone who might like something a little spicier than mulled wine. 

Well, let me introduce The House of Erotica Winter Warmers Collection, which is now availa...

Review: Big Book of Orgasms

This one does what it says on the tin, as they say in the world of DIY. It’s a book (real or e), it’s big (69 stories big) and it’s focused sharply and overwhelmingly on orgasms. So what else could you possibly need to know?
I guess you’d want to know that the stories are fluently written, original and hot. Check, check and check. But I’m increasingly realising that this goes without saying in anthologies from Cleis Press. The stories are well chosen and professionally edited. So go buy it. Wh...

"It left me wanting more"

I've had what I believe is my first proper review, for my ebook Miranda's Tempest, published earlier this year by House of Erotica. I'm not counting the two that show up on Amazon for Xcite anthologies I'm in. One of them says "it's just a collection of pornographic short stories" as if that's a bad thing (Cherry Ripe: 5 historical erotic romance stories). The other admits the stories are sexy, but the reader is glad they got the book as a freebie (Miss Pemberton's Drawers: 6 erotic short sto...

Shakespearotica: Meet Orlando

As promised, I'm back with an excerpt from my new story As We Like It, which is in Shakespearotica: Queering the Bard from Storm Moon Press.

In this scene, Celia and Ross are watching the wrestling when they first see Orlando. If you now the story of As You Like It, you'll know that there is indeed a wrestling scene shortly before Rosalind is banished from the dukedom. Like the original, my Celia and Ros(s)alind will meet Orlando again. The story is told from Celia's point of view.


We sneak ben...

News round-up

You wait weeks for something good to blog about, then everything comes along at once. It's like the 53C along Derby Road. 

News on the More Smut for Chocoholics front. We've extended our deadline to December 15th. That's so all the folks doing NaNoWriMo will still have time to submit. What better way to wind down from a month of epic writing than with a nice little, light-hearted bit of smut? All the details are at the Smutters website.
In other news, I have a new story out. 'Twenty-four S...

Editor's notes: No cheating. Or even swindling, duping, tricking or general chicanery.

This is the last in my Editor's notes series for now, in which I share some of the things I often find myself telling authors when I report back to them on how I've edited their work. It's not about the basics of how to tell a story or that you need to check your spelling, but about the less obvious things that can subtly affect the reader's experience. If you want to catch up on previous posts, and there are six including this one, I've now given them all the tag 'Editor's notes', so if you...

Out now! Shakespearotica

I've got a new story out in this fabulously wicked collection - Shakespearotica: Queering the Bard , edited by Salome Wilde and published by Storm Moon Press.

The blurb starts like this: 'Frolicking in gender play and sexual diversity, the nine authors collected in this volume offer a dazzling array of queer erotica and romance. Stories range from comic to tragic and from historical to fantastic, taking up textual hints overt and subtle as they engage with the power of lust and love.'

I absolute...

Dwarf hotness

I bring you this aside to tell you that I finally got round to watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Being a proper LotR geek, I never expect much from these cinematographic distractions, which can in no way measure up to the force of Tolkien's words combined with my imagination. Then the dwarves appeared. Including this one, Kili, played by Aidan Turner. Now I understand.

Editor's notes: I exclaimed that she retorted

Still here? I'm going to do a round-up of lots of little bugbears this time, as this is my penultimate Editor's notes post for now. 

Just say it

Some writing advice will tell you to avoid the word 'said'. And I spend a lot of editing time replacing words such as 'ejaculated', 'confessed', 'admitted', 'retorted', 'exclaimed', 'laughed', 'giggled' and 'interjected' with 'said'. I'm with Alison Tyler, who wrote on the How to Write Erotic Fiction blog, "'said' can go a long way". And she's put...